Broken City

Chapter Twenty Three

“No rifle, or no Tom,” my voice is steady. I wonder if he knows how close I am to fainting?

His eyes hold mine for a second longer and then he shrugs.

“Whatever you say, you’re the boss—aren’t you?”

He turns and takes a gun from the shelf behind him, holding it out, butt first toward me; I look uncertainly up into his eyes.

“Go on take it.”

His eyes are inscrutable and slowly my hand comes up to take it from him and he turns to pick up some magazines from the shelf.

I don’t know why I do it, maybe because I feel a heightened awareness or perhaps I have learnt more from Tom and Nella than I knew, but as he turns his back upon me I take an automatic of a similar size to the gun he has given me from the shelf beside me and a magazine from the box beside it and slip both into my waist band to nestle against the small of my back underneath the jack I’m wearing.

 Ryder turns and hands me a magazine. I stare at it blankly.

“The gun I gave you; it isn’t loaded yet.”

As I load I feel his eyes upon me and for the first time I truly know what it’s like to have my flesh creep.

~~~~~~~~

The sky is a dark shade of blue-gray, hanging oppressive and low against the tower blocks. Ryder is walking silently beside me, he has hardly spoken a word all morning but the occasional glances that he has cast my way have been eloquent enough in their own way.

I hadn’t visualized it like this—in my mind it had all seemed so easy—I would lead Ryder out here and the test would begin, but the reality is far, far different from my imaginings. Walking through these eerie streets it has only just occurred to me that I have no idea where Andak territory ends—I can hardly lead him to a building in his own territory and tell him Tom hides within, I’m not such a fool as to suppose that he would believe me. Also I hadn’t really factored in the Lewis’s, I have seen the result of skirmishes between our guard and Lewis’s, and I have no doubt that if we meet a patrol we will be in great danger.

But still I find that my nerves are being most shaken by the man walking alone beside me who seems, with every passing second, to gain in both size and fearsomeness—I have no idea what he’s capable of when he finds out about my deceit, neither am I entirely sure what I am capable of if it turns out that he is murderously inclined. I suddenly realize that my safety hangs on Ryder being innocent and feel a familiar nausea heave in my stomach. Don’t freeze I tell myself angrily, feeling moisture break out cold on my brow.

“We should stop here,” Ryder’s voice breaks into my panic and I find myself gazing obediently in the direction of his pointing finger. As we enter the building I notice that it’s covering of ivy makes it damp and dark.

“You’re not very fit,” Ryder remarks as I wipe my sleeve across my face, if only he knew that my physical discomfort is caused be stress and not exertion. “I thought you’d better rest before we leave Andak territory—afterwards I don’t care how tired you get, we don’t stop until we reach Tom.”

So we’re still in Andak territory, at least I have one less thing to worry about; I’ll lead him for another hour or so and then I’ll pick a random building and tell him that Tom is inside.

“Which territory is he in?”

For a moment there is a frozen pause.

“What?” my voice, too high and trembling escapes before I have time to think; surreptitiously I slide my hand to where the gun rests against my back.