Suited (26 page)

“What happened?” Mizra hissed. “Why did they do that to you?”

Natasha was ready to start running again, I could see it in her darting eyes, in her bent knees and the way she angled her shoulders forward; readying for another charge, like the one that had broken through the Mob. It would be easier to just let her go, but she was right. We had the same enemies. And she had already proved her strength.

I pushed myself from the wall. “Quota.”

Natasha and Lad’s shock blended rather nicely with Aleksey and Mizra’s reaction.

“They sent Mob after us, because we hadn’t met quota?” Aleksey choked over the words.

“That’s unheard of!” Mizra spluttered.

Casually, I took Lad’s hand. He squeezed my fingers and, as always, communicated so much through touch. Trust, willingness to follow my lead, even if he did not know why I was taking us down such a strange path. “The veche will use any excuse to get to me, you know that. And considering what we have been doing – obeying the Keeper, ignoring their directives – can you say you are really that surprised?”

Aleksey rubbed and Mizra frowned.

“Well, it certainly surprised me,” Natasha said, expression carefully blank.

“You did warn us,” I said, “of the risks every time we returned debris to the Keeper.”

“I did.” Natasha straightened, her hands by her sides and weapons so well hidden they might not have existed. “I certainly did.”

“And now they are calling us traitors.” I shook my head in false consternation. “Which, I suppose, we are. Betraying the veche to side with the Keeper.” And, I thought to myself, the Unbound.

Yes, it was strangely fitting.

Understanding settled over us, realisation of just what that meant. No home, no team, no collecting jars or emergencies.

Unbound – I thought to myself – this is what it feels like to be Unbound.

“We should go somewhere,” Lad said, suddenly, and Mizra jumped a little at the sound of his voice. “Take Tan somewhere to make sure she is okay. But where can we go?”

“Ideally, I’d say as far from the veche as possible.” Aleksey watched me as he spoke. “Out of the city. And that’s just to start with. But I’m not sure Tan would make it that far today.”

Was my weakness that obvious? I could breathe again, but each lung’s worth of air I dragged inside me set off the fire of the splinters and the scars. “I think you might be right.”

“Bro,” Lad said, with certainty. “We should go to bro. He can help us. Or if he can’t, then Fedor and Geny. They could.”

Fedor and Geny? Along with Lev and his Unbound, perhaps. “Why, Lad. That’s a good idea.”

“We can’t just go chasing after Kichlan,” Mizra pointed out. “The Mob will be waiting, won’t they? Surely that’s the first thing the veche would expect us to do.”

“We don’t go to home, Miz.” Lad said, hesitantly at first. Then he squared his shoulders and looked so much like Kichlan I had to turn away and hide my face in shadow so he couldn’t see how proud I was of him. “We go underground.”

“Underground?” Mizra asked.

Natasha fixed her newly sharp gaze on Lad. “Underground? You actually know how to get beneath the city?”

“Do.” Pride swelled his chest even further. “But Tan knew first,” he admitted a moment later, a little sheepishly. “And bro.”

“Did she?” Natasha asked with a sly smile. “Some people are full of surprises.”

I hoped she could read my expression. I’m not particularly fond of irony.

“I don’t suppose you’d like to tell me what you’re talking about?” Aleksey asked, sounding strained.

“Same here,” Mizra muttered.

“Let’s go, we need to get underground.” I started back down the alley. “We will explain on the way.”

“Tan?” Lad caught up and murmured close to my ear. “I don’t know where we are.”

I slowed. That was a good point. “Aleksey, considering you’re so skilled with that suit now, can you get us to the Tear? Lad and I will take it from there.”

As we followed Aleksey through the labyrinth of Movoc backstreets, Lad and I explained about the underground ruins. We told the rest of our team about Fedor and his group. We even explained briefly what we had tried to do the other night, and how badly we had failed.

Natasha followed every word avidly. Perhaps she was starting to realise that being posted with us was not necessarily that bad.

Mizra listened in horror. “I can’t believe you would risk all that!”

I pushed aside my exhaustion and irritation and tried for empathy. “You can understand why we didn’t tell you, can’t you? We didn’t want to put you all in that kind of danger.” I very carefully did not look at Natasha.

“Doesn’t seem to have helped, though,” said Aleksey. “The Mob is after us anyway.”

“Tanyana, that’s not what I’m talking about. And you know it!” Mizra leaned close to me, voice low, and clutched at my arm. Lad stepped between us. This time he actually pushed Mizra away.

“I will look after Tan,” he said. “Look after her from everyone.” He thought for a moment. “From anyone.”

From the Tear River we eventually found our way to Lev’s shop. Aleksey did not allow us to travel along any street wider than an alleyway, and often called a halt and forced us to huddle in doorways, duck into buildings, and at one point even climb down an open vent and hide in the sewer. Always, all around us, we heard the marching feet of Mob. As they paced the streets any crowds that could have disguised us evaporated. Markets closed early, shops locked their doors. And I caught whispers of war. The military was mobilising, Movoc-under-Keeper filling with their dark forms. What else could it be, but war?

It was only a matter of time before the Mob thinned out, and Strikers were brought in. If we were not underground by then, if we were not hidden from the sun and the skies then truly, we were lost. So we hurried in silence. The day chilled in the shadow of buildings, in the trickle of dirty water and the creak of rotting shutters.

Lev’s shop was closed up, but he appeared when we knocked. Shouting carried down the empty street, distant, but still too close. I realised I did not know what I would do if he denied us entry. Could I force him? Or would we turn away?

“Mob on the streets,” he said.

“The veche is hunting us,” I whispered. “We seek shelter.”

My heart leapt when he nodded. “Like last time.” Lev opened the door, just wide enough to let us in. It closed with a great turning of locks. Their sound filled his darkened shop. “Are they following you?”

“No.” Aleksey’s confidence left no doubt. “Although they are certainly looking for us.”

It seemed to be enough for Lev. “Yicor, Valya and Eugeny feared this.” He held my gaze. “But we owe you Fedor’s life. Take this as payment.”

Natasha stared around her as he led us to the hidden trapdoor at the back of his shop, her eyes avid, like she was soaking up the place in as much detail as she could manage.

We descended the long ladder to Movoc’s ancient bones.

“Amazing,” Aleksey breathed as he dropped beside me.

I looked at him, and wondered if it was such a good idea to bring him here. I still didn’t know what to do about him. Whether I should trust him, or– or what? But I could barely stand, let alone confront him. I just needed to sit down.

Lev closed the trapdoor behind us and I fought an irrational horror as the sound of wood closing and iron rattling echoed from the domed rock. Had he locked us in? What could we do, if he chose to leave us here?

The combined light of our suits alone lit the subterranean world. I hated the closeness of that light, the way it made the walls tighter, the roof lower, and all the earth above us heavy.

“Just amazing!” Aleksey smiled as his voice echoed, deeply resonate. “I never imagined this existed below Movoc-under-Keeper!”

“I had heard stories of Movoc-under-Keeper’s ancient cities, buried deep beneath her in layers.” Natasha wandered to the broken down houses, the barely recognisable tumbles of stone and time. “The national veche uses them, apparently. Though no one knows what for.” A small frown formed between her eyebrows. “There’s not much left of this one though, is there?” The lines were heavy there. Natasha frowned too often.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Mizra snapped. “Wait around in the dark, for what?”

I glanced at Lad. “Maybe we should take them to the meeting room, the big round one? Do you think it would be more comfortable in there?”

Lad blinked at me and cocked his head. I could almost see him thinking. “Yes. But not much.”

I grinned. “I agree.” I jerked my head at Mizra. “This way.”

It took a moment for Aleksey and Natasha to notice we were leaving them behind. They did not hurry to catch up.

The meeting room was not much more comfortable than the street, and the unsteady shadows cast by our suits made the structures keeping the roof up even more precarious. Our collection team – was it an ex-team now? – squeezed through the narrow doorway and sought out what comfort it could find. Aleksey hunkered down against a wall and rested his chin on his chest like there was nothing wrong in the world. Mizra mirrored him, but shattered the illusion with continuous complaints about the cold. Lad spread out his coat on raised stones and told me to lie down.

“Lad, no.” I tried to pick up the large and overly patched garment and give it back to him. “You’ll be cold.”

“Not cold, Tan.” He lifted his hands and backed away. “You lie down and rest.”

I smiled at him. “Only if you stay near me.”

He nodded, and his cheeks flushed. So I lay on the cold, old stone, softened slightly by Lad’s generously given jacket, with my feet resting in his lap.

Natasha sat on the lower section so her head was close to mine. “Why didn’t you tell Mizra and Aleksey the truth?” she breathed the words softly.

Because I liked my secrets? I’m sure Kichlan would have agreed with me there. Instead, I said, “We have a common enemy.”

It was difficult to see from my angle, but I felt the turn of her head, and caught the flash of teeth glowing faintly blue in the light of my suit. “And you would trust me enough to work with me? I am, after all, a traitor and a spy.”

Couldn’t argue with that. But still, I said, “So am I, I just don’t have imperial backing. And you could have left us to the veche, to the Mob, back there. I’m sure it would have been easier to escape without Lad and me in tow. But you didn’t. I think that has to count for something.”

Silence. I started to doze, and only realised when Natasha woke me, whispering, “What about Lad?”

I shifted to ease the pressure of a buckle from my jacket pressing into my arm. Lad rubbed my ankle, just above the suit there, like he was soothing a fretful pet.

“Trust him,” I answered. “He might surprise you.”

“Trust, eh?” Natasha leaned even closer. “Well then, there is something I have to tell you. Just rumours, really, from some of my contacts with the veche.”

“Oh?” Why was she hesitating?

“Ever since we learned what you really are – what they were really doing to you, I should say – I’ve been trying to find out more. You are the kind of weapon that could be a serious threat to the Imperial forces so of course, it was my duty. You understand?”

I nodded.

“I only very recently found anyone willing to talk. A member of the local veche with friends in the regional, who have a cousin in the national, whose great uncle is in military exp– well, you don’t need that kind of detail. The point is, you’re not the only one the national veche has been experimenting on, and they’re not only making weapons.”

Something in my stomach clenched. “I didn’t think I was.” Mostly, I didn’t like to think about it. “What are you trying to tell me?”

“The biggest fuss at the moment is being made about a man brought in not too long ago. They are using him like, well, like a blueprint. Using his body to try new techniques. Some that worked, some that didn’t. Doesn’t prove anything, doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but the rumour is that he used to be a debris suit technician. Apparently he volunteered. But I can’t imagine anyone would do that.”

I closed my eyes. “There are lots of debris technicians,” I whispered.

“Yes,” Natasha shifted away. “And it is only a rumour.”

But I pictured Devich, the last time I had seen him. How sickly he had looked, how afraid, and the silver on his arm. He had been trying to tell me something, but I had refused to listen. Perhaps that was a mistake. I placed a hand on the scars across my stomach, and the child he did not know existed.

Only a rumour.

The cold seeped up through the wool and leather and uniform, and the stones were rough and uneven. For a while I was dimly aware of only the half-light and Lad’s touch. Then Natasha, as she squeezed her way out of the rubble intent, I supposed, on further exploring the street. I closed my eyes, wondering how she would see anything. I must have slept somehow, because the next minute running feet echoed through the cavern. My legs were no longer raised, and I felt close to frozen.

I pushed myself upright as flame-gold light flickered in through the tight doorway. Aleksey, Lad and Mizra were gone; Natasha sat close to me, one hand tucked inside her jacket.