by John Booth
Laura said nothing, but she gave a small incline to her head, which McBride took as evidence that she understood her choices. The three left the dining room and began the long walk through the castle to Kemp’s laboratory.
Michael Hart approached the reception for Military Magic Department 2 with a certain amount of trepidation. It was his wife, Ethel, who had put him up to it and he was already regretting agreeing to her ever more strident demands.
Ever since the strange telegram arrived, telling them that Tricky was safe she had been nagging him to go to MM2 and find out what was going on. The long period when they had heard nothing from Tricky had been disheartening enough, but now to be informed he was safe, but travelling with agents of MM3… Well, it was enough to turn his wife’s hair white with worry.
He took off his cap as he entered the large and grand lobby that served as a reception area for Military Magic. Ever since Tricky was found to possess magical talent, Michael had worried about the possibility of having to come down to this building. It was like visiting a police station, only much worse.
“Excuse me, miss,” he said to the stern looking woman at the desk, “I’ve come about me boy like, Tricky…, er I mean David Hart.”
The woman’s eyes widened for a second. When she pulled herself together she stood up and came to his side.
“If you would care to come with me, sir,” she said quietly. As Michael followed her out of the room, he wondered if this was a normal treatment for visitors. The journey was complicated and took them to another floor and a different part of the building. Eventually, he was deposited at a luxurious office where a kindly looking woman sat behind a desk.
“Michael Hart,” the woman who had brought him said quietly and then left him standing there as though that was explanation enough.
“Good morning,” Belinda said in a kindly manner and stood up from her desk. “I apologize for the mystery, but all will become clear very shortly. If you would care to come with me to Sir Ernest Trelawney’s office? He has been looking forward to meeting you ever since the role of your son in this affair became known.”
Belinda led a very confused father into an even more luxurious office where Michael saw a thin elderly man in elegant clothes sat behind an impressive mahogany desk. Trelawney stood as Michael entered and ushered him to sit in a stuffed leather chair on one side of the coffee table. Michael had never sat in such an elegant chair before and he worried that his trousers might leave marks on it. Trelawney sat in a chair on the other side of the table.
“I shall bring some tea for us, sir,” Belinda said and vanished back the way she had come.
Trelawney smiled at Michael in a warm and kindly manner. “This must be confusing for you. I know this might sound like a strange request, but would you mind telling me how your son came to be known to Military Magic.”
“Of course, my lord,” Michael said quickly. “I’m sorry if Tricky ‘as been making a nuisance of ‘imself, it’s in the boy’s nature, sir.”
Trelawney stopped Michael’s rush of words with a calming gesture.
“My name is Ernest and I would be honored if you would use it. Would you have any objection if I was to call you Michael?”
Michael shook his head, astonished that a knight of the realm would want to be on first name terms with him.
Trelawney looked gravely at Michael.
“Your son, David, who I believe everybody calls Tricky, is not in any trouble with me, though he is putting himself in grave danger for Her Majesty as we speak. He is a brave and loyal young man. For reasons I will explain soon; I would like you to tell me his story. How he came to the notice of Military Magic and who came to visit you?”
Michael felt worried on the news that Tricky was in some sort of trouble, just as Ethel had feared, but he felt he had to follow the gentleman’s instructions before asking further about his son.
“’E did the tests like everybody else, but we’ve known ‘e ‘ad gifts from when ‘e was three or four years old. E’ could always find anything lost in the ‘ouse. ‘E could see what was inside drawers without opening them.
“Mister Snood came to see us about six months ago. ‘E said Tricky ‘ad unusual magical skills and that meant ‘e ‘ad to go to a special school, and that we might not ‘ear from ‘im for a year or two. His mother, Ethel my wife, that is, was very upset by that and she said, begging your pardon for my language, sir, that Military Magic could rot in ‘ell before she would allow them to steal our child away from us.”
“Mister Snood said ‘e understood her worries, but such children as Tricky were important to the future of the Empire, and that ‘er Majesty and Prince Albert ‘ad approved this school that Tricky would go to. ‘E said that ‘e would guarantee we would ‘ear from Tricky within the year. Then ‘e gave us fifty pounds. Not that Ethel wanted us to take ‘is money, but fifty pounds is over two years’ wages for a man such as me, sir.”
Michael took a deep breath before continuing. Belinda arrived with a tray and she served tea for the three of them while Michael collected his thoughts.
“It was another man came to collect Tricky for MM2. ‘E said ‘is name was Mister Smith, sir.”
“Could you describe him for us?” Trelawney asked. “Later on that is, not now.”
Michael nodded. He could see Mister Smith in his mind’s eye with no trouble at all. This man had taken Tricky away from them and he would never forget what he looked like.
“Then we got a telegraph message, sir. First people in our street to receive one, we were. It caused a bit of a commotion when it came, I can tell you.”
Michael reached into his pocket and held out the telegram in question. Trelawney took it from him and scanned it. He passed it over to Belinda who read it before returning it to Michael.
“Well Ethel said ‘that’s strange like’ and that I should go to MM2 and ‘ave it out with them, as it was clear that Tricky were at no special school like we’d been told.”
Trelawney gave Michael a sober look.
“Tricky was taken by criminals who had managed to worm their way into Military Magic. One of them is a man I would have trusted with my life,”
His eyes had taken on a bleak appearance that made Michael fear for his son’s life.
“We discovered that this man was a traitor and followed him to a house in Crouch End. When he left, we raided the house using a contingent of the Navy. Officers we could trust were not a part of this conspiracy.”
“The people are being held under house arrest, though I must confess we have not yet managed to get any of the ringleaders to talk. However, a maid has proved very helpful to us and has been much more forthcoming. She identified your son as one of the people held in the house and she knew he met up with our agents. She had hidden a program from the auction they held, which allowed us to identify the people being sold.”
“They sold our Tricky?” Michael asked in outrage.
“No, he managed to escape before the auction took place.”
“That sounds like our Tricky, sir,” Michael said with quiet satisfaction.
Trelawney nodded.
“Your son has joined up with my agents, who are seeking to rescue some of the people sold in that auction. We believe they are now in Scotland. However, we must act cautiously so as not to alert the man we are following or any other traitors working in Military Magic.”
“That is why we made arrangements with reception for you be brought straight to me should you come here, to prevent anyone in Military Magic being alerted to the fact. Can I trust you and your wife to keep our secret, Michael? I promise to make sure you are kept informed of any news we receive on your son. It is terribly important that no one finds out about this.”
There was only one thing on Michael’s mind.
“Tricky is all right?”
“He is with three of my best agents. They will look after him and keep him safe.”
“They may find that our Tricky is the one keeping them safe. ‘E
’s a sly one, ‘e is.”
“You may well be correct. But so long as they all are safe, I care little for which of them brings it about.”
29. Healing and Dealing
The laboratory was below ground in what had once been the castle’s dungeons. Electric bulbs provided a much colder glow than oil lamps and gave the underground rooms a most unfriendly feel. Doors lined with steel plates prevented access for those who did not know the combination to their safe-like locks. Wide pottery pipes vented air in and out of the room, making strange sounds not dissimilar to breathing.
“To protect the castle from any noxious substances in the air down here,” McBride explained when he saw Tom’s gaze lingering on the vents. “We thought we had done enough to protect Giles and Andrew from those self-same substances but we were proved wrong.”
“Your two sick Spellbinders? Tom asked and Lord McBride nodded.
The laboratory had been divided into two rooms separated by a wall made of bright red brick and glass. The glass was similar to the panes Tom had seen covering the station except they were much thicker and it was difficult to see through them. The window frames were sealed with a thick layer of putty to prevent air passing through the frame from one room to the other.
Bright electric lighting in the other room allowed Tom to make out vague shapes of what looked like a line of metal vats against the far wall. Each vat stood about four foot high. However, Tom could not see if anything filled them.
There were two men waiting for them in the laboratory. One Tom recognized as Gordon Kemp and he stood talking to a taller man that Tom assumed must be Giles Summers. Summers stood stooped over and was completely bald. When Tom got a little closer he saw the man had no eyebrows.
“Here she is,” Kemp said excitedly to Summers. “Laura Young, a Class A, no less.”
Kemp walked forward eagerly and took Laura’s hand.
“This is Giles Summers,” he told her as they reached the bald man. “He is one of the Spellbinder’s who have been separating the different forms of Uranium for us.”
“I thought the process was supposed to be safe?” Laura asked as she looked at the sick man. He gave a wracking cough that made Tom wince and put out his hand for Laura to shake.
“It would appear we miscalculated,” he said dryly. “If you think I am in a bad state you should see poor Andrew. We used the same precautions we have used in the past for extracting uranium from pitchblende and then dantium from the uranium.”
“Well something must have been different this time,” Laura stated firmly, arching her eyebrows at the man.
“Lord McBride’s special advisor suggested we experiment using the rods of dantium that have been in the reactatron for years. He believed that their twenty years of use might help with the separation process,” Kemp said. “There is now evidence of a new material in those rods. We think it is that material that has made our Spellbinders sick.”
Giles coughed and continued the story.
“To be able to lay the bind we had to touch the rods. They have become brittle and one broke sending clouds of dust over us.”
Giles started coughing and Kemp had to hold him upright until his fit subsided.
“Tom,” Laura commanded and Tom walked over to the man.
“I am a Healer and might be able to help.”
“We have a Healer on our staff. He proved ineffective,” Giles wheezed.
“What do you have to lose?” Laura asked.
Giles thought for a second and nodded in resignation before looking to Tom for instructions. Tom pulled up a chair and indicated that Giles should sit on it.
Tom felt nervous. It was possible that trying to heal this man could be dangerous. He had little control over his recently enhanced healing powers and found it difficult to stop all his strength from being taken from those close to death. He decided to stand behind Giles and place his hands on the man’s neck. Healing required physical contact and if he became too weak, he would collapse and let go of the man. It was the only safety measure he could think of.
“Just relax, this shouldn’t hurt at all,” Tom said as reassuringly as his nervousness allowed. Kemp, Lord McBride, and Laura stood in front of Giles watching Tom with undisguised interest. This was not the way a Healer normally applied his talent and only Laura guessed why Tom was attempting it this particular way.
Tom touched Giles’ neck and found his mind swirling through the man’s body like it was on a runaway train. There was damage everywhere down to the smallest cell. Driving the maelstrom of destruction were small glowing particles embedded in Giles’ lungs. At least that was how it appeared to Tom; that these glowing pieces of death were smashing into the man’s cells and causing them to grow damaged or to die.
Tom felt his legs go weak as energy rushed out of his body to undo the destruction in Giles’s body. Somehow, he was able to persuade Giles’ body to expel those glowing particles, to coat them in slime and get him to cough them out. Giles fell forward coughing and retching and Tom staggered back before dropping to his knees. As Tom lost consciousness, he heard Giles coughing as though he was going to die.
The train carrying Cam and her friends arrived at Lord McBride’s estate in the late afternoon. There was a mad scramble to get off, led at least in part by Arnold who was desperate to escape the interminable engineering questions of Josiah Green. The man was insatiable in his desire for knowledge, a desire that Arnold was singularly ill equipped to satisfy.
To add insult to injury, Camilla had taken considerable delight in egging Green on, whenever Arnold dampened his enthusiasm. As soon as the train entered the amazing iron and glass structure of the station, Arnold harried his friends out of the compartment, leaving Josiah, wife and baby on their own.
When they disembarked they discovered pandemonium on the concourse. A large sign stated that this was Glen Russell Station, apparently the name of Lord McBride’s estate. People with clipboards were shouting out names, but nobody from the train seemed to be listening. The baggage was being hauled out of the guard’s wagon at the back of the train and the passengers appeared desperate to find their trunks and cases.
This was not an issue for the spies, as they had only hand luggage with them. Cam wondered if they should pretend to have lost their trunks, but decided that the best approach was to tell anybody who asked that they were travelling light and planned to buy new clothes upon reaching the estate.
That they were not part of the stampede for the baggage served to make them stand out on the platform. The young man who had added their name to his list when they got on the train walked over to them looking pleased.
“It is nice to see at least one sensible family,” he said as soon as he was close enough to talk. “As you were no doubt informed at your interview, assuming Angus managed to stay sober long enough to tell you, all your needs for living here has been taken care of. You will be taken to one of our new purpose built cottages. After you have settled in your new home, Mr. Smith will be assigned a role in the factory. Follow me and I will take you to your house.”
“It is very warm in here, given the snow on the ground outside,” Daisy said as they walked behind the man.
“The Laird’s magical engineering provides a surplus of heat and you will find your cottage is kept warm with piped hot water. Even the footpaths of the new village are heated underfoot so snow and ice underfoot will not be a problem. The Laird cannot, of course, modify the weather, so you will find it a little chilly once we leave the comfort of the walkway.”
“I did not realize so many people would be starting work with me,” Arnold told the man. “Is the estate that large?”
“There is a lot of empty land, but few people live here,” the man explained. “The people arriving today will come close to doubling the workforce and will add a third to the total population of Glen Russell. This community will be nearly five hundred strong when everyone has arrived.”
“I hope there will be enough cottages,” Cam said,
suddenly worried that their presence might be detected if they were one house short.
“More than enough,” the man said smiling. “We have more cottages than people as the Laird wishes to recruit more specialists later. The Laird’s recruiters have been out across the whole of Britain and there were bound to be mistakes, like Angus missing you off his list. The Laird is canny enough to take account of such things in his plans.”
The covered walkway ended at a group of cottages arranged in a neat circle. A single road led away and they saw a series of such circular groups of cottages branching off from the main road.
“Because you came with me while all the other arrivals were scrabbling for their baggage, you can have the pick of the cottages,” the man explained.
“Thank you, kind sir,” Daisy said. She was taking a shine to this handsome young man. “May we know your name so we can tell others how good you have been to us?”
“Why bless you. Didn’t I tell you?” the young man said laughing with delight. “My name is Dougal McBride. The Laird is my Father, so I should advise against you singing my praises too loudly, as everyone will think you are simply sucking up to the family.”
“Well, you have been good to us, even if your father is the Laird,” Daisy stated. “I, for one, am convinced you will prove to be an excellent heir.”
Dougal McBride gave Daisy a deep bow. “And you, Miss Smith, are certainly the fairest young lady to ever enter the Glen Russell estate.”
“I think I am going to be sick,” Cam said under her breath as Daisy and Dougal smiled warmly at each other.
30. Recovery
Tom woke to find he was lying on a hard couch in a small room. He was no longer in the laboratory and there was no sign of Giles Summers or anybody else for that matter. He tried to sit up and managed to get halfway before he fell back limply as his head began to spin.
