Every good bunker is equipped with an escape hatch. They might have been built to withstand a nuclear attack, but the military chiefs who once inhabited them liked to take no chances, and often ordered a passage to get them out in a hurry. For there might come a time, so they believed, when the threat was greater from within. From a fire in the hold to a sickness in the ranks, they could be well away from the bunker in seconds. They would never have imagined that one day a marauding band of inbred troglodytes might rampage unchecked through the gangways on every level. The chute itself is little more than a steep steel slide with a titanium seal at the exit that retracts automatically should someone hurtle down it. Right now, it serves as the only hope for a broad-shouldered man with a hood over his head and the fleet-footed boy close behind him.
“Go for it, Aleister! I’m coming with you!”
The brute has just climbed into the chute, but stops himself from pushing off when Yoshi calls out to him.
“What on earth are you doing?” he growls, glowering at the boy in his precious mink coat. “Go back, now!”
Yoshi jabs a thumb over his shoulder, as the first troglodyte swoops down the stairwell behind him. “It’s too late for that!” he cries, and snaps on his halogen lamps. “We’re in this together now!”
Frowning darkly, Aleister releases his grip from the edge of the hatch, and slides out of view. Yoshi doesn’t stop to climb inside as the brute has. He simply dives in head first, and is pleased to hear the creature behind him pull up at the elder’s command. He closes his eyes, gathering speed now, and then gasps in surprise when Aleister catches him on the other side.
“You shouldn’t have come,” he mutters. The boy’s twin lights shine up into the face of the figure who first drove him underground. They’re in a cramped chamber, with the belly of the bunker behind them. “You don’t feature in my plan.”
“Well, that makes a change,” Yoshi retorts. “When you believed you needed kids like me to unlock the Faerie Ring, you put us through hell in the hope that we’d bow to your will. Why do you think we fled from your Foundation? It felt more like a prison than a programme to help psychic children get to grips with their abilities.”
Aleister’s furrowed brow springs into a peak. “Is that how it seemed?” he asks, sounding genuinely surprised. At the same time, he sets the boy’s feet on the ground, glancing back at the chute and the sound of the elder and several troglodytes fighting to be first to slide down. “Of all people, you should know to question everything.”
Yoshi looks over his shoulder, and suggests they move out. “All I know is that we’re seconds away from the kind of ending I’d prefer to avoid. I really don’t think these creeps behind us are simply throwing their voices down the chute. This isn’t a trick. They’re almost upon us. So, if it’s OK with you, I’d really like to run for my life.”
Aleister smiles grimly, and invites him to follow close behind.
“Just keep your eyes on me, boy,” he warns. “There are some tricks you can’t afford to miss.”
Ahead, beyond a partition formed by packing crates, Yoshi recognises the labyrinth under Chinatown that they had weaved through to reach the lost river. This time, however, it looks like the aftermath of a riot, such is the trail of upturned boxes, split rice sacks, splintered bamboo chairs and broken vases. If a poker game had been in progress behind any of the doorways over there, the players are nowhere to be seen now. Judging by the cards strewn everywhere, they had thrown down their hands and fled.
“These creatures are a destructive force,” Aleister calls back, picking up the pace now. “There is only one place they can go if the city is to be safe from harm.”
Before Yoshi can question him, the first of the troglodytes crash out of the chute. The boy looks around fearfully, just as they vanish behind the packing case partition. A moment later, the first of them explodes through the boxes in pursuit of their quarry, while others spring over the top. Yoshi focuses on catching up with the brute, only to find he has disappeared from sight. “Hey!” he cries, scanning the path in a panic. “This is no time for vanishing acts!”
Up ahead, beyond the massive paper dragons from the new year’s celebrations, now suspended in segments from the joists overhead, the sound of something heavy hitting water provides the boy with his answer. What he can’t fathom is how anyone could’ve reached the drop into the lost river from here in anything less than a minute. It’s too late to find out now, however, as his blind pursuers are almost upon him. Indeed, all Yoshi can do is dodge from their path, wrap himself tight inside Aleister’s mink coat and pray they won’t detect his scent. He holds his breath, standing as still as the ornamental statues he’s just found himself among, and winces when the wheezing voice of the elder calls a halt to the pursuit.
“Wait, my brothers and sisters. What do you smell?”
“He is nearby. I knows it! Be still so we can hear him.”
Yoshi struggles not to let his teeth start chattering, and considers simply making a break for it. Then, just as he expects his cover to fall, one of the troglodytes squeals with delight. “He’s in the river! Listen to those footfalls!”
“’Tis a trick!” grunts the elder. “I smells him in two places at once.”
“And don’t I have the sharpest ears this generation?” the other one protests. “I swear to you, he’s in the river, and heading for the sty!”
The elder can be heard sniffing the air one final time. From where Yoshi is cowering, just feet away, it sounds more like someone scraping their feet on a mat. All of a sudden, the boy hopes and prays this mink fur coat can keep him cocooned from harm. It certainly smells heavily of the brute, but right now, that comes as a comfort. Especially when the elder draws nearer, sniffing the surrounding statues.
“Come out, boy! Wherever you are!”
A snout finds Yoshi’s coat sleeve just then, leaving a trail of slime as it rises to his collar. The boy’s heart misses several beats as this blind leader of the pack rises high on his hind legs. He feels the ogre’s hog breath on his neck. It invades his nostrils, causing his stomach to churn. For a moment, Yoshi fears he might just throw up through fear as much as disgust.
“The boy isn’t here!” cries the one keen to get to the river. “If you can smell him there then he must’ve left something behind to throw us off the scent. Use your ears! Can’t you hear him! He’s getting away!”
Yoshi feels the heat on his neck recede just then, but holds off gasping for breath until the elder begrudgingly orders his tribe to head for the lost river.
“If I find we’ve been hoodwinked,” he warns, “by God, I shall seek my revenge!”
The pack thunder onwards, scrapping once more to be first through the drop into the Walbrook. Yoshi rests his hands on his knees, feeling giddy with relief. Indeed, when Aleister’s voice calls out to him, it takes a second for him to recognise his voice, and another to realise that he’s communicating on a psychic level.
“Close your eyes, Yoshi. Clear your mind, and join me.”
“Where are you?” he asks.
“You’ll see.”
With a sigh, Yoshi stands up straight. He shuts his eyes as instructed, aware now of some interference in his ears. At first, it seems as if nothing is happening. All he can see is the inside of his eyelids, but then something takes shape in the gloom. It’s accompanied by the sound of splashing, and when Aleister emerges Yoshi realises what has just happened. What he’s looking at isn’t here at all. It’s taking place some way down the river course, and he’s viewing it remotely.
“There you are!” says Yoshi out loud, sensing his view tracking backwards over the water now to keep the brute in his sight.
“I told you not to take your eyes off me.” Aleister moves rapidly, his bald dome dipped to avoid the vaulted tunnel roof. “One glance away is all it takes for any magician to seize the advantage.”
“Why did you leave me behind?” asks the boy.
“I needed to buy some time. You served me well as a distraction, Yoshi. Indeed, without your help I might have failed you all completely.”
“But they’re on your trail again!” he says, and indeed the sound of urgent splashing is beginning to catch up with the brute. “That’s exactly where I want them,” says Aleister, still pushing onwards. The boy may not be physically present with his halogen head torch to see the brute, but he’s lit up enough in his mind’s eye to see those tight blue eyes fixed firmly on the way ahead. “And Yoshi, you’re exactly where I want you to be.”
“I am? Why?”
“Hurry after them as fast as you can. When you reach the waterfall, I believe you’ll know what to do.”
“Will you be there?”
“In spirit, my boy,” is all he says, upon which Yoshi’s view seems to accelerate, for Aleister begins to drop back into the darkness, fading into black.
“Yoshi!”
This time, the voice is right behind him. He snaps open his eyes, ending the remote view immediately, to find Julius with the others.
“Where have they all gone?” asks Livia, surveying the ruined space around her. “The bunker is empty, so they must be somewhere.”
“Away from here,” is all Yoshi can say, still processing the brute’s last wish. He turns towards the hatch to the lost river. “Follow me,” he tells them. “The bunker may be back under our control, but this city is not safe yet.”