Pickers 3: The Valley (3 page)

Remy had hoped the room would be soft, but knew better than that.

It would be the arrogance of a man who had spent a decade in the bad lands to think that town dwellers were coddled. They had their own hardships to deal with, ones a Picker or traveller would have trouble comprehending. Everything they owned was locked in one place, making it so much harder to move on when the world went against them. Sometimes, limited resources meant that they had to make hard decisions, harsh ones. For the longest time, the residents of the Valley had made one of the harshest, excluding all outsiders, sometimes with violence. It was one of the reasons Remy had left, taking his family out into the wild, where people could be kinder.

Many of the faces at the table before him were familiar, if older. Most of them hadn't been on the council when he had left the Valley. Some of them had even, quietly, been supporters of his calls for greater contact with the outside world. For now, they all remained quiet, whilst one of the louder reactionary voices made itself heard.

"You have decided to come back to us now, and you insist on bringing all those outsiders with you. I wanted you hunted down and killed, Remy Giraud, when you ran away with vital resources last time. What do you think I want to do with you now?"

Remy had long hated Giselle Catellin, holding on to some of it far too long after he had taken the girls out of the Valley. For now, he held down all the responses he wanted to make, choosing to insult her by ignoring her. He studied the occupants of the table opposite hers, along the other side of the room.

"The three trucks that Remy.... Escorted in, were expected, even if they did arrive earlier than planned. We had agreed to take them in, if you remember." The comment came from the woman on Julien's right. One of the younger members of the council- probably not much older than Veronique- Remy didn't recognise her. It was obvious enough why. Her skin tone was a touch darker than his daughters'. They, and their mother, had been the rare dark skinned ones in a community that was otherwise white, and suffered the prejudice- not all of it silent- that resulted.

So this young woman was a newcomer, but had worked her way to the top table of the council. Catellin may still be a vile woman, but other things were improved greatly from when he had left the Valley. He glanced at Julien, whose expression was almost passive, but for a little hint of amusement. This was obviously another round of a battle of words that had been going on for some time.

"I didn't vote to take in more mouths to feed." Catellin said.

"That is true, but the council is a democracy, and the majority of us did vote to take them in." the young woman said. Catellin went an angry shade of pink. Remy forced the smile straight. "Remy and his family were heading here for a different reason. It was just good fortune that he could save the children before the raiders got to them."

"Perhaps he should tell us why he is here, then." suggested another voice. Remy didn't catch who said it.

The woman who had come to his defence sat back, and Julien leant forwards. "Yes, indeed. That is what this meeting is really about, after all. So, big brother, why have you come back to us after all this time?"

"Shouldn't we be in there with him?" Veronique said, staring at the double doors of the council chamber.

"He'll be fine. He knows them. You've told me how he has argued his points with them before." Tony said, trying to get her to relax. "And he has the maps and all the information."

"Yes, he has argued with them before. That's what worries me."

Maxine was pacing from the top of the stairs, past the door then back again. Phillipe had come with them and now stood beside the doors, eyeing her suspiciously every time she went by him. She stopped in front of him, but, instead of turning to face him, she looked at Veronique and Tony. "How much information?" She walked over to them, and knelt down, to quietly ask, "Could they just keep the information and send us away?"

"Not enough to get in. Or even find the right building." Veronique confided.

"It'll have to do. Do you think they'll go for it?"

"Papa's a salesman. He'll sell it to them."

There was the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. Maxine was about to go back to her pacing when Georges arrived. "How is it going in there?" he asked. Greeted by blank looks, he smiled and held up a large, fake-leather bound book. "When Maman heard you were back, she said she had something you would want to see." He held the book out to Maxine, who just looked at it, confused.

Veronique and Tony stood to flank Maxine. "What is it?" Tony asked.

"It's a collection of photographs. A few months before you.... Left, my mother found a collection of old chemical film. She thought it had been the last batch in the whole of France, and it was all past its use by date by many, many years. So she took lots and lots of pictures. Some of them came out. These are some of the ones that she found last night that you might be interested in."

Maxine grasped the book, but kept herself from yanking it out of Georges' hands. "Can I...?" she said, almost meekly.

"Of course, that is why I brought it."

Maxine took the book back to the bench seat Tony and Veronique had been sat on. They sat either side of her as she rested it on her lap. She flipped the heavy cover open.

The pictures in the book were presented in muted colours, desaturated by deteriorated chemicals somewhere in the process. It made the images feel like they were from even longer ago. The photographs were mounted on the card pages, held in place by a clear plastic sheet that folded over them.

There was one, large picture on the first page. Maxine took in the details of it, and made a sound that may have been embarrassment. In the background of the image, the valley grew wider, but was still walled in by steep hills a hazy shade of blue. The mid ground was filled with earthworks, a large wall going up to dam the river and trap the water the fields would need over a long, hot summer. Closer to the camera, a group of children were playing in the mud and water of the newly created pond. The determined subject of the picture, however, was a little girl giving a defiantly cheeky glare to the photographer. Her baggy trousers had been rolled up multiple times until they became shorts and she had discarded her top along the way. Her black skin stood out from the pale children behind her, and her round face was framed by a halo of tight black curls. She brandished a spade almost as tall as her, but looked like she knew just what she was going to use it for.

"Is that you?" Tony asked.

Maxine studied the picture. "It must be. But I don't remember this. I thought the dam was older than me."

"There is an older dam." Georges said. "Downstream from that one. This is the building of the new one. It holds more water."

"I don't see you. Where are you?" Tony asked Veronique.

"I was probably over where they were doing the work, looking at the designs and telling them what they were doing wrong."

Maxine looked sideways at her brother in law. "Oh yes, Vee has always been far too clever." She turned the page, and groaned at the pictures she found there. These were smaller prints, and there were two to a page. The four photos showed the children of the town turned out for a celebration of some sort. Judging by the fruits and vegetables they all held, it had something to do with the harvest. Two of the pictures showed the children in rows before the hotel du ville, all holding baskets of produce. The two dark skinned girls stood out, almost in the middle of the front row.

"Who'd have thought. Maxine does wear dresses." Tony said, with a little laugh.

Maxine cast a scowl at her brother in law, but quickly went on to running a finger along the rows of faces. "There. That's you, isn't it?" She looked up at Georges and tapped the picture.

"That's me." He was a skinny, grinning kid with unruly hair, who had obviously just gone through a growth spurt and stood half a head taller than anyone else in his row.

The next two pages showed the harvest celebrations after the formal picture. In one, Maxine was throwing a ball at a pyramid of wooden blocks, her swinging arm a blur of motion and her expression pure concentration. In the other, Veronique was building a complicated shape from thin branches.

Over the page were two photos with Veronique and Maxine's mother in them. In one, she and Remy were standing on one side of the image, smiling down as Maxine held something up to them. The main part of the image was of the children dancing in front of a table piled high with fruit and vegetables. Amongst the children, Veronique was, uncomfortably, dancing with a boy. They both had the stiffness of kids only doing this because they'd been told to. In the other photo, Georges was the main focus, walking toward the dancing area, dragged along by an eager Maxine. In the background her mother and father couldn't hide their laughter. Their mother had been an attractive woman, tall, with strong features, skin darker again than theirs, and a bowl of tight, black hair. Maxine and Veronique both studied her, trying to fill in their memories with these images of her.

"Can we get copies of these?"

"Of course. There are scanners downstairs. Do you have storage?"

Veronique unhooked a small tube from her belt and pulled the cap from it, showing Georges the connection. He nodded recognition.

Maxine flicked forward a page. "Was that all of them?" she asked the blank page.

"That was all Maman could find last night. She has more pictures stored away. She will go through them if you are staying long enough."

"That's not completely our decision." Veronique said, pointing at the doors to the council chamber.

On cue, the doors opened. A short, rounded man with unruly grey hair stepped out. He was about to talk to Phillipe when he spotted Georges. "Oh, Georges, you're already here. Good, good. We were going to send for you. Come in here for a while."

It hadn't taken them long to find young Georges, Remy noted. He had been standing right outside the door. Was that because he expected to be called, or had he been there because that was where he could find Maxine?

Georges had obviously stood before the council many times before. He entered the chamber with that sort of confidence and familiarity. He faltered some when he reached Remy's table. This is where he would normally stand, and he didn't know where else to go. After a moment's hesitation, he stood at the side of the table. Then he turned to Remy and offered his hand. "Monsieur Giraud."

"Monsieur Meunier." They shook hands, an odd formality that felt right in the moment. Georges wouldn't know the decision that the council had reached. There was no way that it had been agreed beforehand, not with the fighting that he had just witnessed between various factions. Georges didn't know what instructions he was about to receive. He could be showing respect for an unwelcome interloper, just before being told to escort Remy and his family from the Valley, for all he knew.

"We have come to a decision." Julien announced, addressing Georges. "And you are going to have a change of duties, for a while."

Georges nodded understanding. His eyes were scanning the council, Remy noted, trying to get a read on the members who were happy with whatever his role was to be. Julien continued, "Remy has access to.... Well, information, about, a seed bank, full of legacy lines which may be immune to the current blight. He came here to ask for our help in recovering the contents of the bank. The council's decision, just, is to offer him the help he requests. You are the head of our scouting team, so we want you to work with him and come up with a plan for the recovery."

Again, Georges nodded understanding. Julien added, "We need to get these seeds as soon as possible. If it can be done in the next couple of weeks, we will be able to propagate enough for a larger planting next year. Maybe the year after that we can export disease free seeds to the rest of the country. You understand the importance of this mission."

"I do, yes."

"Good. Good. Now, this has been a rather.... Fraught session. I need a drink, so I'm declaring the meeting closed." Julien stood and, very informally, sat on the table so he could swing his legs over it and then walk to his brother. "You will be the death of me, you know. That is the nearest the chamber has come to fists flying since I took the seat." he said, quietly.

The room filled with the sound of chairs scraping back across the floor, and low murmurs of gossip. Leaning closer to Remy, Julien continued, "They will want a plan within days, of course. Take Georges here with you and get started. Then you bring the girls over later, and we will eat. You have nephews to meet."

"Nephews?"

"Well, of course. I was bound to find some woman crazy enough in the end. Go quickly, take the girls, before this crowd gets out there and starts mobbing them with questions."

They called themselves Scouts, and there were six of them in total. A driver and a gunner for each of their vehicles. Their arrival the day before had seemed so impressive, but knowing that was the force in full deployment made it less so.

The Scouts' vehicles were parked up in front of the semi-circular building that had been a visitors' centre- in the days when people visited the Valley in winter to ski and debauch. It had been storage before Remy left, but Georges and his squad had re-purposed it as their base. The other five Scouts were waiting inside, arrayed around a large relief map of the Valley and the Alps around it.

"You met yesterday, but we didn't do full introductions. This is Sarah." Georges pointed out the woman who had been his driver, then moved around the table. There were two women and two men. "Lucas, Justine, Amandine and Fabien."

Fabien was tall, and darker than Veronique or Maxine, he had obviously arrived whilst they were away. The other three were more familiar. Lucas and Justine were brother and sister, twins, who Veronique remembered sharing classes with. Amandine was younger, maybe a year older than Maxine. Her body language suggested she was close, intimate, even, to Lucas. It looked like the team was a family as well.

Georges continued, "We've been recording everything we've heard about the world beyond our Valley and running the occasional trip out for information. Obviously," he leant against a display case and tried to appear nonchalant as he continued, "you'll have a much more detailed.... Bigger picture. But we have the local details to match up to it."

There was an uncomfortable quiet for a while, as the Scouts studied the Pickers, and vice versa. Apart from Veronique, who was always fascinated by maps, and couldn't keep herself from drifting over to the grand one on the table to stare at it.

"So." said Sarah, eventually, "Where is this treasure you are going to take us hunting for?"

Veronique traced a finger down the miniature Valley, then ran it over one ridge line, Northwest to a ripple of smaller peaks and valleys. Her finger traversed these valleys and went over the hills to the next one along. She found a cluster of tiny grey boxes and tapped it. "Here." she announced.

Georges paced over to the map. He leant against the table and looked along the valley that Veronique had indicated. "Oh dear." he said after a while. He pointed at a red ball at the open end of the valley, a recent addition to the map. "That is going to be tricky, because this is the base for all of Northern France's Raiders. Right here, blocking our route up the valley to your vault."