city of anarchy
chapter six
When next morning Holly rolled around into the world of waking again, entirely too similarly to how she had done the day before, her head ached and her stomach felt like it was eating itself. She vaguely remembered being sedated. She was tied to an old wooden chair in a small rectangular room with dusty light coming in through small, grubby windows. Before her was a door, closed. The room was something between a utility room and a cupboard: the floor was rough and concrete and the walls were of chipped and crumbling plaster, against which a few miscellaneous items were propped: some gas cannisters, an old washing machine, a rake...
Holly glanced deviously at each in turn. She could blow up the cannisters somehow, or she could use the rake to...to...well, she could decide once she got there. She flexed her shoulders and began a very intentful wriggle, assuming fully the role of someone on an important mission. The chair legs hopped and danced loudly; the ancient metal joints that held the thing together rattled in complaint at its abuse. The chair began to turn in a vaguely rakewardly direction and then, with Holly still on it, fell onto its side.
She scowled. The plan that had so much potential was thwarted.
The door opened, presumably because Holly had been making too much noise. A pair of denim-covered legs appeared in her skewed vision as she tried to look up. 'She's awake!' called a voice that she recognised. The girl continued to scowl as two hands righted the chair and she found herself looking at the taller of the men who had assailed her the night before.
'Let me go,' she said.
The man's expression looked troubled, but he didn't answer her. Instead, he waited for his friend, the fashionable tramp with the candle-flame shaped hair, to enter with an infuriatingly casual stroll. He leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets. The other distractedly scratched his cheek.
'Bring the other one in, Dorz.'
The tall man sighed, grabbed the gun from the table in the small hallway beyond and lumbered wearily away. While they waited, Holly challenged the skinny man to a match of eyes. He stared impassively back.
Then Angus was led into the room, his hands bound, and told with a vague gesture of the gun to go and stand in the corner. Angus had a black eye and looked at Holly resentfully. Dorz passed the gun to his friend and retrieved a chair for Angus to sit on.
The tramp looked at them both intently. He turned to Holly. 'We need to know what you found out last night,' he said.
'Who are you?' Holly replied.
'What did you find?' he repeated.
Holly glared at him.
'Look, maybe they didn't find anything...'
'Shut up!' the tramp snapped, causing a look of irritation to enter the taller man's face, although he said nothing else. Holly was poked in the chest with the snout of the gun. 'I won't keep asking.'
'Oh good.'
With a click, the skinny man pulled back the hammer of the gun and placed the gun to her head.
'Russ...' warned Dorz.
Angus stared as the man stood there with the weapon in his outstretched arm. His scarf was wrapped thickly around his neck and made his pointed head appear disproportionately small.
'Fine, I'll tell you what I found,' said Holly, and a crafty look appeared on her face as she continued, 'I found massively incriminating evidence! You did it, didn't you?' She looked up along the gun snout. 'You were the ones who blew up that building!'
Russ pressed it harder. 'What evidence?' he demanded. 'What did you find?'
'I found...a chest,' she said.
'What?' said Russ.
'In which,' she said, rapidly improvising, 'there was a carefully folded garment, which upon closer inspection I found to be--'
'What are you talking about?' asked Russ, bemused.
'--a t-shirt.' She paused, savouring the precarious silence that followed. 'Your name was on the label,' she added. 'And on the front it said "I DID IT" in big, red letters.'
Angus blinked slowly. Russ' face dropped into a deep scowl. He did not take the gun from Holly's head.
'Russ,' said Dorz, 'I think we need to talk this over. Let's tie the boy up and leave them for a bit, eh?' After a few strained seconds, in which Russ did not take his eyes off Holly, his arm then dropped to his side and he walked out of the room. Dorz fetched more cord and secured Angus to the chair before the two of them were left alone.
Beans yawned, stretched and leaned back in his chair. His eyes remained on the computer screen on the desk in front of him which he watched without much interest. He languidly rubbed a forearm, the sleeves of his pale blue shirt rolled up past the elbow. The shirt was not tucked into his trousers, the button of his collar was not done up, and his unkempt brown hair stuck out in a style of deliberate and exaggerated neglect.
This particular room, a vast room supported by concrete pillars on the seventy-fifth floor of the Sir Tenebrous Tower, was occupied by a sprawl of computer stations, facing each other in clusters of three or four and scattered across the floor. Most of the technical specialists, analysts and experts were occupied with dull but necessary jobs like data-sifting, analysing numbers and secretly playing online games to wile away the time when Avgi was not looking.
A window popped up on-screen and Beans leaned forwards. 'Oh, this is interesting,' he said to the room in general. The girl opposite him with long, curly black hair tied loosely into two elephantine pigtails peered around her computer and looked at Beans through the glass partition. 'The Mayor's throwing a party. Starts at eight.'
'A party?' enquired Agent Avgi, standing behind him--although she said it in such a formidable way that she clearly had no intention of going wild on the dancefloor that night unless she were able to cause serious injury to those present through some decidedly vicious moves.
Beans nearly jumped out of his seat to find her there. He regained his composure and elaborated, with the smug air of a mission lazily accomplished, 'It's a guest list. I got it off the secretary's computer. I guess this is the Mayor's way of saving face after the events the other night.' He ran his eyes down the list as Avgi stepped forwards to examine.
'She certainly wasted no time,' said the Agent.
'I see Big Bad Brutt is on there,' noted Beans.
Avgi squinted, looking at the photos accompanying each name. 'And I have not been invited?'
'Want me to add you?'
Avgi looked thoughtful. 'Tempting,' she said, 'just for the look on her face when I show up. But no. I think we can exploit this situation more advantageously.'
Beans looked at her. 'What are you thinking?' he asked
They sat without speaking for a while.
'I'm sorry, Angus,' Holly said finally. 'I didn't mean for you to get a black eye. Angus. Angus! Oh fine, sulk. But at least we found out who did it!'
Angus turned his head slowly and gave her a sour look. 'And what good will that do us now?' he asked.
'All we need is evidence and then we can rescue Eugene!'
'We're tied to chairs, Holly!' Angus snapped. 'Tied to chairs in a small room by men who might even kill us! I don't know what you think you can do from here, and I don't care! Just don't talk to me and maybe I won't get grievously beaten again!'
Silence.
Then: 'Angus.
'Angus, I'm coming over. Maybe we can untie each other's hands.' There was some scraping and shuffling as she attempted to manoeuvre the uncooperative chair once again. She had managed to turn so that she was facing the opposite direction when the door opened and Dorz entered with the gun in one hand and a plate in the other, placing the plate down on the floor. Holly feigned disinterest upon hearing his footsteps approach her and refused to look at him when he tucked the gun into the lining of his jeans and swivelled her noisily back around.
'Time to eat, if you're hungry.' He went over to untie Angus' hands, then brought the plate over and placed it on his lap. Angus looked at the meagre bread roll before him. It was filled with cheese.
'Don't eat it!' cried Holly. 'We can go on hunger strike!'
Angus had already taken several bites. He had not eaten for too long.
'You're coming with me,' Dorz said to Holly, freeing her from her bounds. She rose to her feet. Angus wiped the crumbs from his mouth and watched apprehensively. 'Go and stand by the door,' ordered Dorz. Holly stayed put. Dorz sighed and prodded her in the small of the back with his weapon. 'Don't make me carry you. And wait over there while I tie up your friend again.'
Holly reluctantly walked over to the door, and a second or two later they were leaving the room. 'Where are you taking me?' asked Holly.
'We need to have a talk,' came the reply from behind her. 'Just through there.' He prompted her through the small hallway and left into another room. It appeared to be a cramped kitchen, with grimy white counters and peeling wallpaper. In the middle of it was a small table surrounded by a few white chairs.
'This place needs redecorating,' Holly said.
Dorz grunted and followed her in. 'Please, sit down,' he said, discarding the plate as he carried it through.
'I don't want to sit down.'
'Sit down.'
Holly sat down.
'Cup of tea?' asked Dorz, making his way over to a miniscule electric kettle.
'You have a gun on me,' said Holly.
'And how's that relevant, eh? Milk? Sugar? How much?'
Holly did not reply.
'Suit yourself.' A steamy sound filled the room as the water boiled. 'What's your name?' he asked, turning back to her and leaning against the counter.
Holly still said nothing. She did not want to be dropping names again.
'We know you got arrested for what happened, by the way. And we know that now they have somebody else. Is it somebody you know? Is that why you were looking around?'
'Why do you have us here?' insisted Holly. 'What do you want?'
Dorz sighed again. 'We need to know what you found.'
'I'm not telling you,' Holly answered, glaring at the table.
'Then I can't let you go.'
Holly raised her head. 'Would you do that even if I did tell you, now that I know your names and what you look like?'
The two of them stared at each other. Then Dorz turned around, retrieved two mugs from a cupboard above his head and placed a teabag in each, filling them up and stirring. 'You have to understand, right,' he said awkwardly, 'that we're not bad people, me and Russ. We're just...fighting for a cause.' He added milk.
Holly frowned. 'What cause?'
'Did it never bother you that nobody seemed to know what went on in that place?' said Dorz, placing the mugs on the table and seating himself. He grasped his mug and hunched over it, looking straight at Holly. 'That it just appeared one day, and all we were ever told was that it'd be...what, good for the economy? What a load of shit!' he spat. 'Something has to have been going on in there!'
'So you blew it up?' enquired Holly, raising an eyebrow.
The man visibly recoiled with reproach. 'Naw, it's not like that...' He eyed her warily. 'Look, I shouldn't be telling you too much. But you need to understand, weird things have happened around that Facility. Horrible things. Dark things. It's not right, none of it is. As citizens, we have a right to get suspicious of things like that.'
'Like what?'
'People going missing. People who've tried to find things out and have been hurt or worse. Tortured and tormented, they say. There's something unnatural about it.'
'Who says?' asked Holly. 'Who told you all this?'
Dorz rose to his feet and made his way to the door, glancing down the hallway. 'Look, drink up, eh?' he said to her. 'I need to get you back to your chair. I'm afraid that's how it's gonna be 'til you start telling us what you know. No chance of that, is there?' he tried, glancing back at her.
Holly shook her head and sipped at her tea.
'Well then I'm afraid you'll be in that room for a while. At least until supper. Which is only'--he looked at his watch--'a few hours away. Here's a bread roll for the return journey.'
A few hours passed. Guests in smart, classy evening wear made their way up the steps to the city hall under the pale light of the moon above. A woman in an elegant black dress with a dainty little matching handbag smiled at the concierge as she and the man linked to her arm approached the entrance. The concierge, an austere, middle-aged man in a dinner jacket and bow tie smiled politely back and ran his finger down the guest list. He located them and nodded to allow them through, where they followed the other newly-arrived guests right, through the reception area and in the direction of the hall itself.
Mayor Mawgly, standing awaiting them in an emerald green cocktail dress and with her dark red hair ridiculously huge for the occasion, glanced once more at the photographs on her copy of the guest list with little idea of who most of these people were, before leaving it behind her and moving to greet them warmly. 'Ah, Ambassador Hsing, so delighted you could come!' she said, taking her hand and kissing her on either cheek. 'And such smart company! Please, do go through and enjoy the buffet.'
Ambassador Hsing nodded graciously and continued towards the hall as Mawgly moved away to welcome the others.
The Ambassador discreetly placed a finger to her ear. 'I'm in,' she said.