Two hours later
Barnaby Magellan was screaming in fury and doing his best to climb from the stretcher as the two paramedics tried to load him into the back of the ambulance. ‘Release me at once, you imbeciles! I have to find them!’
‘You’ve had a nasty shock, me old mucker,’ said one of the paramedics.
‘Don’t you worry, the police will find them,’ said the other paramedic. ‘But first we need to get you to hospital and have you checked out.’ He turned to his partner, who was lifting the stretcher into the back. ‘Must have bumped his head.’
The security guard who had been thrown through the front of the building had already been packed off to Accident and Emergency. He had some bad cuts and bruises and had lost some blood, but he would be fine. He’d have a few scars, which was upsetting but hardly the end of the world. It would give him something to talk about down the pub with his mates.
A very tall man strode through the crowds who had stopped to watch the commotion. There were photographers too, reporters and satellite trucks. Barnaby Magellan was news. All kinds of wild rumours were already sweeping the Internet. None was even vaguely true. After all, what had actually happened was far too weird to be believable.
All of that suited the man who was politely making his way to the front of the crowd. Dantalion Marchanby stared at the jagged glass front of the building, then at the snow-covered park. All of the children were out there somewhere Talura and Extolziby, poor deluded Betsy and Joe. London was a huge place. It would be hard to find them if they didn’t want to be found. Part of him wasn’t sure he wanted them to be found. It was the same part of him that wondered whether his and other scientists’ meddling was a good thing. Look at what had happened to the two Beta children. Mankind meddled and God laughed.
He reached up and brushed a tiny snowdrift off his shoulder. He supposed there was no time for such fatalism. God had given him talents and abilities too. If Betsy and Joe caught up with Talura and Extolziby before he did, some or all of them would be badly hurt. Somehow Extolziby had managed to override the switch and reactivate his brain implant. There was Magellan to consider too. He wouldn’t let this rest. Not now. He had been made to look a fool, and if there was one thing guaranteed to enrage a man like him it was looking foolish.
Dantalion stood for a while as the ambulance doors were closed on a still raving Barnaby Magellan. He turned away from the crowd and towards the park. A few minutes later he, too, had disappeared, another ghost walking into the white.
TO BE CONTINUED....