Duty Waits by Guy Haley

Author:Guy Haley
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 2017-11-13T15:42:31+00:00

Kolo is no longer staring at screens. To his immense relief, his new assignment has him out of doors. He has returned to his squad and they are patrolling the Lion’s Market; his company are spread wide across the district. The market was the commercial heart of the Lion’s Quarter, but it is not the gaudy place it once was. Most of its stalls have been cleared. In their place are stacks of ammunition containers salvaged from Mars. Some of the stacks are almost as tall as walls, though nothing can match the height of the Lion’s Gate. The containers are empty, their contents removed far underground to hardened magazines. The remaining market stalls are small and sad in their shadow, and without exception their scuffed surfaces are bare. No one trades here anymore. It is not permitted. The shops around the periphery of the square are mostly shuttered, their keepers drafted to more pressing labours. The few that are open have little to sell.

The Imperial Fists sweep the square in twos. It is an open show of force. Reassure the civilians, seek out malcontents and potential traitors. That is the idea. Those are their orders. But in the faces of the few people abroad Kolo sees no reassurance. All he sees is fear.

‘We are frightening them,’ Kolo says aloud.

‘Keep your mind on your duty, brother,’ his sergeant, Benedict, voxes back, but he is troubled too.

A gaunt man shivers as Kolo checks his papers. It is cold, and the man’s once-fine clothes are inadequate for the climate of the Himalazian massif.

‘You should not be out here,’ Kolo tells him.

‘Where can I go?’ says the man miserably.

‘You should not be out here,’ Kolo repeats. ‘You do not have clearance.’

The man’s situation is not unusual. There are many people trapped in the Palace by the war. Most are travellers who cannot return to their proper place in the Imperium. Many of them have no legal residence. Lords from the Imperium’s far-flung dominions sleep rough alongside dispossessed workers, all finding themselves victim to bureaucracy’s mercilessness. The population of the Palace is in the millions. Keeping track of who should and should not be there is a never-ending task.

‘Never mind,’ says Kolo. He presses the tattered identity papers back into the man’s hands. ‘Find somewhere. Stay off the streets.’

The man bobs his head in fearful gratitude, and hurries away.

‘You shouldn’t let them go,’ growls Kolo’s brother, Berthan. He is a veteran, and from Inwit. He has yet to fully accept Kolo into the squad. ‘All unregistered persons are a risk.’

‘His papers were in order,’ says Kolo. ‘As much as can be. We have to show some mercy.’

‘If he were an infiltrator, his papers would also be in order,’ says Berthan, watching the man depart. ‘Mercy is dangerous.’

‘You think we should kill them all, just to be safe?’ says Kolo harshly.

‘No,’ says Berthan. He lets the man go. He could stop him, but he doesn’t.

Kolo wonders how long Berthan will reply that way, if the same question is asked again.

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