Scavenger Blood: Scavenger Exodus, #2

By Janet Edwards

2408. Humanity has travelled to the stars through interstellar portals, but the rebels and criminals were left behind on a ruined Earth. Eighteen-year-old Blaze is one of the last seven hundred people scavenging a living in an increasingly lethal New York infested by alien predators. Forced to step into the spotlight to help her father defeat a leadership challenge by her old enemy Cage, she's now adjusting to being deputy leader of the uneasy alliance between the remnants of the Earth Resistance and the old criminal gangs.

As a child, Blaze escaped the firestorm when the London power grid exploded, and a similar firestorm will soon hit New York. The alliance must leave New York this spring or die, but they're facing the twin threats of a fugitive Cage hiding somewhere in the area, and his old supporters causing trouble within the alliance. When a hunting party fails to return, the situation starts spiralling out of control, and the alliance's off-worlder guests have a key part to play.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wallam-Crane Press
• Release date: Jun 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393931829

Janet Edwards

Janet Edwards lives in the Midlands. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, which included the works of many of the great names of Science Fiction. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.

Book preview

Chapter One

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A grey shape launched itself from the top of one of the abandoned skyscrapers of Manhattan. I watched it glide across the Hudson River towards a cluster of buildings downriver, bank sharply to avoid one that was smothered in ivy, and then make a neat landing on the stone facade of its neighbour.

I frowned. That was the fourth falling star that I’d seen come across the river in the last hour. Half a dozen of the alien creatures had escaped from a New York Central Zoo exhibit decades ago, and bred so quickly that Manhattan was infested with them now. The falling stars loved its crumbling skyscrapers, but this especially harsh winter was driving increasing numbers of them into crossing the river to Unity City in search of prey.

Perimeter breach zone one. The voice of my Armed Agent weapon spoke in my head. Hostile alien lifeform.

The falling star that I’d been watching had landed far outside the range of my gun’s tracking system, so this must be a different one. I turned to face the imposing building that had once housed the United Earth Americas Regional Parliament, and was now home to the last seven hundred people living in New York.

My gun’s tracking display appeared, superimposing glowing dots on my view of the mob of children and two adults who were digging for wintereat in the vegetable garden. I had it set to use different colours to make the tracking more helpful, so the children were marked with white dots and the two adults with turquoise. Beyond them, what looked like an ageing patch of concrete on the front wall of the Parliament House was outlined in purple. As I studied it, I saw the surface give a distinctive ripple.

Falling stars didn’t have proper eyes, so I assumed they either hunted through scent or sound. Whatever their method of finding prey, the ripple was a warning that this one had spotted a boy pushing a cart of wintereat towards the door of Parliament House. It was readying itself to release its grip on the wall and attack.

I pulled off my right glove, revealing the flickering lights of the gun tendrils on my hand and wrist, and pointed my forefinger at the falling star. The instant the red targeting light focused on it, I fired.

The falling star plummeted downwards, its six starfish-like arms convulsing as it fell. I wasn’t sure if I’d killed it or only injured it, but that didn’t matter. As it hit the ground, a shout went up from the children, and the older ones drew their knives and swarmed to attack it.

Seconds later, blue dots appeared on the edge of my tracking display, and two archers came running from the corner of the building with their bows poised ready to fire.

Trouble, Blaze? Knave demanded.

Only a falling star. The children are making sure that it’s dead.

Knave grunted in disgust. It wasn’t clear whether he was expressing his opinion of me or of falling stars. It was best if I assumed it was the falling stars. Everyone in the alliance was still adjusting to having an eighteen-year-old girl as their deputy leader. I mustn’t add to the problems by being over-sensitive.

The brothers, Knave and Deuce, turned to continue their patrols of the western perimeter of the building. The children were going back to their work in the vegetable garden as well, leaving the two adults with them to bring an empty cart over to the dead falling star.

I frowned as the two men, one heavily muscled and in his mid-thirties, the other slimmer and barely nineteen, stationed themselves on either side of the falling star ready to lift it into the cart. The alliance had been hit by an especially deadly type of winter fever back in November, and thirty-two people had died over the following weeks. When three off-worlders came to New York to retrieve an ancient component from the Wallam-Crane Science Museum, they’d badly damaged their aircraft, had to come to beg us for shelter, and inevitably caught the winter fever too.

The older man, Braden, would probably have survived the fever anyway, but Tad and Phoenix were only alive now because Tad had helped me track down a store of ancient medicines. Even with the help of that medicine, Tad had been dangerously ill, while Phoenix had come to the very brink of death. Tad’s recovery had been straightforward, but Phoenix had suffered a secondary infection, and was still seriously ill in our hospital area.

Braden had been working in the vegetable garden for a week now, but this was Tad’s first full day outside after the winter fever. The temperature was a crucial couple of degrees above freezing point, so the falling stars had come out to hunt, but the weak February sunlight of earlier in the day had been blotted out by a thick bank of cloud.

The winter fever left people vulnerable to cold, so I was worried how Tad was coping in the bitter wind. He had his hat pulled down tightly over his brown hair, but his face still looked pale, and the habitual strained expression in his eyes was more obvious than usual.

I watched anxiously as he and Braden lifted the bulky falling star, and then realized I was letting my feelings for Tad distract me from my guard duties. The alliance’s elderly head nurse, Nadira, was confident that he’d recovered enough to work outside. It was both unnecessary and dangerous for me to stand gawping at him like this, because I mustn’t betray how much I cared for him.

Everyone in the alliance hated off-worlders because they lived luxurious lives, while we struggled to survive on an Earth ruined by the effort of founding their bright, unpolluted worlds. The invention of interstellar portals a century ago meant that almost all the respectable citizens had now left Earth to start new lives on one of five hundred colony worlds scattered across three sectors of space. We had been left behind though, forever excluded from both the colony worlds and the remaining civilian settlements on Earth, because we or our parents were on record as being rebels or criminals.

My loyalty to my father – the legendary Sean Donnelly who’d formed the Earth Resistance – meant I’d had extra reasons to hate off-worlders. Now I was, bewilderingly, in a fledgling relationship with my enemy.

I didn’t really understand my feelings for Tad, but I did know it was essential to keep our relationship hidden from the rest of the alliance. People were grudgingly tolerating the presence of the three off-worlders, because they knew they had a key part to play in the alliance plans to leave New York this spring and find a better home. There were limits to that tolerance though.

The alliance members would react badly if they learned Tad’s true identity, and be utterly furious if they discovered their new deputy leader was involved in a relationship with him. My father and his officers were currently the only people in the alliance who knew Tad wasn’t just from Adonis, the first and richest of Earth’s colony worlds, but was the heir of the fabulously wealthy Wallam-Crane family. My relationship with him was an even more closely guarded secret, known only to the other two off-worlders, my father, and his oldest officer, Machico.

I mustn’t risk betraying that secret, so I turned my back on Tad to look around for potential threats. For the last week, I’d been spending my days out here on guard duty, and the constant strain was making me increasingly tired, but I had to concentrate on keeping Tad, Braden, and the children safe.

The voice of my gun spoke again. Perimeter breach zone one.

As before, the gun sent its tracking display directly to the visual centre of my brain, and I saw a purple dot to the south-west. I’d only had my gun for a couple of weeks, and was still learning to interpret the tracking display, but the height of this falling star and the speed of its movement had to mean it was incoming on an attack run.

This whole area had been redeveloped when the Americas Parliament complex was built, and none of the neighbouring buildings had been allowed to be taller than Parliament House. I guessed the falling star had launched from the roof of one of the apartment blocks to the south-west, and turned to look up for it, but only caught a glimpse of the creature gliding in before it struck its target.

The falling star had chosen to attack one of the archers of course, since the two men were a long distance from the rest of us. It hit Deuce perfectly, enveloping his head and upper body, and knocking him to the ground.

The six arms of the falling star had been stretched out rigidly while it was gliding, with the flaps of skin at the edges of the tentacles all fully extended to make it into a smooth, flat disc. Now the tentacles separated, and wrapped around Deuce, pinning his arms to his sides. This was how a falling star killed its prey, holding the victim a helpless prisoner to be suffocated and covered in digestive juices.

Hostile alien lifeform, my gun completed its belated warning message.

Knave dropped his bow, pulled out his knife, and stabbed at the vulnerable centre of the falling star which held its brain. The children started running to help him, but I screamed at them to stop. They obediently skidded to a halt, but frowned at me in frustration.

I know you want to help fight the falling star, I said, but we have to stay near the main entrance of the Parliament House. Knave and Deuce don’t need our help anyway. Look!

I pointed at the battle with the falling star. Knave had stabbed it enough times to achieve his goal. The falling star’s tentacles were convulsing now, releasing its victim. Deuce crawled out from beneath the leathery mass, and spent a few seconds on his hands and knees, gasping for breath and vomiting. Finally, he staggered to his feet, and drew his knife to join his brother in killing the falling star.

Satisfied that the situation was under control, I continued lecturing the children. My job is to guard both you and the front door to the Parliament House. We can’t go running off, because the door won’t run off with us, will it?

The children giggled, shook their heads, and went back to work.

I put my glove back on, tugged my hat further down over my ears, and took another careful look around the area. I’d only lived in New York for six and a half years, arriving in the summer of 2401 as a refugee from the London firestorm, but I’d been told that the area in front of the Parliament House had once been a lovingly manicured expanse of grass. That had all been dug up to let us grow vegetables, but the ground was still perfectly flat with no hiding places.

I had a clear view along the riverbank as well, but that cluster of apartment blocks to the south-west worried me. There were probably more falling stars climbing their walls right now, positioning themselves ready to launch an attack against us, but the much bigger danger was that a murderer might be lurking inside one of them.

Two weeks ago, Cage’s bid to seize the alliance leadership from my father had ended in Cage murdering Marsha, our custodian of knives and bows. Cage had fled into the New York snow, and none of our search parties had found any sign of him since then, but we knew he’d taken a knife, bow, and arrows with him. The man had a long history of taking revenge on those he felt had harmed him, so I was here to guard the children and off-worlders working in the vegetable garden, and the other people still inside the Parliament House.

Donnell was the only other person with an Armed Agent weapon, so he was keeping watch over the women fishing in the river. The men out hunting geese would have to defend themselves, but I couldn’t believe Cage would risk attacking large groups of expert archers.

Perimeter breach zone one, my gun repeated its warning words, and a swiftly moving purple dot showed me that there was another airborne falling star approaching. I knew it would do the same as the last, and target the two young men who were on their own.

I pointed at the sky and screamed a warning to them. Falling star! South-west!

Knave and Deuce had been dragging the corpse of the previous falling star towards us. Now they dropped it, turned to look up at the falling star silently swooping towards them, and dodged rapidly sideways out of its line of attack.

Falling stars could only glide downwards, not fly, but they could use their bodies to guide their descent. This one made a midair turn towards Knave, but it had lost the vital element of surprise. Knave dodged a second time, and the falling star didn’t have enough height left to follow him, so it landed on the ground. The two men instantly ran in to attack it, and less than a minute later it was dead.

Knave and Deuce looked from one falling star corpse to the other, as if unsure which one to deal with first. The situation was getting dangerous, so I shouted at them and made frantic beckoning gestures.

Knave! Deuce!

The brothers hurried towards me. Is something wrong? asked Knave.

No, I just want you to leave the falling star bodies where they are.

Deuce had been smothered in stinking falling star saliva when he was attacked. He nodded his acceptance, and took a scarf from his pocket to wipe the worst of the mess from his face and hair, but Knave frowned and spoke in a contemptuous voice.

I know women aren’t bright, and you’re the most stupid girl in the alliance, but even you should realize there’s a lot of meat on a falling star that size. We can’t afford to waste it when we’re rationing food.

Chapter Two

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Knave had spoken loudly enough for all the children to hear him. They stopped work and stood watching us intently, waiting to see how I’d react to his insult. I noticed Tad and Braden had stopped work too, and Tad was glowering at Knave. I hoped Tad had learned enough since he came to New York not to try to interfere in something that I should, no absolutely must, deal with myself.

The alliance had just been through a succession of drastic changes. Cage’s defeat, my appointment as deputy alliance leader, and another woman, Raeni, taking over the leadership of Queens Island division. There would be even more changes ahead of us when the alliance left New York to find a new home. While all five division leaders, and most of the alliance members, were in favour of these things, some people deeply resented them.

Knave obviously disliked having women in positions of power, and it made sense that he’d particularly resent being given orders by a girl even younger than himself. He was being deliberately insulting to me, but I had to be extremely careful how I responded. There was an alliance tradition of putting a new officer through a period of ritual humiliation to test their character and authority.

I’d escaped most of that standard initiation ridicule until now for two reasons. Firstly, I’d earned my deputy leader position by challenging Cage when no one else had dared to do it. Secondly, I had an Armed Agent weapon on my arm. My father had given me that weapon so I could protect myself from Cage, and I had no intention of using it to shoot anyone else, but it naturally had an intimidating effect on people.

The fact I hadn’t faced many insults before meant it was even more important to handle this situation well. I was painfully aware that half the alliance children between the ages of five and twelve were studying me now, and they’d eagerly report every detail of my behaviour to their parents, especially any hint that I couldn’t control my anger.

My problem wasn’t going to be keeping my temper though, but hiding my lack of confidence. It was only weeks since I’d been living in the shadows as one of the least important members of the alliance, so I was desperately worried that my inexperience would lead to me making mistakes. I knew that even the most trivial failure on my part would be severely criticized by people who didn’t want women in power. A truly serious blunder wouldn’t just endanger my deputy leader position, but reflect badly on my father as well, and could prevent other women from ever holding official posts in the future.

I spoke in what I hoped was a calm, self-assured voice. I’m aware of the amount of meat on those falling stars, and we won’t be wasting it. I just want you to leave collecting the bodies until I’ve recalled and reorganized the patrol groups. We’re used to coping with one or two falling star attacks in the vegetable garden each day, but we’ve had three attacks in less than fifteen minutes, and I’m sure there are more of them out there watching us. It isn’t safe to have only two people in a patrol group in these conditions.

Deuce and I don’t need help to deal with a falling star attack, snapped Knave.

I know you can easily deal with one falling star attack, I said, with pointed patience, but several in quick succession is a different matter. Deuce has just been smothered and covered in falling star digestive juices, so he isn’t in a good state to fight.

Blaze is right, said Deuce. If another falling star drops on your head, Knave, I’ll be too busy being sick to fight it, and Blaze can’t leave the main entrance unguarded to come and help us.

Knave glared at his younger brother, clearly furious that he was taking my side in this argument. If Blaze recalls the patrol groups, she’ll be leaving the other doors to Parliament House unguarded.

I took the whistle from my knife belt. All the other doors and windows are locked and secured by the alarm system. If Cage tries to get in through any of them during the next ten minutes, then sirens will start screaming and we can respond, but I think there’s little chance of that happening. With so many falling stars out hunting, Cage has to be cowering inside a building.

Deuce nodded. Cage must be constantly aware of the danger of a falling star catching him. As a lone fugitive, he’d have no hope of escaping being suffocated and then eaten.

Knave opened his mouth to keep arguing, but I held the whistle to my lips and blew as hard as possible, so the recall signal rang out piercingly loud. One short note, one long, and another short.

When the echoes died down, I expected Knave to start arguing with me again, but he just stood there in sullen silence until the other three patrol groups came running up. It was obvious from the dishevelled appearance of two of the men that they’d suffered falling star attacks like Deuce.

We’ve been getting falling star attacks in dangerously rapid succession, I said briskly. I’m merging the four patrol groups into two. Each of the resulting two groups will have four men and need to patrol half the perimeter of the building rather than just a quarter.

I paused. Those who’ve been attacked by a falling star can take five minutes to wash and get some clean outdoor clothes. After that, I’ll arrange the new groups and you can start patrolling again.

Two of the men instantly walked off into the Parliament House, but Deuce stayed to strip off his coat.

Thank you, Blaze. This coat stinks. He held the offending item at arms’ length, and wrinkled his nose in disgust. I stink too. I’m deeply grateful that you managed to warn Knave and me of that last falling star.

My father and I were keeping the tracking system of our Armed Agent weapons a closely guarded secret. The fact that no one knew it existed was a huge advantage in the current situation. If Cage tried to attack either of us, then our guns would warn us of his presence well before he was in bow range.

That was pure luck, I said. I just happened to catch sight of the falling star in the air.

Well, I’m grateful anyway.

Deuce hurried off after the others, and I started thinking about how best to arrange the new patrol groups. Each of the five divisions had their own wing of Parliament House as their fiercely guarded territory, while the spare sixth wing was used as our communal hospital and storage area. The main reason the Resistance led the alliance, and our division leader was the alliance leader, was because the other four divisions didn’t trust each other to run things.

Donnell had to make sure that he always treated the other divisions equally, so the guard roster for the Parliament House had been set up to have a pair of guards from each of the other divisions on duty every day. As deputy alliance leader, I was both in charge of the guards and representing the Resistance.

Now that I was merging groups, I had to worry about the various conflicts between the divisions, especially the long-running, bitter feud between Manhattan and Queens Island. By the time the victims of falling star attacks had returned in less smelly coats, I’d decided that any possible combination of two pairs of guards carried a risk of them trying to kill each other, so I should take a totally different approach.

Each guard group will consist of one person from each division. I pointed at four men in turn. You four will patrol the river side of Parliament House and bring in any falling star corpses left there. The others take the land side.

The men seemed to think about that for a moment, but headed off on patrol without arguing. I sighed in relief before concentrating on my own guard duty again. I believed I was right that Cage would choose to stay inside a building while so many falling stars were hunting, but the temperature was barely above freezing point. It only needed to dip a crucial degree or two, and the falling stars would all retreat to shelter and go dormant, leaving Cage free to move around at will.

The guard groups brought in four dead falling stars, and I shot another one lurking high on the front wall of Parliament House, so an hour later there was a neat line of heavily loaded carts next to the entrance.

I was staring at the apartment blocks to the south-west again, when a massed yell went up from behind me. I hastily glanced over my shoulder, and saw the door of the Parliament House had opened. Second shift school must have finished because more children were streaming outside.

Stay near the entrance of the Parliament House, everyone, I shouted the reminder to the new arrivals. It won’t be safe for you to wander off to play until Cage is caught. Understand?

They solemnly nodded in response. Cage had a history of amusing himself by tormenting people, and I knew only too well that he targeted children as well as adults. When I was eleven years old, Cage had held me upside-down over a fire, so close to the flames that my long hair burned, and I’d kept it trimmed short ever since. Some of these children would have been victims like me, and the rest would have witnessed enough of Cage’s behaviour to know he was dangerous.

The children joined forces to load up carts with their tools and the harvested wintereat. They pushed those over to join the line of carts filled with dead falling stars, and then ran to the row of portals in front of the building. Once people had used those portals to travel effortlessly to any destination in the Americas, but they were dead and useless things now.

The children formed into a line and danced in and out of the upright rings. Dial it! Dial it! Portal, dial it! We’re ordering you by Newton. We’re commanding you by Einstein. We’re conjuring you by Thaddeus Wallam-Crane!

I must have heard the children chanting their ritual rhyme a thousand times before, but it was oddly disconcerting hearing the name of the centuries-dead inventor of the first short-range portals now that his descendant, Thaddeus Wallam-Crane the Eighth, was working in the vegetable garden only a few paces away from me.

The children’s game only lasted a couple of minutes before ice-cold raindrops began pelting down on us. The children squealed, ran for the door to Parliament House, and jostled their way inside. I waved at the off-worlders to follow them, then urgently blew the recall signal on my whistle.

I rubbed water from my eyes as I checked the tracking display of my gun. The children and off-worlders were all inside the Parliament House now, and the blue dots of guards were coming into range at running speed. I waited in the rain to count all eight of them into the Parliament House, before running for cover myself.

I couldn’t have been standing out in that rain for more than three minutes, but I was already drenched. I automatically unbuckled my knife belt, and put it on the knife and bow table that belonged to the Resistance. Tindra was standing next to the tables, making sure that everyone handed in their weapons as they entered Reception. She looked ill at ease though, as if she half expected the murdered Marsha to reappear and demand her position back.

The children were packed by the glass front wall of Reception, peering out at the rain. Two women came over to look at it as well, with a group of smaller children from the crèche area chasing after them. One girl toddled over to me, stretched out a hand to touch my dripping coat, and then snatched it back again.

Blaze wet, she said in disgust.

I smiled, pulled my soggy hat from my head, squeezed out the excess water, and shrugged off my coat. Yes, Rebecca. Blaze is very wet.

I turned to look around the vast room with its five groups of tables and chairs. Tad and Braden were sitting at one of the Resistance tables in the centre of the room, while the guards had split up, each pair going to the corner of Reception that was the territory of their respective divisions. I noticed Knave and Deuce having a brief, but clearly heated exchange in the Manhattan area, before Knave stalked off through the curtained entrance that led to the Manhattan wing of the building.

I’d just started walking towards Tad and Braden when a group of white dots appeared on my gun’s tracking display, coming towards Parliament House at running speed. That had to be a hunting party returning.

When the door opened, the small figure of Rebecca moved hopefully towards it, only to scowl her displeasure when she saw it wasn’t her father, Aaron, leading his hunting party into the room, but one of Donnell’s three senior officers, Weston.

A line of cursing men trailed after Weston into Reception, dragging off their dripping coats, and Weston turned to laugh at them. Why are you complaining? We’re the fortunate ones with a hunting spot barely five minutes run from here. Everyone else is still out in the rain.

The men joined in the laughter before walking towards their division areas. The unmistakable bulky figure of Wall, leader of Manhattan division, paused by the crèche group to scoop an eager four-year-old boy into his arms, and was moving in the direction of the Manhattan corner of the room when an older boy ran up to intercept him.

I frowned. Wall had had a succession of girlfriends over the years, and accumulated a dozen children, though he oddly preferred to refer to them as his nephews and nieces. Those boys were two of his nephews, Otis and Fleet. The older boy, Fleet, was only eight, but had already earned his alliance nickname through his rapid thoughts and actions. I knew he’d be giving Wall a full report on exactly what had happened between Knave and me.

My gun’s tracking display came to life again, warning of a whole mass of white dots approaching, with the green dot of Donnell at the back. I faced the door again and saw women entering, dripping wet and burdened with fishing bags. I winced as I saw all but one of the crèche toddlers rush towards the arriving women. Rebecca didn’t move from where she was standing, or even bother to look in their direction.

Donnell was the last to enter the room. He waved an arm at me, handed in his knife and bow, then came to join me, frowning as he saw my expression.

Is something wrong, Blaze?

I shook my head. I was just watching Rebecca. It’s nearly two months since her mother died in the winter fever. Yesterday, Rebecca went towards the women when they returned from fishing. She obviously remembered how her mother would come back with them at the end of the day, and was looking for her.

I sighed. Today, Rebecca went towards the returning hunting party to see if her father was leading it, but wasn’t interested in the women at all. She’s finally realized that her mother’s never coming back.

Donnell grimaced. We lost too many good people in the winter fever. I still catch myself looking around for Kasim, wanting to ask his advice or share a joke with him, and then getting a horrible feeling of loss as I remember he’s gone.

Donnell stared blankly into space for a moment, before adding another comment. I’m not implying that you aren’t doing a good job as my deputy, Blaze. You are. It’s just that I miss my best friend.

I understand. I hastily changed the subject. You must have already been coming back before the rain started. The women couldn’t possibly have packed their fishing gear and got here so quickly.

Donnell took off his wet coat and shook it. Yes. We’d been having a lot of problems with falling star attacks, and the sky was looking ominous, so I decided to bring the fishing pairs back early.

I groaned. We had problems with falling stars here too. After three attacks in fifteen minutes, I decided to reorganize the guard groups to be two groups of four men. The best arrangement I could think of was to have one man from each division in each group.

That was the right decision, said Donnell. If you can’t have a separate group for each division, then it’s wise to mix them in equal numbers. They’ll accept most things so long as it’s clear you’re treating every division precisely the same. I think ...

Donnell broke off his sentence because Wall and Deuce were coming towards us. Can we have a word with you two? asked Wall.

Of course, said Donnell.

Wall turned to me. I apologize for Knave’s behaviour to you today, Blaze. I’m removing him from the Parliament House guard rota and will deal with him severely.

I blinked. There’s no need to take a trivial insult so seriously. Knave was just following the tradition of teasing new officers.

There’s every need to take this seriously. Wall’s dark face took on a menacing expression. Knave was deliberately defying my orders when he insulted you.

I was confused. What do you mean?

"I gave everyone in Manhattan specific instructions, Blaze. Cage was a member of Manhattan division when you challenged his rule of fear in front of the whole alliance. He was still a member of Manhattan division when he tried to murder you and the off-worlders in their hospital room in Sanctuary. Our enemies in Queens Island division would have had the whole of Manhattan punished as accomplices to Cage’s crimes if you hadn’t spoken in our defence."

Wall paused. I told my people that I had given you our allegiance, and ordered them to treat you with the deepest respect. Not just because we were in your debt, but also to show Manhattan’s loyalty was to you and Donnell, while we considered Cage nothing but a renegade murderer who should be executed.

Donnell was frowning. But Knave disobeyed those orders. What exactly did he say to you, Blaze?

Wall answered that before I could. Fleet told me that Knave called Blaze the most stupid girl in the alliance. Fleet is only eight years old, but his reports are always accurate. I believe Knave wasn’t just insulting Blaze to defy me, but also to make a public statement of his loyalty to Cage.

Loyalty to Cage? Donnell repeated sharply. I told you yesterday that I wanted to increase the number of men on the Parliament House guard duty roster, so people could get a chance to spend some time hunting as well. You said that both Knave and Deuce were trustworthy, hating Cage as much as you did.

And I believed that was true, said Wall bitterly. Deuce will now tell you what he just told me.

Fair-haired Deuce took a reluctant step forward. Being in the same division meant I couldn’t avoid contact with Cage, but I loathed the man. I thought my brother loathed him too, but this afternoon I had an argument with Knave. He completely lost his temper and told me that ...

Deuce broke off his sentence and sighed. You probably know that Knave is married to Diana and they have a two-month-old baby girl.

Of course, I said. Diana went into labour during the winter fever. Our more experienced nurses were all busy with critically ill people, so I ended up delivering the baby myself.

What you may not know is that I briefly dated Diana before she got involved with my brother, said Deuce, in a harsh voice. There was never anything significant between Diana and me, but Cage fed Knave a pack of lies about us being madly in love and carrying on the relationship behind his back. Cage also told Knave that the baby looked more like me than him.

That brought back memories of an encounter I’d had with Cage by the cooking fire on my eighteenth birthday. Cage used that tactic against me too, telling me that I looked more like Ice than Donnell.

Wall gave Donnell a speculative look, and glanced across at where Ice, leader of London division, was standing by the curtained entrance to their wing of the building.

It’s perfectly natural for Blaze to look like Ice given she’s the image of her mother, said Donnell hastily. Keira and Ice were cousins, and there was a strong family resemblance between them. There’s an even stronger family resemblance between you and your brother, Deuce. It’s not just the fair hair and blue eyes, but the distinctive jawline and eyebrows as well. I don’t see how Cage could claim the baby looked like you rather than Knave, especially since small babies rarely resemble anyone.

That’s what I told Knave, said Deuce, in a despairing voice, but I’m afraid that Cage has done a very good job of poisoning his mind against me.

I gave Deuce a sympathetic look. I knew exactly how good Cage was at poisoning relationships. He’d had my so-called best friend, Hannah, working for him for six years, feeding me a set of lies designed to keep me vulnerable and divided from my father.

Knave said that what happened yesterday evening proved that Cage was right, continued Deuce. I hadn’t just stolen his wife, but his position in Manhattan division as well.

What was it that happened yesterday evening? I asked.

Deuce flushed. Cage used to be one of Manhattan’s alliance representatives. Now Manhattan has declared Cage renegade, his position is free, and Wall announced yesterday evening that he was giving it to me. Knave felt that he should have got the position because he’s my older brother.

You should have told Knave that I don’t choose my alliance representatives because of their age but because of their ability, said Wall. You’re twice as intelligent and ten times more reliable than Knave.

I don’t think Knave would have reacted well to me saying that, said Deuce sadly. Anyway, Knave lost his temper and said things would be far better with Cage as alliance leader. It’s possible that Knave only said that because he wanted to annoy me and knows how much I hate Cage, but the tone of his voice ...

Donnell nodded. I’ll take Knave off the guard duty roster. I’m sure it won’t be long before he works out that Cage was lying to him, Deuce, and then you two can rebuild your relationship.

Deuce’s face twisted. Knave may be able to rebuild his relationship with me, but I’m not sure that Diana will ever forgive him.

I frowned. Do you mean that Knave has made that comment about the baby looking like you to Diana as well?

Deuce groaned. Knave said that to her last night.

I winced.

There was a short silence before Donnell spoke again. Wall, we need Manhattan to keep providing the same number of guards as the other divisions, so you’ll have to choose a replacement for Knave.

I made a mistake choosing Knave to be one of the Manhattan guards, said Wall. Rather than risk making another, I’ll act as a guard myself.

Very well, said Donnell.

Wall and Deuce turned and walked off to the Manhattan corner of Reception.

Cage has been gone for two weeks, said Donnell grimly, but he’s still managing to cause trouble in the alliance.

Chapter Three

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Donnell and I walked across to join Tad and Braden at their table in the Resistance area. I hung my coat on the back of a chair to dry, sat down, and looked anxiously at where Tad was slumped in his seat.

You look tired and cold after working outside for so long.

Tad hurriedly straightened up. I got a little chilly but I’m fine now. It’s gloriously warm in here.

I laughed. It’s not just gloriously warm, but almost too hot. Now that we’ve got plenty of power, people can’t resist turning up the heating controls.

Donnell had dumped his coat on a chair too, but was still on his feet, waving at the back of the room. At first, I couldn’t work out who he was waving at, but then I realized the oldest of his six officers was kneeling beside one of the row of electric devices that had been brought into Reception to replace the old cooking fire. A moment later, Machico got to his feet, noticed Donnell beckoning to him, and came to join us.

What do you want, oh beloved leader? I’m in the middle of an urgent cooker repair.

Donnell sat down. I need you for something far more important.

You may think that it’s more important, Sean, said