“What did they say?” Adam asked D’Scover who had just re-formed in the office.
The day had descended dark and wet with a thick rain that drowned the building. Beneath them the population woke to a day just like any other, blissfully unaware of how close they had come to being overrun with the dead. D’Scover had Dispersed to meet the Senior Council before the first vestiges of day reached up the Thames. Edie, still filthy from the previous night’s efforts and with dried blood on her face from cuts across her cheek, caught up on some much needed sleep, curled up on D’Scover’s couch. Adam, after a perfunctory Dispersal of his own, was surfing the morning’s news reports on the Internet for details relating to the previous night. D’Scover’s reappearance interrupted his Net wandering.
“The Senior Council wanted to sort out a few details relating to last night,” D’Scover replied. “When Edie is awake, I shall go through them with you both.”
“She’s totally wiped out.” Adam gestured to where Edie lay curled in a ball on the couch with a blanket wrapped round her. “That’s the handy thing about this Dispersal lark; it only takes an hour or so to be back to full form again. This must have been devastating to her both emotionally and physically.”
“Indeed,” D’Scover said. “It will be hard for her to return to her normal life after all of this.”
“Doesn’t sound to me as if she had much of a normal life anyway,” Adam said. “I suppose that this all just adds to the High Weirdness that she usually has to deal with.”
“She will need a friend with whom she can talk about the events of the last week,” D’Scover said.
“Does that mean we’ll have to stay in touch?” Adam tentatively asked.
“The Senior Council consider her to be a living agent, as she knows so much about the Brotherhood.”
“D’you think that they might have asked me first?” a small and sleepy voice pitched in.
Edie had woken up and was watching them from her blanket nest on the couch.
“I’m not sure I want to be involved with a group like them,” she said. “After all they left us there to die.”
“Ah, but the trouble with that is,” Adam said flashing his familiar grin, “us two are already dead, so strictly speaking it was only you they left to die.”
“Ha ha, very funny,” Edie said sarcastically. “My brain’s overheating from all of this and you had to remind me I’m the only real person here.”
“Real!” Adam threw his hands up. “You’ve got a nerve! Bit rich considering you with your freaky talent for climbing inside people’s heads.”
“Enough of this,” D’Scover cut in. “I have some matters to discuss with you.” He gestured and his chair slid across the floor towards him.
“Sit down,” he said, and Adam took a place next to Edie on the couch.
D’Scover seated himself in front of them and drew a deep breath before speaking again.
“The Senior Council have dealt with last night. In the eyes of the living the situation was explained as a gas explosion under the Great Court caused by decades of Tube trains creating a weakness that eventually resulted in a ruptured gas main. The damage was severe but not irreparable and thankfully there was no serious damage to the library.”
“I know,” Adam said. “It’s all over the Net today. They’re saying that the damage could run into the millions, but the building’s fully insured and no antiquities seem to have been damaged.”
D’Scover shifted uneasily in his seat and turned his attention solely to Adam.
“The Senior Council are aware of the close bond you have with the Texts,” he continued. “And given that, we would like to offer you the position of Keeper of the Texts.” “What?” Adam asked. “But they’re yours – how can they offer them to me?”
“I was always just the Keeper,” D’Scover replied. “It is within my jurisdiction to offer the position to you. It is for the good of the Brotherhood. Do you accept?”
“But I’ve never owned anything like that,” Adam protested. “I’ve never really owned anything. I wouldn’t know what to do with them.”
“You have already shown a greater understanding of the hidden nature of books than I ever did. Also you would not own the Texts; you would be their Keeper not their owner. It is for the good of the Brotherhood,” D’Scover repeated.
“But what about you?” Adam asked.
“Do you accept the position?” D’Scover asked, ignoring Adam’s question.
“How could I say no?” Adam replied. “Of course I accept.”
D’Scover turned now to Edie. “Edie, you heard me say that the Council consider you a living agent; is this a problem for you?”
“I dunno,” she frowned. “What does it actually mean?”
“That depends on the level of your involvement,” he explained. “You could go home now and never see any of us again. It would be difficult to erase your memories of this event, but not impossible.”
“Or?” She pushed for an alternative.
“Or you could integrate yourself with the Brotherhood and become a fully fledged living agent.”
“What will that involve?” she asked. “I don’t really want any more demons and stuff.”
“I am afraid that we cannot promise you will never have a serious confrontation again if you enter the Brotherhood. However, the Vision has been fulfilled and all of the Texts say we should now enter a time of peace and balance,” D’Scover said. “The Senior Council were most impressed with your abilities. No other sensitive has ever achieved anywhere near the levels you have. They were keen to ensure you develop your abilities so the Brotherhood might call on you again.”
“Develop?”
“Yes. They requested you work with another agent to refine your skills so that you can use them with greater ease.”
“Another agent?” Edie looked over at Adam and smiled. “I could see you two again, on a regular basis?”
“I shall be occupied for some time, but it was my suggestion that Adam work with you,” D’Scover explained. “He will, perhaps, need to spend some time with you in Cornwall. Would that be a problem?”
“I can’t see any reason why it would be,” Edie shrugged. “The farm’s full of weirdos most of the time anyway, so one more won’t stand out. Why can’t he stay here?”
“He can, but,” D’Scover looked at Adam, “he could do with a holiday.”
“Yeah, I could use a holiday,” Adam laughed, and pointed at Edie, “and less of the weirdo, thanks!”
“First he requires time to work on the Voynich.” D’Scover clicked his fingers and removed the concealment charm he had placed on the book. “Here.” He handed the precious notebook to Adam. “There is still a lot that we do not know about this Text; you can correct that matter for us.”
“Wow!” Adam said, turning the tissue-thin pages over. “Am I really trusted with this?”
“You are the next Keeper of the Texts; it is expected of you.”
“What about you?” Edie queried. “You’ve still not said anything about what’ll happen to you?”
“Yeah, that’s right!” Adam chipped in. “You’re the Sentinel, the Vision’s done. What does it mean for you now?”
D’Scover turned his back on them both and walked to the balcony; the doors slid open as he reached them. At first they had not noticed the change in him, but now it became more apparent. He still looked the same as he ever did, but he seemed to carry himself taller and with more confidence. He still wore his trademark blue-black suit, but now a black leather sheath for his sword hung by his side with the charred metal hilt just visible. He had not taken on any extra years, but he looked older.
“I have to leave here,” D’Scover said. “My services as Keeper of the Texts are no longer needed.”
“What!?” Adam snapped angrily. “No way! I’m not taking over the Texts if it means you being kicked out, that’s crazy. There’s absolutely no way that . . .”
“Hold on,” Edie cut in. “There’s something else he wants to tell us, something about the Senior Council. I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Your skills are indeed impressive, Miss Freedom,” D’Scover replied, his back still turned to them. “There is something else.” He took a deep breath. “The Senior Council have been disbanded.”
“What!?” Adam and Edie gasped together.
“We felt that, as the Vision has been fulfilled, it was no longer necessary to maintain such a body,” he continued.
“We?” Edie asked. “You said ‘we’ instead of ‘they’.”
“Yes, the Council deferred to me, but the final decision was theirs,” D’Scover explained. “The Senior Council were only ever devised to act as temporary guardians until the Sentinel was found. Now that has happened, they have all taken voluntary Dispersal. It was for the good of the Brotherhood.”
“So you are now the Senior Council?” Adam said.
“In a manner of speaking,” D’Scover said, and almost smiled.
“That’s it over then?” Edie said. “You two have your new jobs, the Vision’s done. I suppose I should get back to Freedom Farm. Can Adam come with me?”
“No, not yet, but he will visit as soon as he has perfected some of the charms contained within the Voynich, and then catalogued the library. A cursory glance has already revealed some extremely useful charms that will aid our travelling and these should be worked on first,” D’Scover replied. “But you will not have to travel home alone; I have arranged an escort for you.”
He returned to his screen and tapped a few keys, calling up the necessary details for a Hotline. A neon-blue crackle of sparks formed next to the desk and, bit by bit, took human form.
“Hey there, you two,” Marcus chuckled. “Bet you thought you’d never see me again, didn’t you? Old D’Scover here said he’d help me out with a reallocation if I escorted you home.”
“Great,” Edie said. “Will you have to find someone to piggyback with?”
“Nope, our friend the Sentinel over there is going to give me a boost all the way to Cornwall and you can Hotline me back,” Marcus explained. “Nice to have friends in high places, eh?”
“You had better be on your way,” D’Scover said. “You have tickets on the three-fifteen.”
“First class?”
“First class,” D’Scover said, producing the tickets with a crackle of light around his fingertips.
It took as long to gather her belongings for the return as it had done for the journey, a couple of minutes at the most. In the few days Edie had been in London she had used almost nothing from her bag. Adam pointed out that she looked a sorry state and so she grabbed some clothes and rushed to a toilet on one of the floors below the office to clean up and get changed before the journey home. When she returned, she had removed the dirt and smears accumulated in the battle and, apart from a couple of long cuts on her cheek, looked once more like the girl Adam had seen running towards them down the track of Freedom Farm. He felt sure that if he had still been alive, he would have flushed a little to see her deep brown eyes smiling at him.
“It’s time to go,” D’Scover said, breaking the silence.
“I know,” she replied, stuffing her grimy clothes into the bag. “When will I see you next? I mean the two of you, when will I see you again?”
“Soon as the boss says so, when I’ve broken the code of the Voynich,” Adam answered. He looked to D’Scover for confirmation. “Soon, I hope.”
An awkward silence sat over them as Edie fussed with the zip of her bag and Adam shuffled uneasily.
“I’m gonna . . . well . . . m-miss you,” she stammered. “It’s been . . . you know . . .”
“Yeah,” Adam added, “it’s been kind of . . . yeah . . . I dunno . . . I’m gonna miss you too.”
“I’ve written down my mobile number . . . and my email . . .” She handed him a scrap of paper. “I mean, if you want to stay in touch. I mean, you might not, but I thought that maybe after all that . . .”
“Sure.” Adam took the paper and stared hard at it, avoiding eye contact with Edie. “I mean, if you want me to . . . I wanna stay in touch . . . if it’s OK with you . . .”
“Ahem!” coughed Marcus. “I think it’s time we left. This deep and meaningful conversation is choking me up . . .”
Edie picked up her bag and slowly followed Marcus to the office doors, looking back at Adam.
“Come on,” Marcus teased. “You two lovebirds will be together again soon enough.”
“Lovebirds?” Adam and Edie said together. “Ewww!”
“Hmm, I think that is quite enough of that,” D’Scover interrupted. “Marcus, take care of her, she is important to the Brotherhood. If you want that reallocation to Russell Square, I want her seen safely home.”
“Don’t worry, boss,” Marcus said, giving a mock salute. “Consider it done.”
Adam watched as the two of them walked down the corridor to the lifts that would take them down to the lower floors and back into the world of the living. As the lift doors opened, Edie turned and rushed back to Adam, throwing her arms round him. He had just enough time to boost his substance enough for her to hold on to him. She hugged him for the briefest time, not even long enough for him to return it, and ran back to the lift, stepping in just as the doors were closing.
“See you soon, Red!” she called out as she vanished from view. “Text me.”
Back in the office D’Scover was tapping from screen to screen, checking the day’s reports. The blue light from the computer shone through him and Adam realised that D’Scover had not Dispersed yet.
“You must be wiped out,” he said. “Why don’t you Disperse?”
“I wanted to talk to you first.” D’Scover gestured towards the couch.
Adam sat down where Edie’s blanket still lay like a faint outline of her; he pushed it further along the couch, crumpling it up into a heap.
“What did you want to talk about?” he asked.
“This has been a momentous month for you, has it not?” D’Scover said.
“Has it really only been a month?” Adam was shocked. “Feels like a lifetime, everything that’s happened . . . and meeting Edie too. I couldn’t have imagined so much could happen in such a short time. I’ve been alone for so long, all my life really, and now . . . well, it’s all so much to take in.”
“You are fond of her, are you not?” D’Scover avoided eye contact with Adam as he spoke.
“Yeah,” Adam mumbled, “but it’s not like I can ever be with her, is it? I mean, it’s just impossible. Well, for God’s sake, she’s alive and I’m dead!”
“I realise that the complexity of your relationship is unusual.” D’Scover sat next to him. “You have to look beyond that for both of your sakes. You two have a unique bond and that is something many people spend their whole lives searching for. There is more to life than you realise; you should think in a different way. She has a survivor’s spirit which has carried her through many lives. You have seen suffering beyond your years. You both carry a terrible darkness that few will ever understand. Because of this you two are now bound to each other in a way that time cannot erase. You may not have a choice in this; it is best not to question fate.”
“I can’t quite get my head round it,” Adam sighed and buried his face in his hands. “It all seems so impossible.”
“Stop questioning what you have and just accept it for what it is. Take it as it comes; it may be the only way,” D’Scover said. “You have no way of knowing where this will take you; no way of knowing how much time you have or where it will lead. If fate has decreed that your bond will be unbreakable, then it will be so. It is a great tragedy that you did not meet whilst in different lives, lives that were simple and normal, but it did not happen and there is nothing either of you can do to change that. What binds you now is stronger than life, deeper and far more complex. Nothing can take that from you. You are bound to Edie as strongly as you are bound to the Brotherhood and the Voynich.”
Adam had totally forgotten the manuscript, but it had clearly not forgotten him and it seemed to have managed to find a way into his shirt, tucked away safe and warm.
“It seems to like me!” he grinned.
D’Scover held out his hand and a slicker of white sparks coursed over the surface, making it impossible to discern the outline. When the sparks subsided, a shiny flat black disc about the size of a small plate lay in his hand.
“You will need this.” He handed it to Adam. “It is Dee’s obsidian mirror. It is the key to translating the full code, although the other codes do not seem to have been a problem for you.”
““How does it work?” Adam peered into the black surface.
“I do not know,” D’Scover said. “But I am confident that the new Keeper of the Texts will find out for himself. Now I have some work to do before I go. It is your time to Disperse fully; enjoy your rest.”
D’Scover stood up without further comment, returned to the screen of reports and began to flick through them once more.
Adam walked over to the window and looked down on the wet city below. Sliding open the balcony doors, he walked out into the windswept morning. Faint noises of the living reached up through the gloom towards him: a car horn, a shout, the throaty rumble of trucks and the metallic clatter of the trains crossing the bridge.
“Hey!” he called back. “Where will you go when you leave this office?”
“I no longer need a specific location.” D’Scover stopped his work and called up a single file on the computer. “I have chosen a number of other libraries around the world in which to base myself for short periods of time.”
“Sounds good,” Adam said. “Oh yeah, I just thought of something else.”
“And what is that?” D’Scover asked distractedly.
“Why is Marcus so keen to get reallocated to Russell Square, especially after last night?”
“Ah, that would be for revenge,” D’Scover said, swivelling his chair round. “The Senior Council protested to the last, but in the circumstances I have approved the request. We owe him at least this one thing.”
“Revenge?” Adam asked. “Revenge for what?”
“Marcus was run over about thirty years ago in South Kensington and killed by a black cab. London cab drivers have sheds called green huts that they use for rest and as meeting places. Marcus had somehow found out that the cab driver who ran him over used the one in Russell Square.” D’Scover turned and Adam was stunned to see a broad smile on his face. “He intends to haunt it!”
Adam Street roared with laughter and looked down on the city beneath him. He marvelled at how he could have spent his short life completely unaware of this intricate and powerful world just beyond his reach, a world just outside that which he had once considered to be reality. He could see the people far beneath him and knew their lives. He knew the simple world in which they existed and it seemed a million miles away from all he now knew. He had never really been one of them, never really belonged among them, not in the way he belonged here. He had found the place he fitted, in which he had a purpose, the place he could finally call home.
He raised his arms and clapped his hands hard together. In an instant his body broke apart in a whirling cascade of vivid scarlet beads of light. A fraction of a second later the ruby droplets exploded away from each other with a crack that made people far below in the street crane their faces to the sky, but he was gone, scattered to the wind across the vast and timeless sprawl of London.