Just after half past twelve, there was more activity. The older man, who by now had been accorded the rank of inspector by Steven and Jacob, returned in a police car. Then he accompanied the Gwynns to their own car and got in the back seat.
‘Where can they be going?’ said Jacob.
‘To the police station? To help the police with their enquiries?’
‘But then they would be in the police car, not their own,’ Jacob objected.
The inspector’s car also set off, just after the Gwynns’.
Steven bent over the Brick and manipulated the buttons till he had the trace viewer set up. It would not be as difficult as directing a spaceship all the way from Edinburgh to Casselton, but it required dexterity to be able to follow the cars and keep them centre screen. They headed down into York, past the Museum Gardens and over the Lendal Bridge.
‘Not the police station,’ said Steven. ‘The railway station. Now this will take a bit of doing. When they’ve parked the car, we’ll have to follow them inside. That’s clearly where they must be going.’
‘Why?’ said Jacob. ‘Why would they want to go there?’
‘Either to catch a train,’ said Steven, ‘or to meet a train.’
‘They’re meeting a train with Nesta on it,’ said Jacob, suddenly inspired. ‘So let’s not follow them to the car park. Let’s get a probe directly into the station and see what trains are due to arrive.’
‘OK, OK,’ said his father. ‘Good thinking.’
The screen now showed the station’s main hall: shops, restaurants, waiting rooms, all presided over by the electronic arrivals and departures board.
‘Which train?’ said Jacob. Several were listed on the board, some with platform numbers, some without. The board was constantly changing.
Without a word, Steven split the screen so that the top left-hand corner had a square with a fixed focus on the indicator board.
‘You keep watching that,’ he said to his son, ‘and I’ll concentrate on the entrance. That way I can pick them up and follow them on to the platform, and you can check where the train is coming from.’
He had just finished speaking when the Gwynns arrived, followed closely by the inspector, who spoke to them and then was clearly dismissed as Matthew and Alison strode well in front of him on to the platform.
‘Platform three,’ said Steven.
‘That’s the London train,’ said Jacob, looking at the notice board. ‘Coming from Edinburgh. It’s running late.’
He was getting tired of watching the board so conscientiously. ‘We can switch that off now, can’t we?’ he said. ‘Then we can both watch the Gwynns more easily.’
‘Not yet,’ said his father. ‘Keep watching till the train arrives.’
‘There’ll be nothing more to see,’ said Jacob.
‘Never mind,’ said Steven impatiently. ‘Keep watching anyway.’
He would really have preferred to be alone in the room at this moment. What he was doing demanded total concentration.
After a short while, for some reason Steven could not fathom, the Gwynns left the platform where they had been standing and hurried across the bridge, the inspector following them. To keep them within range of the trace required all the deftness of touch that Steven had developed with years of experience.
‘Go on, then,’ he said as he managed to get a view of the other side of the bridge. ‘Tell me why they did that.’
‘Announcement explaining that the train they are waiting for will be arriving at a different platform,’ said Jacob.
‘You know that?’
‘I know that,’ said Jacob. ‘Quite simple, really. It just came up on the notice board.’
The train came in and drew to a halt. Steven pressed the button to cancel the split screen. Now father and son were both eagerly watching the passengers alighting. There were not very many.
One was a girl in a red coat. She waved like mad at Matthew and Alison, and ran towards them.
‘That’s it,’ said Jacob, relieved to see the family reunited. He was pleased to see Nesta safe and well. But now the inspector seemed to be talking to them all rather insistently.
‘They need protection,’ said Jacob.
‘Not possible,’ his father replied. ‘We don’t know what is being said and we don’t know exactly what we would be protecting them from.’
‘They could be in trouble,’ said Jacob anxiously. ‘I don’t like the look of that inspector or whatever he is.’
‘Athelerane will have to manage that herself. She can. She is the stronger of that duo.’
‘That’s not fair on Matthew,’ said Jacob, ignoring the name his father had just given to Matthew’s wife, but knowing exactly whom he meant.
‘Not really,’ said Steven. ‘Matthew has greater wisdom. Alison has the talent for mind-fencing. In this situation it will work better than the Brick would. We can only hope she hasn’t lost it yet.’
‘Lost it?’ said Jacob.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Steven. ‘Now that she is no longer Ormingatrig, the talent will go.’
He turned his attention to the train once more, passengers getting on, doors closing. The trace scoured the length of the platform.
‘Ah!’ he said. ‘There’s something you’ve missed.’
‘What?’
‘All of the travellers who got off the train are heading for the exit – except one.’
‘What is he doing?’ asked Jacob.
‘She. Exactly what we are doing,’ said Steven. ‘She is watching the Gwynns, or maybe their daughter.’
Steven zoomed in on a woman still standing on the platform, some distance from the Gwynns but clearly looking at them. She was dressed in a brown tweed coat and had a scarf flung over her shoulders. As her face came into sharper focus, Steven saw the coppery hair, the amber eyes and the concerned expression of someone he instantly recognized.
This was a face he had been shown in the ship, the face of someone he had been told to ‘deal with’. It was with no sense of triumph that he pronounced her name. There was alarm in his voice.
‘Stella Dalrymple! What does she know of the Gwynns? Why is she here in York?’
‘What do we do now?’ said Jacob. He had heard of Stella. He knew she was connected with the Derwents in Belthorp. This was the woman who had caused all the trouble by using the wrong words at the wrong time – ‘Starlight, perhaps.’ If she also knew about Nesta, she was clearly one of the most dangerous contacts on the planet.
‘We could ignore it,’ said his father, knowing that Jacob would want it to go in the report and only too well aware of what ‘over-reporting’ had done the last time.
He took his view back to the Gwynns and was satisfied to see the inspector turn his back on them and walk quickly away. Athelerane had clearly been able to do what was required.
‘I might not have been clever enough to observe the other passenger,’ said Steven thoughtfully. ‘The whole thing could be more bother than it’s worth.’
‘We don’t know that,’ said Jacob. ‘You were told to report. So you must report. What I meant was – do we carry on watching the Gwynns? Or do we watch Mrs Dalrymple? And what use will it all be anyway?’
‘Small cogs in a big machine,’ said Steven. ‘That’s what we are. The one thing we do not need to know is the answer to the question “What use?” But you’re right to wonder what we should do next.’
‘Ask the Brick,’ said Jacob, nodding towards the lever that would permit them to speak to the instrument.
‘No need, Javayl ban,’ said Steven with a sigh. ‘I know the answer. We must go to our own spaceship and talk to the communicator. The Brick, after all, has bricklike qualities that render it of limited use.’
‘It’s Sunday,’ said Jacob anxiously. ‘Dinner will be ready soon.’
‘Then our visit to the ship will have to wait,’ said Steven, and immediately thought that the delay was not such a bad idea.
As if on cue, a voice from downstairs called, ‘Are you two going to stay up there all day? Dinner’s on the table. Come down now!’
It was unusual for Lydia to sound impatient, but mealtimes were important to her. All of the Bradwells, from the oldest to the youngest, knew that. So Steven and Jacob hurried down to dinner.
Steven stopped briefly to turn off the screen, catching just one last glimpse of the Gwynn family as they left the station.
‘We will see them again,’ said Jacob.
‘But not too soon,’ said Steven tersely. ‘I want to think this one out.’
‘So when do we tell about Stella Dalrymple?’ said Jacob with complete disregard for the mood his father was in.
‘In a day or two,’ said Steven smoothly. ‘Let the dust settle. There’s no point in rushing things.’
But never far from his mind were the last words the cube had spoken before he left the spaceship:
Javayl comes with you of course. You come home together.
That was the real problem. Set next to that, Stella Dalrymple’s involvement was trivial.