Dream Paris (29 page)

“Would you like a ride in my carriage?” asked the Count.

“I will take them back to their hotel,” said Kaolin.

“What about Albert?” asked Francis. “We were going for a drink together.”

“Albert ’as other things to attend to,” said Kaolin.

“Does the
Banca di Primavera
have control over everyone?” I asked.

“The
Banca di Primavera
controls no one. We exist merely to ’elp people realise their ambitions. We cannot be ’eld responsible, ’owever, when people make bad choices.”

That’s the point at which Albert seemed to remember the bad choices he had made. He raised a hand in goodbye and left.

Kaolin had requisitioned a smart black fiacre to take us back to the hotel. Francis gazed out of the window, arms folded. The searchlight on the great tower picked its way across the city. It shone on a man in dirty biker leathers, sleeping on a saddle bag, two salad cartons and a half piece of bread in a pile next to him. He opened his eyes at the glare, waved a hand at the searchlight, telling it to move on.

K
AOLIN DROPPED US
off before the brightly lit lobby of the
Hôtel de la Révolution
.

“I’ll meet you tomorrow morning at 9am. We shall discuss your next move then.”

The fiacre drove off before we could reply.

The doorman held open the door, and I made to enter, but Francis pulled me back.

“
Un moment.
” Where had he picked that up from? Albert?

“What?”

“Why are we going in there? Kaolin will have us exactly where she wants us.”

In the hotel we could see Dream Parisians chattering together. The women wore long silk dresses, the men colourful suits. They were chattering, laughing, drinking champagne. Could they be spies? I lowered my voice.

“But where else do we go?”

“Wherever we like. We’ve got the money, we’ve got our meal tickets.”

I looked at the hotel. It looked so tempting, so comfortable. I’d rather sleep there than somewhere like the pension we’d visited when we first arrived in Dream Paris. And, correct anorectal angle or not, they had proper toilets here.

“What would we gain by running away? The
Banca
is helping us.”

“They’re helping us to help themselves. The
Banca di Primavera
, the Prussians, Jean-Marc Ponge and the Committee for Public Safety. They’re all using you.”

Francis turned and took hold of the wire that trailed from his pack. He tugged it a couple of times.

“Even the British,” he said. “What could your mother have done?”

“I told you, I don’t know! She was a banker. I suppose the
Banca di Primavera
could be interested in her because of that.”

“Maybe she knew something about the money in Dream London.”

“I doubt it. She lost her job right at the start of the changes. I told you, they didn’t like women working in Dream London.”

A man left the hotel, his beard shaved almost to the jawline, rising at the chin to meet the lips. He nodded to us.

“
Bonne nuit,
” said Francis.

“Albert taught me some French,” he explained, seeing my raised eyebrows. “He was very interested in you, you know. He says that there have been stories of spies around here for months. He’d heard of Dream London. Everyone in Dream Paris has, he said.”

“The Count said someone had stolen the Dream Prussian’s Integer Bomb. He seemed quite upset about it.”

I turned to face him.

“You’re a soldier. Have you heard of an Integer Bomb?”

“No. Never. Would your mother have stolen a bomb?”

“Why should she do that? She was a banker, not a spy.”

We stood in silence for a moment, thinking.

“I think we should go in,” I said, eventually. “At least if we stick close to Kaolin we know what she’s up to. And that way, she’s helping us, even if it is for her own reasons.”

“That makes a kind of sense, I suppose.”

We entered the hotel and climbed up the stairs to our suite. Just as we approached the doors, Francis pushed me gently to one side.

“Let me check.”

He opened the door to the room and looked inside.

“Run!”

A broken figure emerged from the doorway, arms reaching out beseechingly. Its head was like a broken eggshell, the space where the face should be smashed away with a spoon. There was nothing inside the head but emptiness…

Francis was pushing me, protecting me, entangling me in the wire. We staggered down the corridor, tripped, rolled on the floor. I saw the broken figure holding its hands wide. Somehow, it spoke.

“
Please! I’m here to help
.”

“Stand still,” commanded Francis. “Don’t come any closer!”

Immediately, the figure stopped moving

“It’s a doll,” I said. “A china doll. Like Kaolin!”

“
No! Not like Kaolin!
”

The broken figure was quite agitated. “
Not like Kaolin at all! I’ve remained true! I’m clay through and through!
”

The figure wrung its china hands together, and I saw how the porcelain was cracked and dirty. Where Kaolin was perfect in every way, from the fine stitching on her clothes to the delicate paint of her face, this figure was an essay in neglect. Its clothes were ragged, the silk of its shirt grimed with dirt, its pantaloons rent with slits. And as for its china face…

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“
My name is Bone! Anna, I’m here to warn you! The
Banca di Primavera
is looking to invest in you! Don’t let it do so!
”

“Thank you, Bone,” said Francis. “We’re not allowing it to!”

“
Come inside the suite! I can’t be seen talking to you.
”

Francis looked at me.

“I go in first.”

I nodded. Francis and the creature disappeared around the gold leaf door of the suite. After a moment, Francis appeared and waved me in.

Bone stood in the middle of the vast floor, wringing her cracked hands together.

“
Who is paying for this suite?
” she asked.

“The
Banca di Primavara
,” said Francis. “Don’t worry, we’ve not signed anything…”

“
You don’t need to have signed anything! You’ll be paying for this suite, you just don’t know it yet! What else has the
Banca
given you?
”

“Nothing!” I said. “Well, they’ve provided us with transport around the city, but I checked, it was a gift. Kaolin said so.”

“
No! This is terrible! The
Banca di Primavera
make no gifts! We must leave, right now!
”

“No,” said Francis. “We’re not going anywhere yet. Not until we know something about you. Why are you here?”

“
Anna’s mother sent me
.”

Somehow I’d guessed that. Broken as she was, she bore a resemblance to the dolls I’d seen in Dream London, the two dolls outside Dream Dover, the one that I’d woken up to see in Dream Calais.

“How is my mother?” I said. “Where is she? Take me to her, now!”

Bone shook her broken head.

“
No, Anna! I can’t! Anna, understand this, she’s safe and happy as long as she remains hidden.
”

“But why? What’s she done? Why is everyone looking for her?”

“
Anna, she can’t say. Anna, please, just go home, now. It would be better for everyone if you were to do just that.
”

“But what about my fortune? It says I’m going to meet her!”

“
It says you will argue with her. What if you were to do that via letter? Via a go-between? You don’t have to meet her in person, do you?
”

“I…”

Francis was moving his lips, figuring it out. Our eyes met. Was Bone right?

“
You never had to meet her,
” said Bone. “
You’re being played with, Anna.
”

She was right.

“Anyway,” I said. “I’m not sure we can go back. I don’t have the papers to leave the city. The Committee for Public Safety think I’m a spy.”

“
You are a spy, Anna. You’re spying on your mother.
”

I crossed my arms, wrapped them around my waist.

“What are we going to do?” asked Francis.

“I don’t know! I don’t know! This could be a trick, too. What if my mother is really in trouble?”

“
She isn’t, Anna! She is perfectly safe!
”

“Prove it! Tell me about her! What was she like when you last saw her?”

“
I’ve never seen her! You don’t understand, Anna! They told me nothing so I could give nothing away under torture. And I didn’t! They broke my face, they broke my beautiful face, and still I said nothing. They hosed my beautiful clothes in slurry, they broke my hands and stuck them back together with glue and still I kept my silence, for I had nothing to say.
”

“Who tortured you?”

“
The
Banca di Primavera.”

“But why?”

“
Do you know the history of the china people?
”

“Kaolin told us,” I said. “There was a bank of mud by the river. The
Banca di Primavera
loaned it intelligence so that it
could become
.”

“
That’s right. The
Banca di Primavera
loaned intelligence to a bank of mud. The mud learned how to form bodies such as mine
.” Bone paused. “
Such as mine used to be.
”

“Go on, Bone,” said Francis, gently.

“
The mud learned how to use those bodies to make other china artefacts. Cups and crockery, vases and all manner of ceramics. The
Banca di Primavera
took a percentage of the profit of the sales of those artefacts as payment for the loan of intelligence. There were only four bodies back then, and they would have quickly repaid the loan, but the Banca wanted to make more money. ‘Listen,’ it said. ‘At the moment you are making money from making cups and crockery. Are you happy with this?
’

“
‘We are!’ said the four bodies
.

“
‘Surely this is just a lack of ambition on your part! You make some money, it’s true, but over in Dream Delft they have constructed a whole village made of china. Imagine that! Houses and inns and shops and cafés all built of china! They have people travelling from all over the Dream World to visit them and to buy their produce.’

“
‘But there are only four of us! How could only four of us hope to construct and run an entire village?’

“
‘Perhaps four of you couldn’t manage it, but what about sixteen of you? There is another mud bank further down the river. What if I loaned you the intelligence to craft bodies made of mud from that river bank?’

“
‘But we are happy as we are!’

“
‘But with more money, you could be even happier!’

“
And so the four bodies took another loan from the bank and with sixteen bodies they built a village. And when that loan was almost repaid the
Banca di Primavera
talked them into taking another loan, and another, moving down the river, borrowing more intelligence to exploit more of the land. And all was well whilst there was still mud on the river, but eventually there came the time when there was no mud left. So much intelligence to pay interest on, and no more resources for expansion. And that of course, is what the
Banca di Primavera
wanted. The china people could not pay back the bank, so it took back its collateral. Now it owns all the river, and all the bodies, all the china.
”

It was Francis who asked the pertinent question, but I never really thought about it until later. Much, much later.

“
Where did the intelligence come from?
”

I wish I’d listened, I wished I’d pressed Bone for an answer. But I didn’t, I was too busy making a point.

“But surely the bank doesn’t own you,” I said.

Bone had no face, but I could tell by her movements that she was distressed.

“
Oh, but it does! It owns me body and soul! If it discovers I have spoken to you, it will repossess me!
”

“Just like the other dolls we saw…” I said, thinking aloud. “What’s the matter, Francis?”

I’d seen him like this before, the way his expression changed, the way he stopped being a boy-man and turned into something else. A soldier. His face became hard, his body poised. He was looking at the door to the room, checking out the exits.

“Anna, this is a trap.”

Bone became even more agitated.

“
No! Not a trap! I’m here to warn you!
”

Francis crossed the room, stood at the side of the window, peeked out.

“They’ve used you, Bone,” he said. “Why torture you then let you go? They followed you. Maybe you’d have led them back to Anna’s mother!”

“
No! I would never have done that! I couldn’t! I don’t know where she is!
”

Francis was a professional. I’m sure that, from the street, no one would be able to see him looking out of the window. But he could see what was going on out there.

“There are too many taxis out there, Anna. All driven by Pierrots.”

“What should we do?” I was totally in Francis’s hands, now. He was the soldier, the expert.

“We’ve got to go to ground. The
Banca di Primavera
will know we’re on to it now.”

“Where do we go?”

“Down! We go up and we’re trapped. Listen, this is what we’re going to do. I’m going to find a cane, you’re going to put on a stole and take my arm and we’re going walk out the front door, just like we’re heading out for an evening stroll. We’re going to brazen it out.”

“What about Bone?”

“We leave her.”

“No!”

“We have to, Anna. We take her with us, we’ll be more obvious.”

“
He’s right,
” said Bone. “
Go, Anna. Go now!
”

“I want to get changed!”

I was still wearing the white dress with the blue bows down the front. A beautiful thing for a young lady out on the streets of Dream Paris. Not something suitable for a young woman making her escape into the night.

“No,” said Francis. “What you’re wearing is perfect!”

It was okay for him, in his suit. Women were always handicapped by their clothing…

“Goodbye, Bone.”