Tube Riders, The (48 page)

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Reunion

Leo’s chest heaved as he came to a stop, several miles of running making his legs and feet throb. Up ahead of him the lights of the town rose out of the trees. He’d heard sounds of a commotion before, but the battle or whatever it was had died down now, and as he crept closer through the trees he heard nothing but the occasional hoot of an owl.

He froze, sensing something standing close to him in the darkness. It was one of the failed people, one who never made it to be a Huntsman. The figure was a few feet away, not moving, its back to him.

Leo took two quick steps forward and broke the man’s neck, then lowered the body quietly to the ground.

Sleeping, resting or not, dangerous creatures became enemies on waking. It was best to have them eliminated.

He approached the first houses, dropping onto his belly to crawl through the last undergrowth before he reached a clearing illuminated by a large spotlight attached to a pole. Across the clearing the town started. He could see a thin alleyway ahead of him, blocked only by a barbed wire fence.

Leo assessed the situation. The creatures in the forest had attacked the creatures in the town, something that happened regularly he assumed, given the spotlights and the barbed wire that hung across the spaces between the houses. From what he’d seen though, the creatures attacked wildly with careless abandon. No one would expect someone to use stealth.

Huntsmen, too, had problems with stealth sometimes, especially during periods of hunger. But Leo was remembering a time before he used to be a Huntsman, when he’d had better control of himself. On his stomach, he crawled across the clearing and found a space beneath the wire to squeeze through.

He followed the alleyway to a junction, where he paused and sniffed the air, his ears pricked for sounds of approach. Marta’s scent led off to the left, but as he turned his head back and forth he caught wind of a fresher scent coming from the right. He turned that way, walking slowly with his hood up, appearing to anyone who noticed like another of the townsfolk returning home.

He had expected to have to kill or break into buildings to get at her, but as he turned another corner, he was surprised to see her, standing a few hundred feet away next to a dry fountain, one hand trailing in the basin where water had once fallen.

Marta, his sister. He felt a lump in his chest pushing up into his throat, and a low growl escaped his lips.

To him, she was beautifully human, a living memory of his past that the government had failed to erase. But to her, he was still a Huntsman, and he knew it would be difficult to get close without her raising the alarm.

Leo moved towards the nearest buildings, stepping into the shadows where he was unlikely to be seen, and began his approach.

#

‘He’s gone, sir,’ Dreggo said, jogging up to the Governor as he stood near the top of the ramp down into the tunnel. ‘The Huntsman Lyen, the one who used to be Leo Banks.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘He’s ignoring my instructions and he won’t respond. I can hear him, but he’s blocking his thoughts. He’s distant though. I think he’s gone after her.’

‘His sister?’

‘Yes.’

The Governor frowned. ‘This is … unexpected. We may have to change our plans.’

‘Sir, I think he’s heading into the village to warn her.’

The Governor’s white face flushed with anger. ‘We cannot have that. We may have to abort the trap and take them in the town. At worst they will come running here. There is nowhere else for them to go.’

Dreggo closed her eyes and concentrated. ‘Sir, I can … feel the Mistakes. The ones in the forest. I can sense something has happened.’

The Governor looked hard at her. ‘Can you control them?’

‘I don’t know … maybe.’

The Governor’s eyes blazed. ‘Do it. Call forth their rage, Dreggo. Bring them down on that town with fire in their eyes and hate in their hearts. And while chaos ensues, we will capture the Tube Riders and finish this.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Dreggo moved off as the Governor called out for Clayton to assemble his men. She closed her eyes and sent her thoughts out to the Huntsmen and to the people who had almost been Huntsmen. She called forth their anger, sought out their rage. And distantly, through her mind, she heard them begin to respond.

‘My Huntsmen … I command you to go to war,’ she whispered aloud. Around her she heard their minds spark into life and their bodies begin to move as they turned and sprinted through the trees, back in the direction of the dirt road and beyond it, five or six miles away, the town where the Tube Riders were hiding.

And among the nearby fields and the forests, she felt a buzz rise into the air as hundreds of shattered human minds began to boil with anger, brush away the pain of their wounds, and turn their thoughts to one last assault on the people who had hurt them.

#

Switch was having a good day. Lying in the grass feigning death not far from where the Huntsmen and the DCA agents patrolled, he watched with surprise as the men began to climb up into the trucks which then turned around and headed back down the road away from the tunnel entrance.

He was soaked in the blood of a Mistake he had killed, his clothes doused, his hair, his face, his hands sticky with it. It stank beyond belief, to the point where he had retched until his stomach was empty of the last of Reeder’s breakfast and then some, but the ruse had worked. He’d overheard Clayton telling the Governor he thought there were Mistakes in the tunnel, and a Huntsman had patrolled just a few feet to the left of where he lay still without giving him more than a brief glance.

But now they were all leaving. There were two agents up on the hill, covering the entrance with sniper rifles, but he would easily kill them once the others were gone. Where were they going? What had happened to cause them to leave?

He sensed the others were in danger, but at the least their urgency and the leaving of the guards meant his friends were still alive. He had to help them, but first of all he had to secure the tunnel entrance.

Pulling a knife from his pocket, he began to shimmy through the long grass like a deadly snake, towards where the land began to rise.

#

Leo knew it was almost too late when the cacophony began behind him. He let his mind relax and the sounds flooded in, the Mistakes in the forest creating a backdrop to the roars of the Huntsmen, and above it all, the shrieking commands of Dreggo, their assumed leader. They were coming, all of them, and within minutes the village would be turned back into a battle zone.

Marta, just twenty feet ahead of where he crouched in a doorway, had heard it too. She looked around as though having just woken up, and the dim street lights reflected tears in her eyes.

She stood up. This was his chance, his only chance, before she was gone again.

He stepped out of the shadows.

‘Marta…’

She turned. For a moment her face didn’t change, then suddenly she seemed to recognise he was different to the other Mistakes in the town.

‘Huntsman!’ she gasped, backing off.

‘No!’ he growled, unable to think of anything else to say, and then, trying to prove he wasn’t a threat, he slumped forward onto his knees, his hands spread wide on the ground in a praying gesture he hoped would look submissive and harmless.

Marta had been about to run, but now she paused. Perhaps she thought he was injured. Leo had only had seconds to make her understand before she called out for help.

For a moment his own name eluded him, so he used hers. ‘Marta …
sister
.’ He lifted up one hand and pulled the hood back so that she could see what was left of his face.

She stared at him for another long second. Then her mouth fell open, and she began to cry.

#

It was him
. Leo. Her brother. She recognised his eyes, the deep blue that mirrored hers. The rest of his face was a mess, a doglike snout covering where his mouth had been, wires protruding from his temples and feeding in through holes in his neck. She was repulsed and joyous at the same time, washed away by a wave of emotions. Her brother wasn’t dead after all. He was right here in front of her, but he had been subjected to a fate that might actually be worse than death.

She couldn’t stop the tears that flooded down her face. ‘Oh my ... what have they done to you…?’

‘Huntsman…’

‘
Why?
’

‘Tunnel … Governor … Dreggo … wait for you … run, Marta…’

Her hands, tentative at first, cupped his face. She could feel metal under his skin. ‘Leo, come with us, we can save you!’

‘I … save you.’ He frowned, and a strange yelping noise came from his throat. She thought he might be crying. ‘They come … now. You … must … hide.’

Marta looked up, hearing the wail of the Mistakes. From somewhere not far away, she heard what sounded like an explosion. They were attacking again.

She climbed to her feet, pulling Leo up with her. ‘Come on. We have to get back to the safe house.’

He stopped. ‘No. They attack … safe house.’

People were running past her now, people with spears and knives, running in the direction of the perimeter. The attack was imminent.

‘This way,’ she said, leading them into an alley. ‘We can get back to the safe house, find the others, and then–’

A Huntsman stepped out in front of her.

Marta screamed and turned back. Another Huntsman appeared behind them.

‘Lyen,’ the first Huntsman growled. ‘Lyen have …
Tube Rider?
’

Leo put an arm around Marta. ‘Prisoner,’ he said.

‘Kill her,’ the second Huntsman ordered.

‘Prisoner,’ he repeated.

The first Huntsman sniffed at the air. ‘Lyen … Tube Rider … smell same.’

The second Huntsman growled. ‘Lyen … is …
traitor!
’

With a roar, the two Huntsmen leapt forward in attack.

#

Clayton’s DCA convoy pulled up just outside the town. Ahead of them, the Governor and Dreggo climbed out of their car and headed straight into the fray, through the last trees and into the town, even as crazed Mistakes dashed past them and threw themselves headlong into the barbed wire. The Huntsmen were in there already, and now he was supposed to order his own men to join the carnage.

He couldn’t decide who he hated most. The Governor and Dreggo, for their treatment of him, the Tube Riders for continuing to elude him, or himself for becoming a mere pawn in a war he didn’t believe in.

He got out of the land cruiser. ‘Get in there,’ he said to the men as they climbed down from the trucks. ‘Keep alert, wait for my command.’

As they headed into the battle, Clayton pulled his gun and followed, trying all the while to swallow down the realization that he might be walking to his death.

#

With a frenzy the Free Folk had never seen before, the Wildmen surged back into the village, flinging themselves at the doors of the safe houses while defenders fought to repel them. Ishael, watching from the second floor of the old police station with Jin at his side, knew that this time there would be no respite, that this time there were forces beyond simple insanity that were driving the Wildmen forward.

Down in the square, the Redman fought like a machine, flinging groups of Wildmen aside, a series of volcanic roars erupting from his throat. Across the square, Jin saw a group of shadowy figures standing back in the alleyways, and then a volley of bolts swept across the square and thudded into the Redman, knocking him back and away from the safe house door. The Wildmen surged forward, battering the windows and the door, trying to tear it down with their hands alone.

‘We have to go out,’ Ishael said beside him, his voice desperate. ‘Marta’s out there somewhere, and they’ll break through eventually.’

‘They’ve come for you,’ Jin said grimly, but there was no accusation in his voice. ‘We’ll get a car for your people ready on the northern edge of the town. Get them together. When we counter-attack, you have to go.’

‘What about Marta?’

‘I can’t help her. If she’s out there, she’s on her own.’

Jin’s words stung. Ishael remembered waking and finding her gone, and knew that his words had driven her away. Now she was out there, in danger, and it was his fault. He cried out and punched the wall in frustration, sending slivers of agony from his missing fingernails up through his arm.

#

Jess listened to the commotion outside. The battle was on again, and this time it wouldn’t end. She pulled two knives from her belt and headed for the entrance, where a group of Free Folk were gathering in preparation for a counter strike.

‘I’m coming, Simon,’ she whispered.

#

Paul, Carl and Owen were standing in the corridor when Ishael and Jin came down the stairs towards them.

‘Where are Marta and Jess?’ Paul said.