an inch.
'Where did you get them?' said Hawk.
Morgan shrugged. 'Runaways, debtors' prisons, even a few volunteers. There are
always some ready to risk their lives for a new thrill.'
'You know what this new drug does,' said Hawk. 'So why are you getting involved
with it? There isn't enough bribe money in the world to make the Guard overlook
the slaughter this shit will cause. Even the other drug barons would turn
against you over something like this.'
'I won't be here when it breaks,' said Morgan. 'There's a lot of money in this.
Millions of ducats. More than enough to leave Haven and set up a new and very
comfortable life somewhere else. You could have a life like that, Captain.
There's enough money for everyone. Just name your price, and I guarantee you I
can meet it.'
'Really?' said Hawk. He stepped forward suddenly, grabbed a handful of Morgan's
robe and dragged him over to the steel cage. 'You want to know my price, Morgan?
Bring them back to life. Bring those poor bastards back! Go on; give just one of
them his life back and I'll let you go, here and now.'
'You're being ridiculous, Captain,' said Morgan evenly. 'And very foolish.'
'You're under arrest,' said Hawk. 'Tell your people to lay down their weapons
and surrender.'
'Or?'
Hawk grinned. 'Believe me, Morgan, you don't want to know.'
'I'll have to speak to my sorcerer first.'
'Don't bother; he's dead.'
Morgan looked at him blankly, and then open terror rushed across his face.
'We've got to get out of here! If he's dead, this whole place could collapse at
any moment. It's only his magic that kept it stable!'
Hawk swore briefly. He knew real fear when he saw it. 'Tell your men to
surrender. Do it!'
Morgan started shouting orders, and all over the maze of planes and stairways
the fighting came to a halt. Hawk yelled orders to his men, and the Guards began
herding Morgan's people towards the dimensional portal. Hawk dragged Morgan
along himself, never once releasing his grip on the drug baron's robe. The
stairway began to sway and tremble under his feet. A nearby plane cracked across
from end to end. Streams of dust fell from somewhere high above. There were
creaks and groanings all around, and the wooden handrail turned to rot and mush
under Hawk's hand. Morgan began pleading with him to go faster. Mistique
appeared out of nowhere in a clattering of beads and bracelets and ran beside
them as they hurried towards the portal.
'So, you did get the little rat after all. Well done, darling.'
'I wish you wouldn't call me that in front of the men,' said Hawk. 'Can you use
your magic to hold this place together long enough for us all to get out?'
'I'm doing my best, darling, but it's not really my field. We should all make
it. If we're lucky.'
They reached the portal to find it bottlenecked by the last of Morgan's people.
The drug baron screamed at them to get out of the way, but Hawk held him back.
Guards encouraged the slow movers on their way with harsh language and the
occasional kick up the backside. The remaining stairways broke apart and
collapsed in a roar of cracking timber. The planes spun and twisted in midair,
fraying at the edges. Loose magic snapped on the air like disturbed static. The
last of Morgan's people went through, and Hawk and Morgan and Mistique followed
the Guards out.
The cold of the street hit Hawk like a blow, and his vision clouded briefly as
pain and fatigue caught up with him. He shook his head and pushed the tiredness
back. He didn't have time for it now. He handed Morgan over to two Constables,
along with dire threats of what he'd do to them if Morgan escaped, and looked
round for familiar faces. Fisher appeared out of nowhere, safe and more or less
sound. They compared wounds for a moment, and then hugged each other carefully.
Captain Burns came over to join them as they broke apart. He looked bloodied and
battered and just a little dazed.
'How many did we lose?' said Hawk.
Burns scowled. 'Five Constables, and Captain Doughty. Could have been worse, I
suppose. Though I won't tell Doughty's widow that. Did you get Morgan?'
'Yeah,' said Fisher. 'Hawk got him.'
And then there was a great crashing roar, and the whole tenement behind them
collapsed amid screams of rending stone and timber, and the death cries of the
hundreds of people trapped within. Flying fragments of stone and wood tore
through the air like shrapnel, and then a thick cloud of smoke billowed out to
fill the street from end to end.
Chapter Two
Going Down
Hawk pulled and tugged at a stubborn piece of rubble, and bit by bit it slid
aside. The stone's sharp edges tore at his gloves and the flesh beneath, but he
hardly felt the pain through the bitter cold and the creeping numbness of utter
exhaustion. He'd lost track of how long he and the others had been digging
through the wreckage, searching for survivors. It seemed ages since the
collapsing pocket dimension had pulled the whole tenement building down with it,
but the air was still thick with dust that choked the throat and irritated the
eye. There were still occasional screams or moans or pleas for help from people
trapped deep within the huge pile of broken stone and timber, which stretched
across the narrow street and lapped up against the opposite building.
Hawk supposed he should be grateful that only the one building had come down,
but he was too numb to feel much of anything now. He looked slowly about him as
he stopped for a brief rest. The adjoining buildings were slumped and stooped,
with jagged cracks in their walls, yet somehow holding together. The Guard had
evacuated them, just in case, and their occupants had willingly joined the dig
for survivors. Even in the Devil's Hook, people could sometimes be touched by
tragedy.
There was no telling how many might still be trapped under the debris. Slum
landlords didn't keep records on how many desperate people they squeezed into
each dingy little room. The Guard were trying to keep a count, but most of the
dead they dug out were too disfigured to be easily identified, and sometimes all
that could be found of the bodies were scattered bits and pieces. The rescuers
worked on, fired now and then from their exhaustion by the sudden appearance of
a living soul, pulled raw and bloodied from the darkness under the rubble.
Guards and prisoners worked side by side, along with people from the Hook, all
animosities forgotten in the driving need to save as many as they could.
Not that everyone had proved so openhearted. Morgan had flatly refused to lift
so much as a finger to help. Hawk was already half out of his mind with concern
