Nightside 09 - Just Another Judgement Day

said Walker. “Would he really have been able to kill the new Authorities if he had been able to get to them? Or would his God’s power have failed him at the last moment, as it did with you?”
    “We’ll never know now,” I said. “And I have to wonder just who was being tested here today?”
    “All of us, probably,” said Walker. He paused for a moment, looking around the room at nothing in particular. “I enjoyed meeting your father again, during the Lilith War, even if only for a short while. Helped me to remember who he and I used to be, all the things we meant to do, before life got in the way . . . I don’t think he would have approved of the man I’ve become. But I know he was proud of you.”
    He turned abruptly and walked away, heading for the buffet. I didn’t go after him. I had a lot to think about. The trouble with Walker . . . was that anything could be one of his schemes. He wasn’t above using even a truth like this to manipulate me for his own ends. Julien came over to join me.
    “I’m pretty sure I know what that was about,” he said.
    “Pretty sure you don’t,” I said.
    “He wants you to take over his role in the Nightside. Not a bad idea, actually. I may not always have approved of the way you do things, but I’ve never doubted your heart is in the right place. But consider this, instead. What if I were to offer you a place in the new Authorities?”
    “People are lining up today to offer me things I don’t want,” I said. “Thank you, Julien, but no. My job is to look out for the people the Authorities can’t or won’t help. To be there for people the system has failed. But I will...hang around. Work with you, when I can. Be your conscience, when necessary.”
    Julien sighed. “You always have to do it your own way, don’t you?”
    “Of course.”
    “I’ll talk to the others.”
    “You do that,” I said. “Preferably when I’m a safe distance away.”
    We shook hands, very solemnly, and he walked off again.
    The door slammed open, and Suzie Shooter strode into the room. Everybody stopped what they were doing to look, holding themselves very still. Suzie glared at them all impartially, then dismissed them all with a sniff, to join me. Everyone else went back to their food and drink with a certain amount of relief, like a group of animals who’d just been joined at the watering hole by a well-known predator. Suzie nodded calmly to me, and her bandoliers of bullets clinked softly.
    I’ve always liked the soft, creaking sounds her leathers make.
    “You’ve missed all the excitement, Suzie,” I said. “Not like you.”
    “I’ve been busy,” she said, in her usual cold, measured tones. “Looking after the abused children we rescued from Precious Memories. Making sure they got all the help they needed, arranging for them to get safely home again. Or seeing they had somewhere safe to go, if that wasn’t going to be possible. And then . . . I stayed on anyway. Just being with the children, comforting them. They wouldn’t let anyone else touch them, at first. They’d learned not to trust anyone. But... they could accept it, from me. I suppose we can always recognise our own kind.” She smiled, briefly. “I held them, and they held me. And I wonder... who was comforting who?”
    “Suzie . . .”
    “Hush,” she said. “Hush, John. My love.”
    She put her arms around me and hugged me close. It was a careful, gentle hug, but unmistakably the real thing. For the first time since I’d known her, Suzie didn’t have to force herself to touch me. I held her back, carefully, gently, and her breathing in my ear was slow and easy and content.
    Miracles do happen, in the Nightside.