anticipation.
Up close they looked less like biotech and more like human technology made from metal and composite. The exo-armour, however, reminded me of large metal Berserks made symmetrical. The tips of tentacles protruded from their backs on either side of the flight systems. I suspected they were made of some nanotube-like material. They looked sleek, predatory and violent. There was a hint of alien about them, but in a human battle line they could pass as human tech, though I suspect they would give veterans pause because of their resemblance to Them. They were fully armed and spare ammunition was secured in a cargo net at the back of the container. There were eight of the suits of armour.
‘They were in the last truck. Soloso has no use for them and they would just give him away if they were found,’ Big Henry told me. I had visions of using them to infiltrate the Citadel. ‘Go ahead, have a look.’
I turned to look at Big Henry in the cave’s shadowed half-light.
‘I hope you’re not fucking around,’ I told him.
‘Look, I know who’s to blame. That doesn’t mean I have to like looking at you. Besides, what are we going to do? Lock you in the container? A bit fucking childish and I’m pretty sure a man of your initiative and training could break out of there.’
I watched him for a while trying to work out what was happening here. Strange was just looking between the two of us, still swaying and breathing funny. Like she was aroused. Idiot curiosity got the better of me and I climbed up into the container.
‘How’d you open it up?’ I asked as I examined the first suit, the one closest to the door.
‘We don’t know; nobody’s been able to do it yet,’ Big Henry told me. I touched the centre chest plate. The armour split and then slid apart leaving strands of a thick viscous lubricant that looked like a bodily fluid strung between the two panels.
‘Oh.’ Big Henry sounded genuinely surprised.
Inside it looked like black meat, a Themtech version of human innards. I made a disgusted noise. It was obvious that a human was supposed to climb in there and join with the armour. It was also obvious that the armour was alive.
‘Demiurge?’ I asked.
Big Henry shrugged. Not an encouraging response.
‘There are no transmissions and no locators that we can tell,’ he said.
‘Worth getting Pagan or Tailgunner to check that out again,’ I said and turned around to jump out of the rear of the container.
The sickle fish-hooked me in mid-air. I tasted metal in my mouth and then my momentum tore the side of my mouth open, pulling my head back. I landed painfully on my back on the stone, my mouth full of blood. Big Henry was on me, his face a mask of bestial anger as he raised a club above his head. I kicked up from the ground catching him in the face, sending him flying out of my view.
A massive hand grabbed me by the front of my inertial armour and lifted me easily to my feet. I found myself face to face with Soloso in his finery of rags. It was a hit. They’d called in external help. I didn’t need this. Except Soloso looked furious. One-handed he threw me across the cave, slamming me painfully into the wall.
I didn’t even have time to slide to the ground before Strange was on me, slashing at me with her curved blades. I nutted her with every bit of strength I could muster. She staggered back as her nose exploded.
Fuck this. The three of them were closing on me. I extended my blades, though the ones on my right hand were still much shorter than those on my left.
‘I’m going to kill all three of you,’ I told them. Or that was what I meant to tell them. It was actually more a case of me gargling and spitting out blood as I failed to talk. My newly bisected cheek flapped around. It really hurt.
‘You killed them!’ Soloso screamed at me. This surprised me. He was genuinely angry.
‘Who?’ I asked, sort of, while drooling blood down myself.
‘The Puppet Show!’ he howled. The calm contained hard man I’d met in Moa City was gone now. This was a deeply emotional man. Admittedly it was a deeply emotional man holding a bloody sickle and wanting to cause me harm.
Then it hit me. I’d been an idiot. I’d been so worried about what my betrayal had done to the people here, I hadn’t considered that I’d implicated the Puppet Show, and unlike us the Puppet Show wasn’t exactly mobile.
‘Those three beautiful women! You destroyed them! Do you know they killed themselves rather than let the Squads put the Black Wave into their systems!’
The big man was much more upset than he was angry. Big Henry and Strange were casting uneasy glances at him and each other. Another four lives I’d fucked. More if they’d gone after the entire gang.
I just stared at him, not sure what to do. One thing that doesn’t go down well with vocational criminals is betrayal, particularly if high-ranking people go down as a result of it. I didn’t think that was Soloso’s problem. The guy had obviously not processed his grief. My blades slid back up into my arm.
‘I’m sorry, man,’ I gurgled at him.
I couldn’t fight them. They were the victims here and I’d had a hand in their victimisation. More than anything this drove home the warnings I’d been given about operating in the field with Morag. This drove home how selfish my feelings for her were. I’d been prepared to flush a lot of lives down the toilet. The people of Earth may have been an abstract. This huge and dangerous man sobbing in a way I knew made the muscles round the plastic in your eyes hurt wasn’t an abstract.
Soloso sat down hard. All the fight had gone from him. The sickle clattered to the stone and he held his face in his hands as he sobbed. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I don’t think that Strange or Big Henry knew either. I spat out some blood so I could try and talk.
‘Shall we leave it at that?’ I asked.
Big Henry looked at Strange. She nodded. I sat cross-legged in front of Soloso.
‘I’m really sorry, man,’ I told him earnestly through a mouthful of blood. He just sobbed harder. Finally he looked up at me.
‘They… they…’ He swallowed hard. Snot was running down his face. ‘They were incandescent,’ he finally managed.
I had nothing. I just nodded like I had the slightest idea what he was talking about. He leaned forward and I thought he was trying to kill me again. Instead he just hugged me and started crying harder. That’s the thing with the truly hard: some of them can be very sentimental.
Tailgunner and Mother ran into the cave. Tailgunner took one look at Strange’s broken nose. Strange at least had the courtesy to look guilty. The big hacker turned on me.
‘I told you…’ He trailed off as he saw Soloso’s massive form hugging me and sobbing. I looked up at him as I bled onto Soloso’s arm. Even Mother looked surprised.
She turned on Strange and Big Henry. ‘No more of this, okay? I mean it. We have enough problems.’
Strange was looking at her feet like a naughty child being scolded. Big Henry was staring back at her defiantly.
‘You would never-’ he started.
‘That’s enough!’ Tailgunner snapped.
‘We’re not letting this lie. We are going after those responsible, but I’m not going to settle for murdering the weapon. Do you understand me, Henry?’ said Mother. Big Henry didn’t answer.
‘You think you’re the only one grieving?’ Tailgunner demanded. The impact of his question was somewhat spoiled by Soloso sobbing all the harder. I patted his arm.
‘I mean it, Henry. No more. This is what they want to happen with these tactics. You do their work when you go after him,’ Mother said. Big Henry, with a final angry glare at me, nodded.
‘Pagan wants to see everyone in Rannu’s cave,’ Tailgunner told us. I nodded, wondering how I was going to disentangle myself from Soloso.
Mudge was heading towards Rannu’s cave. He changed his course to intercept me.
‘Does a day go by when you don’t get your arse kicked?’
I tried to tell him to fuck off but I just ended up spitting blood all over myself so had to settle for giving him the finger. Offensive or not, I could tell that Mudge wasn’t his old self.
In Rannu’s cave I saw Morag look up at my bloodied form and just shake her head.