‘You’re nothing. Understand me? You’ll do as you’re told. All of you . . .’
‘All of us? Really?’
General Luc stands in the doorway.
Light glitters from a lamp in his hand, and the flash of purple behind his rank badges shows almost black in the shadows. He has a smile on his lips at odds with the barely restrained fury in his eyes.
‘We’ll do what we’re told?’ General Luc repeats the words softly. As if he can taste them.
‘You know the agreement.’
‘Do I? Really?’
The Wolf steps into the room. A captain and Sergeant Toro step into the room behind him. His immediate staff from the look of things.
‘You know,’ General Luc says, ‘I don’t remember agreeing anything at all.’ He nods stiffly to the women. ‘My ladies. It’s late to find you out. And in such strange company.’
General Luc glances at Paulo.
The little dressmaker is on his knees, holding his throat.
It’s obvious the Wolf knows Serafina and Simone Rivabella y Kama. Equally obvious that Sef’s sister is unhappy to be recognized.
‘This has nothing to do with you,’ Morgan says.
‘It has everything to do with me.’
‘Paulo locked me in,’ Sef complains. ‘I don’t know why. He said he had some special lace he’d been saving for a dress as beautiful as mine.’
Yes, that sounds stupid enough for her to believe.
‘It didn’t occur to me he’d . . .’
The Wolf shows his teeth. ‘No,’ he says. ‘Obviously not. So, he asked you to travel all the way across the city just to look at lace?’
‘No.’ Sef looks more puzzled than ever. ‘That was my aunt.’
‘Lady Isadora?’
Sef nods. ‘She said Paulo had mentioned the lace to her and . . .’
As Sef’s words trail away, I wonder if she’s ever finished a sentence in her life. And decide I don’t care and it doesn’t matter. What matters is the friction between General Luc and the U/Free.
‘We’re taking Sef home,’ Simone says.
The general ignores her. ‘Tell me,’ he says to Paulo. ‘Why did you lock her in?’
‘Lady Isadora said it would keep her safe.’
‘From what?’
‘I don’t know, sir.’
‘Maybe not. But that’s the question. Isn’t it?’
Morgan draws himself up, and I know the man’s an idiot. If you have to draw yourself up when facing someone like the Wolf, you’re in the wrong fight.
‘You should stay out of this.’
‘Should I?’
‘Yes,’ says Morgan, nodding. ‘You should.’
When General Luc grins, yellowing canines gleam in the half dark of the room. And it’s obvious how he got his nickname. ‘My dear,’ he says to Sef. ‘What do you think your little dressmaker is keeping you safe from?’
She doesn’t answer. She just looks wide-eyed and beautiful and stupid. When she realizes General Luc is waiting for an answer, she shrugs to show she’s waiting for him to tell her.
Instead he asks if her aunt is kind to her.
‘Always,’ Sef says, tears in her eyes. ‘Very kind.’ She says this as if the rest of the world has been nothing but cruel.
‘So you trust her?’
Sef nods.
‘Then perhaps you should stay here?’ Walking over to the open shutters, General Luc looks at the windows opposite and glances at the rusting girder, judging the drop from the window where we were trapped.
‘You opened this window yourself?’
‘Yes,’ Sef says.
‘When?’
‘When I heard the noise outside.’
The Wolf nods to himself. ‘What’s through there,’ he demands, pointing at the door we hide behind.
‘A bathroom,’ Sef says.
‘You don’t object if I take a look?’
‘Don’t . . .’ Her voice is a squeak.
‘Why not?’
‘Because . . .’ She’s now bright red. ‘I didn’t . . .’
‘Flush it,’ the Wolf tells her.
‘The power’s gone.’
‘I can wait while you close the lid.’
That’s the high clans for you. Perfect manners and strict propriety, mixed with vast sums of money, extended lifelines, and a certainty everyone else exists to keep them amused. Much like the U/Free really.
Chapter 23
Six months ago the u/free were mythical beasts to me.
And I’d only ever met one member of the high clans, my lieutenant, Bonafont de Bonafont, and I didn’t even know that’s what he was. He was just a drunk who insisted his plates be piping hot, even in the middle of the day in the middle of summer in the middle of the desert.
‘Sir,’ Leona whispers.
Sef is walking towards our door.
I move aside to let her enter, and she shows me an anguished face as she walks to the pan and shuts its lid with a clatter. It’s not necessary, but she does it anyway.
‘I’d know,’ Morgan snaps, ‘if anyone was in there.’
The Wolf ignores him. The U/Free hate that more than anything.
‘My lord,’ Paulo is saying, ‘I only had orders to detain Lady Serafina. There’s no one else here. I swear it.’ His voice is honest, his embarrassment plain.
‘All the same.’
It’s Morgan’s anger that saves us from discovery.
I intend to thank him someday. Before killing him, obviously.
Drawing himself up again, he says, ‘It would be best for everybody, General, if you simply did your job. I’m sure you and your men have places to go, duties to perform. Perhaps you should go perform them?’
Self-righteous fuck.
Leona grins beside me.
Even the Wolf, seen through the door’s crack, looks as if he can’t believe what he just heard.
Stepping close, he halts a hand’s breadth from Morgan’s face. ‘Talk to me like that,’ he hisses, ‘and I’ll cut out your heart.’
‘I’m U/Free.’
‘Believe me,’ he says, ‘that’s the only thing keeping you alive.’
The Wolf has one hand on his dagger. Maybe he’s hoping to make good that promise. Morgan, however, refuses to back down.
‘Serafina,’ Simone calls.
Leona pushes her towards the door.
Anton puts his finger to his lips and smiles. Leona’s approach is more basic. She mimes cutting Sef’s throat.
‘I’ve shut the lid,’ Sef says, sounding close to tears.
‘We’re taking you home,’ Morgan says.
General Luc shakes his head.
It’s become a point of principle for both of them. As far as I’m concerned there’s nothing more stupid and nothing more dangerous. ‘She has rights,’ Morgan says.
The Wolf grins. ‘Such concern for those less fortunate.’
‘We make dangerous enemies.’
‘You speak for the whole U/Free?’
Morgan nods.
‘Good,’ says General Luc. ‘Because I speak for Clan Luc and the entire Wolf Brigade. And we don’t give a fuck if you think you’re dangerous or not.’
It’s the first time I’ve heard him swear.
‘But if you’re that concerned, why not ask? I’m sure Serafina can tell us her wishes.’
Everyone looks at Sef.
‘She’s coming with us,’ Simone says. ‘Aren’t you? We’re going to take her to find Vijay.’
‘I’m staying here,’ Sef says.
‘Serafina.’
‘I mean it. It’s only one night, right?’
She looks at Paulo, but it’s the general who nods. ‘Wise choice,’ he says. General Luc is so busy steering Morgan and Sef’s sister towards the attic door that he forgets to search our little alcove before he goes. Instead, we get the click of a lock, the grate of a bolt and then steps on the stairs outside.
When the Wolf hits the street, I’m at the window, stepped back so I can’t be seen. He growls something to Sergeant Toro and the waiting troop break into three groups. One group follows General Luc, one follows Sergeant Toro, and the last follows the captain we saw earlier.
All wear battle rattle.
Not dress uniform. The full kit. Eighty pounds of Kevlar flak jacket, combat boots, 1.5 litre camelback, carbon helmet, with flip-down visor. They’re carrying short-barrel 18s, adapted for urban combat.
‘Fuck,’ Leona says.