Shepherd Moon

Part 3: Talon - Chapter 8

'Turn left,' said the Helot beside her when they reached an intersection. This street was quieter, with a few trees lining the road. The city's dome was open, and the sun came through thinly, lighting the street with a faint glow.

They stopped beside a taxi. 'Get in,' said the Helot with the gun. 'Tell the AI to take you to the street behind the slave market.'

The slave market? That was an odd place to be taken by Helots.

She climbed in the back and the Helots followed. The car started off. One of the Helots growled to the AI and the windows tinted so no one could see in.

Maddy clutched her satchel in case they tried to look in it. The smell of the Helots was apparent now—she'd noticed it before, when in close proximity to Igil Hoo, the insurgent who had forced her to work for his terror cell a year ago. An odour of sweat and labour, an indefinable aroma that branded these men as another species, different from her. There was another scent too: her own fear. The close air of the taxi made her sweat.

The ride did not last long. The taxi pulled up outside a nondescript building with a broken metal fence outside it. Heavy shutters covered the windows.

The armed Helot climbed out of the vehicle first.

'Pay the taxi,' said the other one.

Maddy paid and clambered out, her satchel almost dropping on the ground.

'I need to call work,' she said. 'I'll be late.'

'No calls. Now listen carefully. I have a key to that building. You will walk up the steps like you own the place and I will let you in. You will step inside and wait. Any attempt to use your fone will be detected. Do you understand?'

'Yes.'

A cold Martian breeze blowing along the street made her draw her black leather jacket closer as they climbed the steps. The Helot opened the door and pushed her through.

It was totally dark inside when the door closed behind her. The Helots had not followed. A smell of dust, the fine Martian dust that scented the whole planet, invaded her nostrils. Somewhere unseen water flowed through a pipe.

'Take off your fone and place it on the floor,' said a voice. Maddy did so.

'Take three steps backwards.'

She arrived in a small beam of sunlight that penetrated from somewhere above and illuminated her face.

'Wait.'

She waited. Several minutes dragged by, which seemed longer in the darkness. Without her fone she felt even more helpless, unable even to tell the time. There was a strong urge to say something, to call out anything. But of course it was all just part of the process. She'd been kept waiting before when meeting with the leader of the Broken Circle, a terrorist group back on Earth. He'd kept her and Dorac and Igil waiting for ages just to make them uncomfortable. It was what powerful people did.

Footsteps to her left. Her eyes had grown accustomed to the dim light but there was nothing to see apart from an undefined black shape approaching. It halted.

'I have a gun,' said the voice. 'Stay where you are.'

Light flooded the room, which was high and bare, with paint peeling from the walls. The water pipe tracked along the ceiling and dripped moisture where it entered one wall. The floor was bare boards, covered in red grit and a few scraps of paper.

In front of her was a Helot with a gun. He bent down to pick up her fone, which he put into a pocket of his overalls, then indicated with one hand for her to follow him. They crossed the room to a door which he opened by entering a code into a contact panel.