Chapter Twenty – Hempser

"Get the coats."

She scrambled for them, stuffing them in her dress bag. Pazu reached up for his knapsack, grabbed it down, slinging it and the blanket roll over his shoulder. Sheeta took the poncho.

"This side."

He let go the droplight in the door with a crash, reached out for the exterior handle, opened the compartment door and looked down. When they weren't alongside platforms, trains were tall things. He jumped and his boots crunched on the stone chippings. He turned and Sheeta jumped, half into his open arms, half onto the ground.

Then they ran.

"Keep low, keep with me."

They moved as fast as they could while doubled over, keeping small. Their boots crunched and clattered on the ballast, it was impossible to be quiet.

"Hey! Other side! Ryddyck!"

Pazu glanced back, the man in the overcoat was bent down, hands on the track, looking under the train. Then he stood again and sprinted down the other side. He could hear his heavy shoes, long strides.

"Get up! Run."

No longer any room for finesse, Pazu stood and sprinted. He needed a gap in the hedge, a gate, anything. He heard Sheeta's light fast steps right behind him. A train door banged and there was a crunch as another set of shoes hit the track and began running.

Ahead there was a crossing, a pathway through a field went across the track.

"Sheeta! Path! Ahead, go right!"
"Yes."

They reached it and slammed through the gate, Pazu knocked up the latch and kicked it wide all in one movement, as he paused to swing the gate open she pushed past him, ducked left and went along the hedge around the field. Mist, the field was full of mist.

"Mist! Keep low!"

He followed her.

Hempser heard the gate bang open. Damn, they would get off the tracks. He ducked and ran, bent low. He reached the end of this carriage and dived under the couplings between the two vehicles, he rolled on his back between the oily filthy buffers and felt his coat catch and tear, he kept rolling and converted the energy of his roll into a forward turn at the far side. His coat tore badly and he shrugged it off, still sprinting. He pulled his gun from its holster, pulled back the breech slide to check a round was in the chamber and flipped off the safety. Ryddyck was behind him, he could hear the lighter longer strides of the taller man. Not expecting to hit, wanting only to panic their quarry, he straightened his arm, cupped right hand into left and squeezed off a shot at the gate. A piece of wood splintered and went spinning into the air.

He reached the gate and kicked it open, slid down into the field. He glanced right and left. The field was low lying and full of mist. Which way?

"Mist down here! Stay high! Which way did they go?"

The taller, brown haired man reached the gate, he bounced up and stood on one of its bars, leaning forward, knees braced. He took off his dark glasses and slipped them casually in his coat pocket. Small bright eyes swept the field. They'd be stupid to cross the middle, even kids would keep to cover, he looked right. Nothing, then left. He saw a low shape moving in a ditch by the hedge, half way up the field already. Damn they were fast.

"Hedge. Left. Half way up, you go across, I'll follow them."

Hempser sprinted up the sloping field, the waist high mist swirling around and behind him, but the ground was soft and he wore city shoes. Ryddyck ducked down left keeping low and followed the perimeter of the field, unbuttoning his coat, reaching into it as he went.

Sheeta in front went like lightning, Pazu had never seen anyone move so fast, her small red shirted back bobbed in front of him, receding away. Damn, she was quick. Good girl. He glanced behind and heard the pistol shot. Crouching lower he kept on. He thought of Tanner's revolver but there was no time to get it out of the knapsack now. And it was unloaded. They got to the corner of the field and Sheeta swung right away from the railway tracks. There was a ditch here beside the hedge and some of the crop hadn't been cut right to the edge of the field giving more concealment. What they needed was a gate or gap in this hedge, keep as much cover between them and us. Pazu kept glancing behind, needing to know where their pursuers were. Looking right he saw a white shape moving up the field. One of the men had taken off his coat, or was it another? In a shirt? This man was moving fast, fully upright and sprinting, he'd get to the far hedge before they did. If there wasn't a way out up this left hand side, they'd had it.

Ryddyck kept moving fast, he cut the corner of the field and now sprinted too, no need to keep low. Two of them, good. He could see one wearing red, another in a shirt and waistcoat.

Pazu glanced back. Another hatted man with brown hair and an unbuttoned black coat was behind them and closing fast.

"Sheeta! Get up, Run!"
"Gate!" she screamed, "Left!"
"Yes!"

He watched, amazed, as Sheeta reached the wooden gate and seemed to simply bounce up it, climbing like a monkey, she was over in a flash and went right, keeping to the hedge.

Someone behind him called out.

"Gate. Left. Cut across!"

Pazu was nearly at the gate when a second pistol shot rang out. It was a dull popping noise, not even threatening. A patch of soil a few feet ahead of him blew upwards. Another pop and beside him part of the hedge went snick! and twigs flew. He ran on, keeping low, small target. He got to the gate and surprised himself by running the last few paces fully upright, leaping at it and diving right over, all five feet of it. He rolled and got up, one fluid motion and kept going.

nothing like being shot at to spur you on

Sheeta had reached the top end of this hedge and had gone left along the top of the field, she was literally in the distance. He saw another gate in the centre of the side she was running along.

that's it girl, through the gate you little beauty

He reached the corner and sprinted after her just as she disappeared over that one too. No more shots came and when he glanced back again he saw the two men just climbing the gate and setting off across the centre of the field. They'd cut him off. Heck, out of options, he stood and ran upright and immediately attracted two more bullets which went wide, he didn't see where.

At the gate he scrambled over and checked for Sheeta. There was a yard here, muddy, a barn, a farmhouse, a pigsty. Cover. She was by the barn directly ahead and he ran to her. Ducking around the corner, he looked at their next option.

"That way, farmhouse!"

She went, so fast and his heart soared as he saw her go. He didn't know girls could be like this. He put his head quickly back round the corner of the barn and the two men were at the gate. There seemed to be just the two of them. He ran after Sheeta. She had reached the house and already opened the door. He went in. They were in a kitchen. The fireplace was cold, the room messy, there was an odd smell as though of spoiled food. It felt like no-one lived here, or had recently left in a hurry. He hurled the knapsack to the floor, saw a dresser and pushed and heaved it over the doorway, Sheeta helping. It was quite a heavy piece of furniture but if a big man charged the door he could probably knock it over. There was one big window by the door and a smaller one on another wall. A door behind them led to the rest of the house. No other doors.

"Doorway!" He grabbed the knapsack and went through the inner door, he spun and squatted down. From here he could see the main door and a good part of the yard out of the window.

"Sheeta, check the downstairs, are there any other doors?"

She went. He reached into his pack and pulled out the oilcloth bundle. At the bottom of his bag he found the box of bullets but it had split open, bullets were loose rattling around the bottom of the knapsack. He grabbed a fistful and stuffed them in his waistcoat pocket.

"Pazu! What's that?"
"What does it look like?"
"Where did you get it?"
"Tanner gave it me."

He opened the cylinder and fed six bullets in. He'd fired Dola's shell gun before but never a gun like this, a gun designed for only one purpose. He clicked the cylinder shut and looked at the side of the gun. There was a small lever there, near the trigger. It was turned to LOCK, he flipped it the other way. He felt odd, he was shaking, he had a live loaded gun in his hand. He wondered whether, if he had to use it, he would.

"Any other doors?"
"No. They can't get in any other way."
"This might have been a mistake. We're trapped."

He looked out the window and saw the thinner man sprint from the barn to behind the pigsty. His head and shoulders popped into view, aiming a gun at the house while the bigger man sprinted after him. For a moment they were both still behind the low wall.

Pazu realized his only advantage was that they didn't know he had a gun. He wondered what they would do. He looked over his shoulder, Sheeta was squatting down behind him. He saw that she had pulled her blue stone from her neck and was holding it. She glanced at him and nodded. He looked out the window again and saw two hats bob up from behind the pigsty. One of the men, the bigger one who had no coat, suddenly broke cover and ran to the door. There were two shots as his companion fired at the window. It shattered and angles of glass span across the room, the bullets went high and plaster billowed from the wall on Pazu's other side. There was an almighty crash at the door and the heavy dresser leaned suddenly, one of its glass fronted doors opened and plates and glassware spewed out smashing on the floor. Pazu raised the gun, cocking back the hammer with both thumbs. He held it in his right hand, arm straight and his left hand gripped his right wrist. The dresser moved again, began to fall. The door came open. A third bullet came through the open window and shattered a picture on the far wall.

Behind Pazu there came a touch, a hand on his shoulder. He suddenly felt an immense wave flow over him, a strong surge of emotion. They were here again, back to get her, to take her away. He recalled those three gold coins. Anger burst in him, they wouldn't have her. His body came alive, a force of energy that he didn't understand because adrenalin was an unknown quantity to him, exploded into him powering him like a motor. As well as his muscles and senses coming alive, and the anger, there was something else, that ache he'd felt that morning at the bathing pool, he felt that again. Then, not much more than a week ago, he hadn't understood what the feeling was. It had angered and confused him. Now, he understood. It was love and it poured into him from her hand on his shoulder and made him do the thing he now did. No longer angry and confused, now he was simply angry.

The dresser tumbled over and the door smashed inwards. The big blonde man, Hempser burst in, he brought his gun down and left, sweeping it across the room. He saw the boy in the doorway to the left and his mind fixed on the thing in his hands. A revolver. Hempser had no idea the boy would be armed, Surun had not said anything about them being armed. As these thoughts (the last he would have) went through Hempser's mind and his hands swept his own pistol onto the target he noticed the black circle of the boy's gun muzzle. A black circle meant only one thing. It was pointed right at his face. The last thing he saw was a bright white light appearing from the black circle.

The revolver roared and Pazu's heart and gut and love roared with it. His wrist and arm snapped back, stinging with pain. His shoulder even went back and bounced from the door frame beside him. The noise was unbelievable and the room filled with smoke and sound. The big man's face looked at Pazu and then it vanished, his head snapped back and his big body moving forwards into the room, suddenly went backwards and down, hit the wall behind and bounced off. He crumpled in a heap among the shattered plates. Pazu looked. There was a huge awful splash of red up the wall and there were dreadful lumps of something in it.

Pazu shook and sweat broke out on his body. The hand on his shoulder tightened and he heard her scream.

"Quiet! They're not going to have you!"

He rose to a crouching position and looked out the window. The taller man had left the cover of the pigsty and was part way to the door when Pazu saw him falter, knowing his partner had been shot. Without any decision at all Pazu swung his gun up and right and squeezed the trigger again. The awful sound repeated and more smoke filled the room. In the enclosed space the noise was shocking, it made your ears ring. His shot struck the mud a foot in front of the tall man and he changed direction and ran off left. Pazu moved, scrambling over the thing on the floor and the fallen dresser to the door. He peered out just in time to see his opponent disappear around the barn. Filled now with something he didn't understand and unable to stop, his head seeming to ring and clang with something like joy, he raised the gun again, locked both wrists and fired once more. His shot struck the corner of the barn and stone chips flew. He saw the man running back down towards the field. Pazu went after him, he ran to the barn and slid along the side of it, back against it. When he got to the far corner that allowed him a view of the fields he saw the tall man running back across them towards the train. The mist had cleared a little now and he could see the locomotive, the crew on the footplate watching. At the windows of some of the carriages there were faces, they hadn't been alone on the train. They all looked his way, round white circles, mouths and eyes wide open. Pazu moved forwards but an arm with incredible strength grabbed his shoulder and held him back.

"That's enough! Stop it! Stop it, Pazu! Please!"
"We need to get out of here now. Fast. Come on."

He ran back to the farmhouse, holding Sheeta by the forearm. Leaving her at the door, he went in, stepped over the thing on the floor, grabbed their bags and other things and came out. All he saw was a round shape, a grey waistcoat, white shirtsleeves and a red sheet up the wall. A huge red "V"

the kingsbury and great northern railway map. other company lines marked in black. due to circumstances beyond our control we advise that services are subject to delay and cancellation without notice.

"Take this."

He thrust part of their baggage into her hands and set off in what he hoped was a northerly direction, sun to his right and behind him. He knew how these men worked. He was sure they were from the same part of the Government as Muska. The two men who had stopped the train would have flown there. They could fly and find them easily. They had to put a lot of distance between themselves and this farm right now.

--I--
---o-o-oOo-o-o---
I I

It was late afternoon. The sun was coming down again in the sky and it was dull and cloudy. It began to drizzle. He was exhausted, coated with mud and sweat. She must be exhausted too but she hadn't made a sound. He had held her forearm tightly and dragged her the first mile while she shouted at him to stop, to let go, to please stop. But he'd gone on, driven on by a need to get away. After a while she had stopped talking and walked beside him. Along lanes, skirting villages and farms, avoiding people and main roads, cutting through woodland where possible. How far? He had no idea, ten miles perhaps, maybe fifteen.

"Please let's stop. Look, there's a barn."

A small stone barn, alone at the corner of a field, a wood behind it. Good cover, a good escape route among the trees. He turned into the field and skirted its edge around to the barn. It began to rain heavily now, soaking them. He pulled the barn door open and looked in. It was dry and there was straw piled up in bales several deep against one wall. It would do.

He shut the door securely behind them. They walked to the straw bales, pulled a couple out from the pile and broke them open to make a bed. They both discarded their bags and other things and fell onto it. Pazu lay on his back, the gun still in his hand. He lifted it, slipped the lock on and opened the cylinder. He let the six shell cases drop out, three live, three empty. He dropped the gun aside, gasping for breath.

Sheeta lay beside him, she rolled over and lay partly on him, threw her arms about his wet shoulders and lay her head next to his. Her wet hair tangled partly over his face. She burst into tears. He somehow lifted his arms, each seeming to weigh tons and put them around her. If anything her crying got louder.

"Shush now. It's over, shush."

Through her sobs she spoke.

"Pazu. It won't ever be over. They'll come again, and again, and again. They won't leave us alone. You can't kill them all. It won't ever end."

And her soaking wet body shook against his.

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13 March 2007

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