Coldbrook (Hammer)(69)

Holly nodded. She looked at the patch on his jacket again, the three interlocking circles that was so similar to her own Coldbrook symbol.

‘We tried to guard the wound you made in the land,’ Drake said. ‘But one of them must have—’

‘One of your furies.’

‘They’re not our furies.’

‘So one of them must have what?’ Holly asked.

‘Gone through. I’m sorry.’ He stared at her for a moment, and then picked up some more meat.

‘I don’t know how bad my world is,’ Holly said. Drake would not look at her. ‘Do you know?’

‘No,’ he said. He stood and turned, and she knew that he was lying.

‘Drake?’

‘I need to make arrangements. I’ll be back,’ he said. ‘We can’t keep you locked up in here.’

‘Drake, what’s happening there? Tell me if you know.’

‘I don’t know,’ he said again, but still he would not look at her.

‘God help us,’ she whispered. And this time Drake did look, freezing where he stood by the heavy wooden doorway, his eyes wide.

‘You obviously haven’t met the Inquisitor yet, so I’ll allow you that.’

‘Allow me—?’

‘God,’ he whispered. Then he slammed and locked the door behind him. He hadn’t really answered any of her questions.

There was plenty of food left, but Holly was no longer hungry.

‘So what’s next?’ she asked the silence. ‘Bad cop?’

It was Drake who opened her door again half an hour later, and he had two women with him. One of them carried a tall glass of wine, another a bowl of berries, bearing them like gifts.

‘This is Moira,’ Drake said, and the short, muscled woman who’d accompanied her on the stretcher smiled a greeting.

‘Pleased to meet you,’ Moira said. It was strange hearing her voice after seeing her communicate with sign language and expressions.

‘And you,’ Holly said. ‘Thanks for helping me.’

Moira nodded but seemed tense, her eyes wide and expectant.

‘And I’m Paloma.’ The other woman was tall and severe-looking, her coffee skin speckled across her left cheek and neck with what might have been burn scars, or the remains of an old illness. She stepped forward in front of Moira and placed the bowl of berries on the table. ‘I hope you liked the rabbit. I caught and cooked it.’

‘It was delicious,’ Holly said.

Paloma stepped back and Moira came forward, her hand shaking as she placed the wine gently on the table. ‘And she’s exactly like us?’

‘As far as I can tell,’ Paloma said.

Moira nodded and backed away, and the moment grew ever more surreal.

‘You’re the doctor?’ Holly asked.

‘I do my best with what we have,’ Paloma said.

‘And Paloma is my wife,’ Drake said. He remained outside the room, letting the two women go through their routine.

‘So, you’ve established that I’m human,’ Holly said. Paloma nodded and Moira stared. ‘Why do I still feel like an exhibit?’

Moira laughed and turned away. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s just that I’ve never seen someone from—’

‘We have something to show you,’ Drake cut in. Moira raised her eyebrows – annoyed rather than chastened by Drake’s interruption, Holly thought – and Paloma smiled for the first time.

‘So I’m not a prisoner any more?’

‘You never were.’

Holly stood, taking a sip of the wine and swallowing a handful of berries. They could be drugged, or poisonous, but the women could have harmed her in either way without the subterfuge. So she accepted their gifts and sat back down.

Drake shifted uncomfortably, Moira looked back at him, and Paloma simply stared at Holly.

‘Tell me one thing before I come with you,’ she said.

‘Of course,’ Drake said, and there was a vulnerability in his voice she’d never detected before.

‘What’s beyond the hills?’ Holly asked. ‘What else is out there?’

‘The rest of our world,’ he said. ‘Our Earth.’

Holly nodded, her heart thudding as she remembered the way that zombie – that fury – had come through the breach. Staggering, slow, weathered away.