by Lucy Inglis
‘You’ve just created this place?’
‘Yes. It’s less than a week old. We’re moving here to Cripplegate from our old headquarters. We move every couple of years.’
‘The Cripplegate dragon, it was the first to wake,’ Lily murmured to Regan.
Her mother shook her head. ‘It’s something more than that. Eldritche activity is exploding and we don’t know why. Nothing we’ve done so far has created a surge of Chaos like London is currently experiencing. Not even when their father died.’ She nodded towards Regan. ‘The dragons are waking because, as of three days ago, the City has been under siege.’
Regan stepped forward. ‘My father. What about my family?’
Caitlin’s eyes closed again, as if she were in pain. ‘I’m sorry. Your father breached the facility. We had no choice. He was destroying everything we’d worked for.’
‘They killed him? How?’
‘Radiation chamber. All blood products are tested using radiation. It exposes weaknesses and can be used to fix the properties, or enhance them—’
‘And my brother?’ Regan’s voice was impossible to read as he cut her off.
‘He joined the programme as soon as he was acclimatised. He’s exceptional. The best operative anyone’s ever seen. Espionage, tech, medicine. He’s unbeatable. Been in the field for five years already. He was too young, but we couldn’t hold him back. He’d already finished his traditional education.’
Lily looked over at Regan, but his face was unreadable.
‘He’s running the new project,’ Caitlin managed, gasping on the last word. ‘We’ve been working together, but he will have to start reporting directly to the Ministry now. They know I haven’t got long.’
‘No!’ Lily burst out.
Her mother tried to get to her feet. ‘I’m keeping you. I need to go back. But I’m trying to tell you.’ She took a breath. ‘They don’t know, but I think – the increase in the Chaos that’s coming – it’s the two of you. It’s because you’ve met. We thought it was nonsense. A fairy story. It . . . I think it’s true.’
Regan watched her, judgement in his eyes. ‘The things I see, every night . . . they’re not fairy tales.’
‘You knew about the prophecy?’ Lily burst out, tears in her eyes.
Her mother looked between them both. ‘I didn’t think it could be true—’
‘So you know the war is coming, then?’ Regan said, his voice flat.
Caitlin looked down and nodded. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘And we predict – well, Ellis predicts – he’s been tracking all the incidents reported to us in a computer program, and devised an algorithm to calculate when it would happen – that the rise in Chaos tonight will be the tipping point. The Ancients will start to wake.’
‘But how can I restore the balance, or whatever it is I have to do to end this?’ Lily asked urgently.
Her mother shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’ She paused, taking another laboured breath. ‘But I have an idea what it might be.’
‘So tell us,’ Regan urged.
‘Tomorrow we present our findings to the Ministry. If we’ve proved, irrevocably, that Lily can harness the qualities of the Eldritche and transmit them to humans, Operation Harvest will roll out across the country and –’ her chest heaved –‘in the various nations where we have interests. Africa, some other developing nations. The hunt for Type H girls will commence.’
‘We’re going to be lab rats?’ Lily’s voice was filled with outrage.
‘I’m sorry. I’m here to warn you. There’s a conference being held in Docklands at the beginning of next week. It’s called FutureMed. All of the multinational companies attending are aware that the Ministry is on the verge of a breakthrough. On Monday, the Ministry will make a presentation and reveal its findings. The rest of the week is supposed to be a conference, but it’s not. It’s an auction.’
‘They’re going to sell me?’ Lily said, backing into Regan. He put his arms around her.
‘And girls like you. When, and if, they find any others. At the same time, a wholesale round-up of the Eldritche will begin. There’s already a holding facility in place just outside London. There, they’ll be tested for potential—’
‘Potential?’ Lily was aghast.
‘Let me finish,’ Caitlin panted. ‘Transmittable qualities, stability, IQ.’
Lily looked between her and Regan. ‘How many people are we talking about? How many Eldritche are there in London?’
Regan shrugged.
‘We monitor just over seven thousand Eldritche in London alone,’ said Lily’s mother.
‘You’re going to round up seven thousand people, just because they don’t fit in?’ Lily snapped. ‘And use them to make expensive drugs that will only be available to those who can afford them?’
‘Don’t be naive, Lily. Genetic engineering is rife in the Far East. Africa is the largest medical testing ground for big pharma in the world. I thought I could make a difference here, but it wasn’t meant to be like this.’ Lily’s mother put a hand to her head. ‘You have to believe me.’
‘I believed you were dead. That’s what I believed. My whole life.’
Caitlin reached out a hand to Regan, speaking only to him. ‘Listen to me. Just listen. I thought that if they had me, my work, they would allow her to live a normal life, or as normal as it could be. They lied. It’s all been a lie. Please, take her away, keep her safe. If anyone can, you can. You’re resourceful enough to go anywhere.’
Regan said nothing, his grey eyes unreadable.
‘But what about you? You’re not going back, surely?’ Lily shook her head.
‘I must. Lily, my time between transfusions is so limited now. They manage it deliberately. I need injections and treatments every few hours. It keeps me dependent on them.’
‘And working for them.’ Regan’s voice was hard.
‘Help her!’ Lily exclaimed, turning to him. ‘Help her like you helped me.’
‘They’ve already tried that, I’m sure,’ Regan said.’
Caitlin nodded. Her breathing was shallow. ‘It worked for a while. For a long time. A mixture – your blood and Ellis’s. But it always wears off, and I’m too weak now. And a straight transfusion would kill me. Please, you need to go.’
‘Mum, you can’t go back! I won’t let you! What about Dad?’
She smiled sadly. ‘Your father believes I am long dead, Lily. The woman I was is dead. Let it stay like that.’
‘How can I?!’
Regan caught her hand. ‘Lily, we have to go. They’ll be here any second. Your mother’s right.’
‘One last thing.’ Caitlin’s voice was almost a rasp. ‘Ellis. He watched your parents die. His life has been one long series of tests, tasks and experiments. The Agency, they use him relentlessly. He was just a little boy. I tried to stand in for his mother. He needs friends. Don’t judge him. Now go.’
‘No!’ Lily urged.
Regan caught her wrist.
‘I’m staying,’ she argued.
He pulled her to him. She struggled, but it was impossible to resist.
Caitlin took a grateful breath. ‘Thank you. Make her go. Keep her safe.’
Regan hesitated. ‘I thought you wouldn’t want that. I’m everything the Agency is trying to use up and then eradicate.’
‘Never. Nothing is that simple. Go! Take her with you. Get out now.’
He hauled Lily back into the corridor, then through the giant hall towards the lift, even as she kicked and struggled. He held her against him inside the metal box.
‘Get off me! We have to take her with us.’
‘No. She has to go back. And we need time.’
She was still struggling when they arrived in the church tower. Outside, the street was empty, apart from a police riot van with a driver sitting nearby. He wasn’t looking at them, but reading a newspaper. Regan pulled the door closed behind him and tugged up his hood to obscure his face. He held Lily firmly by the hand. She was
no longer struggling.
‘Time for what?’ she asked as they crossed the road, walking south back into the heart of the City.
‘Time to work out how to stop this. And –’ he glanced over his shoulder –‘time to lose the two agents who are right behind us. We need to get somewhere public. Find as many people as possible. Now.’
A moment later, they were heading for St Paul’s.
‘But if they know we were with her, we need to go back. She’ll get into trouble!’
‘Going back won’t help your mother,’ he said, his hand tightening on hers. ‘She took a calculated risk.’
‘But—’
‘They’re still behind us,’ he said. ‘Two men on foot.’
Lily’s head turned.
‘And there’s a van on the road, like the other one. Just keep walking.’ He walked between her and the road, herding her further into the pavement.
‘What are we going to do?’
‘I’ll think of something. We need to stay in plain sight for now.’
The west door of St Paul’s Cathedral rose up before them, vast and beautiful. It was teeming with people walking to and fro and waiting for their friends on the huge set of steps.
‘Lily!’
Lily turned. Her friend Sam was running down the steps. Tall, with masses of thick brown hair, she enveloped Lily in a warm hug.
‘You changed your mind! Are you coming round the cathedral with us? We can get coffee afterwards.’
‘Yes,’ said Regan definitely. ‘Let’s do that.’ He put his hand in the small of Lily’s back, pushing her forward unceremoniously.
Sam looked up at him, eyes wide, as if seeing him for the first time, as if she hadn’t known he was there. Although Sam was tall, he was still taller. Lily turned hurriedly, taking his hand and pulling him towards the steps. ‘Sam, this is Regan. Regan, Sam.’
‘Hi,’ he said, flashing her a brief white grin. Sam was walking up the steps sideways, still staring.
At the top of the stairway, a dozen of Lily’s classmates were gathered, chatting in the freezing air. The conversation died as Lily and Regan arrived. Most of the girls stared openly. Most of the boys sneaked glances at him while pretending he wasn’t there. Regan appeared not to notice any of it, looking out towards the square. Inside, he kept hold of Lily’s hand as they passed through the ticket barriers, pulling folded notes from his hip pocket and handing them over.
‘How much?!’ he said in her ear as she picked up the tickets in her free hand.
‘Probably a bargain if it means we stay alive for another hour.’
‘We’re not staying here for an hour,’ he muttered. ‘And who are these people?’
‘I go to school with them.’
He rolled his eyes.
Sam was standing at the edge of the group. Most of them were still staring at Regan. As the others dispersed a little into the huge church, Sam approached them cautiously. Regan was looking over his shoulder towards the doors. His tattoos were stark in the vee of his collar. Sam’s eyes widened again.
‘So, how did you and Lily meet?’ she asked brightly.
He pushed his hood back from his dark head and looked down at her. ‘I saved her life.’
Sam’s mouth fell open. Lily elbowed him. ‘He’s such a dramatist,’ she told Sam. ‘He saved me from a dog. Outside his work.’
‘And what do you do?’
‘Security.’ He glanced over his shoulder towards the doors again.
‘Do they need advice here?’ she teased.
Looking at her gorgeous friend flirting mischievously with Regan, Lily felt an unwelcome pang of jealousy. Don’t be ridiculous, she scolded herself, nerves still jittering.
‘Everyone does.’ He smiled. ‘They just don’t always know it.’
‘So, what advice would you give me?’ Sam teased.
‘Always look before you leap,’ he teased back and squeezed Lily’s hand. ‘Come on, Lily, let’s look at this place.’
She tried to pull her hand away but he held on. They wandered the cathedral, tagging along with Lily’s school friends, who eyed Regan curiously but mainly stayed away. Except Sam, who walked with them most of the time, making it impossible to discuss what had just happened with her mother and the fact that at least two government agents were trailing them. Matt MacGregor, Lily’s biology-class partner, also hung back, making sarcastic comments that were out of character. Sam chatted animatedly to Regan, who responded in a friendly, if abrupt way, keeping firm hold of Lily’s hand. He ignored Matt.
Then Laura Mason wandered over, flicking her long blonde hair and spinning a mint on the tip of her tongue provocatively as usual. ‘Hi,’ she flashed Regan a huge grin. ‘I’m Laura.’
He smiled. ‘Hi, Laura.’
‘Cool tattoos.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Have they got meanings?’
He shrugged. ‘They meant something at the time.’
‘That one.’ She pointed to his chest, where the unbuttoned neck of his top let the flame tattoo show across his collarbone. She raised an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth turned up, poking her tongue through the centre of the mint. ‘Is it . . . all over?’
There was a silence.
‘Yes. It is,’ Lily said, irritated. Then she realised everyone was staring at her. She turned bright red. Laura blinked.
Lily tugged herself free and walked away, examining Wellington’s tomb with great care. Sam came over, unable to control her giggles. ‘Sorry, but that was so funny.’
Lily folded her arms. ‘Not that funny,’ she muttered.
‘Hey, what’s the matter?’ Sam chucked her lightly on the shoulder.
Jaw set, Lily looked away. ‘Nothing. Just not having the best day, that’s all.’
Sam gave her a hug and a bolstering smile. ‘Well, FYI, when you said you’d met someone, I thought it was going to be some bionic geek you’d met at the library, not a smoking hot—’
‘Oh, don’t.’ Lily rolled her eyes. ‘He’ll hear you.’
‘He can’t hear me. He’s miles away.’
‘Don’t count on that,’ Lily grumbled.
‘So, he saved you from a dog? That’s so cool.’
‘It wasn’t, not really. It was pretty awful actually.’
‘Is that what happened to your face?’
‘Oh . . . er. Yes.’
‘Still,’ Sam flexed her biceps, ‘heroics are seriously hot. Where does he live?’
‘Not far from here.’
‘Great! Maybe a few of us can go back to his place afterwards.’
Lily glanced towards Regan. Their eyes met briefly, then he turned away as Laura caught his arm. Lily shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. Like I said, he’s kind of private. And there’s stuff, things, going on.’
‘Oh, okay.’ Sam looked a little hurt.
Lily put out her hand. ‘Don’t take it like that. He’s just . . .’
She shrugged. ‘No, I get it. I’d want to be on my own with him too. Or at least, I think I would.’ She looked over towards where Regan was listening to Laura, his head cocked on one side, grey eyes on her. ‘He’s pretty intense.’
‘You could say that,’ Lily agreed awkwardly.
‘How do he and Ed get on?’
Lily looked at her friend. ‘Dad’s managing to stay fairly chilled, considering he wants to lock me in the flat right now.’ And he doesn’t even know what’s really happening.
‘Come on, let’s get over there before Laura actually tries to see this tattoo.’ Sam turned back and whispered, ‘Does he really have it all over?’
Lily ducked her head and nodded.
‘Good work.’ Sam nudged her shoulder, smirking.
Back on the edge of the group, Regan was visibly tired of being sociable. He pulled a tight smile at Sam and Lily. ‘This is what you like doing on your time off?’ he said. ‘Coming to places like this?’
Sam shook her head. ‘We’re not that square. We’ve got a project based on
the history of the City. Today we’re coming here, then going to see the London Stone on Cannon Street and the Bevis Marks Synagogue.’
‘What’s the project?’
‘It’s about the different types of religions here. Christianity and Judaism and – well, no one really knows what the stone’s for, I suppose. They say it was part of a temple that was here way before the Romans, Brutus of Troy or something. Old gods and all that classical stuff. Anyway, we’re going to look at it and write about it.’
Regan looked down at Lily. ‘You have to do this too?’
‘Yes, but I haven’t even looked at it yet. Heavy week helping Dad,’ she explained.
He nodded, looking nonplussed, then glanced towards the doors again.
‘You don’t like it here?’ Sam looked around at the milling tourists and the wedding-cake interior of the cathedral.
‘Churches aren’t for people like me,’ he said after a while.
‘Are you an atheist?’
Regan looked at her for a long time. Then he looked down at Lily. She bit her lips together and looked away, stifling a giggle. He burst out laughing, his joyous boy’s laugh. ‘No, no. I’m not an atheist. At least, I don’t think I am.’
‘What’s so funny?’
Lily shook her head. ‘Nothing. Honestly, Sam.’
Matt rejoined them and the four of them walked the cathedral in companionable silence, although Lily knew Regan’s eyes remained on the door at all times. In a corner he leant down and spoke quietly to her. ‘They’re waiting outside, on the taxi rank. And they’re covering the other exit.’
‘What are we going to do?’ she whispered.
‘It’s fine. There are ways out of here.’
‘How?’
‘In the crypt, there’s a—’
‘Coffee shop!’ Sam appeared behind them.
Regan raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s what I meant to say.’
Sam grinned. ‘Shall we go? I think everyone’s pretty much down there already.’
Regan looked at Lily and shrugged. ‘Okay.’
‘I don’t think I can get used to this new easy-going you,’ she muttered as they went down the dark stairs into the basement crypt.
