Watershed by Jane Abbott Read Free Book Online Page A

and I looked up to see Garrick take the bench opposite. Shovelling food into his mouth, he chewed for all of five seconds before giving up and spitting a wad of ground fish across the table, just missing my plate.
    â€˜Fuck! My boots taste better than this shit,’ he said.
    â€˜Wouldn’t know,’ I replied, staring at the mess. To my mind, food was food, but Garrick wasn’t there to eat. He wasn’t there to drink either, but that didn’t stop him from grabbing my cup and draining it. Arsehole.
    â€˜You had a chance to read that report yet?’ he asked.
    â€˜Yeah.’
    â€˜And? What d’you think?’ He kept his voice low, guarding against curious ears.
    â€˜The Tower’s overreacting. There’s nothing in there to confirm unusual numbers. Not even in the interrogation logs.’
    â€˜No,’ he agreed. ‘So?’ It wasn’t a challenge; he would’ve read the report himself. But maybe he was hoping I’d noticed something he might’ve missed that he could take upstairs to appease the overlords.
    â€˜So maybe there aren’t as many as the Tower thinks.’ There was another explanation, but I didn’t want to consider that. We all saw shadows before every assignment.
    He nodded again, then asked, ‘What about the Guards?’
    â€˜Two killed, barely a struggle, so two attackers striking together. Nothing unusual, and nothing to worry about. There’s no shortage of knives around, and from what I can make out their throats were hacked, not slit. Botched job. Amateurs. The two who were taken haven’t been found, but if there’s a hideout of some kind there’sno way a horde of people could trek in and out of it without one of our informants getting wind of it. My guess, it’s a small group of idiots who are just acting out. Tell the Council to relax. This is an easy job. I can handle it on my own.’
    He gave a grunt. ‘Tell ’em yourself. They wanna see us both.’
    I sat back, and met his stare. As far as I knew, no Watchman except Garrick had ever gone up to the Tower. And I could see he wasn’t too happy about the order either. ‘When?’ I asked.
    â€˜Two nights. Make sure you’re packed and ready to go.’ Standing, he glanced at my shirt, still stuck to my chest in places, the stains now a dirty brown. ‘And for fuck’s sake, clean yourself up.’
    Picking up his plate, he tipped its contents onto mine. Then, almost as an afterthought, he reached over and scooped up his discarded mouthful, dropping it on top of the pile and stirring it into the mix with a long finger. ‘Eat up, Jem. Something tells me you’re gunna need it.’

    A week was the minimum break between assignments, though we could usually rely on two or more. I’d once spent almost three months unassigned – just enough time to stir a man crazy and by the time I was released again I’d have gladly killed anyone, Diss or otherwise. But two days gave me no time, so the morning after Garrick had come and messed with my meal, I headed down to the shore.
    Each of the four districts had its own public baths – rows of old tubs and barrels made available for bathing or washing, screened off from passers-by. People were entitled to use it weekly, if they chose, queuing up until a tub was free before being ushered inside by a Guard and handed a single bucket of seawater. It was always a good idea to get there early coz those tubs filled real quick with brown sludge, and bathing in another man’s filth wasn’t exactly a cleansing experience. I’d been dragged to the baths plenty of times as a kid, made to stand naked while my grandmother scrubbedme down, but in plain view of everyone else, as well as the Guards who kept watch over proceedings, there was no privacy for a marked Watchman. And we had no facilities of our own to use; it was hard enough bringing in enough fresh water