The Midnight Watch

Chapter 19

Zara got a call over her radio halfway back to Evarlin. "Turn us around," she told Eric Rochester, who was driving. "We're getting reports of a brawl on Davengard turf."

"Yes, ma'am." Eric span the steering wheel left and the car turned sharply. He accelerated in the opposite direction, heading back towards the coast.

"We're going on patrol? Like, now?" I asked nervously.

She gave me an amused sort of smile. "Yes. You've got to start sometime."

Alex shuffled in place. "But what do we do?"

"Follow our example, for now. You'll get the hang of it quickly enough."

We passed fields and moors, woods and rivers. I had never been this far south before, which was ridiculous, because the entire island couldn't have been more than twenty-five miles long. People tended to stay within their houses' land, for safety and convenience. I had lived my entire life within a few meagre hectares, without ever knowing anywhere except Anglesey. Maybe half the problem with our society was that it was too enclosed. I had never even met a human being.

We unloaded outside a small farmhouse. From the backyard came the distinct sounds of a scuffle. Before I even had time to properly take in my surroundings, a stocky man appeared from the side of the house, wringing his hands.

"I didn't know what else do but call you in. They're really going at it. My friend tried to separate them and nearly lost a finger."

Zara nodded at Tobias and one of the nameless girls—Abbie, it might have been. They moved calmly towards the noises. Kai tapped my arm and grinned. We followed them, along with the rest of patrol eighty-nine.

A pair of women were clawing at each other in the yard behind the house. One distraught man shouted over the screeching, trying to make them see sense. But the women blatantly ignored him and continued to grapple. There was an awful lot of hair-pulling and gouging going on.

Alex whooped, shouting something along the lines of girl fight. Our glares silenced him quickly enough. The giant, Tobias, rushed forwards and caught one of them around the waist. He hauled her away while Abbie did the same with the other woman. Eric Rochester was giving us an impatient look, so I detached a pair of handcuffs from my belt and helped Abbie secure her prisoner, who had yet to stop trying to claw everyone's faces off.

When they were both pinned to the ground with their hands cuffed, Eric knelt down beside the closest one. "Alright ladies, care to explain?"

"Not really," she hissed. "I have a right to remain silent."

"Fair enough." He turned to the other woman. "How about you? Feel like telling your side of the story?"

"Actually I do. This hooligan attacked me for no reason. Everything I did was in self-defence."

The first woman bristled. "That's not what—"

"Ah, ah, ah. You're remaining silent, remember?" Eric cut her off. "Well, that all seems in order. Release that one, Sav. Tobias, you may escort your prisoner back to the van."

"You can't do just... This isn't..."

Eric just scowled. "Next time, I suggest you cooperate immediately. Our time is valuable — I can't afford to waste it interrogating the likes of you."

When she was out of sight and the other woman had scuttled back inside her house, Becky chewed on her lip. "Just out of interest, not disapproval, but was that legal?"

"Nope," Kai said mildly.

"Shut it, boy," Eric snapped. "The Moon Guard may twist the law, but we never break it."