Dog Blood

“You said I was looking in the wrong place…”

“That’s right, and so were they.”

“Still don’t get you. Look, I’m sorry, you’ve spent days fucking with my brain, and I’m tired. Stop talking in riddles and just explain.”

“Have you ever heard of a text called The Art of War?”

“I’ve heard the title. Don’t know anything about it, though. Never read it.”

“It’s a Chinese guide to warfare, written by Sun Tzu more than two thousand years ago.”

“And? What did he know about us and the Unchanged?”

“Nothing at all! But even though this war is unique, some of Sun Tzu’s tactics for fighting remain as valid today as they were in ancient China. He said that all warfare is based on deception. We have to fool our enemy-make them believe we’re weak when we’re strong, make them think we’re miles away when we’re next to them. ‘Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.’”

Sahota recites the script perfectly from memory. He waits for a reaction from me, but my head’s still spi

“They’re expecting us to fight head-on. As far as they can see, our only tactic is to fight and keep fighting until we’re the only ones left standing. When you get deeper into the city you’ll see how that stops them from interacting and-”

“Wait a second,” I interrupt. “What do you mean, when I get deeper into the city?”

Sahota grins and pours me another glass of water.

“They’re expecting us to run straight at them with fists flying, screaming in their faces. What they’re not expecting is for us to be standing beside them and alongside them. We’re going to go deep into their cities to stir up trouble and cause them to panic. Then, when they’re too busy tearing themselves apart to notice, Ankin’s army will come into play. We’re going to make them destroy themselves from the inside out.”

“But how are we supposed to do that? Get within a few yards of any of them and all we’ll be able to do is fight.”

“Is that right? Didn’t you learn anything from your time with Joseph?”

It finally makes sense. That’s what this place is about.

“Holding the Hate…”

“That’s exactly it,” he says, sitting down again and leaning toward me. “Thing is, this is the only way to teach someone how to do it. If you’re not held or restricted in some way, you’ll kill them before you realize what you’re doing.”

“But Joseph…?”

“Joseph and the others are just puppets. They have no idea. They genuinely believe what they tell you, but it’s all just bullshit in the end. Joseph’s the best-or the worst, depending how you look at it. Some days all I want to do is kill him myself.”

“Incredible…”

Sahota’s eyes are wide with excitement. “Think of the advantage this gives us, Da

“Jesus Christ.”

“We’re having to move fast. For various reasons things are deteriorating rapidly in the city. Normally we’d have given you a few more days here to make sure you understand, but time’s a luxury we no longer have. This is the perfect time for us to do this. Think you’re up to it?”

Talk about being put on the spot. I fumble for an answer for a second, before realizing that there’s only one thing I can say.

“Yes.”

“Good man! That’s the spirit! As soon as they told me about you I knew you’d be a good candidate.”

“What do you mean by that? Who told you…?”

“We send people out looking for battles. They wait on the outskirts of the fighting, watching out for people like you who manage to demonstrate some degree of control and don’t just attack. Let’s face it, we’d be wasting our time trying to teach this stuff to Brutes, wouldn’t we?! No, we need people like you who are able to take a step back and consider the options before committing to an attack. People who use the Hate and control it rather than letting it control them.”

He looks me straight in the eye. “Tell me, do you remember when you first stood next to Joseph and didn’t attack?”

“I remember.”

“And what were you thinking at the time, Da

The memory of the last few days is filled with confusion and uncertainty, the distinction between “us” and “them” suddenly unclear. But now that I’m away from my cell and Sahota has put his question so simply, the answer’s clear and unequivocal. Everything has been brought back into sharp focus.

“I was playing with him. Stringing him along. Doing what he wanted me to do just to get food and freedom…”

“Exactly! A perfect answer! From the moment you decided not to kill him, you were in control.”

This is too much to take in. Sahota watches me intently, and I’m uncomfortable under his constant gaze. I try to look anywhere but back at him. The sun breaks through the heavy gray cloud cover momentarily and streams in through the dirty office window. Christ, I’ve been so preoccupied with this bizarre conversation that I’d forgotten my newfound freedom-in the back of my mind I still think I’m chained to the spot. I get up and walk around the side of the desk.

“You local?” Sahota asks.

“Don’t know yet,” I answer. “That depends where local is. Where exactly are we?”

“Not far from the hospital where we picked you up. A couple of miles maybe.”

“A couple of miles in which direction? Farther away from the city center or…?”

My words trail away to nothing as soon as I look out of the window. I know this place. Sahota’s office overlooks a narrow parking lot. Beyond that, the long, overgrown back gardens of a row of once well appointed but now derelict houses stretch away. Beyond the houses is a small, sloping, oddly shaped patch of parkland, the brightly painted swings and slides of a children’s play area looking strangely at odds with the chaos of everything else I can see. A narrow track between two of the houses co

“Is this-” I start to ask.

“Holy Sisters of the Poor, to give it its original title,” he explains, standing beside me and looking down. “Strange place, this was.”

“Strange?”

“Part convent, part nursing home. Ideal for us.”

He’s not wrong. The huge, strong, brick-built complex is like a fortress. Built in the middle of what used to be a fairly affluent area, and hidden from view by houses on all sides, it’s set back off the road and surrounded by enough tall fences, gates, and walls to keep even the most determined intruder out. Most people wouldn’t even have known it was here at all. From what I remember, this used to be a convent, which became a church-run, community-funded rest home. I’m sure Lizzie’s dad, Harry, had a friend living here for a while…

“This is Highwell, isn’t it?”

“We’re on the border between Highwell and Steply, to be precise.”

“But that’s…”

“About two miles from the center of town.”

“Yes, so we’re…”

“Already in the city. Right on the i

“Christ… How many people like us are here?”

“Not many, just me and a couple of others at any one time. Apart from me this place is almost exclusively staffed by my team of idiot Unchanged pacifists who think they’re saving the world. As soon as people like you have learned how to control their emotions I send them out into the city. Like I said, the situation’s deteriorating rapidly out there. We don’t have a lot of time to waste.”

For a moment all I can do is stand in silence and stare out of the window. Beyond the parking lot and the houses, everything appears completely lifeless and still. There are the usual telltale signs of battle, and everything appears even more overgrown and wild than I remember, but the world otherwise just seems abandoned and empty. The longer I look, though, the more I see. In the distance a single helicopter flies toward the city center, visible only in the gaps between the tops of trees. There’s a pile of corpses in the park, dumped in a flower bed. Closer, in the shadows of the parking lot directly below, several Unchanged carry bags of supplies between one building and another, constantly looking over their shoulders for fear of attack. Along the road to my far right, a battered car is slowly approaching. It enters the complex through another gate and narrow passageway, then stops in the shadows of the tall perimeter wall. I watch as two Unchanged deliver another fighter like me, his arms and legs already tightly bound. It strikes me that the irony of what’s happening here is beautiful; these fools think they’re working toward some kind of salvation, but all they’re doing is training their own assassins.