city of anarchy

chapter twenty-one

'More warehouses?' Holly asked.

They weaved through the quasi-roads of the industrial district, Aura leading the way. She had found a use for Eugene, who now carried the box, his curly head peering cautiously over the top to check his step.

'These ones are real warehouses,' Aura said proudly, without a trace of irony. 'Not some scouted-out abandoned junkhole like the last place. We do have standards, when we can keep them.'

The area was fairly quiet and fairly hot, the heat of the midday sun warming the concrete, asphalt and gravel that made up most of the scenery.

In patches, sometimes half-hidden behind the rusted industrial miscellany that was scattered around the place--sheets of corrugated iron, odd bits of old machinery, purposeless tanks filled with scummy rainwater, a car chassis--colourful graffiti adorned the walls. It made them brighter, giving them character beyond the greyness both ugly and interesting: confused and overlapping lines, stylised letters, unfinished images and artless scrawl: a hundred voices in each crowded, lonely space; voices overwritten, submerged, lost in the chaos.

After a while the discordant sounds of radio music and loud, irregular banging drifted through the air, or finally came into focus, and had Holly's attention moving around and about. Shortly their path opened up into what might have been called a courtyard, cars--whole, functioning cars--parked up outside a warehouse with a wide, open entrance, the shutter up, and a smoker stationed outside. From this warehouse came both the banging and the music, as well as the voices of idly socialising people.

Holly, Aura and Eugene stepped through. 'We're back!' Aura announced. 'Package delivered. I want paying.'

The joke earned its low, murmured response, affable dismissal, from those present. Holly and Eugene looked around--it was more impressive than the last place. And the number of Dark Circlers had increased.

Vann and another man looked up from their game of pool, a fully-fledged pool table serving as the centrepiece of the large space. Around it at a spacious distance from each other were sofas, new looking; a small table and chairs for a game of cards; a weights bench with dumbbells; and the large, old-fashioned stereo from which the music issued.

All of this only occupied what seemed like one half of the warehouse; the other half, and the source of the loud banging, was concealed behind a wall of chipboard that reached all the way up to the rafters and was plastered with bold, miscellaneous warning signs of every surely irrelevant description. The door, a small rectangle of chipboard on hinges that was cut out of the wall, was open a crack, but Holly could not see in.

Vann came over to greet them and took the box from Eugene's hands. 'You didn't open it?' he asked.

Aura shrugged. 'Weren't sure if that's what you wanted,' she said. 'We picked up the right thing, didn't we? Feels kinda light.'

'I'm sure it is,' Vann replied, turning his back to them and ripping it open. Then he let loose something that sounded very much like a giggle. 'This is perfect,' he said.

'Don't we get to see it, then?' Aura asked, trying to peer around him.

'Well, you had your chance,' Vann said, grinning in his usual way and walking off. 'Now you can just wait until the big reveal,' he called back.

'Big reveal? When?'

'Tonight.' He took the box into the secret half and closed the door too swiftly for anything to be seen.

* * *

Hermes and the nurse shuffled through to the living room and peered briefly around, the nurse sliding the ID she had just flashed back into her white pocket.

Bimba, Jella's self-proclaimed friend and flatmate, a pale, skinny girl with white-blond hair clipped in a comfort-of-your-own-home mess, watched them with her arms crossed across her pyjama top.

'I haven't seen her for weeks,' she said, as they took in the sofa and television set and then went on into Jella's unlocked room. There was not much to see.

'She'd been acting really strangely and we made her get help,' Bimba said. 'Has she done something mad?'

'Don't worry about it,' the nurse said, coming back out into the kitchen with a sigh. Hermes was fidgeting, thumbing his newly received gun in a holster hidden under his shirt, and edging towards the door.

Bimba watched him critically. 'He doesn't look much like an Agent,' she said.

The nurse tried to glare at him privately. His eyes drifted past her on their roam of the kitchen, but failed to connect.

'I am an Agent,' she said eventually, and pointedly. 'That's all you need to know. If your friend Turnfly shows up here, contact me immediately on this number.' She handed Bimba a card. 'Thank you for your time.'

They left without another word.

'You could at least try to look the part,' she said to him outside in the corridor. 'I can't honestly say I know what Avgi saw in you.' When he looked at her blankly and did not otherwise respond, she said, 'I don't think it's worth going to another friend's house. Not if that girl in there was her closest, and I think we can trust her word if she went on record as the referent for the close scrutiny of psychiatric help. To do that, she surely couldn't be involved.'

'Could still be hiding her, as a friend,' Hermes said, clear from his tone that he did not put much stock in the idea.

The nurse agreed with a shake of her head. 'If she wanted to hide, I doubt she'd go to the person who basically turned her in against her will, however well intentioned it may have been. I say we now go straight to Goodpatron's, on the off chance that she dropped by. After that, our chances of getting her back dwindle significantly.'

Hermes was already losing his reserve of enthusiasm for the enterprise. 'And then what?' he asked.

'And then,' replied the nurse, 'I don't know what.'

* * *

For a while, Holly and Eugene just sat and watched. Holly's curiosity was too piqued for her to try and mingle with the other Dark Circlers, and she doubted they would be very forthcoming anyway.

Only a few of them had ventured through to the other side of the chipboard wall; she did not know how much the others knew, but she got the distinct impression that she and Eugene were being sidelined once again.

When Vann next came out from the secret half, she launched herself on the sofa and went to intercept him before he could make a beeline to his next task. He looked somewhat surprised to see her stepping in front of his path.

'What is it?' he said.

'I want to help,' she replied.

'We've got everything covered, I think,' Vann told her, raising a curious eyebrow. 'But thanks for the offer.'

'Can't you at least tell me what's happening tonight?'

'I could, Holly. But I don't want to ruin the surprise. You'll like it, though. Just hang in there.'

Holly walked back to her seat. Her impatience was not much quelled--she grumbled to herself at the thought of this next thing, after everything that had happened, being treated like a surprise birthday party or some such thing--but she was intrigued all the same, enough to grudgingly let them continue their work.

'This is exciting,' Eugene said, sounding a little nervous.

After only a second, Holly was on her feet again. 'Let's see if we can claim that pool table,' she said. 'Up for a game?'

Eugene nodded and followed her. 'Prepare to be annihilated,' he said.

Aura came up to them on the way. 'I know what's in the box,' she said in a low voice, smirking conspiratorially and sidling past.

Holly stopped and turned. 'What?' she asked.

Aura turned on her heel. 'Capes!'

'Capes?'

'Red capes. Loads of them.'

* * *

The nurse stopped in front of the reception desk and flashed her ID again. 'Agency business,' she said. 'Is Dr Cabbot in? We need to speak to him.'

The two receptionists glanced at each other. 'He hasn't signed in today,' one of them said. 'But sometimes he's in a hurry and forgets. His office is, er...down that corridor and on the right.'

The nurse followed her swivelled pointing. 'Thank you,' she said, and to Hermes, standing with his hands in his pockets behind her, 'Come on.'

The floor was very shiny along the corridor, shiny enough that Hermes could see his murky reflection, silhouetted by strips of bright light. He nurse's shoes squeaked as she walked.

Dr Cabbot's office was behind a door with frosted glass and his name in black lettering. The nurse knocked. After getting no reply, she tried the door.

'Locked,' she said.

Hermes looked around. His eyes stopped on a fire extinguisher attached to the wall. He ripped it off its fixture, carried it over and brought it down hard on the glass, attracting the attention of everyone in the corridor as it smashed.

'What are you--?' The nurse pursed her lips, spun around and waved her ID to ward off spectators. She looked over her shoulder. 'Are you in?'

Hermes unlocked it from the other side. 'Yes,' he said.

She backed into the room after him.

'What are we looking for?' he asked.

'Clues to where he might be,' she said. 'Look for his home address.'

'Couldn't we ask for that at reception?'

'This coming from Mr Smash-happy.'

Hermes switched on Cabbot's computer and started rifling through some files on a shelf as it loaded. The nurse perused the autodial options on his desk phone, pressed one and placed it to her ear.

After a few seconds, somebody picked up. 'Hello?' came a voice.

'Dr Cabbot?'

'Speaking. Who is this?'

'This is Agent Carmella. We stopped by your office, doctor, but you don't appear to be at work.'

'Oh, I am terribly sorry, Agent; I did call in sick today. I'm afraid I've come down with a bout of the 'flu.' He cleared his throat. 'What can I help you with?'

'I would like to know if you have seen Jella Turnfly recently. A patient of yours.'

A slight pause. 'Yes, I am aware she is my patient. But I haven't seen her for several days, since you took her out of my hands.'

Carmella frowned. Cabbot waited on the line.

'Are you sure?' said the Agent.

'Yes, of course I'm sure!' Cabbot snapped irritably. 'Influenza does not affect my memory.'

'I see,' said the nurse. 'Well, thank you anyway, doctor. Sorry to have bothered you.'

He hung up. She placed the phone down thoughtfully.

'No luck?' asked Hermes.

Carmella sighed. 'Let's get his address from reception,' she said. 'I think we need to pay him a visit.'

* * *

'No hitches?' Vann asked, potting another red ball and moving around the table to line up for the next. 'Everything smooth?'

The black-eyed man played opposite him, his smiley-face shirt and bare arms smeared with oil from his mysterious work. 'I'm nearly done,' he said. 'Just a few more tweaks. Then we can start testing, though obviously if things don't go as planned straight off the mark the whole thing gets pretty risky.'

Everyone present was doing their best to listen in, though they tried half-heartedly to make it look like they were not. The men at the pool table did not speak loudly and their words were not intended for an audience, but neither did they seem to mind the attention.

Holly and Eugene, having finished their game and stepped back, still stood watching closely.

Vann took his shot. 'We're going to need a getaway vehicle,' he said, watching it go in. 'One that nobody will notice.'

The other's expression was grimly set, either in thought or at the skill of his opponent. 'Just one?' he said eventually.

'Yes,' Vann replied.

The black-eyed man nodded, apparently understanding the request.

'A car probably won't do it,' Vann continued. 'A bike might, if it doesn't make too much noise.'

'I have a scooter,' Holly cut in.

Vann glanced her way, looking amused. 'Do you now?' he said. 'And do you have it at a convenient location?'

Holly nodded. 'I hid it after the police got Angus. It was locked up in a bike rack somewhere around Happy Street, the shopping place, not far from the payphones. I don't know if it'll still be there, but'--she stuck her hand in her pocket--'here's the key to the padlock.'

Vann took the key. Then he leaned on his cue and surveyed her. 'Scooter's not a bad idea,' he said. He turned back to his game. 'I'll ask around; see if anybody else here's got one. If not, I'll get France to check out Happy Street. Thanks, Miss Hazzler.'

Holly attempted a controlled smile. 'No problem,' she said.

* * *

They crept in the back way, through the garden gate, and nestled in the flowerbeds below the kitchen window. Both heads rose incrementally, pressed against the squares of glass, and peered through into the house.

They could see into the kitchen and beyond an open door into the hallway, where the late afternoon sun filtered through the glass of the front door and lit up the carpet with stretched geometric shapes.

'Back door,' whispered Carmella, nodding in the appropriate direction. They waddled along the flowerbed, hands on their holsters, until they were clear of the window and could stand upright again. The nurse rubbed her back.

Hermes took a few steps in reverse and looked like he was making for a run at the door with his good leg. As he tested its strength against his own weight, Carmella lifted a hand to stop him.

'Wait,' she said. 'I have a lock pick. Something I would have used earlier had you given me the chance.'

Hermes sidestepped to the window again and peered around while she went to work. There was a click; the nurse exhaled triumphantly and gently pressed down on the handle.

They pushed through into the kitchen, stationed themselves on either side of the next door and then slid along the walls, listening carefully. They then paused at the living room door, which was wide open--nobody inside.

The stairs creaked as they went up, hurrying their pace with the unavoidable noise.

Dr Cabbot stepped out of his study just at the top and froze when he saw them. They stopped before him, guns drawn and pointing.

'You're not looking too bad,' Agent Carmella said. 'Seems like a very mild flu case.'

Then she nearly lost her balance and fell to the banister when Hermes suddenly struck out and cracked the doctor across the face. He hit the floor and yelped, lifting his hands. Carmella looked stunned.

Hermes pointed the gun down at him. 'Where is she?' he said.

* * *

'Ladies and gentlemen, gather round. This is going to be a big one.'

Everybody crowded around the pool table as Vann unfurled a large building plan and smoothed it out with his hands.

'This,' he announced, 'is Police HQ. We are going to ransack it. Turn the place inside out. Generally put on a good show. A retaliatory strike, if you will.'

Holly had her eyes fixed on him. She felt herself shiver, a prickle down the back of her head and spine.

'Now, pretty obviously, this place is heavily guarded. The glass façade may look very open and inviting, but there are hidden snipers on the roof, as well as high security in the lobby. We are not going to be able to simply walk in the front way, at least not straightaway.

'This'--His finger slid across the paper to a large, squareish space behind the building--'is the Yard. It doesn't look like much--a view from the outside won't show much more than a few rusted old outhouses and a lot of dirt. But it serves its purpose as a served space: a good number of feet below it, we have determined, is a very secretive and subterranean prison.

'There is no way of getting into the Yard by any conventional means. The fence is very tall, very strong and greatly electrified, potentially too great a risk of endurance even for us, and we'd be jittering ducks if any of the snipers wanted to take a potshot. The only way to get in is through the back door of HQ--but we're going to do things the wrong way around. Salvo is going to show you how. Salvo?'

The congregation waited patiently as a small team removed the chipboard wall section by section. The black-eyed man, Salvo, stood wiping his hands on a rag before what looked like a giant metallic tube, resting at a diagonal angle on a huge, hemispherical base. Salvo moved towards it and used a pair of levers to swivel it around on this base, rotating it three hundred and sixty degrees and tilting it backwards and forwards.

'This is a cannon,' Salvo said. 'You get on here.' He pointed to a step at the base of the tube. 'We point and shoot. If all goes well, and it should according to my calculations, you should land right in the middle of the Yard. They won't see us coming.'

'In the Yard,' said Vann, and everybody turned back to him, 'you get behind the outhouses for cover from the snipers and take out any officers who might be lurking there. Then you make your way inside, fast as you can. Split into groups: a few of you make your way up to the roof and take out the snipers; those of you on ground level open the front door for the rest of us. Then, and most importantly, we set the prisoners free. All of them. Then we blow the place up and get out of there. Understood?'

The Dark Circlers nodded in awe. Some of them whooped. Holly felt herself shiver again, more violently, at the unreality of it; Eugene simply stared.

'And finally,' said Vann, his grin broader than ever, 'we must all wear capes.' He slid the open box across the floor with his foot. 'We are going to do this with style.'

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