And All the Stars

Chapter Twenty-Two

There was no plunge. Madeleine glided with soap bubble ease, the sensation almost that of sliding over ice, the shield beneath her far more responsive than she’d anticipated. She shifted it a degree, as easily as moving a mental arm, and the glide became a leisurely swoop toward Central Station.

Glorious!

Unhurriedly, for she was still very high, Madeleine attempted to follow Fisher’s instructions, and made a minor adjustment to the shape, a curling of one corner, taking care to keep her changes small. She curved to the left, circling over the Anzac Memorial at the southern end of Hyde Park, and drifted back. The hotel was a good place to aim for, with its distinctive terraces and long upper roof. Still too far below to hope to land, but if she went south again and lined herself up as if for a runway, she would have plenty of opportunity to correct her height, and face far less risk of overshooting.

The city spun below her, reduced to blockish shapes and streaking lights. The Spire was a slim shadow ahead to her right, Sydney Tower a shorter rival to the left. Blobbish lumps below were all she could make out of Hyde Park’s trees, which were far too low to pose any danger of collision, and provided a simple line to use as a guide. The hotel’s long roof was not entirely flat, had some kind of air-conditioning plant on top, but that was long and flat as well, and she dropped to a mere leg-breaking distance as the near edge of the long centre building approached. Passing above four large fans, she lifted a little to barely clear a white circular projection, then swooped down the last few feet to the surface of the roof, contracting her shield so that her landing was a little fast, but obligingly bouncy.

Done. Face-down on concrete, arms spread wide, safe. She rolled onto her back and stared up at a foreshortened view of two towers. Had he known how that flight would make her feel? Lined up this domino, knowing she would desperately need to be uplifted? It had helped, so much. Théoden, all that she felt, was still a roil of confusion and grief, but the barbed wire had rusted through. It was gratitude which blurred the stars.

The recollection that she was lying on the roof of a hotel full of possessed Blues prodded her to movement. She scrambled to her feet and padded softly to the north end of the section of roof. The curve of the pool room roof was a lighted jewel below, and Fisher waited just before it, a so-familiar silhouette. Kneeling, she reversed, dangled and dropped down off the plant level, noticing deep scrapes in the concrete as she let go. The Core must land his dragon up there.

Another drop and she was beside the pool, Fisher turning as if to take her arm, then stopping short. But Madeleine had found the strength to keep herself focused on her goals, and was not thrown by the near touch.

"Were there cameras monitoring me?" she whispered. "Will the Moths know what’s happened?"

"There were cameras, just not enough. They can’t see the place where Théoden is, and will only know that you have gone up on the roof with what they will think is him. They can tell a possessed Blue from a non-possessed, but not through a camera image."

"So they’ll know right away when they see you?"

"Yes. Every Blue we encounter, you will need to spirit punch immediately. Most of the Moths will die." The clipped tone wavered for a moment, then resumed. "If there’s multiple Moths, I’ll try to revive the fallen Blues while you fight, and it will be easier as we progress because our numbers will grow. However, the strongest Moths, particularly the Five, can survive separation from the host. That’s why, before we go for Noi, we need Nash."

"To drain, like he did the Rover." Some of what needed to be done was obvious. Dominos, falling into place.

"Nash won’t be possessed – he’s being held for much the same reason you were. Any Greens will need to be shield-paralysed and locked up. Ideally, we want to collect Nash and free Noi as quickly and quietly as possible. If an alarm is raised – well, that will involve running, and passing on the information we have before the united strength of the En-Mott clans descends on us."

He led her to an access door and eased it open. Glancing down as they stepped inside, Madeleine saw that folded paper had been wadded into the gap in the jamb. Another domino. How had Théoden felt, this last day, putting in place all the things which needed to happen after she killed him?

Madeleine took deep, calming breaths, trying to prepare herself. Going into battle, a thing which she’d technically accepted back when the Musketeers had been practicing combat, now meant facing the probability of killing another Moth like Théoden. There was no way of knowing.

But she would do it. The consequences of hesitating were too large.

The next domino had been a card key, tucked behind a picture frame in the first hallway.

"The elevators are monitored," Fisher said as he collected it. "The cameras are in the far right corners. Put your hood up and look down and to your left as we walk in, then turn and straighten. There should be no problem with anyone seeing me on camera – perhaps a little heightened attention, but not the full alert you would inspire. The security room is on the same level as Nash, so we’ll take it out first. It’s usually manned by Greens, so in this case I’ll shield-stun first, and you spirit punch anyone who doesn’t fall down. Ready?"

Madeleine tugged her hood well forward. "Is it only Noi and Nash in this building? Do you know where the others are?"

"Min and Pan will be here. Emily is part of the sub-group led by another of the Five, based in the hotel next to this one."

"Okay."

The clarity of Fisher’s knowledge made it obvious he remembered every detail of the time he was possessed, and she could not let herself think about that too much, could not spend time going over all the things she’d said and done. But it was no easier to think of killing people. Glad of the shadow of her hood, she followed him to an elevator, and did her best to move casually, bending her head as if she was glancing at Fisher’s shoes, turning unhurriedly.

They travelled more than a dozen floors down, and strode with casual confidence to knock on and open a door, quite as if they belonged. The room beyond was lit by a grid of screens, images of corridors, rooms, the hotel entrance. Heart thumping triple time, Madeleine barely saw the people sitting before them, dark shapes turning, one getting to her feet. Fisher was quick, all three of the figures jolting from a blow, but the one standing was still moving, the tiniest fragment of Moth song lifting, and Madeleine punched, panicked by the idea of dozens of possessed people running in response to an alarm. In the compact room, the sudden bloom of Moth above Blue seemed blinding, the alien too close, giant.

Then it fell, becoming Madeleine’s second kill that night, and she recognised with sick certainty that she would keep a count, and remember it always. But the Blue, a woman, had dropped back on the chair, limp and wrong, and Madeleine had to make certain that the count didn’t jump immediately to three. Rushing forward, she pressed hands above heart and pushed out a frightened little spurt of worry.

"Good." Fisher sounded as breathless as she felt, but he was already moving, turning on the room’s light and closing the door. "I’m going to grab gear to tie them up," he said, bending over the two Greens and searching pockets, removing mobile phones. "Paralyse them again if they begin to revive before I’m back. Is she breathing?"

"Yes." The woman had blinked, and tears were now welling in brown eyes. Behind her, the limp corpse of the Moth slid off the room’s wrap-around counter to take up too much space on the floor.

"I won’t be long," Fisher said, dragging one of the Greens into the corner furthest from any buttons. "Check the monitors for an indication of how many Moths are active."

He pulled the second Green across to the first, gave her a quick, sharp glance which she caught out of the corner of her eye, and then left. Madeleine turned to watch him stride into one of the elevators on screen and stand, hands in pockets, head bowed. Tense, strained, and already looking tired. They’d only just started. How could they possibly prepare for the Core’s return in a scant few hours?

"Thank you. So much."

The Blue she’d freed reached out deeply stained hands, only occasional patches of brown visible. When Madeleine offered hers in automatic response, the woman gripped and squeezed them painfully tight, then let go and began to explore her own face.

"I can’t hardly believe…" She swept her hands slowly over softly curling hair, squeezed shut her eyes, causing tears to break loose from lashes. "Me again. At last."

"Welcome back…" Madeleine said uncertainly.

"Sarah," the woman said, making the name a release, a triumph. "Sarah Jeteneru."

"I’m –"

The woman widened her eyes, a momentary laughing expression. "You’re Madeleine Cost. Do you think there’s any of us in this city who doesn’t know the Core’s great prize? And, oh, he’s reached too far, hasn’t he? You’re here to bring him down."

"We’re here to try," Madeleine said, startled and impressed by the woman’s rapid shift toward self-command. She surveyed the wall of monitors, wondering how many Moths were in the hotel. A central screen was flicking between images, and Madeleine caught her breath, staring at a person sitting cross-legged on a bed.

The picture changed to Nash, standing at a window, but a furtive sound demanded Madeleine’s attention, and she turned to find one of the stunned Greens trying to overcome post-paralysis pins and needles and get to the door. By the time the Green had been stunned and stashed back with his companion, Fisher had arrived, wearing a backpack and hauling heavily loaded Eco-shopping bags.

"Eat," he recommended, putting down four bags brimming with blocks of chocolate, boxes of muesli bars, bags of dried fruit. He slid his backpack to the ground, produced a mobile phone which he passed to her, then pulled out a large roll of duct tape, turning purposefully to the Greens.

"This is Sarah," Madeleine said, opting to stock her backpack first. She refused to contemplate crumb trays ever again.

"Fisher," he said, with a preoccupied nod. "How many people are up and about in the hotel?"

"Up, quite a number, watching the Buenos Aires Challenge." Sarah glanced toward a laptop, where images of an arena were being streamed, then pulled a keyboard into reach and tapped out commands. "Most in their rooms, but there’s a cluster in a guest lounge, and another group in with the North."

"The North?" Madeleine asked.

"One of the Five. There’s no English word – no Earth word – which fits what they call the four who support the Core, so they use North, South, East and West. The four quarters. The South and the North are watching together," she added to Fisher, who paused, frowning, then briskly resumed his taping efforts.

"We’ll need greater numbers before we go up, then," he said. "But first the leech Blues. Any obstacles?"

"One guard, at the beginning of their corridor," Sarah said, and when the Greens were thoroughly wrapped led Madeleine and Fisher directly to a row of rooms which had been roughly reinforced with the kind of security screens usually seen on the front doors of houses. The first in the row, by contrast, had had its door removed, making it difficult to get past unseen, so Madeleine simply ran straight into the open room, the man inside not even facing her when she spirit punched. Too easy, but already she was feeling a pinch of strain.

"I’m not sure how many of these I can do in a row," she said, as she knelt over the fallen Blue. "I’ll be okay for a handful more, but…"

"No, you need to rest for when we go for Noi. With this third freed Blue, we can safely take all but the strongest without you, and punching duty can pass on to each new Blue to limit exhaustion."

"Have you posted how to free people?" Sarah asked from the door. "We need to get something out there, tell the world how to do this."

"Is right…" The man lying on the floor beside Madeleine groaned, then tried to lever himself too quickly upright. "Can’t delay–!"

"We’ll prepare a time-delayed post after we have the leech Blues," Fisher said shortly. "Failure insurance. But we can’t go public yet. Not everything’s in place."

He too was thinking in terms of dominos. Of course he would, following the memory of Théoden’s plans, and that idea started to bring too much to the surface, so Madeleine turned to help the newly freed Blue to his feet. He wobbled unsteadily, told her to call him Kiwi Joe, then gathered her up in a huge hug. Since he was a big, solidly built man, this was more than a little overwhelming, but then he, like Sarah, took himself in hand, producing the keys to the makeshift prisons, asking Fisher questions about what next.

They shared out keys, unlocked the screens, and then Madeleine jumped back with a stifled squeak as Nash cannoned out of the room she’d opened, a broken chair leg swung like a sword, missing her head only because he pulled up at the last moment.

"Not possessed!" she said hastily, but he’d already worked that out, probably because Moths weren’t given to squeaking.

"The others–?" he asked.

"Soon," Madeleine said, but suddenly Nash wasn’t looking at her, was staring past her down the hall, the tense determination vanishing from his face, replaced by stunned disbelief.

"Leina?"

Madeleine had known, had seen him on the monitors, but still that husky, once-familiar voice broke something in her, and she whirled and flung herself into a startled Tyler’s arms.