Dog Blood

them to defend, too sprawling… London showed us what we could achieve. The fighting on the streets must have been incredible. I almost wish I could have been there. There were hardly any of us in comparison to them, but the panic we caused was beyond anything we could have hoped for. They reached critical mass…”
    “Critical mass? I don’t understand.”
    “The point of no return… the point where it was impossible for them to regain any order, where the number of individual battles was so high and the fighting so intense that they could no longer separate them from us. They didn’t know who was who anymore. The only option left to them was to destroy everything.”
    “They destroyed London?”
    “The whole city and everyone in it. Wiped out thousands of our people, but they took hundreds of thousands of their own with them.”
    We’re digressing, and I’m confused.
    “I still don’t understand. What’s that got to do with you holding me here?”
    “In the end it was their confusion and panic that destroyed London, simple as that. But like I said, if we’d attacked with an army, they’d have seen us coming and wiped us out before we’d even got close.”
    “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 spinning, and I can’t make sense of anything. He senses my confusion and explains.
    “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, Danny. We know who they are, but they can’t tell us apart until we start fighting. They won’t even know we’re there until it’s too late.”
    “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