“I doubt it,” Layanna said. “She’s most valuable to them in Ghenisa, and I suspect that’s where she’ll be bound to next.”
“I hate to admit it, Doc,” Janx said, “but we’d have been dead without that bitch. Stuck in the jungle and surrounded by those things. Maybe she didn’t mean to, but she saved our asses.”
Hildra snorted. “Yeah. Shit. If she’d died on Activation Day, we’d be dead now, wouldn’t we?” In dawning dismay, she said, “She’s the one got us away from that big maggot, too. Fuck! Maybe saving her wasn’t a total cock-up.”
At her words, Avery felt an unexpected lift, as if a weight had been removed from his shoulders. With a start, he realized that in some strange, inexplicable way, Hildra had just forgiven him. Absolved him of allowing Sheridan to continue living.
Wordlessly, blinking in surprise (and blinking away some tears, too), he nodded to her. Thank you. Just as wordlessly, she nodded back, seeming just as surprised.
“What about the nectar?” Janx said. “We went through a lot to get it. Is it ...?”
“Soon we’ll be far enough away for me to bring over my other-self,” Layanna said. “Then I can store the nectar in an organelle until it’s time for me to use it. When the Starfish arrives.”
Avery thought, Ani, I’m coming home.
Chapter 3
Black times had come to Ghenisa, that much was obvious as soon as Avery and the others stepped off the plane at Hissig. For one, the airport was packed, as if any that could afford it were desperately fleeing by air; others must be going by bus, car, even by foot. There were only a few planes going out, and, as with Ezzez, Avery’s group had had a hard time finding one coming in. This had been a major problem, as the wave of Starfish had been getting closer every day and Avery’s group wouldn’t be able to reach the coast by the time the creatures arrived, thus unable to stop them. Then, even as the group flailed to find a connecting flight, came the day when the Starfish were due to have begun their assault—but, for some mysterious reason, they didn’t.
No one outside Ghenisa had known what was going on inside the country, but on the way back Avery’s party had heard rumors running wild of Admiral Haggarty on the warpath and fighting in the streets. Now Avery saw multitudes sitting in grave silence in the airport terminals, waiting for planes that might not come. Many stared with blank, dull faces at television screens, where a news anchor was giving an address. Without having to discuss the matter, the four paused to listen:
“... still no sign of the Prime Minister. She’s been missing for three days now, and though many reports have come in that she’s dead and that her body has been recovered, each corpse is revealed to be that of someone else. She may still be alive and in hiding. Some say she and General Hastur are together, planning to strike back when they can ...” The anchor’s eyes moved to someone off-screen, and his posture changed, becoming more rigid, and when he spoke next fear tinged his words, and also bitterness. Was someone in the studio with him censoring his report, possibly at the point of a gun? “Grand Admiral Haggarty claims he has no knowledge of …”
“Doctor Avery?”
A man grabbed Avery’s elbow. When the doctor turned to him, he saw a breathless, gaunt-faced young man, urgency in his every tic.
“Who are you?”
In a whisper, the man said, “I’m a supporter of Denaris. Please. Come with me. My associates are distracting Haggarty’s agents even now.” Darkly, he said, “They were awaiting your arrival.”
“How do we know you’re not with Haggarty?” Hildra said.
The man gave her a grim look. “The Admiral wouldn’t need subterfuge, lady. He’d simply arrest you on the spot. Or kill you. He’s taken command of the country, and he’s not subtle.”
They glanced at each other warily. “I can protect us if need be,” Layanna said, and she didn’t need to add, If this man is a liar.
They allowed the self-proclaimed supporter of the Prime Minister to usher them through back halls of the airport, being let through by, apparently, more underground supporters.
“Is it true?” Layanna said. “Has there been a coup?”
“No time for the full history,” the man said as they reached a door leading outside and took it. They were at the airport’s pick-up lane, Avery saw; few people were arriving in Hissig these days, and there were only a smattering of vehicles waiting to pick up incoming family members. Looking wildly around, wind making his hair dance like that of a madman, their guide found the car he was looking for and strode toward it at a brisk pace. The others followed, more reserved. If this was a trap, now was the time to spring it. It wasn’t until Avery saw the driver that his reservations melted away.
For, driving the automobile, was none other than Michael Denaris, the Prime Minister’s husband. Avery had only met him a few times, but they had both lived in the Parliament Building in close proximity for a couple of weeks and had had dinner and lunch together several times. Avery recognized him without question.
“Get in,” said Michael. “Quickly. I don’t know how much longer our people can distract Haggarty’s.”
They piled in, leaving the breathless young man that had fetched them to his own devices, as seemed to be expected and planned for, and were away, off into the chaos of Hissig.
“Where are we bound?” Layanna said.
“I wish I could say the Parliament Building, but Haggarty bombed it two weeks ago.”
“Gods,” said Hildra.
“It drove Gwen into hiding before ...” Looking haunted, he didn’t seem able to go on.
“We heard she was missing,” Avery supplied.
Nodding, Michael gathered himself. “We were staying in safe houses, but the last one was betrayed and we had to flee. We went to Muscud, one of the sewer settlements. Gwen got a line on Jeffers, the fellow who’d found the mutilated bodies—I believe she showed you one—and hoped he might be able to help us find the Collossum hiding down there. Yes, she told me all about it, and besides, it’s common knowledge these days. At any rate, she hoped that if she found the Collossum then General Hastur could strike it. But Hastur vanished. Gwen went looking for her with some men, and she went missing, too. That was three days ago. We haven’t seen her since.”
“That’s terrible,” Hildra said. “Shit, we’re sorry.”
Michael let out a ragged breath and nodded.
“And you’re, what, leading a resistance?” Janx asked.
“Something like that. There are many of us, and there’s fighting all over the city. I wouldn’t call myself the leader, but I am, perhaps, a leader. I’m more of a symbol than anything else, to tell you the truth.”
Avery saw barricades blocking certain streets, manned by tense-looking men and women. Trash littered road and sidewalk, and rocks or bullets had shattered countless windows so that their jagged remains gleamed like teeth. Graffiti covered walls and lampposts. Here and there bodies lay strewn near gutters and under awnings, sheets generally thrown over them, but not always.
“It’s a warzone,” Michael said. “When Haggarty made his move, assaulting the Parliament Building, people took up arms against him, or many of them. Most of them are for Gwen. The Army was on her side until the general disappeared. Now we’ve lost most of them, too, though there are a few brigades still loyal to us.”
