Whereas the citadel of Carthinon was on the northernmost cliffs of the island, the bay was around the corner facing the east. Like the city it was enclosed by natural landscape, or it had been until a drunken sailor crashed his new powerboat into the south rock formation one day and caused them all to crumble below sea level. The only things that made it into a bay now and blocked it off from the south were the smaller cliffs and above it, raised fields of green grass, forest and dirt roads.
It was from behind these that Ciaran chugged the industrial ship into the bay's view, both purposefully stalling it and being surprised at the amount it juddered itself. He'd overheated one of the engines and angled the venting so a thick plume of black smoke came from the ship.
The timing was perfect, it was almost noon and the sun had just broken out. The sea was as blue as the sky and everybody had turned out to the docks for one reason or another. The docks that glowed with a pale yellow wood were filled with boats, fishing ones preparing for the next haul or simply boats for leisure. They were thriving with moving bodies, haggling over the freshest fish or trying to get the attention of others lagging behind. Ship crews trying to get eachother on deck in time and orphans pushing their luck in the last illustrious city left.
Then they began to stop.
Nobody had seen a ship like it before, or one so filthy. A metal beast ranging from murky grey to rusted brown and blackened marks, at twice the size of most ships in the bay it filled everyone's attention. They'd also never seen a ship in such a disrepair since The Cloud came, there was no one to battle over the sea with the shield's range, and no distance was large enough that a ship could drag on for long enough in such a state without coming into range of any of the other docks before Carthinon. They began to realise it couldn't have come from within the shield.
A few that had not frozen rushed to get to their boats and move them out into the bay so that it would have enough room to dock. They watched it sluggishly slide past them in wonder.
By the time it had lined up to the largest dock, the crowd of people waiting around it had grown to the hundreds. Like metal shavings to a magnet, everyone there had pressed close to get the first view of who or what would descend from the gangplank. Some sailors and their crew had climbed their masts and ropes to get a better view, most merchants stayed firmly with their stalls but still peered over as much as they could. Some murmurs flitted around, but mostly silence fell.
Ciaran switched the engines and everything else off, jamming the tiller so it wouldn't budge. They both left the bridge as the ship began to still.
"There's no point in taking anything with us, not if they're going to believe we aren't criminals doing a runner from them." He said as they went along the walkway to the stairs. "Is there anything you want to-"
"No." Rae replied from in front of him, she'd learnt a long time ago not to form attachments to any one thing.
Ciaran nodded even though she couldn't see him and paused before bringing up his next question. "I don't suppose we've got anything saved have we?"
Rae turned to go down the stairs. "Yes, because we've been making an absolute fortune while you've been gone and I was trying to keep myself alive and all our spots hidden from the guards, plenty of income." She enthused bitingly.
"Ah." Was all he could managed as he followed her down and hopped off the last steps. "So we're running with nothing, just like old times." He said as they both took positions on either side of the door.
"We'll run faster anyway." She completed the motto and he flashed her a mischievous grin.
"You ready?" He asked. She nodded but opened her mouth to ask something. He reached over and pulled the door's lever before she could form a syllable.
The door lowered to the dock as a gangplank. Ciaran stepped out first and she had to hand it to him, he could play the part.
He used the full extent of his gangly-looking body and stumbled about at the top of the gangplank, fumbling his hands around to brace himself at the silent tide of people he'd supposedly never expected to see.
Moments of silence passed as they all stared at eachother and every inch of Ciaran and Rae were taken in. With their already-worn faces from their radiation scare and their faded and frayed common clothing, they at least looked the part. It was broken by a man with both barrelled muscles and belly, Ciaran gulped at the sight of the dockmaster from old information they'd gathered.
"Who are you, and what’re you doing 'ere?" He demanded, pushing himself near the front of the crowd with ease.
Ciaran let out a whimper Rae would have had a hard time stopping herself from smirking at if she wasn't so busy staring at the crowd from the shadows. Ciaran hesitantly raised his hands. "We don't mean you any harm, we're just anglers. We got caught behind your, uh, force field about five years ago and it kind of sandwiched our ship next to an island. We couldn't move until now when you pulled it back-" He stammered warily, and it began.
"Outlanders?" Somebody gasped as the dockmaster was huffing up to demand their identities.
"The shield was moved?" Some asked but that wasn't the most popular question.
"There are survivors behind The Cloud?" Was the focal point.
"Well, yeah." Ciaran mumbled to them, flitting between faces like it was a trick question he'd be trampled for giving the wrong answer to. Any order went completely out of the window then, the screams and gasps were quickly followed by deafening cheers. Some people further back asked what was going on only to have the word "Survivors!" screamed at them, while others just cheered along anyway.
Ciaran began to walk down to the grasping hands and amazed grins with a tentative smile of his own. He pulled Rae down behind him and she quickly lurched down to his side.
"We're fishermen now?" She whispered in his ear.
He smiled and shrugged. "Just go with it." He said and gripped her hand in a vice as they went down to grand level and they were absorbed into the throng.
Everybody was screaming and cheering and doing everything they could to touch or clap them on the back. Ciaran returned them with the beam of someone simply pleasantly surprised to have all the attention, Rae tried to but could only be aghast at the amount of false value people put into apparent "survivors". It wasn't long before Ciaran pulled them in deeper and began to join in with the cheers, clapping the backs of any man near him. Rae did the same and soon everyone was completely lost as to who the survivors were, just that they were here.
After a few moments of this Ciaran suddenly dived to the left to a spot he'd sighted earlier. Rae was helplessly jerked along behind him and when she straightened found herself staring at the flighty grey eyes of a familiar face.
"Hello Ciaran!" The man welcomed them with a beam surrounded by brown stubble. "And Rae, too! It's good to see you're both still kicking." He said, but over the din it was a miracle they heard him.
"Barns!" Ciaran greeted him with a handshake and Rae smiled in return. As the men's hands clasped Ciaran pulled him closer. "Mind helping us get out of here?" He asked a little quieter.
Barns tapped his arched nose and winked at them. "Follow me." He said and began to push through the crowd towards the city.
They followed him and Ciaran swiftly moved ahead to keep in conversation to put off any curious eyes.
Barns was grinning and shaking his head. "Honestly you two, after the last time you were in Carthinon, I had my doubts, I mean you got shot, right Rae?"
"That was me." Ciaran put in.
"Ah, well, this is undoubtedly your best stunt yet guys." Barns shook his head again and chuckled.
Their journey through the crowd was longer than they'd first thought, people had started to file in from the city to see what all the noise was about. As some of the only people going against the tide, they noticed more and more looks directed at them. With every second glance Rae's heart beat a little faster.
"So how have things been?" Ciaran asked conversationally, subtly lengthening his stride to make them walk faster.
Rae shot a look at him. So he hasn't been in the city, she thought.
"Oh, pretty much the same, you know. Leon's strangling us all but we're giving him a good few kicks in the balls back!" Barns chuckled proudly and they all felt their shoulders ease back as the crowd started to thin. "Oh, you don't know do you?" He asked with a suddenly eager face. Rae and Ciaran exchanged looks. "Charlene and me, we're getting married!" He announced and Ciaran clapped him on the back with a relieved grin. "But to be honest I'm still not happy about a Christian reading our Jewish rites."
Ciaran laughed. "Are you kidding? Nobody cares about that anymore. These people are only separated by who believes The Cloud was caused by aliens and who doesn't! Charlene is certainly not the woman to be bothered about that." He teased. Rae smiled and nodded but found her heart was beating so fast it was pointless even trying to form a word.
"I suppose so." Barns admitted and perked up again as they came to the end of the crowd. "So when are you two going to take the vows?" He asked with an eager smile.
They both choked and stopped in their tracks. Ciaran spluttered and he didn't need to turn around to know that Rae was doing everything she could not to look at him. Barns looked at them both expectantly and Ciaran laughed, an unusually weak attempt at smoothing over the subject that came out with an involuntary wince.
"...This is the 28th century, not the 18th!" He joked as an excuse, though it came out worse than he intended and he couldn't bring himself to look at his propositioned partner.
As he watched their awkward scuffles Barns only just realised what he'd gotten himself into. "So you two will be disappearing again now?" He asked as an attempt to breach the subject.
"Yes!" Rae said gratefully and moved to Ciaran's side. "Yeah, we'll be uh..." She trailed off, pointing back over her shoulder, and both men nodded.
"Wait!" Barns stopped them before they'd fully turned. "Before you go, what you said about the shield moving, is that true?"
Every trace of humour dropped from Ciaran's face. He nodded. "We got caught behind it for a few miles, it only stopped around Brakken."
Barns paled. "Brakken?" He whispered. "But that's halfway up the coast! Even if the shield goes out from there then that's-"
"Too many." Ciaran cut across him before he even tried to think of a number.
Barns seemed to nod and shake his head at the same time. "And you two went behind the shield?" He asked, even more aghast.
"Only completely for a couple seconds." He hedged, his eyebrows pulling up as they furrowed.
Barns laughed incredulously. "I've heard of people combusting for less! Eyes poppin' and livers-" He remarked and then caught Rae's sceptical look. "Well that's what I've heard." He mumbled and positioned his hand protectively over his own liver.
"I'm sure your liver will be fine, Barns." Ciaran assured him. "This is the capital, they'd never let anything happen here!" He gushed bitterly. Barns laughed weakly and Rae frowned at Ciaran out of the corner of her eye. They faded into silence until their attentions were all drawn suddenly to a shift in the swelling crowd; they were trying to find the celebrated survivors and the people they chose only gave them their fists in return. All of them took involuntary steps back.
"Make sure you remind them of what happened today before they go home Barns?" Ciaran asked him as they began to part. "Our lives kinda depends on it."
Barns nodded firmly, but his eyes were distant as he tried to count the population of all the towns beyond Brakken. "Good luck!" He called to their backs after a delayed moment, then he was swallowed by what was now a third of the population of Carthinon.
Ciaran raised a hand in acknowledgement then he focused immediately towards their surroundings. The rowdy wall of people was behind them, the main road to the city centre was in front of them. It was wide enough for eight parallel cars, but they were so rare now that with the few exclusions of carts and island guard vehicles, everybody used roads as walkways. The buildings started as single-storey and brick, for the most part squared, but as the road went on the two mile stretch to the centre of the city they began to increase in size and height. Brick became plastered white and cream yellow, weathered panelling became flawless and eventually a flawless mix of gleaming walls and reinforced glass all the way up to the circle of glass spire scrapers that surrounded the heart of the city, connected by severe stone buildings that echoed the colour of the citadel.
Two regular streets flanked the main one on either side but Ciaran flicked his eyes between all of them and the curious people still coming down them with equal distress. Then turned away before any eye contact could be made. He remembered the public nature of their last visit to the city all too well. He turned back to the crowd, only to find it was as much of an impossible wall as before, if not more.
He stiffened his face and grabbed Rae's hand, not giving her any chance to brace herself before he pulled her up the road adjacent to the docks.
"Come on, side streets. We can't be seen here." He muttered.
The sudden force had her bent over double as her arm was pulled in the opposite direction, but she reacted quickly and met his long strides with a hybrid between a walk and a jog.
"The way out is in the other direction." She emphasised as he abruptly turned them into a more deserted alley that ran adjacent to the main road.
He replied haltingly as despite there being as few as seven disinterested people wandering through these back alleys and forgotten streets, he insisted on zig-zagging them between buildings to their destination.
"We wouldn't make it, too many people know our faces." He slowed as they came into the sight of an off-yellow single storey building, its rectangular size dominated the street it was part of, but it was so faded it managed to blend in anyway. Ciaran tried to smile but the corners of his mouth barely made a crease in his cheeks. "I need a drink anyway."
"That was five months ago. This isn't the mainland anymore where wanted pictures are projected on fifty feet screens in the city centres, you're saying they've been obsessing over our faces for five months?" She jested but had begun walking towards the building's entrance anyway.
Ciaran appeared to suddenly develop an itch on his nose and an interest in the minute details of the surroundings, but then he realised she was going towards the entrance which had a clear view from the main road. He lunged forward to grab her wrist and lead her to the right side of the building instead.
"Back entrance." He reminded her with half a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Her eyebrows twitched up. "Ah," Was the only thing she said lightly as he held a single metal door as thick as her arm open for her. She slipped in and they were immediately faced by a man sitting behind a desk built into the wall.
Her breath caught as his eyes flicked up at them from his magazine. Ciaran straightened up behind her, hand still on the door. The gaze was held for four seconds, not a fraction of the bouncer's eternally unamused face twitched. Then the eyes went back down to his magazine and Rae knew they must have passed the catalogue of troublemakers he had memorised.
Ciaran's hand went on the small of her back until they were out of sight of the unmoving bouncer and going down the stairs at the end of the dimly lit corridor.
The building had no windows, the entire bar was underground and the only lighting were small globes on the round tables, coloured strips on the walls, the illuminated bar at the top and the side stage lights at the other end.
Their stairs came out next to the stage, which was for the moment empty, as was most of the bar. Only the remnants of the previous night, dedicated patrons and those doing business were here at this time. Nobody looked up at the new arrivals, it wasn't the type of bar for being noticed or having a friendly atmosphere. Especially not for people who came through the back door.
Rae immediately went for a table in their usual spot on the outskirts of the middle of the room, with a direct path to both exits and close enough to other patrons not to stick out, but with enough distance not to be bothered or overheard.
Ciaran went ahead to get drinks and returned with two glasses filled with an oddly blue liquid. Or that might just have been the awful lighting that was about as clean as the coastal mining towns. He took the seat opposite to her and immediately took a gulp.
"You sure it's a good idea to stay here?"
He twisted his neck to look at the two black back-lit lines above the bar, the shortest pointed up and the longest pointed right. He shrugged. "It's as good a place as any. It'll be a while yet until the guards even get close to the city in those cars."
She sighed and put her elbows on the table. "And just when I thought he'd forgotten about me."
"He's never going to forget about you." He said simply and her eyes snapped up to him from the rim of her glass, but he had distractedly looked over at two girls gushing and giggling loudly a few tables across from them.
She followed his line of sight and looked at him puzzledly as she saw nothing wrong. "How long are we going to wait?"
He blinked and 'err'd as he focused his attention again. "Just until Barns riles the crowd up and the panic starts. We'll slip out and nobody will even remember the skittish 'survivors' until we're long gone and in Rethsbridge."
She frowned at the mention of the firmly in-land town. "Damond’s safe house? What about the ship?"
His eyebrows raised up in the middle and his mouth puckered. "After all this, do you really think we'll need a ship?"
The corners of her mouth pulled down and her eyebrows flashed up as she realised his point, if the shield continued reducing soon there'd be no point in having docks.
The gushing of the girls reached a squealing pitch as one gasped at the other and they fell into suggestive giggles, constantly nudging eachother's elbows. Ciaran's disapproving attention was drawn to them again. All necessary topics discussed, Rae decided to use the sudden silence to her advantage.
"So are you going to tell me what you've been doing these past few months?" She took a sip of her drink.
He jerked back at the question. She asked it casually but over her glass her eyes bored into him like steel.
"I, uh," He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as his finger circled the rim of his glass. He looked up at her and dropped his hands, realising that he had no way out this time. His throat caught as he was about to start, then a sudden exclamation cut him off.
"I've got a friend who knows a girl who's a cleaner there, and she says she could swear she saw red hair once. And freckles." The dreamy sigh was met with an adoring gasp.
"Red hair!? Everyone knows redheads are the best lovers!"
More than just the heads of the two newcomers turned in their direction and the girls giggled at the unintentional attention they'd drawn. One ginger man gave a snigger and a nod to his companions, but everyone looked back to their own business swiftly and the girls continued their gossip in huddled voices.
Ciaran's jaw tightened and his eyes darkened as he continued to stare at them.
"Don't." Rae faltered as she realised who the girls meant. But he was already gone before the half-hearted word died in her mouth.
It took Ciaran three strides to reach the girls' table, four if you count the extra one he used to spin a chair over from another table to theirs. The eager grins faded from their faces as they took in the new addition to their table.
They were somewhere between 17 and 20, both wearing the fashionable ribbed leggings styled after The Mask's, but in block colours. One of them wore a translucent grey bodice that flowed into a double-sided cape over her shoulders. It was a safety necessity on the coasts nearer the shield, but fashion in the city. Both had sleeved blue tube tops.
From her table Rae noted their noisy behaviour and attire made them out as unused to this type of bar, either here to appear cool or they were relatives of the owners. Either way, it wasn't going to go well. Not that she expected he wanted it to.
"Hey!" He greeted them enthusiastically with his arms crossed on the table. "I couldn't help overhearing you declare your love for our leader and just had to give you some inside information."
The girls smiled uneasily and exchanged looks.
"First, I don't know if he's single, gay, or has an entire harem of girls like you, and I don't give a crap." Anger started to strain his voice and Rae began to watch a patron twice Ciaran's width begin to pay him far too much attention. "Secondly," He continued and glared sharply at the girl who started to get up that she immediately dropped back down. "Did you know that half of the island has been slaughtered today, at his command?" He asked and nodded eagerly to their expressions of uneasiness and disbelief. "They pulled the shields back. Think of all those children, or young ladies like yourself. You know one rumour is that when you go into The Cloud your head explodes from the inside." He wasn't even faking enthusiasm now, he was just snarling.
One girl looked like she was conflicted between disbelief and throwing up, while the other was sitting as far back in her chair from him as possible. The ridiculously muscled man Rae had been watching had ambled over to the table by then and he glared down at Ciaran.
"Is this man bothering you girls?" He asked, looking like he'd already decided on the answer to that question.
"I, uh, I-I don't know." The conflicted girl spluttered, staring at Ciaran with rabbit eyes like he was about to hit out at her at one wrong word.
Instead Ciaran stood up and met the intruder's glare, the girls already out of his mind. "Oh no, was just giving the ladies here some valuable truth on our esteemed leader."
The intruder tensed his muscles and Rae did the same, as did everybody else in the bar. An eye twitched. "The Mask is the best thing to happen to the island since The Cloud." He told Ciaran in dulcet tones.
"Oh, really? So I guess you're a fan of massacre and general idiocy then." He stepped away from the table and pepped his stance.
The hefty intruder flashed a blackened smile and shook his head at the wiry blonde blue-eyed rogue in front of him. "You're nine kinds of idiotic, boy."
Ciaran considered this as thick hands were pounded. "No, I just have a conscience you oversized boot-licking sheep."
The entire bar rose up at this and Rae rolled her eyes, he wasn't even trying hard anymore.
A musician who'd fallen asleep at the side of the stage slowly propped himself up as the first punch was thrown. "Danielle? You started the party without me?" He blearily smiled in the direction of the girls' table. Then a large patron Ciaran had thrown aside collided with the stage floor and he shot to his feet like he'd been shot. "Oh shit!" He cried as he took in the fight going on between one man and several patrons. The girl who'd tried to leave her seat before stood up then and marched towards him with her friend in tow. The musician slung an arm around her shoulder. "Come on lets get out of here." He said frantically and led them both to the back staircase Ciaran and Ray had come through, leaping back from a chair thrown in their path.
Rae simply watched Ciaran take out three enraged men from her table, then as he began to become penned in by patrons who thought he would've gone down by now, she rose. Having been completely unnoticed by the patrons, nobody blinked an eye as she walked up to the huge black-toothed man who'd just split Ciaran's lip. She tripped up one patron who thought he was sneaking up on Ciaran and left him a whimpering mess on the floor with one stomp to his private parts. The hulk of a man was preparing to deliver the final blow to his surrounded opponent when she threw her fist into the soft flesh at the base of his skull. He froze and a smug smile of victory crossed her lips, then he turned around.
"Weird, that usually works." She said up to the boorish black eyes and took a step back, then kicked him in the crotch. He dropped to his knees in agony and she used his lowered back as a platform to jump up and launch herself at the next opponent going for Ciaran from.
The people wanted nothing to do with the fight had filed out, some remained with their drinks but most of them fought. Rae and Ciaran were outnumbered seven to one, but still they managed to floor five men, and a woman, between them. The ginger patron decided he agreed with them jumped in to their defence, he was knocked out almost immediately but Ciaran gave him a surprised nod of thanks anyway.
Then as Rae turned to check her partner's position, a left hook to the jaw sent her disoriented and reeling into a table. Ciaran cried out and so did many others as they were all launched at with his protective rage, but her hearing had popped so much that she only distinctly heard one cry, unanimous with hers. Logic dictates she shouldn't have heard it from such a distance, forget amidst all the other shouts, but she did. And the source of it knew exactly where to go.
It took her a few moments to recover but when she did she took down yet another man with a bottle from a table behind her. Then shouts and thunderous footsteps came from above and behind them and she knew it was all over, but still she didn't stop protecting her partner's back.
The white uniforms of the island guard flooded down each staircase of the bar, the fighters were surrounded but still they didn't stop.
As he and some others looked up as the source of the noise showed themselves, Ciaran noted somewhat puzzledly throughout the entire fight Rae had been guarding her abdomen instead of her head. He was one of the people he'd taught her how to fight, and it wasn't like that.
At the only moment she raised her fists to protect her throbbing jaw, a meaty fist sunk into her ribs. She staggered to the side with a snap and on the stairs Captain Jadon Leon fell to his knees.
"Do not harm her!" He yelled to his guards, his face clenched up against a pain that hadn't touched him. "Do what you want with him." He muttered darkly as he pulled himself up with the railings.
The enraged patrons were subdued as the guards focused their strength on the bruised and bloodied but still kicking Ciaran. He fended off an attack from the front but was dropped to his knees by a hit from something hard and blunt to the back of his head. His last thought was that the Island Guard's cars were faster than he remembered, before the darkness took over his senses and he crumpled to the floor.
Vague, blurred images of white walls, a lot of jolting steps, a jostling vehicle and Rae's resigned but alive face combined with indistinct voices and blinding lighting passed through his semi-conscious brain. He wasn't even sure it was in that order, but all he could focus on were Rae's brown eyes when they opened to look at him. No not brown, amber. Burning, bright embers of amber, reminding him of how angry she was with him...He blinked, she was frowning. She managed to look so pretty when she frowned, it was strange. He blinked again, more slowly. The eyes of amber ember were closer this time. Her hands were behind her back but her lips were moving. Saying... something. All he could see were amber eyes, melting, honey melting into golden caramel. The caramel faded into the distance of a black void.
He didn't wake up again for the entire journey.
Ciaran's senses returned to cold floor and distorted voices. His eyes squinted painfully as pale aqua lasers completely took over his blurred sight. He blinked and despite raising his hand to block the light, saw only white, everything was white.
Rae sat and watched him fumble around from the furthest wall of her cell, one knee pulled up to her chest and propping her arm. Her mouth and eyebrow twitched up as he slowly realised that the blinding white was simply the colour of all their surroundings.
"Are you actually awake this time?" She asked as he went onto his knees then suddenly flinched around as lasers scanned him and his entire cell again. "Or are you going to start rambling about embers and grinning at my face again?"
"Nah'm awake," He mumbled and squinted at the source of the lasers, raising his hand to filter his eyesight. It was coming from the front wall of his cell, it was completely translucent but it was undoubtedly stronger than any glass he'd come across. Dull hooded eyes looked back at him as the lasers vanished and widened as they realised he was looking at them. An in-depth projection of his body came up on a protruding panel of his cell wall and the owner of the eyes focused entirely on it, focusing on not looking at either the prisoner or the thick jail guards behind him.
"What's going on?" Ciaran asked slightly less blearily as the man moved on to start the same process in Rae's cell, one bodyguard shadowed his steps while the other stood glaring at Ciaran.
"Medical examination." Rae replied evenly, hardly blinking when the aqua lasers formed a 3D image of her body and featureless cell.
"Aww, did I miss the physical?" Ciaran whined with a pout that quickly broke into a grin as he winked at the man he now realised was the doctor.
The doctor squinted at him and stepped back with a shake of his head. Rae's scanned projection and file came up in front of him and he examined it closely. The guard behind his shoulder tried to do the same but Ciaran figured it was full of medical jargon because he shook his head and returned to simply watching them all within seconds. In the silence he waggled his fingers at his glaring guard but it didn't even reward him with a blink. A quick turn of his head showed that the only window was high up on the back wall of Rae's cell, it had no ledge whatsoever and was just too small for either of their shoulders to fit through.
He tried to meet Rae's eyes through the faint criss-crossing lasers that separated their cells, but she'd closed them. He looked around him again and found the cells were pretty much equal squares. He rolled his eyes as he realised there wasn't even a pallet to sleep on.
The jargon-illiterate guard apparently shared his boredom because he then laid a long-fingered hand on the doctor's shoulder. He jerked around immediately from his mutterings and tuts and the guard asked: "Well, is there anything wrong with them?"
The doctor immediately tutted again and flicked his eyes between each of the prisoners. Rae opened her eyes but remained staring at her hand. "Other than slight traces of radiation and minor surface wounds and bruises, no." He replied in a surprisingly assertive voice. "Both suffered blows to the head but it's nothing that won't heal in a few days." He leaned back, comparing details between both scan results. "The girl has three bruised ribs and maybe a fracture, but it isn't nearly as bad as Captain Leon keeps making out." He snorted quietly to himself then frowned at Rae's scan.
"So are we done here?" The guard asked.
"Yes yes, get me out of here." The doctor replied and the guard motioned to the other to follow them up the staircase behind them.
Ciaran was giving his guard a farewell with a tongue flick almost too quick to register, then his attention was immediately drawn to the doctor as he turned back to address one of them for the first time.
A frown crossed between pity and helplessness was on his brow as he said to Rae: "I suppose I should say congratulations." Rae's head turned to look at him but nothing crossed her face.
The doctor turned to go with his escort and within moments they were alone, and highly secured. Ciaran immediately looked to his partner, her face showed nothing, yet he couldn't help thinking he'd missed something. Treating his uneasiness with action, he stood and walked, a little dizzily at first, to the faint bars between their cells. She watched his hand reach out to it then quirked her mouth as it crackled with a gasp of pain from him and instantly solidified into a thick wall with neon bars. She drew up both her legs as it slowly went back to being translucent and showed her his back retreating then sitting in the middle of his cell. He leant back onto his hands to scan the prison room and the ceiling for the hidden cameras she already knew were there.
"Don't bother." She said to him. "There are fifteen, you're sitting on one of them right now." Ciaran raised his eyebrows at her and froze for a moment. Then he wriggled his bottom and broke into a satisfied smirk.
Rae snorted humourlessly and looked at all the vast, empty cells in font of them. "These are the best cells they've got, usually reserved for crazed murderers. There aren't any flaws."
"How nice it is to know what a high opinion they have of us." Ciaran commented and his face fell serious as he remembered all that happened at the bar. "Are you alright?"
He asked it in the softest of tones, the one he used when he knew he was in the wrong and was tentatively trying to make amends, but her stiff mouth, faint scowl and stoic manner remained unaffected as she replied: "Fine." and winced as she clutched her ribs too hard.
"So we're as alone as you could want. Before they come back to execute us, do you want to tell me why you left me for two months?"
Ciaran's spirits immediately vanished and he sighed so deeply it almost came out as a moan, he pointedly looked at all the hidden spots of the tiny cameras around them, but Rae's eyes didn't waver. This time they could have actually been embers.
"I..." He started, his voice sounding strangled like even this was like wrenching a jagged arrow out of his body. "I found my sister." He finally admitted and ran his hands all over his face and hair, letting his head fall back.
Every trace of hostility immediately dropped from Rae's face and left only unbelieving wide eyes and slackened limbs. "Is she... alright?"
"Lets just say I won't scream at night anymore." He sneered with a bitter smile that was betrayed by how thick his voice was.
Rae's hand instinctively moved towards him but she let it fall as she realised the distance and the faded bars between them. Her chest caught with emotion and her stomach felt like a convulsing knot, but she couldn't find anything to say. Their eyes met once and they both knew there was nothing that could be said to ease such a situation, so they didn't.
The only way of keeping track of the time became the intervals where a guard brought them food or water, but even that was irregular. Any attempts at conversation were immediately stopped by a quick glance at one of the hidden camera locations; sleep stopped by the cold, harsh walls. The unreachable window brought only darkness, so much that soon the only thing they could see was the faint reflection of the bars and nothing beyond them.
Rae glanced up at the unchanging night a few times and then completely disregarded it as an attempt at throwing any plans they might have at escaping off guard. They had none, the cells were completely solid and behind the walls were reinforced metal plates stronger than a bunker, the room had no exit other than the thin closed stairway that had four guards beyond the door at the top of it. Even if Rae's prints would work in the most secure and updated area of the island, there was no way to get to the input pad. There was no key to steal or guards to trip, they were here until the inevitable announcement of their permanent incarceration.
A week could have passed, it seemed like days. In truth it was only a few hours. Sudden light filling the room and bouncing off the walls, combined with their concussions, blinded their dilated pupils long enough to leave them susceptible to any rough treatment the guards saw fit.
Three guards came for them, another joined them at the top of the stairs. They were put in the green-tubed handcuffs Ciaran had been given before and were given no chances by their escort, despite the fact they could hardly see.
When the white walls of the prisons changed into the stone blue walls of the citadel, Ciaran was finally able to make something out other than the slicked black hair of the guard in front of him. The guard behind Rae wasn't staying close to her for the sake of it but was keeping the touchpad of her handcuffs permanently covered. A part of him smiled bitterly that they'd finally realised their mistake, while another seethed that that was one more thing that they no longer had in their favour. Not that it would matter after this.
His gaze lifted to find Rae frowning with startled eyes at his face. Her skin had a grey tint and her eyes were shadowed with purple rings, he could only imagine his were the same.
A quick scowl from a guard indicated that they weren't allowed to have any contact with eachother and Rae stared at the halls in front of them instead. Her lips fluttered slightly and her eyes twitched as she tried to compare them to the layout of the citadel in her head.
The rear guards exchanged knowing looks and gestures when they thought Ciaran couldn't see them. Normally he would have asked where they were going, but as he riled himself up for it he found he didn't care.
The room they were eventually shoved into though was not anything they expected. Another prison cell, a public stage to be humiliated on or even a gallows like he'd thought once in his most bitter period.
Even calling it a chamber would be a stretch. The single door they entered through was surrounded by a semi circled step that went up to the level of the rest of the room. There were tables, bookshelves and chairs at either end; the most elaborate to the right, but the furniture paled at the grand architecture. The north side of the room was hardly walled, instead it went out into a balcony wider than any street in the city and long enough to take over a minute to walk down. The most eye-grabbing part was the gold shield of the citadel that arched over it. While it could be seen and walked through, it cast a magical shimmer over everything under it.
The prisoners' eyes widened, they were in the most illustrious tower on the island. Five figures awaited them and immediately turned at their entrance. Ciaran shook his head with a twitch of his mouth, they were dressed so much like peacocks that they could only be council members. One even had a neck long enough that he resembled one.
"The prisoners, my lords." The head guard who couldn't read medical reports announced. The council member with a peacock neck and bright green jacket nodded at them.
Ciaran was ready for the immediate release that came from the guards who'd marched them in, but Rae wasn't. Wrought with exhaustion and injuries, when the support from the guard who'd gripped her bindings the entire journey suddenly vanished she didn't stop falling forwards on the step and barely had enough feeling in her hands to bring them forward to catch herself. Ciaran immediately moved to catch her but her was still sluggish and in the process of being freed. He grunted in annoyance at his guard but somebody had already reached her.
Firm black hands gripped her arms and prevented her from falling to the floor further. When she caught back the breath that had slipped out of her she looked up. Wild brown eyes swathed in black stared down at her only inches away from her face, hungrily taking in every detail of her like she was a meal he'd been starving for for years. For every moment he looked away to take in another part of her he instantly went back to her eyes. He loosened his grip but remained firm as he cupped her underarms to help her up. Standing, she was only a little shorter than him but as his eyes dropped to stay with hers he suddenly coughed and turned to the side like he was embarrassed.
"Are you OK?" He asked in the polite accent of Carthinon and for some reason she felt disappointed.
She was going to reply but found all the breath she'd gathered had left her she was so startled. She took a step back from him but his eyes still didn't leave hers. She nodded with a rushed reassuring smile, thinking that was what he wanted, but the only thing that broke his focus was Ciaran clearing his throat as loud as he could. So much that two birds resting in an open stone window startled and flapped off with disturbed caws.
The council members were as amused by this as the birds and looked between themselves with looks of poor judgement. One of them, a portly man in a purple jacket he kept adjusting the collar of and a sweaty red neck, rolled his eyes at all of this and stepped forward to catch the Mask's attention.
"So your prisoners are here and well. Great, now if we can just give them the deal and-" Rentham started but faded off uncomfortably as the Mask looked directly at Ciaran.
Ciaran was striding over to them calmly with a vein twitching below his left eye. "You." He said with a shaking finger, making sure Rae was behind him. She knew not to get in his way.
The Mask watched him, his stance and eyes not betraying anything.
"You gave the order." He continued, his voice was almost a whisper as he fought to control it. The council members muttered amongst themselves as they tried to hear what he was saying. "Ten thou- ten thousand lives." He enunciated and suddenly had no qualms with the volume of his voice. "You killed them, and now people who thought they were safe will live in agony because of how close they are to the shield!" The council members were deathly silent.
"I had no choice." The Mask replied simply. Ciaran laughed incredulously up at the ceiling and the council members tensed up as they waited for Ciaran's next verbal attack, there wasn't one.
The Mask caught the left hook that went for his chin with relative ease, he didn't count on the one going for his stomach. Doubled over and winded, Ciaran caught the collar of his robes and dragged him up so he could see his bared teeth.
"I want to see you die." He seethed as he was pulled away by two guards who'd just run in, but what he saw in the Mask's eyes made him falter in his resistance to the guards. No anger or superior dismissal, he agreed.
"See!? I told you this was inane!" Rentham cried and sneered at Ciaran like he was wishing all the curses of whatever happened to gutter rats on him.
"You're not the only one, Ciaran." The Mask sighed, ignoring Rentham.
Ciaran cocked his head at him and raised his upper lip in confusion, but didn't stop trying to elbow the guards. "Get off me!" He growled. Rae stood to the side, eyeing the door for the impending reinforcements, but none were coming.
"Let him go." The Mask ordered and they all looked at him in confusion.
"Wh-what?" Rentham stuttered but the guards unhanded him regardless. It was only then that Rae noticed just how nervous and dishevelled the council members were, huddled together like chickens with a fox in their pen. She stepped forward to place a hand on Ciaran's arm but it was more for their sake than anything else, it wasn't like she disagreed with his actions.
When she was sure she had his attention she flicked her eyes over to the two, lone, jittery guards who kept looking at the door and flinching at any noise from the outside, and then back to him.
He followed her gaze and returned her small frown. Then as his anger dispersed somewhat he, too, realised the odd circumstances.
"What's going on?" Rae asked the Mask and the assembled council members. "You're the most important people on the island, where are your guards?"
A small bark of laughter came from the Mask. "We are under siege. All the guards are out defending the gates. We have ways out of course, we could have run. But no matter where we went this would happen again-"
"Damn right it would." Ciaran growled.
The Mask barely looked at him and continued: "Everybody else has already gone. However we decided to stay and give you a chance to stop what you started." Rae looked dubiously at the council members at this and Rentham sniffed at the Mask. "Fishermen from outside the shield wasn't it? Creative to say the least."
Ciaran folded his arms and leant towards the Mask with an incredulous grin. "You want us to save you?" He chortled. "Didn't you hear what I just said?!"
But the Mask was dauntless in his stance. "The shield was failing. If we had not pulled it back when we did then all of us would be dead."
"But with no warning, no chance for people to fall back?" He exclaimed.
"There was no time." The Mask replied and Ciaran turned around with another incredulous bark. The council members all shuffled back together and away from him, despite the fact they were over ten steps away.
Rentham held his place and smiled thinly at Ciaran. "Please remember, thief, we have two men behind you who will shoot you dead any time we wish."
The guards at the door cocked their guns accordingly and Rae jumped aside as she tried to watch the moves of everybody all at once.
Ciaran span around to stare down the gun barrels and scanned the room with Rae to find the fastest exit. A well-built council member in a yellow jacket moved closer to the Mask and another grabbed an ornate candlestick from a table behind him.
Then breaking through all the stare-downs came a small voice behind a set of monitors nobody had noticed. "It's true you know." Everybody turned towards it and a pair of dark hazel eyes and brown half-combed hair popped up above the monitors. Seeing all the attention he had, he tried to stand up from his desk chair but found it wasn't so eager to let him go. After three false starts and knocking his table in ways he never thought would be possible, he sent his chair rolling away with a back kick and made himself presentable in front of the table of monitors.
"The shield is getting weaker. It's old tech anyway, and has been used constantly heavy-duty for ten years without replenishments. It's amazing it's lasted this long really, I'd have put it at five. Seven, max. I'm surprised something like this hasn't happened sooner-" He suddenly realised the people he was speaking to had never met him before and he wiped his hand down on his blue-slashed green shirt before offering it to Ciaran and Rae. "I'm Martin by the way, Martin Baren. I do all the ‘tech thingamajigs’ for, well, everybody." He glared at the oldest council members when he said that.
"You made the thirty second M-Artemis system that made it impossible for thieves to break into?" Rae asked coyly and his eyebrows raised along with his chest.
"Why yes, yes I did." He, too, attempted a coy smile at the recognition from the pretty criminal lady.
"Oh," Rae nodded. "I cracked it."
His face fell so much Ciaran wasn't sure if she'd broken the poor guy.
"Marty." The Mask intoned, breaking his goldfish impressions.
Marty snapped back to attention from staring at Rae in a whole new light, "Oh yeah." He remembered and started talking to them at a speed they were amazed they could comprehend. "Well what we've been able to establish is that the radiation is a solid state, it doesn't degrade or go away or fulfil itself. It's just constant, and the shield isn't. In fact nothing like this has ever been seen before, exposure to radiation usually just leaves you in various degrees of throwing up everything that's ever graced your lips and shitting out your melted guts until death, but this... The Cloud just eats everything, technically it's atomising a certain biological trace I haven't been able to identify, but eating sounds better. Or worse." He coughed.
"And the rest of the world? Have you even tried to contact them in all this?" Ciaran asked sceptically.
"Every day." The Mask replied.
"And?"
"Nothing, we don't know if it's because the signals can't get through the radiation or the shield, or if there's just no one on the other side to respond, but it's impossible to test either." The Mask sighed.
"The effects on the people closest to The Cloud are pretty much textbook reactions to radiation exposure but-"
"And the blood?"
Marty shook his head. "Nothing like it has ever been recorded before. In fact the sample we got from you two was the biggest we've ever had, and that was tiny. I mean you can't send anything out there, not if you want it back." He sniggered at his own joke but what he'd said caught Rae's attention for another reason.
"We'll be alright, won't we?" She asked and Marty looked up at her like his only concern was reassuring her.
"Oh yeah, you're all going to be fine." He enunciated a little too directly for anyone to find normal.
Ciaran looked at them both strangely but still failed to see what Marty had meant with his 'subtle' wild eyes, so went with what he was sure about. "You're never usually so worried about all of that." He frowned at Rae for the third time that day. She only shrugged indifferently and shifted her eyes under his constant gaze. He sighed and turned to the others. "Why are you telling us all this?" He asked with a shake of his head. He nodded at one of the council members. "And what's this deal he keeps muttering about?"
Rentham stopped muttering to himself so quickly that his cheeks wobbled.
The Mask didn't hesitate in explaining before he could recover. "The mob you managed to rile up outside needs to be talked down, so anything like this does not happen again. We cannot save anyone if they're lunging for our throats."
"Then why don't you talk to them? You're our leader!" Ciaran gesticulated.
The Mask shook his head. "We tried that, they won't listen to any of us. You talked them up, logic dictates you can bring them back down."
Ciaran smiled humourlessly and turned to see Rae's reaction to all this. "Is that a threat or can we go?"
"You can go." The Mask replied flatly. The Council members began to shift and mutter behind him.
"Right," Ciaran nodded and walked towards the door. "They're your people so you deal with them." He didn't need to check if Rae was following him. She looked back at The Mask and Marty once in maybe a flicker of hesitation, but she knew where her allegiances would always lie.
The council members' mutterings had turned into looks of daggers at the Mask's theft of their rightful justice on the criminals, some even stepped forward out of the cluster like they were going to go after them themselves.
"Is that all you have to say, Ciaran?" The Mask called out. Halting, Ciaran shook his head with a disbelieving smirk. "You risked your life to avenge the dead by attacking me, but now you have a chance to save the other ten thousand by doing what you do best, you turn and run?"
Both of them spun around to face him at that point with identical frowns, but Rae caught on faster. "Are you actually suggesting creating a corrupt inner crime ring?" Her scepticism was echoed on Ciaran's face.
"To an extent. The people need to be controlled, for their own good. What happened today will cause ripples no matter what we say."
"I thought you had the Island Grunts for that?" Ciaran countered.
"Even the Island Guard can't control what people think, hear what they do or clear out an entire village without lifting so much as a finger. Your... people can do that."
Ciaran raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement at this but Rae crossed her arms. "And the other half of the deal? What do we get out of this? A clean slate? Immunity forever?" She scoffed in an animated tone. "You know what we do depends on our reputation, if we're seen to have sold out-"
"No," The Mask immediately cut across. "You'll find your faces will become not so clear in the Guard's memories, but if you commit an unsavoury act in front of them, we cannot help you. As for reward, you'll be saving the human race. And if you ever have need of anything, I'll see you have it." He finished grandly, with a note of firm finality. His reaction when he saw Rae and Ciaran exchanging doubtful looks verging on ridicule was to shift looking between Marty and the council members to see if he'd said something wrong. They were as clueless as him. "Anything." He repeated to the two criminals.
Ciaran sauntered forward with a sigh and easy smile like they'd been waiting on him all along. "Ok, but no more secret nods and hedging the bush. Tell us straight, what do you want us to do pal?"
"Before we tell you anything, you can take down the mob outside." The most physically impressive council member stepped down calmly from the jittery cluster of men. Rae got the feeling he'd had a hard time not rolling his eyes the entire time. "Take it as a guarantee on our side, we have to make sure you can actually do these things after all."
"You do realise if we actually go out there they're going to recognise us. Our reputations with everybody on this island will be ruined and your plans scuppered." Ciaran pointed out dryly.
"Oh no, just you." Rentham assured him with a smug smile sneaking across his face.
"What?" Ciaran immediately shot across and Rae's expression echoed his alarm simultaneously.
The Mask seemed to resume control of the situation just by straightening up. "Rae will stay with us while you speak to the crowd." He paused and Ciaran could almost see his smug smile at his surprise, just from the change in his voice. "What? Rae used to work for us; did you think we would let you both stroll out when it's likely she has every security camera and pathway committed to memory?" Even she had to smile at the foiling of their plan, and sat on the edge of Marty's desk as he continued: "Baren and the others will watch here from the monitors, if you try anything they'll be out of the city before you even find the room again." He didn't need to say Rae would go with them, the hostage situation was already implied, and firmly out of Ciaran's control.
He sighed, glancing apologetically at Rae but she didn't appear to be bothered, amusing herself by making the stocky but uneasy Marty nervous with her proximity. "What do you want me to say?" He asked.
"Anything that doesn't compromise us. Make it up, I've heard you're good at that." The Mask said and nodded at the guards to open the door.
"Remember, thief, anything goes wrong and you’ve got the entire Guard on your tail, and we won't care if you're alive." Rentham scowled, watching every step he took away from them with distaste.
"You really think I'm stupid enough to pass up on a deal this contrived?" He asked in an appalled manner. He quickly raised his hand without even seeing Rentham had opened his mouth. "Rhetorical, my good peacock, that was rhetorical." He gave a short wave to Rae as he followed the unreadable Mask out of the room and she raised hers in return.
The door shut and Rentham turned his seething frustration on the last criminal in the room. "That goes for you, too, girl."
"Oh you don't need to worry about me, peacock. Marty and I are best buddies over here." Rae smiled and slung her arm around Marty's neck. Rentham's eyelids lowered as Marty giggled nervously, eyeing the female next to him in disbelief, and Baren despairingly covered his face with his hand.
Ciaran was guided to the front of the citadel by the Mask and two guards. He smiled at how they flinched towards the cuffs on their belts whenever he took a step closer to them.
He looked at the Mask over his shoulder. "You were never going to let us go, were you?"
"No." The Mask replied genially.
"Then why that big speech?"
The Mask paused before replying. "Better that you chose to comply out of free will, rather than force."
"Call that free will?" Ciaran scoffed.
"Well, you didn't kill us all." The Mask pointed out.
They went down two deserted staircases before cutting through several ornate corridors and rooms to an unused strip of a chamber.
"How many balconies do you have?" He asked in jest as his escort went ahead to open the floor-length windows with glass just as thick as his cell. The Mask stayed behind a desk halfway across the room and stared out of the opening window forebodingly.
But then, every look the guy gives is foreboding. Ciaran snorted to himself as he watched the guards heave the two sides of the window open. Noise from the outside began to filter though and he involuntarily swallowed as the side of the window revealed it was entwined with reflective metal rods.
"The citadel's shield wasn't enough for you guys?" He asked, more weakly than he intended.
They ignored him and the smaller of the guards took a worrying look outside. "I don't know how much longer the men can hold up out there, sir." His eyes jumped between the Mask and the other guard, who put more weight into opening the window as a response.
"I know." The Mask replied and clapped a hand on Ciaran's shoulder. "You know what to do."
"Well actually..." Ciaran started to joke as he went forward to get a better view, fading off as the noise increased and he became more concerned. Then he stepped into the fully-opened window and his eyes widened with each row of civilians he took in. "Oh..."
"...Shit!" Rae remarked slowly as the cameras on the mob outside of the citadel came onto the monitors. The council members were milling about snootily now that the main threat had gone, but even Rentham couldn't help glancing over.
She leant forward over Marty's chair so much that he had no choice but to hunch over awkwardly to the side. The main feed was from a camera above the door Ciaran had stopped in. The balcony was above the impressive entrance to the citadel, supported by ten 20ft pillars. With every row of people she took in another seemed to have formed behind them, the incredibly wide circumferential stone steps that led up to the citadel were impossible to see through the mob. The crowd only seemed to raise a few inches every fifth row from the centre of the square.
A device was inserted into Ciaran’s ear and he stumbled out into the full view of the cameras they were all watching him though. A thousand different scenarios ran through Rae’s head as he saw the full extent of the crowd for the first time, she couldn’t find an escape in any of them.
Muttering darkly he drove her fists into the desk and hung her head. Rentham looked smugly at her distress and they all began to watch the screens even more attentively as Ciaran took his first steps to the balcony. They hardly even looked up as The Mask entered the room and took his place at the side of the desk, only willingly relinquished by an overeager council member when he realised who it was.
‘Too high, too high, too high!’ Rae rapidly intoned as Ciaran looked warily over the balcony’s stone railing. Either the psychic projection worked or he had the same thought as her because immediately he took a few steps back. Then he noticed just how many people were now staring up at him. He glanced back at the doors that were now shut and guarded behind him, but it appeared like he was staring directly into the cameras. Rae could practically feel Rentham tensing forwards into the position of a hawk behind her. Then something must have been shouted from the crowd because Ciaran span back towards the balcony and stated the first word of his grand, improvised speech that would be immortalised forever.
“Hi.” He hadn’t expected the ear device to work as a microphone so well because he flinched back when his word bounced all across the courtyard to the half-open 30ft gates with its battered guards and back. Then along with the mob focusing all their shaking fists and incoherent yelling on him, a brick was somehow thrown up onto the balcony and his hesitations vanished.
“Hey hey hey!” He protested and raised his hands with an offended frown. “Now before you go throwing your underwear and or torch and pitchforks at me, I’m just like all of you.” His voiced bounced around to all of them and they fell silent. A few guards on the courtyard walls were in such disbelief they forgot to grumble about their bruises. “That’s right, a citizen of this...” He failed to think of an adjective that wouldn’t get him killed. “City. My name is not going to be said for personal security reasons, some of you already know me as your friendly neighbourhood crook.” He winked and a few of the more nefarious people in the crowd chuckled, but more at the impending demise of another cocky member of their organisation than anything.
“Oh Christ. No, don't do this,” Rae groaned at he main screen.
All of them frowned at her uneasily. “What's he doing?” The Mask asked.
Rae shook her head at all their self-concerned expressions. “Nothing for you to worry about.” She muttered bitterly, then continued when The Mask’s eyes didn’t move from her. “It's the ‘I'm one of you’ routine. They'll either love him or kill him.”
“What happened last time?” The Mask asked, uncertain if he wanted to know the answer.
“They shot him.” Rae replied and returned her full attention to Ciaran. A few councilmen looked relieved, then they remembered their careers depended on his speech and returned to being worried again.
“But today I have been released from the dungeons by the council so that I might do right my awful wrongs by saving their skins.” He nodded along sorrowfully to the crowd’s disgruntled outcries and he belted along with them in the palm of his hand. “They want me to tell you a flowered, cushioned story of the tragedy of what happened today. But I say no, no! We have survived as a people for ten years completely on our own, we need no cushioning!” He punched the air to the crowd’s cheers then returned to a sombre voice.
At the monitors the eyes of the entire room were popping. Behind Rae, Rentham was beginning to squeak in splutters but as the lack of more bricks went on she slowly began to grin at his ingenious idiocy.
“What you have heard is true, today the shield was reduced at the command of the Mask and resulted in the deaths of an estimated ten thousand. This was not an act of evil, I would not go so far as to call it heroic but by making this impossible split second decision he saved the human race. The shield suddenly collapsed after 10 years of constant use but now it’s stable again. The people who died today are gonna be remembered and honoured in a ceremony a week from today. Remember their sacrifices were so our children’s precious lives could exist. Lay down your bricks and pitchforks, the people who saved you can only continue to while they still have doors.” The crowd was initially silent in shock but due to a slight delay in the speakers, the people at the back were cheering at something he said a few seconds ago and then everybody else went along with it. “Thank you.” He said and gave the now thunderous crowd a stiff bow, then he swiftly turned towards the cameras with a murderous glance and strode towards the hurriedly opening doors.
Then he was gone from the view of the monitors and everyone began to slowly glare at Rae with varying intentions.
“A memorial?!” One pink-jacketed councilman exclaimed. “Who the hell does he think he is putting all this on us?!”
Rentham closed his eyes and flared his nostrils as he tried to take a deep breath.
“Did you know anything about this?” The Mask asked Rae suspiciously calmly.
She looked up at him with innocent eyes. “Me? I've been under your nose the entire time!” She grinned and whatever he was going to say next was lost by Ciaran bursting in the room to their shocked faces and smacking his palms down onto one of the desks facing them all. He leant forward and cocked his head like he was daring them to say anything against him.
“I am not your jester and I do not lie for you.” He enunciated and winked at Rae’s shaking head, smiling despite herself. Neither were expecting the bark of laughter that came from Rentham.
“Fortunate we didn't tell you the truth then.” He remarked.
“You, what?” Ciaran asked, a dangerous spark appearing in his slackened expression. Marty sighed, his taut muscles slumping back in his chair.
"Why am I not surprised?" Rae asked harshly as she pushed herself away from the desk so she was in an even position between them, Ciaran, and the door.
The Mask started walking away from the desk with the air of somebody about to speak, but Marty plunged ahead anyway.
"The shield was never stabilised," Marty sighed and they both pursed their lips in unspoken "what?"s. The Mask immediately shot Marty a look but he only half-shrugged in apology.
"Sir?" A reddened, astounded-looking guard hovering by the open door cut across. "The citizens... they're leaving!" He informed them all and The Mask gave Ciaran a considerately glance.
"All of you, your careers have been reasserted so go back to them." He said to all the council members a little stiffly. "And somebody tell the others they can return, please."
Only snooty sniffs and wary looks were given to the confused Rae and Ciaran as they were swiftly passed, but The Mask held out a hand as Rentham and Baren started to move away from the desk.
"Not you three." He said looked at Ciaran and Rae as despondently as a masked man could. "There are seven outputs for the shield around the island, all within their own station. They need to be reset with Marty's new code manually to stabilise the shield, but our Island Guard have reported that their varying states make them almost impossible to get into without certain skills."
"So you need criminals to break into your own stations?" Rae asked it sceptically but was already exchanging looks with Ciaran; it didn't seem so hard. The Mask appeared to wince and Baren took it on himself to deliver what he meant.
"We need you to work with Captain Leon and his men." He said it evenly but the reaction from Rae and Ciaran was instant.
Ciaran was so incredulous he almost choked on his laughter. "Work with-" He spluttered and was looking between them all for the joke. "You're kidding me? That guy has been hounding Rae for years, he's worse than a stalker!" He exclaimed in the ghostly Rae's defence.
"I'm sure he has his reasons-" The Mask started, then he saw the resolute outrage in Ciaran's expression. "But I'll speak with him." He hedged.
"I'm guessing we don't have a choice in this, do we?" Rae asked through gritted teeth and tightened eyes.
"Oh you have a choice, you can stay in the cells for several years." Rentham put in, not disingenuously. Rae scowled and The Mask swiftly stepped in again.
"We need your skills to help the Guards into the shield stations, the varying conditions of each one makes it impossible for just two people-"
Ciaran scoffed. "And you're not gonna trust two criminals you're depending on anyway with your secret shield codes, right?"
"And I will finish my sentences, Felix." The Mask said to him directly.
"So that's why you didn't tell us about this before Ciaran had gotten rid of your mob." Rae smiled humourlessly.
"This is even more important to our survival than the influentials of the underworld. I trust you'll all be able to put aside any disagreements while everyone's lives are in your hands?"
"If by that you mean upon finding Jadon Leon's body floating face-down in a river one day then no, it won't have been us." Ciaran smiled tightly.
The Mask's shoulders lowered slightly as he realised he'd reached the extent of their cooperation. "Then you both know what you have to do. Get the compliance of every major desperado you can find and report back to me. Captain Leon will no doubt be in contact with you when he needs your aid."
"And how will you find us? We are the masters of the shadows you so politely hired." Ciaran pointed out.
"Oh we'll be watching you from every angle, put a toenail out of place, thief, we'll know." Rentham scowled and Ciaran assumed his challenging, macho stance.
"Baren will show you to your rooms," The Mask stressed. "You're free to return there whenever you wish. If you have need of anything, bring it to me."
"And the guards?" Rae asked.
"Will become forgetful." The Mask assured.
"Come with me." Baren told them amicably.
With no other option left to play on, they followed, but not without Ciaran and Rentham holding a staring contest for as long as they could.
"Take the pills next to your beds and the effects of the radiation will be gone when you wake up. Mostly." Marty perked up as they passed his desk.
"There will be a vehicle for your use as well." The Mask called after them. "Good luck."
They only took one room, but judging by the difference in the amount of furnishings between them, they guessed they were expecting that.
The Mask's clear, perfectly punctuated voice was what kept ringing in Rae's mind all night. She suspected that Marty had given her pill a lighter dose in sedation than the unconscious Ciaran beside her, but still she couldn't stop thinking of the faceless leader who'd suddenly shown himself to them today. Only to be revealed to have no face at all, just a pair of fascinating chestnut eyes that seemed so resigned and enigmatic at the same time. So familiar and yet so strange, swathed in dangerous shadows.
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