Theo had never seen a real skeleton before. Until very recently he had only ever really met three people. Now he had encountered several – one of whom he had turned into slime and now this new one who was well and truly dead.
Perhaps death goes on everywhere, all of the time, Theo thought. I just didn’t notice it, being stuck in my room.
Old Magnus had been very much moved. He stood next to the skeleton and spoke softly to it, as if it were still alive.
‘You were a good man, Herbert,’ he croaked. ‘Vigilant till the end! You never abandoned your post, as you –’ here he paused to gasp a bit as if his lungs were caving in, ‘– as you vowed!’ he finished with explosive emphasis. The old man straightened himself up with pride, and stood like a soldier on parade next to his old comrade.
Sam suddenly slumped down on to his knees and buried his face in his hands.
‘This is it! It’s all over! Tell me it’s not all over!’
‘What do you mean, Sam?’ Theo asked. Then he remembered they were not strictly on first-name terms according to Acquaintances and their Associated Problems, Volume 3. ‘Do you mind if I call you Sam?’ he added awkwardly.
‘What does it matter? What does anything matter?’ Sam wailed from the floor. ‘It’s over! Mr Norrowmore was our only contact with the rest of our secret Society! Now that he’s dead we’re cut off! We’ve got no way of summoning the Council!’
Theo looked disapprovingly at Sam. Yesterday he had been all victorious, singing songs and flicking jelly beans up in the air. Suddenly today he was plunged into wretched misery. Poor Sam, thought Theo. Someone should have told him that merriment was a very dangerous thing to be messing with.
‘Say something, Grandad – say there’s a back-up plan!’ Sam begged. The old man had now slumped into another of the radio station chairs.
‘Back-up plans?’ He smiled and tilted his mottled old head upwards as if seeking inspiration from the light filtering through cracks in the ceiling. ‘Plenty of those. Mr Norrowmore knows them all!’
Sam buried his face in his hands again.
‘Bang-bang, you’re dead,’ a cheerful voice rang out across the room. A figure swamped in a huge grey greatcoat, with a black cap pulled down almost over its eyes, strode towards them through the banks of dusty monitors.
As the shape drew closer, Theo stared in amazement. It was Clarice.
‘What – what are you doing here?’ gurgled Magnus, his colourless eyes bulging with surprise. He clutched at Mr Norrowmore for support, and the skeleton’s arm fell off and clattered to the floor.
‘Norrowmore ordered me to come. “The day after the mission is done, go to the Watch Tower,” he told me. He said that weeks ago,’ she added, glancing down at the remains of their leader.
Theo was still staring at her in open-mouthed surprise. ‘Clarice! You can hear!’ he blurted out.
‘Of course I can hear,’ the girl replied. ‘But my name’s not Clarice. I think we’d better get out of here,’ she added with a hint of nervousness.
‘You are Clarice!’ Theo protested.
The girl shook her head. ‘No time to explain now,’ she said, looking all around the chamber.
‘Why,’ began Sam anxiously, eyeing not-Clarice with suspicion, ‘why did you just say, “bang-bang, you’re dead”?’
The girl smiled. ‘Well, your tradecraft is rubbish,’ she said. ‘A Society member is found dead in a restricted-access room, surrounded by our secret files. You didn’t even look to see if he was murdered. You stood right in the open, where any intruder could see you all – and pick you off if necessary. Pretty unforgivable, especially since you’re with – you-know-who.’ She nodded at Theo.
Sam grew angry. ‘I can’t believe you’re having a go at us, with Mr Norrowmore standing here, dead!’ he said.
‘Well, it’s lucky we’ve got a cemetery keeper and a gravedigger on hand then, isn’t it?’ she remarked. Sam looked hurt.
Theo looked at the floor. He wasn’t used to arguments. At Empire Hall people weren’t generally allowed to have feelings about things.
‘Listen, Sam,’ not-Clarice said. ‘We’re at war now. We’ve taken Theo away from that hideous Society and they will do anything to get him back. There is no room for –’ She stopped speaking suddenly and put a finger to her lips.
‘They’re coming!’ she whispered.
‘Who’s coming?’ Theo asked. ‘Friends?’
‘We haven’t got any friends,’ said not-Clarice.
Sam grimaced with dismay. ‘What are we going to do?’ he wailed.
‘Get out of here! Run,’ ordered the girl. ‘Both of you – to the safest place you know!’
A fire-escape door was forced open on the far side of the chamber. An enormous figure in dark blue overalls crashed into the room, scattering a massive pile of old reel-to-reel tapes across the floor.
‘They’re here!’ the intruder roared.
‘Foundlings!’ cried not-Clarice. She shoved over a tall bookcase, causing a chain-reaction that sent shelves, piles of folders and several decades of carefully stacked envelopes cascading across the floor.
‘What are you doing?’ gasped Sam.
Not-Clarice pushed over an old paraffin lamp, which smashed, spilling its contents on to the pile of papers. Then with great calm she stooped to ignite the pile with a tiny hand-lighter. Woof! A terrifying blaze spread.
‘Mr Norrowmore!’ wailed Magnus, seeing the skeleton engulfed in flames.
Not-Clarice propelled him and Sam to the door through which they had entered. ‘Go, now – run and don’t look back!’ she shouted.
‘But the archive!’ howled the old man, tears in his eyes. ‘All the Society records!’
‘That’s the past. It’s all about the future now,’ not-Clarice said. ‘Go!’
‘What about Theo?’ cried Sam.
‘He’s coming with me!’ the girl replied, and kicked the door shut on Sam.
There was an ominous roar as the fire reached the archive. Row upon row of neatly filed papers went up like tinder. A giant man-shape blundered about, squealing, wreathed in flame. Two other figures appeared, lumbering through the smoke.
‘This way!’
Theo was dragged by the arm towards a Victorian-style air-powered tube-messaging system. There was one tube for messages and a larger one for packages. Not-Clarice bundled Theo into the package chute, and jumped in behind him. Theo plummeted into darkness.
‘Where are we?’ Theo’s words echoed all around him as he followed the girl along a dark passage, somewhere far below the Watch Tower.
‘The network,’ she whispered, gesturing impatiently for him to keep his voice down.
‘Are we safe?’ Theo asked. ‘Are they coming?’
‘How should I know?’ snapped the girl, suddenly showing signs of strain. ‘You can use your ears, can’t you?’
They trod the subterranean passage in silence. Occasionally a rat would scurry away from them. At intervals, glass globes of phosphorescent fungus provided a useful light.
‘In the bad old days the War for London was fought largely underground. The enemy had their ratruns and we had ours. These tunnels are part of a vast system that’s gradually falling into neglect. But I don’t think those blundering idiots will have any way of guessing how we disappeared in the blaze,’ she added with a hint of pride.
It wasn’t Clarice, Theo now knew. This girl, whose face and figure exactly resembled the housemaid, was different in every other respect. She had a quicker smile, an angrier frown, and something elusive that unsettled him in a way he couldn’t quite understand. He remembered some of the exciting characters from children’s stories he had read and re-read on endless winter evenings at Empire Hall. Not-Clarice had a quality he had never seen in real life before. She was … dashing.
And I’m a useless invalid, Theo couldn’t help thinking. He was getting worried. It would soon be twenty-four hours since he had been in the Mercy Tube. He had never gone that long before without treatment. Oh dear.
Theo suddenly remembered he had been told to use his ears, and he listened keenly for sounds of pursuit. It really seemed like they had escaped.
They arrived at a kind of crossroads. To the left, an intriguing tunnel beckoned – a wide stairway of decorative stonework seemed to welcome him. To the right there was an underground canal, with a narrow ledge running alongside. A hideous stench arose from the canal, and thick vapours seethed above it, as if the whole waterway was a simmering cauldron.
‘I don’t like the look of this!’ not-Clarice murmured.
‘This way?’ Theo asked, pointing to the first tunnel. His guide gave him a peculiar look.
‘Nobody goes that way,’ she replied, striding towards the foul-smelling canal, ‘because of the Eighty-eight.’
‘Oh,’ Theo said blankly. He had noticed that once you were out in the real world people constantly talked to you about things you knew nothing about.
‘This is the safe way,’ not-Clarice whispered, pointing along the canal path. ‘At least it is usually. But there’s something seriously wrong now. It’s not normally full of this nasty reek.’
She wrinkled her nose at the nasty vapour drifting across the surface of the canal.
‘There’s something odd happening down here. Still, we don’t have much choice! Come on.’
Theo stumbled after his guide along the edge of the underground canal. But almost immediately he collided with her.
‘Trouble!’ she whispered.
Emerging through the shadows ahead were two Foundlings. Their big bare heads gleamed like pale lamps in the glow of the fungus globes.
‘Back!’ not-Clarice said. But now they could hear footsteps from behind them as well. There was no way of avoiding their enemy.
‘Trapped,’ said not-Clarice grimly. She turned to Theo.
‘Take your gloves off.’
Theo felt a chill travel down his spine. What did she know about him?
‘I want you to look very confident, stretch out your hands and tell these fools to get out of our way.’
Theo pulled off his gauntlets and shoved them deeply into his coat pockets. The Foundlings were almost upon him. He raised his hands, and in the weird light they seemed to be glowing. Did the girl see that too, or was he imagining it?
‘What – what is this?’ growled a worried voice from the tunnel ahead.
‘Is it him?’ a second voice asked.
‘I don’t know! You first!’ the other urged.
Theo felt the girl push him from behind. He stumbled forwards, his long white fingers outstretched. The two men gaped in fear.
‘Noooo!’ The first Foundling screamed and staggered backwards, knocking the other man off balance. The two brutes grabbed at each other, tottering on the brink of the foul waters. Then, with desperate cries, both men plunged into the smoking depths.
‘Ree-sult!’ said not-Clarice, and she raced ahead into the darkness.