Frey was actually quite surprised they’d listened to him. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘That wasn’t so bad.’
They heard a muffled groan from a little way away: the sound of someone trying to stifle their pain and failing. Once it was clear there were no more attackers, they made their way over. There they found a young man lying crushed up against the pipework, wrapping a tourniquet round his thigh that he’d fashioned from the ripped arm of his thin coat. Dazed by the pain, he didn’t hear them approach. When he did, he lunged for the pistol lying nearby. Silo got his boot on the pistol first, primed his lever-action rifle with a crunch, and aimed it at the man’s forehead.
‘Nuh-uh,’ he said.
The man drew his hand back. He was scared rigid and pretending he wasn’t. Under the dirt, he had a look of rustic freshness about him, blond hair falling in a cowlick over his forehead. He couldn’t have been more than twenty.
‘You ain’t Coalition,’ he stated defiantly.
‘Like I said,’ Frey replied. ‘And you’re not an Awakener. What’s your name?’
‘Abley,’ he said, finding no reason not to give it.
‘I’m Captain Frey, of the Ketty Jay. What are you doing in Korrene?’
Abley eyed him mistrustfully. ‘I’m a pilot,’ he said. ‘Used to do crop deliveries between Lapin and the wheat belt.’
‘How’d you get tangled up with the Awakeners?’
‘I weren’t tangled up in nothin’! I’m one o’ the Allsoul’s men.’ The rest of the crew had gathered round now, looking down at him. He appealed to Ashua, the only woman present who wasn’t unconscious. ‘Please, I need help.’
‘Didn’t you just shoot at my friend here?’ she reminded him, indicating Crake. His pack sat on the floor next to him, oozing battery fluid from a hole near the bottom.
Abley began to get desperate. Blood was seeping through his tourniquet, and he was clearly suffering. ‘Look, they came to my town, alright? Everyone believes out there. I know they say they don’t in the cities much, but out in the country we all do. And the Speakers started callin’ everyone off to war. I didn’t wanna go, most of us didn’t wanna go, but you can’t say no, not when everyone else is an’ they got Imperators stalkin’ around in the background. You’re either with us or against us, they said. Pick a side.’
‘Looks like a pretty bad wound you got there.’ Frey said. ‘Malvery?’
Malvery made a show of considering the injury. ‘He ain’t gonna last too long if we leave it,’ he said. ‘It’ll fester. He’ll lose the leg, even if his mates find him.’
‘Mmm,’ said Frey. ‘That’s a shame. Well, they did say to pick a side.’ He shrugged. ‘Come on, fellers.’
‘Wait, you can’t!’ Abley cried, fear making his voice high. ‘There won’t be no one comin’ to find me!’
‘But surely the Awakeners look after their faithful, don’t they?’ Crake said, with an unpleasantly snide edge to his voice.
‘They’re pullin’ out! That’s what they say! There won’t be anyone to find me!’
‘The Awakeners are pulling out of Korrene?’ Frey was suddenly very interested. ‘Tonight?’
Abley gritted his teeth as a fresh wave of pain from his wound swept over him. Sweat was dampening his hair. ‘Yeah. They had enough. Word is. . aaah. . word is they were planning on it anyway, and now with the assault. .’
‘Suppose whatever they were looking for here wasn’t worth taking on the Coalition for,’ Ashua opined.
‘The machine,’ said Crake. ‘They wanted to make sure no one found it. It’s evidence they’ve been putting daemons into people to make Imperators. The kind of evidence that might make the blinkered idiots that fight for them start doubting.’
‘I ain’t no idiot!’ Abley snapped. ‘Least I believe in something!’
‘So do I,’ said Crake. ‘I believe in leaving you here to rot.’
Frey wasn’t sure if Crake was serious or not. He wasn’t very understanding where Awakeners were concerned. But Abley’s information had given him an idea.
‘The Awakeners. We know they have a base in the Barabac Delta. You wanna tell us where it is?’
‘I don’t know! How would I know?’
‘Because it’s the only reason I can think of to waste my doctor’s time and supplies on fixing you up.’
‘You’re a doctor?’ Abley said, gazing beseechingly at Malvery.
‘Sorry, mate,’ said Malvery, backing Frey’s play. ‘Can’t do a thing ’less the Cap’n lets me. Pick a better side next time, eh?’
Silo picked up Abley’s gun, and they began to walk away. Frey mentally counted down in his head.
‘Stop!’ Abley cried after them, right on time.
Frey looked back at him. He cut a desperate figure, lying there wounded in the dark.
‘I know this!’ he said. ‘I know they’re going there now! That’s where we’re retreating to, when we leave Korrene!’
‘You know?’ Frey asked, staring at him hard. Abley’s expression was that of a man pathetically eager to please. ‘You’re lying.’
‘I think they are, I think!’ he babbled. ‘They gave us a rendezvous point. We meet up and go from there. There were rumours, that’s all, but the rumours said-’
‘What’s to stop any old aircraft turning up and following you back?’ Ashua interrupted. ‘How do you know who’s on your side? The Awakeners have been picking up flotsam from everywhere.’
‘Flotsam?’ asked Frey, who’d never heard the word before and was frankly getting a bit sick of the fact that half his crew had a better vocabulary than he did.
‘They give us a code,’ said Abley. ‘It changes every day. If we’re challenged, we flash it on our electroheliographs. That way they can pick out intruders in the fleet.’
‘And you know today’s code?’ Frey asked.
‘Yeah! Yeah, I do!’ His face lit up as he saw a future that didn’t involve bleeding to death in the dark. ‘I can tell you, if you help me!’
Crake came over to stand next to Frey. ‘You’d better not be thinking what I think your thinking.’
Frey raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Don’t you want to strike a blow for the Coalition?’
‘This isn’t about that, Frey, and you know it! This is about you and her!’
Pinn looked confused. ‘What am I missing?’
‘Besides your frontal lobes?’ Malvery said. ‘Seems to me the Cap’n wants us to join the Awakeners.’
‘Oh,’ said Pinn. ‘Well, can’t see the harm.’
‘No,’ said Crake. ‘No, that’s too damned far, Frey.’
‘We’re just going to pretend, for shit’s sake!’ Frey cried. ‘No one’s asking you to swear eternal fealty to the Allsoul.’
‘No, Frey! No!’ Crake’s voice was rising in anger. ‘This is a bit beyond a spot of light piracy and occasional theft. You want us to infiltrate the Awakeners? I thought you didn’t want to get us involved in this war?’
‘I thought you did?’ Frey replied. ‘Don’t you hate them and everything they stand for?’
‘That doesn’t mean I’m willing to die for it!’ Crake was shouting now. ‘Have you forgotten that I’m a daemonist? You know what they’d do to me if they found out? I’m not getting my mind torn apart by an Imperator for the sake of your doomed bloody relationship! Let her go, Frey! She doesn’t want you! Spit and blood, just let it drop!’
Frey boiled over. His recent brush with death, the frustration of being separated from Trinica, the guilt he felt about Jez; all that bubbled up into rage, and he couldn’t hold it in any longer.
‘Stay, then!’ he yelled. ‘Stay, if you want to! I’m not making you come with me! But last I checked, the Ketty Jay was my craft, and she is going wherever Trinica is. You can come along, or you can piss off; it’s all the same to me! Just as long as you shut up while you’re at it!’
Crake’s face was red with anger and indignation. He opened his mouth for a heated retort, then mastered himself and closed it again. He drew himself up with the affronted dignity of an aristocrat and said, very calmly, ‘Goodbye, Cap’n.’ Then, picking up a lantern, he turned and walked away towards the entrance of the pumping house.