by Tim O'Rourke
“That’s fifty credits you owe me,” he said to Karl.
“I’m sorry?” Karl frowned. “I thought my account was being settled by my employer, and as you are well aware, you were too busy last night to fix me up some food.”
The bartender scratched the side of his shaved head, which was adorned with black swirling tattoos. “Unless your employer finances your sex life, you still owe me fifty credits.”
Karl glanced at Lisa, who was staring at him. He looked back in the direction of the bartender. “What are you talking about? What’s my sex life got to do with you?”
“It has everything to do with me when you invite one of my Sexbots up to your room like you did last night.” The bartender grinned knowingly.
Karl shot Lisa a sudden look, his usually pale complexion suddenly growing warm and red. He turned to face the bartender once more.
“I didn’t have sex with that Bot last night, if that’s what you think,” he said. “I’m not some kind of sexual inadequate. I don’t need the services of a Bot like that.”
The bartender shrugged his broad shoulders. “I couldn’t give a toss what you are or what you did with the Bot. All I know is that you owe me fifty credits.”
Growing ever more humiliated and embarrassed with each passing moment, Karl patted down his jacket pockets. “I don’t have fifty credits on me. I’ll have to settle up with you later.”
“Make sure you do,” the bartender said, picking up the tray of glasses again. “Until you do, no more sex with that robot.”
Before Karl could come up with an adequate response, the bartender disappeared once more from view behind the bar.
“Dickhead,” Karl muttered under his breath. Realising that Lisa was still staring at him, he glanced at her. “It’s not what you think. I didn’t have sex with that… with a Bot.”
With a broad grin breaking out across her face, Lisa chuckled softly and said, “You don’t need to explain yourself to me, Potter. I know what guys like you get up to.”
With mouth dropping open, he watched agog as Lisa sauntered over to the foot of the stairs. “And what’s that supposed to mean?” he said chasing after her. He gripped her arm, turning her to face him. “I’m not like other guys, you know.”
“I bet you have a whole repertoire of corny chat-up lines you like using on young, unsuspecting women,” she said with a knowing smirk.
“Give me a break,” he replied with a sigh, letting go of her arm. “Is that what you really think?”
But instead of saying anything, Lisa looked at Karl hard, as if she was inspecting him somehow.
“What are you staring at?” he asked.
“I’ve not noticed it before, but you’ve got blue streaks in your hair,” she said, that perpetual smile playing across her lips.
Not wanting to confess to Lisa that he had dyed his hair, he simply shrugged and said, “So what?”
“So nothing,” she said with a shrug, turning and heading up the stairs.
Karl stood at the bottom and watched her go. Then, with a smile of his own breaking across his lips, he called after her. “Hey, I think you sat in something.”
She glanced back at him. “It’s probably oil.”
“I don’t think its oil.”
“What then?” she asked, putting one hand to her butt and glancing down over her shoulder.
“I think you must have sat in some sugar, because you do have a sweet arse.” He half smiled at her.
Faking a scowl, she looked down the stairs at him. “See? You do use corny chat-up lines just like every other guy I’ve known.”
“I wouldn’t want to disappoint you,” he said, brushing past her and heading up the stairs.
She followed him down the narrow passageway. Pushing open his bedroom door, he gestured for her to step inside. He closed the door and pointed across the poky room. “The bathroom is through that door. Clean yourself up. There are some fresh towels hanging from the rail.”
“Thanks,” she said, as she headed across the room. She dropped her rucksack at the foot of the bed before entering the bathroom.
Lisa left the door slightly ajar. From the other side of it, Karl heard her call out to him. “I don’t want to be a pain or anything, but I don’t suppose you have a clean sweater or shirt I could borrow. This one is ruined.”
“Sure, I’ll see what I can find,” Karl said, heading across the room to the locker where he’d hung his clothes.
From behind the bathroom door, he heard the sound of running water. As he searched his clothes for something suitable for Lisa to wear, he still wasn’t fully convinced that she, Sergeant Shaw, and Selina would’ve been able to clean up every spot of blood from the scene of Lucy May’s death. Taking a clean sweater from the wardrobe, he spoke to the bathroom door and said, “Something strange happened when I went back to those apartments this morning.”
“Oh, yeah? And what was that?” Lisa said from the opposite side of the door.
“I found someone hiding out in there,” he said.
“Who?” Lisa asked over the sound of running and splashing water.
“I don’t know. I didn’t get a look at their face,” Karl started to explain. “They were wearing a hood, but they saw me, all right. Whoever it was pushed me so hard I fell over the scaffolding. If I’d have lost my grip, I would have died. I chased after them, but whoever they were got away. I don’t suppose you have any idea who it might have been?”
There was a long pause from the other side of the door. Cocking his head to one side, he listened. He heard the sound of the taps being turned off. The door suddenly opened. Karl looked at Lisa, then looked away almost at once. She stood in the open doorway wearing just a white lacy bra and jeans. Without looking at her, he raised one arm, offering her the sweater. She took it from him.
“Why would I know who was at Lucy May’s apartment?” she asked, pulling the sweater over her head.
As she did so, Karl sneaked a look at her from the corner of his eye. Her breasts looked soft and round behind the lacy fabric of her bra. Her stomach was flat and smooth. The jeans she wore clung snuggly to her hips and thighs. He could see that Lisa had a nice body. He knew he had only been half joking when he’d told her she had a sweet-looking arse.
Lisa’s head reappeared through the neck of the sweater. Karl glanced away once more, but he wasn’t quick enough. Lisa had caught him sneaking a peek at her. Their eyes met briefly. Bending down, Lisa plucked up the oil-stained sweater from off the bathroom floor, and folded it over her hands.
“I just thought you might know who that stranger might have been,” Karl said, finally answering the question she had asked him.
Pulling the sweater down, Lisa stepped in front of him so he had to look at her. She looked up into his hazel eyes. “It could have been anyone in that apartment,” she said. “That hellhole is frequented by all sorts of people. We know Lucy May took drugs, so the person could have been her dealer come looking to sell more, or in search of payment for drugs that she’d already had.”
“Maybe,” Karl said.
Before he could say anything else, Lisa suddenly took a step closer and kissed him. Their lips came softly together before he stepped away.
“What did you kiss me for?” he asked, sounding surprised.
To stop you from asking any more questions, she thought to herself. Lisa shrugged. “I don’t know. It suddenly seemed like the right thing to do. I saw you looking at me as I was getting dressed, and I thought that perhaps…”
“You thought wrong,” Karl said, turning away, fearing that he had spoken a little more harshly than he had intended. But he knew Lisa was correct, he had been watching her, and he had liked what he had seen. He had also enjoyed their kiss, however brief it had been.
Looking suddenly embarrassed by her own spontaneous act, Lisa began to fold and unfold the sweater she held in her hands. Why had she kissed him? Had the sole purpose been to stop him from asking any more questions about the death of Lucy M
ay? Sergeant Shaw had instructed her to get close to him, but not too close. So why had she so suddenly kissed him? Was it because she perhaps felt an immediate connection with Karl? An instant attraction? A connection and an attraction that she knew would be frowned upon by others. She had never acted so spontaneously before. But whatever the reason, it had happened. She couldn’t take that kiss back. And despite feeling a little embarrassed, it had stopped Karl from asking her awkward questions. Questions that she didn’t want to answer.
So, wanting to keep Karl off the subject of Lucy May, and needing to find out more about him—not only so she could report back to Sergeant Shaw, but for herself too, she said, “I’m sorry for kissing you. Is there someone else… someone special in your life?”
Wanting to break the sudden tension in the air, Karl glanced back at Lisa and with a smile, he said, “Not the Sexbot, if that’s what you mean.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” She smiled back. Needing something to distract herself from looking into his eyes, Lisa stooped down and picked up her rucksack from the foot of the bed. She unzipped it, and tucked her dirty sweater inside, along with the tools she had brought with her to fix Karl’s car.
Feeling her embarrassment, and wanting to make it less so for her, Karl said, “There was someone… or at least, I think there was.”
Lisa frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Where I come from, back in London City, I used to work with a young woman called Annora Snow,” Karl started to explain. “We were partners… in more ways than one. Or, at least that’s what I think.”
“You only think you were more than partners?” Lisa said. “I’m not sure I understand.”
Leaning against the bathroom doorway and folding his arms across his chest, Karl said, “We were out on patrol when we were involved in an accident—a car crash. The next thing I know is, I’m waking up eleven months later. I’d been in a coma for almost a year. All I know is that my partner, Annora, died in that car crash. I don’t remember the crash at all, but more importantly, I don’t really remember her. It’s like there is a blank spot in my memory that I can’t reach. But I get the feeling that we were more than just partners. There was a picture of her beside my bed. Why would I put that there if we had been nothing more than work colleagues?” He looked at Lisa, searching her eyes as if she might hold the answers to his questions. As if she might be able to fill in the blanks in his memory.
“What do you remember, exactly?” Lisa asked him, clutching her rucksack to her chest. Any embarrassment she had felt at kissing Karl was now slowly ebbing away.
“Ever since I woke up from the coma, I’ve seen things,” Karl said, trying to find the right words to explain himself. “I see bright white lights before my eyes. And when they come I get headaches and nosebleeds. But more than that, in those bright lights… I see stuff.”
Lisa couldn’t help but see the haunted look that now plagued Karl’s eyes. She could see that he was troubled. “What do you see in the lights?”
Karl met her stare. He swallowed hard. “I see Annora. I see her looking in at me through a sheet of broken glass. I see her trapped in the dark. I believe she is under the car we crashed in. But I never see the images long enough to really know what it is that I am truly seeing.” Stepping away from the bathroom door and closer to Lisa, Karl added, “It’s how I think I know—believe—that, despite what Sergeant Shaw thinks, Lucy May didn’t die of any drug overdose, she was murdered.”
Wanting to know more, Lisa took a step closer toward him. “What makes you so sure?”
Karl took a deep breath before speaking again. Not knowing whether Lisa thought he was insane or not, he needed to tell someone about what he had seen in those bright white lights. And although he had only just met Lisa, like her, he thought that perhaps there was an instant connection—attraction—between them. Hoping he could trust her with his secret, Karl said, “I saw three people in that shipping container with Lucy May. Two of them held her down. I think the other one slit her throat.”
Hearing this, Lisa’s pale green eyes grew wide. “Did you see their faces? Could you identify them again?”
Karl shook his head. “No, I didn’t see their faces. All I know was that there was three of them. I think there were two males and one female.”
“What makes you think that one of them was female?” Lisa asked.
Karl looked at the way Lisa’s ponytail hung over her shoulder. He then stared at her and said, “Because one of the killers had long, blonde hair, just like you.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
The Year 1973…
Annora stood in one corner of the signal box, clutching the umbrella. Noah headed toward a series of levers that jutted from the wooden floor. Above the levers were the words Push and Pull.
“Now, let me see,” Noah said, pushing the cap he wore to the back of his head. He anxiously rubbed his hands together. “It’s been a long time since…”
“Since what?” Annora asked, as she stood in the gloom of the signal box and watched Noah eye the levers.
“Since I did this,” he said, reaching out and grabbing one of the levers. As he did so, Annora thought she heard the faint sound of music. She cocked her head and listened as the song Heroes by David Bowie seemed to seep from beyond the walls of the signal box.
“Can you hear that?” she whispered. “Do you think someone is coming?”
“The music, you mean?” Noah asked, glancing back at her, his fist still gripping the lever.
Annora nodded her head, as the music began to grow louder.
“I wouldn’t worry about the music,” Noah said. “That song can often be heard when the levers are pushed. Not sure why. Perhaps it’s bleeding through from another layer. It’s a good thing I like the song, or I would have grown sick of it by now.” Then, facing the levers again, he pushed the one he was holding.
Almost at once, a hatch fell away in the floor, near to where Annora was standing. She gasped in surprise as the square hole appeared. With speed, Noah stepped away from the levers, grabbed Annora by the hand, and wasted no time leading her down into the hole.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, as he led her down a narrow and winding staircase. She glanced back to see the hatch drop closed above her. But instead of finding herself in utter darkness below ground, there was light. It was weak, but enough for her to see Noah ahead as he led her further down the winding stone stairwell. At first, Annora couldn’t make out where the warm orange glow that lit her way was coming from. But as her eyes drew more accustomed to the gloom, she realised that the light was seeping from the walls that spiralled high above and way below her. They appeared to be covered in crystals that radiated a red glow, like embers dying in a fire.
Realising that Noah hadn’t answered her question, she asked it again, but this time with more urgency and force. “Where are you taking me?”
“You’ll see,” he said without looking back at her. His voice echoed all around the stairwell.
For what seemed like an eternity, Annora continued to follow Noah down below ground. How deep they were going, she had no idea. When she half expected to find herself at the Earth’s core, the bottom of the stairwell opened out and Noah led Annora into some kind of underground cavern. In awe and wonder, Annora looked up. The ceiling of the cavern was so high, it was almost cathedral-like in design and structure. From the ceiling high above her hung hundreds, if not thousands, of stalagmites. Just as the walls of the stairwell had glistened, so did the stalagmites that protruded from the ceiling. They gleamed, sparkled, and twinkled like giant, sharp teeth encased in jewels.
“Oh, wow,” Annora said, feeling breathless. “What is this place? Where am I?”
“You’re in The Hollows,” Noah said, face beaming with a wide smile. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
Dragging her eyes away from her astonishing surroundings, she looked at Noah. “What are The Hollows?”
“Where the Vampyrus come from,” he said,
looking small and lost in the vast underground cavern he had led Annora to.
“What are the Vampyrus?” she asked.
“Winged creatures like me,” he said. “But I don’t have time to explain now, we have a train to catch.”
Annora frowned. “Train? What train?”
“That train,” Noah said, pointing over Annora’s shoulder.
She spun around. This time she was so shocked by what she saw, that, despite her mouth falling open, she was unable to make any sound. With eyes wide, she watched a giant black steam engine come screaming out of a tunnel cut into the wall of the cavern. It was only now that she saw the gleaming silver tracks that cut across the floor of the underground chamber. The very walls and the stalagmites that hung above began to shake and jitter. Several of the stalagmites broke free and came crashing down. They shattered into thousands of shards, which sprayed up into the air like glass that had been sprinkled with glitter. The cavern became a cacophony of sound as the steam train roared from the tunnel, thick streams of black smoke belching from its funnel, steam hissing and spitting from beneath its giant wheels. The train made a booming noise as if it were a living creature. The noise was similar to that of a whale cutting a course across the ocean.
The train began to slow before coming to a thunderous stop just feet from where Noah and Annora stood. Annora waved steam and smoke away from her eyes as she marvelled at the giant beast of a machine.
“It’s beautiful, don’t you think?” Noah smiled, puffing out his chest with pride.
“Yes, it is,” Annora whispered in awe and a little fear at the colossal machine. She thought the train had a menacing look about it. The giant black cow catcher that jutted from the front of the engine looked like a claw, she thought. The engine was long, black, and sleek. The stalagmites that hung from above reflected back off its gleaming and highly polished surface. Along the side on the engine, and stencilled in silver, was the train’s name: Scorpion Steam. And as she stood and continued to marvel at the train, she thought that perhaps it did bear an uncanny resemblance to a giant scorpion. Silver rings circled the train’s smoking funnel. The carriage door handles and window frames were also made from silver. Annora had never seen such a train before.
