Landfall (The Reach, Book 2) (47 page)

When he lowered his hand, the woman on the bed was staring right at him.

“Tosia?” he said gently.

Tosia showed no emotion as she looked upon the smouldering Redman who towered abo
ve her.  Lazarus wondered if
perhaps her senses had already fled, if she was so close to death that she could no longer recognise anything or anyone around her.

He wondered if this whole quest had been in vain.

He cleared his throat.  “Greetings.  I am–”

“I know who you are,” Tosia said in a voice that was surprisingly
lucid and full of vigour.  There was also more than a hint of bitterness in her tone.  “You’re the one who corrupted my Edyta.”

Laz
arus shook his head.  “That can
not possibly be the truth.”

“Why not?”

“Because your Edyta, your little girl… she was never corrupted at all.”

Tosia pressed her gummy lips together, discontented.  “Why are you here?”

“I came to give you something–”

“I don’t want your empty gifts,” Tosia said, turning away.  Her lips trembled as her stony exterior began to crumble.  “You destroyed everything I once cherished.  There is nothing you could give me to repay that.”

“Please, Tosia.  I came at great peril to see you–”

“To what end?” she snapped, tears in her eyes.  “Did you come to kill me?  To finally finish the thing you started?”

“No.  I came to bring you the truth.  If you will allow me, I would lay it before you.”

Tosia’s eyes fell upon the diary in his hand for the first time, and her eyes widened in recognition.

“Why, that’s… Edyta…”

“You remember this?”

“Remember it?  Of course I do.  I was the one who gave it to her.”  She reached out a trembling hand and gently took it from his g
rasp, then stared at the powder-
blue cover.  She brushed a flaking piece of charcoal from its edge, then opened it to the first page.

Her face crumbled at the sight of the cursive script within, her daughter’s handwriting.  Her eyes flitted across the words as she silently began to read.

Lazarus already knew the first paragraph off by heart:
Today is my twelfth birthday, and my mother gave me this diary just a few minutes ago.  She gave me a beautiful gold pen to write with as well.  I’m not sure what to say, so for now this is all.  Maybe tomorrow will bring something worth writing about.  Yours truly, Edyta.

The old woman flicked several pages ahead, her eyes full of wonder, then a few pages more.  Lazarus watched her silently for minutes on end as she took it all in, knowing that danger
might
be closing in on him and not really caring.  This was where he needed to be, right here with Tosia.  Nothing else mattered.

Soon Tosia had moved on to the
last half of the diary, where the entries regarding Lazarus and Edyta’s burgeoning romance had been described in great detail.  She seemed to take her time with these, poring over them word for word, and then eventually she lifted her head.

“I can sense the love, the joy in her words,” Tosia said, her voice thick with emotion.  “It’s like… poetry of sorts, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.”

“She always had such a lyrical way of talking about the things that she loved.  That’s why I gave her the diary.  I didn’t want those thoughts, those words to be lost to the wind.”  She ran her fingers across the page in wonder.  “Her love for you was real.  I see that in every word she wrote about you.”  Tosia looked up at him.  “She adored you.”

As he stood there, stony faced, tears streamed down Lazarus’ cheeks, carving a path through the dirt and the blood and the grit.

With these tears I wash away my iniquity
, he thought.

He nodded.  “Yes.  And I, her.”

“Those things they said about her… they weren’t true, were they?”

“No.  They used Edyta to hurt me.  They dragged her name through the mud as they attempted to destroy me, but even to the end her love was pure.  She never gave up on me.”

“How could they do this to my little girl?” Tosia said, turning back to the diary.  There were tears on her cheeks now as well.  “How could they say those things?”

Lazarus thought of the Redmen who had sullied her name, their cruelty and their hatred.  He pictured each on
e of their faces in his
mind, the men beside whom he had once fought.  Men who he had once called friends, brothers.

“They are wicked men.  Hateful men,” Lazarus said.

“Someone should make those men pay,” Tosia said, her tears giving way to anger.  “Someone should make those men pay for what they did to my Edyta.”  She looked up at him again.  “To
your
Edyta.”

Lazarus stared back at her, and now the tears had stopped.

“Yes.  Someone should.”

46

Knile sat in the chair and watched as Roman lifted the mug of broth to his lips.  He blew away the steam and slurped at it once, smacking his lips and frowning down at it sceptically.

“Sorry,” Knile said.  “It’s the best I could do on short notice.”

Roman took another sip and nodded.  “It’s fine.  Thank you.”

Knile glanced around at the sparsely furnished room to where the sleeping pallets lay in the corner.  Roman had lain there for a long time after Knile had brought him down from the Infirmary, too weak to even sit up.  Now he seemed to be making progress, at least, sitting at the table and attempting to eat.

Small steps
, Knile reminded himself.

Hidden away in a dingy part of Gaslight, their apartment was a little more austere than what Knile would have preferred, but what it lacked in refinement,
it made up for in convenience.  It had been rented to them, no questions asked, by the little old lady landlord, a woman who had the look and manner of someone who made these kinds of arrangements on a regular basis.

It was quiet, out of the way, somewhere for Roman to regain his strength.  That was all Knile needed.

Knile’s holophone rang again, and he slid it across the desk so that he could see the display.  A moment later he pushed it away in disgust.

“Talia’s number again?” Roman said quietly.

“Yeah,” he said, bristling.  “I’m not going to give that bastard Emil the satisfaction of answering.  I’m sure he just wants to gloat about killing Talia anyway.”

“Don’t you want to at least vent at him?  Scream your lungs out, tell him you’re going to have your revenge or something?”  Roman’s eyes were glistening.  “She deserves that at least.”

“She deserves more than that,” Knile said.  “Much more.  But right now, we have to assume Emil knows we escaped.  Why else would he be calling?”

“So?”

“So, I don’t want that hacker of his tracing our location.  If I answer, there’s a chance he could do that.”  He reached out and clasped Roman’s forearm.  “We’re going to get him back for this, Roman.  I swear to you.  He’ll pay for what he’s done.  We just have to do it smart.”

The phone rang again, and Roman squeezed his eyes shut as if pained by the sound of it.

“Just turn it off if you won’t answer,” he said.

Knile reached out to do just that, but then his hand froze in mid-air.  It was not a call, it seemed, but a message – a message with a photograph attached.

On the display Knile saw an image of Talia’s face, battered and bruised but very much alive, a pleading look in her eyes.  There was something else in her eyes, as well.  Elation?  Hope?  Not the emotions Knile would have expected to see if Emil still had a gun pointed at her head.

Another ruse?
Knile thought. 
Is Emil trying to trick me?

He stared at Talia’s face for a moment longer, then snatched the holophone up and initiated a video call.

Roman looked up sharply.  “What are you doing?”

Before Knile could answer, Talia’s dirt-smeared face appeared on the screen, and at the sight of him, tears began to spill down her cheeks.

“Thank god,”
she gasped. 
“You really
are
still alive.”

Roman staggered up from his chair, knocking it over in the process, as he manoeuvred himself behind Knile in order to see more clearly.

“Talia?” Roman said, disbelieving, while Knile simply gaped at her.

“Hey there, handsome,”
she said, her voice cracking with emotion. 
“How are you feeling?”

“Good,” he said.  “Better, seeing you.”

“What’s going on?” Knile said.  “Where’s Emil?”

“There was an attack.  Capper and Crumb and their cronies busted in here right about the time we last spoke to you.  In the confusion I got away, but Emil was killed in the fight.”

“Holy shit.  Got what he deserved,” Roman muttered.

“What about Capper?” Knile said.

Talia smiled. 
“We don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

Silvestri appeared over Talia’s shoulder looking pleased with himself.

“Happy family reunion, I see,”
he said.

“Thanks to you,” Knile said.  “We couldn’t have done it without you, Silvestri.”

“I’m going to want to hear the whole story about what happened to you up there, Knile,”
Silvestri said,
“but there’s one thing I can’t wait for you to tell me.”

“Which is?”

“How on Earth did you get past the Redmen Emil sent after you?”

Knile smiled.  “All I can say is, don’t ever get on the wrong side of Aron Lazarus.  You’ve seen him in the flesh, so you probably know that already.”  He glanced back at Talia.  “How did you know we survived?”

“Aksel saw you getting back into the elevators, Knile.  He–”

“Emil’s hacker?” Knile said, astonished.  “You still trust that kid?”

Silvestri lowered his voice and stepped closer
.  “He’s a good man, Knile.  He was just doing what he was told.  It was Emil you can thank for sending the Redmen after you, not Aksel.”

“I think he’s right, Knile,”
Talia said. 
“After things calmed down I went to find him to beat the shit out of him, but he was aghast at what he’d been forced to do.”

“Yeah, okay,” Knile said, not entirely placated.  “What about the rest of Skybreach?  What are they doing now?”

“Skybreach is finished, I’m afraid,”
Silvestri said, despondent. 
“When Emil turned on you,
they all saw a side of him that was… unsavoury, to say the least.  Most have either left or are gathering their things in preparation to do so.  I’ve spoken to many of them, and to the last they feel cheated and disillusioned by what Emil has done.”
  Silvestri bowed his head. 
“Skybreach is fractured, leaderless.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” Knile said.

Silvestri looked up at him sharply. 
“Why not?”

“Emil’s intentions toward me were warped, but his vision of Skybreach was pure,” Knile said.  “He was doing the right thing, wouldn’t you say?  We need to change the system if people like ourselves have any chance of leaving.”

Silvestri nodded. 
“I would agree with that.”

“So why not follow through with it?  Emil told me that he’d brought together some of the best minds on the planet to work for him.  Is that true?”

“Yes, I believe it is.”

“So let’s not squander this opportunity.  Take control, Silvestri.  Make them believe again.  Let’s make Skybreach a reality.”

Silvestri stood silently for a few moments, then smiled again.

“You’re a persuasive man, aren’t you?”
  He glanced around as other members of Skybreach filtered past. 
“I don’t know if it’s going to work.  In fact, I doubt it will, but I’ll talk to them again, see if I can’t change their minds.”

“Good.”  Knile placed a hand on Roman’s shoulder.  “Roman and I are going to lay low for a few days at least, until he’s able to walk again.  After that we’ll find a way to come down and meet up with you again.”

“No,”
Silvestri said adamantly. 
“If we’re going to do this, let’s stop playing around.  We’ll organise IDs and gather whatever gear we can salvage, and then we’ll come and find you in the Reach.”
He nodded emphatically. 
“Let’s step up to the next level.”

“Sure,” Knile said, returning his smile.  “Let’s do that.”

Talia directed the camera back to herself, her face positively glowing.