Echo McCool, Outlaw Through Time

by Roger K. Driscoll

  Scott gave his brother and sister a quick glance, his fearsome gaze then travelling up the bank. He pointed the gun.

  “Come down here now, you little…”

  But Jason and Echo had already leapt from the fence, into the meadow at the other side. Echo found a hefty-looking stick, half a metre long. She picked it up then returned to the fence with Jason. Scott was scrambling up the bank now, gun at the ready. Echo hurled the stick, sending it spinning through the air like a boomerang. The deadly missile found its target, striking Scott with a direct hit in the middle of his forehead. His eyeballs floated upwards. As he fell, the gun went off again, firing sideways, harming no one. He bounced down the bank, landing at the roadside in a crumpled heap.

  “You are totally brilliant!” said Jason. “But it’s too dangerous here with that gun around. Let’s split.”

  Echo frowned. “Split what?”

  “I mean run! Come on.”

  They sped into the meadow, making for the far corner. Jason checked behind; there were no signs of the Cobalts now, or their friend Maxine Knaggs, or the dog. He and Echo reached the corner of the field where they found a stile, taking them over to the main road which was clear of traffic. They ran across to a gateway at the opposite side then into a field of wheat. Jason’s only thought was to keep moving. They tore through the wheat, all the way to the far side. Here they climbed another fence to find themselves at the top of a deep cutting with a wide trackbed at the bottom. Jason was exhausted, as if he’d just run a marathon.

  “The old railway!” he wheezed, remembering what he’d seen in the gewita. “We can’t be far from the tunnel.”

  “The tunnel?” Echo panted.

  Eventually Jason caught his breath.

  “It’s like a cave, I guess,” he explained. “Made by the people who built the railway.” He glanced behind. “But I don’t think we should’ve come this way – look at the tracks we’ve left in the corn. We’ve got to get out of sight.”

  They scrambled down the side of the cutting and headed along the trackbed. Soon they came to an arched, red-brick bridge that crossed over the old railway. They ran beneath it, carrying on for another thirty metres before rounding a bend. They paused for a moment; now they were staring into the enormous mouth of the tunnel.

  “’Tis a huge cave indeed,” Echo gasped.

  They ran again, a cold blast of air striking them as they entered the tunnel, the daylight giving way to dank gloom. The ground was littered with bricks and debris, and they had to slow their pace. The darkness stretched away to a broad slant of sunlight in the distance, pointing directly down from the roof, illuminating the ground like a spotlight. Jason and Echo went as quickly as they could, their footsteps resounding in the murky, icy air. Eventually they arrived at the source of the light and gazed up. In the brickwork of the tunnel roof there began a circular shaft that cut a vertical passage all the way through the earth above. It was like looking up a wide, towering chimney, a disc of blue sky at the very top.

  “I think I know what this is,” said Jason. “In the old days, when trains came through here, they’d make loads of smoke and steam. This shaft would’ve let the smoke out of the tunnel.”

  The stream of sunlight made it easier for him to survey his surroundings. A few metres behind him, over to the left, he saw an arch-shaped recess in the tunnel wall. He and Echo stepped across, avoiding the rubble on the ground. He inspected the alcove. The stonework had fallen away at the back, and up behind the top of the arch, exposing a rough layer of chalk.

  “All the hills around here are chalk,” he told her. “When the people made this tunnel they’d have blasted through it. Now the bricks are crumbling away.”

  “How is it possible to blast through a hill?” said Echo.

  “With dynamite,” said Jason. “You won’t know what that is – and there’s no time to explain. I think we should do a gewita, to see what the Cobalts are planning now.”

  “’Tis a good idea,” said Echo, holding out her hand.

  Jason took it and closed his eyes. The ground tremored for a moment, the darkness becoming a milky glow. When Jason looked again he and Echo were in bright sunlight, standing at the foot of a grassy bank. The silver car and blue Land Rover were still stationary on the narrow road. Tiffany and Kevin were back on their feet, dusting themselves down, while Scott nursed his bruised forehead. He picked up and inspected the gun.

  “Well done, you two,” he said. “Getting yourselves beaten up by some kid.”

  “That was no ordinary brat,” said Tiffany, her green eyes burning with rage. “Anyhow, look who’s talking.”

  “She threw a stick,” said Scott, rubbing his head again. “A lucky shot, that’s all.”

  His attention turned to the far bank where a uniformed figure was climbing the fence at the top. As Maxine Knaggs scrambled down to the road, Scott hurried across to meet her.

  “What…what happened?” she said.

  She and Scott embraced.

  “See, she is his sweetheart,” said Echo.

  “It was the girl in the green hoodie,” Tiffany said, still shaking with fury.

  “The girl?” said Maxine, drawing away from Scott. “She beat the lot of you?”

  “You didn’t do much better,” said Tiffany with a scowl. “She took us by surprise - but I’ll get her next time.”

  Maxine glanced back at the fence. “I don’t know what happened to that dog – he was just lying there in the field. I tried to wake him but he was all dopey, like he’d been drugged.”

  “Forget the dog,” said Scott. “And the girl. It’s the boy we’re interested in. Was it really Lauren’s brother?”

  Maxine nodded. “It must’ve been. Some woman from the children’s home called the station earlier, reporting a missing boy. She said his name was Jason Fleeting. Then another report came in – a boy fitting his description had damaged a fence at the golf club. It might not have been the same kid, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Normally we wouldn’t go out to a little job like that, but I volunteered anyway. I wasn’t at the golf club very long before the boy turned up. That grubby girl was with him, but don’t ask me who she is.”

  “The boy’s supposed to have had an accident,” said Tiffany. “God knows how he got better so quickly.”

  “And how come the girl’s so good at scrapping?” muttered Kevin.

  “I told you, forget about her,” snapped Scott. “What happened next, Maxine, at the golf club?”

  “The boy tried to trick me,” she replied. “He said he lived at the manor. Obviously he was lying but I decided to go along with it, to see what he was up to. I didn’t have chance to warn any of you. Once we’d got to the gates, he came clean about who he really was. He knows everything. He knows you killed his mother, and he knows about Lauren in the basement.”

  Scott swore. “This is bad.”

  “I’m not sure how, but the girl figured out I’m one of you,” Maxine went on. “The boy reckons he’s had some kind of tip-off, but I don’t believe him.”

  “Hang on,” said Tiffany. “What if you’re not the only copper he’s told?”

  Maxine shook her head. “I’d know about it if he had. The important thing is to catch him, or we could all be finished.”

  “Okay, everybody, stay calm,” said Scott. “Maybe the kid’s doubling back to the manor right now.” He clicked his fingers. “Kevin, get in your car and go back there. Maxine, you’ll have to try and wake that dog up. Put him inside your cop car then drive to the house. Stay there with Kevin.”

  “I can’t hang around too long,” said Maxine. “I’ll be missed – and no one in the force knows about me and you.”

  “I don’t think the kid would’ve doubled back,” said Tiffany. “Him and his grotty friend’ll be scared stiff of the gun.”

  Scott pointed up the other bank, to the fence where Echo had thrown the stick earlier. “You might be right. Come with me, Tiff. We’ll take the Land Rover. If they went that way, the
y can’t have gone far.”

  “What if we don’t catch ’em?” Tiffany asked.

  “Leave it to me,” said Maxine. “I’ll think of something.”

  The gewita transformed in a blizzard of colours. Next moment Jason and Echo were standing by the fence at the edge of the wheat field, looking down at the railway cutting. Jason glanced behind, across the wheat, seeing a Land Rover entering through the gateway at the far side.

  “’Tis Scott’s chariot,” said Echo.

  “Time must’ve moved on a few minutes,” Jason added.

  The vehicle was crashing through the wheat, following the tracks made earlier by Jason and Echo. Eventually the Land Rover arrived at the fence and parked nearby. Scott and Tiffany climbed out to peer down at the old railway.

  “I’m telling you, those tracks in the corn are brand new,” Scott was saying. “The kids definitely came this way.”

  “We’ll check the old railway,” said Tiffany. “What are we gonna do with those brats when we catch ’em?”

  “They’ll have to join Lauren in the basement,” said Scott. “What a threat that would be! Here’s your brother, Lauren. Keep finding stuff for us, and he won’t get hurt.”

  “In the basement?” said Tiffany. “How long for?”

  Scott laughed. “I was thinking of retiring in about thirty years.”

  Jason clenched his fists, unable to contain his scorching hatred for this man.

  “But I’ll use the gun if I have to,” said Scott, returning his attention to the disused railway. “There’s a tunnel down there, further along. I bet that’s where they’ve gone.”

  “Where does this tunnel come out?” Tiffany asked.

  “The old goods yard,” Scott replied. “Ross Bullivant owns it now – that’s where he runs his skip hire business. I know him pretty well.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a mobile phone and scrolling through the saved numbers. “I’ll ask him to keep an eye out. If those kids show up at the other end of the tunnel, he’ll have them.”

  “I get it,” said Tiffany with a cunning smirk. “And we search the tunnel from this end.”

  Scott nodded. “There’s a torch in the Land Rover. Get the gun as well. I’ll give Ross a call.”

  The scene flickered and faded then Jason and Echo found themselves in darkness once more, standing near the alcove in the tunnel wall.

  “’Tis finished,” said Echo. “We have returned to the present.”

  “And straight into a trap,” said Jason. “Brilliant! We’ve got two Cobalts with a gun at one end of the tunnel, and this Bullivant bloke at the other.”

  Echo made a fist. “I could fight the Bullivant man.”

  Jason shook his head. “Scott said Bullivant runs some kind of skip business. That probably means he’s got a gang of big blokes working for him. Even you might not be able to fight them all. We can’t risk it - they’ll turn us over to Scott and we’ll end up in that basement for the next thirty years.”

  “Perchance we can climb out through the tall chimney,” Echo suggested.

  “No way,” said Jason. “We’ll have to hide.” He glanced towards the top of the alcove. “I wonder what’s up there.”

  He grabbed hold of the decaying masonry at the back of the alcove and managed to find some foot-holds. He climbed up a couple of metres then turned around, scrambling behind the top of the arch. To his surprise he saw glints of light in the gap between the mass of chalk and the tunnel brickwork.

  “The chalk’s crumbled a lot,” he said. “We should be able to get right up above the tunnel roof.”

  “I will follow,” Echo said.

  In Victorian times the tunnel had been blasted and carved through the chalk, the bricks laid tight to the sides and roof. Now, almost a hundred and fifty years later, the chalk had eroded to leave a narrow gap behind the brickwork. Jason continued to climb into this gap. It took all his strength to squirm past the steep curve of the tunnel. Soon he was at the highest point above the tunnel roof, praying that the latticed brickwork beneath him would hold. The light was even stronger now. In the low cavern between the stonework and the chalk he saw a bright gleam at the far end. It came from the side of the air-shaft, where half-a-dozen bricks had fallen away to leave a hole.

  “Seems okay up here,” he called. “At least we can see what we’re doing.”

  He crawled along, the chalk scraping his back, and he reached the air-shaft thirty seconds later. He glanced over his shoulder to see Echo wriggling into the cavern behind him. She continued on her hands and knees, soon joining him near the side of the air-shaft.

  “Methinks we are safe now.”

  But as she spoke, her eyes became great circles of fear. Jason heard a low rumbling sound.

  “What’s that?” he said in an urgent whisper.

  The chalk above began to quake, then large hunks fell behind them in clouds of dust. Everything happened so quickly there wasn’t even time to panic. All Jason could do was cough and close his eyes. When he looked again the white dust had settled, much of it on Echo’s hair and face. The blocks of chalk were piled up behind her and it was a miracle she hadn’t been hit. Jason stared at his friend, feeling very claustrophobic, trying hard not to think about the solid mass of chalk above their heads. If that came down, he and Echo would be killed in an instant.

  She spluttered and wiped her eyes. “Perchance we are not so safe.”

  From somewhere below, Jason heard faint shouts and the distant noise of something moving on loose stones.

  “’Tis the enemy!” hissed Echo.

  But Scott and Tiffany were a long way away. Jason’s heart pounded. He managed to stop his hands shaking, forcing himself to breathe quietly. He and Echo sat utterly still, straining to listen, hoping the roof fall hadn’t revealed their hiding place. The scrunch of footsteps came gradually nearer. Jason wished he could be anywhere else but here. After more nerve-racking waiting he heard Scott’s voice.

  “Pity Bullivant took so long to answer his phone.”

  “Gimme the torch,” said Tiffany. “I bashed my toe on a brick just then.”

  The voices grew closer still.

  “I’ll handle the torch,” said Scott. “Those kids could be anywhere.”

  “’Tis good,” Echo whispered. “They did not hear the falling chalk. They know not that we are hiding up here.”

  But to Jason it was anything but good. The blood pulsed loudly in his ears and his palms shone with sweat. Now he and Echo were trapped in every direction, above and below.

  – CHAPTER SEVEN –

  Framed

  The cavity between the tunnel brickwork and solid chalk above seemed more like a tomb now. Buried alive; that’s how it felt. Gripped with fear, Jason looked slowly over his shoulder. Echo was on her hands and knees, breathing fast, the fallen blocks of chalk piled up behind her. Down below, the pounding footsteps of Scott and Tiffany came closer.

  “I’ll take a look,” Jason whispered.

  He wiped his sweaty forehead then edged forward to the side of the air-shaft, peeping through the hole in the brickwork. He heard Tiffany’s voice.

  “My back aches like hell,” she was saying. “Thanks to that girl in the hoodie. Wait till I get her. I’ll break her face!”

  “Those kids can’t have gone too far,” said Scott. “Hang on, what’s that? A little archway in the wall.”

  A knot tightened in Jason’s stomach. Though he couldn’t see his pursuers, he heard them walking across to the alcove.

  “It’s all hollowed out behind here,” Scott said. “You take a look.”

  Above the drumming of his heart, Jason heard a scuffle of hands and feet. Next came a series of curses from Tiffany as she climbed up behind the alcove.

  “Let’s have the torch, then,” she said.

  Jason’s hands trembled as he looked behind to see the dancing beam of light, between the gaps in the fallen chalk.

  “It’s full of rubble,” came Tiffany’s voice. “No way could anyone
hide up here.”

  “Maybe they’re not hiding,” said Scott. “They could’ve kept going, all the way through the tunnel.”

  A wave of relief swept over Jason as Tiffany clambered down from the alcove.

  “That’s if they came into the tunnel in the first place,” she said.

  “Ross Bullivant’s waiting at the other end,” said Scott. “If that’s where they’ve gone, he’ll catch ’em.”

  Chest still heaving, Jason drew away from the air-shaft. Scott and Tiffany were passing directly beneath him now. He held his breath as their footsteps grew fainter, then he heard Echo’s desperate voice in his ear.

  “They will grow tired of searching the mighty cave,” she said. “Then they will look elsewhere, or return to their home.”

  “But how are we going to get down from here?” Jason said, struggling around to face her.

  Echo looked past him towards the hole in the air-shaft. “I could kick at the side of the chimney, to make the hole bigger.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Then we can move these pieces of chalk, and throw them through the hole. That will clear our path, so we may return the way we came.”

  Jason shook his head. “That won’t work. The chalk’s unsafe. If we pull a piece away, won’t another one just fall down in its place?”

  “Perchance,” said Echo, looking again at the air-shaft. “Were I to make the hole bigger, we could climb through and leap down to safety.”

  “From the top of the tunnel to the ground?” said Jason. “No way! I’ll break my legs!”

  “Dost thou not know how to land safely?”

  “Not all that way.”

  “Then I will lower thee down on a rope.”

  “A rope? What rope?”

  “’Tis possible I can make one,” Echo told him.

  She sat up as best she could then wriggled around to face away from him. She pulled off her boots and began to unfasten her hiking trousers. With her bare feet almost touching the lumps of chalk she arched her back then, a few moments later, the trousers were off.

  “Are you kidding?” said Jason. “You want us to make a rope by tying all our clothes together?”