Shell Shocked (The Cosmic Carapace, #1) (9 page)

“Spencer?" He snapped out of whatever was holding his attention and turned to her.

“Sorry, it's nothing, let's go.”

––––––––

N
orbert burst through the large wooden door at the end of the main hall and scampered in his sideways gait to the twins who were gathering round a bank of dials and switches which were pulsing, flashing and whirring around an object he couldn’t see as it was being obstructed by the two identical women. As he got closer, he could hear them discussing something in hurried conversation.

“It was obvious as soon as he saw her if you ask me.”

“Oh definitely, there was heat!” Eva giggled as she said this.

“'Scuse me Misses and Mr! I got news!“ gasped Norbert trying to catch his breath. He’d run all the way from the Dewdrop Inn after three pints of ‘Sid’s Scuffler’ and he was feeling a little as though he should have opted for the ‘Suppin’ Scuffler’ rather than the ‘Screwin’ Scuffler’ which was altogether more potent, and far more likely to end up with you waking up and wondering where you left your liver.

They ignored him.

“Mind you, I doubt she’d notice even if he was drooling in front of her with his tongue out!” They both sniggered at this.

Norbert squeezed in by the side of them and stood on tiptoes to see what they were looking at. A pair of donuts were sat in the middle of the flashing instruments.

“Excuse me!” Norbert tried again, but his heart wasn’t quite in it any more. His eyes were locked on the donuts and there was a gleam to them which made him look as though he was in a trance.

“Hi Norbert,” they chorused as one. “You’ve got news did you say?”  Eva continued.

“Er... yes,” said Norbert somewhat dreamily. The girls waited, peering at him for a few seconds until, as one again, they raised their voices.

“Norbert!”

He snapped his gaze away from the donuts and turned to them.

“Oh yeah, sorry, it’s just I ‘ad a drop of Scuffler in the Dewdrop an' then I ‘ad to run all the bleeding way up ‘ere in me old boots what is falling apart and is giving me all sorts of gip with me corns. I really need some new shoes what will help me in situations where I have important news relating to G.R.I.N. business, what I never get paid for and do out of the goodness of my own ‘art by the way, but I never moan, I just ask for the odd little bit of something what might come your way that you think might ‘elp poor old Norbert to ‘elp you. An' all this has made me ever so hungry, I'm starving I am!”

This had poured out of him in one long stream while the other three just stared at him wearily. He had very markedly glanced at the donuts in front of them.

The twins folded their arms simultaneously.

“You’re not having those donuts Norbert. They appeared yesterday and we don’t know what they’d do to you if you ate one.”

“I was just wondering whether...”

“Shut up and tell us your news.”

Norbert took another glance at the donuts and sighed.

“Colin’s been taken.”

“What do you mean taken?”

“Taken. You know, like someone nabbed ‘im. My mate Eric the Fed said ‘ee saw ‘im being taken into a warehouse at the docks.”

“By who?” Asked Eva.

Norbert had suddenly found something incredibly interesting on the floor to stare at. He took his battered purple hat from his head and started to pass it through his hands, so it turned slowly in front of him.

“Oo took ‘im? Oh, you want to know who took ‘im do you? Ah well, yeah, I thought you might want to know that.” He fell into silence, still staring at the floor, hat slowly spinning in his hands.

“Well, who was it Norbert?!” asked Esme.

Norbert had now entered a full blown state of shiftiness. His eyes were darting left and right, the hat was spinning faster in his hands, and he had now added to this with some decidedly guilty shoe shuffling.

“Well...” He said.

“Norbert!” shouted both the twins at once, not only out loud, but deep in Norbert’s head at the same time. He jumped, his voice blurting out immediately.

“Mr Pall!“ He covered his eyes with his hat and started muttering to himself.

“Oh Gawd, oh blimey. I shouldn’t ‘ave, but I didn’t  know ‘ee would, oh gawd.“

The twins looked at each other in confusion. They had never seen Norbert like this. He was always cocky, confident, always driving them bloody mad, but never this. Never scared. It was hard to think of anything Norbert would be scared of. If you dropped a large rock on his head, you would probably lift it up in a day or two to find him having a beer with a woodlouse and running a scam with an earthworm to defraud a couple of gullible beetles.

Norbert reached into his hat and pulled a small, thin metal hip flask from the lining. He unscrewed the cap and took a deep pull.

“What have you done?" asked Eva.

Norbert, who was now tipping the hip flask upside down and jerking it violently in the hope of gaining a few more drops, turned to them. He looked like a puppy that had just had an accident on a brand new sofa.

“I didn’t know it was ‘im see! I fought it was some fella who’d got in a bit of bother!"

“Just tell us!" said Esme losing all patience now.

“Well I’ve been sort of looking after some space for an acquaintance of mine."

The twins exchanged glances at Norbert’s use of the word acquaintance, as though a pet goldfish had just turned to them and asked for a game of chess, but he ignored them and ploughed on.

“And Mr Geeb asked me if I knew anywhere that he might use to store somefink for a while. And ‘im being an old friend, I known ‘im since school see, I said yeah, no problem. Then he comes back to me a couple of days later and says he needs someone who can take care of a little problem he ‘as. An' I said what sort of little problem, and ‘ee said ‘mind your own business’ and I said.."

“GET ON WITH IT!" the twins shouted in unison, making Norbert physically jump backwards, his top hat toppling forward over his eyes. He pushed his hat back up and carried on more quietly.

“'Ee asked me ‘oo I fort the baddest chap I’d ‘eard of was. Someone ‘oo would do anyfin for the right cash."

“Ok... and what did you tell him?“ asked Esme, not impatient anymore, but with the hesitancy of fear.

“I introduced ‘im to... to Mr Pall." As he said it he winced, and grimaced in a way that suggested he was waiting for a blow. Nothing came. He opened his eyes and saw the three of them staring back at him blankly.

“So who’s that?" asked Eva.

“You’ve never heard of Mr Pall?!" exclaimed Norbert, clearly in shock.

“We don’t exactly move in the same circles you do Norbert," said Esme rolling her eyes.

“Oh, right, well ‘ee’s a bad ‘un ‘ee is. Very bad.”

~~~~

“W
here are we going?" Spencer was once again struggling to keep up with Becky as they moved through the narrow streets of Alexandria. He just couldn't work out how she could move so fast with apparently so little effort. He looked at her legs, which he had to admit, he had looked at rather more than was strictly necessary already. He marvelled at how these rather short, perfectly formed limbs could cover so much ground. She walked in the same way that she approached everything, with a fiery, intense determination. It crossed his mind that by sheer force of will, she may be moving the ground backwards under her as well as moving her legs forward above it. To be fair to Spencer, he was currently being hampered by the fact he was eating an enormous hotdog purchased from a market stall that screamed gastroenteritis, but was actually delicious. After they had arrived at the market to find Afet's stall shut up and alone, Becky had gone off to ask around and see if anyone had seen her. Giving Spencer just enough time to follow his stomach rather than his head.

“I asked Colin to let my friend Afet know why I didn't meet her this morning. Well, not exactly why, but to apologise anyway. I want to know if they got him before he got to the market, or after.“

“Who’s they?“

“Well I'm guessing the replacement for whoever I saw turned into jam earlier after they tried to attack me.“

“It's funny, I'd never heard the name Afet before, but I met someone just the other day called that. Now I'm going to meet another one.“

“What did she look like this Afet?“ It suddenly occurred to Spencer that he didn't want to give the wrong impression here so adjusted his answer mentally.

“Oh plain, very plain looking. Somewhat ugly you could say. Terrible skin if I remember correctly.“ Becky stopped at the small wooden door of a terraced house which sat forlorn on the end of a row of five. The close had a look of a certain type of poverty which came with a large amount of pride. Each section of pavement outside each small house had been scrubbed. Small lines of dirt marked where the work of one house had ended, just before another began. She knocked on the door. The sound of hasty footsteps filtered through before it was swung open with force by a manic Afet. Wild eyed, she had clearly been crying. The look she gave them was unmistakably one of extreme disappointment and anger.

“No! You have to leave. Now!" she slammed the door shut again.

“It is her!" Spencer sprayed hotdog as he spoke. Becky turned to him.

“Plain looking?" He gave a sheepish grin as Becky knocked again.

“Yeah, well, the light wasn't good when I saw her, very dim in fact."

“Very dim sounds about right." The door opened again suddenly.

“Go awa.." Becky pushed past her and entered the hallway, leaving Spencer looking at her trying to swallow some sausage..

“It's probably best if you let us in, she swings a mean sock." Afet's large eyes darted from side to side, looking down the empty road, before grabbing Spencer and pulling him in at speed. She cupped her delicate face in her hands and walked down the short corridor to a small kitchen

“Oh God, they're going to kill him now definitely. You two have just got him killed." Becky guided her to a stool which sat at a worn, peeling breakfast bar and sat next to her. Spencer put the kettle on, for Afet of course, though he would admit he was fairly gasping himself.

“Calm down, tell me what's going on." Spencer wouldn't have picked Becky as a sympathetic ear, in fact she often seemed more likely to bite your ear off than lend you one of her own, but she was showing a softer side now. She held Afet's hand cupped in hers and waited for Afet to gulp down some tears and calm herself enough to be able to speak. When she did, all the emotion had gone. She spoke in a dull monotone, blankly.

“They came in the night, here into our home. They tied us both up and this horrible little man said he'd cut him into tiny pieces and sell him to Hagar for his sausages." The spoon in his hand stopped stirring the tea he had made, Spencer went pale.

“Unless I led you to them Becky, I'm so sorry!" The emotion broke over again like a wave. As she tried to compose herself, Spencer placed the tea in front of her. He looked at Becky with pleading eyes.

“What was the name of the stall I bought that sausage from?"

“Shhh." She waved him away with her hand.

“OK Afet, it's important you're honest with us, did you take Colin to them when I didn't show up?"

“Yes."

“Where did you take him?"

“To an alley off the market, they were in a room in number 12 Market View and gave me a signal from the window. Please, please help get my father back."

“We'll try." She stood up and made for the front door.

“Come on Spencer." He followed for a moment until he realised he was still holding his half mug of tea. He turned back in the narrow corridor and walked straight into Afet coming the other way. The remainder of his tea splashed down the front of his jeans which Afet immediately began wiping with her sleeve.

“I'm sorry I didn't mean to I'm just all over the place." Spencer reeled from the force of the deja vu as Becky entered the doorway again and frowned at the scene.

“Spencer?" He backed away from Afet's worrying.

“Coming, coming." Outside, Spencer was again playing catch up to Becky's walk as they made their way back to the market.

“Seriously, what was the name of the stall I bought the hotdog from because...“

“Look, we need to get to that flat. It could be where they're holding Afet's dad and Colin."

“And you want to just walk up and knock on the door?"

“Well maybe not knock, but pretty much, yeah."

“How on earth are you still alive?"

“By not dying mostly. Don't forget, I'm quick." She suddenly blurred and appeared on the other side of him.

“That's not exactly going to help me though is it?"

The market had died down when they arrived back in the square. The stalls were shut up, little boxes in the echoing space. They walked around the edge where the tall five storey buildings loomed, checking the small brass plaques which were set in the wall of each building. The entrances were raised at the top of identical worn steps, each with a rather grand, but weathered blue door at the top. they kept as close to the wall as possible, if anyone was looking out of the window, they wouldn't see them unless they were pressed against the glass looking straight down. Becky led the way of course. Spencer took a moment to daydream, wondering if she would lead if she were dancing too.
Of course she would,
he thought,
and I'd let her.