‘I’ll tell you what, Jae, let’s meet up and talk. You can tell me all about your little cult. We’ll even have coffee, if you promise not to spike my drink.’
I didn’t even need a reaction from her. The wide-eyed look on Lasky’s face was enough. The Jackal gave a silent, mirthless scoff. I could hear that I’d made her reassess me and felt a moment of triumph.
‘Very clever, Vakov. Very clever. You know, that blubbering Bulkava was right. You really do look like your brother.’
The smile melted back from my face. ‘Wait—’ But she was gone. The door crunched open and Hideko and Simmons filed in. They exchanged nods with Lasky and the Jackal, loosely steepling their fingers before bringing the tips to their own foreheads, muttering something inaudible. Had to be their cult’s greeting.
Hideko looked at Lasky’s fresh bruises. ‘What’s going on here?’ she asked the Jackal.
‘Nothing,’ he said calmly. He glanced blankly at Lasky, daring him to respond. Lasky didn’t rise to the bait and looked away. That slap wasn’t a fit of rage. It was to remind Lasky, without saying it aloud, who really had control around here, who was really watching, daring you to speak out about him. Using manipulation and fear to control which people saw him the way he wanted to be seen, until he had power over them.
Guess how I knew what it was like to live with someone like that.
Hideko frowned, but turned and tapped something on the control panel. The gravfix abruptly shut out. I fell to the concrete floor, hard. Before I could react, my head was slammed into the ground and my arms twisted behind me, shackles snapped tight around my wrists. Hideko hauled me to my feet by my hair with an arm locked around my neck. A secondary door, disturbingly fleshy, opened like a ribcage spread open for surgey. I was pushed through and into dim, throat-like corridors stinking of mould and unwashed bodies. I heard screaming in the distance, an echo of what I was feeling. Jae picked Aras up after Grim and I questioned him. I had no doubt her men had twisted everything possible out of the little alien, and then killed him.
What would Jae do to Artyom? Did she know about Grim and Kowalski as well? Were they already dead? I had to get out of here. Contact Harmony. Somehow. Now I knew who they were, they weren’t about to let me go.
The smarting pain in my eye returned. The walls seemed to be sliding together, crushing me between them. Nausea rushed over me in a sickening wave and only fear kept me from puking. The Jackal must have almost taken my eye out. I blinked hard, my bare feet scraping concrete as I was marched into smoky darkness. ‘I bet you’re thinking about how to escape.’ The Jackal’s voice sounded hollow and thick in the murky tunnel. ‘Even now, you’re probably testing those cuffs. Gauging how long it’ll take you to break out of them. Lining up which one of us is the weakest, which ones you should take out first before making a break for it. You’re thinking of ripping out my throat with your teeth at this very moment. Am I on the right track?’
I didn’t have anything to say that wouldn’t get my head smashed against the wall.
‘Of course you are. I know how you Reapers think. I’ve seen it before. No shame in it. It’s in your nature. In your blood.’ I could swear there was a shred of admiration in the Jackal’s voice. ‘You don’t blame a wolf for hunting its prey down, ripping the screaming creature into little pieces while it’s still alive, and feasting. That’s what you Reapers are. Hunters. Predators.’ He clapped me hard between my shoulder blades and my muscles tightened with instinctive fury as I imagined breaking every bone in his body. But I’d given him the reaction he wanted. At that moment I hated my body for caving into him so easily, showing what he wanted to see. ‘Don’t worry. We’re going to give you the chance to do exactly what you’re made for, Reaper.’
I heard a staccato cheer echo through the stone. The stormtech sparked down my arms, my hairs standing up like bristles, realisation and dread taking root in my gut.
The Jackal noticed. ‘Yes. You’re a creature of the battlefields. You’ve got a living weapon inside you, after all. Such a waste of your talents to leave them behind, running away and forgetting who you are. Just as well you’ve got us to dump you exactly where you belong.’ He clapped me hard on the back again. The little bastard enjoyed playing with his food. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll be fair. You want your freedom? To earn it, you’ll have to do what you do best. You’ll have it fight for it.’
We were in the Pits.
Another fleshy door cracked open to reveal a filthy overlook concealed by one-way chainglass, splattered with flecks of blood. People had tried to kill each other in the waiting room. I was suddenly shoved to my knees, Lasky wrapping his arms around me from behind to lock me in place, Hideko holding my jaw upwards. I growled and bucked against the net of arms. I’d been without armour and the reassuring brush of its bristles and tendrils for hours now, the dread heightening my body’s irritation. I felt horribly exposed, hating the feeling of being touched, violated, by these people.
I saw what the Jackal was holding and a glacier shattered inside my chest, pouring a fury of frozen water through my body.
He loomed over me like an enemy warship in orbit. ‘You’ve probably forgotten what’s it’s like to fight tooth and claw for your life. All that rehab, suppressors; they tamed you. Well, we’re going to fix that, right here
