Islands of Hope

Chapter 27

The door burst open, Du Puteron looked up, one eyebrow raised in frustration. He did not like being disturbed when he was relaxing with a book. An archaic technology, but he loved the smell of the pages, the feel of the object in his hands, the romance of the classic words; so much better than the trash they placed on the electronic page these days. "This better be good," he said in mock frustration, then gave a wry smile. Had it been anyone else he may have raised himself up and barked.

"It's the vote, sir," Luka responded, not breaking stride. He arrived at Du Puteron's desk as he finished the sentence.

"They can't have held it already."

"Yes, this morning."

"But they only decided to have it yesterday," Du Puteron was concerned with the speed of developments. His team were ready, they had been for some time, but preparation won you battles and time was the one thing they might not have. "Do I have to ask you about the outcome?"

Luka kept silent, preferring to stare at the floor. "Thought so," Du Puteron said, sorrow and despair filling his voice. "Did our contact have anything else to say?"

Luka paused, subliminally telling Du Puteron what he did not want to hear. After a few seconds of silence, the leader asked, "that bad. What is it? Best I hear it now rather than second hand."

"They have a first target," Luka trailed off towards the end of the sentence, hoping that by not saying the words, the news might somehow not be true.

He was about to reveal the location when Du Puteron butted in, "don't tell me, I can guess." His penchant for the dramatic left a pause that was slightly too long, "it's in sector 45." Luka nodded, surprised at the accuracy of the guess. With a sorrowful look in his eyes, Du Puteron asked, "it's Kira's slum isn't it?"

"How do you know?"

"Some people call it fate, I call it an unlucky coincidence." Du Puteron sighed heavily, "so, when will this be happening?"

"They haven't chosen a date, just the first slum."

"Given everything I have heard about this Kendra, I expect she will want to move quickly."

"So what do we do now?"

"There's only one thing we can do, rally the troops!"