Together.
‘Has he ever said what made him decide to call himself “Spartacus”?’
‘Wha-at?’ Kai refocused himself.
‘Spartacus,’ Bird Girl repeated, ‘your leader. Why did he choose “Spartacus” for his name?’
‘Spartacus was some kind of super-dude slave,’ said Kai. ‘He lived in ancient times and fought as a gladiator. So the name is appropriate. Spartacus bonded the rest of the slaves together. They escaped and he led them in a revolt against their Roman masters.’
‘But…you do know what happened to them in the end?’ As Kai didn’t answer Bird Girl went on, ‘Ultimately Spartacus failed. He was killed. His followers were captured. Most were executed.’
Kai laughed. ‘Well, that’s not going to happen to us. We’ve each got our plans made for when we leave the tunnels.’
‘What are the arrangements for that?’
‘We separate, and then meet Spartacus and Tech in a month’s time to collect further payments from the pay-per-view hits. But on Saturday evening we get the money we’ve made so far. After that share-out the Cage Fighters take their designated routes out of here.’
‘Just like that?’ asked Bird Girl.
‘Why not?’
‘Think about it, Kai. Groups going to the surface together will be noticeable no matter what exits you use.’
Kai reflected for a minute. From the beginning Spartacus had discouraged anyone going above ground. If it was absolutely necessary to do so – when Magog’s special mouth guard had needed replacing, for instance – then it was never more than two people at any one time. For safety’s sake, Spartacus had said. As the days passed it was mainly Kai who went topside as he had issues with being confined. But Kai trusted Spartacus. And Spartacus had faith in Kai. What had he said to Kai before going to help Tech with the edit?
Kai, please don’t let me down again…
As if she’d sensed his thoughts Bird Girl continued, ‘Spartacus uses emotional manipulation to keep people in line. He’s very good at appealing to your sense of decency and making you feel you owe him your unswerving loyalty.’
‘We do owe him,’ said Kai. ‘Every one of the Cage Fighters owes him for helping them get off the streets.’
‘You act as though he’s giving you something for nothing and so you can’t question him.’
‘He’s interested in helping young people who’ve nowhere to go. Spartacus is trying to draw attention to how many kids are living rough.’
Kai became aware that Sarema was listening attentively. Raven was rebellious, but Sarema was the only one who questioned Spartacus on a thoughtful level. She moved closer to them.
‘All of that is Tech’s idea.’ Sarema hardly moved her lips as she spoke. ‘His young sister was a troubled soul. She ran away and was found dead on a London street. Tech wants to help others like her. It’s the reason he is underground doing this work. He sees you fighting in the Cage like a metaphor for how we have to live our lives. That’s why he splices in information on homeless young people. It is Tech who has the strong social conscience, not Spartacus.’
‘How do you know this?’ Kai asked her.
‘Gita and I spend many hours on the monitors. Sometimes when Spartacus is having discussions with Tech he forgets we are there.’
‘After the final fight the Cage Fighters will be carrying money,’ said Bird Girl. ‘More money than you’ve had for years, or ever in your lives. A few of you might save it for the future but one or two won’t be able to resist a spending spree. I know that the body paint worn by Raven, Beowulf and Medusa isn’t permanent – but it makes them recognizable. It will attract attention and you guys could be rounded up in days.’
‘So what? Cage fighting and being in the tunnels may not be strictly legal but it’s not a grave offence. What would they charge us with?’
‘Trespassing on railway property?’
‘Spartacus said they tried that with an Urban Explorer and lost the case,’ said Kai.
‘This is different,’ Bird Girl said stubbornly. ‘You’ve set up an HQ here and are taking part in unlicensed boxing. You’re using electricity without paying. By living underground you could be considered a security risk. If Spartacus really had your best interests in mind he’d not let you go up top when it’s over and stroll about anywhere.’
‘Spartacus was suspicious of you,’ said Kai. ‘But now you’re more suspicious of him.’
Sarema half covered her mouth with her scarf as she poured the tea. ‘Perhaps Bird Girl’s words are wise.’
‘What’s going on here?’ Kai said in exasperation. ‘You guys are the ones with the most to be thankful for, and yet you’re showing the least appreciation.’
‘Outsiders watching what is happening may have a clearer view than those who are living within a situation,’ said Sarema.
‘And there’s the money,’ said Bird Girl.
‘What about the money?’
‘For Spartacus to have set this up and invested so much time and money he must have a plan where he makes more than anyone else.’
‘He’s been quite open about that,’ said Kai. ‘He gets the biggest percentage of the pay-per-views because he bought the supplies and equipment to set up the project. And the bank accounts are in Tech’s name. Money can’t be taken out without him signing a withdrawal slip.’
‘I just think that, for Spartacus to go to all this bother, there has to be a wodge of extra cash coming to him from somewhere,’ said Bird Girl. ‘Also…’ She paused. ‘There’s another thing that’s been troubling me, something a lot more serious…’ Her voice faded.
‘What do you mean by “something a lot more serious” ? Go on.’ Kai was becoming irritated. ‘Tell me. What’s been troubling you?’
‘If I’d not passed his “Tunnel Entrance Exam” in the lock-up, what would he have done with me? What if I hadn’t agreed to come underground and behave myself? I knew too much for him to let me go. What would Spartacus have done with me?’
It was a question that Sarema had asked Kai. What would have become of us if you had not forced Spartacus to take us in? He’d thought Sarema meant if they’d been left in the skip, so he hadn’t replied because he didn’t want to say that Gita would most likely have died and Sarema might have died too if she’d stayed with her sister. Now he realized that Sarema meant: what would Spartacus have done with her and her twin if, after he met them, he didn’t want them in the tunnels? Would he have trusted them not to say anything if he let them go? They knew enough to damage the operation and Spartacus was practically paranoiac about secrecy.
‘You’re thinking about what I’ve said, aren’t you?’ Bird Girl’s eyes were an intense deep grey. ‘And you don’t really know the answer, do you?’
‘Spartacus said he’d lock you up.’ Kai tried to make his voice jokey.
Bird Girl shook her head. ‘That’s what he told me he’d do if I tried to escape when I was underground. Maybe Spartacus said that because he knew that, once I was here, the Cage Fighters wouldn’t stand by and let him harm me in any meaningful way. But what I’m asking is, what would Spartacus have done to me had he decided I was untrustworthy and didn’t have a good reason for coming underground? What if he’d decided that I was trying to investigate and expose his whole operation?’
Kai shook his head. ‘He would have sorted something out.’
Bird Girl dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘To keep me silent his solution might have been absolutely awful.’
‘No!’ Kai replied fiercely. ‘Spartacus is not like that. He wouldn’t do something bad.’ But then he recalled the lock-up. It was very isolated. Anyone held there could have screamed their head off and not been heard. ‘I guess he’d just have shut you in the storeroom for the last two days, like he said he would.’
‘I suppose that’s a relief, then,’ Bird Girl said sarcastically. ‘Do you think he definitely would have let me have access to water and food and toilet facilities?’
‘Yes!’ Kai snapped back at her. ‘Yes he would. He’s very focused on the project, but is basically a kind person. You’re suspicious of him because you don’t know him.’
Bird Girl looked at Kai searchingly. ‘Who does know Spartacus?’
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Kai scraped his chair back and stood up.
‘Going to the loo,’ he said.
The conversation with Bird Girl had upset him and he needed some thinking time. He wanted to talk about it with Raven but she’d disappeared inside her den followed by Leo. He wouldn’t discuss anything like that with Leo present, and he couldn’t bear to go there and have to watch Raven applying wild-orange nail varnish to Leo’s ridiculous talons.
He went to the toilet and then to his den. His brain was beating like a drum. Spartacus was a good guy – his fault was that sometimes, by the way he acted, he sent out the wrong impressions. He’d done it last night when there had been that mix-up with the photographs on Bird Girl’s camera. It seemed as if Spartacus had deliberately deleted them, but actually he’d been working in the background to investigate Bird Girl’s story. He’d sent for Mole and was making sure that Mole had enough supplies from the storeroom to keep Dove and the baby birds alive. That was a genuine act of caring. He wasn’t a calculating and mean person who only pretended to be nice.
Spartacus was not that type of person.
He wasn’t.
Kai clenched his fists so hard that his nails dug into his palms.
Evil Eddy was that type of person. Worming his way into Kai’s mother’s heart and her house. Did it so well that his mum stopped believing her own son and took Eddy’s word for what was happening when she wasn’t there.
Kai tried to tell her that Eddy was lying when he said he spent his days looking for work. Most afternoons, when Kai came in after school Eddy had his friends in drinking and playing computer games. They’d left before Kai’s mum got home and Eddy cleared up the mess, but while they were there they expected Kai to fetch and carry for them, make snacks and wash their dirty dishes.
Kai tried bringing his own friends in but that didn’t suit Eddy. If they sat in the kitchen, Eddy and his mates would sneer at their clothes, talk over their conversation and disagree with what they said. When Kai took his friends to his room Eddy complained that the music was too loud, even though they were listening with their headphones on. After a while his pals stopped coming round. They couldn’t take the constant harassment.
So Kai tried a counterattack. Over several days he took some pics on his phone of the shambles in the living room to show his mum. One evening Kai produced his phone with a flourish: ‘Here’s what goes on in the house when you’re not here, Mum.’ He opened his photo file to find it blank.
Eddy relaxed back in his chair. ‘You don’t mind me having some pals here occasionally, do you, love?’ he asked Kai’s mum.
Kai was left looking as if he was fabricating stories, saying it was more than ‘a few’ pals and that they were there most days. Then Eddy smiled at him in a way Kai found more scary than when Eddy was glaring at him.
Later Eddy hoisted Kai up by the collar, half strangling him.
‘I always run checks on your phone, you little squirt. Don’t think you can outfox me, ’cos you can’t. I’ll be watching your every move.’
After that, what had been a series of running battles with Eddy became all-out war. The bullying started for real. The armlocks and the knock-about ‘let’s toughen Kai up a bit’ sessions escalated. But, in one way, that had helped Kai. His mum saw a notice in the Community Centre and enrolled him in boxing classes. And so Kai learned to defend himself properly. He began to land professional punches and Eddy couldn’t complain.
There were less rough-house sessions but Eddy wasn’t a guy to back off. One day Kai came home to find a special model he’d kept from his childhood bent and broken. It was his own design of Treasure Island, based on the description in Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, and had sat securely on his bedroom windowsill for years. Now it was lying in pieces on the floor. Kai was stunned.
‘Meant to say, I was dusting in here and may have knocked one of your toys over by accident.’ Eddy was lounging in the doorway of his room watching his reaction. ‘Sorry about that.’
Kai swung round. Eddy’s pose altered. His body tensed. His arms hung loose by his side but his hands were balled into fists. His eyes glittered. He was high on something. Whatever it was, Kai knew that it would make Eddy reckless, enough to inflict a bad injury if a fight started.
‘Come ahead, wee man,’ Eddy said in a sinister voice. ‘Time me and you settled once and for all who is king of this castle.’
A coldness descended over Kai’s mind and spirit. Eddy intended to pound him to a pulp. He had to keep his head if he was to avoid ending up in Accident and Emergency. Kai held up his hands, palms out. ‘You know what? You’re right, Eddy. This model is a toy.’ He picked up the ruined Treasure Island that he’d been so proud of, tossed it into an empty shoe box and rammed it under his bed. He didn’t know why he should be embarrassed when he’d done nothing wrong, but he didn’t want his mum to see the destruction. Eddy would say Kai had smashed it up in a bad temper and his mum would believe him.
And that would be the one thing that Kai couldn’t bear. If his mum thought that he’d purposefully break this particular model.
Eddy lingered at the door, unsure how to respond to this change in Kai. ‘Don’t you worry your mother by running to her and telling tales about me,’ he said.
‘Nope.’ Kai tipped his hand to forehead. ‘From now on, Eddy, you’re the boss. You’re king of the castle.’
The slap was so hard it caught the edge of Kai’s teeth.
‘Don’t you ever cheek me again! If you do, there’s plenty more where that came from.’
A stale taste on his lips.
Blood.
In his mouth and on his tongue.
That night, before his mother even asked about his split lip, Kai fabricated a story about how he’d been injured in a boxing bout at the Community Centre. As he was lying to his mum there was a greasy smile of approval on Eddy’s face.
That was the moment when Kai made the decision to leave home.
He sat on his bed in his den and tried to think why his model being broken was his tipping point. Model-making was something he and his mum had done together when he was smaller. Kai could still feel the thrill of excitement when opening a new pack. Carefully laying out the pieces on the kitchen table.
Mum would spread out a newspaper and he’d work and they’d chat while she prepared dinner. She made suggestions on how Kai could expand the template, the smell from the cooker and the satisfaction of creating an object with his own hands giving him a sense of warm contentment.
Right through his childhood and into his teen years they got along great together – until Evil Eddy arrived.
Mum thought it didn’t matter that Eddy wasn’t employed at the moment. Eddy said he’d pay his own way. He had savings, he said. From his business that went bust. It was the recession, he said. But he was looking for work. Hopeful that the right job would turn up.
Eddy kept the garden tidy and did some housework and made a dinner of sorts. But the cooker was never on. It was microwave meals and cold ready-prepared pasta, and then more and more takeaway food, which his mum normally paid for.
And he hated Kai and his mum chatting about their time together before he arrived. Once they were sitting watching a programme on the telly about Ernest Shackleton, the famous Antarctic explorer, when his mum said: ‘Kai, do you remember the model you made of some island to do with Shackleton? What was it called again?’
‘Elephant Island,’ said Kai. ‘It was where Shackleton’s men waited for him to return to rescue them on one of the early polar expeditions when their ship got stuck in the ice.’
‘That’s right!’ Kai’s mum laughed. ‘I always thought it was a funny name for a frozen place, conside
ring elephants live in hot countries.’
‘Parts of the island do look like an elephant. But some people say it got its name because there were elephant seals on it.’ Kai smiled at his mum.
‘Well, I never knew that.’ She disentangled herself from Eddy’s arm around her to ruffle Kai’s hair. ‘You’re my best smart lad.’
‘What’s the matter with you?’ Eddie guffawed at Kai. ‘Are you some kind of weirdo, sitting here talking to your mummy about making models? Why aren’t you in your room like a normal teenager watching YouTube or trawling the Internet?’
Kai wanted to take his Treasure Island model with him when he left, but the shoe box had disappeared from under his bed – Evil Eddy must have flung it out. Kai searched and searched for it, emptying the wheelie bin out over the back garden and examining the rubbish. There wasn’t a trace.
He’d had to leave without it.
Kai put his head in his hands. He was reliving the past, and the bad memories surfaced, crowding out the quiet spaces of his mind with their horrible and stomach-griping fears.
‘Are you quite well, Kai?’
It was Sarema calling softly to him from outside his den.
Kai stood up, swished his washcloth over his face and opened the door.
‘Time for tea?’
Kai managed a smile.
‘Do not fall out with Bird Girl, I beg you.’ Sarema took his arm as they returned to the café. ‘It’s difficult for a person to adjust to living down here, especially if it happens suddenly, and you have no choice in the matter. Also Bird Girl has an added anxiety. Although one is happy to do it, caring for one’s sister can weigh heavily on the soul.’
As usual, Sarema’s observations helped Kai reason things out. Bird Girl was spooked by being underground. It happened to everyone when they first came into the tunnels. It took days to settle in, become accustomed to the enclosed space, the smell of the air and the darkness hovering at the edge of the lit sections. Your senses needed to relearn how to interpret sounds and unsettling sensations you’d never experienced. The elusive vibrations, the muffled thunder of trains far away and the occasional slow change in air pressure as if a giant was turning in its sleep.
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