Gardener snatched a towel from the side and threw it at him. 'Do your best.' There was so much repressed anger in his voice that Warwick's annoyed reaction was frozen. 'From now on, we're all mucking in. Pulling together. We'll do what's expected of us. So get on with it.'
Brooding, he stalked out of the room. Miller shifted uncomfortably. 'Go on,' Mallory said to him. 'You don't have to hang around if you don't want to.'
Miller forced a smile from his tear-streaked face and hurried after Gardener. Mallory and Daniels took up seats in the corner of the room while Warwick brought over a stainless-steel tray of instruments. After that, he called for his assistant, an old man with long white hair who, from his trembling hands, had overheard the news. He prepared to take notes with a precious Biro.
Warwick worked diligently, cutting and probing, occasionally cursing under his breath. His white gown quickly became stained.
'The first patient he's had who never complained,' Daniels whispered behind his hand to Mallory.
As the time dragged on, Mallory's attention wandered. 'Heard any news on your radio?' he said to Warwick.
Warwick's lips tightened and his eyes flickered towards his assistant. 'I haven't got a radio.'
'OK, heard any news from people passing through the infirmary,' Mallory said pointedly.
'I have.' Warwick gingerly held a pair of spring-loaded shears before attacking Cornelius's ribcage. 'Still no news from abroad. But there has been… talk… of a Government being established in Oxford.'
Daniels grew alert. 'The PM survived, then?'
'I don't know who's in the Government, just that a Government is being set up,' Warwick said irritably. 'There'll be some kind of order established within six months, so they say. The first aim is to get communications up and running, including food distribution, particularly to urban areas-'
'I can't believe anyone's crazy enough to stay in the cities,' Mallory said. 'What are they going to eat? They must have looted everything they can get their hands on by now.'
'-and then they're hoping to get some kind of local power sources up and running, if they can,' Warwick continued.
'How are they going to do that?' Daniels said. 'I heard all the nuclear power stations had gone… wiped out somehow. There can't be any kind of oil or gas supplies-'
'I'm only reporting what I heard,' Warwick snapped.
Daniels clapped his hands. 'Things could be getting back to normal,' he said enthusiastically.
'Whoop-de-doo.' Mallory remained unmoved.
'What's wrong with you?'
'Don't you remember what it was like? Work, money, power-seeking, mundanity, no time for anyone to live or breathe
'You need to lighten up, Mallory. It was never as bad as all that.'
'Yes, it was — you just get numb to it. You sink down into it, like a swamp, and forget there's fresh air above. The clock has been set back at zero, Daniels — it's a chance finally to get things right. It doesn't mean we have to take on board all the shit to get the good stuff back, but that's the way it's going to be if the same old people end up in charge again. They've got a vested interest in the society we had before. It made them fat and rich and powerful.'
'You know what you are Mallory — an anarchist.'
'You say that as though it's a bad thing.'
'If you two have completed your irrelevant navel-gazing, I've finished here.' Warwick covered the body with a little more reverence than he had shown before.
'What did you find?' Daniels asked.
'It's inconclusive.'
'That's all you can say after all that?'
'He's been torn apart with such frenzy it's impossible to tell what weapon was used. It could just as easily have been a wild animal, if there were any indigenous species that could attack with this ferocity.'
Daniels looked to Mallory. 'So we've got someone in here who's such a mess in the head we can't tell if he's a man or an animal?'
'Now see what happens when you take red meat out of the diet.' Mallory had a sudden overview of the whole situation that left him cold. 'So we've got all those things outside the walls trapping us in here, and now we've got this psycho inside with us. I can think of a lot of cliches to describe our situation, but they all involve dumb animals being eaten up by smarter, wilder ones.'
Daniels stared blankly into the middle-distance. 'What are we going to do now?'
The great hall had the uneasy atmosphere that permeated all the new buildings, but it was made even worse by the spiralling desperation and anxiety in the wake of Cornelius's murder. The vast expanse was filled with clustering shadows not even a row of blazing torches could dispel. The furthest the illumination reached was a row of hideous oversized gargoyles halfway up the wall. Whoever had designed them had made it seem as though they were looking down on those assembled below either disapprovingly or threateningly, depending on your perspective.
The knights stood in two ranks. Most shuffled and muttered apprehensively at what might now lie ahead for them. The Blues, though, were silent and disciplined, eyes fixed firmly ahead as if on parade. Mallory watched them with the wariness of a competing species. They were too professional, too far removed from the other knights; and probably too ruthless and violent as well, if Blaine had truly cast them in his own image. Why had he seen fit to create an elite force of knights? Why not simply train all knights to the same standard? And why were they so rarely seen around the cathedral? What special project did Blaine have them working on? The more he understood the hierarchies and powers within the cathedral, the more suspicious he became of them on every level.
Blaine marched in after they had been assembled for twenty minutes. He was accompanied by Hipgrave, who had managed to shake off some of the daze that had characterised him earlier, and the captain of the Blues, a muscular, square-jawed thirty-year-old by the name of Roeser.
Blaine didn't waste time getting to the crux of the matter. 'You'll all have heard the news by now. The bishop is dead… murdered… perpetrator unknown. Others are dealing with the leadership fallout of such a great loss at such a difficult time. Our role in this is clearly defined and we must be single-minded about its execution, despite the many obvious distractions the days ahead must hold. Although security has been foremost in our minds ever since we established ourselves here in Salisbury, our defences have still been compromised. I will be launching an immediate inquiry to discover exactly what went wrong, and if there have been any lapses in the responsibilities of individuals, make no mistake, they will be severely punished.
'But the most pressing concern is to ensure that whoever carried out this atrocity is caught and brought to immediate justice before he can commit any further crimes. This will naturally entail some short-term loss of personal freedom. Some movement around the compound will be restricted. Premises and possessions may be searched and confiscated. There will undoubtedly be detailed questioning and cross-questioning. Patrols will have to be stepped up.' He paused. 'The use of lethal force will be approved. The safety of the brethren is our overarching concern. Unfortunately, that means we may have to take actions that go against our nature, but we make these sacrifices as Christians, for the benefit of others. It is our job sometimes to do unpleasant things so the brethren do not have to. That is the cross we bear.
'All of you are security-minded and will understand the necessity of these measures to prevent any more acts of unadulterated Evil. In this role, we will need to be seen to be acting with the utmost rigour and decorum. Anyone who lets the side down will not want to live, believe me. Captains Hipgrave and Roeser will oversee your allocation into effective units with particular responsibilities. A more structured shift-pattern will be drawn up to accommodate these changes. One other thing: we shall be working alongside the Inquisition of Heretical Depravity and your full co-operation will be required.' He nodded curtly and exited. It was a well-rehearsed speech that Mallory found quite chilling, the more so for its modulated language.
'He's left Hipgrave in charge? Blaine's crazy,' Daniels whispered. 'Look at him — he's falling apart. I wouldn't let Hipgrave oversee a Sunday school.'
'I don't like the sound of any of this,' Mallory said.
'Why not?' Gardener said sullenly. 'It's necessary.'
'Is it? Sounds to me like an over-reaction. Or a chance for people who love control and discipline to seize
