Burned (35 page)

Luna was going to try. She was searching, probing … I frowned. Something was disrupting the futures in which I watched Luna. My phone was ringing, and I was drawn towards the futures in which I answered. Annoyed, I pulled out the phone. I’d set it to mute, and it was vibrating silently. The number displayed on the screen was an unknown one; I hit the answer button and put it to my ear, turning slightly away. ‘Landis?’ I said quietly. ‘This isn’t a great time.’

‘Are you at Canary Wharf?’

‘Yes.’

‘Get out. Now.’

‘What do you—?’

‘Pay very close attention to what I am about to tell you.’ Sometimes Landis can seem scatterbrained, but there was no trace of that now. His voice was clipped and precise. ‘An order has come down from the Council for your arrest. Keepers are on their way to bring you in. They’re probably already in the building.’

‘What— Why?’

‘The charge is irrelevant. It’s a pretext to keep you contained until the proposal goes through.’

‘What if it doesn’t?’

‘I’ve just been told that the voting is closed. There won’t be any more votes against. Come tomorrow, the proposal for your execution is going to pass on schedule.’ Landis paused. ‘You’ve been set up, Alex.’

Everything was happening too fast. ‘Where are you?’

‘I’m on my way to find Variam and Anne. I’ll do what I can. For your part, you need to run, right now. Good luck.’ There was a click and the line went dead.

I lowered the phone, staring. Off to my left, the other people in the viewing gallery were still talking. Sonder was looking at me curiously; he’d only heard my half of the conversation. ‘What’s going on?’

I didn’t answer. In my head, futures forked. There were three exits from the viewing gallery and I looked into the futures in which I left by all three, following each route simultaneously. Nothing, nothing … then my future self going back along the route by which I’d entered ran into trouble. Two Keepers. The future broke up into shards of confrontation and violence; they weren’t going to let me past. The other two routes were safe. I took one step towards the far end of the gallery … and stopped.

Down below, Luna was still on the ballroom floor. As I watched, she took a cautious step out into the arena. The tendrils swept towards her and she moved quickly back, letting them skate past the boundary just in front of her. She shot a glance at Celia next to her, then took a visible breath and set herself, obviously getting ready.

For one brief, dizzying moment, I felt as though I wasn’t seeing Luna as she was now, but in all the time I’d known her. The first day she’d walked into my shop. Leaning in to break me free from the fateweaver. Her apprenticeship ceremony, standing in her white and green robes, swearing to serve and follow me. Trying on outfits in Arachne’s cave, laughing and joking, arguing with Variam. All of it had brought her here, and I wanted to be there for it. To help her, to watch her, to make sure she’d be okay. The Keepers were a couple of minutes out …

‘Alex?’ Sonder said. ‘Are you okay?’

I let out a rough, ragged breath, and turned away. It felt like tearing a scab off a wound. I had one last glimpse of Luna reaching out for Celia, then I was away, walking, not daring to look up. ‘Alex!’ Sonder called as I went through the door at the far end.

I strode down the corridors, walking, not running. I knew that Luna was in the ballroom just to my side, and I wanted to get to her before the Keepers could … except that if I came charging in trying to rescue her, it’d disrupt the test and start off a brawl we couldn’t win. Light mages take these kinds of formal tests seriously; they wouldn’t let anyone else in without direct Council orders. But they wouldn’t want to let the Keepers in either. If they held the Keepers out for long enough for Luna to finish … it was a horrible risk, but it was the only way out I could see, especially if the Keepers were too busy chasing me to go after Luna as well. Lots of things that could go wrong, not many choices, and not enough time to make them. I kept moving.

As I walked I mapped out the future paths in my head, looking for ways out. It didn’t look good. There weren’t many Keepers in the building, at least not yet, but they had the lifts I’d entered by blocked off. There were more lifts at the other end of the building—

A voice called from behind me. ‘Alex! Wait!’

I closed my eyes briefly and kept walking. Sonder hurried to catch up with me. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Sonder, this is not a good time.’
Damn it.
The futures of conflict had just started multiplying, and they were coming from paths that had been clear before. The Keepers had started alerting everyone else. Now I needed to avoid all the security personnel, not just the ones that Keepers had brought with them. I changed course, turning down a side corridor just in time to avoid a patrol heading the other way.

‘I just saw a couple of Keepers go past,’ Sonder said. ‘They’re Order of the Star, I think. Who are they looking for?’

‘Who do you think?’ Now all the ways out from the floor were blocked. I could double back and hide … no, bad idea. Once the Keepers figured out that I was boxed in, they’d track me down in minutes. There was a lift up to the roof with only one person guarding it. It wouldn’t get me any closer to ground level, but it would give me options. I changed direction again, going through a pair of fire doors.

The doors opened into a corner room. Ahead and to the right, windows looked out on to the London skyline, and in the corner was a lift made of glass. A security man was standing in front of it, one hand to his ear as he listened to something coming through on the radio. He looked in our direction, did a double take and said something into a microphone.
Shit.
I walked towards him, not looking in his direction.

‘Why?’ Sonder said. ‘The test’s still going on.’

‘I know.’ We were halfway to the lift. I kept my head turned towards Sonder, ignoring the security guard.

‘Look, I think we should go back,’ Sonder said. ‘The Keepers—’

The security guard stepped in front of me, blocking our way. I kept walking as though I hadn’t seen him, and he held up his hand to block me. ‘Sir, could you—’

I slid around the man’s arm and struck, hands and feet flashing, ending the fight before the other man realised that it had started. He hit the floor with a thud.

Sonder stopped dead. I stepped over the guard as he lay dazed and walked into the lift. ‘Sorry, Sonder,’ I said. I gave him a smile without much humour in it. ‘Looks like you won’t be going with me this time.’

Sonder stared at me. ‘What?’

‘Just tell the Keepers the truth when they catch you up,’ I said. I reached for the controls, then paused. ‘It was good working with you again.’ I pressed the button for the roof and the lift doors hissed closed. Through the glass, I had one last image of Sonder’s face, looking totally bewildered, then he was gone.

The lifts that serve the top floors at Canary Wharf are much slower than the ones that link the office floors below. If you’re not in a hurry, it’s a relaxing way to enjoy a view of the London skyline. In my current state of mind, the slow pace wasn’t relaxing, it was agonising. I pulled out my phone and dialled Variam’s number, then waited as it rang, staring out at the London cityscape without seeing a single bit of it.

Variam picked up. ‘Vari,’ I said. ‘You need to—’

‘Where are you?’ Variam cut in. ‘Where’s Luna?’

‘Canary Wharf, she’s in the middle of her test.’

‘You have to get her to finish it. Do whatever it takes. There’s no time to explain, there’s—’

‘I know, I’m doing what I can. Where are you?’

‘Never mind where I am. Listen, I just came from the programme office. It’s a set-up, they were never going to follow through on it.’

‘On what? Wait— The transfer didn’t go through? They didn’t let Landis take over your—?’

‘They transferred mine,’ Variam said grimly. ‘Not Anne’s. They were going to keep it secret until the last minute. There are Keepers going to arrest her right now.’

‘Shit.’ Everything was spinning out of control. ‘Okay, you have to—’

‘I know what I have to do. I’m going to Anne’s flat and making sure she gets out safe, and if the Keepers get in my way, I’m going to kick their arse.’

‘Vari, no! Then
you’re
going to be under arrest too!’

‘Don’t care. Just get out, there are Keepers coming for you too.’

‘I know about that! You need to—!’

‘Got to go. Make sure Luna finishes that test.’ Vari hung up.

I swore and dialled him back. It rang and kept on ringing. I stared out over the London skyline as the lift reached the roof and the doors hissed quietly open, letting in a gust of cold air.

The pyramid at the top of Canary Wharf doesn’t reach all the way to the walls of the building, though you’d have to look closely to notice. Instead there’s a ledge that goes all the way around the pyramid’s base, creating a balcony walkway high up in the sky. There’s a transparent barrier around the edge, but you can pretty much look over and take in the whole view, which apart from a couple of ledges mostly consists of a seven-hundred-feet-and-change vertical drop to solid concrete. It’s just as well I’m not scared of heights.

Unfortunately, right now I had bigger problems. There was someone else on the roof, and from a glance through the futures I already knew who it was. I looked quickly at the possibilities of reaching one of the other lifts and dismissed them; in the time it would take for the lift to reach roof level, they’d catch up with me. Jumping back into the lift I’d arrived on would just leave me in the same position as before. I wasn’t visible yet – the Keeper on the rooftop was on the other side of the pyramid – but she’d come into view in seconds.

When you can’t run or evade, you might as well let your pursuer come to you. I dialled Anne’s number on my phone and put it to my ear just a figure appeared around the corner of the pyramid in front of me. The phone rang and rang again. Wind tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me off the ledge and send me falling to the streets below. The phone went to voicemail. I hung up, then turned to the figure approaching me. ‘Be with you in a second.’ I redialled and tried again.

Caldera came to a stop about twenty feet away. The pyramid of Canary Wharf was to her right, the sheer drop to the street below to her left. She folded her arms, looking at me.

I listened to the phone as it rang, searching through the futures. Nothing, nothing – wait, was she going to pick up? Maybe, but it was gone. No answer.
Shit.
I hung up and turned to Caldera. ‘This isn’t really the best time.’

‘What happened to the guy guarding the lift?’ Caldera asked.

‘He’ll have a couple of bruises when he wakes up.’

Caldera shook her head. ‘Couldn’t do this the easy way, could you?’

‘I could say the same to you.’ I studied Caldera. ‘You know, when you made that crack about how if the Council ordered my arrest you’d do it, I’d kind of hoped you were kidding.’

Caldera didn’t react, at least not visibly. The wind blew across the two of us, ruffling Caldera’s short brown hair. Her expression was unreadable: a cop’s face. Caldera used to wear that expression a lot when she looked at me, but over the past year, I’d become used to seeing her relaxed and smiling. She wasn’t smiling now.

‘The Council want you to come in,’ Caldera said.

‘Yeah, I’ll bet they do. What’s the charge?’

‘You’re not being charged.’

‘Really?’ I said. ‘So if I try and walk past you to that lift, you’re not going to stop me?’

Caldera didn’t reply. It didn’t matter – I already knew what the answer was. ‘They want to ask you some questions about the op.’

‘Oh? That’s funny, because they already did that. All of us, actually. At the debriefing. But you were there, weren’t you? Including the part where they said that we were free to go.’

Caldera sighed. ‘Don’t make this any harder than it has to be, all right? They want to talk to you, and they’re not asking. Let’s just go down nice and peaceful and work things out.’

‘You know, it’s the strangest thing,’ I said. ‘I have the funny feeling that once I’m in Keeper HQ, they’re going to want to keep me there. At least until, oh, say, six o’clock tomorrow evening. Don’t you get that feeling? Kind of like clairvoyance?’

‘I have no clue.’

‘I do,’ I said sharply. ‘You think I didn’t see this coming? Levistus wants me dead.’

‘It doesn’t matter what he wants,’ Caldera said. ‘Levistus doesn’t run the Keepers.’

‘The Council does!’

‘Look, Alex,’ Caldera said. ‘Stop with the voice in the wilderness shit, all right? You’ve got people you know with the Keepers and with the Council. Me, Landis, Rain, a bunch of others. They want to pass an execution order against you? Then we’ll fight it. But they’re not going to listen to you unless you’re working with the system. You run, you’re just proving them right.’

‘You haven’t been keeping up,’ I said. ‘They don’t want to pass an execution order. They’ve already done it. Tomorrow at six, it goes public. Are you going to carry it out?’

‘No.’

‘But you’re fine with arresting me so someone else can?’ I shook my head. I was letting myself get distracted. While Caldera kept me talking, other lifts were on their way up with reinforcements. ‘I’m guessing you’re not planning to let me go.’

‘Not an option, all right?’ Caldera said. ‘Look, Alex, there’s a full Keeper team here already. The building was sealed off twenty minutes ago, and you can’t fly. The only way you’re leaving this roof is with me.’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ I said lightly. I slid my hand into my pocket as I spoke. ‘Everyone can fly. Just not for very long.’

Caldera caught the motion. Her stance shifted, and her voice took on a warning note. ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’

‘Like what? Go down with you into custody of an organisation that’s about to have me killed?’

‘You need to—’

Behind Caldera, one of the lifts climbed into view. ‘Sorry, Caldera,’ I said. ‘Got to go.’

Caldera lunged, but she wasn’t close enough. I got my foot on the railing and leaped into space.