The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (48 page)

“
Sure?”

“
Yes. It
’
s nothing,” she said after a
moment
’
s
hesitation.

“
You don’t have to come in if you don’t want to,” Dodds said,
aware that Kelly was not good with dead bodies. No matter how many
she saw, she could never get used to them, absurd visions and fears
filling her head. The thought of walking into a morgue, knowing it
to contain at least one body already, couldn’t have been sitting
too comfortably with her.

“
No, we stay together,” Estelle interjected, before she heaved
the heavy door of the mortuary open, revealing the scene within to
all. There, standing over a gurney with his back to them, was Chaz.
A sheet, stained with blood, lay on the floor at the foot of the
table.

Estelle
stopped just inside the doorway, her arms folded across her chest,
displeasure written all over her face. Dodds took in the scene.
Estelle was used to having Dodds and Enrique challenging her
authority from time to time, but they did at least either fall back
into line or back down. Chaz on the other hand had completely
ignored her order to inform her of any developments in the search
for Barber and not to take any action without first consulting her.
She would not stand for his insubordination.

“
Lieutenant Koonan, what the hell do you
think you
’
re doing?” Estelle asked, scowling at his back. Chaz did not
turn around or react at all. Estelle glowered; now the man was
ignoring her. “Lieutenant?” she said again. Chaz neither moved from
where he stood, nor made any other sign to acknowledge her
presence.

Dodds walked forward and came to stand next to Chaz, Estelle
and Enrique following behind him. He looked down at the woman lying
on the gurney, her eyes still open, dried blood staining her mouth
and chin, her face very pale. Chaz
’
s eyes were filled with a mixture
of anger and sadness as he continued to stare down at the woman,
his fists still clenched into tight balls by his sides.

Dodds
looked around and saw that Kelly had taken few steps forward,
making little effort to cross the threshold of the mortuary
doorway. She gave him a look of deep concern as her eyes shifted
from Barber to Chaz.

After a few moments, one of Chaz
’
s hands left his side. Two fingers
found their way to the woman
’
s eyes and gently closed her
eyelids.

“
Does she have the data card?” Estelle asked.

Chaz
continued to say nothing, and instead ran his fingers across
Barber’s cheek. It was as if he was saying goodbye.

Dodds
saw Estelle mouth several curses, then, “We don’t have time for
this.”

Seeing the man as being disinterested in
Estelle
’
s
questioning, Dodds once more took the initiative and reached
forward to investigate Barber
’
s jacket. Chaz caught him tight
about the wrist as he took hold of the zipper.

“
I
’
ll do it,” he said in a cold voice,
without taking his eyes off Barber
’
s face.

Dodds looked up at the big man, knowing that he would not be
able to free his wrist from such a solid grasp. He released his
grip on the zipper. Chaz took it instead and undid the dead
woman
’
s jacket,
exposing the white vest she wore underneath. It was soaked with
blood and torn in places where it had been slashed. Beneath the
ripped material, crimson spots of congealed blood, gathered around
lacerated white flesh, were quite visible. They looked like stab
wounds. Dodds was reminded of Dean’s wounds, as the man had lain
dying on his parents’ couch.

Chaz
started to search the inner pockets of the jacket as the others
looked on. After he failed to find anything, he checked the outer
ones. Then those of her trousers. His searching started to become
more urgent as he turned out more and more pockets and did not find
what he was looking for. He then pulled off her boots, though from
the way they were so tightly laced it was doubtful he’d find
anything there. Whoever had brought the woman in here had decided
to dump her body on the first available trolley and leave it there.
The boots turned out to be empty and there was nothing in the
socks, either.

“
What
’
s wrong?” Estelle asked as Chaz let
an empty boot fall to the floor.

“
Isn’t it obvious? I
can
’
t find
the card,” Chaz said, acknowledging his commanding officer for the
first time since entering the morgue. He began to dump more items
on the floor and the gurney as his search continued.

Knowing that his help was not wanted, Dodds left the others
to continue sorting through Barber
’
s possessions and pulled back a
sheet that was covering a body on another gurney, opposite that of
Barber
’
s.

“
Chaz, how did she die?” Dodds asked, looking down into the
scar-riddled face of the dead man he had uncovered.

There was a pause, then,
“A man
killed her,” he said, his voice bitter.

“
This man?” Dodds asked, indicating the
body. Chaz and the other three
Knights
glanced around, seeing the
exposed body with its long coat and clothes even more bloodstained
than Barber
’
s
vest.

“
She killed him at the same time.
That
’
s all
I know,” Chaz said.

The answer was good enough for Dodds. “This is our man. This
is the guy who blew up
Cardinal
.
”
He began to rifle through the pockets of the man on the table.
Enrique and Estelle hurried over to join him in his quest to locate
the data card, but after a thorough search they failed to locate
anything. Just as Chaz had done, they also checked boots, socks and
other possible hiding places, to no avail.

* * *

Kelly caught Chaz
’
s eye as she stood out of the way,
still quite unnerved by the dead bodies. He gave her a look that
emphasised his utter frustration.

“
Want me to take a look?” she offered, although she asked only
out of politeness and courtesy, and not because she wanted to be
involved. She regretted it seconds later when Chaz walked back from
the body.

“
Go ahead,” he gestured at
Barber
’
s
body.

Kelly approached and began her own search, rechecking
everywhere that Chaz had already, though much more gingerly and
with added caution. Whenever confronted with a dead body, she
couldn
’
t help but
think that at any moment the eyes would fly open and stare straight
at her, or that a sick smile would crawl up the face, the grin
directed at and meant for her, or that a cold, dead hand would
shoot out and grab her wrist…

She
shook the images from her head and tried not to think about it.
Dead people did not miraculously come back to life. Once dead, they
stayed dead.

* * *

Dodds,
Estelle and Enrique were on the verge of giving up with their own
task, preparing to accept that Barber was in possession of the
card, and not the man whom they searched.

“
Do you think someone else might have taken it from her?”
Dodds said.

“
Well, they didn
’
t take anything else,” Estelle
said, nodding toward the numerous belongings Chaz had removed from
the woman. “If they couldn
’
t be bothered to take her gun, then
why would they bother with something like that?”

“
Maybe she
’
s hidden it in some secret
compartment? How carefully did you check her boots? There might be
a false bottom or heel?” Dodds looked over at Chaz.

“
There are no hidden compartments in her boots,” Chaz
answered.

“
Gloves? She’s a spy, after all, so
there
’
s
bound to be at least one secret hiding place…”

“
There aren’t any,” Chaz said through gritted
teeth.

“
Maybe it’s in the lining of her jacket? Or around the collar?
Could even be tucked into her bra…”

“
Can it, Dodds,” Estelle said, patting at
the raider
’
s long coat.

“
You sure she
’
s not just holding it in her hand?”
Enrique asked.

Dodds
gave him a look of disdain.

“
No, seriously,” Enrique said.

“
She
is
holding something,” Kelly said.
She was staring at Barber’s right hand that, unlike the left, was
closed up. Dodds and Estelle left the raider
’
s body and came to stand by Barber
once more.

Dodds took the woman’s hand and inspected it.
“Looks like plastic.” He tried to prise her hand
open, but found it so stiff as to be unable to even move one
finger. After a while, he was able to push his own little finger
between the gap in Barber
’
s grip and poked the object out. It
fell and bounced gently on the floor. He retrieved it and held it
up for the others to see.

“
What is it?” Estelle asked.

“
Some kind of tiny bottle,” Dodds said, turning the clear
container between his fingers. It felt slimy in his grasp and he
noticed that a small amount of fluid still clung to the inside.
Estelle took it from him, almost dropping it as it slipped between
her fingers.

“
It
’
s… it’s lubricant,” she said,
sounding more than a little confused.

“
Ah ha! I’ve got it!” Enrique said, the
four others turning around to the man. “My grandfather once told me
that spies sometimes don
’
t keep really important stuff
directly on them; not in their clothes anyway,
it
’
s too risky.
So, instead, they
’
ll do what drug mules used to do and…”

He
stopped talking. Dodds noted the horrified looks on Kelly and
Estelle’s faces, a mirror for his own. The anger had left Chaz’s
eyes, his face had fallen. Dodds’ eyes went back to Barber as
Enrique solved the mystery of the card’s location.

“
So basically she
’
s swallowed it.
It
’
s inside her.”
The enthusiastic tone was gone.

At the words, Kelly’s eyes grew wide and she yanked her hands
from where they had been worming their way into pockets and feeling
the lining of Barber
’
s jacket. She hurried backwards, putting distance between
herself and the gurney.

Dodds
found he was unable to tear his eyes away from Barber’s stomach. “I
really, really wish I hadn’t gotten out of bed this morning,” he
said.

* * *

Natalia
Grace had, over the course of the last three weeks, suffered from
fitful dreams, fraught with terrible memories of what she had borne
witness to. Images of packed Imperial troop transports sweeping
over crumbling and almost defenceless cities haunted her vision.
She found herself trapped on their streets, all alone.

The
transports landed and started to deploy their cargo: dozens of
heavily-armed black-clad soldiers, carrying all manner of weaponry.
The Enemy. They turned to look at her. Fingers pointed. Natalia
ran.

She ran
as fast as she could, but the ground she covered was minimal, as if
her legs were moving in slow motion. She looked behind herself as
she tried to escape, seeing the city now gone and the black suits
of the Enemy swarming behind her like so many thousand scurrying
black ants, spread out across a wide open plain that went on
forever to the horizon, with nowhere to hide.

Amongst
the sea of black shone innumerable pairs of ruby-red oval eyes, set
into the grooves of helmets, the only window into what resided
within. She tried harder to run, but her legs moved as if she were
pulling them through treacle. She fell down, trying with all her
might to crawl herself forward, but finding herself as immobile as
ever.

The
ranks of black suits began to close in round her, their faces
hidden behind their ominous masks. She looked around for another
way to escape, turning to the sky, then the ground beneath, but
seeing nothing save for the swells of black, glints of knives, and
glow of digital weapon counters.

Hands
caught her upper arms, then her fore arms, then her legs, pinning
her to the ground. The suffocating black enclosed her, muzzles of
rifles pushed into her face, mixed with flashes of white from
emblems borne on the suit. Her attackers spoke not one word as they
prepared to deal her fate.