Dirge Danorum

Chapter 9

Velvet slapped my hands away and stalked off. I opened my mouth, but Grigor was there, clutching his bandaged arm.

"We couldn't save him," he said, looking very old and grey. So that was how it was. I thought I'd seen tears in Velvet's eyes, and I had. We'd gotten Venge out, but they'd failed whoever they'd found. Velvet was sitting on the ground a little ways off, her knees drawn up to her chest. I didn't know what to say or do. Grigor was clearly shaken, and while Venge seemed like a nice guy, I wasn't sold on his reliability. I'd been ready to kill Ever a couple of minutes ago, but now I was glad he was there to take charge, because someone had to, even if it was a Duty man.

As I had, Ever decided to give Velvet some space for a minute – but he wasn't wasting any time, and damn him, he was right. Whatever battle strength we had as a group had been severely diminished. We'd lost blood and equipment, and we had to get out of there. This territory probably wasn't too dangerous with regards to mutants, but if Stan had called for help, there could be mercs on the way. We weren't ready for them.

Ever was searching the bodies in the garage. They didn't have much in the way of weapons or ammunition, but it looked like we had enough loaded handguns to go around. A protracted firefight was out of the question, but it was better than having to defend ourselves with flares and combat knives. I'd been using Lunch Box pretty liberally, and I was low too.

I took my eyes off Velvet long enough to raid her pack for her spare fatigues, which I gave to Venge on her behalf. They were loose on him, but it was better than having him run around half-naked. I firmly believe that Asians have as much right to be stalkers as anyone, but stalkers without pants? That's pushing it. At another time I'd have been interested to go through Velvet's personal things, but today was all business. Besides, I'd been inside her mind. She didn't have many secrets left.

I wanted to lighten the mood, but I didn't know how. I should have been somber myself, but Velvet was safe. That was good news, and nothing was going to kill it for me. Velvet didn't need to beat herself up for whatever had happened, she needed to pat herself on the back for trying – because not just anybody would have.

Grigor and Ever were talking. I figured I'd better hear what they were saying, so I headed over.

"What's the plan? How do we get back?" I asked them. "You must have had a way. Don't tell me they were going to pick you up."

Ever shook his head. "No, my ride was strictly one-way. And you're right, I did have a plan to cross. I have the coordinates of the tunnel."

Grigor folded his arms. "I thought it was destroyed."

Ever shrugged. "It's supposed to still be passable. And we can't dally here."

"You see me dallying?" I glanced back at Velvet. "Yeah," I sighed, then took a deep breath. "It had better be you."

"I suppose." Grigor didn't look enthused, but he went to kneel beside her. Venge had been helping himself to our food and water. That was all right; we weren't so low we couldn't share. But Venge would have to eat while he walked.

"I don't suppose satellite coverage is back yet?" I asked Ever tiredly. He gave a dry laugh. That was a no. "Then you don't even know if your coordinates are right."

"The job was worth the risk. I've wanted to shut this down for a long time."

I didn't blame him there.

I saw Velvet seem to snap out of it – and I almost wish she hadn't. Maybe it would've been better to just let her work out what she was feeling, but now she'd just snuffed it, and added another layer to her armor. This probably meant that a few more light Velvets had gone down in battle, and the dark Velvet army had gained that much more ground.

It was night now, and there's nothing like traveling through a ghost city in the dark. Man, was I looking forward to getting back to Kevorich. How long had we been gone? Not long, really. Just a few days – but it felt like a lifetime.

I decided I needed to talk to Velvet. She was making a good show of being all business, but it was just that – a show. So I fell in beside her, careful not to walk too close, even though I wanted to.

"What's the plan after we cross?" That would take her mind off things for a second or two, and I'd see if I could stretch it out – buy the light Velvets a chance to regroup. The light Velvets were just a metaphor, of course, but if they had existed as literal entities, I'm sure they'd have appreciated it.

Velvet took a breath. She was wearing my outer armor, since Venge had on her spares, and she'd lost her fatigue jacket somewhere in the building. "We strike out for Yantar," she said finally. "With whoever's ready to travel." She meant the Biker and Sagaris, of course. I was guessing they'd be feeling up to it. I was looking forward to seeing Sagaris again. He was the closest thing I had to a friend in this godforsaken place. There was Velvet, but I didn't even want to think that, because then I might end up in the friend zone, and you never get out of the friend zone.

Then it happened again, just like it had when I asked Ever what was wrong with him. I had a fleeting vision of a cute, but mousy-looking girl telling the Biker that he'd never get out of the friend zone. And again, instead of his armor, he was dressed like a biker – a proper American biker. I shook my head.

"You all right?" Velvet asked.

"I'm fine."

"We'll lay the foundation along the way. Now that we have Grigor, there's nothing holding us back."

"From business?"

"From business."

"That'll be good." I was serious. I'd feel a lot better when Freedom's ranks were a little more robust. Velvet needed more bodies around. The only reason she was still alive was that Freedom had taken her in and protected her, because she sure as hell hadn't come to the Ukraine ready to protect herself. As tough as she thought she was, she wouldn't last long alone, or even with a small group. Even with me. Especially not after this son of a bitch Ever reported to Duty that she was alive. Once the rumors were confirmed, they'd start to hunt for her again in earnest.

Yes, it was time to make some friends. Velvet had a good plan. An original plan. Nothing like this had ever been tried in the Zone before, and I thought that was a good sign. After all, the Zone was changing – so stalkers had to change with it, right? A new plan was exactly what a new faction would need to survive in the new Ukraine.

Despite all that, we still didn't know if it was going to work. We'd find out soon.

We spotted some lights on a side street – other stalkers – but elected not to make contact.

I didn't have a clue what this tunnel was. I knew the bridges spanning the channel had all been destroyed, and I assumed that if you wanted to get across these days, you flew – or got teleported by an anomaly, like Velvet and I had been. But apparently there was a tunnel – something about getting supplies from the outside to some underground labs or something. Apparently the location was known only to the cadre of stalkers who made a business of smuggling people and contraband in and out of the Zone. If I'd been too poor to afford being choppered in, maybe I'd have used a route like this. Actually, that probably would've been better, because the damn chopper pilots had set me up. And I still hadn't settled with them. But I had other things to think about.

I started to get a bad feeling when we had to break into a building, then into that building's basement. You remember when I was lost in the caves beneath the channel? Well, that didn't leave me full of positive associations with being underground in the dark. I wouldn't say I was scared, but I will say that my morale was not soaring.

These buildings were just as old and decayed as those on the other side of the Channel; we were walking in dust an inch deep. Peeling paint everywhere, the oddest things left lying around. Bones, sometimes. All of it made creepier by the fact that we only saw it in the beams of our flashlights. It was chilly down there, but it wasn't like I was going to ask Velvet to give me my armor back.

We weren't as close to the actual Channel as I'd hoped, either. The tunnel opened quite a ways back, apparently to camouflage the entrance, which must have been at the time of its construction, a great secret. That meant we had a long road ahead of us. Joy.

"Well," Ever said, in reply to Velvet's question. "I purchased the coordinates from a man who claimed to an associate of one of the men who ran this route. But there was one thing."

"Yes?"

"He hadn't heard from that man in some time."

"How much time?"

"A number of years."

I couldn't help myself; I cut in. "So nobody's been down here since then?"

"I wouldn't know about that – but it's possible."

"How do we know it's not caved in or something?"

"We don't. Think of it as an adventure," Ever said. "When he sold me the coordinates – he didn't ask for much."

"Because going underground always ends so well for me," Velvet sighed.