Endworlds - Nicholas Read [34]
Helping himself to a sandwich from Eastwood’s plate, the group leader began eating. If the newcomer resented the theft he did not show it. Lion was almost disappointed in the lack of reaction.
“There are other groups like us charged with defending our borders. Not just in Britain. We have groups in every country.”
Eastwood nodded, sat quietly, and swallowed his food before speaking again. “Are you always so open telling strangers your secrets?”
For the first time, Lion smiled broadly. “I’m pretty sure you’re not much of a threat, kid, your trick last night notwithstanding. And you display a certain ignorance that makes me think you wouldn’t know what to do with what you’ve seen here even if you could find someone to listen to you topside.”
Taking no umbrage, the younger boy considered this. “Maybe I am ignorant, but I have a feeling I’m a fast learner.” He stared icily at the older boy, cold enough (much to Lion’s surprise) to make him feel uncomfortable. “What if I decide to sing you a song with my magic mouth?” He drew a deep breath and opened wide.
Jax and Lion exchanged a look, and she leered menacingly at the newcomer. “Just to err on the safe side, écrous engourdie,” she smiled, casually raising a small metal device to his ear, “we’d have to bore a hole through your brain with this.”
Eastwood paused, straining to see what she was holding. Unable to, he went along with what he hoped was a ruse, nodding until he could bring his face into a three-quarter turn to face her better. “Makes sense,” he muttered. Now from the corner of his eye he could read a sequence of letters etched across the top of the device that Jax was pointing at his skull. Without hesitation he asked, “N-O-K-I-A. What does that mean then? No Outside Kid Is Allowed?”
Jax did a double take and Lion found himself impressed. The new boy might suffer from blanket amnesia—but it was an indisputably cool amnesia. He pressed Jax’s arm gently downwards and kept his eyes on hers even as he spoke to the newcomer.
“No, mate. Nokia means No One Knows It All, kid. Right, Jax? No one knows it all.”
The French girl just scowled at him as she pocketed her ‘weapon’. “I know enough to be cautious when someone doesn’t add up.” With this, she plucked another sandwich from Eastwood’s plate and sat back, chewing furiously under a dark frown, her eyes never leaving Eastwood for a second.
By now Tucker had piled her tray with a teetering stack of cheese sandwiches and a deep bowl of orange tomato soup. It was plain to see how she had acquired her Long-coat name as she sat down.
“See,” she told Lion as she slid onto the bench, “I told you he’d work out.”
“Too soon to be sure,” Lion muttered non-committally, and the group fell into a contemplative silence broken only by the kind of slurps and snaps that are unique to teens at feeding time.
Glancing up from his tray while the others ate, Eastwood whispered next to him at Castle, “You really drill people who find out about you?”
Castle smirked. “No, not even the monsters where we can help it. For people who see us in action, short-term memory gets wiped. We have gloves that carry a compound for that. Don’t worry about Jax. She just has a nasty streak.” He traced his finger from his eye to his heart, mimicking Jax’s scar. “Either that or she likes you.”
Now mopping the stew from his plate, Eastwood noticed that the murmurs of conversation and sounds of digestion were faded altogether. Looking up from his food he saw that his companions, even Lion at the other table, were sitting up straighter.
A newcomer was approaching.
The first thing that struck Eastwood was that the Eurasian man was just that: a man in his late twenties, and not a teenager. Though not especially big, he carried himself with an easy physical grace that suggested he could take care of himself in any