They moved together, the water rising gradually to calf level as strange shadows loomed and twisted along the length of the brick walls. North tried to ignore the regular scurry and squeaks of the rats that moved alongside them, clinging with tiny clawed paws to the footings of the walls. One that was bigger than the rest sat back on its haunches, the light catching its eyes as it watched them. It looked hungry. North bent down and shot a spray of water at it, but the rat moved faster than the spray, scurrying away with an outraged shriek.
‘Years ago, I read about these guys called toshers.’ Esme looked in need of distraction. ‘They’d force their way into the sewers, searching for coins and bits of rope and the occasional bit of silver cutlery that ended up there. They dreamed of finding a tosheroon – a whole bunch of coins all melded together in a ball. Maybe we’ll get lucky down here and find one.’ North was pretty sure the chances of them finding a tosheroon were a great deal lower than the chances of them ending up dead.
‘I’ll settle for not meeting an alligator,’ she said, as another rat squeaked by.
North cracked his head and the world exploded in pain. The water had got higher and the tunnel lower. Mortar dust fell from the uneven brick of the ceiling.
‘Have you noticed,’ Esme said, wincing in sympathy, ‘bad things happen when you’re around me?’
He’d noticed.
He took a moment to assess where they were. The water had crept inch by inch to knee level, then thigh, but he hadn’t registered the fact that the ceiling of the tunnel was getting closer at the same time.
‘Which way?’ Esme asked, her voice echoing off the bricks. A smaller storm drain branched off to the right.
The storage room where they’d found the sewer entrance was at the rear of the museum – in the north-east corner. North tried to bring to mind the street map of Bloomsbury and beyond, above the ground. What would have made sense to Victorian engineers as they laid down the infrastructure to their great city? Would they have been trying to get the effluent of the museum and the surrounding area to the Thames? In which case, surely they’d be heading in a southerly direction. But he had the distinct impression that they were heading east, so maybe the run of sewers was heading towards the old Fleet, one of London’s lost rivers.
‘This way.’ He did his utmost to sound confident but he didn’t think she was convinced. Still less so, as her bare foot slid across the slimy bricks. He grabbed for her, jerking her closer by the jacket’s lapel, and the violet eyes locked on to his, her hands on his arms. He held her to keep her from falling again, he told himself. The only reason.
‘North, if I die down here…’
‘You aren’t going to die.’ He pulled her a fraction closer. He wouldn’t let that happen.
‘… tell them Paulie didn’t leak the medical program. And tell them—’
‘If it wasn’t Paulie, who was it?’
There was a long silence, relieved only by the steady drip of water from the roof. The air was warm, he thought, now he was used to it; it was the water that was cold. He tried telling his fingers to stop holding her so close, to let her step away, but they didn’t listen.
‘Tobias.’ Esme spoke the name with a sigh.
A tiny terrapin shell floated by; a small head with beady eyes peered out, then disappeared back into safety.
She rested her hands over his as if to remind him he had to let go. He did and she turned, pushing her way through the water down the main tunnel. He had no choice but to follow. Tobias leaked his own technology? But how sure was she?
‘How do you know?’
‘Tobias told me.’
‘What happened?’ North said.
‘Paulie loves Tobias like a brother. When his girlfriend told him what she wanted him to do, Paulie came straight to him, and Tobias said that he was to go ahead and give it to her. He told Paulie it would mean we wouldn’t have to auction it to Big Pharma, who’d exploit it or even shut it down because it would hit their profits. You understand – nothing worked for Atticus. His disease didn’t make them any money, so they didn’t invest in research. Tobias never forgave them for that. He promised Paulie he wouldn’t have to take the fall. Told him we would blame it on a security breach in our systems.’
‘But he could have released it himself?’
‘We have investors. And anyway...’ She walked onwards, her eyes fixed ahead. ‘When Paulie was supposed to go to Harvard, Tobias brought him in with the promise of a stake in Derkind – unless he was found guilty of malfeasance and fired. It would be worth millions. Tobias swindled him. Though it wasn’t about the money. I think Tobias didn’t want to share the glory for Syd with Paulie and maybe not even with me.’
Tobias had used Paulie. He never had any intention of giving him back his job, or making good on his big payday.
‘That was the “bad” thing you were talking about in the car?’
‘It didn’t make sense – I was going to tell you what I suspected. But then…’ She shuddered.
North waited. Was that all she knew? Or did she know about the sabotage programs Tobias had created? The reason they’d both nearly died?
‘But it’s worse than that. After the crash, I threatened to leave him unless he told me everything – said I’d walk away from all of it, from Derkind and Syd, from our marriage. What he did to Paulie is nothing in the scheme of things.’ She took a breath and held it before letting it go. ‘You and I nearly died because of a defence contract. So this country can take control of enemy autonomous vehicles on the battlefield. Tobias said what happened in the car was “a glitch” in the system. We nearly died.’ She thought there was a ‘we’, part of his brain noted. ‘Him’ and ‘her’ equalled ‘we’. And she was outraged, he realized.
‘And Chin?’
She was silent for a beat.
‘I was trying to help Paulie. Make it up to him. I asked Chin to release Yan – let her marry Paulie, so she can stay here. But he said that would never happen unless we gave him something in return – like Syd. It’s all such a mess.’ She started to laugh and there was a note of hysteria in it.
The idea of Tobias handing over the superintelligent system which was about to transform man’s relationship with machines – and put its creator in the history books for all time – seemed beyond unlikely. The government wouldn’t let it happen. Everything would come out, North thought. The calculated medical leak. The sabotage program. Would Syd itself be enough to salvage Derkind’s reputation? Although none of it explained the attack on the Museum.
The tunnel narrowed again. He felt the force of the stream take his legs from under him and his feet lift from the floor, the water rising rapidly to neck level. He just had time to lift the gun clear. Turning, he saw Esme stretch out her arms and propel herself through the tunnel by pushing off with her hands. Buffeted by the current, he tipped his own face above the scum and effluent, his eyes inches from the brick. He couldn’t keep both the MP5 and the phone, their only source of light, out of the water. One of them had to go – cursing, he dropped the gun.