A Song of Spiders

Chapter 7 - Shadows

Rachel she stood a little stiffly and said to Dex and Karma. ‘Come on, I want to check on someone.’ They walked quickly forward up the train. Behind them they heard sounds of shouting and crashing glass. The lights changed to red emergency ones. They picked up the pace, Rachel leading with Dex behind her and Karma last. Rachel suddenly stopped between carriages and cut through the fabric connecting it to the next one with a wicked looking Bowie knife and climbed down onto the track. She said ‘stay with me and do what I do. No questions, OK?’ She jogged back down the track in the direction of the shouting. 

Rachel stopped outside a carriage with a red cross on a white background. She ducked underneath, drew a small, black stun square, looked and them and held her finger to her lips. She silently climbed up into the train carriage. After a second, she beckoned them to follow. 

They followed her and emerged in a corner behind a hospital bed and locker. They quickly looked over the bed. A man in a hospital robe and a bandage on his head was standing with his arm around Nurse David's head twisting it to the side. With his other hand he was clutching a broken bottle and pressing it up against the nurse's neck. The man was facing Cabot and another two men all holding guns at the door. 

The man was shouting at them quickly ‘they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. I am the harbinger. The demiurge sent to test the faithful.’ 

Rachel calmly stepped up behind him and shocked him twice with the stun square in the back. Both the man and his captive collapsed in a heap on the ground. She stepped around the bed, and kicked the broken bottle away.

Suddenly the man started to buck and scream on the ground. He kicked out at Dex, who was knocked to the floor, cutting his hand on the glass. Rachel shocked the man again twice before he finally lay still.

"Bloody hell!' said Dex holding up his hand to stop the bleeding. 

Rachel said quietly. ‘I suspected he was a shadow. Something in his eyes. They are looking for us. Had he gotten away, we would have been compromised.’

She crouched down beside the nurse and checked for a pulse.

‘He's still alive. David, can you hear me?’ She turned him over. Karma stepped in with a jug of water. ‘Good idea’ said Rachel. She poured some on his forehead. He seemed to come around. Cabot had been giving orders. The alarm stopped, the lighting came back to normal and the train began to move again. 

‘How did you flank him like that?’ Cabot said, walking over quickly. ‘It was looking like he would get out of here and with a hostage. 

‘I noticed the floor hatch while they kept me here for observation. I also observed this man praying under his breath while I was here. I'm very observant when I'm in observation’ She smiled a little crooked smile and slumped onto the bed.

‘Judging by the accent, he was only a local police shadow. One of hundreds they send out. Had the Inquisition known we were here we would all be dead by now’ she said, Cabot nodded in agreement. 

‘What's a shadow?’ asked Dex.

Karma answered pointing. ‘This guy’s one for sure. It's Roamer slang. It used to mean just the local police-controlled militia. Lately these poor bastards have had their brains fried by the priests in Trinity. Now they're just fanatical zombies, randomly wandering about looking for anyone behaving in ways that contradict the churches law. He’s a shadow of a person, just a puppet of the church.’ 

Two guards lifted the shadow onto a bed and handcuffed to it. 

‘He only looks about 18 or so, but like he’s aged 50 years on top of that.’ said Dex. ‘Poor bastard.’