Noah flashed him a grin. “Told you it would be ‘easy-peasy’ or whatever you guys call it.”
Zeke threw back his head and laughed, reaching out his arms for Noah to pull him up and relishing the snippet of contact with Noah’s body before he released him.
It was well past three before they reloaded the vans and were ready to drive again. The skeletal trees cast deep, crooked shadows around them as they drove slowly through the rest of the afternoon, pausing frequently to clear the roads. Eventually, the warmth of the heater and the gentle rumble of the engine lulled Zeke to sleep in the passenger seat, despite his best efforts to stay awake for Vitt. He was rudely awoken, however, by Noah’s voice coming through the van’s stereo.
“All vehicles halt.”
twenty-nine
Noah
“Checkthisout,”saidLowenna, holding out a tablet displaying video feed footage.
Noah, Lowenna and Tobias, assembled outside the lead van, leaned in to watch. At first, it was hard to make out what the night-vision grainy recording depicted. Many shuffling forms on two feet—a cluster of typeBs—gathered in a huddle. A huddle around a bright light in the middle. A burning, flickering light. A… fire?
“Weneedto investigate this,” said Noah.
“That’s a decision forCommand, not us,” hissed Tobias. “But it’s cold and dark. We need to be thinking about setting up camp, not gallivanting off on pointless excursions.”
“I’m going to call them,” said Lowenna. “Wait here.” She slid into the passenger side of the van, slamming the door shut.
“Newman, how can you not see how momentous this is? These types havebuilt a fire.”
“Definitely not.” Tobias crossed his arms and scowled at him. “They must have found it.”
“In this weather? You’ve got to be joking. You don’t just ‘find’ a fire. Sometimes it takes Habib and I half an hour to get the fire pit at Avantis going in the winter evenings.”
Tobias scowled. “Please don’t tell me you’re seriously proposing they have the brain function to light fires, Forrest.”
“Hence our need to investigate.”
Lowenna hopped down from the van. “All clear to divert route. Orders are to clear the perimeter of every type. We’re taking the next right. The drone shows a clear path all the way to the graveyard.”
Noah’s breath caught in his throat.
Graveyard?
“Would you remind me again why we’re feckin’ freezing our arses off outside a graveyard in the middle of winter?” Aoife grumbled for the third time, jumping up and down on the spot for warmth.
“It’s barely the beginning of winter,” Meredith replied. She was twisting a bangle of coloured gemstones around and around her wrist: her standard pre-battle ritual.
“That’s not comforting me, Mere.”
Noah stood on his tiptoes to gaze through the tall, black iron fence that surrounded the perimeter of the cemetery. A feeling of unease settled over him as he stared through the gaps, surveying the rows of headstones that stretched out endlessly. A short distance away, an old church towered over the graves, its steeple piercing the sky like a knife. On the other side of it, they would find the cluster of types gathered around their miraculous fire.
“Drones all indicate this group are the only types in the area. But be on guard. The dogs will lead.” Noah stood in front of the open gate—a gaping mouth ready to swallow them whole—addressing the platoon. Unhappy faces glared at him. Nobody was particularly pleased to be dragged out of the warm vehicles into the frigid air to go off-piste.
Lowenna addressed every soldier through the comms. “Don’t get spooked into swapping to firearms too easily. We don’t want to risk the noise. In addition, the more rounds we fire, the greater the risk of hitting each other. Walker, Shun and Ranjan have silencers, and will do most of the heavy lifting. The rest of you, use your crossbows and daggers where possible.”
Let’s get this out of the way as quickly as possible.Noah turned to Wolf and the other four canine units, dressed in their black harnesses that covered most of their torsos, and clicked his fingers before making the hand signal for them to walk forward in formation, staying five metres ahead of the platoon. If there were types lurking in the bushes, they would be the first to sense them—and the first to be attacked.
With crossbows at the ready, the platoon marched in three separate V formations down the path that led to the church. Tall grass and weeds choked the chipped and weather-worn graves, which mostly lay in broken piles of rubble. Noah couldn’t shake the notion they were being watched by unseen eyes. Routinely, he glanced back at where Zeke walked next to Frankie, to check he was still there, still alive. He couldn’t make out Zeke’s expression through the darkness and his helmet, but he imagined him rolling his eyes.
The platoon hugged the cold stone wall of the church as they crept towards the cluster. Noah signalled to the dogs, instructing them to surround the perimeter and make sure none of the types escaped.
Before Noah was ready to face the battle, the platoon turned the corner.
It was one thing seeing the drone footage, but it was an entirely different beast seeing it in real life.
