'Did you hear? Dan Fixer's back!'
Jenny stared at her. 'They found his body?' But then she answered herself. 'No. Blighters leave nothing but ash.'
'Alive as you and me! Outside the southern gate, he is.'
Alive? Outside? The words didn't make sense.
'They're keeping him out, till they figure out what to do.'
The gates would be shut, yes. They were still shut and guarded, though now she thought about it, she didn't know why. 'Then it can't be Dan,' Jenny said. 'He's a citizen.'
'
A sort of glee in the woman's voice shattered the blank-ness in Jenny's mind. 'You don't want him back? How can you not want him back? He's a hero. He saved the world. We had a parade and named a bloody street after him! Don't you at least want the fixing back?'
The woman backed away, then turned and hurried off.
Jenny stood frozen. Dan was
She was already running toward the nearest tram stop. She needed to get to the gate, get to Dan. Then she realized it would be on screen. If it was true. She stopped, made herself look calm, and walked into the nearest pub.
One of the big screens faced the door, split between a cricket game., comedy, and a dim, sunset landscape. She saw a fire and a figure by it. She moved into that line of sound, having to squeeze up against two men in business clothes.
'… claiming to be Dan Fixer,' an announcer was saying.
'The Witan is meeting to discuss this development and assures everyone…'
Jenny stepped into the cricket commentary so she could focus on the picture. The camera must be up on the wall, looking down at the road. On the grass verge a small fire burned and a man sat beside it, reaching for a kettle, pouring boiling water into a pot.
Memory staggered her, then hope swept in, as weakening in its own way. She grasped a chair to hold herself up.
'Creepy, if you ask me.'
Jenny blinked and looked at the two young men in office wear drinking pints. One was blond with a sharp face, the other dark-haired and heavy.
'They've always been a bit strange, haven't they, fixers?' the blond said.
'No one knows how it works,' the heavy one replied.
'No one knows what they did to win, either. One minute the blighters are all over us, next minute they're gone.'
'Fixers were supposed to be gone, too. So it can't really be him, can it?'
'Or they're playing silly buggers with us.'
More faint hostility. Was this a dream? It wouldn't be surprising to dream that Dan was back, but why would she dream this? She wanted to ask what the hell they were thinking. If Dan was back, it was wonderful!
'They had stories on Earth about this sort of thing,' the heavy man said.
'About what?' his friend asked.
'About people who come back from the dead. Ghouls. Vampires. Zombies. Ghosts. Monsters.'
Jenny couldn't keep quiet. '
The man turned to her. 'Can't know for sure, can we?'
Perhaps she looked alarmed rather than angry, because the other one said, 'It's probably not even him, luv. Some berk thinking he can impersonate a hero, that's all. And not even good at it. I saw Dan Fixer not long before he left, and his hair was no longer than mine. Look at that.'
He pointed at the screen, and Jenny looked. The camera wasn't on zoom so details weren't clear, but it did look as if the man had a rope of hair down his back.
She didn't realize how much hope she'd gathered until it drained away.
'Like a Trojan horse.'
Jenny looked at the dark-haired man in disbelief. 'Bringing what into the town?'
'Who knows. That's the point, isn't it?'
Jenny couldn't entirely fight off the idea. The fixers and the blighters had fed off the same force. What if in the end the remaining blighters had taken over their enemies?
She opened that neglected part of her mind, trying to detect something. Was the faint tingle real, or wishful thinking? Was her churning stomach and throbbing head a sign that the blighters were back, or just shock and nerves?
The screen picture changed to a stocky man. Alderman Higginbottom! She sidled over so she could hear him.
'… have to take the cautious road here. We were given to understand that all the fixers had died in their gallant victory. We've been in touch with other major centers, and none of them have heard from their fixers. None of them have one on the doorstep, so to speak.'
The camera shifted to the reporter, an eager young woman. 'But Dan Fixer has explained that some survived, hasn't he?'
'He can explain all he wants, but we can't just take his word.'
The message bar on the screen began to scroll:
Committee. Jenny had to bite back laughter. It was a standing joke that when anything unusual happened in Anglia, the response was 'Let's form a committee.' Now they were doing it, and as always it was a way of passing time in the hope that the problem would go away.
'But given the heroic victory,' Brown asked, 'doesn't it seem wrong to leave someone outside for the night?'
'Well, now, there's no saying how long it will be. The committee may come to a rapid decision. As always, all citizens of Anglia are welcome to observe the discussion and make presentations, either at Parliament Hall or from screen phones.'
'But why not let him in to speak for himself?' Brown persisted.
Alderman Higginbottom shed his official veneer and looked older and more strained. 'Because we don't know what's come back from the war, and nor do you! This is a time for cautious thought, not impulsive action.'
The screen abruptly switched to the Angliacom desk. 'We have reporter Nell Raiseby now with Dan Fixer's mother…'
Jenny turned away. She couldn't bear watching that. Should she go and support Annie Rutherford? Or to the Witan to speak up for Dan?
But was it Dan? If Dan was alive, wouldn't he have contacted his family? Or her? Especially her. Worse than that, deep inside, painful as a fatal wound, she, too, had doubts. If it was Dan, what had come home from the war?
'But he is a hero.' When she realized she'd spoken aloud she glanced around.
No one was paying attention, thank heavens.
She slipped out of the pub. She needed to go up on the wall but. dark was settling. Soon even the zoom camera wouldn't see much, and she didn't need to see. She needed to think.
She longed to have Dan back in her life, in her arms, but even if that figure by the fire was Dan, he could be changed. She'd seen that, too, in war films. People who returned not just with physical wounds but with mental ones, driven crazy by the things they'd had to do, destroying those they'd fought to save.
How did she find that out? How did she do the right thing, with her heart yearning to have him back?
She stepped back into the pub to see the screen. Part was covering the committee meeting now. Another section showed the huge basement pub in Parliament Hall with its fully screened wall that made it a popular place to watch official proceedings. An illusion of being close to the action.
