Gods of Chicago: Omnibus Edition (26 page)

Chapter 44

Overhead, the Governor’s airships continued to broadcast their hokum. Brand heard the bulletins echo across the city skies, sometimes coming from beyond the boundaries of the Village neighborhood.

“That sonofabitch Crane is running a citywide show,” Brand said, worrying his lip as he stared out of the trees at the fighting in the park. Soldiers and citizens had moved deeper into the night, away from the tree line and toward the houses at the edge of the open landscape. Those houses were still on fire, and the people fighting back would be trapped against them soon enough. Then it would just be a clean up job for the soldiers.

“Like fish in a barrel,” Brand said. “C’mon, Conroy. We’ve got to get closer.”

They moved out of the tree line and made their way through the park to where the fighting still raged. Along their path, they took shelter behind hedges and park benches. As they moved, Brand checked the grove behind them for signs of the monster. It hadn’t shown again, but he had no doubt it would. Somehow he’d made himself prey for the beast. If it came down to it, he’d send Conroy off on his own and meet the thing alone. He hoped it wouldn’t come to it, and with every step away from the trees he breathed a little easier. Still, the grove of trees hissed terror in and out with every gust of wind that came through the park. Each burst of frigid air that moved the tree branches sounded like a rasping shriek, and the chill felt like a steel-sharp scrape against Brand’s neck.

#

Aiden felt safer when he saw the fighting had moved farther away, past the ponds and now on the other side of the park. But his safety fell apart when he saw soldiers chasing citizens toward burning buildings. Mr. Brand seemed to be on a path that would go around the fighting, aiming at buildings that weren’t burning as badly. Aiden knew they were there to get a story about what was happening, but he couldn’t see any way to get that story to the people. Mr. Brand’s microphone worked good enough, but the people still wouldn’t see it. And if what Aiden saw on the side of the Governor’s airships was being shown around the city, then even Mr. Brand’s reports might not be enough.

They pulled up behind another hedge and waited while gunfire ripped into the ground not twenty feet from their position. A heavy hum sounded overhead and Aiden turned his gaze to the sky. An airship came into view. Its belly hung heavy with bullhorns and one side of the ship glowed with light, just like the other one Aiden had seen that showed pictures on a big screen. Aiden tried to focus on the image, but the ship flew across his vision at an angle and he couldn’t get a good look at the screen. A burst of static came down to his ears and Aiden felt Mr. Brand tense up beside him.

#

“
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Franklin Suttleby, with the. . .with the Ministry of Public Information. I’m, uh. . .I’m here to inform you that the sounds you hear from the Old Town and Ukrainian Village neighborhoods, those are. . .those are ruptured gas lines, damaged by vandals. We’ve, that is, the Ministry of Safety and Security has patrol ships combing the skies—
”

“
This is Mitchell Brand again, Ladies and Gentlemen. Don’t believe that hogwash Suttleby is shoveling. It’s not worth a plug nickel much less any of your time. The sounds you hear are explosions. Mortar fire. I’m here on the ground, watching it happen. Citizens fighting soldiers. And they’re putting up a struggle. A good struggle. But I’ve seen first hand what happens when a small determined band goes up against odds like this. I saw it over there, at Argonne.

“
These people may not be here tomorrow to tell their story. It’s up to you to ignore the lies that Crane and his toady are spilling into your ears. Ignore the pictures you’re seeing on the Governor’s airships. It’s a rigged game, Ladies and Gentlemen. Rigged. And there’s no way to stop it except by refusing to play.
”

Brand lifted his thumb from the mic and fastened the device to his belt again. He stared up at the airship sailing overhead, its envelope displaying a scene of citizens fighting soldiers, but the only images that appeared on the screen showed citizens with the upper hand. Pictures cycled like flickering film stills. Soldiers fell under blows from shovels and clubs. Citizens raised guns and fired. Brand stared at the ship with rage shaking his eyes out of focus.

Only one man in Chicago City could come up with a scheme like this, and it gave Brand an idea. The ship sailed on into the night, away from the battlefield and out over the neighborhoods. Brand watched it go with acid hatred burning in his mouth. Conroy was watching the airship, too, and spit into the grass as it left the area.

“They’re trying to trick us. Make it look like what that Suttleby guy is saying is really true.”

“And the longer we let them, the better it works. C’mon, Conroy. We’ve got to get closer. Get ready to give me that viewer, hey?”

Conroy nodded and clutched the bulge in his coat tight.

Brand lifted the mic and kept his thumb on the switch as they moved. If he wasn’t going to get any report of his own out, the least he could do was keep the channel open so the battle would be heard elsewhere. Shouts and gunshots bellowed out of the airship’s bullhorns and then cut out as someone on board switched them off. Brand hoped the people in their homes kept the radio on. This battlefield report wouldn’t be worth two helping of bupkis if they didn’t.

#

An explosion shook the park around him and Aiden went down in the mud. He landed on his side and watched his boss race ahead of him to hide beside a small stand of trees. They were getting closer to the edge of the park and the houses, and that meant the explosions were getting closer, too. Rolling onto his knees, Aiden made to hurry forward but another blast shattered the night and sent him to the ground. He let the dirt fall before he pushed himself up and went tearing through the mud to where his boss had found shelter.

“That was close, Conroy. Too close. I’m sorry I let you get behind. Dammit, I shouldn’t even have you out here doing this.”

Aiden heard a tremor in his boss’s voice. It sounded to Aiden like a warning, like the man he’d known to be strong since he’d met him was really weak inside, and that weakness was fighting to get out.

“It’s not your fault, Mr. Brand. I mean, it’s the Governor behind all this, right?”

“Sure it is, but I could have sent you home. Sent you somewhere else, somewhere away from this. But I thought I’d do you a favor, finally give you that time on the mic I’d always been promising you and Jenkins and the Gordon boy, too. I’m sorry, Conroy.”

When no reply came to his tongue, Aiden sent his eyes around the park, looking for something else to talk about. All he could see was the reflected glow of the airships circling overhead, their envelopes ignited by scenes of fighting down below.

“How are those pictures up there?” he asked.

“Eh? Oh, probably the crabs. Crane must’ve sent them out here with his soldiers. Those ships are picking up images and broadcasting the ones they like. If we’re lucky, we’ll spot one of those crabs and then that’ll be our ticket to storyville.”

“How’s that?”

“That viewer you’re carrying. It works the same way as the image receivers in the G-man’s ships. That’s how I got all those crime scene photos without ever setting foot on a scene. We just need to get hold of a crab and then we’ll be set up to show the people what’s really happening down here, not just tell them about it.”

Aiden put his hands over the bulge in his coat. He felt the pressure to succeed sitting there against his belly and for a moment he let himself believe they’d do it. He and his boss would get the real story out to the people of Chicago City. He glanced up at the nearby buildings as a mortar round exploded a few streets away. The ground rumbled and the air around them shook, making Aiden’s eyes go blurry. The houses at the edge of the park shimmered and Aiden feared the fire had finally reached them. Before he realized his vision was fine, the city itself was being lifted aside and a tramp was emerging to stand beside the trees with a rusty bicycle propped up against his hip.

“Gotta hand it to you, Mitch. That’s some hard news you’re spitting,” the tramp said. Aiden recognized the man’s voice in that instant, and he felt the man’s name rising only to freeze in his throat.

#

“Hey again, Chief,” Brand said, sitting up and reaching out to shake his friend’s hand.

“Hey,” Chief said, taking the offered hand and giving it a grip. “What’s with Conroy joining on this? Didn’t figure you’d want him anywhere near the action.”

“Not my idea. He ended up here on his own. Isn’t that right, Conroy?”

The kid made a feeble nod and kept his eyes fixed on Chief’s face. Shock and worry danced across Conroy’s eyes, and Brand feared he might think he was cracking up.

“It’s okay, Conroy. Trust me. The things you and me have seen tonight, this isn’t even close to the worst of ‘em.”

“How are you, Aiden?” Chief said, keeping his hands by his sides and inclining his gaze to look the kid in the eye.

“I’m. . .I’m okay. I’m a little scared is all.”

“That’s all right,” Brand said. “A man should be scared in a war.”

The kid’s face picked up a bit and Brand went back to talking with Chief.

“I’m about to get the scoop on what’s happening. Don’t tell me you’re here to get back into the news.” Brand paused when he saw Chief’s face droop. “Hey, I didn’t. . .I mean, I’d sure like it if that was true, you know.”

“Forget it, Mitch. I can’t. And you should—”

“Help us fight them, Chief. It’ll be like over there,” Brand said and stood to look his friend in the eye. “You and me on the story, and with Conroy here, too. We’ll get the scoop and report to the brass. Only this time we’ll be telling it to the real people in charge.
The people!
Not the Governor or his soldiers, not Crane. The people will hear what we have to say; they’re hungry for it. They need it, and we’ve got to give it to them.”

Bullets peppered a wall nearby and the two men crouched beside the trees. Conroy stayed down behind them.

“It’s now or never, Chief. You’ve got that machine with you. We can ride back there where it’s safe and then pop out to get the news. Like we did when you were flying us over No-Man’s Land in that two-seater jalopy they called an observation ship.”

He waited for Chief’s reply, but the man just shook his head, a frantic look racing across his face. He reached out and put a hand on Brand and Conroy’s shoulders. Brand steadied the kid when the wisps of reality fluttered away and revealed the hidden landscape that Chief and the other Bicycle Men traveled in behind the city. Conroy stood on his own and stared at the world around them. Brand caught his eye and gave him a reassuring look before Chief piped up again.

“The boss’ll do me a bad turn if I help you here, Mitch.
Propriety
isn’t one to pass up a chance to show a man he’s messed up, and helping you like you say, that’d be messing up and how.”

“How’s about you tell me how? I don’t see—”

“The gods aren’t allowed to interfere with human affairs directly, not unless one of them finds a vessel to possess.”

“You mean like Tesla and that fortune teller. They told me as much, but—”

“You’ve run into them? Then you already know more than I figured.”

“You say. I’m not sure I know any more than I did the first time you brought me back here. What do they want? These gods, all of ‘em.”

“Aw hell, Mitch, I don’t know. I hear them talk about influence, and I guess that’s what it comes down to. If you’ve got influence, you’ve got power. And if you’ve got enough power, you can have the world by the balls.”

“Is that why things go wrong? Why things like this happen? Because the gods can’t agree on who gets to do the squeezing?”

Chief nodded. “For my money, yeah. That’s it. That war of ours was the last time they all got together and tried to sort it out.”

“If you helped me with this story, they’d do something like that again? Is that it? How’s that different than what’s happening right now?”

“It’s not that, Mitch. If I stick my neck out and help you here. . .They’ll make me a ratter.”

Brand’s memory flashed to the beast that killed Nitti and his boys, the monster that had chased him and would have torn him to pieces if Chief hadn’t saved him. He knew it was the same beast that had killed Jenkins and Digs Gordon, too, and that’s when it wasn’t busy tearing up tramps across the city.

“So you’d be turned against the other Bicycle Men. Wouldn’t that just make a mess of things anyway, you killing off your comrades? It’d disrupt the mail service like you said. Then the gods—”

“That’s right.”

The truth hit Brand square in the mouth and made him reel away from his friend, but Chief kept a hand on his arm, holding him there behind the curtain in the bizarre landscape of memories.

“Somebody’s already working that angle, Chief. That’s the play, isn’t it? Those two gods Tesla told me about. They’re using the ratter to make things go south in a big way so they can waltz in and bring peace and prosperity to the poor unwashed masses who—” Brand cut himself off, mad as hell and unable to continue. Rage twisted his tongue and clenched his jaw.

“I don’t know about Tesla. All I know is I wanted to warn you off, tell you to get home, get somewhere safe. And take Conroy with you, for god’s sake.”

“What about you?”

“Me? It’s back to work for me. The longer I sit here flapping my gums with you, the more likely they’ll send that ratter for me next.” Chief paused. Before Brand could open his mouth to reply, his friend was talking again. “Part of me wants to let it come because it’s the only way I can finally be at peace.”

Brand gave his friend a confused stare that was halfway to an angry sneer.

“Can’t kill a Bicycle Man, Mitch. We tried and it didn’t work. Something the gods do to us when they make us their messengers. I’ve heard about guys taking shotgun blasts, getting hit by cars, run down by trains. They just stand up again a little while later. But that ratter. . .”

“That one’s for keeps.”

Chief nodded and lifted his hands away, leaving Brand and Conroy alone in the dirt beside the trees with a light snow falling all around them. The sounds of war no longer echoed from across the park. Brand risked a look out of their hiding spot and saw the coast was clear for most of the way between them and where the citizens had made their stand.

“Let’s go, Conroy. Now’s our chance,” Brand said, gripping the kid’s shoulder and urging him along. They ran in a crouch along the line of houses. Flames licked up here and there within the buildings, but the real inferno was still up ahead. The glow of firelight picked out the crowd of citizens, their hands raised and their backs to the burning houses at the far end of the park. A half dozen soldiers faced the citizens with weapons trained on them. Brand feared the worst would happen and wanted nothing more than to stop it. But if he couldn’t, then at least he’d get evidence of the crime and present it to a jury of the people.