Fall Revolution 4: The Sky Road

about and reasons I knew I didn’t.
    ‘Ach,’ she said, gentle again, ‘I
didn’t mean that, colha Gree. You’ve not been taught
as I have, to be hard.’
    At that I had to smile; she seemed more vulnerable than hard,
at that moment. Her eyes widened. I heard a footstep behind us,
and then Fergal swung uninvited on to the bench beside me.
    ‘Hello,’ Menial said, not warmly. Her glance
returned to me.
    ‘Oh, hi,’ I said. He looked at our drinks.
‘My round, I think.’ He reached back over his
shoulder and snapped his fingers; most people wouldn’t have
gotten away with that, but he did. In half a minute the barmaid
was laying another full jug on the table.
    ‘So, Menial,’ he said quietly, ‘you got
it?’
    ‘We did,’ said Menial. ‘As far as I can
tell. I checked through it all this morning, and it’s the
whole archive.’
    ‘And where did you do that?’ I butted in, a little
indignantly.
    ‘Kelvin Wood,’ Menial said, giving me a
disarm-ingly unabashed grin. ‘In the bushes.’
    ‘So that’s what you were up to.’
    Menial nodded, with a flash of her eyebrows. Fergal looked at
her, then at me, as though to remind us that he had more
important things on his mind.
    Tine,’ I said.
    ‘That’s good news,’ Fergal said, to Menial.
He laughed briefly. ‘To put it mildly, eh?’
    ‘Aye,’ she said. ‘It is that’
    ‘Anyway, Clovis,’ Fergal said, ‘you’ll
appreciate that the information you’ve helped to retrieve
needs to be looked at with an expert eye. Rather urgently, in
fact, considering how long it may take.’
    ‘Of course,’ I said. ‘Any chance that I
could take a look at it first, just glance through it?’
    He shook his head. ‘Sorry, Clovis. You have no idea
– no offence – of how much is there. It’s an
incredible quantity of not very well organised information. In
the time it would take for you to makesense of any of it, we
could be searching for information we know how to
interpret. Every hour might count’
    ‘Just a minute!’ I said, dismayed and indignant.
‘Nobody mentioned anything about this. I want to get a look
at them too, and not have them disappear into – ’
    ‘Some tinker hideaway?’ Fergal raised his
eyebrows. ‘It won’t be like that, I assure you. You
have my word that we won’t keep them long – weeks at
the most – and that you’ll get to see them and search
them at your leisure as soon as we’ve finished.’
    ‘But,’ I said, ‘how will I know they
haven’t been changed – even accidentally? Because I
have to be able to rely on it’
    Merrial was looking desperately uncomfortable. She gave Fergal
a quick, hot glare and leaned closer to me across the table.
    ‘Think about it, man,’ she said quietly.
‘This stuff is all illicit anyway – you could not
exactly cite it in footnotes, could you? You can only use it to
find leads to material you can refer to. So you’ll
just have to trust us – trust me – that the
information won’t be tampered with.’
    ‘All right,’ I said reluctantly.
    ‘Good man!’ He drained his glass and stood up.
‘Thanks for your help.’ Fergal reached out a hand
across the table. Merrial was already emptying her personal
clutter out of the leather bag. She tightened its thong and
passed it over; Fergal had caught it while I was still gazing,
puzzled, at Merrial’s actions.
    ‘Wait!’ I said. ‘The paper files are still
in there. You can’t take them!’
    Fergal raised his eyebrows. ‘Why not?’
    ‘These papers belong to the University.’
    I’m afraid they don’t,’ said Fergal,
sounding regretful. ‘They belong to us.’
    I looked frantically at Menial, who only gave a small, sad
nod.
    ‘Who the fuck is this „us“?’ I
demanded, though I already suspected the answer. ‘Come on,
I can give you photocopies if you must.’
    ‘Not good enough, old chap.’
    ‘Then give me them back.’
    ‘Sorry,’ said Fergal. ‘I
can’t.’
    I shifted on my feet, moved my elbow; all by reflex.
Fergal’s eyes narrowed.
    ‘Don’t,’ he said very quietly, ‘even think of messing with me.’
    I was actually thinking of yelling out and calling on the
others in the bar, some of whom had their eye on this
confrontation. But something in Fergal’s stance and glance
suggested that the only outcome of such a brawl would be his
escape after inflicting some severe damage on our side, starting
with me. And whichever side Merrial