Fading Light

by Nick Cook

  He grinned.

  I narrowed my gaze on him. ‘You’re going to get us to walk along the tunnels, aren’t you?’

  Ethan gave me an approving nod. ‘You’re definitely starting to get to know my style, Jake. Yep, we’re going to walk right under the paws of those wolves – all the way to the British Museum.’

  ‘Genius,’ Chloe said.

  ‘Why thank you. I’ve always thought I was,’ he replied.

  ‘Don’t get too full of yourself there, Ethan,’ Chloe said.

  ‘If you prefer, we could always go via the sewers?’

  Gem grimaced. ‘Personally, I never want to go down a sewer again.’

  I just gave Ethan the look.

  He shrugged. ‘Fair enough – the Tube it is.’

  ‘Can I point out an obvious flaw in your brilliant plan?’ Chloe jutted her chin at the entrance. ‘The station seems to be locked up. Unless you’ve got a blowtorch on you, I don’t see us getting through those steel shutters any time soon.’

  ‘I suppose I could try bending them using TK?’ I said.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean exactly, but don’t worry – I’ve got something more elegant in mind.’ Ethan walked up to the gate and took out two paperclips from one of his trouser pockets. He straightened them out and inserted the wires into the padlock. With the tip of his tongue just showing between his teeth, he started to twist them. A click came from the padlock as it swung open.

  ‘Seriously?’ Chloe said.

  ‘Hey, I’m a man of hidden talents,’ he replied.

  Chloe and I had decided to stay in the Real as we made our way along the Tube tunnel, to make it less mind-bending for the others. As we walked, our plasma spheres cast two pools of light to illuminate the darkness ahead of us.

  Chloe peered down at the tracks suspiciously as Domino trotted behind her. ‘Are you really, really sure the rails aren’t live, Ethan?’

  He gave her an exasperated scowl. ‘Look, you saw the sign.’

  ‘But you can never be too careful,’ she said.

  He shook his head, spread his arms and leapt on to the rail, walking along a few metres as if he were balancing on a tightrope. ‘Happy now?’

  Chloe just scowled at him. ‘Idiot.’

  ‘How much further is it?’ Gem asked. ‘It feels as if we’ve been walking for hours.’

  ‘Chill, because we’re nearly there,’ Ethan replied.

  Gem pointed ahead into the gloom. ‘Hey, what’s that?’

  I could see a vague yellow shape ahead of us.

  Chloe grabbed Ethan’s arm. ‘A train?’ she asked, with more than a hint of strain in her voice.

  ‘Will you please relax?’ Ethan said. ‘Whatever it is, it isn’t moving.’

  Ethan was right. As we got closer the shape resolved itself into a yellow Land Rover. It took me a moment to realise its wheels had been adapted so it could run on the rails. There was a truck filled with equipment behind it, linked by a tow hook.

  Ethan’s gaze flicked over it. ‘It must be one of the maintenance vehicles they use for checking the tracks.’

  ‘Hey, you couldn’t get it going, could you?’ Gem asked Ethan. ‘I wouldn’t mind riding for a bit, and it’ll save us time.’

  Ethan checked the ignition. ‘Sorry, no can do – not without a key.’

  ‘I thought you could pick a lock,’ Gem said.

  ‘This is much trickier because of the immobiliser.’

  ‘No problem,’ I said. ‘This is where Sentinel gets to show off.’ I crossed to the car and placed my mobile against the ignition.

  The screen pulsed and the vehicle’s engine roared into life.

  Ethan stared at me. ‘OK, very impressive. Does that little trick work with any car?’

  ‘If you’re thinking about a life of car crime, we’ve got rather more important things to worry about at the moment,’ Chloe said.

  ‘Hey, I was only asking.’

  Domino let out a low growl at the tunnel behind us.

  A distant howl echoed back.

  An icy fist clenched in my stomach.

  Chloe shook her head. ‘How the hell did they pick up our trail?’

  Ethan shut his eyes and groaned. ‘My jacket – those wolves must be tracking my scent from it. That’s why they took it.’ He slapped his palm on his forehead.

  ‘Too late to worry about that now. They’ll be on top of us any minute if we don’t get a move on,’ I said.

  I jumped in the driver’s seat and Ethan took up shotgun as the others got into the back. I slammed my foot down on the accelerator and the Land Rover started to roll forward.

  Gem shouted over the clatter of the engine, ‘Can’t this thing go any faster?’

  I pushed the pedal harder, but it was already flat against the floor. ‘This is all it’s got.’

  ‘They must limit the speed so it can move safely on the rails,’ Ethan said.

  ‘Even I could run faster than this,’ I replied.

  ‘I have an idea,’ Ethan said. He took his jumper off and tied one end round the door handle, draping the other over the side of the vehicle. Next, he grabbed a yellow torch from the dash. ‘When we get to the station, you’ll all need to leap out.’

  ‘What about you?’ Chloe asked.

  ‘Don’t worry about me – just be ready to jump.’

  Ethan peered into the tunnel ahead as a station came rushing out of the gloom towards us. ‘Get ready. Three, two, one…’

  The Land Rover swept into the platform.

  ‘Jump!’ Ethan shouted.

  Gem grabbed Chloe’s hand and they leapt on to the moving platform. Domino and I followed, jumping together, and landing just behind the others.

  Chloe and I held up our plasma spheres for Ethan to see what he was doing, but he still hadn’t leapt. As the yellow vehicle hurtled towards the end of the platform, I could see he still had his head bent his down into the driver’s footwell.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ Chloe asked.

  I spread my hands. ‘Being a hero and trying to draw them away?’

  But then Ethan’s head reappeared. He jumped a split second before the Land Rover sped away into the tunnel. He bounced back to his feet on the platform and sprinted towards us. ‘Both of you, shift now!’

  I grabbed Gem’s hand as Chloe lifted Domino. With her other hand, she grabbed Ethan’s outstretched fingers.

  We shifted into the Shadowlands as we killed our plasma sparks.

  With a howl, three wolves tore out of the tunnel, the large one with grey eyes at the head of the pack. They charged along the rails, yipping and snarling past us and up on to the platform, racing after the Land Rover and out through the tunnel at the far end.

  Ethan clamped his hand over Domino’s muzzle as the dog struggled to get free.

  ‘Why didn’t they stop for us?’ Gem whispered.

  I grinned at Ethan. ‘Now that was just genius.’

  Chloe glanced between us. ‘Ethan, can you please explain what you just did?

  ‘I used the torch to jam the throttle open,’ he replied.

  ‘But I don’t understand why the wolves followed the vehicle?’ Chloe said. ‘You’d have thought they’d have had a sniff around here for us at least.’

  Gem shook her head. ‘Don’t you see? They’re following the scent of Ethan’s jumper.’

  Ethan beamed at her. ‘You got it in one.’

  ‘Oh…’ Chloe flashed him a smile. ‘That is genius.’

  ‘Let’s get out of here before they realise they’ve been tricked and pick up the fresh scent,’ I said.

  Together, still shifted and hand in hand, we ran through an archway and up the stationary escalators towards the street level high above us.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Back in the Real, I gazed through the railings at the looming stonework of the British Museum occasionally visible through gaps in the fog. The building had been adorned with massive vertical red banners, each featuring a different Chinese statue. In t
he gloom, a group of smartly dressed people followed a glowing pathway of oil lamps towards the pillared entrance.

  ‘General Hammond’s exhibition looks a bit of a big deal,’ Ethan said.

  ‘Certainly big enough for them to go ahead with the launch party despite what’s happening across London,’ I replied.

  ‘Those rich types aren’t about to let this city grinding to a stop get in the way of a good party,’ Gem said.

  We continued along the railings. As we neared the closed gates, I spotted a couple of uniformed guards on duty.

  Gem’s eyes slid over the men. ‘Do you suppose they’d believe us if we said we’d lost our invitations?’

  ‘If only,’ I replied.

  ‘Looks as if you’ll need to pull your invisibility trick again, guys,’ Ethan said to Chloe and me.

  We both nodded. A moment later we were creeping along in the Shadowlands beside the railings and towards the guarded gates. We’d almost reached them when I heard a bell pinging from the road. A bicycle rickshaw drew to a stop and an elderly couple got out. The man had a seriously impressive bushy moustache and wore a camel-hair coat over a white dinner jacket to combat the unseasonal foggy chill. The lady was wearing an elegant shimmering sequinned dress, with a white-silk shawl wrapped tightly round her thin shoulders.

  The man shuffled to the gate as the woman huddled into him for warmth.

  One of the guards swung the gate open for them. ‘Just go straight up to the main entrance and someone will take you through to the exhibition.’

  The old man nodded and, taking the woman by the arm, led her in.

  ‘That’s our cue,’ I whispered.

  Hand in hand, we all moved fast to slip through the gate before the guard closed it again.

  I could just about see the thermal heat signatures of the old couple ahead of us in the icy fog. We followed them along the path and up the steps towards the entrance lit with hundreds of candles.

  A smartly dressed woman with a clipboard stood waiting for the couple at the top of the stairs.

  Domino let out a low growl and Ethan clamped his hand over his muzzle. The old man glanced over his shoulder, clearly trying to locate the sound in the fog. In the far distance, the howls of a pack of wolves drifted across the city.

  Gem gave me a worried look and I squeezed her hand.

  The man shook his head and turned back to the clipboard woman. ‘I’ll be damned if those don’t sound like wolves.’

  ‘You’re right,’ the woman replied. ‘We’ve been getting reports all evening about them. They must have somehow escaped from their enclosure in London Zoo – probably thanks to the power cuts in the city.’

  The old man nodded. ‘Most alarming.’

  Clipboard woman opened up a heavy door behind her and we heard the babble of voices and the sound of classical music coming from inside.

  ‘You’ll be perfectly safe in here,’ the woman said.

  Chloe gestured towards the old couple. ‘We’d better move it and follow them in.’

  We headed up the steps as the woman held the door open for the couple. Tight on their tail, we stepped into the entrance and ducked behind a large pillar.

  I took the chance to absorb our surroundings. We were standing in a large archway that led to a vast square atrium with bright white walls leading up to a flowing-shaped glass roof, where a party was in full swing. In the middle, a large circular room reached up to the glass roof above. Around it hung more of the imposing red banners.

  The woman checked her clipboard by the light of a yellow lantern at a desk near the entrance. ‘Lord and Lady Chambers, if I’m not mistaken?’

  The old man slipped his overcoat off. ‘That’s right, young lady. We wouldn’t have made it if General Hammond hadn’t sent that bicycle taxi. That man thinks of everything.’

  ‘London may be paralysed, but that won’t stop the general launching this exhibition.’ She gestured at the round atrium and flashed them a lipsticked smile. ‘If you’d like to go through, you should be in time to hear his welcome speech.’

  ‘Excellent.’ The man took his wife’s arm and walked past us under the archway towards the rest of the guests.

  ‘Time to crash this party then,’ Ethan whispered.

  ‘It’s seriously crowded in here,’ Chloe replied. ‘Before we bump into someone, we should shift back into the Real while no one is looking.’

  We walked behind a pillar, and when we were certain no one could see us we shifted. Then, as casually as we could and with Ethan trying to hide Domino behind his legs, we walked out from the cover of our pillar.

  The woman with the clipboard immediately spotted us, her professional instinct obviously kicking in. But as a question mark filled her eyes, the main museum door opened and pulled her attention away to the newly arrived visitors.

  ‘We’d better make ourselves scarce before she takes too much interest in us,’ I said.

  We followed the old couple, now relieved of their coats, into the atrium.

  I couldn’t help noticing the fog flowing and ebbing above the glass roof, almost like something alive that wanted to get in. Despite the warmth, I felt myself shiver.

  Waiters glided over to the old couple, offering them long fluted glasses of champagne and canapés from silver trays.

  ‘So what does this General Hammond look like anyway?’ Chloe asked.

  Ethan took a leaflet from one of the tables and gave it to her. ‘Here you go.’

  A man with a grey beard, well-groomed hair and dark piercing eyes gazed out of the photo.

  ‘Oh, now for an old guy, he’s pretty hot,’ Chloe said.

  Gem nodded. ‘Yep, he certainly is.’

  Ethan raised his eyebrows at them. ‘Whatever you say, ladies.’

  I started to scan the crowd, but I couldn’t see General Hammond anywhere.

  Gem tapped her lip. ‘Maybe we should split up to find him—’

  Chloe cut her off. ‘Ethan, can you please stop that? You’re drawing way too much attention to us.’

  I turned to see him helping himself to a couple of salmon canapés from a tray.

  The waitress frowned at him, presumably wondering who’d let someone wearing combat trousers into this exclusive party, before heading off towards another group of guests.

  Ethan licked his lips. ‘You should try this stuff, guys – it’s great.’

  Domino wagged his tail.

  Chloe gave him a whatever eye-roll.

  My gaze was caught by a tall man with a trimmed grey beard wearing a white tux. He’d appeared from a doorway at the top of the steps leading into the round room. Hammond.

  Chloe eyed him up and down. ‘That picture really doesn’t do him justice.’

  ‘I wonder about you sometimes,’ I replied.

  A Chinese man with a red sash draped over his tuxedo stood next to General Hammond, and behind them was a bald man in a black suit.

  An expectant hush fell over the room as General Hammond walked over to a microphone and tapped it. He shook his head when no sound materialised from any of the speakers.

  He looked out over the audience. Everyone’s eyes had turned towards him. ‘I’m afraid, ladies and gentleman, that these intermittent power cuts plaguing London have given us quite a few technical headaches tonight. Anyway, can you hear me all right at the back?’

  A confirming murmur came back from the audience.

  ‘Excellent. First of all, I’d like to congratulate everyone who made it here. Let it not be said that a bit of hostile weather and a major power cut could come between us and the opportunity for a good party.’ A chorus of laughter and a flutter of applause ran through the room.

  ‘See, exactly what I said,’ Gem whispered.

  General Hammond spread his hands wide. ‘I’m very proud to be standing here today at this momentous new exhibition of the Terracotta Army here at the British Museum. None of us would be here it if wasn’t for the kindness and generosity of the Republic of China. I am particularly g
rateful to my good friend, the Ambassador Taka Hosokawa.’ He smiled at the man by his side. ‘I’m sure you will join me in thanking him for his help, without which none of this would have been possible.’ Hammond bowed to the man and warm applause rippled through the atrium. The Chinese ambassador, beaming, returned his bow.

  ‘Now that you’ve enjoyed the delicious food and drunk the magnificent champagne courtesy of the Chinese Embassy, rather than listen to me waffle on for ages—’

  ‘Hear, hear,’ someone called out from the back.

  Everyone laughed, especially General Hammond. I was already warming to the guy, despite the fact we’d never met.

  ‘In that case, before you start throwing your canapés at me, let’s get this exhibition opened.’ He turned and whispered into the ear of the bald man, who picked up a red-velvet cushion with a pair of gold scissors on top and presented it to the ambassador.

  General Hammond bowed again. ‘Dear ambassador, it would honour us greatly if you would formally open this exhibition.’

  Smiling, the ambassador returned his bow once again. ‘I would be honoured.’ He took the scissors and, with something of a flourish, cut the red ribbon stretched across the doorway.

  Loud applause echoed around the atrium.

  General Hammond waited for several moments before finally holding up his hands for silence. ‘It is a huge pleasure to announce that the new Terracotta Army exhibition is finally open.’

  He stepped aside, sweeping his hands towards the entrance as if he were ushering people into a circus tent. The crowd surged up the stairs, chattering with excitement, and formed a long queue.

  General Hammond greeted everyone as if he knew each one of them, shaking hands with the men and kissing the women.

  ‘Just hang on until everyone has gone inside. Then we’ll try to talk to him,’ I said.

  We waited what seemed like an eternity. Eventually the queue had dwindled to the last two and then they were gone. Now was our chance.

  ‘Here goes nothing,’ Chloe said.

  We walked up the stairs towards General Hammond.

  I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked him in the eye. ‘We desperately need to talk to you, General Hammond. I’m afraid it’s urgent.’