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Back The Enemy Save as PDF
Chapters (69)
  1. Table of Contents
  2. 1
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“And this is for me,” he said, and kissed John full on the lips.

The palace kids laughed as Achilleus stood up. Carl the pirate went over to John and helped him to his feet. His legs were like rubber.

Achilleus looked at David.

“You got what you wanted, David. They ain’t backing out of this.”

David shouted at the squatters.

“Do we have a deal?”

“Guess so,” said Carl.

“Yeah,” said John. “You’ve got your bloody deal.”

Achilleus faltered and nearly fell. Maeve and Maxie ran to him and steadied him on either side. Maeve already had a bandage ready, and she began to wind it around Achilleus’s head. Achilleus tried to push her away, but he was too weak.

“I’m all right,” he slurred. And he once again looked at David and the palace kids.

“Remember what I done for you here today,” he shouted, and passed out.

55

Are you satisfied? Freak dead, Achilleus nearly killed as well.

Are you so damned keen to become emperor of bloody London that you don’t care one bit about our kids at all?”

“Your kids?”

“Yes, our kids.”

Maxie and David were standing on the balcony above the parade ground at the front of the palace. A bright moon was shining through a break in the clouds. The streets and rooftops and trees, still wet from the earlier rain, were streaked with silver.

“We’re all in this together now, Maxie,” said David, in that annoyingly unruffled and patronizing manner of his. “You mustn’t keep thinking about us and them. We’re all playing on the same team.”

“I’m not sure I want to be on your team, David.”

“Then what are you doing here, Maxie? Living under my roof? Eating my food?”

“I’m sorry? Your roof? Your food? I thought we were all playing on the same team.”

“We are. But if you prefer not to, then why don’t you just leave?”

Maxie looked out over London. From up here there was a view clear down across St. James’s Park to Admiralty Arch and Trafalgar Square beyond. There was a whole world out there.

She wondered where Sophie and her archers might be now. It took guts to leave somewhere safe like this and go back out onto the streets.

Did Maxie have the guts to do it?

“What do you think you’ll find out there?” said David. “Other wandering bands of kids, living like savages, scavenging for food. Is that what you want? Because that’s what it’s like.”

“I know, David, I’m not stupid. I’ve seen more of all that than you have.”