Excerpt: The City Within

[ 1 ]
Finding Jonathan in the newspapers was a shock. I hadn't supposed that Belica cared enough about him--one unknown man, fallen into obscurity for eight years--to write about him, but whenever I turned my head, there was a news vendor, there was his name. Vantage on the Loose: Haresen Killer Stalks Again. Murderer Walks Free: How Did Vantage Escape (And Who Is To Blame)? I made the mistake of buying one of these papers, the first time I saw his name blazing across the top. It had an accompanying illustration, blurry and dark on the cheap onion-skin paper: a figure in black menaced a cowering lady and a gentleman, ineffectively raising a walking stick. The killer had his back turned to the viewer; the only identifying detail was an uplifted knife. I immediately suspected that it was the same image they used whenever there was a mass murderer on the loose--which, in Belica, was fairly often.
I found it terrible to read what they said about him, knowing so much of it to be lies, but what was the worst was taking up one of the newspapers and seeing another, identical one underneath it. Even if I bought a copy, and took it to my hotel and burned it in the wastepaper basket as, I admit, I wanted to do--even then, there would still be hundreds or thousands of copies all over Belica. I could no longer protect Jonathan from what people might say about him.
"Can I help you, ma'am?"
The news vendor was looking at me curiously. I had been standing in the street, gazing in at the most recent display. When Will Vantage Strike Again? (And Has He Already?) was a poor temptation, in the end; I shook my head and walked on through the Barumex market, making my way toward the broad, smooth line of the Screw. I was already late for my appointment.