Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent

by Alan Early

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘it’s a subway train, like in New York. It’s going to run east to west under the city and, eh …’ He couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  ‘Very good. Will’s right. The first line is going to start in Dublin East, right at the coast. It goes under the city and comes out where?’

  A few more hands shot up. She pointed to Ciara.

  ‘Heuston Station, Miss?’

  ‘That’s right, Ciara. Now here’s a tough one.’ She went to the Dublin map the class had made a few weeks ago that was hanging on the wall. It showed all the main landmarks: the tall Dublin Spire, Heuston Station, the River Liffey and so on. She pointed to the coastline. ‘So the tunnel starts here,’ she pulled her finger along the map to Heuston Station right in the city centre, ‘and ends here. But why have they started excavating here first?’ Her finger landed right in the middle of the River Liffey.

  Several confused faces stared back at the teacher. Arthur knew the answer – or at least thought he did – but he didn’t feel comfortable enough to speak up in class just yet. Eventually Rob Tynan at the back of the class said, ‘Is it because the tide is low at this time of the year?’

  ‘No, Rob, that’s not it. It’s nothing to do with the tide. Interesting guess, though. Anyone else?’

  As Brian Savage gave another wrong answer, Ash elbowed Arthur and whispered, ‘Answer. You know it.’

  ‘Ssh!’ he said, elbowing her back.

  ‘Something wrong there?’ asked Miss Keegan. ‘Ashling? Arthur? Everything all right?’

  ‘Well …’ started Arthur. ‘Em … I think they’re drilling there first because of the river.’

  ‘That’s what I said!’ protested Rob.

  ‘Not the Liffey,’ continued Arthur, ‘the underground river.’

  Miss Keegan smiled and nodded. ‘Go on.’

  Arthur could feel his classmates’ attention on him. ‘There’s this underground river called the Poddle. It actually goes under the streets and roads. Most people don’t even know it’s there but it is. Anyway, they have to tunnel below the Liffey and above the Poddle. And it makes it really dangerous, having two rivers there. If they started at either end the whole tunnel could collapse when they reach the rivers. But starting at the rivers, they can make sure that bit is safe before they do the rest.’

  ‘Exactly right.’ Miss Keegan’s smile grew wider. ‘You seem to know a lot about the operation. You must read the newspapers.’

  ‘His dad is working on the tunnel, Miss,’ said Ash.

  ‘Really? Arthur, is that true?’

  ‘Well, yeah. He’s one of the head engineers.’

  ‘He’s kind of in charge of digging the whole tunnel!’ exclaimed Ash. She looked at Arthur and blushed.

  There was a burst of excited chatter in the class. It came to a sudden end when Will spoke up. ‘Can you get us a tour?’

  ‘What?’ exclaimed Arthur.

  ‘Well, if your dad really is that important, you could get us a tour. I mean, if he really is in charge, Artie.’ There was a mischievous glint in his eyes as he grinned at Arthur.

  ‘Oh, Will,’ said Miss Keegan, ‘that would be too much to ask. Wouldn’t it, Arthur? Would it?’ She looked genuinely hopeful.

  Arthur glanced from her to the smug Will and without another moment’s hesitation said, ‘I’ll ask.’

  Tunnel Drilling Unsafe

  ‘I was nearly killed in the last cave-in,’ says source.

  Luke Moran dropped the newspaper on the boardroom table. The headline seemed to scream out at them, next to a photo of workers at the Metro site with their faces pixelated.

  ‘I’m not a happy man,’ said Moran. He thumped his fist hard on the table. ‘Not happy at all!’ He was a tall, overweight man with large purple hands like undercooked steaks. His salt-and-pepper-coloured wig shifted slightly on his head with the force of the blow.

  ‘Sir,’ one of Moran’s advisers sitting around the table spoke up meekly, ‘I don’t think we can do anything about –’

  ‘I want this source fired!’

  ‘We don’t know who the source is,’ Joe said reasonably. He, Deirdre, Ruairí and a couple of other engineers sat on one side of the table. Moran’s advisers – all wearing identical grey suits and all excessively skinny – sat on the opposite side. Moran paced around the table at a furious rate.

  ‘Well then find out! What are you, some kind of idiot? In fact, who are you?’

  Joe stood up and looked Moran straight in the eye. He spoke calmly and evenly. ‘Mr Moran, I am Joe Quinn. You hired me last week as one of your head engineers overseeing the Usher’s Quay project. I and my son moved – at very short notice – to Dublin. You wanted the drill running again: today we started it up for the first time in almost two weeks. You called me here, away from the drill, as work was getting under way. Mr Moran, you hired me to do a job and I’m doing it.’

  Moran stood speechless for a moment. No one had spoken to him like that in years, least of all an employee. He took a deep breath and sat down.

  ‘You’re right. Please, Mr Quinn, sit down.’

  ‘You can call me Joe, sir.’ He sat back down.

  Luke Moran gathered his thoughts for a second, then continued, ‘Joe, I’m sure you’ll understand that this is a PR disaster. We’re already overspending as it is. If word gets out that we’re not being safe, we’ll lose this contract. Can you even begin to imagine how many millions of euro we’ll lose if that happens? Billions even!’

  Just then, Joe’s phone rang with his ‘We Will Rock You’ ringtone. He looked at the screen and wondered why Arthur was calling. It wasn’t like Arthur to call during the day unless it was very important. He hoped nothing was wrong.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Moran, but I have to –’

  ‘Take the call,’ said Moran with a dismissive wave of his huge right hand. ‘I have bigger problems than you taking a call during a meeting.’

  Joe stepped away from the table, pressed the answer key and put the phone to his ear.

  ‘Arthur? Is something wrong?’

  ‘Hi, Dad. No, nothing’s wrong. It’s just, this might sound weird but … well … Can you give my class a tour of the Metro site?’

  ‘What? You called to ask me that?’

  ‘Well I was in class and we –’

  ‘No, it’s far too dangerous. And please don’t ring me for something like this during work again.’ He hung up and sat back down.

  ‘Something the matter, Joe?’ asked Moran from across the table.

  ‘No, it’s nothing. It’s just my son’s class were hoping to get a tour of the site. Obviously it’s too unsafe.’

  When Joe looked back up, he saw that Moran was smiling broadly.

  ‘No,’ he said, ‘it’s not too unsafe at all. Call your son back, Joe. Tell him we’ll give them their little tour.’

  Arthur was on the way back to class from morning break when his dad called him with the good news. He ran straight into his classroom and told Miss Keegan and then his classmates. They’d get to see the big drill, the plans, inside the tunnel and they’d even get their picture in the paper. The teacher was very excited and started making mental notes of everything that would have to be done in advance.

  ‘We’ll need to inform the principal,’ she muttered to herself, ‘and the parents, of course. And hire a bus. Oh, so much to do …’

  Arthur looked at Will, expecting him to be sour-faced, but he seemed genuinely pleased about the tour. ‘Thanks, man,’ he said simply to Arthur.

  Chapter Six

  ‘I want to see the drill. I saw pictures on the news and it looks huge!’

  ‘I hope they bring us in the tunnel. We’ll probably have to wear those hard helmets.’

  ‘Oh, I hope we don’t have to wear them. They’ll ruin my hair.’

  It was eight days later, a bright Tuesday morning and the class were in a cramped mini-bus, being driven away from the school and towards the Usher’s Quay site.

  Ov
er the past week, Miss Keegan had been busy letting the principal know of their plans, printing off parental permission slips, getting them signed and returned to the principal’s office and finally hiring the bus they were sitting in. The anticipation had been palpable. The class were the only children in the country being given this honour. But mostly they were looking forward to seeing the big drill. During the week, Arthur had tried his best with Will. He didn’t want to be jealous of his confidence but that’s exactly how he felt. So Arthur just remained civil with him. They didn’t argue but they still weren’t exactly friends either.

  Miss Keegan was sitting in the front of the bus next to the driver. Since they’d boarded, everyone was having their say about what they were looking forward to most.

  ‘Well, I just want to see the River Poddle,’ said Will.

  ‘The Poddle?’ said Arthur mockingly.

  ‘Why?’ asked Ash, looking surprised.

  ‘Think about it. It’s an underground river. No one ever gets to visit it or even see it. I bet no one’s been down there in a hundred years.’

  ‘For good reason,’ Arthur said. ‘It’s probably dangerous.’

  ‘Danger’s good. Danger’s my middle name.’

  ‘Either way,’ Arthur said with a roll of his eyes, ‘we’ll never be able to get to it.’

  ‘I bet we can find it,’ Will said and turned away to look out the window. ‘I bet I’ll find it.’

  When the mini-bus pulled onto the Metro site, getting past security with no problems, Arthur was pleased to see Joe waiting with a smile. A couple of younger engineers were waiting with him, holding a cardboard box each. The class bustled out and formed two lines as per Miss Keegan’s instructions. She introduced herself to Joe, who in turn introduced them all to Ruairí and Deirdre. The engineers opened the boxes of hard hats and passed them around. Ciara O’Connor, who’d been concerned about her precious hair on the bus, was not impressed.

  ‘Right,’ announced Joe. ‘Well, first of all, I’d like to welcome you all here to the Usher’s Quay Metro site. I’m Joe Quinn – Arthur’s dad. I won’t be giving the tour but I’ll be leaving you in the very capable hands of Ruairí and Deirdre here. Now, some rules for your own safety. Number one –’

  Just then, a sparkling black BMW skidded to a stop next to the bus. The passenger door swung open and a tall grey-suited man stepped out. He opened the back door for the guest of honour, who was so fat that he struggled to get out. He stood up to his full height, straightened the wig on his head and beamed a bright smile at the classmates.

  ‘Well, it looks as if we’ve been graced with the presence of Luke Moran, CEO of Citi-Trak,’ said Joe.

  ‘Nice to see you all,’ Moran said in his booming voice. He rushed over to the teacher. ‘You must be Miss, uh …’

  ‘Keegan,’ murmured one of his aides, sidling up next to him.

  ‘Keegan,’ he finished, ‘Miss Keegan. So lovely to meet you.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, blushing.

  ‘And look at all these excited faces!’ He turned to the class, then clicked his thick fingers at the aide, who quickly proceeded to hand out gift bags with the Citi-Trak logo to each pupil. ‘Thank you, Piers. Inside you’ll find a cap, a T-shirt, a calculator, a pen and all the information you need about our great Metro project here.’

  Some of the pupils pulled the T-shirts on over their hard hats: they read ‘I love Citi-Trak’ in bold black text. As the children sifted through their gift bags, Joe took his chance to speak quietly to Moran.

  ‘I thought Ruairí and Deirdre could give the tour.’

  ‘Not a chance,’ Moran whispered back. ‘I’m having my two best men give the tour. You and me.’

  ‘But –’ A couple more cars pulled up unexpectedly. A TV news crew piled out of one and a few photo-journalists stepped out of the other.

  ‘This is the perfect photo op,’ Moran continued. ‘We need to show that the site is perfectly safe. So smile for the cameras, Joe.’ He clapped his hands together. ‘Now, this way please, children!’ For such a fat man, his legs seemed lean and his long strides meant that the class and journalists had to half-run to catch up as he went towards the main site. The tour had begun.

  As they followed, Joe took the chance to speak to Ruairí and Deirdre.

  ‘I don’t trust him for a second,’ he whispered. ‘Keep an eye on the kids at all times, in case any of them decides to go wandering off.’

  Moran brought them straight to the office prefab. There was barely enough space for them all, photographers included, but they managed to squeeze in. They piled around the scale model of the finished project and studied it while camera flashes went off.

  ‘Here we have what the Metro will look like in about five years’ time when it’s all finished,’ Moran said, spreading his arms out over the model. ‘You can see right under the ground there and through to the foundations – safe foundations – that we’re excavating and –’

  ‘Is that the River Poddle?’ asked Will, pointing out a smaller tunnel running parallel over the Metro tunnel in the model.

  Moran looked confused. ‘You mean the Liffey?’

  ‘No, he’s right,’ said Joe. ‘It’s the Poddle. It’s an underground river. It wasn’t always underground though. The Vikings used it a lot for trade and at some stage they diverted part of the river underground. We don’t really know why. Maybe an early attempt at sewers – who knows? Either way, it runs under the city now. And you can see where it runs into the Liffey here.’ He pointed out a small archway on the model. ‘Usually the Poddle isn’t much to look at; it just comes up to your ankles and is little more than a stream. But when the tide is in, you wouldn’t want to be trapped down there.’

  ‘Speaking of trapped,’ said one of the journalists, looking up from his notes, ‘can you show us where that cave-in happened a couple of weeks ago?’

  ‘Ha!’ Moran forced out a laugh. ‘Cave-in? Is that what you hacks are calling it now? Cave-in? It was a minor incident in the excavation process. Just a hiccup really.’

  ‘Can we see it?’

  ‘Of course! Let’s go and look at the site of the incident – hiccup – now.’

  Moran had had the tape removed from around the mound, Joe discovered. Now it looked just like any other mound of earth on the site.

  ‘See?’ said Moran when they got there. ‘Nothing at all unusual or unsafe about it.’

  He stepped onto the mound and jumped up and down. For a man of his size, it was a comical sight and the class couldn’t help but burst out laughing. The journalists snapped photos of him standing on the apparently safe mound, a self-satisfied grin on his face.

  ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Join me here. I’d like a photo with the children.’

  The class clambered around him on the mound; Arthur, Ash and Will all had to kneel in the front. More photos were taken. Then they changed position, with Moran and the pupils all jumping on the mound at once – the perfect front page for tomorrow’s paper. Even at this nothing stirred underneath them. The ground was clearly solid.

  Moran bent and put his hands on his knees, out of breath. ‘Now,’ he panted, ‘time for the cherry on top. This way please.’ He stood up and strode off towards the gaping tunnel.

  The tunnel really was a sight to see. Though it wasn’t that long yet, the earth walls had been reinforced with concrete and steel girders right up to where the drill lay idle. Everyone’s shoes squeaked on the temporary asphalt surface beneath them. A few crewmen were securing a girder by the entrance and bright orange sparks flew through the air.

  ‘Here we are,’ Moran said, his voice echoing off the high ceiling, ‘in the belly of the beast, as it were.’

  ‘So we’re underneath the Liffey now?’ enquired Miss Keegan.

  ‘No, we haven’t drilled that deep yet,’ answered Joe. ‘It’s a long process. Right now, we’re just over the Poddle. In fact, if you put your ear to that grate over there you should be able to hear the running water.’
r />   The class piled around an iron grate in the floor by the wall. It was circular, about two feet in diameter. A ladder went down from the grate into pure darkness. Arthur held his breath, as did his classmates, to hear the faint trickling of the River Poddle. He could just about hear dripping, distant and echoing.

  ‘Now, I think we should take a look at the big drill!’ exclaimed Moran, marching towards the massive machinery. Miss Keegan and Joe promptly went with him, followed by the class members, engineers, advisers and journalists. Everyone followed him but Will. When Arthur turned back, he saw him still kneeling by the grate, his ear pressed to the iron grille.

  ‘Look at him!’ Arthur said to Ash. They stopped and waved at him to come. Deirdre noticed them and joined in.

  ‘Come along there!’ she called. Will got up and begrudgingly went after her. As they walked on to catch up with the others, Will couldn’t help but notice how Deirdre kept looking at the other engineer, Ruairí. There was a definite look of longing in her eyes. Will smiled to himself, seeing his chance.

  ‘I think he likes you,’ Will said.

  ‘What?’ said Deirdre. ‘I don’t know what you mean!’

  ‘I think that Ruairí guy likes you. You should ask him out.’

  ‘No, he doesn’t. Does he? Should I?’ She suddenly became flustered. Arthur and Ash looked at each other, confused.

  ‘You definitely should,’ Will said. ‘You should ask him now.’

  ‘Actually, I think I will!’ Deirdre giggled and sped off to speak to Ruairí. Will immediately turned and ran back to the grate.

  ‘Will!’ Arthur whispered. Will ignored him, falling to his knees by the grate once more.

  ‘Come back!’ Ash called. He looked up at them and, without another word, pried the grate cover from the ground. He winked, then climbed down the ladder into the blackness.

  ‘Come back, Will!’ Ash hissed again. She and Arthur ran to the hole and looked down. They could just make out the top of Will’s head as he descended the rungs of the ladder. His head seemed to fade, taken by the darkness. ‘Will!’