Once it was gone, an oppressive silence fell across the group. They were standing in an empty lot in the warehouse district, surrounded by old buildings with peeling paint and gaping windows.
"Just once I'd like to battle someone in a five star hotel," muttered Harriet.
Timms smiled at her. "You get used to it, dear. Anyway, you can't run a criminal organisation from a luxury penthouse. Just think of all those people coming and going with their weapons. No, if you want to track down the really nasty people, I'm afraid you have to dig around in the sewers."
"Hopefully it won't come to that," said Harriet. "I've only got the one uniform."
The others gathered round, and she looked around the group. They looked tired, and none of them had eaten breakfast. It wasn't the best time for an attack, but Harriet hoped they could take Darting by surprise. There would be time for coffee, eggs and bacon afterwards. "We'll head towards the warehouse, and when we get closer I want you to keep out of sight. There might be three or four people, or there might be a hundred, and until we find out I want to keep a very low profile. No heroics, understood?"
"Aren't we going to wait for the others?" asked Caldavir.
"No, they're going to hold the station."
Caldavir opened his mouth to protest, but Harriet raised her hand to silence him. "I've already gone through this with Alice and Dave. They're holding the station, and that's final. Now, let's move out, but keep an eye out for sentries. They might have people up on the rooftops."
The others nodded, and the group set off. If it wasn't for the weapons in their hands, people might have thought it was some kind of retirement home outing.
"At least we're not sitting around waiting for attacks," said Caldavir, as they strolled along in the morning sunshine. "I just hope the others are all right. Splitting the group like this … it could end badly."
"Alice will bring them back if it gets too hot." Harriet checked her crossbow as she walked along, ensuring the bolt was seated against the string. As they got closer to their destination she scanned the rooftops, but she didn't really expect to see anyone. As far as Darting was concerned, Harriet and the Peace Force were holed up in the station, and she wouldn't waste her people on sentry duty.
Harriet was still hoping Darting had sent the bulk of her people to the station. The group she'd seen gathering in the street just after dawn had certainly been the largest Harriet had seen so far, and if Darting really had gambled everything on one final, overwhelming attack, then the next ten or twenty minutes could turn out to be a walk in the park.
They reached the end of the street and turned left. "Keep your voices down," said Harriet, as they crossed the street diagonally. Several cabs passed by, ferrying workers to the city centre, and Harriet caught a couple of startled glances as the occupants spotted the group with their crossbows. They looked even more surprised to see her Peace Force uniform, and she realised someone might call the Residents' Association. If Foster learned of their whereabouts, she might report it to Darting. "Let's get off the street," she told the others. "And try and keep your weapons out of sight."
"What do you want me to do, stick the crossbow up my jumper?" demanded Caldavir waspishly.
Harriet was about to tell him exactly where to stick it, but by then they'd reached the end of the block, and she waved the others to a halt. Cautiously, she peered round the corner, and she saw the target about halfway down the street. It was a shopping mall, abandoned, the sign above the doors faded by the sun. Outside, there were half a dozen burnt-out cars in the car park, thanks to Alice's little bombing run a couple of days earlier. Harriet watched closely, sensitive to the slightest movement, but the place looked deserted.
"Are you all ready for this?" she asked. "We can still walk away."
"Forget it," said Flint gruffly. "I owe them one for running Scrap over."
"And I'm not slinking away from this fight," said Timms.
Moira cocked her crossbow. "I didn't spend half the night making these for nothing."
Harriet nodded. She didn't think they'd back down now, but it was good to know they were onside. She just hoped they were this keen when the shooting began.
— ♦ —
Birch squinted through the rough porthole cut into the wooden barricade, his crossbow at the ready. He'd fired a couple of bolts into one of the parked vans down the road, and for some reason the shattering glass had made the enemy reluctant to attack. It wasn't any wonder, since his weapon was twice as accurate as theirs, and while he was hidden, they'd have to advance in plain sight.
At first, both of them had kept up a steady fire with the blasters, moving from one porthole to another to make it look like there were half a dozen people defending the Peace Force building. Unfortunately, the charge had run out quickly, and now they had to rely on the crossbows.
There was a chack as Ben fired a bolt through his porthole, and another van window exploded in a shower of glass. There was a second shower of glass as the bolt went right through the vehicle and took out the window on the opposite side. Then a third window shattered, this time a big pane of glass in the building on the far side of the street.
"These things are powerful, aren't they?" remarked Birch.
Ben grinned at him. "They'd be mad to attack."
"You'd think so, but this peace and quiet won't last forever."
In actual fact, it didn't last long at all. A figure burst from the back of a parked van, and
