Nesbitt has a constant battle with her about her name. Greatorex is her surname; no one knows her first name. I guess she’s embarrassed by it. She won’t say and she certainly won’t tell Nesbitt. I ask him, “Anyway, Nesbitt, what’s your first name? You ashamed of yours too?” He swears at me. And I start trying different names for him. “Gerald? Arthur? Not . . . Gabrielle?” He doesn’t mention Greatorex’s name too often after that.
Greatorex goes over the plan for the attack. There’ll be eight Hunters. We go in at dawn. We work in pairs, except for Marcus, who uses his invisibility and does most of the initial dangerous work. I’m fast so I go after runners. If any of the Hunters try to make a break for it my job is to chase them down. Nesbitt is good at tracking so he’s my reserve but so far no one has got away from me. Runners are my specialty.
The attack sounds like it’s going to be routine.
Only it’s never really routine. There’s always something worse or bad or shit about killing people. I hate Hunters. I have no sympathy for them. I’m not sure what I feel about Blondine but it’s not sympathy. I’m angry, I guess. Like Gabriel says, I’m angry at just about everything. I’m angry at Blondine for being stupid enough to join the Hunters. At Wallend for experimenting on people. At Soul for killing my sister. At the world for being shit. Oh yes, and Annalise for not getting it, cos she’s hardly talking to me and since I told her about Kieran we’ve slept together once but it wasn’t the same and I somehow felt she was doing it because of Deborah, and I can’t believe that I told her I loved her again. Again. And this time she didn’t say it back.
*
The raid goes to plan. There are eight Hunters. Marcus goes in and kills most of them. There’s one runner. A boy, not even that fast. I chase after him. Catch him easily. I slit his throat. I always make sure I kill them. I don’t want another prisoner. I go back to the Hunter camp, my hands dripping in blood.
When I reach the others they’re all standing slightly back from Gabriel, who is kneeling by a Hunter. She’s wounded, shot in the stomach. She’s dying and there’s nothing anyone can do to save her. She won’t be a prisoner but it’ll probably be an hour before she loses all her strength.
My hands are wet with blood and I wipe them and my knife’s on the clothes of a Hunter whose body is at my feet.
Gabriel is talking to the dying Hunter, asking her if she has a tattoo. The Hunter swears at Gabriel. Gabriel says he’s going to see if she has a tattoo. I’m surprised that Gabriel does check; he cuts into her jacket and T-shirt but there is no tattoo.
I look at the body at my feet and cut her jacket open. Her T-shirt. Exposing her chest. There’s nothing. I can’t believe I’m having to do this.
Gabriel asks again, “What are the tattoos for? Do the tattoos help you heal? Make you stronger? Give you a new Gift?”
Nesbitt says, “Make bullets bounce off you. Make your farts smell like rose blossom.”
I realize I’ve forgotten to look if the boy I killed, the runner, had a tattoo. I turn to go back to check him. Annalise is right behind me. She’s been watching us, listening to us. I don’t know how much she’s heard but somehow I know it’s a lot. Her face is pale.
She says, “Can we get a healer to help her?” She’s not talking to me, or to anyone really, just thinking aloud.
I say, “She’s been shot in the gut. There’s nothing anyone can do.”
She looks at me and says, “Except laugh, maybe.”
I hadn’t realized I’d laughed at Nesbitt’s joke but maybe I had. The whole thing is a sick joke.
At that moment Greatorex steps up and tells everyone to get on with their jobs. “Including you, Gabriel. Leave her.”
The Hunter curses and says we’re all going to die and we deserve it and we’re all scum. Her voice is surprisingly loud. And Marcus walks up to her, kneels beside her, and slides the blade of the Fairborn into her throat. The blood oozes and bubbles out and she shakes once, quickly, and dies quietly. Marcus cleans the knife on the Hunter’s clothes and walks away, saying, “Someone should have done that ten minutes ago.”
I look round to Annalise. Her eyes are wide, staring at the Hunter. Sarah is beside her now. I know I’m not wanted.
I go back to camp with Marcus and wash in the stream that runs through the forest. I stay there with Marcus for the rest of the day.
*
I see Annalise at breakfast the next morning. She’s sitting with Sarah as she does all the time now. I ask if I can sit with them. Annalise nods. I sit opposite her rather than next to her.
“Do you blame me for what happened to the Hunter yesterday?” I ask.
“No,” she replies. But then she looks me in the eye and says, “But you laughed, Nathan. She was dying and you and Nesbitt were joking.”
“Do you know how many people I’ve killed, Annalise? Twenty-three as of yesterday. Do you know how funny it is?”
“Not very.”