This Machine Kills (28 page)

   “It’s time to go,” a voice said quietly “someone wants to talk to you.”

   Taylor recognised the voice but no matter how hard he tried, couldn’t put a face to it.

   The footsteps stopped as he felt a hand grab him under his armpit and yank him to his feet. Whoever it was, he was strong.

   Taylor heard the voice again, “Put your hands behind your back.”

   After being spun around by his captor, he was handcuffed once more. A hand roughly grabbed him by the back of his neck and guided him to what must have been the exit to the room. The blanket that had been wrapped around him fell to the floor and he felt the cold muzzle of a pistol pressing into his back. He gave an involuntary gasp as it contacted with his skin.

   His captor leaned forward and whispered into Taylor’s ear.

   “By the way, I loved your story.”

Chapter 22

   It was a short walk before they arrived at their destination. The jailer had said nothing to Taylor since leaving his place of confession. After ascending a steep flight of stairs, he felt a slight breeze as they walked down what he thought was a narrow corridor. When he was suddenly stopped and pushed into a space on his left, he realised his assessment of the local geography had proven correct.

   It was warmer here. He could feel from the crowded hush that it was a small space he was now in. After the man had brought him to a halt, there was silence followed by muted whispers in the corner of the room. Taylor felt the guard reappear behind him and speak in his ear once more,

   “I’m going to take the blindfold off now. Try anything and I’ll shoot you in the back.”

   With his hands still in cuffs behind him, Taylor wondered just how good the person whose face he still could not recall, thought he was. The blindfold fell away from his face as he heard the man take a couple of steps back. He slowly opened his eyes and tried to focus on the room, but at first it was too dark to see anything. Slowly, he became aware of a patch of light in front of him, and as his eyes adapted, he saw this was where the moonlight had punctured the small window in the room and burnt its image onto the ground.

   “Hello Taylor,” a softly spoken voice said.

   This time he knew exactly who it belonged to.

   From the shadows of the room he could just about make out the figure of a man. As the shape stepped into the moonlight, Taylor was able to cast his eyes on him. Even though he was wearing the hood that disguised his features, Taylor knew it was Jacob.

   “I hope we got to you before they did too much damage,” he said, sounding apologetic.

   “You?” Taylor answered sounding surprised. Yet even as he spoke, he was beginning to put things into their appropriate places.

   “It’s you isn’t it? You’re the Shepherd.”

   Jacob let out a little chuckle; it sounded involuntary and not meant to patronise, “Not exactly.”

   Taylor still needed answers if the pieces of the jigsaw were going to fit together.

   “So why did you send me to the school...why would you risk your own people getting hurt?”

   Jacob sighed, “The school was a necessary risk we had to take to make sure we had the right one.”

   “The right what?”

   “Everyone knew the raid was going to happen, we told them all to leave but some people…some people are stubborn. They didn’t want to leave their animals. They get quite attached to them, you know.”

   The jigsaw pieces began to disappear as he realised he still knew nothing.

   “Then why was Nails, I mean Ben there? He must have known what would have happened if we found him.”

   “Ah yes Ben, that was unfortunate. I’m sorry for his death, I genuinely am… He told me you used to be friends. I think that’s why he stayed, he wanted to know if it was you who informed on us.”

   Taylor had a sickening thought. It helped explained Ben’s hostility towards him before he was killed.

   “He thought it was me who gave up the information,” he said quietly, “Ben died thinking I betrayed him.”

   Jacob took a step forward, revealing a little more of himself in the moonlight. Taylor could only just make out his face beneath the shadow of the hood but he could see that something about him was different.

   “Hopefully Ben’s death will not have been in vain.”

   Taylor didn’t like the implication in Jacob’s voice.

   “You said something about making sure you’ve got the right one, what did you mean?”

   “It wasn’t just you that we’ve had our eye on, we thought that maybe we could trust Sergeant Dyer too. That’s why we gave you both the information about the school. We wanted to see which, or indeed if either of you could be trusted to keep quiet… We needed to know if we had your sympathies.”

   Taylor watched as Jacob’s silhouette shook its head, “Let’s just say Dyer failed the test.”

   “Look,” Taylor said, feeling angry at his failure to comprehend what was happening, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, what do mean you were testing us? Testing us for what?”

   “To see which one of you would lead us?” Jacob said as if the answer was obvious.

   Taylor had to take a moment to process the words before he spoke again.

   “Lead you?” it sounded ridiculous just saying it, “Why would I want to lead you? You’re the Shepherd.”

   Jacob stepped fully into the moonlight and Taylor saw what it was that was different about him. The scarf he had been hiding behind was gone. His mutilated face was now fully on display.

   “No,” he said, “I’m not the Shepherd. You are.”

   Taylor stared at the burnt figure in front of him, trying to work out his game. He knew the man was smart, so why was he talking like a fool?

   “What?” he finally asked, when Jacob offered no further explanation.

   “I said it’s you. You’re the Shepherd, or at least you will be.”

   Taylor laughed, “I thought it was your body that was damaged, not your brain.”

   “I’m not joking,” Jacob said, the tone of his voice reinforcing his claim, “we need a leader to take us out of this wasteland. We’re going back to the City where we can live as equals, not slaves.”

   “You may not have heard,” Taylor answered when the smile on his face had faded, “but the City is permanently closed. The wall made sure of that.”

   Jacob looked unperturbed, “And that’s exactly why we need someone like you to get us in. Plus, the people here already know you from your fighting days. You’re the perfect man for the job.”

   “You already had the perfect man for the job,” Taylor said, “you had Ben. You should have made him your leader. He was a better man than I’ll ever be.”

   Now that his eyes had grown accustomed to the light, he could see the true horror of Jacob’s injuries. His nose and lips were all but gone and the skin seemed to hang from his face, making Taylor think of a waxwork model that had melted under hot lamps. Despite his injuries though, there was something about Jacob’s dark black eyes that helped retain his humanity. Just from his eyes alone, Taylor warranted that he had once been a good-looking man. The other thing about Jacob was that somehow, even with the burns, Taylor recognised him. He didn’t know from where, but he had known him before his accident.

   “We did consider Ben to lead us but the fact he was one of our own was the very reason we didn’t choose him. And before you ask, it couldn’t have been me either, not with a face like this.”

   Jacob removed his hood, revealing a skull that was just as badly disfigured. Two small tufts of hair still grew there; one just above his left ear and the other on the top of his head. Other than that he was completely bald from where the fire had destroyed his fragile skin.

   “One thing I learnt from their media machine is that image is everything.”

   Taylor guessed he was referring to ClearSkies.

   “We realised that for this revolution to work, we needed someone who could unite our two worlds, not to mention one with inside knowledge. That’s why we chose you and Dyer. You’re both successful SecForce officers who came from the Old-Town. People here would be willing to follow you.”

   Taylor saw a sly smile come to Jacob’s destroyed face, “And of course, we were extremely pleased when we found out it was you who withheld the information. Nothing against Dyer, but you’re much higher profile.  And don’t think it hasn’t been noticed that you always treated us fairly on your patrols. People don’t forget things like that.”

   Taylor raised his voice as he spoke over the other man, “Let me just stop you there Jacob as I think I need to make something very clear. I have no desire to lead you and I am not the fucking Shepherd. Understand?”

   Taylor heard Christopher muffle something under his breath behind him.

   Jacob’s voice remained patient, he had obviously been expecting resistance to his proposal.

   “Don’t you see?” he said, as if there was no reason why he shouldn’t, “It makes perfect sense. Think of the effect it will have on the Old-Town when the people see one of Milton’s poster boys turning against him; a warrior coming back to fight for his own people. They would follow you right into the heart of the City.”

   The sound of Milton’s name made Taylor’s limbs stiffen.

   “We don’t want to destroy the place,” Jacob continued, “all we want is a share of what they have… of what is rightfully ours. Is that so wrong?”

   Jacob started speaking again before Taylor had time to answer. “If you were to lead us, we could minimise the bloodshed. When your men see you fighting for us I guarantee they will break ranks and come over to our side.”

   Taylor’s laugh was cruel, “Now I know there’s something wrong with you. It was my men who were trying to kill me when your boys turned up. My men hate me, they’re not got going to help you.”

   “The young one didn’t,” Jacob countered, “he was willing to give up his own life to protect you. That doesn’t sound like hate to me.”

   Taylor shrugged, “Well perhaps he’s just too young and stupid to know any better.”

   Jacob shook his head, “He saw the same qualities in you as we do. That’s why he was willing to take a bullet for you.”

   “Maybe,” Taylor said, “ but it’s still not going to happen.”

   “Why not? You’ve got no family or friends in the City. What’s the worst that can happen, that the people you grew up living next to will no longer be slaves?”

   Taylor sighed, “Let me be honest with you Jacob, and I mean painfully fucking honest. The reason I have no intention of leading you is that I don’t give a shit about you and the rest of these people. I couldn’t care less what happens to you. And whilst I’m being honest, I might as well say it, the whole lot of you make me sick. You’re fucking pathetic.”

   He couldn’t tell if it was shock that he was now witnessing on Jacob’s scarred face.

   “I’m sick of them standing in the food lines with those miserable looks on their faces and never having the balls to do anything about it. If they didn’t like living in the Old-Town, they should have got off their sorry asses and done something about it years ago, just like my father made me do. I worked my ass off to make sure I got inside the City. They could have done the same thing.”

   “You were lucky,” Jacob said, ‘you had a skill they considered valuable. Most of us weren’t blessed with such gifts. They would have never made it into the City, no matter what they did.”

   “Then they should have torn the fences down years ago,” Taylor snapped, “not waited until the wall was up. It’s fucking typical that you leave it until now before coming up with some bullshit scheme to get inside. The best thing you can do is tell those stupid sons of bitches to forget the whole thing, otherwise a whole lot of people are going to end up dead.”

   Jacob attempted to laugh but it came out as a painful rasp that ripped through the tender flesh of his throat.

   “You really are a mass of contradictions aren’t you Taylor? You say you hate the people here, yet you’re concerned they could end up getting hurt. I don’t believe you for a minute, I think you care about what happens in the Old-Town. You can’t turn your back on what you are.”

   “You can believe whatever the fuck you like,” Taylor replied, “but I am not going to lead you. Now either let me go or kill me. Either way, I’m too tired to give a shit.”

   Jacob bided his time before he spoke again, “I guess it looks like Ben was right about you. He said you were only interested in looking after yourself.”

   Taylor reached forward and grabbed Jacob’s collar, pulling him close, so their faces were inches apart.

   “Don’t even mention his fucking name. You know nothing about Ben and you know nothing about me. Got it?”

   Before Jacob could answer, Taylor felt a gun pressing into the back of his neck.

   “I got it,” Christopher said, “now let him go unless you want to see what you brains look like.”

   Jacob raised his hands, “It’s ok Christopher.”

   As Taylor released his grip, so the bodyguard slowly lowered his weapon. Jacob calmly adjusted his cloak as if nothing had happened.