“Then I do not care what you call me.” The Iron Guard got up, dusted off his pants, and folded the blanket. “You are beneath my notice. You are an insignificant bug.”
“I’ll just stick with jerk-face then.”
“Very well, bug.” Toru put his things back in his pack. Faye noticed that he was very careful to stow the broken sword pieces. He should be. Even with his Healing kanji, he still had a bandage wrapped around one hand from grabbing the sharp part last night.
“What’re you keeping that busted thing for?”
“You would not understand.”
“I know more about your kind than you think,” Faye snapped.
Toru removed some wrapped food and closed the pack. “A blade can be reforged. A soul can be cleansed.” He walked out of the barn, chewing on what looked like a ball of white rice.
Cleansed? Faye could agree with that sentiment in principle. People could make all sorts of things right, but she had a real hard time thinking of murderous Iron Guards as people.
She found Mr. Garrett in the kitchen, cooking bacon. Faye Traveled in right next to him. “Smells good.”
Her sudden arrival startled him and he splashed bacon grease on his hand. “Don’t do that!” He stuck his burned finger in his mouth.
“Well, somebody’s jumpy.”
“Can you blame me? You about give me a heart attack when you do that.”
“Grumpy too.”
“Sleeping with one eye open will do that to you,” he answered as he forked a few cooked pieces onto a waiting plate. “I didn’t know who was going to murder us in our sleep last night first-the Imperium or the OCI. Jake’s lost his mind, joining up with these people.”
“I haven’t met the other one yet.”
“Hammer. Don’t trust her, Faye. She’s a manipulator.”
“Isn’t that your job?”
“You bet, and that’s why I can tell. Just because you can’t lie to her doesn’t mean she can’t lie to us.”
Faye snagged a piece of bacon and popped it into her mouth. “Don’t worry, Mr. Garrett. I’m still the most dangerous person here.”
“That you are. Well, I’ll just have to trust you’ll keep us safe.” He chuckled, so Faye did too. She had always liked Mr. Garrett. He passed her the plate of bacon. “Here’s my protection payment.” Faye was starving. She wasn’t about to turn that down, and immediately started wolfing down the food without even bothering to sit.
Mr. Sullivan joined them a moment later. He still had his BAR slung over one shoulder. It said a lot about the company that she kept, that his wearing a machine gun at breakfast didn’t even strike her as odd.
“Sleep well?” he asked with a wink.
So much for being sneaky. It was like everybody knew she’d slept in the barn. “Oh, my bed was just lovely.”
Mr. Garrett had boiled up a pot of coffee, and Mr. Sullivan poured himself a cup. He took it black. “I just got some bad news.”
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Faye asked.
“’Cause I don’t want you to fly off the handle and do something stupid when I tell you Francis is missing.”
Faye went numb. The plate shattered on the floor. “We’ve got to do something!”
“We will.” Mr. Sullivan was mulling over his coffee. “The others will be back soon. Sit tight. I got a plan.”
John Browning
Chapter 15
There will be some innocent victims in this fight against magical Fascists. We are launching a major attack on the enemy; let there be no resentment if we bump someone with an elbow. Better that ten innocent people should suffer than one enemy of the worker get away. When you chop wood, chips fly.
OCI Headquarters
It was like waking up from a two-day bender, only judging from the dungeonlike surroundings illuminated by the single flickering light bulb hanging from the ceiling, this certainly wasn’t his old fraternity. Rust-colored water was dripping down the brick walls and the floor was poured concrete covered in half an inch of dust. There was a single door, no windows, and he was alone. The last thing he could remember was being clobbered by Crow. He reached up to put one hand to his throbbing head, but a chain snapped tight against his wrist. “Ugh. Where am I?”
There was a noise, some movement, and a cough. “Francis?” The voice had come from the wall behind his back. “Is that you?”
“Yeah.” Francis had to be hallucinating from the head injury. Was there such a thing as auditory hallucinations? He didn’t rightly know. Getting hit so hard that you begin hearing dead people couldn’t be good. “Heinrich?”
“ Mein Gott, it is you!” There was a scraping noise and the clank of chains. “They got you too.”
“You’re alive?”
The laugh was bitter. “For now, though I don’t know why.”
He was very excited to discover that one of his best friends had cheated death, but the circumstances of their reunion left something to be desired. Francis managed to turn his head far enough to see that there were small holes cut in the wall. His chains led through them, so he couldn’t fiddle with whatever they were tethered to. “You’ve got no idea how glad I am to find you. Where are we?”
Heinrich’s voice was coming through the holes. “I believe we are under OCI headquarters.”
“Hang on.” Francis concentrated on the light bulb to see if he could make it swing. Nothing. They had to be under the influence of one of Buckminster Fuller’s nullifiers. “Damn.”
“Using your magic? It doesn’t work here. A man named Crow said they have a device-”
“We’ve met. He’s the reason I’ve got a splitting headache.”
“A pleasant-enough sort, for a statist secret policeman. I believe he will kill us as soon as we are no longer of use.”
“He’s a demon,” Francis said.
“Indeed. His kind always are.”
“No. Literally. He’s a Summoned.”
Heinrich laughed. “You must have gotten hit very hard.”
“I heard from one of the new knights that’s with-”
The chains clanked. “Quiet! Speak of no one else. Do you think they put us where we can talk to each other by accident?”
Francis shut his mouth and studied the walls suspiciously. Heinrich was right. They were probably listening. “Sure… Never mind.”
“I was wondering why they finally gave me food and water… They wanted me strong enough to have a conversation.” Heinrich sounded very tired. “I’m sorry, Francis. It is too late for many. They made me talk. Drugs and magic. I don’t even remember, but they stole names right out of my mind. I don’t even know who for sure, but I’ve put them in danger. This Crow, demon or man, whatever he is, he’s clever.”
“Trust me. The bastard grows horns and can fly. How long have I been here anyway?”
“An hour, maybe, since I heard them drag you in and chain you up. Not too long.”
There was a ring of metal on metal as his door was unlocked. “Shhhh.”
