'Can you call anyone to speak on this young brave's behalf and substantiate his story?'
Ahiga turned to address the hall. 'Are there any other braves here who can support Sam's story? Perhaps some of you have been approached in the same way by Cheveyo. If there are, I ask you to have the courage to be honest with your brothers and sisters. We will not condemn you for listening. We condemn only those who side with our enemy against us.'
A few of those assembled shifted uneasily in their seats, then another brave stood and said: 'I was approached by Cheveyo in the same way.'
A further brave stood. 'So was I.'
Then a young squaw stood. She was nervous and managed to say only 'me too', then went to sit down again, thought better of it and remained standing, biting her thumb and looking at the floor.
Cheveyo looked like he had been totally blindsided. 'This is preposterous,' he said. There was a shrill note in his voice. 'I've never spoken to any of these people. This is all your doing.' Cheveyo pointed at Ahiga. 'You told them to say these things to discredit me.'
'Come now Cheveyo. I thought you could do a little better than that.'
'Can't you see what he's trying to do?' said Cheveyo, addressing the hall. 'Don't you see his little game? He's trying to discredit me so he can silence everyone who's against this war he's trying to peddle. This is all lies. All of it.' Cheveyo turned to Hiamovi. 'Great Chief, surely you can see that none of this is true. In all the years you've known me and counted me as your friend have you ever known me to turn on my own people? I helped you build the UTN from nothing. Why would I suddenly turn on it and try to tear it down? You can't honestly believe these fabrications can you?'
Hiamovi stood. He wore a solemn expression. 'Cheveyo can you bring forward anyone to speak for you now and defend your name?'
'Well no. But why should I need to? This is so obviously a fabrication.'
'So you say. But you can produce no-one to verify your side of the story. It pains me to say this, because we are old friends, but it seems the case against you is irrefutable. You've admitted to giving guns to the Neo-Clergy. You claim this was a trade in return for medicine. Yet, according to the testimony of others, you've been shown to have collaborated with the Neo-Clergy to sabotage and subvert our movement. This calls your claims of simply trading with scavs into question. And you can't produce even one person to verify your story.'
'Not at such short notice no. But give me time and I can tear this preposterous accusation apart.'
'With witnesses bought for you by the Neo-Clergy no doubt,' said Ahiga.
Cheveyo looked about the hall trying to find someone on his side. 'Great Chief, Onatah, brothers and sisters of the UTN, don't you realise what's at stake here? The Fifth Age of Man isn't some excuse to go to war to steal a weapon off the white man. It's a sacred becoming. A radical new development of our consciousness, a whole new way of being. You can't let this man and his accomplices silence me with their lies.'
'Enough,' said Hiamovi raising his arm for silence. 'Cheveyo we've heard plenty of testimony claiming you're a Neo-Clergy collaborator. But we haven't heard anything from you that disproves it. All you've done is accuse your brother's and sisters of lying at the encouragement of a fellow inner council member. I find your behaviour dishonourable. You've done nothing to prove your innocence. I have to declare your guilt and make certain you're punished.'
'Great Chief don't do this, I implore you,' said Cheveyo. 'For the sake of our friendship, of everything we wanted the UTN to be. For the coming of the Fifth Age of Man.'
'It's for the sake of all those things that I pass judgement Cheveyo,' said Hiamovi, with genuine sadness. 'You're a proven traitor to your own people. I'm going to expel you from the UTN for life. You're to be taken from this hall and confined under armed guard until the Neo-Clergy is no longer a threat to our people.'
Ahiga nodded and Hastiin and Akecheta seized Cheveyo. Cheveyo glared at Ahiga as they dragged him from the hall. Ahiga met the Hopi's gaze. He acted as though he was unmoved, bored even by the Hopi's reaction. Inside though, he was choking on his anger.
'Brothers and sisters,' said Hiamovi once Cheveyo was gone. 'I know some of you were taken in by Cheveyo's promise of a Neo-Clergy reward. I know you were going to speak out with him. I don't approve of your actions but I won't have you hunted down and expelled. Now is not the time to turn against each other. That is what the white man wants. Now is the time for lenience and unity. To show we can come together in a common purpose. For this reason I give a full pardon to all of Cheveyo's conspirators as long as they give up their attempts to sabotage us, and start to work with us again.'
There was a huge cheer at Hiamovi's magnanimity. Everyone clapped, stamped and whooped victory cries. Ahiga was impressed. He would have rooted out all of Cheveyo's sympathisers and put them down with brutality. Instead Hiamovi had effectively silenced them. No-one would dare speak out against the war now, or they'd be branded a traitor. Yet he'd still managed to look merciful and just while he did it. He'd forced everyone to side with him and made it look as though he'd restored unity where there'd been dissent and division.
The rest of the meeting went exactly as Ahiga had planned. He couldn't have hoped for a better outcome. He didn't feel victorious though. He just felt an uncontrollable anger growing inside him. At first he tried to ignore this, it made no sense. Then he realised where it came from.
It was the Hopi's glare as he was dragged out. Ahiga had seen that self same look before. From the most beautiful pair of brown eyes he'd ever seen. Eyes that had looked up at him along the barrel of a pistol. A barrel he'd pushed between two tender lips. Lips that could have sealed Ahiga's fate if they'd chosen to.
Instead they were wrapped silently around his gun. Ahiga still felt the recoil as he squeezed the trigger and silenced those lips forever. He still heard Fitch and Golding's laughter. 'That's the end of that little faggot!' Fitch had said.
'He ain't gonna fuck with any of the 57th Street bangers no more,' Golding had said. 'Ain't that right Tom?'
Ahiga had dropped the gun and left the room. He vowed right then he'd make them pay. Now he was about to make good on that.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Cortez was tired and hungry. He hadn't eaten since the previous night and he hadn't slept since the night before. All their provisions had gone down with the whore. The brave, dead whore that Cortez couldn't find it in himself to hate anymore.
He said nothing about his hunger and fatigue and neither did Anna or Greaves. He could see they weren't taking it well. Anna was quiet and withdrawn. She walked with her head down and her shoulders slumped, hugging herself. She shivered whenever she stood still.
Anna had taken the whore's death very badly, screaming and kicking as the vehicle went over the edge. Greaves and Cortez had to pull her back to avoid the lava that splashed back up onto the bridge, sizzling as it cooled to form part of the surface. Cortez had noted, with the air of detachment he got in those situations, that this is how the bridge must have formed in the first place.
Anna had cried for several hours after that and there was little Greaves or Cortez could say to console her. They were dealing with the loss themselves. Once she'd cried the whole thing out she had just sunk into herself. Cortez couldn't think of anything to say to comfort her and not even the words of Jesus or Mohammed, peace be upon them, sprang to his lips.
Greaves was not in a good way either, he was nearly out of painkillers. Cortez could see that he was trying to ration his remaining supplies and was still walking bow legged on account of the burns on his thighs. Whenever he stood up, the scent of rotting flesh wafted off him.
Greaves had taken them around the edge of the plateau in order to come back on themselves towards the opening of a ventilation shaft in the centre. This was apparently to avoid being picked up by the lab's security. It was a favourite tactic of Greaves. Cortez was beginning to recognise them now. He no longer thought of the little guy as his employer. Cortez instinctively knew the haul that went down with the whore and her vehicle was the last payout Greaves was ever going to make and Cortez hung around now out of a sense of obligation.
He felt a little like he'd let Greaves down by getting him tortured, even if he had saved his life after that. Now
