Furnace 4 - Fugitives (17 page)

PMCs

They’d cuffed me before I even knew what was going on, cold steel against my wrists, my right arm swollen so much that the clasp almost didn’t click shut. I felt a boot connect with my leg, sending me crashing down onto my knees, then the unmistakable metal ring of a gun barrel against my neck, pushing my forehead against the huge front wheel of the truck. That’s all it took, a second or two, and they had me again, their smoky laughter rumbling across the roof of the car park as if this building too was gripped by an inferno.

‘Hey, what do you think you’re doing?’ Captain Atilio appeared from behind the bonnet, one finger pointing at the blacksuit above me. ‘Let him go, you’ve got no authority to—’

‘It’s them!’ I heard Zee yelling from inside, banging on the tiny window. ‘Captain, these are the men responsible.’

‘You shut it too, kid,’ Atilio snapped. ‘I want quiet. You, I need your name and rank, and I need to see your commanding officer right now.’

The truck had seen better days, but I could still make
out some of the scene behind me reflected in the hubcap. There were at least half a dozen figures there. I wanted to believe that it was the battered metal which distorted the men, that they weren’t really Goliaths of muscle, their silver eyes glowing in the sun. But I knew Furnace’s soldiers when I saw them, when I heard them.

The only difference between this lot and the guards back in the prison was that some of these wore red armbands over their suit jackets, a white circle and a black motif emblazoned there. I studied the blurred reflection, realising after a moment that it was the Furnace logo, three circles joined by a triangle of lines.

‘We’ve got all the authority we need,’ growled the one who had me pinned to the door. He wasn’t wearing an armband. ‘These are escaped convicts, property of Furnace Penitentiary. You want to see paperwork then we’ve got buckets of it over in the tower.’ I heard the focus of his voice change. ‘You, get them all in cuffs, and call Warden Cross, let him know who’s back.’

Just the sound of the warden’s name made my stomach churn, and with it came the nectar, called into action by my pounding heart. A dark flower began to bloom over my vision, reality peeling away like dead skin, exposing nothing but raw nerves beneath. The blacksuit must have sensed something because the pressure on the back of my head grew stronger, the metal door pinging as my head was pushed into it.

Somewhere behind me I heard the bleep of a radio, a blacksuit speaking into it too quietly for me to make out his words.

‘Captain Atilio, please,’ Zee’s voice again. ‘Don’t listen to them. They’re responsible for all this. They’re the ones who’re trying to take over the city. Please, don’t leave us here.’

Another couple of blacksuits approached and I heard scuffling from inside the truck, shouts and screams and swear words all blasted out in one indecipherable chorus. Gradually each voice became clearer as Simon, Zee and Lucy were pulled into the daylight, squirming powerlessly against the mammoth fists that held them.

The car door slammed shut and I felt somebody grab my legs. I was pulled flat onto my face, more cuffs fastened around my feet, then yanked back and chained to those around my wrists. I fought against it but even with the rage building inside me, the nectar flowing to my muscles, I couldn’t budge my restraints. All I could do was wriggle onto my back, my hands and feet pinned painfully beneath me as I rested my head against the wheel. At least I could see what was going on now.

‘Listen, I don’t care if these kids are prisoners or civilians,’ Atilio shouted, marching up to the first blacksuit and staring him right in the eye, even though her head only came up to his chest. Then she actually prodded him, which made me respect her just about more than anyone else I’d ever met. ‘You’ve got no right to throw them about like this. I was going to leave them with you, because I thought we had bigger fish to fry. But I’m taking them with me.’

She turned to the semicircle of blacksuits that had
formed around us – the ones on the outside were all wearing armbands, but those closest to me weren’t – pointing in turn at the ones who held my friends.

‘I’m ordering you to let these kids go.’

Nobody moved, just another purr of laughter spilled from a dozen pairs of grinning lips. The sound made me want to puke, flooding my head with memories – the night I was caught, when the blacksuits shot Toby, the countless times they had threatened us in Furnace, and my own soulless laughter when I had nearly, so very nearly, become one of them.

‘Captain,’ I started, wanting to warn her, wanting to tell her to get out of here before it turned nasty. But my words were choked off by a hammer of a fist which slammed into my jaw. Black stars burst into supernovas, plunging the car park into a flash of night. That darkness pulsed out of my eyes into my head, the nectar pleading to be given control.
Let me loose and we can kill them
, it seemed to say, each word knocking a little more of my sanity away.
We can kill them all
. I shook my head, silently screaming the words away. I couldn’t lose myself to it, not again.

‘That’s enough!’ I heard Atilio shout, and by the time my vision had cleared I noticed she had her pistol out, swinging it back and forth between the blacksuits. There was a rattle from the truck and I hoped that Roke was up there. Berserkers might be bulletproof, but blacksuits wouldn’t last long against a cannon loaded with armour-piercing rounds. ‘Kids, just get back inside the truck. Roke, if any one of these creepy PMC mothers so much
as puts a finger in the way then you know what to do.’

The first blacksuit, the one who had cuffed me, turned to the guard who was on the radio, waiting for something. It came seconds later in the form of a nod.

‘Captain,’ said the blacksuit, turning back to Atilio, still grinning insanely. ‘I’m afraid we can’t let you do that.’

There was movement at the back of the car park, where a couple of black vans had been parked. The glare of the sun off their chrome trim was too bright to make out exactly what was going on, but I thought I heard a throbbing snarl rise up from inside as two blacksuits broke free from the pack and walked that way.

‘Hey, stop right there,’ Atilio yelled at them. ‘Don’t think I won’t shoot you in the back, Merc.’ When they ignored her she turned back to the first. ‘You’re gonna be neck deep in crap when my XO finds out about this. Now I’m gonna give you one last chance. Let the kids go. I don’t care who they belong to, chump, right now they’re coming with me.’

‘Oh, it’s not about who they belong to,’ said the blacksuit, his teeth and eyes glinting. ‘It’s about what they know.’

‘What they know?’ Atilio said, and for the first time I saw her gun waver. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Don’t you dare,’ said another guard, this one wearing an armband. He took a step closer, raising a finger towards the blacksuit who’d been talking. ‘You shut your mouth.’

The first blacksuit ignored him. At the far end of the
car park the two men were wrestling with the van doors, but I knew they weren’t responsible for the way the vehicles rocked on their wheels.

‘It means they are right, Captain,’ the blacksuit hissed through his smile. ‘We are responsible for what’s going on, we are taking—’

Atilio didn’t so much as pause. She squeezed the trigger and the blacksuit stumbled back, his expression one of surprise, his hand held to his chest and the round hole that had been punched through his shirt. She loosed another two rounds, one hitting less than a centimetre away from the first, the second catching the suit in the forehead. His head snapped back and he flopped to the ground, twitching.

I couldn’t keep track of what happened next, it was too quick. Another of the blacksuits lifted a shotgun and fired, Atilio either rolling out of the way or sent flying by the shot. Simon butted the back of his head into the face of the blacksuit behind him, bringing his hands around like a club to try and finish him off but missing and tipping earthwards like a felled tree. Roke opened fire with the cannon, his aim wild, tearing over everybody’s head, and all the time I heard him shouting:

‘Jesus, what are they?
What the hell are they?
’

Four shapes were bounding across the car park, teeth like broken glass, their skinless bodies almost glowing red and blue in the fierce sunlight. And those eyes, like two silver pennies, promising nothing but pain.

‘Dogs!’ I found myself screaming as the warden’s pets
charged, so much saliva floating from their jaws that they could have been running through surf. My fear suddenly turned to downright panic and I squirmed against my chains, feeling them cut through my skin as I tugged at the metal.

Roke must have recovered his composure because the trail of fire cut down past two blacksuits and caused the lead dog to flip over in an explosion of blood. But the other three were on him in a heartbeat, pouncing over the blacksuits and me before landing on the truck so fast and so hard that it was shunted over the concrete. He had time for one scream, so utterly desperate that it didn’t sound human, then there was nothing but the horrifying sound of tearing flesh.

They’d come after me next, and it was that thought that spurred me on. I gritted my teeth, pulling on my restraints with everything I had. The cuffs were strong, designed for people with my strength. But the chain that linked my arms to my feet obviously wasn’t. I could feel it stretch behind my back, then with a ping one of the links snapped. I eased my cuffed hands under my feet then pushed myself up, black veins still pulsing behind my eyes.

‘Get him,’ boomed one of the suits, pointing at me.

Two blacksuits threw themselves at me, but one flew back before he could make contact, a perfect circle punched into his forehead. I snapped round to see Captain Atilio lying in a puddle of blood beside the truck’s bonnet, her face contorted with pain as she squeezed off the last few rounds from her pistol. She missed the
second suit but she got his attention long enough for me to attack.

I squatted down then launched myself, wrapping my cuffed hands around his neck and pulling him towards me, using my momentum to bring my forehead down on his nose. He dropped to the floor, squirming. I couldn’t keep my balance, making use of my fall to angle my knee down on his neck. There was an almighty crack, then he lay still.

Atilio was up, even as the rest of the blacksuits opened fire. She ducked behind the bonnet and ran to the passenger door, diving inside. I saw her hand pull the radio from its rack. One of the blacksuits moved to stop her, sliding round the truck so fast he was nothing but a smudge of black against the sun. But he wasn’t quick enough.

‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Under attack by PMCs on Pear Street Car Park. Repeat, PMCs are hostile. Mayday, May—’

Atilio’s voice fell silent, replaced by radio static. I felt arms on me, a blacksuit hoisting me up to my feet and adding a punch to the gut for good measure. When my eyes had stopped watering I saw that Simon had been rounded up too, Zee and Lucy held tight by their throats. Two of the dogs were still feasting on the remains of Roke, their bloodied muzzles rising up every now and again to sniff the air. The third had found its way inside the truck, howling through a wet throat. One last heartbreaking shot echoed from inside the cab, followed by Atilio’s final, indecipherable words, then quiet.

The guards that Atilio had shot weren’t going anywhere, and neither was the one whose neck I’d snapped. Only one of the downed blacksuits was struggling up, and he and the rest were glaring at me, the smiles wiped from their faces. I flashed them a grin, charged by nectar. They should have learned not to underestimate me back in the prison.

‘What now?’ I said to them. ‘You can’t kill me. Your boss needs me alive.’

Those blacksuits who weren’t wearing armbands broke into that same pulsing laughter. The others looked uneasy, although I had no idea why. I realised that the suit was back on the radio, listening intently to somebody on the other end. I remembered Furnace’s words, his invitation to the tower. They wouldn’t kill me, there was no way, not when their master, their creator, was waiting for me to make my choice, waiting for me to choose which side I was fighting on. At least, that’s what I was banking on.

‘Hey, Sawyer,’ said the suit with the radio. ‘It’s for you.’

He approached, holding the handset out so I could hear the voice on the other end. It scraped through the receiver like gravel, terrifyingly familiar.

‘I warned you,’ the warden said, the words like needles in my ears. ‘I warned you that your betrayal would cost you everything. Look at what you have done. Look at the destruction you have wrought upon your own city. And this is just the start. This is your punishment, forever knowing that you were the one responsible for the end of the world.’

‘Yeah yeah,’ I said, my heartbeat so loud I could hear it in my words. ‘And when I’m lying on the operating table being cut to pieces by your freaks I’ll come to regret the error of my ways. Come on, Cross, I’ve heard it all before.’

A burst of static blasted out of the handset, one that might have been a laugh.