Suited by Jo Anderton - Sample Chapters

and returned to our sublevel rooms, the veche was waiting. They stood under the decrepit awnings on Darkwater, creating a rough semicircle around the locked door. Two technicians, one of whom I knew.

Two collectors like us, though I recognised neither of them. And two puppet men, pale, expressionless, looking damned near inhuman to me.

Lad flinched at the sight of them and huddled against his brother. I forced myself to keep a steady pace, to show no apprehension, and meet Devich’s eyes squarely. I was proud of that. But I did not look at the puppet men, their wooden faces and emotionless, mouldy-green eyes; or the seams I had seen running along their skin, between mouth and chin, jaw and neck, along the hairline, like they were wearing masks, sewn on.

“What do you want?” I didn’t even pretend politeness. Not for Devich.

One of the new collectors cast me a surprised glance. He was a broad-chested man, wrapped in a thick leather coat and a head-hugging cap that could not hide an ugly-looking scar running diagonally across his forehead, nose and cheek.

Fair enough, I supposed. The technicians that fitted our suits were employed by the veche and had considerable influence over our lives. They could inspect us on a whim, and even send us back to the horror of the suiting table like machines to be serviced. It would therefore be prudent to be polite to the men who could, if they desired, clamp us down and inject us with the Other only knew what.