In the Shadow of London

by Chris Ward

  David tried to crawl forward but the sound was mind-numbing, like something was burrowing into his spine and dissecting him from the inside out. He shut his eyes—or tried to—and pulled his hands over his head.

  Then fingers were touching him, dragging him forward. He looked up into the face of a girl he was sure he knew, but now her face was framed by smoke, almost disembodied, floating in front of him. Lips moved, but no sounds came over the spine-tingling squeal.

  His legs worked, though. He staggered through the smoke after the girl, saw the spectre of a man appear in front of them, and saw the girl mow him down with the swing of something hard and metallic.

  Then a door was between them and the others, and the smoke had stopped and the squealing was dying down.

  ‘My god, he made a mess of you.’

  The voice sounded a thousand miles away. When he opened his mouth to respond, a searing pain raced up the side of his face.

  Mika. It was Mika. He remembered her now. She led him down the corridor and into a grand old ballroom with a towering, ornate ceiling.

  She lifted a hand to tell him to stop. ‘Hold on,’ she said, pulling a clawboard up in front of her and pointing it up at the ceiling. ‘Don’t let go of me.’

  She released the grapnel and the wire fired out, catching on the edge of a skylight far above. Mika glanced at David, then pressed the retract button. They rose up quickly just as people rushed into the hall below.

  David stared at the electromagnetic head of the magnet sticking to the corner frame of the skylight. It was just a magnet that was holding them up; they could plummet at any moment. He hung on as Mika pushed open the skylight and told him to climb up onto the roof.

  People had spotted them now. David’s ears were still ringing from the strange sound, and his whole face ached. He didn’t dare to answer, he just reached up and pulled himself through, then lowered an arm to help Mika climb out. She switched off the electromagnet and the grapnel fell loose. As shouting began below, David pushed the skylight shut.

  The ornate roof of the old Houses of Parliament stretched out around them like the top of a decaying wedding cake, all spires and pirouettes and balustrades. In places it had been damaged, and they carefully stepped around gaping holes as they hurried in a westwards direction counter to the languid flow of the Thames stretching away in front of them.

  David massaged his jaw as they moved, running his fingers along the bone, wincing at the pain. It didn’t seem to be broken, but it felt like it. One of his eyes was closing, and his upper lip was caked with blood.

  ‘We should have seen that coming,’ Mika said. ‘I could tell that Lindon wasn’t into Tim’s plans. I never thought he’d kill him though.’

  David forced his jaw to work. ‘Tim’s dead?’

  Mika nodded. ‘I got away, but barely. I’d guess the revolution is on hold.’

  ‘What happened back there?’

  Mika held up her clawboard. ‘Smokescreen. One of Rick’s features. The other was a sonic inhibitor.’ She grinned. ‘I added that.’

  They reached the end of the roof. Mika attached the grapnel electromagnet to the metal frame of an old radio aerial. ‘You take it,’ she told David. ‘You’re stronger than me.’

  ‘Not sure I’d believe that,’ he said, wrapping his hands through the rubber straps. ‘But let’s see.’

  They abseiled down the sloping ornamental roof to a promenade that ran along the side of the Thames.

  ‘We have to hurry. They’re coming.’

  Men were running towards them from both directions. David retracted the grapnel while Mika ran over to the edge of the promenade and peered down at the water.

  ‘We’re trapped,’ she said.

  ‘No, we’re not. I just hope this thing doesn’t weigh us down. Come on.’

  He pulled her towards the edge of the river. A walkway led down to the water’s edge. A handful of rotting rowboats bobbed in the water, but none looked seaworthy.

  ‘What do we do now?’

  ‘We’re going in,’ David said.

  They held hands as they jumped into the water. As the current began to pull them away from the side, David grabbed hold of an old rowboat and pulled it after them. It broke from its rotten mooring with a dull crack. David turned it around in front of them to shield them from the men on the promenade.

  ‘Hold on to me.’

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘We’ll worry about that if we make it.’

  Surrounded by the lapping waters, with the pungent scent of rotting wood filling his senses, David concentrated on Mika’s hand looped over his and keeping the remains of the boat between them and the riverside.

  ‘Kick,’ he said. ‘We need to get out into the current.’

  ‘Can they see us?’

  ‘I’m guessing not. They have guns, right?’

  The current was getting stronger. David tried to peer around the edge of the rowboat, but he risked letting go. Instead he pulled it closer, the wood leaning over their heads like a shelter against the world.

  A couple of minutes later the river carried them beneath Westminster Bridge. As they floated along in the middle, the river felt so vast. David stared at the buildings that rose up on either side.

  ‘I imagine it used to be so beautiful,’ he said.

  Mika didn’t answer.

  It felt like they were in the water forever, but finally they drifted close enough to the far bank for David to fire the grapnel around an old mooring post. The board reeled them in to the shore with a tired whir.

  As they stood shivering on an old launching platform, David turned the board over in his hands. ‘Waterproof?’

  ‘Seems like it. We’d better get it cleaned up though. What happened to yours?’

  ‘I stashed it.’

  ‘Good. We’ll need it.’

  ‘What do we do now? The Tank’s no longer with us I gather.’

  Mika stared out at the river. ‘This is over, David. There’s no more revolution.’ Her voice hung with defeat. ‘If we stay in London we’ll be hunted. We have to get out, and we have to take these boards. Rick Spacewell knew about the Tube Riders, but he didn’t build them for you, or Raine, or anyone else in London. He built them for Marta Banks. We have to take them to her.’

  ‘Did he say where she is?’

  Mika shook her head. ‘No, but I have an idea.’

  ‘I know a man who can get us out of the city. I’ve arranged for him to take Raine and Jake. They’re leaving at four p.m. tomorrow, just as everything kicks off. While the guards are distracted.’

  ‘Just Raine and Jake?’

  David looked down. ‘They think I’m going with them.’

  ‘But you’re not?’

  ‘I was planning to send Airie. If I can free her. I owe her, Mika. This is my fault. All of it. Right from the start.’

  She put a hand on his arm. ‘You’re wrong,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t matter what you did. There’s only one person who deserves any blame for everything, and he’s sitting up in his ivory tower looking down at us with a look of contempt on his face.’

  ‘How do we stop him?’

  ‘We can’t. But we can stop a whole lot of people from dying.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘We jailbreak my sister. There can’t be an execution without someone to execute.’

  ‘We have no idea where she is, and even if we did, there’s no way we could get to her.’

  Mika gave him a grim smile. ‘There, you’re wrong again. At least I hope you are. You’ve forgotten that I spent six years as the Governor’s head jailor. I know how those hellholes work. I managed to get out of one, and I’m pretty sure it would be a whole lot easier to get back in.’

  54

  Burial

  ‘Tell her to wait. I have other things to deal with first.’

  Wade nodded and went out. Lindon sighed. The dust had barely settled before Dreggo had come slinking around wanting a progress report. She was the last pe
rson he wanted to see, especially after the Tube Rider and the scientist had escaped. She wanted the blood of someone on her hands, but his bargaining tools were gone. Still, the Tank was secure again, the dirty stench of the UMF driven out.

  The people were already hailing him as leader. He had gangs out searching the riverbank for David and Mika, but here inside the old parliament buildings his rule was absolute.

  It felt good, but hollow at the same time.

  ‘It’s your turn now, Dreggo,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘I kept my side of the bargain, now you keep yours.’

  He called a handful of his most trusted men together and asked them to keep order while he was gone. Then he headed to Frank’s house. Now he was back in control, he could forgive his grandfather enough to see Cah. All he needed was a few minutes to tell her everything would be all right.

  The street was dark when he arrived, and unusually quiet. He had passed the glowing entrances to several drinking dens and gambling pits on the way, heard the rumble of incendiary laughter and the boom of stirring voices. He had done what he could to stem the bloodshed, but he could do nothing for those people doomed to march on Parliament Tower tomorrow.

  No matter. With the Tank safe, only one person mattered.

  Bringing his hand up to knock felt like lifting an iron ball. Even at the last moment his inclination was to run away, to leave Cah and his grandfather alone. Too many dark thoughts circulated in his head, not least of what he had done to secure Cah’s ticket back to life. Dreggo’s taint was like a tattoo on his body, a snakeskin he could never shed.

  The heavy knocker seemed to send a shockwave echoing through the streets.

  ‘It’s me. Lindon. Open the door.’

  There was no response for so long he began to believe his grandfather had gone out, rare though that was. He was just turning away when he heard the familiar screech of Frank’s deadbolts being drawn back.

  As the door swung open he waited for the usual barrage of insults, but Frank stood there in a dressing gown, so drawn he could have been an animated corpse. He gave a slight shake of his head.

  ‘Cah…?’

  ‘You were gone too long, boy. I’m sorry.’

  Lindon pushed past him, bounding up the stairs three at a time. He crashed through the door into Cah’s bedroom and switched on the light.

  ‘No….’

  His knees hit the floor as the strength fled from his body. He scratched at the side of his face at the sight of her, lying on her back, her eyes closed, a sheet pulled up to her chest. There was no colour left in her. Her cheeks were so sunken and her lips so thin it was as if she had begun to fade away.

  ‘When?’ he croaked.

  He heard the door open behind him and Frank stump into the room. ‘Yesterday,’ he said. ‘I tried to find you. Sent people. You hid yourself well, boy.’

  Lindon stood up. He ran a hand down Cah’s face, gasping at how cold she felt. ‘I have to get her to Dreggo,’ he said, leaning down to lift her up.

  The wooden cane that thwacked across his back stung like a whip. He turned to see Frank’s eyes blazing.

  ‘Don’t ever speak that name in my house, boy. I don’t know what you’ve done or where you’ve been, but I didn’t raise you to be one of them.’

  ‘I can save her.’

  Frank threw the cane aside and put a hand on Lindon’s arm. ‘Not even the Governor can save her now, boy. She’s gone, and she ain’t coming back.’

  ‘Where’s the box? What did this?’

  Frank laughed. ‘Oh, that. You really need to see it? You sure?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Frank bent down by a chest of drawers and slid the bottom one open. Blood pounded in Lindon’s brain as his grandfather took out the little metal tin. His ancient hands held it up to Lindon.

  ‘What was she taking?’ he muttered as he snatched the tin and pulled off the lid.

  ‘The same as the rest of us. Nothing but good clean London air.’

  Lindon unfolded the picture. He stared at it, his heart beating in his mouth. One hand ran over his scalp.

  ‘You should have been here,’ Frank said. ‘That wasn’t the only thing she lost. You should have been here. She talked to me but she should have talked to you.’

  ‘You betrayed me. You knew the UMF had control of the Tank.’

  Frank sighed. ‘An old man like me knows a lot of things, boy. Doesn’t mean I can make a difference. That’s up to the youngsters, like you. I brought you up to be strong, but I also brought you up to be wise. Use your head, Lindon. It’s never too late.’

  Lindon threw the metal box away. He held the photo so tight in his hands that the picture began to peel away from the film. Soon there would be nothing left, no record that Cah or the family they could have had together had ever existed.

  ‘There’s one thing you can do, boy,’ Frank said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Avenge her. Some way, somehow … make a difference.’

  His arms were aching by the time the grave was deep enough. Frank stood beside him in the pattering rain, an old umbrella over his shoulder, the glowing paraffin lamp shielded from the view of others by his feet. Lindon leaned back on the spade and looked around at the churchyard, its stone lintels just shadows in the darkness. It was a good place, a quiet place.

  ‘It’s ready,’ he said.

  Cah was wrapped in a blanket on the ground between them. It was an unfair way to treat a girl he considered the first and only love of his life, but her body was safer in the ground than out. His chest heaved with each thrust of the shovel, but she was gone and no amount of misery or grief would bring her back.

  ‘Do you want me to help?’ Frank said.

  Lindon shook his head. ‘I appreciate the gesture, but I think I can manage. Can you give me a couple of minutes?’

  Frank shrugged. ‘Sure.’

  Lindon waited until his grandfather had vanished into the shadows by the back wall of the church. Then he knelt down beside Cah’s body. He tried to think of something profound to say, something that would send her off in the right way, but no words would come. Despite the rain, this wasn’t some romantic bullshit out of a fairy story. Cah was dead, and it was too late to say whatever had needed to be said.

  He slid his arms under her and lifted her up. Then, climbing down into the pit, he bent to lay her down.

  He was on one knee when he paused. He pulled the stiff body close to him, and finally the tears came.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered.

  55

  Entering

  At the sight of the unwieldy figure stumping up the slope of the bridge towards her, Raine stared. The man looked too fat to move, great rolls of body swaying beneath loose-fitting clothes as he huffed his way up the gentle incline. David was late, and for anyone else she would have made a subtle retreat, but this man looked too harmless to bother. She turned and looked out towards the river, waiting for him to pass.

  ‘Raine?’

  She started at the sound of her name, freezing in place. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘I’m your ticket out of here. Benny Maxwell, friend of David’s. He not mention me?’

  Realisation dawned on her. ‘I remember. You’re not … what I expected.’

  Benny laughed. ‘Ain’t that the truth and some.’

  ‘And I was expecting to come to you.’

  ‘Change of plan. Where’s the kid? We have to go. Now.’

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Do I not look like I got here as quick as I can? We don’t have much time.’

  His face was soaked with the kind of grimy, salty sweat it was hard to work up beneath London’s chilly skies. ‘Follow me,’ she said.

  Benny, despite huffing like an old steam locomotive, moved quickly for a man of his size. When they came in sight of the compound, Benny waved her forward. ‘Bring the kid and any weapons you have. I’ll wait here. Be quick now.’

  Something in his tone told her there was no time even
for a reply. She gave a quick nod, then ran off, trying not to let her panic show.

  ‘She could be armed. Stay alert.’

  The group of men standing around Wade nodded, then quickly spread out as they headed into the compound. The guards had disabled the automatic locking system on all the doors on Lindon’s command, but the place was eerily silent as they crept through the dim concrete corridors.

  Up ahead, the corridor filled with muzzle flashes and a roar of sound as one of the men opened fire through an open doorway. As the dust died down, Wade ran to catch up, and found two of them standing over a bloodied corpse.

  ‘He tried to attack us.’

  ‘You fucking idiot. We’re looking for a woman.’

  The man stared up at him with eyes full of fear. ‘I didn’t—’

  ‘A woman and a child,’ he said. ‘We’re looking for a woman and a child.’

  The man’s nostrils flared like a frightened horse. Wade gave him a pat on the shoulder and waved him forward.

  Raine’s rooms were empty. Wade swore as he stood in the doorway while his men searched every nook and cranny.

  One of them held up what looked like a piece of rag. He held it out in front of him and wrinkled his nose. ‘It fucking stinks,’ he said. ‘But it’s still fresh.’

  ‘Let’s go,’ Wade said. ‘She can’t have gone far. Fan out, cover every corridor then get out into the streets. She’s carrying a baby. How fast can she run?’

  The walls rattled with the sound of distant gunfire. Wade turned to stare at his men, who looked back at him with expressions of fear and dismay.

  Fast enough, he thought.

  ‘Keep your head down,’ Benny said. ‘I’ll do the looking. They’re not after me.’

  Raine looked down at the gun lying at Benny’s feet, then remembered the dead guards by the entrance. They had always been nice to her, and she found it difficult to believe that they had become the enemy so fast.