Day 1

The first day of the next Loop was marked by Riot storming into the church with a smile upon her face. ‘Good morning, everyone,’ she said. ‘Everyone ready for another nine days of eternity?’

Sham winced at both the sound of her loud voice and the door slamming closed behind her. He glared at Riot, and pointed to his head.

‘The hangover. Yes. Of course.’

‘You seem in a fucking chipper mood today,’ Tripe called out from his typical position, lying across the first pew in what was surely not a comfortable position. ‘Something changed?’

Riot said nothing in response, almost conspicuously so, and seemed to turn her attention to the long wall that they had used, in previous Loops, to plot the timeline.

Sham ambled over to her side as she studied the wall, her hands on her hips. ‘Everything alright?’ he asked. ‘You’ve been acting…’ He trailed off, in case Riot fancied filling in the rest of the sentence herself. She didn’t, apparently. ‘We never had a chance to speak about… Well, you know, us.’

‘There’s nothing we need to talk about, Sham,’ Riot said, her eyes fixed on the wall and her hands gathering twine from her jacket pocket. ‘Whatever happens… happens.’

‘But—’

‘Get the others,’ she said. ‘There’s work to be done.’

It took Sham less than ten minutes to gather the rest of the team. He found Mona and Ariel from the courtyard, discussing Verd, from what Sham could tell. And Asa strolled in at his usual pace and usual time, having got his crew down on End Street in order earlier in the day. Yet in that short period of time, Riot had already mapped most of the timeline to the church building’s wall.

‘Wow,’ Mona said, her eyes on the twine stringing the events of the next nine days together, most beige, but some this time dyed in different colours to represent key members of the Loop.. ‘You’re getting good at this.’ She approached the wall and fingered a piece of yellow-dyed twine. ‘Yellow is for… Julya?’

Her question was answered by a glare from Riot—one that instructed Mona, and everyone else in the vicinity, not to touch Riot’s handiwork. Mona’s hand snapped away from the wall.

‘I was just saying…’ Tripe said, his head appearing above the backs of the pews as he swung into a seated position. ‘She missed all that stuff with Lew. That we got him sorted. And a nasty fucker, he is. Real awful sort. Can’t say I’m feeling at all guilty about what we gotta do to him.’

‘You didn’t tell me how quite yet, though,’ Riot added, her gaze remaining on the timeline, her hand on her chin.

‘The Magnetism skill we thought he had?’ Sham asked. ‘Not so much. Just got himself loaded full of boono. Hooked on the stuff, we reckon. And we have a way of interrupting his supply.’

When there came no reply, Tripe added. ‘If he ain’t got any boono, he’s gonna go into withdrawal.’

Still, Riot’s gaze remained on the wall, her expression not betraying her thoughts even an ounce. ‘And when he does?’

‘If we were to guess? Nothing good.’

Riot pressed her lips together as she considered this news, then finally nodded. ‘What day?’ she asked, preparing a new note to add to the board.

‘The eighth,’ Tripe replied, and then the pew collapsed beneath him, sending him tumbling to the floor. All the faces of the other five resistance members turned to him, eyebrow raised. ‘Keeps fucking happening…’ the pseudo-physician muttered.

When everyone’s faces remained as confused as before, Sham added, ‘Took himself a Luck boono, a few days back.’

‘Ah.’

‘Yeah,’ Tripe said, dusting himself off as he stood back up. ‘I thought it—’

‘The eighth of Harvest or the eighth day of the Loop?’ Riot asked, cutting off whatever explanation Tripe had that she clearly wasn’t interested in.

‘The eighth. Day four. We tested it on day eight, but four should be basically the same. And gives us more time left in the Loop, after we deal with him.’

Riot nodded, adding a note to a particular node on the diagram. ‘Good. That’ll work. Is it just you going?’

Sham was starting to feel like his position as de facto leader of this little resistance was being pulled away from him, but he held his tongue on that front. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Me as well.’

‘Any vials required?’ Asa asked from his shadowy corner of the room.

‘Command,’ Sham said, and then added. ‘To deal with Lew’s old dealer.’

Asa nodded. ‘Done.’

‘So that’s Sham and Tripe dealing with Lew Sawyer on day four, and pretty much all of us required for Vince Perch on day three. Julya…’ Riot’s eyes snapped to Sham. ‘...Julya, Sham is gonna deal with.’ He nodded. ‘Where are we with the others?’

Everyone went quiet, not wanting to reveal that they hadn’t yet made any progress, until Tripe finally broke the ice by swearing at his trousers for falling down.

‘Go home, Tripe,’ Sham said. ‘We can’t use you while you’re like this.’

‘But I—’

‘And avoid the casinos, eh?’ Asa added, that familiar smirk on his face once more. Sham couldn’t help but sometimes feel like the man thought this whole thing was ridiculous, like it was doomed to fail. But, then, he wouldn’t be here if it was.

‘The others?’ Riot prompted impatiently.

‘We haven’t started on the others yet,’ Mona finally replied, apparently realising that it was going to have to be her to deliver this news.

Riot pressed her lips together again, this time harder than Sham was used to seeing. ‘Well, let’s get to it, then. There’s no point us standing around here, is there?’

‘Ain’t seen you doing much of the legwork,’ Tripe mumbled as he fiddled with his belt.

If Riot heard him—and she surely had, as she was standing closest to him—she gave no sign of it, only continuing to stare expectantly at Sham and Mona.

‘Who’s next, then?’ Mona asked.

‘Warren.’

The other five members of the resistance all looked at the woman who’d spoken.

‘Ariel, we…’ Mona started.

‘No,’ the leader of the church said. ‘I know what you’re going to say. That my personal entanglement with Warren makes me a liability. But we have to deal with him at some point, and I don’t need to be involved. I just need to know that we have a plan for that monster, and then I’ll be able to sleep at night.’

The church fell into silence as the resistance members considered Ariel’s words.

‘Alright,’ Sham said. ‘Tripe, go home. Mona, Riot and I will begin our work on Warren today. If—’

‘No,’ Asa said.

Sham turned, raising an eyebrow.

‘I need you with me. Got stuff to discuss. About that other little problem.’

The other four members of the resistance—Riot, Tripe, Mona and Ariel—all eyed him curiously; Sham had kept them well in the dark about what Asa had been up to, and they’d figured it was better not to ask. Only Mona, with her mouth parting now to ask the question, seemed to be starting to question this decision.

‘Alright,’ Sham said, cutting off all follow-up questions. ‘Mona, Riot… you’re on Warren today. We meet back here tomorrow morning, and we discuss what you’ve found.’

[COMMAND] CAPTAIN’S ORDERS: SUCCESS

Solemn nods all around. They’ll do what you want, for now. But at some point that’s going to change—will you be prepared?

* * *

‘You spoke to her yet?’ Asa asked.

He and Sham were on their way not to the Harbour District, to the former’s organisation’s case on End Street, but in a tram hurtling across town heading east. Sham hadn’t asked yet quite where they were heading, figuring he’d find out before long, but he was growing more and more eager for this question to get answered.

‘Riot? No,’ he replied.

Asa’s nostrils flared; this wasn’t any good at hiding his irritation. ‘Why not?’

‘This morning’s the first time I’ve seen her since…’ Sham trailed off, not wanting to get into the night they’d shared together, with Asa of all people. ‘We haven’t had time to talk.’

‘She been missing, still?’ Asa asked.

‘What, she’s not been with him?’

The criminal—not that it was really fair for Sham to mentally label Asa “the criminal”—shook his head. ‘Ain’t see her. Ain’t my guys seen her, neither.’

‘So that’s not what this was about? I thought you might…’ Sham paused as the tram took a sharp bend, the wheels screeching against the tracks, drowning out all possible chance at conversation. ‘...Thought you might know what she’s been up to.’

Asa shook his head again; the mystery of Riot’s discarded vial would have to remain unsolved for now. ‘Nah, it ain’t about her, this. It’s about him. You know, the guy you’ve had me following for these past few Loops? Kryl—ring any bells?’

Sham pursed his lips, and moved to respond when Asa suddenly shot up from his seat, pulling on the cable that signalled the driver to stop. ‘What, here?’ Sham asked, looking around at the great intersection of tramlines at the southern end of Government Plaza.

‘Nah. Changing lines. We’re going down Sunrise way.’

The two men hopped off one tram just as the next one was pulling in.

‘Maybe some of Tripe’s fluke has rubbed off on you.’

You know that isn’t how it works.

‘No, but it’s fun to imagine, isn’t it?’

Once the two men were safely back in their seats—this time straddling the aisle of a much busier tram—Sham leant in to resume the discussion. ‘What’s he up to, then? What’ve you found?’

Asa raised his eyebrows. ‘You ever find out what he’s up to in Haven?’

‘Well, he’s…’ Sham leant in closer, lowering his voice to a whisper so quiet that maybe even Asa wouldn’t be able to hear him; there was no good that could come of anyone eavesdropping on this next bit. ‘He’s trying to get Elmira into power, isn’t he?’

‘Yeah. You said that part. But, like, how? What’s the plan here?’

‘I…’ Sham started, but then realised he didn’t actually know the end of that sentence.

‘Yeah, exactly,’ Asa said, ‘I thought so. Aite, well maybe you can shed some light when we get there.’

‘Where is “there”, exactly?’

‘You’ll see.’

The tram hurtled down the tracks to the east, the early afternoon sun casting the vehicle’s shadow ahead of it. They ran into traffic before long; it was all well and good having such regular service in this richer part of town, but it seemed to lead to trams piling up more often than not. Finally, as they reached the centre of the district, Asa rose from his seat and pulled on the cord once more.

‘Follow me,’ he said.

After a few minutes ambling down the winding streets of this old district, Sham spotted a man he recognised ahead of them. One of Asa’s men.

‘Just what are you telling your people about all this?’ Sham asked, before they could walk into earshot of Asa’s employee.

‘I ain’t telling them nothing. They know I tell ‘em all they need to know.’

Sham raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement, but didn’t press the matter further—if Asa thought his associates weren’t curious about this strange investigation, then Sham would just have to trust that that was true.

The man lead them silently into an apartment building, old even for this historic district, charming his way past a young—and likely inexperienced—doorman on the way. They ambled up the stairs, there being no newfangled electrical elevator in a building like this, and came to a stop on the fourth floor, in the lobby, at a window that overlooked the street.

‘What are we…’ Sham started, and in answer Asa’s employee pushed a pair of binoculars into his hands, pointing across the street.

‘They’re in there now, boss,’ he said.

‘Good,’ Asa replied. ‘Good work.’

‘You need anything else?’

Asa shook his head, and the man drifted silently out of sight.

‘You have them well trained,’ Sham said.

‘They know what’ll happen to them if they ain’t.’

Scanning the street below through the lenses, Sham tried to find what he was possibly there for. ‘I still don’t see—’

‘Not the street. The buildings. Opposite.’

Sham pulled the binoculars up, looking into the windows of the apartment buildings across the road. Most of them were empty at this time of day, and Sham’s eyes lingered on the antique furniture on display, the jewellery laid out carelessly on the side, the—

‘Old habits die hard, as they say.’

Recollection’s interruption snapped Sham back into reality and away from the temptation to commit burglary, and he scanned the buildings some more.

A familiar face caught his eye.

Through a tall, wide window, Sham could see a long wooden table ornately decorated and sporting fine porcelain table settings. Those gathered around it wore elegant suits and dresses, jewellery to put anything Sham had ever seen to shame, and had wide smiles on their faces. At the centre of the table, a man stood raising a fluted glass, as if giving a toast to the rest of the guests.

‘Kryl…’ Sham muttered.

‘Mm-hmm.’

‘Whose apartment is this?’ Sham asked.

‘Ain’t that the question? Whoever’s it is, they don’t seem to have any problem giving Kryl the run of the place.’

‘He’s hosting?’

‘Yep.’

Sham watched a while longer. Over the road, Kryl finished his speech, and sat in the company of a round of applause enthusiastic enough to seem sincere rather than polite. ‘It’s a fancy meal, sure. So what?’

‘That’s what I thought, at first,’ Asa said. ‘But I put out feelers anyway, cos I’m thorough, and all that. Don’t get as successful as me without being thorough.’

‘Put out feelers? When? Just how long has this lunch been going on for?’

‘Not this time,’ Asa said. ‘Last time.’

‘He’s hosted one of these lunches before? I thought he was busy trying to break the Loop, still. What’s he doing having lunches?’

‘Nah, mate. You don’t get it. He’s not throwing lunch parties. He’s throwing this lunch party. Same place, same guests, same time. It’s like he’s…’

‘Using the Loop to test something,’ Sham finished. He put down the binoculars, turning his attention to Asa.

The man nodded. ‘That’s what I’m thinking. So, yeah, I put out feelers. Tried to figure out who these other people are. Why they’re important. They’re MPs, Sham. Members of Parliament. Kryl’s trying to charm MPs.’

A chill ran down Sham’s back as he understood the full implication of this. ‘Ah.’

‘Yeah. Can’t seize a government just by chopping off its head, can you? You gotta control the body, too.’

Asa was right, of course. And Sham hadn’t quite thought about that part.