Landsknecht. Morag walked with Strange, her arms still around the sobbing girl.
‘You sure it’s him?’ Cat asked Mudge. I couldn’t read her expression.
He shrugged. ‘I’d be surprised if anyone else could indulge in that amount of self-pity.’
‘It’s him,’ Morag said, her tone guarded, her body language angry.
‘This is Kopuwai. It was named after a dog-headed monster. It was Dog Face’s mech,’ Mother told me. Her tone was one of barely contained rage. I think the grieving for Dog Face had been done in private away from prying eyes.
Kopuwai was like the giant metal ghost of Dog Face looking down on me, judging me. I swallowed and nodded. There wasn’t a lot I could say. They knew at some level that it hadn’t been me, but any protest now would sound like an excuse.
I looked around at their faces. Pagan’s was the least hostile but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. Merle was next to him. Even through the medgel I could see the scar I’d given him had turned his mouth into an angry puckered leer.
‘I think Jakob understands how we all feel,’ Pagan started.
Tailgunner and Mother turned to give him a look of angry contempt and he went quiet.
‘How’s your arse?’ I asked.
Pagan looked a bit taken aback by the question but I needed people distracted.
‘Lost some meat, bad scar,’ he told me.
‘He won’t let me look at it. He’ll let Merle look but not me. That’s favouritism that is,’ Mudge said, trying to lighten the tone.
‘Merle’s a trained medic,’ Pagan said, exasperated. They had presumably had this discussion before.
‘We have to record things for posteriority.’ There were few smiles.
While they were looking at Mudge I made my move. I grabbed the butt of Cat’s Void Eagle. It was holstered at her hip. The smartgrip holster held on to it. I’d expected this. I downloaded an old holster-cracking code I’d bought from Vicar through my palm-link interface and into the pistol. There was a moment of resistance from the holster just as people realised that something was happening and started to move. Vicar’s code won. The pistol was heavy and comforting in my hand. I stepped away from everyone and brought the pistol up to bear.
Mudge was drawing his Sig but wasn’t sure what to do with it. Pagan stepped back, a look of confusion on his face as he dropped his staff and went for his sidearm. Cat at first reached to stop me and then went for the cut- down shotgun strapped to her other leg. She brought it up. Mother, Strange and Tailgunner all went for their PDWs but were much slower. The magazines on their weapons were still unfolding as the other guns came to bear. Salem simply took a few steps back. His face was the same calm mask it had been since I’d walked up.
Merle didn’t go for his weapon because he was looking down the barrel of a Void Eagle.
‘I thought he was all right!’ Cat hissed.
‘He is,’ Salem said simply. There was no trace of doubt in his voice.
‘We completely checked him,’ Pagan said, exasperated, still not sure what to do with his pistol. Morag was nodding. She was looking confused as well but had no problem pointing a gun at me.
‘Put the gun down,’ Mudge told me.
‘Are you out of your fucking mind?’ Merle asked quietly.
‘Why am I alive, Merle?’ I asked.
‘A mixture of dumb luck and people who lack the professionalism to know when they should cut their losses, as far as I can tell,’ Merle answered.
‘Look, I don’t know what you think you know but we can have this conversation without the pointing of guns,’ Mudge said. He was worried. Joking apart, I was his best, possibly only, friend and I was pointing a gun at his lover.
‘Put the gun down now,’ Cat told me. I think the trigger on her shotgun was squeezed to the furthest point it could be without the weapon going off. I think she’d had more than enough of my own personal horror show. I knew she would have been furious about what I’d said to Morag when I’d been possessed.
‘Don’t be so fucking childish, Jakob!’ This from Morag.
‘They knew. Their response time was too quick. They weren’t waiting for us but they were not far off,’ I said. I could see from their faces that they had considered this. ‘Rolleston told me that we’d been sold out by two people.’
‘Well there’s a source we can trust,’ Mudge said sarcastically.
‘Jakob, you’ve no idea,’ Morag started. ‘While you were getting beaten up by your date Merle saved us.’
Mudge and Pagan were nodding but there was something off about Pagan’s expression.
‘You were the one who was so keen that we kill ourselves rather than be caught. If you had the position to help Mudge and the others further down the alley then you had line of sight to take me out,’ I said to him.
‘That’s not what this is about,’ Merle said. His tone reminded me of the voice I’d heard coming from my mouth when I was locked in my gilded cage. ‘You’re trying to find someone else to blame.’
From the looks on Pagan, Mudge, Mother and Tailgunner’s faces they knew that I was right. Morag was less sure as she was newer to the dynamics of gunfights.
‘Why am I still alive, Merle?’
‘You know I can take that gun off you any time I want?’ he asked me.
‘Stop pointing my gun at my brother!’ Cat hissed, but it was written all over her face that she knew I was right too.
‘Do you think I care what happens now?’ I asked. ‘Either you answer my question or I put a bullet through your head and damn the consequences.’
By now Tailgunner and Mother were lowering their weapons. Strange turned her PDW on Merle.
‘Strange!’ Morag shouted.
I’d glanced at the girl for a moment. Merle could only have told from a slight movement around my lenses, but by the time I was back concentrating fully on him he had both Hammerli Arbiters in his hands. He was fast. One was pointing at me and the other at Strange.
‘Woah!’ Tailgunner shouted as he turned on Merle. Cat brought her shotgun to bear on Tailgunner. Mother aimed her PDW at Cat.
‘Oh this is fucking stupid.’ Morag lowered her pistol.
‘Not if we’ve got a traitor in the mix,’ I said.
‘I’m better than you; I’m faster than you. Drop the gun,’ Merle told me.
‘Oh but mate, it’s a size game, isn’t it. Mine’s bigger than yours. I don’t doubt you’ll be accurate but I fancy my chances at surviving a burst in the face. Your pretty face on the other hand becomes a mess on the wall,’ I told him.
‘I think you should compare sizes,’ Morag said, holstering her pistol.
‘Me too,’ Mudge agreed. There wasn’t much humour there.
‘What about the girl? Maybe you live but she’s dead and you know it.’
‘Anything happens to her and you die as well, Jakob,’ Tailgunner told me. I felt he was being a little unfair.
‘She can put the gun down and walk away any time she wants,’ I said through gritted teeth. Strange helpfully shook her head. I didn’t like having anyone as unpredictable as her involved whether she was on my side or not.
‘Take another step and weird girl dies,’ Merle told Morag. She’d acted like the whole thing was stupid but had been moving back, jockeying to get position on Merle. Morag froze and looked pissed off.
‘Why would he betray you and then fight so hard for the rest of us?’ Mudge asked.
‘I couldn’t figure that out either. If he was still working for the Cabal then he could have destroyed us a long time ago,’ I said.
‘The orders must have come from Earth…’ Pagan said.
‘Something you want to add?’ I asked. Pagan looked stricken. This I hadn’t expected. What the fuck was going on?
‘Don’t buy into his paranoid fantasy; it’s guilt transference, that’s all,’ Merle spat.
‘He was in a hole for six months. He was comms dark the entire time,’ Mudge said. There was desperation in his voice. He needed Merle to not be the traitor. I think that this was the most vulnerable I’d ever seen him.
