‘It’s the hose, it’s hard to breathe, isn’t it?’
‘No—it’s not that.’ He ripped off the mask and hose and threw them away from him. ‘I didn’t think I could do that.’
‘Well, you did,’ Essie said.
For a moment longer he didn’t move, still staring into the water. Graham flew down beside him and rubbed his wet leg with his beak. ‘Silly Pod. No more water now.’
Pod smiled at him and stroked his blue head. ‘Dead right. No more water.’
The old sports shoe factory
‘I think we’re lost,’ Annalie said.
They were still trying to find the canal. It had taken them quite some time to get out of the market: the passages between the stalls were narrow and crooked, so they kept on walking in circles, and they’d had to keep hiding from Admiralty marines. When they did finally manage to get out, they’d found themselves lost in a maze of streets that all seemed to look the same. Annalie’s shell was less useful than it might have been elsewhere: the maps it contained had never been updated for these broken-down towns, so they showed streets and buildings that might have existed forty years ago but did not necessarily exist now—although some did, just to make it even more confusing.
‘Treat it like an orienteering exercise,’ Will said, grumpy and frustrated. ‘Take a compass heading and we’ll find it that way.’
Although the shell’s map was less than helpful about the streets or the route, it could show them where they were, and where the canal was. (They assumed that the canal, at least, had not moved.) If they worked out the right compass heading and just kept walking in that direction, they knew they’d eventually hit the canal. They began to walk.
‘Spinner still hasn’t called us back,’ Will said.
‘I know,’ Annalie said. ‘Typical, huh?’
‘What do you reckon his excuse’ll be this time?’
Just as Annalie was about to say something on Spinner’s behalf, her shell was snatched out of her hand. Annalie was so shocked that for a moment she couldn’t even react, but Will’s reflexes were quicker. He took off after the thief, roaring in fury, and Annalie hurried after him, her heart pounding. If they lost that shell they lost their ability to contact Spinner and their friends back on the Sunfish. They had to get it back.
The thief was a boy, younger than themselves, quick and determined; but Will was quick and determined too, and extremely competitive. He shouldered and elbowed his way down the street, ignoring shouts and protests, bearing implacably down on the thief until at last he hurled himself onto the boy and knocked him flat. Annalie ran up to see her brother wrenching the shell from the boy’s hand as he held him down.
‘That’s not yours,’ he said furiously. People were already turning to stare, questioning, looking hostile. Somebody shouted something at Will.
‘This is ours!’ he said. ‘We were just trying to get it back!’
More people were gathering around, accusing and gesticulating; to Will’s fury, they seemed to think he was the villain. The boy, taking no chances, scampered away into the crowd.
Annalie grabbed Will and tugged him out of the knot of people, apologising as she went. ‘We’re sorry, we don’t want any trouble, we’re going now. Come on, Will!’
They pushed their way politely but firmly through the gathering crowd, knowing they couldn’t afford to attract the attention of local law enforcement or those Admiralty marines. Angry people shouted and pointed fingers at them, but their interest in the situation seemed to be waning and they managed to escape without anyone placing them under a citizen’s arrest.
‘Didn’t you bring a real compass?’ Will asked.
Annalie had; she pulled it out of her pocket and showed it to him.
‘Then what were you using your shell for?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know. I didn’t think,’ Annalie said. She was still rattled by how close she’d come to losing it.
Will shoved the shell back into her hand. ‘Keep it out of sight until we absolutely have to use it,’ he said.
They followed the compass’s wavering needle through streets that were rapidly growing darker. The sun had almost set and this town, unlike the modern cities of Dux or the northlands, wasn’t equipped with conveniences like streetlights. Individual shops and houses were strung with lights, but there were plenty of pools of darkness, and the streets were rough and uneven. They kept going, anxious and a little impatient at how long it was taking to find their way, but then a smell hit them: a noxious sewery smell of garbage, excrement and rotten things.
‘You reckon that’s the canal?’ Annalie said.
‘Reckon it might be,’ Will said.
Gagging a little at the smell, they kept on, and soon they reached the canal. Houses backed onto it; some of it was fenced and some of it was not; garbage floated by. It was a truly revolting waterway.
‘So we found it,’ Will said. ‘Now what?’
‘We’re supposed to cross the canal at the third bridge. Then there’s some waste ground we have to cross to get to where Vesh lives.’
They walked along the bank of the canal, which was littered with ankle-turning junk. A bridge loomed up out of the darkness.
‘Shall we try this one?’ Annalie asked.
Will was already halfway over it.
They found themselves in a vast, dark stretch of open ground. A few lights shone in the distance; they walked towards them, hoping this was the factory district where Vesh lived. The very last of the daylight was fading from the sky now, just a hint of an electric-blue glow, but at ground level no light remained. They walked over ground that gave slightly and sometimes squelched under their feet, acridly salty. The factory district, despite the lights that they could see here and there, was very dark. Clearly the factories no longer operated at night, if they operated at all. Their instructions hadn’t mentioned whether these factories actually made anything, or whether they were ghost infrastructure left over from more prosperous times.
‘How are we going to find a big shoe on a pole?’ Will said as they got closer. ‘It’s so dark.’
‘Maybe we should wait until the moon comes up,’ Annalie said.
‘That’s not for hours,’ Will said.
‘Maybe when we get closer—’
Annalie didn’t get to finish her sentence, for at that moment there was an almighty boom. The sky over the factory district lit up as the echo of the explosion rolled out across the fields and a huge fireball rolled up into the darkening sky, followed by a plume of smoke. Something began to glow, brighter and brighter. One of the factories was burning.
‘Look!’ Annalie said.
Silhouetted above the flames, she could see a pole thrusting up above the other buildings, and it had a shape on it that could well have been a giant sports shoe. As they watched, sparks landed on the shoe and blossomed suddenly into flame. The fire took hold of the shoe in an instant, burning fast and bright until it was consumed in a great rush. In moments there was nothing left but a tiny little stub at the top of the pole; then even that fell off and was gone.
‘I have a bad feeling about this,’ Will said, and began to run towards the factories.
Annalie chased after him. ‘Will, wait! It’s too dangerous!’
‘Don’t be stupid!’ Will said furiously, and kept running.
Annalie knew, just as Will did, that the conjunction of Spinner and Vesh, the Admiralty pursuit ship, and the fire could not be an accident. They ran towards the flames, emerging from the salty field and into the streets again, and as they got closer they were caught up in a great press of humanity, some coming to help, others coming simply to gawk. The light from the fire burned brighter and brighter as they hurried through streets and alleyways, through the huge combustible old properties, until they reached the place they were looking for. The old sports shoe factory was alight. Huge sheets of flame rose from every window, generating a black pall of choking smoke.
Will and Annalie stopped and stared at t
he destruction in horror. Around them, people were trying to organise a bucket brigade to throw water on the flames, but it was pointless in the face of such a vast conflagration. The heat was so intense no one could get close enough to make a difference, and the smoke seemed to burn your eyes, your throat, even your skin, in a way that made you suspect this was not just ordinary smoke.
‘What was Vesh’s specialty?’ Will asked.
‘Chemistry,’ Annalie said.
Another fireball belched through the roof. Will grabbed Annalie and they ran back to what they hoped was a safer distance.
‘What if they were inside?’ Will asked.
Annalie couldn’t answer. If they had been inside, there was no hope for them.
‘Maybe the Admiralty arrested them,’ Annalie said, ‘and they’re just burning the place down to teach them a lesson.’
They stood in silence for a while longer, mesmerised and appalled by the flames. ‘Let’s go round the perimeter,’ Will suggested finally. ‘Maybe they escaped. Maybe we’ll see them. They can’t be that hard to find, right?’
‘Look,’ Annalie said.
Marines, spread out along the streets, watched the crowd intently. Were they looking for someone? Or were they simply trying to stop anyone from doing something to put out the fire?
‘Let’s just go,’ Annalie said, but Will could not be deterred.
‘We can find them,’ he said. ‘We just have to try.’
Will kept going, and Annalie followed, grief already starting to spill over inside her. They had asked Spinner to wait, and he had waited, and now . . .
She pulled her shell from her inside pocket, just in case. No message. Nothing.
Of course there wasn’t.
Suddenly someone bumped into her. Shocked, she looked up to see a Brundisan woman staring at her intently. As Annalie opened her mouth to speak, the woman pressed something into her hand, closing Annalie’s fingers tightly around it. Then she vanished into the crowd.
It was a piece of paper. Annalie looked at it, then chased after Will.
‘Someone just gave me this! It could be a message!’
They stepped into the shadow of a doorway and Annalie unrolled the piece of paper. Her shell had a torch in it; she shone it on the note.
‘It’s gibberish,’ Will said.
‘It’s code,’ Annalie said.
Quickly she snapped a picture of it and sent it to Essie with a message: Decipher this. Use the same key as the scientist list. Hurry.
Essie’s reply came straight back: Will do.
‘Who gave you this?’ Will asked.
‘A local woman.’
‘Did she say anything?’
‘Nope.’
‘Why didn’t you stop her? She could have told us something!’ Will snapped.
‘It all happened so fast,’ Annalie protested. ‘She crashed into me, she gave me the message, then she was gone. I couldn’t even tell you what she looked like.’
‘But if he gave her this message she must know where he is.’
‘I know! I’m sorry, all right? Maybe the answers are in the message.’
‘They’d better be,’ Will said. He stepped out into the street again, staring at the crowd, still hoping a familiar face would come by. Annalie stood beside him, fear and anxiety twisting in her stomach.
Her shell rang and she snatched it up.
‘It’s me,’ Essie said. ‘I’ve decoded the message. It says: “The Admiralty are coming. Vesh and I are leaving. Do not come after me.” That part’s underlined. He says we need to go back to Dux and wait for him there and he’ll be in touch.’
‘Go home? Like hell!’ Will stormed.
‘Wait, what is this message, what’s going on?’ Essie said.
‘I’ll tell you later,’ Annalie said. ‘We’re coming back.’ Ignoring Essie’s protests, she hung up.
‘So close!’ Will groaned. ‘I can’t believe it! How can we have missed him again?’
‘I know,’ Annalie said, ‘but this is good news. They must have got advance warning somehow. He was able to send this note. Hopefully that means they got away.’
‘Yeah, you’re right,’ Will said, his brow unknotting slightly.
‘Let’s get back to the Sunfish,’ Annalie said, ‘and work out what we’re going to do next.’
They were squelching their way back across the wasteland when the shell rang again. Annalie whipped it out; it was Spinner’s number.
‘Where are you?’ she cried. ‘What happened?’
‘You know my friend Beckett,’ Spinner said. His voice sounded tired. ‘He never gives up.’
‘We’re here in Brundisi,’ Annalie said. ‘We saw the fire, we thought you were killed.’
‘I’m fine,’ Spinner said. ‘We got out before that happened. But listen, you two have got to stop this now. It’s getting too dangerous. You have to go home, now, while you still can.’
‘But Spinner, we’re right here!’ Will jumped in. ‘You can’t be that far away, not yet! We can come and meet you. We want to come with you!’
‘You can’t go where I’m going,’ Spinner said.
‘Why not?’ Annalie asked. ‘Where’s that?’
‘Sundia,’ Spinner said.
‘But—haven’t they closed their borders?’ Will said. ‘I thought no one could go to Sundia.’
‘That’s right,’ Spinner said.
‘Then how’re you getting there?’
‘There are ways,’ Spinner said. ‘But it’s not easy.’
‘Just let us come and meet you,’ Will said. ‘Just to see you. Please?’
‘I can’t let you,’ Spinner said. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘But we miss you,’ Annalie said, tears choking her. ‘We just want to see you.’
‘I want to see you too,’ Spinner said, his voice thick with emotion. ‘But it’s impossible. Not right now, anyway. I promise, at the other end of this, we will be together. I’ll find a way. But you’ve got to promise me you’ll go home and stay safe. Promise me!’
Will and Annalie looked at each other.
‘I promise we’ll stay safe,’ Annalie said.
‘Will?’ Spinner prompted.
‘Yeah. I promise,’ Will said, grudgingly.
‘I’m sorry about this. All of this,’ Spinner said. ‘I love you. I hope you know that.’
‘I love you too, Spinner,’ Annalie said, the tears spilling down her cheeks.
‘Me too,’ Will said.
‘I’ve got to go,’ Spinner said. ‘Keep your promise now, okay?’
‘Okay,’ Annalie said.
And then he was gone.
Departures
‘They’re on their way back,’ Essie reported, as a message from Annalie flashed up on her shell.
Graham put his head up eagerly and crooned.
‘Is everything okay? Have they got him?’ Pod asked.
Essie looked at Graham and shook her head sorrowfully.
‘No Spinner?’ Graham said.
‘I’m sorry,’ Essie said. ‘Annalie will explain.’
Graham ruffled his feathers up miserably and turned his face to the wall.
Pod looked at Essie, in a what should I say? sort of way. But Essie had nothing to offer. They could promise—again—that Spinner would be back soon, but after a while those kinds of assurances wouldn’t even satisfy a toddler, and Graham was older than either of them.
‘I’m sorry,’ Pod said.
‘Let’s go up and see if we can spot them,’ Essie said quietly.
They went up on deck. The moon was up, casting a silver trail across the water.
‘I thought this time . . .’ Essie said, but went no further.
‘At least they spoke to him,’ Pod said.
They lapsed into silence, but it was a silence that was quickly broken by another sound. A dinghy was purring up the channel.
‘Is that them?’ Pod said.
It was too dark to see clearly, but as the dinghy came closer
they could just make out three figures sitting in it.
Essie peered at the occupants, trying to penetrate the darkness through sheer force of will. ‘Maybe it is them! Maybe they found him after all!’
But as the dinghy came closer to the mouth of the channel it veered well away from them and steered out towards the open ocean.
‘It can’t be them,’ Essie said, disappointed.
Then a surprising thing happened. The dinghy cut its engine and came to a stop. There was a pause. And then the surface of the ocean began to seethe. The water was moving, as if something was stirring down below. It moved and it churned and then lifted and broke, and something came rising up out of the water, something long and metal and gleaming.
It was a submarine.
Essie and Pod looked at it in astonishment. ‘Is that a pirate submarine?’ Essie asked.
‘Could be Admiralty,’ Pod said. ‘But it seems a bit sneaky for them. Why wouldn’t they just do it in plain sight?’
A hatch flipped open in the top of the submarine and someone stepped out. The dinghy started up again and curved around to stop beside the hatch. One by one, two male passengers got out of the dinghy, climbed up a ladder, stepped into the hatch, and disappeared inside the submarine. The driver of the dinghy passed up two duffel bags, then he waved to the man on the submarine, and drove away. The submarine stayed where it was for a few minutes longer while the hatch was locked down, then a horn sounded and the submarine submerged, leaving behind nothing but a swirl of white water that quickly dissipated, leaving no sign that it had ever been there.
Promises
Half an hour later, another dinghy came up the channel. This time they had no difficulty recognising it.
‘So we’re going home, then?’ Essie said, when Will and Annalie had filled them in on the conversation. They were all sitting around the saloon table; it was after midnight.
‘Not necessarily,’ Will said.
‘I thought you promised Spinner you would.’
‘We promised to stay safe,’ Will said. ‘We never said anything about going home.’
‘You really want to keep going?’ Pod said.
The Castle in the Sea: Quest of the Sunfish 2 Page 21
