Caught

34.

Only twelve hours had passed since Shira and I had parted from each other. Twelve hours that changed everything.

We had won a great victory, the Emperor was dead and the remnants of his forces were scattered.

The Resistance had won. The war was over. Hooray, hooray.

The hotel was the most damaged of the surrounding buildings. Except perhaps the armoury, which the Imperial soldiers, finding it impossible to hold, blew up themselves.

I was back in the same hotel suite, walking numbly through the rubble. Bodies lay everywhere, all of them, without exception, in the red Imperial uniform.

Part of the room had collapsed in our air strike, and pieces of metal lintel had buried the sofa and coffee table. On the floor, among the chunks of plaster, I saw a white teacup, surprisingly intact.

A large red stain covered the floor to my right. That was where the rebels had found the Emperor. With his head shot through. As soon as they told me, I knew whose work it was.

None of the rebel soldiers had killed the Emperor, so Shira must have done it. He shot him when he realised he couldn't hold on much longer? I would have. And then I would have tried to escape.

Judging from the amount of bodies around, it looked like there had been a very violent firefight, resulting in a bullet in the Emperor's head and many dead.

Which way would Shira escape? The hotel must have been swarming with soldiers. Would he try the roof? I skirted the ruins and approached the back stairs. I climbed up, each step accompanied by the crunch of broken glass beneath my feet.

I stepped onto the flat roof of the hotel.

Here, too, the aftermath of the air strike was evident. Pieces of concrete slabs were lying around, I crossed them carefully, a piece of wire sticking up almost piercing my leg. Part of the roof had collapsed, I didn't know how stable the place was, so I proceeded with caution.

I didn't see any more bodies. I looked around again and then over the edge down to the street. It was filled with our soldiers, searching the area for fugitives. I spotted Maya on the steps of the house opposite, nursing the arm of a wounded rebel soldier.

That's when I noticed something in the pile of rubble next to the hotel. My heart almost stopped when I saw the black thing. I wasn't sure at this distance, but...

I didn't wait for anything and ran back into the ruined suite, taking the shortest route out of the building. On the stairs, I dodged a couple of soldiers looking back at me. I pushed the door open and glanced around the street.

I ran to a huge pile of rubble, which I could see from the roof of the hotel, and clawed my way up the concrete blocks, which had thick metal supports sticking out. One of them collapsed under my foot, almost knocking me over.

"Watch out!" I heard the voice of one of the soldiers standing around, noticing my actions. "General Imara, it's not stable, get out of there."

The first voice was joined by others.

I kept climbing. A few times my leg got caught in the rubble and once a huge chunk of concrete fell on my hand. I didn't care and kept going until I reached a spot I could see from the roof.

There, under the rubble, lay Shira's black coat.

~~~

I leaned against the wall of the house and looked down at my bleeding hands, covered in dirt and dust. Maya was standing next to me, saying something in a raised voice. I couldn't bring myself to listen to her. My fingers clutched the leather coat and I wondered what had just happened.

I checked my injured hands again, bruised and battered from trying to shovel away chunks of broken concrete and debris. I couldn't do it, of course, and if Shira's body was buried somewhere under the rubble, it would be difficult to find, even with the help of heavy machinery.

I knew that, but they had to drag me out anyway.

"Taira, are you listening to me?"

I looked at Maya. "Were you saying something?"

"Yes, for the last five minutes," she fired irritably with a hint of hysteria, her eyes reddened, her cheeks wet with tears. "Let me clean those wounds for you."

"It's OK," I said, shaking my head and looking down at my torn hands again, my right index finger strangely twisted.

"Your finger is broken," she said accusingly, touching it gently. It was probably supposed to hurt, I didn't feel anything.

"General Imara!" We were interrupted by the voice of one of the soldiers. "We found something."

My heart started beating so fast I was afraid it would jump out of my chest. Did they find Shira's body? But the young soldier was holding only a small object in his hand.

"What is it?" Maya turned to me, examining the object the soldier had handed me.

A broken mobile phone.

"It's Shira's phone," she said quietly.

I just nodded and looked back at the young man. "Did you find anything else?"

"No, General. We removed what we could. There are heavy concrete lintels that we can't move. But whatever was underneath would still..." he didn't finish the sentence. Instead he continued quickly. "If you wish, we can bring in the better equipment and try..."

"No," I interrupted him. "Stop it."

"As you wish," the soldier saluted me and turned away.

Maya stared at me with a strange expression in her eyes. "I expected you to have that pile dismantled down to the last stone."

"To what end? To make sure he's not alive?"

She frowned at me disapprovingly. "You're just giving yourself false hope."

Maya was sad but determined, accepting his death. "How long are you going to wait hoping for Shira to come back?"

I remained silent. I couldn't tell her that I would never stop waiting for him.