Silver slept long and deeply and she did not dream. She woke at dawn, which here on the Einstein Line was not one dawn, but three, because Philippi had three moons and three suns.
The three suns rose on the three horizons and made a triangle of pink clean light. The Star Road stretched in the distance.
She found her duffle coat and felt in the pockets. The chain-mail gloves were still there, and the little double-headed axe she had stolen from the Tower of London. True, she had lost the diamond pin, but she had Micah’s map, his medallion, and the two pictures from the face of the Timekeeper. She pulled them out of their little jute bag and looked at them. They would help her remember what she had to do.
At the Caffè Ora, the breakfast business was bustling. When Ora saw Silver was awake, she gave her toast and eggs and orange juice. The cat Dinger was sitting up washing his face with his paws.
‘He’s alive!’
‘I told you that last night …’
‘Yes … did you find out anything about my friend Gabriel?’
Ora’s face was grave. She looked away and started stroking the cat. Silver felt her heart beating too fast.
‘What’s happened?’
‘It’s too late, Silver.’
‘What do you mean? Where is he?’
‘He’s lost. There’s a place … oh, it’s not a place as you understand it – it’s more an absence of place, a void.’
‘What place?’
‘It’s hard to explain –’
‘I WANT TO KNOW!’ Silver was shaking with fear and anger. Ora went to touch her, but Silver pulled away. ‘Just explain.’
Ora nodded. ‘All right. Well, our galaxy is called the Milky Way. At the centre of the Milky Way is something called a Black Hole. You can’t see it, because it has no light, but you can sense it, because of the force it exerts. If anyone falls into a Black Hole they don’t come out again.’
‘Why not?’
‘Light travels at 300,000 kilometres a second, yes?’
Silver nodded. She knew that.
‘And nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, you know that?’
Silver nodded again. Ora looked down at her hands and continued.
‘So, a Black Hole is black because even light can’t travel fast enough to escape the force of gravity in there. You need to get some speed up to escape gravity. Even to get out of Earth’s gravity, a rocket needs to travel at 25,000 miles an hour. Your friend would have to travel faster than light to get himself out of the Hole he’s in.’
‘Is he dead?’
‘No one knows what happens inside a Black Hole.’
‘But we have to find out! We have to help him!’
‘We can’t, Silver. No one can.’
‘Well, where is this Black Hole?’
‘They took him back to Checkpoint Zero. There’s a way into the Hole by the Atomic Fence. Once you are in the Hole, there is no way out.’
Someone shouted for Ora from the bar, and she had to leave Silver on her own. Silver sat down and tried to think clearly.
Gabriel couldn’t be dead – and if he was dead it was her fault. She had brought him on this journey, when he had been happy with his clan and his kind, living underground.
She concentrated hard and tried to send him a Mind Message. She called his name – ‘GABRIEL!’ She felt the thought go out, but into darkness and silence, no, not silence, into a wind. She sent the message again – ‘GABRIEL!’
He couldn’t hear her.
She was filled with anger at Regalia Mason. No, he had not been Deported. No, she personally had not harmed Gabriel, but Gabriel had been harmed. She had told Silver the truth and lied all the way through the truth, like when someone poisons the water supply.
There was a tapping on the window. It was Toby.
‘Found you!! Bin lookin’ for you all places! You disappeared afta the hospital. You in trouble, yeah? Where’s Gabriel?’
‘He’s in a Black Hole.’
‘Wot?’
‘I don’t know. They took him back to Checkpoint Zero.’
‘We – the kids ’n’ me – all goin’ there today to be scanned ’n’ stuff. We bein’ Deported, yeah.’
‘Today?’
‘Yeah, weird, but after you went off, then some police came and asked about you, but we said we just seen you wanderin’ about. My mum told me never to tell the police nothin’.’
‘When are you leaving, then?’ asked Silver.
‘Dunno – today, that’s all they say.’
‘Can I come with you?’
‘Why?’
‘I have to get back inside Checkpoint Zero.’
Silver felt sure that Gabriel was still alive. She took out the medallion Micah had given her, and closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could.
‘Micah! It’s Silver. If you can hear me, please help Gabriel. I’m coming to find him. Tell him that I’m coming to find him.’
Deep under the earth on Earth, Micah heard Silver as he sat cross-legged in his trance. He tightened his hold on Gabriel; he was using his last strength. They both were.