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.The dog is straining at the bit.The boy, I don’t know.The dog doesn’t seem concerned by it.It doesn’t make any sense.Who else could it be?’Clayton nodded again and pulled a radio out of his pocket.He had set the receiver to silent when they came across the dead agents, and now the display told him someone had been trying to reach him.He punched in a frequency.‘About time,’ came a familiar voice.‘Where the fuck have you been?’He sighed.‘Dreggo.I hope you have news for me, because I have some for you.’‘What?’‘I’ll ask the questions.What happened out there?’‘We lost another Huntsman.Both Meud and Jacul are dead.’‘I don’t care about the Huntsmen, they’re expendable.’There was a momentary silence on the other end.‘Dreggo?’Her voice came back sharp and strained.‘One of the Tube Riders is dead.’Clayton’s heart jumped.Finally.‘Which one?’‘The boy.We found his body in a shallow grave not far from the perimeter wall.What do you want me to do with it?’Clayton rubbed his chin.‘Leave it.You didn’t see the girl?’‘She escaped.Some kid from the GFA helped her.He could still be with her.’Clayton sighed again.Well, at least one was down.‘Did you find the memory card?’‘No.’‘Search the body again.’‘Why?’‘Just do as I say, Dreggo.’There was another silence, followed by: ‘You said you had news.What is it?’‘Never mind.Just get here now.’Her reply practically made the radio burn in his hands.‘Fuck you and every one of the polished turds in your organisation.’ The line went dead.Clayton felt a momentary clamminess on his hands, but as his fingers closed over the little device in his pocket the fear went away.He still had control.She wasn’t about to get it back.But still.He pushed the thought out of his head.With Dreggo back around at least they had someone who had better control of the Huntsmen.The damn things were constantly on the verge of causing chaos.Part of him wished the Department of Civil Affairs had done the work alone, but he knew the kids would have escaped.The cities were a mess; there were a million places they could hide, and a million people to hide them.A scent, however, couldn’t disappear so easily.The phone in his other pocket buzzed.‘Yes?’‘Leland? I trust operations are going well?’‘Like clockwork, of course.You have information for me?’ He recognised the other voice as a man named Robert Wade, one of his intelligence experts from the London branch of the DCA.Wade was a rare man who could be depended on.‘I have information for you,’ Wade told him.‘Yes?’‘Of what help it might be I don’t know, but we’ve followed up your leads and we’ve uncovered the identities of some of these Tube Riders.’‘Really.Do you have anything interesting?’ Clayton was feeling thoroughly pissed off, and he found it difficult to keep the cynicism out of his tone.All he had to do was catch a group of street kids and he seemed to be starting a whole goddamn war.Already, far too many people had died.‘Maybe.One of the girls, Jessica Woods, her, um, now deceased father, Martin Woods, was a lower member of the government.Paul and Owen Morton live in a flat in central London which they actually own.The other two, the boy and the one whom you said had a bad eye, we can’t find anything on them.Perhaps they were runaways.However, you might want to look at the details for one Marta Banks.’Clayton rolled his eyes.‘Will I, really?’‘Yes, Leland, I think you will.Get to a computer and take a look at the documents I send you.Something rather unexpected has come up.’#Dreggo and Lyen reached the station an hour later.The Huntsman hadn’t said much during the journey, but Dreggo was feeling more attached to the creatures the longer she spent with them.Looking into the still-human eyes, seeing the wild intelligence that still burned there, she could ignore the doglike snout and the raw scar tissue where the two parts of its face had been surgically fused together.They were human still, just like her, all of them caught in a government net that offered only death as a way out.Dreggo saw Clayton coming towards them.At his side were two handlers and behind him came a group of DCA agents.She felt an immediate warning signal go off in her head.Clayton usually came towards her tentatively or with a show of forced confidence.This time, though, he walked with genuine purpose.She put a hand on her hip and felt a knife hidden there.Maybe this time, if she was quick.‘Secure it quickly, I want to take a look at it.’ Clayton pointed at Lyen, and the two handlers moved forward.‘Back off!’ Dreggo shouted.‘What the hell are you doing?’‘Don’t worry, we won’t hurt him.’‘Who the fuck do you think you are?’‘Stand away, Dreggo.I won’t warn you again.’She saw the remote in his hand and the certainty in his eyes.With a growl she stepped back as the handlers closed in and secured Lyen’s wrists.They pushed the Huntsman to his knees.‘What do you want with him?’One of Clayton’s men handed him an envelope.‘We just want to try a little experiment.A little recognition game.’ Clayton pulled a sheet of paper out of the envelope.‘You sure he’s secure?’ he asked the handlers.They nodded.‘I hope he rips your face off,’ Dreggo muttered.Clayton flashed a look at her, and uncertainty appeared for just a moment before the purpose returned.‘Does this one have a name?’‘Lyen,’ one of the handlers said.‘How appropriate.Lyen.Lion.’ He looked right into the Huntsman’s eyes.‘Tell me, Lion, do you recognise this girl?’He held up the sheet of paper.Dreggo couldn’t see, but Lyen’s eyes stared for a moment then went wide.They flicked back and forth across the paper, and his eyes narrowed in a frown, the wires over his head pulling tight.His lips curled back in a snarl and then he began to shake from side to side.The word that came from his mouth was mostly a growl, but Dreggo’s acute hearing picked it up.‘Marta.’Lyen jumped to his feet, wrenching his hands apart, the shackles creaking as they barely held.The Huntsman snapped at Clayton but one of the handlers activated the leash remote and Lyen jerked as a shock tore through him.Another pulled a bag over Lyen’s head and sprayed him with something that stank of chemicals.The creature sunk to his knees, his breathing slowing.‘Clayton, what are you doing to him?’He passed the picture to her.It was a faxed copy of a family photograph, mother, father, brother, sister.At first she didn’t recognise any of them.Then, as she looked closer, the girl became familiar.‘That’s –’‘Marta Banks, leader of the Tube Riders.’Dreggo looked closer at the other people.The photograph was old; the girl could only be fourteen or fifteen.The boy was older, maybe –‘Oh my God.’Dreggo pointed at Lyen, trussed and bound, his face hidden.‘Take off that fucking bag.’Before Clayton could protest, one of the handlers pulled the mask away from Lyen’s face.Dreggo looked down on the creature, slumped forward on its knees, its eyes staring into space.Human eyes.‘Lyen.Lion.Leo.Right here, Dreggo, we have Leo Banks,’ Clayton said.‘Lost brother of Marta, and if our intelligence reports are correct, formerly a Tube Rider.’Dreggo couldn’t take her eyes off him.Now that she looked closely, the eyes were the same, as was the face shape.Only the rest, the terrible rest, was different.Clayton snorted.‘Not that easy to see the family resemblance these days, is it?’#The Governor looked around his ruined room.The array of ornaments and precious artwork lay smashed and scattered across the floor.Tables and chairs were upturned, some of them in pieces.The cabinets along the wall had fallen forward, revealing old, stained wallpaper beneath
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