by John Booth
That was a laborer’s wage for a year and more. Daisy handed over four five pound banknotes without a word of protest.
“There’s only five sheets of paper, mind,” he warned her.
“That will have to be enough.”
7. Disaster
Tricky and Alice made their way to Soho after leaving school. Tricky used the clocks on various buildings to keep track of the time. He worried that they were going to be late and the clocks did not reassure him, with differences as big as fifteen minutes between them. It was certainly half past five, but it could be as late as quarter to six.
“Slow down, mi feet are killin’ me,” Alice protested. “Mi new shoes are agony.”
“We ain’t got the time.”
“They all’as comes out late, them office workers.”
Tricky disagreed and dragged Alice along as fast as she would allow. It took another ten minutes to reach Mercury House. He stayed on the other side of the road and pulled Alice into the entrance to a small door. Putting his arms around her, he squeezed her to him.
“Not so ’ard. It ain’t a wrestling contest.”
“’ow would I know? I ain’t never canoodled a girl before.”
Alice pulled Tricky’s hands off her. “You ‘as to do it gentle like.” She kissed him on the cheek and Tricky wondered if it was all right to wipe away the saliva as it was a very wet kiss.
“Put your ‘ands ‘ere,” she suggested, moving his hands till they cupped her bottom. “You can squeeze a bit if you wants.”
To his surprise Tricky discovered he did want. It was pleasurable to pull her forward so her groin pressed hard against his.
“I can tells you like it,” Alice said and giggled. She had her arms between their bodies to prevent her face being pulled into Tricky’s chest. They shared this small alcove with the local pigeons and one landed on her back giving her a push.
Tricky’s attention wandered back to the main door of Mercury House. He maneuvered Alice so he could keep watch over her shoulder. A steady stream of people were leaving the building, splitting to right and left as they made their way home. The women he saw wore hats and Tricky wondered how he would recognize the woman he was looking for among all the others.
“You is supposed to show me some attention,” Alice complained. A bird tried to land on top of them and she waved it away.
Tricky moved one hand to her head and tilted it as he kissed her on the mouth, keeping a careful watch on the door across the road as he did so. Alice struggled for a few seconds and then relaxed as she found she could breathe through her nose. Both sets of lips were firmly closed as neither participant wished to do anything so disgusting as touch tongues.
They stopped kissing and moved closer, cheek to cheek. Tricky whispered in Alice’s ear. “I can see the people coming out, but the ladies is wearin’ ’ats.”
“Seen any pretty ones yet?”
“Not as ’ow I’d call pretty. Not like you.”
Alice used her hands to force his head back and kissed him again on the mouth, this time more passionately.
“What was that for?” Tricky asked when she finally let him up for air.
“Nothin’”
That was the moment he spotted the women they were looking for. Despite her hat, there was no mistaking hair so blonde it was close to white, nor how attractive she was, despite the frown on her face.
“We ‘as to go.” Tricky disentangled himself from Alice and took her hand. He dragged her from the door towards the road.
What happened next was about as likely as being struck by lightning. A pigeon landed on Tricky’s hand and he instinctively shook it off. Alice opened her mouth to protest the violent shake and got a mouth full of pigeon wing for her trouble. The sooty feathers tasted awful.
Alice was not the sort of girl that screamed at the slightest thing, but this was just too much. She screamed in panic. Because her mouth was blocked she screamed mentally, broadcasting a cry of panic that shook everybody within a hundred yards of her.
Andrea Wright felt the telepathic force of the scream like a physical blow and for a split second thought that something terrible had happened to her sister. Then the shock of a third mind in her own hit her. Such a thing was impossible.
The security men watching the street went to full alert and pulled out their pistols.
“Back in the building!” someone shouted and those closest the doors crushed against each other trying to get back in. Andrea followed them, glancing from side to side, trying to find where the scream had come from.
“They’ve spotted us,” Tricky said in a panic. In point of fact, they hadn’t, but when he and Alice started to run, they did. Three armed men ran towards them, blocking every way except for down an alley. Tricky and Alice turned and ran for their lives. Alice couldn’t run very fast in her shoes. She was yards behind Tricky when one of the men shouted at them.
“Stop or I’ll shoot.”
Alice stopped, as did Tricky. They turned to find all three men stood rigid, their pistols pointing straight at them. Tricky started to raise his hands.
Alice screamed telepathically, but it wasn’t out of fear, and this time it was accurately targeted. The men dropped their weapons, put their hands to their ears and fell to the ground as consciousness fled.
Tricky walked up to Alice and took her hand.
“I forgot you can do that.”
“I didn’t,” Alice said. The two made good their escape at a walk, Alice limping slightly.
Daisy felt probabilities shift like an earthquake. Futures that had been almost certain became indistinct and unlikely. She had to work to stop from vomiting at the dining table. She was in the Officer’s Mess and it would have been highly undignified.
“Is everything all right, Agent Drew?” Captain Trentwood asked politely.
Daisy took a shuddering breath as the world settled to take up a new set of futures. “I will be fine. A touch of the vapors, nothing more. If you gentlemen will give me leave, I shall return to my quarters.”
Nobody said a word in protest so Daisy left the mess and headed to her room to try and figure out what had just happened.
Most Precogs, even the most powerful, have dreams that might come true. The more intense the event, the closer it is tied to the Precog, the more likely they are to see it and the clearer the vision.
Daisy saw scenes during the day and night, snapshots of possible futures that related to her friends. She had seen a blurry, but intense event, that cut across all her friends’ timelines as the hearings started. This event would bring death and destruction on an industrial scale unless someone could find a way to prevent it. The only thing she was sure of was that the Royal Family was involved, along with Trelawney.
The brightest futures for Dougal all required him to go to America. He would come to her when she needed him most. Tom would be in India when Ebb died unless she sent him to Dougal, in which case Tom and Dougal would come home together.
That was the plan except that now they would not come at all. The most likely future she saw for them was death in an attack by natives. Images of Ebb’s funeral slipped unbidden into her head.
If Tom had come for Ebb and Dougal for her, then Laura would survive. Now she saw Laura’s death in nearly all the possible futures. In one version she was shot wearing the dress she bought for the wedding, in most of the others she was hanged or shot by soldiers. Daisy’s future mirrored Laura’s, though her fate was usually imprisonment for the rest of her life.
All the good futures seemed to have gone. Daisy lay back on her bed and wept.
Arnold wondered why he had been summoned this time. Despite staying and listening to Trelawney’s conversation with Tricky he was no wiser as to what was going on, so there were no secrets to give away even if he wanted to.
At least the morning traffic had been kind and he was early.
Harris ushered him into Baxter’s inner office.
“What do you know about a girl c
alled Alice Short?” Baxter asked as he entered the room. There was no social chitchat and no offer to shake his hand.
“She was one of the children kidnapped and sold to Lord McBride.” Arnold waited for the outburst and curt denial that always followed accusing the late Lord McBride of any crime. It didn’t happen.
“What else?”
“She can broadcast telepathically to non telepaths. I believe she is unique in that talent.”
“You became friends with the child?”
“She was more Tom and Laura’s friend than mine. They saw more of her than I did.”
“You know she is in London, staying at the school we set up for the freaks?”
Arnold was shocked at Baxter’s language. Trelawney would never have said such a thing. “I’m aware there is a school for children with aberrant talents.”
“Have you any idea why she would be interested in Military Magic’s communication centre?” Harris asked impatiently.
Arnold made an effort to keep his face guileless.
“Do you have indigestion man?” Baxter asked. “Why are you pulling faces?”
Arnold tapped his stomach, “Sorry sir, I believe the egg I had for breakfast may have been off.”
There was a pause.
“Well answer the question, Tompkins.”
“Sorry sir, I’ve forgotten what it was.”
Baxter sighed. “Have you any idea why she was at the communications centre?”
“I did not know we had a communications centre, sir.”
Baxter threw his hands up. “Go, leave us. You can’t help.”
“MM1 will keep the telepaths locked in the building so no one can get at them,” Harris said, ignoring Arnold though he was not yet through the door.
“If Short is anything like Tompkins we will not have anything to worry about,” Baxter replied.
Arnold fumed as he left the room. Everyone assumed he was hopeless and yet he had helped save the day at Glen Russell. Trelawney did not fully trust him and now the senior officers in MM3 were not even waiting for him to leave the room before they insulted him. He wanted to show them all, only there was nothing he could do.
Daisy felt possible futures shudder as Arnold left MM3. It was as if something unexpected had almost happened and then changed its mind.
“Alice Short is to go to the Headmaster’s office,” Winslow Becket intoned as he read the message the Headmaster’s secretary brought him. “And where do you think you are going, boy?” This to Tricky, who had stood up as soon as Alice’s name was mentioned.
“He wants me as well, sir. He just does not know it yet,” Tricky’s attempt to speak the Queen’s English drew a few gasps and a smattering of applause from the other children. This died away quickly as Becket’s eyes swept the room, eager for his next victim.
“Well, Mister Hart. Had anybody else said that to me I would have thrashed them until they begged for mercy, but as I am all too well aware of the amour that passes between you, I think you may well be right. You may go with Miss Short as you asked so nicely.”
Tricky grinned before fleeing the room, actually getting out of the door ahead of Alice though she was closer.
“This will be about those men,” Alice said, trying but not succeeding in keeping the tremble out of her voice.
“We don’t know nothin’ about it,” Tricky said quickly.
“It’s easy for you to act stupid. It comes natural.”
“Just a girl and ’er bo. Out seein’ the sights.”
Alice grimaced. “Let me do the talking, Tricky.”
As they feared, two men were in the Headmaster’s office with the Headmaster. Alice recognized one of the men as the man who had yelled at her to stop. Dr Glyn looked extremely harassed.
“That’s the boy that was with her,” the man said.
“Ah, David. So you two must know why you have been summoned.”
“’e tried to rob mi an’ Alice. ’im an’ ’is two ’complices,” Tricky shouted, completely ignoring Alice’s advice. “’as ’im arrested, sir.”
“Mr. Warren is an agent for MM1, David. He can arrest us, not the other way around,” Dr Glyn said, though there was a glimmer of a smile playing on his lips. “Are you claiming this man and his fellow agents assaulted you?”
“Salted us and poured vinegar on top as well,” Alice put in. “We was minding our own business, when they started running at us with guns out an’ everythin’.”
“You screamed earlier?”
Alice looked shamefaced, staring at the floor. “There was this pigeon, flew right into mi mouth.”
Dr Glyn turned to the men. “As I told you before, this was just an accident. The children are not prisoners in the school and often go into the city.”
The man who had not spoken turned to the children and dipped his head to their level. The look he gave them would have curdled milk. “My name is Mr. Beatty. If I see either of you on that street corner or anywhere near the building opposite it, you will be sent to prison for a very long time. Is that understood?”
The children nodded.
“Then our business here is concluded. Good day to you, Dr Thomas.”
At the first break, Tricky and Alice sought out Edith.
“Did you see ’er?” Tricky asked.
“I certainly did. Not to mention you two making such fools of yourselves over a little bird.” Edith smiled at the memory.
“It was a bloomin’ big dirty bird. I ain’t got the taste out of mi mouth yet.”
“Are you sure you are not tasting Tricky? He looked to have his tongue down your throat a couple of times.”
It took Tricky a couple of minutes to break Alice and Edith apart. By then, he was short of breath as the girls could really struggle. “Stop… messin’… about… Ebb’s life is on this.”
Edith looked sad. “Then he is doomed. The woman with the white hair went back into building and they gave her a bedroom at the top of the building. As far as I can tell they intend to keep her there for a long while.”
When Tom arrived for breakfast it was no surprise to find Antonia already there. The two engineers were also present, but there was no sign of Dougal.
“Good morning, good morning,” Baum said cheerfully. “The day is going to be beautiful and Lieutenant Wright is no longer suffering pain from her riding accident. If you have the time, I will show you the workshops where we assembled the aluminium frame for the Hubris.”
Tom returned the greeting. For all that Antonia was no longer in pain; she still looked irritable. Tom wondered what he had done wrong this time.
“Are you well, Antonia?” he asked cautiously. She gave him a brilliant smile in response that set his heart fluttering and caused some stirrings below his belt.
“I am in rude health, thanking you most kindly. However, Andrea is most put out. There was an incident at her place of work and MM1 are insisting she stay in their emergency apartments in the building. She has had to send an agent out to feed our cats.”
“This happened last night?” French asked.
“No, it happened yesterday morning, our time. But she didn’t find out they were going to make her stay for days until a couple of hours ago. It is very difficult to think when your sister is so angry.”
Tom thought about asking her about the incident, but decided that it was probably something secret and he was better off not knowing. He found the closeness between the two girls quite frightening and was beginning to wonder what Andrea had felt when he made love to Antonia. He doubted that the church or his parents would approve.
“Dougal left a message,” Baum told Tom. “If you would be so good as to attend the Hubris when you finish breakfast. He wants to take you up on the next test flight.”
“You have all the fun,” Antonia muttered darkly.
“If any of those Indians cause you any trouble, you remember my guns,” French said cheerfully.
“Indians? Would they not be a long way from home?”
Antonia laughed. “He means the natives. We have Comanche and Arapaho tribes nearby. The United States was going to move them, but since we disputed the territory they have held off. When people tell you the British Empire does nothing good, you tell them we made a small difference here.”
“Why would they cause me any trouble?” Tom still wasn’t sure why anybody had mentioned the natives.
French provided the answer. “A big delegation of them turned up this morning. Apparently the Hubris is an offence to their religion and seeing it floating about has made them angry.”
“We should not offend the locals,” Baum said. “We have offered to let them paint it, so it becomes an offering to their gods rather than offending them. It appears to have worked.”
Tom was feeling lost again. How painting the airship could make it inoffensive was beyond him.
“I think it will look nice,” Antonia offered. “I believe they are going to paint it to look like a coyote.”
“Which is?” Tom prompted.
“A kind of wild dog,” Baum offered.
Trelawney sat sipping brandy at the end of the evening. Belinda was knitting in front of the fire and the sound of her needles clacking together was putting him in a mellow mood. He wondered what Daisy was up to. Hers was a much more proactive version of the talent they shared. Trelawney had been graded as a low level Precog many years ago; he suspected they would classify him as an aberrant talent if they were to test him again.
He experienced bad feelings when something big and nasty was about to happen. Those feelings remained formless and shapeless and he never knew what the future would bring. However, he found that taking certain actions would reduce the intensity of the feeling. The things he did often made no sense. They were purely instinctive on his part.
He would send agents into the field, often against advice, and somehow it would all work out for the best, though many of those agents never came home. He had sent Camilla Burns out into Austria as one of his last acts as Director. Everybody had opposed it, but he knew it was the right thing to do. Arranging his wedding was another such act.
