The Wall by John Lanchester

Author:John Lanchester [Lanchester, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780571298716
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 2018-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

15

‘We’re going to Scotland,’ said the Captain. There was a rumbling and shifting in the briefing room. The entire company was there, in its new form, a mix of old Defenders and replacements. He let the news marinate for a few moments.

‘You may be wondering why,’ he went on. Speaking for myself, I wasn’t, not particularly; if you look for logic on the Wall you’re not far away from expecting the process to be fair, and if you expect it to be fair, you start to go mad. That’s my take on it anyway. So, no wondering why for me. ‘The reason is, this squad is considered to have done its fair share of the hard work of defending our frontiers. Here in the south is the first line of attack and the first line of defence.’ He meant, the first line of defence from the Others, but didn’t say so. I had noticed before that he used the word ‘Others’ as little as possible. It was the only sign he gave of sensitivity about his former life, his former self. ‘In the north, it is different. The reasons for this are simple. The people attempting to cross the Wall are coming from a southerly direction. The journey to the north is therefore longer and more dangerous. The north is also colder. That means that there are fewer attempts to penetrate our defences from that direction. That means that defending the Wall is, in practice, less difficult in the far north. Sergeant, what maxim am I about to quote?’

Sarge had been cut on his face on the night of the attack, and the wound had not fully healed. It was spectacular, a double line of stitches down his right cheekbone, on either side of a livid scar. Half a centimetre higher and he would have lost his eye. As it was the scar made his expression look permanently contorted with disbelief: he looked like a stocky, angry, sceptical pirate.

‘Less risky is more risky,’ he said.

‘Yes. So bear that in mind. The idea that the north is harder to attack, easier to defend, may in itself be a factor which draws attacks. Still,’ he said, easing off the intensity a little, ‘we are being sent there for some respite, and it’s to be hoped that we’ll find it. As summer arrives the days are very long and the nights very short. We have a chance to get to know each other as a new company. We may well, after a period in the far north and further training, be transferred back to the south. My advice would be to make the most of it. We train, then we go north at the next deployment.’

‘He seemed almost cheerful,’ Hifa said later. We were putting away our kit to go on a week’s leave. The company had been on standby duty near our barracks. I wasn’t fit enough to fight but I was on administrative duties while I recovered: which meant, doing chores for the Captain, Sergeant and Corporal.

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