The Levelling by William Mitchell

Author:William Mitchell [Mitchell, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-29T22:00:00+00:00

ARDENT

THEY MARCHED HOWARD down into the camp with the knife still held at his back and his hands tied behind him by a leash. There were two of them, the two sentries who had discovered him, one of whom held the leash and the knife while the other carried everything Howard had with him apart from the clothes on his back. Unarmed and incapacitated, he had no choice but to comply.

The route down was a steep, narrow walkway which had been cut into the cliff that lined the quarry. Howard nearly lost his footing several times, each time earning a shove from the man behind him. Eventually they got to the bottom.

Howard looked round, trying to see Ardent, but the area where the trailers were stored was now deserted. He was being led the other way anyway, toward the line of green tents. There were four of them in all, with a bonfire burning outside the furthest one, and that was the one they led him into. The fire was piled high with scrap wood and branches, but had been started using petrol and still reeked of the stuff. Large glass jars of it were lined up alongside the fire, far too close for comfort.

The tent was large, about ten feet wide and five times that in length, tall enough to stand in, and was divided into rooms by canvas walls, the same dark green material as the outside. Howard was pushed into a flimsy wooden chair in the first room they came to. There was a small table there too, with one other chair on the other side. They kept the leash in place, with his wrists still tied behind his back.

Howard had been trained to deal with capture and interrogation, but every time he’d rehearsed this situation he’d known that it was just an exercise, just make-believe. Now though, experiencing it for real, the question “Is this how I’m going to die?” was running through his mind in a way he’d never before experienced. He felt nauseous, and his hands were shaking even within their bindings. He tried telling himself to breathe, and focus, and control himself, but it wasn’t working.

One of the sentries left with Howards possessions while the other stayed to watch over him. Bizarrely, Howard could hear women’s voices coming from elsewhere in the tent, giggling and laughing as if at a party. Then, two minutes later, the flap that divided this area from the rest of the tent was lifted, and John Erebus Ardent walked in.

He was old, a good ten years older than the photograph Howard had seen, with a tall, rake-like figure. He stood and looked down on Howard for ten wordless seconds, before sitting opposite him and laying everything Howard had been carrying out onto the table.

He placed everything in a line—the radio, the revolver and ammunition, then the machete, then the compass, followed by the ration packs and the water bottle—shaking his head as he did so. Lastly he added the canvas bundle that Simon had given Howard, opening it on the table to reveal the dagger inside.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.