In the Shadow of London

by Chris Ward

  ‘My baby….’

  ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened to him. I tried to find out.’ Raine sniffed. It wasn’t a lie. Mika had found no trace of what had happened to Sally’s unborn baby. ‘Let me help you. You don’t have to fight for them any longer. I have friends who can help you. Just give me my baby and let’s go.’

  Jake cooed. The Huntsman reached out a finger and rubbed his forehead, growling with affection. Raine swallowed down a sob. It was a hideous sight, yet at the same time strangely maternal. This creature had suffered more than Raine could imagine.

  ‘Please. Come with me and we can stop what happened to you from happening to anyone else ever again.’

  She truly believed it. She had thought David a crackpot with his talk of revolution, but now she wasn’t so sure.

  ‘Na….’

  The Huntsman lifted its head. Raine gasped at the sight of the human eyes behind the snarling dog’s snout. Wires, scars, and the trauma of years of captivity couldn’t disguise that they belonged to a woman, one who had once dreamed of becoming a mother.

  ‘Na….’

  Was the Huntsman saying no? Raine took a step forward as the creature pushed back her hood. The scraggly remains of greying hair tufted from between scar tissue and wires.

  ‘Name….’

  Raine nodded. ‘You are Sally. Sally Winter. My name is Raine Baxter. And my baby’s name is Jake. Come with me, Sally, please.’

  Sally stood up, towering over Raine, Jake cradled in her arms. The baby looked unharmed, and even seemed to be smiling. Sally, her eyes brimming with tears, held Jake out. Raine rested the clawboard on a cupboard by the door and reached out with both hands to take her baby.

  ‘Thank you. Oh God, thank you.’

  Nothing had ever felt better than to hold her son again. She was crying uncontrollably, tears streaming down her cheeks as she stroked the side of his face. He cooed at her, one chubby hand reaching up to hold on to her arm with a strength that was surprising.

  ‘Mummy’s here,’ she whispered. ‘Mummy won’t let go of you again—’

  Her words died in her throat as an arm snaked around her neck. Someone powerful pulled her back towards the door as the baby was dragged out of her hands. She screamed as she looked up into the single human eye of a woman with a metal plate across half her face, the rest of it a crisscross of scar tissue broken by a sneer. A computer eye flickered red, then Raine was falling across the room, her face smarting from the sting of a hand that was barely human.

  ‘Dreggo….’ Sally growled behind her.

  The side of Raine’s face struck the wall and she rolled over, dazed, her vision taking a moment to steady itself. The sight that greeted her was a hellish nativity with her baby in the middle. Beside the woman stood a creature so tall it had to stoop to fit into the room. It had one arm around David’s neck. Blood from a head wound dribbled down his face as he kicked and struggled, his lips working soundlessly as he fought for air.

  ‘How delightful to reunite with one’s family,’ Dreggo said. ‘I’m so sorry to break up the party, but it’s time you Tube Rider scum got what’s coming to you.’

  ‘They were … waiting for … us,’ David gasped, as the creature lifted him up and tossed him aside as though he weighed no more than paper. He struck the wall with a grunt, slumping to the ground, where he lay gasping for air. As he pushed himself up into a sitting position, for an instant Raine saw him smile as he slipped a hand into his pocket.

  ‘Such a pretty little thing,’ Dreggo said, stroking Jake’s face. ‘Such a shame that the spawn of a Tube Rider deserves to die in the gutter like a drowned rat.’

  She turned towards the door, lifting Jake up in one hand as she did so. Raine scrambled forward but it was Sally who moved first, claws flashing as she leapt at Dreggo’s back. The other Huntsman turned, but David whipped his hand around and the creature gave a jerking spasm as it fell to the ground. Limping, David jumped up, grabbing Raine’s clawboard as he reached the doorway just in front of her.

  The sound of something crashing down the stairs made Raine scream, then the shadow standing at the top turned, and she saw Sally, a deep gash on her face leaking blood down her neck, holding out Jake.

  ‘Leave,’ she growled. A clawed, furry hand that had two fingers twisted out of shape lifted to point down the landing. ‘Back stairs….’

  David steered Raine in front of him, pushing her clawboard under her arm. ‘Go,’ he said. ‘Back the way we came. I’ll catch you up.’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  He grimaced. ‘To finish this.’

  The threat of the DCA had been the cover for the real trap. Crouched in the doorway, watching for signs of approaching enemies, David hadn’t even seen the tall Huntsman until it had grabbed him from behind. With no chance to fight, within seconds he was held by razor sharp claws which threatened to shred his body like old rags if he struggled.

  The metal-faced woman herself had appeared out of another room, and together they had gone upstairs.

  Now Sorel had disappeared. David didn’t wait to see if the larger one had recovered from the shock. He vaulted over the banister, landing halfway down the stairs, just as a dazed Dreggo came stumbling back up towards the landing, her silhouette illuminated by the streetlight outside.

  David didn’t hesitate. He threw himself towards her, letting her take the full brunt of their fall as they landed in the rubble beside the door. David scrambled to his fallen clawboard and swung it around as Dreggo’s hand closed over his ankle.

  Her grip was like a metal vise, but as the clawboard’s hard metal connected with her face, she groaned and let go.

  ‘You’ll never break our spirit,’ he snarled at her. ‘The Tube Riders will always fight for our country’s freedom.’

  ‘You don’t know how bad it can get for you,’ she hissed back, lunging forward again, as David twisted the board around and executed the electromagnet. The metal part of Dreggo’s face clanged against it, and David swung it hard, slamming her back into the wall.

  As she slumped sideways, unmoving, he climbed to his feet and staggered out of the front entrance.

  He had gone no than a few steps down an overgrown path when a strong hand reached up to drag him down behind a low wall at the front of the property. Jowls drew back to reveal teeth that glistened.

  ‘They come,’ Sorel growled. Something silvery glinted in her hands. A crossbow.

  He wasn’t dead, which meant Sorel was on his side. With a nod, he lifted his clawboard and activated the explosives, ready to do whatever was necessary to give Raine time to get away.

  Two black vans appeared at the far end of the street, cutting off the road exit. Doors opened and several men climbed out. Two ran forward and crouched in the road with guns raised, trained on the house.

  ‘What now?’ David said. ‘Back?’

  ‘Raine … baby … back,’ the Huntsman growled, shaking its head.

  David nodded. Their job now was to draw the fire from Raine. Even if it meant—

  The sound of moving masonry came from behind them. David turned as the tall Huntsman stepped out of the entrance, holding Dreggo against its side. David didn’t hesitate, releasing a grenade that missed them by inches, detonating against the wall above the door. Chunks of rock cascaded down, knocking them both to the ground.

  David pulled the board back around, adjusted the settings, and fired a second grenade in the direction of the DCA vans.

  An explosion struck the van to the left, blowing it onto its side. DCA men dived for cover. David pointed at an alley between two houses and screamed at the Huntsman to follow as he bolted out across the road.

  Gunfire rattled the tarmac around his feet as he ran. He held the board up in front of him like a shield, feeling it rattle as a bullet ricocheted off. Behind him the Huntsman howled as a bullet found a mark. David stopped and turned back as Sorel dropped into a crouch, her crossbow coming up, loosing off a bolt towards the DCA.


  ‘Come on!’ he shouted, as another bullet struck the Huntsman in the chest, making her stagger. Nearby, someone was screaming at the DCA to hold their fire. David dashed back towards the creature, his board by his side, no longer caring about the bullets hitting the road around him. Two more shots struck Sorel, and David felt sure he was being deliberately missed. The Huntsman, however, was fading.

  David crouched down at her side and lifted the board in front of Sorel’s face. The eyes of an old woman looked up at him over a bloodied dog’s snout.

  ‘Protect … baby,’ she muttered, then pushed the board away and staggered to her feet. David stared as Sorel raced towards the DCA marksmen, dropping and rolling, dancing from side to side even as a hail of bullets jerked her body. Someone behind him was still screaming for them to stop, but it was too late. The Huntsman howled one last time, then fell to the street and lay motionless.

  As the gunfire ceased, David realised it was Dreggo who was screaming. She stood uncertainly in the ruins of the house entrance, leaning on the tall Huntsman for support, her hands cupped around her mouth.

  Still standing in the middle of the road in front of the house, in full view of the DCA marksmen, David felt forgotten. Then, with a snarl that chilled his blood, the towering Huntsman that had stood as Dreggo’s guard dropped into a crouch and bounded forward.

  With his heart thundering, David raced for the alleyway, already feeling the razor sharp claws set to rip his body apart, piece by bloody piece.

  43

  Rescue

  The thrill of zipping through the tunnels stuck like a silver stain to the side of the Underground trains was greater even than Airie’s fear as black, oily walls came so close that at one point they shredded the light jacket she wore. When she reached Hampsted, she spun and fired the grapnel around a tall spotlight post before dismounting and executing a tired swing that left her panting and exhausted on the station edge. She felt as though she had already run the race of her life. Knowing that David was still out there and in danger drove her back to her feet, where she stood shakily with the clawboard hanging by her side.

  ‘What are you?’ one old commuter asked, clutching a tatty briefcase against his chest.

  Airie grinned. Covered in blood and dirt and with her clothes hanging off her in strips, she could only imagine what she looked like.

  ‘I’m a Tube Rider,’ she gasped, trying not to sound hysterical even though she felt it.

  Before the man or anyone else could reply, she jumped down to the tracks vacated by the departing train and climbed up on the other side by the exit. Slinging the board over her shoulder, she hurdled the turnstiles in front of a surprised ticket officer and ran out on to the street.

  She had gone no more than a few steps when someone hailed her, and she turned to see a gun coming up in the arms of a DCA agent standing by the only car in the parking area.

  In one swift motion, Airie pulled a knife from her belt and flung it in the man’s direction. The knife missed by some distance, but it was enough to make him duck for cover. Airie turned and sprinted down the main street, a fresh burst of adrenaline pushing her on.

  The street lights were intermittent, and while the roads were far clearer than those in central London, there were still piles of trash and the occasional abandoned vehicle to block her passage. Where the road was darkest, Airie resisted the urge to switch on her board’s flashlight. After ignoring Mika’s warning about the battery the power was now dangerously low. She picked her way carefully through the junk, thankful to have a chance to recover her breath.

  When she reached the end of the street, she crouched down behind a stand of bushes and pulled the board across her lap. She had played around with the functions while waiting for a train, and while much of it was too complicated, some parts she understood. One function simply said LOCATE. She had clicked on it, thinking it was a GPS map of the city, but two flashing green dots far to the north had revealed themselves as the other two clawboards, David and Raine. She had watched them for a while, then panicked when one blinked off, only to appear again a few minutes later. The system only worked when the boards were switched on, she realised.

  She had stopped during the journey to check, seeing the two dots gradually getting nearer. Now, she should be right on top of them.

  The screen flickered into life. Airie used the touch-screen to expand the map. One dot was a couple of streets away, sitting stationary, the other was moving rapidly in her direction. She looked up as a running figure hurried into view. The clawboard was tucked under the figure’s arm, the glow of its touch-screen just visible in the gloom. Airie started to stand just as the figure reached the orange circle cast by a streetlight.

  Airie ducked back down behind the bushes.

  Raine.

  They were separated. She watched Raine hurrying for the station. She was running awkwardly, something pressed against her chest. So, they had found the baby, but where was David?

  She looked back at her map. The other dot was moving quickly now, angling away. If she headed straight and was quick, she could cut it off.

  Slinging the board over her shoulder, she raced after David, praying that she wasn’t too late.

  David knew from the start that he had no chance. With barely a hundred-metre start on the Huntsman, it would chase him down with ruthless efficiency. All he could possibly hope to do was lead it as far from Raine as possible. The suburbs around Bell Close were a warren of quaint houses encircling dead-ends, interconnected with dozens of winding alleyways. A short distance to the north rose a couple of apartment blocks, so David headed that way, hoping the close confines of the corridors might give him a chance to use the clawboard as a weapon.

  He had one grenade left.

  A stand of trees came up on his left, and he darted into it, desperately hoping that the scent of vegetation might throw the Huntsman off. The grass quickly thickened around his legs, but he had gone no more than a few yards before he heard the growl of his pursuer. Up ahead, the trees opened out onto the edge of a pond, thirty feet across. A path led around it to either side. David didn’t let himself think. He jabbed a finger at the clawboard control, pressed GRAPNEL, pointed it towards a tree across the pond, and fired.

  The wire raced out, the grappling hook catching over a branch. As heavy breathing came at his shoulder he pressed RETRACT and the wire whizzed, dragging him forward into the water. Something sharp scratched his ankle as he twisted the board sideways and used it to aquaplane across the pond’s surface. The far shore hit him hard, and he jabbed RELEASE on the grappling hook just before the retracting wire dragged his face across a cluster of ornamental rocks.

  He rolled over as the grapnel fell from the tree and fed back into the board. A dark shadow was already racing around the side of the pond, but he had given himself a few vital extra seconds. He shoved himself to his feet and ran for the dark apartment block on the other side of the trees.

  It was a government compound. A guardhouse stood dark and silent, but lights shone in several of the windows of the nine storeys as he sprinted across a courtyard towards the main entrance. He was within fifty feet of the doors when large sensor lights came on, illuminating the courtyard in a pallid glow. An amplified voice called out for him to halt but he paid it no heed, lifting the board in front of his face to protect himself against the expected gunfire.

  Two guards appeared as he reached the doors. David deployed the grapnel again and the wire hooked itself over a balcony two floors off the ground. A bullet pinged off the wall in a puff of dust as he retracted the wire and rose up the side of the building, squeezing his eyes shut against the sudden space beneath his feet.

  The guards’ shouts receded beneath him as he hauled himself over the balcony. The room inside was dark. David rammed the clawboard against the lock on the balcony door until the metal bent enough for him to slide it open. As he stepped into the apartment, he switched on the clawboard’s light. The place was empty, the rooms politely furnished wit
h tables and chairs but with no signs of an occupant. He ran to the door and pulled back a heavy deadbolt, stepping out on to a thin, well-lit corridor. Closed doors lined the walls on either side. As he ran left, heading away from the main entrance, he saw name plates beside some, while others were blank.

  At the end of the corridor he found a bank of elevators. As he pressed the button for up, the doors on one slid open. David braced himself to run, then gasped as a familiar figure stepped out.

  ‘Airie? What the hell?’

  She ran over to him, and before he could stop her, she reached up and planted a kiss on his lips. ‘I thought you might need some help.’

  ‘How did you find me?’

  ‘The boards. Their signals are linked.’

  Despite everything, he found himself grinning. ‘It’s fucking sorcery,’ he said.

  Another elevator was rising. David dropped to his knees and readied the grenade, but the doors slid open on an empty space. He took Airie’s hand and pulled her inside.

  ‘The roof,’ he said, pressing the control.

  ‘David, wait!’

  Too late, the doors had closed. Airie reached out a hand and punched the emergency stop button. A siren blared as they jerked to a stop. David frowned at her, but Airie pointed to the ceiling and gasped, ‘David, look!’

  A square maintenance hatch was slightly ajar. David fumbled for a weapon function as Airie jammed her clawboard into the crack between the doors and twisted it, jerking them open.

  They had stopped halfway between floors. A wall of bare concrete rose to waist height. Above it was a dark corridor. Airie jumped up through the gap, then turned and reached out for David.