Anywhere

by Jon Robinson

  37

  Ten years ago

  Julian’s aunt sighed and turned up the television as her six-year-old nephew lay sprawled beside the couch. He clutched the red car and made a throaty engine noise, dragging it in a swooping arc with his hand across the carpet.

  ‘For the love of …’ his aunt muttered and switched positions, thrusting the remote control at the television. ‘No wonder your parents wanted a chance to get out. Next time I’ll charge them for this,’ she muttered.

  Julian, quite oblivious to his aunt’s distress, grabbed a white car with his other hand and smashed them together, forcing an explosion sound from his lips. ‘Crash!’ he squealed. ‘Did you see that? I made them crash!’

  ‘Julian!’

  Julian stopped. He gently placed the cars side by side. ‘Didn’t have to shout,’ he said, pouting, and rolled on to his back.

  ‘Actually I did. Can’t you do something a bit quieter?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘Then at least go outside, will you? I’m trying to watch something.’

  Julian looked down at the cars, then up at his aunt.

  ‘I mean it,’ she said, pointing at the door to the hallway. She held her finger outstretched until Julian eventually skulked outside with his toy cars. She reached over for her glass of wine.

  Almost an hour passed and Julian’s sound effects were little more than a faint hum in the hall beneath the chattering television. After another few glasses of wine, his aunt had gradually unspooled across the couch.

  ‘What … what is it?’ she grumbled, feeling Julian tugging at her jumper. Not realizing she had fallen asleep, she found the empty wine glass lying across her stomach.

  ‘There’s someone at the door,’ Julian said, tapping her.

  His aunt closed her eyes but was jolted awake again by a series of knocks, rattling the glass on the door pane.

  ‘Ms Drury, please open up!’ bellowed a man’s voice.

  Wearily she gathered herself and plodded outside into the hallway.

  ‘Ouch!’ She had trodden on one of Julian’s toy cars on its back beside the hallway radiator. She bent down and picked up the car, waving it threateningly in his face. ‘Put these away,’ she snarled and thrust it towards him. ‘You’ll end up causing an accident if you’re not careful.’

  Realizing she still had the television remote in her hand, she dropped it on the stairs and opened the front door.

  ‘Miss Drury?’ said the police officer on the doorstep. He was standing with a colleague, a young woman with a serious expression.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, eyes flitting between them both. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Can we speak with you inside?’ the woman said, forcing a smile.

  ‘What’s this about?’

  ‘It might be better if we just come in,’ said the man.

  Julian’s aunt turned to find her nephew peeking out from behind the door.

  ‘My nephew’s here,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to frighten him.’

  ‘I can sit with him,’ said the female officer, insistent.

  Eventually Julian’s aunt gave a faint nod and stepped to the side. The female police officer stepped in and went straight over to the boy and knelt in front of him. ‘Those are nice cars. Can I have a look? Which is your favourite?’ she said, then led him to the kitchen out of earshot.

  Julian’s aunt turned away from her nephew and looked at the man standing in front of her.

  ‘Miss Drury, I said there’s been an accident,’ said the police officer. ‘Would you like to take a seat?’ he went on. ‘Maybe if we go inside …’

  She sank on to the stairs and put her hands neatly on her lap.

  ‘It was involving your sister and your brother-in-law,’ he said. ‘Is that their son? Julian?’

  His aunt peered through the banisters. Julian was sitting in the kitchen at the table, while the female police officer sat at his side, moving the cars back and forth.

  ‘There’s been a terrible accident on the motorway. I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Both … of them?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said after a breath. ‘Both of them.’ He continued to speak but his words dampened and dulled. Julian’s aunt wordlessly watched her nephew through the banisters, playing with his cars on the table, and at that moment he looked up and waved. With tears clouding her eyes, she slowly lifted her hand and waved back.

  38

  After returning to the Guild’s base minus Julian, Elsa sprang out of the car and beckoned to Harlan to follow her. Harlan warily climbed out as Anton parked, and looked up with a growing suspicion at the dilapidated block of flats.

  ‘This way,’ Elsa said.

  Harlan stepped over a dead bird and followed her to the entrance. Elsa jabbed in the key code Pyra had taught her and pulled open the gated door.

  As soon as the lift arrived on the top floor, Harlan stepped out, gazing around at the ornate cream-coloured ceiling, the stone columns and the tiled floor. ‘Look at this place,’ he said. ‘It’s like a temple or something …’

  His footsteps echoed as he followed Elsa around the room, unable to shake the sensation that the entire thing might be a dream.

  ‘Yep,’ Elsa said. She dragged him to one of the windows and made him look out. ‘They’ve even graffitied the side of it to keep people away!’ She pointed to an illegible scrawl on the floor below. ‘And see that?’ she pointed to another window, which showed a cluttered kitchen with a sink full of dirty crockery. ‘It’s a painting! No one has a clue this place is here.’

  Before Harlan had chance to take it all in, Elsa grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the window. ‘This is my friend, Harlan!’ Elsa shouted to the few other members who were sitting on a leather couch by the wall. They all looked up and waved, except a white-haired man who was jabbing furiously at a laptop.

  ‘I haven’t learned their names yet,’ she whispered behind her hand.

  ‘How do you think they afforded this place?’ Harlan murmured, gazing at the enormous star on the tiled floor, then back up to the coffered ceiling.

  She shrugged. ‘Probably used the Ability to win the lottery or something.’

  ‘Yeah …’ Harlan said, his voice trailing off. ‘Maybe they did.’

  After showing Harlan the gymnasium, library and dining room, an excitable Elsa took Harlan to the sleeping quarters. ‘You’ll be staying here,’ she said, opening the door to a room with a pair of bunk beds. On the lowest bed of one were some folded clothes.

  ‘Can’t wait to get out of this uniform.’ Harlan grinned, sniffing himself. At that moment, a woman with short blonde hair appeared behind the pair.

  ‘Luthan wants to see you both on the roof,’ she said. ‘So you can start your training.’

  ‘Just two of you?’ Luthan emerged on to the roof of the tower block, watched by a waiting Elsa and Harlan. He wore a red scarf tucked into his overcoat and a pair of leather gloves. ‘I thought there was supposed to be another.’

  ‘So did we,’ said Elsa, shrugging. ‘He did a runner on the way here. He got freaked out, I think.’

  Luthan nodded and looked over the edge of the roof. ‘Let’s hope we can find him before the Pledge do. It isn’t safe out there, and I fear your friend might be in danger.’ He looked back at the pair. ‘You both know why you’re here, don’t you?’

  ‘You’re training us,’ Harlan said.

  ‘Correct. I’m training you. Now,’ he said, presenting three fingers, ‘there are three levels in the Guild before we can accept you as a full member. To progress you need to pass a series of tests. Whether you’re trying to influence the laws of physics, the behaviour of another, or even yourselves, the mechanics of the Ability are more or less the same throughout. We start small and work our way up.’

  Harlan and a slightly distracted Elsa both nodded in unison.

  Luthan reached into his pocket and removed two silver coins. He gave one to each of them. ‘I want you to flip the coin and try to influence it to l
and on its edge.’

  ‘The edge?’ Harlan said. ‘It’s barely a couple of millimetres …’

  ‘It’s impossible!’ Elsa declared at the same time.

  ‘You’ll need to start changing your beliefs about what’s possible if you’re ever going to succeed,’ Luthan said.

  Harlan and Elsa looked at one another and shrugged. Both coins sailed a short way above them and landed flat.

  ‘Try again.’

  Elsa threw her coin up and watched as it quickly descended and clinked against the roof. ‘Crap. I’m no good at this …’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Elsa,’ said Harlan. ‘You’ve only tried twice.’

  ‘And failed twice.’ She flipped the coin again and waited for the inevitable conclusion. ‘Look, it’s tormenting me!’

  ‘You need to train your imagination until it feels razor sharp. You should feel it jolt you. Now try again …’

  Elsa threw the coin high into the air and shut her eyes. In a sudden movement Luthan removed a knife from inside his coat and pressed it against her throat. ‘Do it,’ he hissed.

  The sensation of the cold metal blade pressed against Elsa’s throat paralysed her into compliance. She visualized the coin standing on its edge in her mind’s eye, terrified to take her concentration from it.

  She opened her eyes just as the coin hit the ground and rolled a short distance on its side. An odd, yet not unfamiliar, tingling sensation flooded her mind as the coin continued to roll and eventually stopped.

  Elsa freed herself from Luthan’s grip, holding her throat. ‘Maniac!’ she spluttered.

  ‘Oh, come on, I wasn’t really going to cut you.’ He put the knife away, knelt and pointed at the standing coin. ‘Nothing focuses the mind quite like fear, Elsa.’

  ‘Why are we even doing this?’ she said with a sigh. ‘Flipping a coin? What good is that? Waste of time …’

  ‘We start with something small,’ Harlan answered. ‘That’s what this is.’

  ‘Correct!’ Luthan patted Harlan’s shoulder enthusiastically. ‘We start small. Whether it’s influencing the air currents to make a coin land on its side, or the synapses between someone’s brain cells to implant a thought or memory, or even nudging gravity to help win at a roulette table. When you’re old enough to play on one, of course,’ he added with a smile. ‘It doesn’t matter. The principles are always the same. Get practising, and soon you’ll get a feeling for how to tap into it.’

  Luthan soon left to let the pair practise by themselves. After half an hour of flipping the coin, Harlan found his imagination increasing to the point where he could see the glint of sunlight on the coin’s corrugated silver edge and the smear of shadow on the gravel beneath.

  ‘Think I’ve got the hang of it,’ he said, watching intently as the coin wobbled gently and stabilized itself for a third time.

  Elsa looked on with envy. ‘Stupid thing won’t work for me.’

  ‘It’ll come with practice. Try not to beat yourself up.’

  ‘Baldy knows I’m rubbish,’ she said. ‘Fat lot of good it’ll do me if it only works when there’s a knife at my throat …’

  ‘Hey, aren’t you excited by all of this, Elsa?’ Harlan said, smiling. ‘I mean, we’ve found out we can alter reality!’

  ‘Maybe the only reality I want to alter is the one where I’m stuck here when I could be at home instead,’ she mumbled. She flipped the coin up again and sighed.

  Harlan gazed at the city below. ‘You could be home right now, watching television or getting ready for school. But you’re not; you’re a part of something huge. Who would’ve thought that all these forces were at work, pulling the world in different directions?’

  ‘Probably explains why everything’s so messed up at the moment. I’m glad you’re enjoying it anyway.’ She tossed the coin up a final time and let it fall to the floor.

  ‘Come on, Elsa,’ Harlan said. ‘I know they want us to learn the basics first, but let’s try something a bit more fun. You and me. We focus on it together, all right?’

  Harlan hopped on to the edge of the roof. Wind blew frantically at his hair, tearing it in all directions. He removed a ten-pound note from his pocket and folded it into a paper aeroplane.

  ‘Please don’t tell me you’re gonna waste that, Harlan.’

  Harlan scrutinized his creation, shrugging. ‘There’ll be more where it came from. Let’s try to make it catch fire.’ He grinned, and before Elsa had the chance to protest, launched the aeroplane off the roof.

  Elsa watched as it sailed gently through the air. ‘How are we supposed to make it catch fire?’ she said. ‘They’ve already told us we shouldn’t do anything crazy –’

  ‘Just use your imagination,’ Harlan said, shutting his eyes.

  Elsa closed her eyes too and visualized the paper aeroplane smouldering and blackening as fire chewed through its wings. She held the image in her mind for at least a minute, and when she opened them, the paper plane was still floating idly through the air.

  See? she very nearly said. It doesn’t work – before noticing it was being swept along on another air current. The plane looped, then plummeted quickly towards the ground. Elsa noticed a pair of women outside the entrance to the adjacent tower block, lighting up cigarettes. The plane changed direction again and seemed to turn from its course, then swooped again towards the pair.

  ‘Look!’ she exclaimed. Harlan opened his eyes just in time to see it veer into the path of the lighter. One of the women yelped as the plane flew through the flame, catching a spark on its wing, which quickly spread.

  ‘We did it!’ Harlan said, hopping down from the wall.

  ‘Where are you going? You’re not just leaving me up here, are you?’

  ‘I have something I need to do,’ he called across as he walked away.

  ‘They won’t let you out,’ Elsa said. ‘We’re not allowed to leave by ourselves – they think we’ll get caught. They have someone standing guard down there.’

  ‘Think you can distract them for me?’

  Elsa looked unsure. ‘If they find out, we’ll be in trouble.’

  ‘Please, Elsa? I’ll owe you one.’

  39

  ‘We have some problems,’ said Felix. ‘Internal ones. And that’s where I think you could really help.’

  Alyn had just slipped into a navy suit with a pale blue tie. He tugged at the collar, which felt as though it was strangling him.

  ‘You said this was for the greater good,’ Alyn replied. ‘So why am I getting involved in all this stuff?’

  ‘The way the Pledge operates,’ Felix explained, ‘is through wealth. Whoever has the most money leads. There were really only ever two candidates in the running for leadership. Me and Stephen Nover.’

  ‘I know him,’ Alyn said. ‘Had to watch a documentary about him in school.’

  Felix seemed somewhat amused. ‘And what did you take from it?’

  Alyn shrugged. ‘If you’re born rich, you’ll probably only get richer.’

  ‘I recommend you never say that to his face.’ Felix smiled, straightening Alyn’s tie. ‘He’s easily offended. If I could convince Antonia and Blythe to vote together, we could block him from becoming leader. Despite the smiling photographs and all the charity donations, Stephen is a deeply unbalanced young man, with a particularly nasty streak.’

  ‘So why don’t they just vote against him?’

  ‘Fear,’ Felix replied.

  ‘And you want me to help you change their minds. But I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do,’ Alyn said. ‘I don’t know anything about this Ability …’

  ‘Because you haven’t yet been trained to use it. All you need to do is be there when I meet with Antonia and Blythe and use your imagination to make them agree. You’ll know when it’s worked. You might feel a little woozy.’

  Alyn took a step closer to Felix, narrowing his eyes. ‘If I find out you’re using me, we’re through. And I swear I’ll see to it that you’re brought to justice.�
�

  ‘You care about your friends, don’t you?’ Felix said, as Alyn began to walk away. Alyn stopped and turned back. ‘Then do this for their sakes. Stephen will do anything for power, including murder. If he takes control, none of you are safe.’

  Alyn sat cross-legged by the window in Felix’s luxury penthouse apartment later that afternoon, gazing at the city below, already illuminated as the winter sun dipped in the overcast sky. The floorboards were cold against his ankles. He made a circle shape with his fingers and peered through it, focusing on a row of lights in an office block.

  ‘Turn off,’ he whispered, and waited, watching the lights.

  Almost a minute passed and nothing had happened. He then pictured the lights turning off, and held the thought.

  Imagination, Felix had told him.

  Alyn remembered something he’d read in a book once, that the smallest cause could create an effect of catastrophic proportions. The example was a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world and causing a tsunami on the other.

  Conjuring the image of a black butterfly in his mind’s eye, Alyn pictured it fluttering past him, through the window and soaring on the wind, spiralling down to the office building. He visualized the butterfly passing through the wall and into the electrical circuits. At that moment the lights in the office went out.

  Alyn sat up straight, staring at the single row of darkened windows.

  40

  ‘Hey!’ Elsa called down from her bedroom window to the Guild member who was guarding the gated door at the entrance to the tower block. ‘Yeah, you down there on the wall …’

  The man, whose long blond hair was tumbling beneath his woolly hat, looked up at her over his shoulder. ‘What d’you want?’

  ‘I’m bored. I want to go for a walk,’ Elsa called down. Harlan, waiting on the ground floor on the other side of the door, peered out from round the corner.

  ‘Well, you can’t,’ the man grumbled, folding his arms. ‘You ’ave to stay.’