‘She was being just as macho,’ Mudge complained, nodding at Mother.

‘Mother may well have a penis,’ Big Henry said. ‘That’s why Tailgunner likes her so much.’

More smiles, less tension.

‘You can go with him if you want,’ Mother said deadpan.

‘All right. None of us are diplomats-’ I started.

‘I am,’ Mudge interrupted inevitably.

‘We don’t know each other so nobody wants to give,’ I continued, ignoring Mudge. ‘So let’s just try for an exchange of information and see where that gets us?’

‘I wasn’t trying to denigrate what you’ve done here,’ Merle started. ‘How could you know what was going to happen and prepare for it? This is not your kind of war.’

‘So what? You going to save us?’ Dog Face spat.

Merle ignored him. ‘My point was, we tell them and that’s more people who know. They get caught, we get compromised.’ Then he turned to Mother. ‘Unless you’re prepared to kill any of your people who get captured, or yourself if that happens.’ Merle had turned his intense brown eyes on her. The Maori woman didn’t flinch. She didn’t answer either. ‘No, of course not, because you care for these people. You want to see them safe through the war, don’t you? Admirable but fucking dangerous to us.’

‘Fine,’ Mother said tightly. ‘Then like I said, leave your supplies and fuck off.’

Dog Face was nodding. Merle turned to me. ‘They’ve got no useful intel. We’ve done the hearts and minds thing at the expense of our own supplies. We need to move on.’

He was right. I knew he was right. These were clearly good people, clearly capable at what they did, but they’d drag us down. They should have split into smaller groups and either hidden or fought in cells.

I didn’t even see the girl come out of the darkness. I hadn’t been paying attention and I’d not sensed her move. She was suddenly next to Merle and her hand slashed out at his face. I saw the sliver of metal reflected in the light. She had a small curved blade sticking out of the bottom of her fist. Merle caught the girl’s wrist. Despite her black plastic eyes I caught the look of panic on her face.

‘Strange!’ Mother shouted.

She must have realised what sort of person Merle was and that the damaged girl was courting death. Merle wasn’t quite quick enough to catch Strange’s other wrist. She drew a thin line of red down his cheek with the blade in her other fist.

I felt the FAV I was leaning against rock as Cat came off it. Strange screamed as Merle trapped her other wrist, disarmed her and put her into a painful-looking hold. I could see panic building in Strange as she struggled against him. Enthusiasm and sneakiness is rarely a match for actual skill. Mudge had his pistol in his hand. He didn’t look quite sure what to do with it. Pagan had pushed himself back. I don’t know why I didn’t move, why I didn’t do something.

‘Let her go,’ Tailgunner said. There was impending violence in his voice but something else as well. Tension.

Strange was freaking out. Struggling like a trapped animal. Tailgunner, Mother, Big Henry and Dog Face were on their feet. They didn’t care who we were, that some of us had guns in our hands, in Cat’s case a railgun; they were ready to go at us.

‘Let her go,’ I said.

Merle looked like he was going to object. Not unreasonably; he had just been slashed.

‘Now,’ I said in my best don’t-fuck-with-me NCO voice.

He looked like he was ready to tell me to fuck off but released her. Strange rolled away from him and onto her feet and hissed before backing into the shadows again, crouching like a predatory beast.

When I glanced over at Morag she was smiling. I couldn’t make out why. Maybe she liked what Strange had done. That worried me. I tried to catch her eye but either she didn’t see my look or she chose to ignore it.

‘She comes near me with a blade again, I’ll put it in her. At best,’ Merle said.

He was dabbing at the cut. Looking at the blood on his fingertips. I think he was more surprised than anything else.

‘You ever touch her-’ Tailgunner started.

‘Hey!’ I said. He looked round at me. ‘That’s a reasonable response. You don’t want her hurt, keep her under control.’

I got the feeling Tailgunner was a reasonable guy but that Strange was a weak spot for him. I also think he wasn’t used to people speaking to him the way I had. I could take him, I told myself. I almost believed it as well. Unless he had more motivation than I did. Still angry, he opened his mouth to say something else, issue another threat.

‘Enough,’ Mother said quietly and sat down.

Big Henry and Dog Face were looking at her. I think they’d expected another resolution to the situation.

‘You know what would be nice?’ Mudge said.

‘A conversation without knives, guns and potential violence?’ Pagan suggested.

Mudge nodded. I looked at him incredulously.

‘What?’ he demanded. ‘Oh yeah, I’m on a nice mellow high. Thought it would help getting to know people.’

‘That’s very responsible of you,’ Morag said.

‘Can you take it all the time?’ Cat asked from behind us.

‘Yeah, ’cause it’s fucking brilliant in a fight,’ Mudge said sarcastically.

Mother was just watching us with a raised eyebrow. Tailgunner and the others had sat back down. Mudge passed Dog Face the now half-empty bottle of vodka.

‘She has… problems,’ Mother said.

It was almost an apology coming from her. I nodded. It was obvious that bad things had happened to her.

‘Don’t fucking apologise to them,’ Tailgunner said angrily.

Mother and Tailgunner were clearly partners and long term. They were the mum and dad of this dysfunctional family but it was obvious that this caused tension between them. It wasn’t jealousy on Mother’s part but something else. I wondered if she was afraid of Strange for some reason.

‘Like I said, they’re useless to us. Nothing but trouble,’ Merle said.

He sprayed antiseptic on the cut before applying a knitter and a foam bandage to it.

‘Why were the comms on your mechs disabled?’ Pagan asked again, and again they all went quiet.

‘Tell them,’ Mother said.

‘What, all of a sudden we’re best friends?’ Tailgunner demanded.

‘They trusted us; we may as well trust them. Because you know what happens if we don’t?’ Mother paused. ‘Nothing at all.’

‘The risk-’ Tailgunner started.

‘Is the same as any other day. We’ll either live or we die.’

I was starting to warm to Mother. She was my kind of NCO, but Merle was right: she cared too much. But then again the same could be said about me. Well, when it came to Morag anyway, I cared far too much. Mudge also, sometimes, and Pagan to a degree, and I was putting off thinking about Rannu. It was a near certainty he was dead.

I was grateful it was my turn with the bottle of vodka. I took a deep long pull from it. The burn in my throat from the alcohol was a welcome change to the constant burn from the atmosphere. It still tasted like rotten eggs.

Tailgunner swallowed hard. He didn’t look happy but he told us anyway. ‘Miru, the ruler of night, warned us to separate ourselves from the spirit world.’

My heart sank.

‘Jesus Christ,’ Merle spat and turned to look at me. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to appeal to my common sense or was getting ready to walk away. Then again I didn’t fully understand why he was here. ‘We’re just wasting our time.’

‘Merle,’ Cat said from behind me, ‘back off for a bit.’

‘This is hacker religious bullshit,’ he said angrily.

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