Mrs Meeker pulled Mr Meeker’s hand to her chest. She looked terrified.
‘No!’ Ambrose shouted again. ‘Leave me alone!’ Sweat beaded his face. There was a rip in his neck where he’d cut it open. The smile dropped from Miss Lympstone’s face.
Shock had silenced Leila. The Counsellor nudged her. ‘Ask him,’ she hissed.
Leila nerved herself. ‘Ambrose,’ she stuttered. ‘Do you remember the Shining City?’
‘Go away!’
‘It’s very important.’
‘I can’t help you. I can’t help anyone. Let me go! I have to keep moving!’
‘The next two Deodatus victims,’ she made herself say. ‘The people you saw on Dieter’s wall. Who are they?’
Blood oozed from Ambrose’s neck. Leila felt like she was forcing answers from a torture victim.
‘You don’t understand,’ wailed Ambrose. ‘They want to see if anyone comes to talk with me.’
‘Tell me, Ambrose. What are the names you saw on the wall?’
‘Oh no,’ whispered Ambrose. ‘You made me stay still for too long.’
The world changed. The little front room vanished. They were still in their chairs, still sat at the table, but now they were hanging in the deep sea. Light shafted down from above and lost itself in the endless dark beneath them.
Ambrose’s voice was full of terror. ‘Now they’ve found me.’
Miss Lympstone gasped. She squeezed Leila’s hand hard. ‘Gods,’ she breathed, looking towards Mrs Meeker.
‘I told you so,’ Mrs Meeker spat at the Counsellor. ‘We’ve been pulled into the depths.’
‘Ambrose,’ shouted Leila. ‘Tell me the names! I have to know.’
‘They’ll be here,’ moaned Ambrose. ‘Any moment now, they’ll be here.’
There was a sense of something vast moving, a little way away – a sharp silhouette, knifing through the depths, circling them.
‘I’m holding it off,’ hissed the Counsellor. ‘It’s already locked on to Ambrose, but I’m hiding us. Can’t keep it up for long.’
‘I’m going to crash us out,’ said Mrs Meeker, pulling her husband’s hand to her forehead. ‘Gods know what this will do to him.’
‘No,’ Leila said, then desperately, to Ambrose, ‘Tell me. The names!’ Blood poured from his neck, fanning out around him in a red mist. She could barely see his face. ‘Ambrose, please!’ she begged. ‘Remember Dieter. It’s all for him.’
‘I can see it,’ wailed Ambrose, looking past her. ‘It’s found me.’
‘Tell me the names!’
‘Can’t hold it back,’ grunted the Counsellor.
A slim grey shape hurtled towards them out of the gloom. Leila had a sense of it rushing towards Ambrose. She glimpsed sharp fins, a compound eye, a gaping mouth that was a nightmare of teeth, then Miss Lympstone screamed again.
‘Gods help us,’ howled Mrs Meeker.
The sea flashed into nothing. There was a moment of absolute void and then they were back in the small front room, the circle broken, Miss Lympstone in tears, the Fetch Counsellor repeating ‘Fuck,’ again and again, and Mrs Meeker hunched over her husband, who was slumped face forward on the table.
‘The names,’ asked Leila desperately. ‘Did he get the names?’
‘Ambrose might have dropped them into Mr Meeker’s memory,’ said the Counsellor. ‘But we need to get them quickly. Before he forgets.’
‘Get out!’ Mrs Meeker told her. ‘You could have sent him to his true death. Out!’
‘But the names…’
‘Fuck your names,’ said Mrs Meeker, then: ‘Miss Lympstone. Recover yourself.’
The Counsellor touched Leila’s arm. ‘I think we’d better let it be,’ she said.
Miss Lympstone led them both into the hall. ‘Really!’ she said. ‘Normally our guests are so well behaved. Poor Mr Meeker.’
‘Can you go back and see if he can remembers the names?’ asked Leila. ‘It’s the only way I have of finding my brother.’
‘I’m afraid that that’s up to Mrs Meeker,’ sniffed Miss Lympstone. ‘And you’ve brought trouble to her door.’
‘Please,’ said Leila simply.
‘It’s for the Fetch Communion too,’ added the Counsellor. ‘Her brother did a lot of work to protect us all. We still need him.’
‘Well. Since it’s you asking…’ She opened the door and disappeared back into the front room. Leila caught a glimpse of Mr Meeker, his chin pressed into his chest, his eyes tight shut, rocking backwards and forwards as Mrs Meeker leant over him. Then Miss Lympstone shut the door with a very emphatic firmness.
‘That was really Ambrose, wasn’t it?’ asked Leila.
‘It was the closest we’ll get before his rebirth.’
‘And that shark – it was one of Ambrose’s search engines. He told the pressure men about the backdoor. They must have gone in through it.’
‘I stopped it from seeing who Ambrose was talking to.’ The Counsellor looked worried. ‘You need to be very careful. You can’t let it spot you. Any of you.’
‘The safe house is insulated from the weave. And if we keep moving when we’re out and about, we’ll be safe. The sharks can only find you when you stop.’
The door opened again and Miss Lympstone emerged, holding a scribbled-on sheet of paper. ‘Mr Meeker’s a little better. We hope he’ll be fine.’ She gave Leila a pointed look. ‘No thanks to you, of course.’
‘I can help heal him,’ the Fetch Counsellor told her.
She held out the paper to Leila. ‘I’m not sure I should even give you this. But then it would all have been for nothing.’ Leila took it from her. ‘Mrs Meeker wrote the two names down for you. And now you’ve got them, I hope we never see you again.’