A World of Ash: The Territory 3 Read Online Free PDF

doing our utmost to locate him, but we have very few leads. We’ve begun searching house to house when we can spare the men but so far there’s no sign of him.”
    The High Priestess shook her head, irritation rising. “Find him, Provost,” she said.
    Loose ends. Oh, how she hated leaving loose ends. She had received word that Lynnette Hermannsburg had been captured and was on her way back to Alice in Holy Order custody. Squid Blanchflower was safely secured within the prison of Pitt, where he would spend the rest of his days unable to fulfil any prophecy of Steven. The Wall was finished and would stand fast against the ghouls. The city was locked down. Everything was ready. Everything had gone according to plan. Everything except the escape of the Administrator. He was here, somewhere in the city, hiding like a rat. When she thought through the possibilities there seemed to be little damage he could do, but she was still worried. He certainly hadn’t acted alone. Someone had broken him out of prison, and they were keeping him hidden, and this suggested they were well organized. The Administrator alone did not pose much of a threat, but whoever had freed him might.
    “What about outside?” The High Priestess said, turning her attention, at least for now, to other matters.
    “More refugees enter the slums daily,” Provost said, “though arrivals are slowing. Most of the population seems to be outside the city already. There’s no food. Sickness is spreading like wildfire. The Quarantine Squads have no hope of keeping all the outbreaks contained.”
    “The lockdown of the city has been successful, though?”
    “Yes, Your Holiness. Not a single person has entered or left the city in the last three days.”
    “Good,” the High Priestess said, “then disease will remain outside the walls. Containing it matters little anymore. If people die out there, then so be it. Redemption is coming for them in any case.”
    “We have soldiers out there, Your Holiness,” Provost said, “loyal Holy Order men who are standing firm. But the people of the slums are getting more aggressive. We’ve already lost almost half of those men to sickness or fighting. They need to be brought inside, replaced with reinforcements.”
    “They are playing their part,” High Priestess Patricia said. “God will see them dying for His glory. They will sit high among the Ancestors.”
    Clergy-General Provost was quiet for a long moment. “Those are my men, Your Holiness.”
    The High Priestess turned to evaluate the general. She stared at him. He was becoming bolder with her than he ever had. She scolded herself for sharing her struggles with him in that moment of weakness. He was latching onto that, even if he didn’t realize it. He had seen her when she was weak and was taking advantage. It angered her that even he would do this.
    “No,” she said, her voice slow and direct. “Those are my men out there.”
    Provost said nothing. The High Priestess saw him trying to build the confidence to add something more, to challenge her. She glared at him, letting her anger flare in her eyes, and, as she expected, he lowered his head to look at the dusty ground. “Yes, Your Holiness.”
    “What else?” she said.
    After a moment Provost continued with his report. “Sporadic riots are occurring regularly in the slums. I don’t think it will be long before there is a full-scale uprising out there.”
    “But as you’ve assured me, the Wall will hold.”
    “Yes, Your Holiness,” Provost said, but there was still something in his voice, irritation maybe. “It will hold.”
    “Then there is no concern,” High Priestess Patricia said. “Who exactly are they going to rise against? They may squabble out there but it is not our problem. We must ready ourselves for the purging that will follow.”
    “Yes, Your Holiness,” Provost said. “May I ask you something?”
    “Yes.”
    “Have you given any more thought to my concerns about food supply