When they opened Burke's cage the next time, the fog outside the grimy window of the shack was brightly lit, which hopefully meant he wouldn't be carted to another fight this time.

He stood bleary-eyed in the middle of the gang's decrepit backyard while Tulko removed his shackles, squinting at the fog that was filling up the yard, and absently wondering if he would get something to eat today. It wouldn't make sense to starve him for the next fight, unless they wanted him to be the next sacrifice, like the kid he'd-

Gotta focus on the now.

On the other hand, it wouldn't make sense to feed him before training, and by the looks of it, Asar had decided that his dogs should get out and play today. Todan was ambling out of the darkness of the shack, completely chain-free, muzzle-free, and with an eager glint in his eyes that told Burke that the apes didn't need to put a leash on him. Todan was the star of this little establishment, and he basked in that glory.

You're a good dog, ain't ya?

Todan stopped a few feet away from him, and gave him a once-over. "Feelin' better today? Think you can see me through your tears?"

"Your ugly mug is hard to unsee," Burke muttered unenthusiastically. Trading insults was part of the ritual, but he really couldn't muster enough energy for it today. He just didn't give a damn about Todan.

"I'll give you a better reason to cry, frog," Todan drawled, and threw a straight punch at his face without warning.

Burke jerked sideways to evade his fist, and fought not to let his surprise show. There had been no signal by any of the apes, no official beginning of the training session; maybe they had wanted to test his reflexes. He brought up his arms to prepare for the next attack, and aimed a kick at Todan's knee.

Todan blocked the kick and moved in to grab his head, and Burke hastily retreated. He didn't fancy Todan's knee to his face before breakfast. Or at any other time.

"Are you gonna start fighting some time, or should I trade places with a little boy?" Todan sneered, and threw another punch at Burke's face.

Burke evaded the jab, grabbed Todan's wrist and jerked him farther along the trajectory of his punch. His knee connected with Todan's ribs, and the air left the man's lungs with a grunt. Burke let go and skipped backwards; much as he wanted to pummel the asshole, that was probably not what the apes would allow. They were "training," after all.

Todan coughed, then laughed, and straightened. "Right, guess you want them for other things than killing," he grinned. He rolled his shoulders and sidled to Burke's left, looking for a gap in his defense. Burke raised his fists and carefully kept the distance between them.

They were circling each other, both men more cautious now, feinting attacks to test their opponent. "Heard you sobbing like a girl last night," Todan said confidentially. "Hoped you two could share a box, eh?"

Todan was watching his face, Burke noticed from the corner of his eye. He, on the other hand, kept his eyes on the man's shoulders, his hips, looking for the subtle shifts that signaled an imminent attack. If the dumb asshole thought his face was the most interesting thing to watch, well, his mistake. Burke would gratefully exploit that advantage. "You've given this a lot of thought, Toto - did you only start fantasizing about me and the kid last night, or was he a long-time obsession of yours?"

Todan just laughed. "I beat up his scrawny ass every morning out here. I bet you dreamed of fucking it-"

Burke let his face fall in faked shock, and lowered his fists a bit; Todan closed in as he'd predicted, and received a punch to his chin that set him on his ass. Burke stared down on him as Todan dazedly shook his head.

"Dude," he said, "that's a whole lot of projection you're throwin' my way. You sure you didn't work off some unacknowledged urges when you beat up the kid?"

He couldn't say Len's name; and he hoped Todan wouldn't hear the slight tremble in his voice, or if he did, would chalk it up to exertion, not - not emotion. He couldn't afford to feel anything now. Feelings were weakness, and weakness was death.

"Don't start crying again, pussy," Todan grunted and came back to his feet. He was completely unfazed by Burke's punch, bobbing and weaving as if he was trying to be the apes' Muhammad Ali. "It's no fun if you can't see it coming."

"Can't see what coming?" Burke challenged him, easily evading Todan's half-hearted attacks. "I can see your slo-mo attempts coming a mile away. They should retire you before you need a walking stick an' diapers!"

"Gettin' old in this business means I'm good," Todan growled, and Burke grinned. Even assholes had weak spots, and he had just found Toto's.

"Poor Lennie had talent, ya know?" Todan continued, and aimed a kick at Burke's head. Burke blocked it, drilling his elbow into Todan's calf, but the other man didn't seem to notice. His leg was hard as wood, and Burke felt the impact up to his shoulder.

"Bet he'd grown old, too, but now we'll never find out," Todan grunted, and Burke felt his muscles turn to water. His fault, his fault for defying Asar... trying to save at least one of the kids, saving neither...

"Too bad you screwed up," Todan was suddenly inside Burke's space, throwing a flurry of rapid punches, and all Burke could do was block, and block, and block, and retreat.

"If you'd been a good boy, Asar wouldn't have needed to teach you a lesson," Todan was following him, giving him no room, no opportunity to strike back, "that kid's death is on you," and that last word hit Burke square in the face and he blacked out-

... not the word, the fist, and he hadn't seen it coming, damn... he staggered back, faintly surprised that he was still on his feet.

The kick he did see coming, but he was too unbalanced to get up his own knee in time, and Burke found himself flat on his back, gasping for air like a dying fish. Todan had kicked him right in the breastbone, when Burke had dropped his defense for a second.

Stupid mistake... what's wrong with me...?

Todan loomed above him, and before Burke could react, Todan's foot came down again, stomping on his ribs - not hard enough to break them, but hard enough to drive the last air out of them, and now Burke was gasping, black spots appearing in his vision. "Thought you could play master, do what you like, huh?"

A weight dropped on his arms, pinning them to the ground. "Don't worry," Todan's fist crashed into his cheekbone, "once we're done with you, you'll know your place." The next hit split his lip, and Burke still couldn't suck in air. He felt like drowning. "You'll kiss your master's feet, and you'll love it!"

The hits were raining down on his head, jerking it from side to side, his skin splitting open under Todan's knuckles, and it felt oddly right, as if he deserved this - this punishment, because he'd done something bad, he'd let that kid die, and he'd killed the other one, and he should just take it, just like that...

"You'll be Asar's little bitch, and you'll love that, too..."

Something hot and fierce lit up in Burke's head, tinting his vision red, panic, or fury, or something else, it made the thoughts stop, it made everything stop-

He brought his legs up and crossed his ankles in front of Todan's throat, squeezed the man's neck between his calves and twisted sideways, taking him off balance; as soon as Todan's knees lifted from his arms, Burke scrambled to get on top of him before the bastard shook off the daze from his chokehold.

Suddenly, their positions were reversed, and Burke stared down into the scarred face, into Todan's still slightly-unfocused eyes.

In his own head was still that ringing, blindingly white silence; he watched as a fist came down and smashed into Todan's throat, watched as the man's eyes bulged, huge and panicked, watched as his mouth opened in the desperate attempt to suck in air, watched as the fists came down again and again, grinding cartilage and collapsing his windpipe, watched as the skin on Todan's face darkened to a sick purplish color, watched-

Something heavy fell on his neck and he was jerked up and backwards, away from the gurgling face. Burke twisted in the ape's grip, fingers stiff like wood, twisted around and stabbed them into the black face

Urko-

The gorilla dropped him and slapped his palms over his eyes, howling with agony. Blind. Helpless. Couldn't see him now, couldn't catch him now, couldn't know what he was gonna do

Run run run run run

Instead, he ripped the knife from Urko's belt and rammed it into his chest, right where the breastbone ended, pointing upwards and to the left

and again

and

The big ape fell, silent now.

Burke stepped back, gripping the knife with wet fingers.

He'd killed Urko.

No...

Burke blinked. Not Urko. That wasn't...

A ratcheting sound jolted him out of his daze. When he looked up, Asar's bodyguards had their guns pointed at him, ready to fire. Burke stared at them, dumbfounded.

His head hurt. Maybe not just from the beating he'd just gotten from Todan, who was still lying on the ground, gripping his throat and convulsing as he slowly choked to death. None of the apes paid him any attention.

"That was impressive," Asar's voice sounded from the gate. Burke slowly turned his head; there was a ringing in his ears, a high-pitched sound, like an audible manifestation of that blinding light in his mind.

Maybe he was going crazy. He wasn't able to verbalize that thought, but he felt it keenly.

"Such a vicious fighter," Asar said, grinning, still lounging against the open gate. "You'll make me good money. Now be a good boy and drop Tulko's knife, or I'll have to let my men shoot you, and wouldn't that be a shame? Drop it!" The last words were sharp like a flick of the whip, and Burke's fingers went slack at once. He was still staring at the ape; turning his gaze away felt like a titanic effort.

Someone shackled his wrists behind his back. Asar waved them off, though, when they moved to put on the muzzle. "Get Killer here back in his box, and get him some breakfast," he said, and turned away.

"He's earned it."

The children seemed to have waited for him; Virdon hadn't even walked halfway down Skinner Street when they appeared like ghosts from the shadows of doorways and side alleys. He hesitated, then slowly kept on walking; Skinner Street was too big and crowded to stop for a chat with a bunch of street kids.

Pero was walking parallel to him at the other side of the road. The rest of the children kept a similar distance, before and behind him. They reminded him of a pack of wild dogs - wary and feral, but more keen on avoiding a fight than starting one. One false move, one false word, would chase them away for good.

He casually turned into a smaller side alley; it managed to be even dirtier than Skinner Street.

"You came back," Pero's voice sounded behind him. "Must miss your friend a lot. Is he your sweetheart?"

From the shadows before and behind him, Virdon heard the other children snicker.

He stopped and turned around with a smile. "You came back, too. Still starving?"

Pero stood about ten steps away, feet planted widely apart and his thumbs hooked into his belt, the image of a Big Leader. "I didn't come back. I live here."

Virdon demonstratively swept his gaze up and down the dirty alley without a word. "Well," he said at last, "we had a deal, if I remember correctly. Are you still interested in getting some food into your posse's bellies?"

Pero glared at him, but said, "I want one bag with oats, one with dried turnips, and one with onions."

Virdon kept his face neutral, but he was impressed. Apes didn't eat oats - they regarded it as horse food. Still, porridge had helped the Brits create their global empire, as legend would have it; it was fatty and filling, and the dried turnips would add bulk and vitamins to it, once they had been soaked in water. As for the onions, they didn't just add spice, they were also a folk remedy against many diseases. The boy had obviously given some thought to the matter.

"That's three bags," he said. "One question each."

Pero scowled. "I decide how much you pay."

Virdon liked the boy - not just because he cared for smaller children when he wouldn't have to. But it was time to let him know the rules of this game.

Some of his thoughts must've appeared on his face, because Pero made a step back, his eyes wary.

"Let's make something very clear," Virdon said calmly. "I'll find my friend with or without your help, and whoever has him will be sorry for the day they were born. Your cooperation will just make me find him faster, which means he'll probably still be alive when I find him." He smiled, and Pero made another step back. "And that will greatly improve my mood. Now you," he allowed himself a quick sideways glance that implied the rest of Pero's gang, "are starving. And you can earn yourselves three bags of food for very little effort. None at all, to be precise. I'd think twice before I'd spoil that opportunity by being greedy."

Something tugged at his legs. Dadi was smiling up to him, a big, toothless smile - Virdon didn't know if she was teething, or if she had lost her teeth to scurvy. He crouched down and smiled at her.

"Can I have more soup?" the girl whispered.

"If your big brother stops being so stubborn and tells me how to find my friend, y'all can have soup," Virdon whispered back.

Dadi's eyes grew huge, and she turned around and tottered back to Pero to tug at his pants.

Virdon rose and waited. More children had emerged from the shadows, and whispered discussions were breaking out behind him as well.

"Fine," Pero growled at last. "Ask."

"Who's behind this?" That was the most important information - if bounty hunters or Urko's guards had caught Burke, his chances of catching up to them before they handed him off to Urko were close to zero.

Pero shrugged. "Don't know the chimpanzees, but the gorilla was one of Asar's guys. Tulko."

Virdon clenched his teeth. Pero had answered the question - but he had done so with an absolute minimum of information, and most of it was useless for him, since he didn't know either of those names. They could be local thugs - but they could also be local bounty hunters, which meant that he still didn't know if Pete was still inside the town walls, or already on his way to Urko's dungeon.

He carefully worded his next question. "What does this Asar do?"

"He breaks the law a lot," Pero deadpanned.

Virdon felt his patience beginning to slip. "Answer the question completely," he growled. "Or I'll pay you with a very small bag of turnips."

Pero drew his lip through his teeth, not bothering to hide his smirk. "Asar organizes manfights - humans fighting other humans," he explained when Virdon narrowed his eyes. "Normally, they jus' fight until one gives up, 'cause humans don't breed that quickly, an' they're expensive, but sometimes Asar's guys jus' steal them from their owners, or from the streets, an' let them fight to the death. Pays more."

"So those death fights are special events," Virdon mused aloud. "Can you show me where they announce those death matches?"

Pero emphatically shook his head. "Nope. Too dangerous for humans. You think this quarter is bad? There's quarters where no human can show their face, unless they're one of the fighters, an' then that quarter is the last thing they see in their life."

"If I want to help my friend, I need to go where he is," Virdon insisted.

Pero scoffed. "Let 'em catch you an' throw you into the pit. I'm not going there."

"I didn't ask you to go there," Virdon said, exasperated. "Just to tell me where it is."

"An' then what? You can't go there, either!" Pero threw up his arms, just as exasperated.

"But my friends can - they're apes," Virdon pointed out.

"I don't help apes," Pero said stubbornly.

"But you're taking their money, or where do you think the sembles come from that buy those bags of oats and turnips?" Virdon said. "I'll add a bag of dried meat to your onions if you tell me."

That sensational offer prompted another round of whispered discussions, but this time, Pero stayed firm. The pleas of his gang seemed to have softened him to the extent that he felt the need to explain himself to Virdon, however. "You don't get it - Asar rules the street. He'll find out who told about him, an' then we're all done for!"

"He won't find out from me," Virdon said.

"He'll find out somehow," Pero snapped.

They had reached an impasse food wouldn't be able to break. Virdon rubbed his neck, trying to think of something that would persuade Pero to challenge the local crime lord.

"How about you leave town?" he suggested.

Pero laughed, a hollow sound. "An' go where? Other towns are already divvied up - had to fight to claim these streets here for ourselves."

"I'm not talking about living in the gutters of another town," Virdon said calmly. "I was talking of taking you - all of you - to a shelter, now hear me out!" He held up a hand. "I know you don't trust the apes - can't blame you, really. There are a lot of cruel..." he swallowed hard.

"A, a lot of cruel apes in this town. But they're not all like this. The ones I'm traveling with are different; and I've known them for a long time, so I know what I'm talking about. And there are others who don't treat humans like dirt. Most apes are against shelters for humans, so the apes who do run them have to fight against their own people. They wouldn't do that if they didn't believe that treating humans well is the right thing to do. You'd have enough food, you'd stay warm - and safe."

He slowly crouched down and pointed at Dadi who was sucking on her thumb, still clinging to Pero's leg. "She won't survive this winter, not even with your sack of onions, and you know it. She's in bad shape - a lot of you are. I admire your tenacity, and your cleverness to survive until now, but how many of your group did the last winter claim?"

Pero didn't answer, but the desolation in his eyes told Virdon enough. "But the worst thing is," he said softly, "that those of you who do survive - those of you who are strong and smart and skilled enough - will sooner or later end up in one of Asar's fighting pits. He's using the streets to weed out the weak, so he can use the strong to entertain his fellow apes, and make money from your suffering. You deserve better than this... all of you deserve better than this."

Pero rubbed a hand over his face. "Shelters are small, an' stuffed with humans," he muttered. "They'll just send us back here."

"If the first shelter is full, we'll take you to the next one," Virdon promised. "We're traveling with a wagon, and we'll let you ride with us until we find a shelter that'll take you in. You have my word." What a shame, that the only way to offer these kids some protection was by giving them into the hands of apes...

"If your master says no, your word is worth shit," Pero growled.

Virdon got to his feet again. "They're not my masters." Although they like to behave as if they are. Well, one of them. "They respect my word."

Pero stared at him. Virdon calmly met his glare.

For long minutes, neither of them said a word.

Finally, Pero shifted on his feet and glanced around, meeting the eyes of every member of his gang, maybe asking for their agreement. Whatever went on between them in that silence, Virdon saw only a deep worry in his eyes when the boy finally looked at him again.

"Alright," Pero said. "I'll tell you where them apes meet."