The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (The Tribe) (25 page)

“There must be a hundred streakers in there,” Duoro exclaimed. “There’s only supposed to be fifty in existence anywhere. That’s all the Council of Primes approved!”

“Yes,” Willis agreed, “and since anyone who produces more is in violation of the Advanced Weaponry Accords, it begs the question, how did Rose even get these manufactured?”

The spider went scuttling past, unaware of the disaster it had almost caused. Connor imparted the conclusion that we had all reached weeks ago. “I don’t believe the Chief Administrator is doing this alone. He must have allies, similarly minded people who are also willing to break accords.”

There was shocked silence. It was broken by Duoro pronouncing excitedly, “I
knew
there were conspiracies in the government! Didn’t I tell you, Belle? Didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did, and it seems that you were right. Although I have to believe it’s the work of a few malcontents. Surely there couldn’t be that many Citizens willing to risk endangering the Balance.”

The spider disappeared into the dark beyond me. I started to creep forward, wanting to see what was happening, as Connor spoke again. “What I’m worried about is what the Chief Administrator and his friends might do with these weapons if he
doesn’t
win the Prime election. There’s a chance he might try to take over the government by force.”

“It would never work!” Duoro objected. “The people wouldn’t stand for it.”

“If the circumstances were right,” Willis responded thoughtfully, “the people might not even notice it was happening. Do you remember a few months back, when the whole of Gull City panicked over those snake-shaped clouds?”

“Yes, and it was ridiculous. They were just clouds!”

“Jeremy, there were enforcers everywhere for those few weeks, and no one made a fuss because everyone wanted to be protected from the Serpent. If Rose could manufacture some looming Illegal threat, Citizens would beg him to bring his enforcers to the city to protect them. Once he was there, it might prove very difficult to get him to leave again.”

Wow
. She’d put that scenario together as quickly as Ember had when we’d first learned of the weapons stash. I reached the railing in time to see Duoro start to pace back and forth. “We
have
to find a way to stop him, Belle!”

“If you took a piece of rhondarite back to the city,” Connor said, offering them the suggestion we’d worked out beforehand, “a simple composition test would show that it didn’t come from any of the mines allowed under the Three Mines Accords. That should be enough to prove some of what’s going on here.”

“It’s a good start,” Willis agreed. “But if Neville’s got allies in the government who could cover this up, we might need more. Some publicity would be useful. I think Friends of Detainees would help, don’t you, Jeremy?”

He stopped pacing, his face lighting up. “Yes, and the smaller groups, too. We’ll contact them all — Citizens against Detention, Mothers of Illegals, Free the Children — and by the time we’re through, there’ll be such an outcry that the government will
have
to take action against Rose.” Turning to Connor, he added, “You can come with us. Let people know what you’ve seen in this place.”

No, he can’t!
But Connor was already shaking his head. “I can’t be seen with you tonight. I’ll make my own way out once you’re gone. Before then, Neville must have no reason to suspect that anyone has given you any information.”

Willis frowned. “He’s sure to know something’s wrong. We’ve been missing for a while now.”

“Yes, but it would have been very difficult for you to stumble across any of this on your own, and provided his suspicions are not raised, the Chief Administrator is going to be anxious to evacuate you before you ask questions about the source of the fire.” She looked questioningly at him, and he said, “It started in the rhondarite processing plant.”

A delighted smile spread across Jeremy Duoro’s face. “In
that
case, he’ll hustle us back to Cambergull as quickly as he can. All we need to do is act dumb. Fortunately, I’m quite good at that.”

Belle Willis stifled a laugh and held out her hand to Connor. “Thank you.”

He shook it firmly while Duoro clapped him on the shoulder. “Come and find us once you get out of here.”

“I will,” Connor lied.

The little group broke apart. Willis walked over to the rhondarite, grabbed a small piece and concealed it in her pocket, then made her way to the door with Duoro beside her. Connor was the last to leave, and before he followed the Inspectorate out, he paused, staring up at where he knew I was hidden. I reached through the railing to give him a quick thumbs-up signal, letting him know I was okay.

He nodded in relieved acknowledgment. Then he shut the door, and I was alone.

I counted to two hundred, giving Connor time to get the Inspectorate out of the area. Then I ran downstairs, pausing to take a streaker from the tub. I hated the things, but I’d promised Connor not to go out unarmed. So, exactly like he’d showed me, I checked that the safety switch was on, making sure the weapon couldn’t go off by accident, before shoving it into my pocket and slipping into the night.

Outside was another world, one of eerily empty spaces, hazy air, and the far-off screeches of saurs. The sky was all lit up with the angry glow of the fire, and I could smell the acrid tang of the smoke. It had a nasty odor to it, which was no doubt due to the small store of chemicals in the processing plant. Ember had warned us that some of them were toxic, though she said they shouldn’t hurt us, not in low quantities. Still, it was making me feel queasy, and I tried to take shallow breaths as I hurried through the center. The composite buildings around me seemed to shine faintly orange, reflecting the flames, and that, plus the soft night lighting, was the only illumination I had to guide me. But I’d spent weeks memorizing the plans of this place, and I moved without hesitation, darting from one shadow to the next.

It felt strange to be drifting around here without being collared and watched. I had a sudden, insane desire to do something silly, like go running into an open space and twirl in circles, just because I could. Instead, I skulked onward, until I was entering a familiar building. My chest immediately went tight and my mouth dry, as if my body remembered how I’d suffered in this place.
Stop it, Ash! You put yourself into that chair.
That didn’t seem to make any difference, so I tried to focus on what I had to do.

We’d always planned to take the machine, both to prevent it from being used on anyone else and because Ember wanted to take it apart to see how it worked. But that had been before I knew the machine was really a dog, and I had other plans now. It seemed terrible to think of a dog-spirit being confined to a motionless box. Ember had made Georgie a mechanical spider once, which was still clicking creepily around the caves somewhere, so I didn’t see why she couldn’t build a mechanical canine body to match a canine soul.
I think I’ll call him Blackie.
Or maybe Howler. Or Tooth.

When I reached the machine room, I gave the box a reassuring pat and pulled out the cords that shackled it to the silver hoop and the screen. I hugged it to me as I raced it back through the building, feeling giddy with relief to be leaving this part of the center behind me forever.

Then I rounded a corner, and came face-to-face with Miriam Grey.

For an airless second, the two of us stared at each other. She spotted the box, and her face went red with rage. “That’s mine!” Grey leaped and grabbed hold of the machine, trying to wrest it from my grasp. I clung on, and we struggled wildly, careening back and forth across the corridor. She shoved me against the wall, and I shoved right back, jerking the box sideways to shake her loose. Something went clattering across the floor. The streaker! We both lunged for it. But I’d had to drop the box, putting me a precious second behind her, and Grey reached it first. She snatched it up, flicked the safety switch off, then swung around and pointed it at my head. I froze, gazing into her empty green eyes as she hissed in her high-pitched, whiny voice, “You tried to
steal
my machine!” She sounded like a kid who’d had her toy taken away, and I knew that without Neville here to control her, she was unstable enough to be capable of anything.

This woman is crazy, and I am dead.

Somebody came barreling down the corridor behind her. Grey started to turn toward the approaching footsteps, and I saw my chance. I charged forward and grabbed her wrist just as the new person got to her. Grey collapsed, and I tore the weapon from her nerveless fingers, then scuttled backward and pointed it at —
Wentworth!

I stared, gaping in astonished disbelief as Rae Wentworth lowered an unconscious Miriam Grey to the ground.

“Wh-what . . .?” I stuttered. “I mean, how . . .? What did you
do
to her?”

“I used my ability to make her sleep.”

“I didn’t know Menders could do that!”

Wentworth shrugged. She wasn’t looking so good: her nut-brown complexion was sallow, and her dark eyes had lost their cheery sparkle. “I don’t know if all Menders can do it, either,” she answered. “But I can Mend whatever requires healing, short of death. And you’ll find that almost everyone needs more sleep.” Her gaze dropped to the streaker. “Are you going to shoot me, Ashala?”

I hadn’t even realized I was still pointing the thing in her direction, and I let my arm fall. I wasn’t going to kill Wentworth, and I couldn’t see how threatening her would solve anything, either, especially since she’d be in trouble herself over this. Grey wasn’t going to take too kindly to being knocked out, and the reason Wentworth had done it was to save my life.
Again.
“No, I’m not going to shoot you.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did,” she said bleakly. “I know you were telling me the truth.”

“Um, you do?”

“There was an enforcer in the hospital. He told me
everything
. About how you were being tortured on the machine, and how they’d already killed one Illegal and wouldn’t hesitate to kill another. He said they’d kill him, too, for what he knew.”

Evan. Briony’s enforcer. What was it Connor had said, that Evan had gone a little crazy and had to be sedated? It sounded like he’d woken up just as nutty as when they’d knocked him out, if he’d spilled all that stuff to Wentworth. Only I didn’t have time to waste thinking about Evan now, not when I had more urgent problems. It was becoming rapidly clear that there were a worrisome number of people running around the center, and Connor was out there somewhere with the Inspectorate.

I flicked the streaker’s safety switch back on and shoved the weapon into my pocket. “Is Neville still with the enforcers? Fighting the fire?”

“Yes, as far as I know.”

“And who else is inside? Besides you?”

Wentworth looked puzzled by the question. “A couple of my staff. We wanted to fetch some medical supplies, in case anyone needed treatment.”

“Is that all?”

It seemed to dawn on her why I might be concerned. Her brow cleared as she replied, “Yes, that’s all. There’s no one to stop you from, ah, getting away. Everyone is outside the gates, and they’re supposed to stay there.”

That was a relief. Although Wentworth and her staff had broken the rules, and they weren’t the only ones. She must have been thinking the same thing, because she added, “I don’t know what Miriam was doing. That’s why I followed her when I saw her in the center. After everything that enforcer told me, it seemed suspicious.”

Grey was worried that her precious machine would get all burned up
. I opened my mouth to ask how long we had until Grey woke up. Before I could get a word out, Wentworth said, “I helped that enforcer. I gave him a doctor’s robe and let him go. It would have been easy for him to slip out the gates.”

Wow.
Maybe Evan hadn’t been so crazy to talk to her.

“I should’ve have helped you, too,” she told me remorsefully. “I’m sorry, Ashala! I didn’t know what was happening. I swear I didn’t know.”

Yeah
,
but you should have.
But she did seem genuinely sorry. And if her haggard appearance was anything to go by, she was punishing herself pretty hard for not acting sooner.

“Well, you’ve saved my life three times now. I guess that makes us okay.” Then I thought of all the other Illegals who might one day need her help. “Don’t be fooled by someone like Neville Rose again.”

“I promise you,” she answered, a determined glint in her eyes. “I won’t. And you’ve got to
go
— get out of this place while you can.”

“Grey’s seen me, and she probably saw you, too, by the way. If she wakes up . . .”

Wentworth shook her head. “She’ll sleep for a while yet, but you’re right. We can’t have her telling anyone you’re escaping.” She gazed down at the unconscious doctor. “There’s a drug I can administer. Harmless, but it’ll keep her out until tomorrow, and her memory will be very foggy when she wakes up.”

Seemed like a plan. “Okay. Won’t you have to get her to the hospital, though? Or I guess you could bring the drug and give it to her here. No one would find her until the morning.”