Monsters of Men (41 page)

“Viola,” Bradley whispers again. “Something’s going on.”

I sit up too fast, and my head spins. I have to lean forward with my eyes closed to catch my breath again.

“The Sky got up about ten minutes ago,” he whispers. “He hasn’t come back.”

“Maybe he just had to go to the toilet,” I say, my head starting to throb. “I’m assuming they
do
.”

The fire is blinding us a little to the half-circle of Spackle beyond it, most of them bedded down for the night. I pull the blankets around me tighter. They seem to be made of lichen, like the kind they grow on themselves for clothing, but it’s different up close than I expected, much more like cloth, heavier and very warm.

“There’s more,” Bradley says. “I saw something in their Noise. Not much more than an image. Fleeting and fast, but clear.”

“What was it?”

“A group of Spackle,” he says, “armed to the teeth and sneaking into town.”

“Bradley,” I say. “Noise doesn’t really work that way. It’s fantasies and memories and wishes and real things next to fake things. It takes a lot of practice to figure out what even
might
be true and not something the person
wants
to be true. It’s mainly just mess.”

He doesn’t say anything, but the image he saw repeats in his own Noise. It’s everything he said. It’s also going out into the world, out across the half-circle, over to the Spackle.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I say. “There was that one who attacked us, wasn’t there? Maybe he wasn’t the only one who didn’t vote for peace–”

A loud beep from my comm makes both of us jump. I reach for it, under the blankets.

“Viola!”
Todd shouts as I answer.
“Yer in danger! You gotta get outta there!”

[T
ODD
]

The Mayor knocks the comm right outta my hand.

“You’ll endanger her worse by doing that,” he says, as I scramble after it. It don’t look broke but it did shut off and I’m already clicking buttons to get her back. “I’m not kidding, Todd,” he says, strong enough to make me stop and look at him. “If they get any hint we know what’s going on, then I can’t guarantee her safety.”

“Tell me what’s going on, then,” I say. “If she’s in danger–”

“She is,” he says. “We all are. But if you trust me, Todd, then I can save us.” He turns to Mr Tate, who’s still hovering there. “Everything ready, Captain?”

“Yes, sir,” Mr Tate says.

“Ready for what?” I say, looking twixt the pair of ’em.

“Now
that,
” the Mayor says, turning to look at me, “is the interesting thing, Todd.”

The comm beeps back into life in my hand.
“Todd?”
I hear.
“Todd, are you there?”

“Do you trust me, Todd?” the Mayor says.

“Tell me what’s going on,” I say.

But he just asks me again. “Do you trust me?”

“Todd?”
Viola says.

{VIOLA}

“Viola?”
I finally hear again.

“Todd, what’s happening?” I say, looking worried up to Bradley. “What do you mean we’re in danger?”

“Just . . .”
and there’s a pause.
“Hold tight for a second.”
And he clicks off.

“I’ll go get the horses,” Bradley says.

“Wait,” I say. “He said to hold tight.”

“He also said we’re in danger,” Bradley says. “And if what I saw is true–”

“How far do you think we’d get if they wanted to hurt us?”

We can see some faces looking back at us now from the Spackle half-circle, flickering in the firelight. It doesn’t
feel
threatening, but I’m gripping the comm tight, hoping Todd knows what he’s doing.

“What if this was their plan all along?” Bradley says, keeping his voice low. “To get us into negotiations and then make a demonstration of what they’re capable of?”

“I didn’t get any feeling from the Sky that we were in danger,” I say. “Not once. Why would he do that? Why would he risk it?”

“To have more leverage.”

I pause as I realize what he means. “The punishments.”

Bradley nods. “Maybe they’re going after the President.”

I sit up further, remembering the Sky’s images of the genocide. “Which means they’re going right for Todd.”

[T
ODD
]

“Make the final preparations, Captain.”

“Yes, sir,” Mr Tate salutes.

“And wake Captain O’Hare, please.”

Mr Tate smiles. “Yes, sir,” he says again and leaves.

“Tell me what’s going on,” I say, “or I go up there myself and get her down. I’m trusting you for now but that ain’t gonna last–”

“I’m on top of things, Todd,” the Mayor says. “You’ll be pleased when you find out how much.”

“On top of them how?” I ask. “How can you know anything about what’s happening?”

“Let’s put it this way,” he says, his eyes flashing, “the Spackle we captured told us more than he thought.”

“What?” I say. “What did he tell us?”

He smiles, almost like he can’t believe it. “They’re coming to get us, Todd,” he says, his voice all amused-sounding. “They’re coming to get me and you.”

{VIOLA}

“What are we meant to be looking for?”
Simone asks from the scout ship, still parked on the hilltop.

“Just anything unusual in the probes.” I look at Bradley. “Bradley thinks he saw an attacking party in their Noise.”

“It’s a show of strength,”
Mistress Coyle says.
“Trying to prove they’ve still got the upper hand.”

“We think they might be going for the Mayor,” I say. “They kept asking us to turn him over so they could punish him for his crimes.”

“And that would be bad?”
Mistress Coyle says.

“If they go for the President,” Bradley says, meeting my eye. “Todd’ll be right beside him.”

“Oh,”
Mistress Coyle says.
“That’s a bit more problematic for everyone, isn’t it?”

“We don’t know any of this for sure,” I say. “This could all be some misunderstanding. Their Noise isn’t like ours, it’s–”

“Wait,”
Simone says.
“I see something.”

I look out from the hilltop and see one of the probes flying towards the south of the town. I can hear from the Noise of the Spackle behind me that they see it, too. “Simone?”

“Lights,”
she says.
“Something’s on the march.”

[T
ODD
]

“Sir!” Mr O’Hare says, face all puffy like he just woke up. “Lights have been spotted south of town! The Spackle are marching on us!”

“Are they?” the Mayor says, fake-surprised. “Then you’d better send some troops to meet our enemy, hadn’t you, Captain?”

“I’ve already ordered squadrons to prepare to march, sir,” Mr O’Hare says, looking pleased and directing a sneer right at me.

“Excellent,” the Mayor says. “I eagerly await your report.”

“Yes, sir!” Mr O’Hare salutes and trots away to meet his squadrons, ready to lead ’em into battle.

I frown. Something ain’t right.

Viola’s voice comes over my comm.
“Todd! Simone says there are lights on the road to the south! The Spackle are coming!”

“Yeah,” I say, still looking at the Mayor. “The Mayor’s sending men out to fight ’em. You all right?”

“None of the Spackle are bothering us,
but we haven’t seen their leader for a bit.”
She lowers her voice.
“Simone’s readying the ship to get back up in the air and prepping the weapons, too.”
I hear disappointment creep into her voice.
“Looks like it won’t be peace after all.”

I’m about to say something back when I hear the Mayor say, “
Now,
Captain,” to Mr Tate, who’s been waiting patiently.

Mr Tate picks up a burning torch from the campfire.

“Now what?” I say.

Mr Tate raises the torch high above his head.

“Now
what
?”

And the world splits itself in two.

{VIOLA}

An explosion rings across the valley, echoing back on itself again and again, rumbling like thunder. Bradley helps me to my feet, and we look out. The moons are thin slivers in the night sky and it’s hard to see anything but the campfires of the city.

“What happened?” Bradley’s demanding. “What
was
that?”

I hear a surge of Noise and I look behind us. The half-circle of Spackle is wide awake now, getting to their feet, coming closer to us, pressing towards the edge of the hill as they look into the valley, too–

Where we all see smoke rising.

“But–” Bradley starts to say–

The Sky bursts through the line of Spackle behind us. We hear him before we see him, his Noise a rush of sound and images and–

And surprise–

He’s
surprised
–

He storms past us to the edge of the hill, looking into the city below–

“Viola?”
I hear Simone say on the comm.

“Was that you?” I say.

“No, we weren’t ready yet–”

“Who fired then?”
Mistress Coyle cuts in.

“And where?” Bradley says.

Because the smoke isn’t coming from the south, where even now we can see lights in the trees and another set of lights heading out from the city to meet them.

The smoke and the explosion came from north of the river, up on the hillside in the abandoned orchards.

And then there’s another.

[T
ODD
]

The second is as loud as the first and it lights up the night just north and west of town and the soldiers are getting outta their tents at the sound of it and staring as the smoke starts to rise.

“I think one more should do it, Captain,” says the Mayor.

Mr Tate nods and raises the torch again. There’s another man up in the rickety cathedral bell tower I can see now, who lit his torch when Mr Tate raised his for the first time, passing the message on to men down the riverbank–

Men at the controls of the artillery the Mayor still commands–

The artillery taken outta use when we suddenly had a scout ship to protect us with bigger and better weapons–

But artillery that still works just fine, thank you very much–