House of Ashes by Monique Roffey Read Free Book Online Page B

appeared in the chamber he looked very scared. His hands were still in the air and they were shaking. He gasped and crossed himself and said, ‘Oh, Jesus Lord,’ when
he saw all the ministers trussed up face down on the floor and all the blood on the carpet. Everything was shot up. He gasped at Arnold in his Santa hat and at all the young boys with guns bigger
than them, and at Greg Mason who looked like his very mother had taught him how to kill. Ashes felt ashamed. He didn’t want a holy man to see him in this kind of situation. He couldn’t
look at the priest.
    The House had already started to stink of death. Those who had been shot dead had been dragged to other rooms. The gunman who’d been killed had been taken away too, but his tongue was
still on the carpet.
    Father Sapno gagged and pointed at it. ‘Have some common decency,’ he said, and Ashes was glad because he had been thinking the same thing. It was an awful sight and yet he
hadn’t been strong enough in his stomach to pick it up. Hal ordered Breeze to take it away. Everyone looked at Father Sapno and Father Sapno looked at everyone else, all the brothers with
their guns and the hostages. He was a man with a wide-open face, a shadow of a beard surrounding it; he was naturally jovial, it seemed, because gracious lines were etched on his face, even at a
time like this. Hal looked disconcerted. The situation was a mess.
    ‘Where do you want me to go now?’ Father Sapno said. ‘I only have an hour. The army wants to know your demands and I must then go back and report to them. An hour.’
    Hal nodded and said, ‘Come this way.’ He had been on to the Leader and there was now a list of demands. They had untied the Minister for Health, Dr Mervyn Mahibir, and the Deputy
Prime Minister, Mr Elias de Gannes, and there had been talks. Hal and Greg Mason led Father Sapno and these ministers and some of the ministers who’d split from the PM down the corridor; they
went to the room with the Liquid Paper graffiti about God. Ashes felt glad. Also he felt disappointed. How had everything gone so badly wrong so quickly? Although he didn’t know the exact
plans, it was common knowledge in the commune that some of the Leader’s men had been in training in camps in the countryside; some were even sent to the deserts far away. There had been
ideas, plans, for a New Society. This had been no pot shot, no quick grab. He couldn’t believe that the plans had misfired, that the revolution was already over. That couldn’t be the
case, so soon. They had boxes and boxes of explosives down the hall.
    The Prime Minister groaned. Another minister, Minister Sheldon, the one who’d frozen and remained standing rather than ducking when they stormed the chamber, was also bleeding a lot. There
was a puddle of blood now by his ankle. Ashes worked as a porter at a health centre in his neighbourhood, but he wasn’t trained to deal with medical matters; he was no nurse. Even so, he
could see this minister was barely breathing and it worried him. It was possible he might die too if he wasn’t seen to. The female ministers were very subdued. They were both hiding under
chairs. One had urinated into a glass and it stood next to her. It looked very . . . intimate . . . and it made him feel unsure of going anywhere near them.
    Many of the brothers were standing around. Some had forsaken their everyday names; they had spiritual names and they had shaved their heads and grown their beards and they were men with wives
and families. The men who were trained for this looked more serious and mature. He could see a cold confidence in their eyes and in their posture, a seriousness of intent. None of these brothers
had any questions or regrets so far, not like him. They were still following orders. If he didn’t know who they were, he too would be scared of these men. They weren’t fooling around.
The Leader had attracted thousands of brothers and sisters over the years, but