Chapter Twenty Three
“Deeta?” Jan’s whispering voice floats across the room from where she stands in the door way.
“I’m awake; did you see him?”
“He’s fine—they put him in a holding room at the other end of the barracks, from what I can tell he’s been giving everyone a bit of a rough time,” Jan’s smile is softly reminiscent.
“Did you manage to talk to him, alone I mean—did you tell him—”
“Yes Deeta, I told him everything—he knows what he has to do,” she pleats the coverlet between her fingers.
“He was disappointed not to see you.”
My throat fills with tears.
“I’ll see him soon enough, did he tell you anything about his treatment here?”
“Not much—there wasn’t time. What about Ryder, he didn’t look too pleased when you left the pavilion.”
“He’s mad as fire but he’s coming on my terms.”
Unconsciously my hand moves to caress the arm that he bruised in his angry unyielding hand.
“Did he hurt you?” Jan’s voice is indignant.
“No—I mean yes…but I don’t think that he knew he was doing it.”
Vaguely I wonder why I am defending a man who, unless I am very much mistaken, would derive the greatest pleasure from wringing my neck.
Ryder confuses me, sometimes it feels so wrong to suspect him, to not trust him and then he will do something like he did tonight. Tonight I saw a side of him that I did not like; I saw hate and an almost murderous rage. In a way I understand it; he thinks that I have hurt Tom, that I’m trying to double cross him, but I don’t trust it.
Tomorrow I will enter the city for the third time in my life; unlike the other times however I will travel not with a friend but alone—with an Andak.
“What about Keya?”
“I saw her briefly—she was in the next cell,” answers Jan. “Mari will bring her here tomorrow, I don’t think we’ll have any trouble.”
“That doesn’t sound very much like Keya.”
“Maybe not but it’s the truth,” Jan looks away uncomfortably. “She cried Deet, she cried with relief when she saw me,” Jan shakes her head. “ I know it’s all her fault but—I felt so sorry for her Deeta, she was so scared and, and…haggard,” Jan pauses again. “I never thought that I would feel anything for Keya green but dislike,” she looks up and I see her beautiful eyes fill with tears. “I was wrong.”
~~~~~~~~
“Why are we here?” I look uncertainly at the rows of weaponry and protective clothing.
“Just to pick up a few things—you know it isn’t safe out there without some form of protection, don’t you Deeta.”
I couldn’t ignore the sarcasm if I wanted to. Ryder looks different and alarming this morning, his black suit has disappeared to be replaced by trousers and shirt in gray camouflage, the only thing remotely familiar is the hair that is smoothed back in an orderly fashion, sleek to his head. I watch uncomfortably as he loads a hand gun and reaches for a rifle.
“You won’t need that.”
Ryder’s grey eyes meet mine.
“I’m pretty sure I will.”
I swallow convulsively, he isn’t behaving like the Ryder Andak I know, there is something sinister about him—his eyes are dead and cold; he could be a killer, Deeta—how would you know? I shiver a little feeling my palms clammy and hot, I smooth them down the fabric of my jumpsuit.
“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.
“You don’t know do you?” Ryder’s voice of suppressed anger sends tremors down my spine and I turn, hand out stretched and steady, and point the gun at him. Ryder sneers and advances slowly towards me.
“That gun has palm recognition technology; it’s programmed so that only I can use it.”
The bullet passes over his left shoulder and buries itself into the wall behind him, Ryder freezes instantly a look of wary surprise on his face.
“I’m not as stupid as you think.”
“Your right, you couldn’t be as stupid as all that. So what happens now; some of your buddies arrive and cart me off…for what?” he asks. “I can’t understand what you think you can gain by all of this except the destruction of your tribe, whatever’s left of it.”
I edge around until my back is towards the corner of the room and sit down.
“You might as well take it easy.”
“You’re planning on being here for a while are you?”
Ryder places himself firmly in front of me with perhaps four feet between us.
“You don’t understand—no one should come, unless you’re lying to me.”
I rest the hand holding the gun on my knees.
“I have to know if I can trust you, I’d like to but you’re making it very hard, so here’s the plan; I know you took a chance coming with me the way you did, I could have lead you into a trap and I know you thought it was a distinct possibility that that is precisely what would happen; but still you were willing to risk it. The way I see it there is only one of two reasons why you would do that, one; you are genuinely worried about Tom and want to see him safe, or two; you want him dead. If Andak troops turn up here I’ll know that you want to harm Tom and I will have to shoot you,” I swallow nervously. “If nothing happens and no one comes I’ll know that you really do want to help him. So tell me—is there anything you want me to know before we settle down to wait?”
Ryder is silent for a moment and when he does speak his voice is quiet.
“No one will turn up, I’m a man of my word, but what happens then; you’ll tell me where he is?”
“I didn’t lie to you about that at first; I really don’t know where Tom is. But I do know that by the time we return to the compound, Tom will be there.”
“How?”
“Because he was always going to give himself up to the Andak, but first he had to see our tribe safe and then he had to settle Uncle Jep and the children with another tribe that didn’t know that they were Andak, it just took too much time and the Andaks moved too quickly, you moved too quickly. He took us to the Marshall’s because he knew it would take you more time to organize an attack on their compound than it would to organize an attack on us and our compound—but you moved quicker than he expected, or maybe he knew all along that he wouldn’t have enough time but still knew he had to try.”
Ryder stares at the floor considering and for a time the only sound is that of the wind howling outside.
“Tell me something about Tommy, about his life with your tribe?”
Ryder’s eyes meet mine and for the first time I see no calculation hidden in their depths, for a startled moment I’m taken back.
“Like what?”
“It doesn’t matter; anything.”
For a second I sit quiet and thoughtful thinking back over all the years I have known Tom, thinking of the laughter and fun—and yes the sadness too.
“Once when I was about twelve and it had become obvious that I would never be allowed to leave our compound, that I would never get to explore the city and the outside world. I was so upset, I felt—useless…and caged, like there had to be something, something more, some way to relieve, to break out to…” I remember suddenly my surroundings, just who it is that I’m talking to and blush with embarrassment. “Anyway, Tom took me on to the roof with him when it was his shift for guard duty. It was such a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Outside the look-out hut Tom had set out a picnic; we stayed up there all day for the whole of Tom’s shift—it was perfect.”
“You said he had a family?”
“Uncle Jep and the children,” I nod.
“How many children?” asks Ryder.
“Five—Ricky is the eldest, the first Tom ever brought home, he’s fourteen, then Roydon he’s eleven and the two girls; Carris and Tarri, eight and four.”
“And Dec,” adds Ryder quietly.
“And Dec,” I affirm.
Ryder leans back clasping his hands behind his head.
“I can’t really imagine Tom with kids—you said he wasn’t married?”
I shake my head.
“Has he ever been?”
“No—at least, I don’t think so.”
“What about a girlfriend?”
“Well—I don’t know—if he has he’s never told me,” I reply faintly uncomfortable with the turn that the conversation has taken.
“So where do you fit into the picture then?”
For a second I’m speechless as my mind takes in his implication.
“Tom’s my best friend.”
Ryder, in the act of drinking from his canteen chokes.
“Poor Tommy.”
His voice is slightly unsteady with restrained mirth and I smile along with him until it suddenly hits me that his comment is somewhat less than complementary. I flush, avoid his eye and for some moments there is an awkward silence.
“Tommy left us fourteen years ago,” he looks me over speculatively. “You couldn’t have been very old when he arrived?”
“I was six,” I reply, “Jan was four and Clare was nine.”
“Who’s Clare?”
“My other sister,” I answer.
“Is she like you and Jan?”
“Well…she has the same colouring and is about the same height—her eyes are greenish and she has more wave and less curl than either of us.”
“She sounds like she upholds the family tradition.”
“What family tradition?”
“Of having more than her fair share of good looks,” smiles Ryder.
“She’s married.”
The information is given far too quickly and in too flat a voice for him to doubt my meaning, I flush and change my grip on the gun nervously.
“That’s very nice for her,” Ryder offer’s the canteen out towards me, shrugging slightly as I shake my head. “So we have ascertained that you are available, Clare is married—what about Jan?”
Ryder’s eyes are dark—I can’t tell if he’s laughing at me or not.
“Jan’s eighteen,” my voice is nicely balanced between disapproval and annoyance.
“Yes I know—my arithmetic is pretty good,” this time there is no mistaking the amusement that lurks in his eyes, “ but I didn’t ask how old she was but if she were taken?”
I hesitate indecisively, trying to think of the correct response.
“Daddy doesn’t encourage us to have boyfriends we have no intention of marrying.”
“Very appropriate,” Ryder leans forwards. “So?”
“She’s…available—but that’s only because she’s very picky and has very high standards!”
“Are you trying to tell me something, Deeta?” he smiles again. “Because I seem to remember that I have an ‘unfair edge’.”
“You’ll need a heck of a lot more than that you smug gi—” I manage to bite back the word before it escapes my mouth.
Ryder doesn’t seem chastened in any way; he leans back against a handy pile of rubble and stares at the ceiling. For a long time we are silent and I find my thoughts drifting back to the Andak complex, Jan will have explained in full to Keya our plan and the part that she must play in it.
“Why is Dec in a cell in the barracks?”
Ryder opens his eyes and fixes me with an amused stare.
“I wondered when that question would finally come,” he answers mildly.
“Why isn’t he with his mother?”
“Due to an unshakable belief that we are lying to him and an almost hysterical desire for ‘Uncle Tom’ and ‘Aunty Deet’,” Ryder replies. “We had several extremely uncomfortable scenes.”
“Which you didn’t expect?” I ask aghast. “Seriously—look at it from Dec’s perspective; you abduct him forcibly from his family and bring him to a strange place full of strange people, he’s afraid and all alone and you didn’t expect that he might be too traumatized and scared of you to trust you?”
Ryder kicks a loose stone with the tip of his boot and scowls.
“I didn’t think of it like that, I thought…” he stops and smiles ruefully. “To tell you the truth I wasn’t thinking of him as an individual, a person but as Dax’s son, my nephew—more as Andak property than anything else.”
“So you were completely unprepared for an angry and upset young boy.”
“Not so much unprepared as horrified,” admits Ryder candidly. “One minute he’d be fighting us with all his strength and the next he’d be crying and hysterical, it was like my worst nightmare but—worse!”
I smile at the look on his face at these remembered horrors.
“I shouldn’t laugh—poor Dec, he must have been so horribly alone.”
There is silence between us again, both of us knowing that in Dec's unhappiness we have both had a hand. For a long while I sit with my face averted, but at some slight movement on Ryder’s part I turn to face him again. My eyes collide with Ryder’s gun were it is pointed directly at my head and my mouth dries out.
“You ought to have relieved me of this the second you pulled a gun on me.”
The gun falls forward until it hangs upside down, suspended from Ryder’s crooked finger, I take it from him with unsteady hands.
“You could have had an accident, Deeta, if I had wanted to I could have put a bullet through you and told everyone back at the complex that we met an opposing tribe and you got hit. It would have been easy—no one would have known for sure if I was lying or not, and to be blunt, who except for Jan, would have cared?” his eyes, steady and earnest look straight into mine. “I don’t want to harm Tommy or Dec or any of my brothers, with the possible exception of the swine that is picking us off one by one.”
For a second there Ryder was a bit scary!
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