The Ghost Roads (Ring of Five) (8 page)

P
earl could tell from the sounds around her that she was in a large, echoing room. She was shoved toward the center of it. She banged her shins off a step.

“Up!” She climbed what felt like rough wooden steps and found herself standing on a creaking floor.

“You’re early.” Another man’s voice joined the ones she had already heard. A shiver ran down her spine. There was an inhuman coldness to the tone.

“No matter. Prepare her.” Pearl was puzzled as something was placed on her shoulders, a large necklace or cowl of some kind. Hands worked at her nape and she felt a tightness around her neck, constricting her breathing. Her legs weakened and a whimper escaped. She knew where she was now.

I
t was one of the pleasanter parts of the day in the Upper World, Longford thought. The hour when people had drinks in the drawing room—preferably before a roaring log fire—preparatory to going in for dinner. He looked at his watch. Perhaps twenty minutes before the call that would throw the informal dinner session with the government into consternation. He sipped his whiskey and soda, then looked up with a pleasant smile as the prime minister entered the room.

“T
his is it,” Les said. “Block X.” He tried the door. It wasn’t locked. He looked nervously at the others, then
opened the door and walked into a well-lit hall that looked like the foyer of a clinic.

“Smells like a hospital,” Dixie said.

“I’ve got a feeling this isn’t a hospital,” Les said in a hoarse whisper.

“Search the place quick,” Danny said. “Check that security camera, Dixie.”

“Check the what?”

“Never mind,” Danny said, frowning when he realized that the surveillance camera had been unplugged.

“What’s going on?” Les said.

“They can use those things to watch us,” Danny said.

“They can?”

“Yes, and record. The only thing is that others can break into the loop and watch as well. The camera’s unplugged. They’re making sure that whatever happens here isn’t witnessed by anyone else.”

“This is worse than I thought,” Dixie said. They looked around.

“Whatever it is,” Danny found himself whispering, “there’s a lot more at stake than just one life.”

“Yes, but we’re responsible for that life, so let’s go,” Les said, and they set off down the main corridor, moving fast, acting as a team, checking rooms as they went. The first few rooms were full of ordinary-looking electrical and measuring equipment, but Les drew in a sharp breath as they came to a row of cells. The first door was open. There was a bed in the middle of the floor with manacles on it. There were thumbscrews and electric shock wands on a rack on the walls, and rubber hoses and
pliers on a table. They moved on to the next cell and the next. Each was the same. When they came to the last one, Danny looked down at the table. Entwined in the chains at one end were several blond hairs.

Danny felt the power rise in him again, an angry wave of terrifying strength. He forced his mind to remain cool and clear.

“If you want to rescue her, you have to stay in control,” Dixie said urgently. Danny turned and ran from the room. The others followed. The corridor widened. They heard voices from behind double doors at the end.

L
ongford pushed his soup bowl away and turned toward the foreign minister, a red-faced man with a mustache.

“Do you not agree with me, Longford?” the foreign minister asked. “The country is riddled with terrorist cells. If we allow them to infiltrate us any further, we are doomed. We must strike back, and strike hard!”

“I appreciate your point, but we must be moderate,” Longford said smoothly. “We cannot allow our enemies to dictate what we do. And we cannot be sure of their intentions. Of course, if there was a major incident, then that would change my view.” He slid back his cuff and looked at his watch. Only minutes remained.

D
anny hit the double doors at a run. They crashed open. The group around the structure at the center of the room whirled around. Danny skidded to a halt, staring in
horror. The wooden structure was topped with a scaffold. A hemp rope hung from a wooden crossbar, and a slight figure stood underneath, a noose tight about its neck. As everyone turned toward the noise, the figure also moved, and Danny saw golden hair stir.

“Mum!” he cried out. Pearl, with a supreme effort, shook her head so violently that the blindfold slipped down. Her blue eyes met Danny’s and locked on them, and in that moment all was understood, all was forgiven. The masked man standing beside Pearl grasped the lever that would trigger the trapdoor, sending Pearl hurtling into oblivion.

“No!” Danny cried as the power rose in him like a great wave. With a noise like the gates of hell being wrenched open, the lever crashed back.

AN ARROW POINTING NORTH

L
ongford looked at his watch again. Ten minutes had elapsed. He knew it might take a while for information to reach the prime minister’s residence, but he was impatient. Others were poised to move into place once he had received the news.

“Excuse me,” he murmured, rising from the table. The foreign minister was still talking. The man was an idiot, Longford thought, but he wouldn’t be around for long. Nurse Flanagan would make a much better foreign minister.

Longford crossed the paneled hall outside the dining room and went into Nurse Flanagan’s office. He raised his eyebrows. She shook her head. No news.

“Send Conal in for an aerial reconnaissance,” he said,
“Danny will have broken. I know the boy’s mind. It is not strong enough to contain the power.”

V
andra and Toxique stood outside the library of the third landing at Wilsons. They had been summoned to a meeting with Devoy.

“Probably your dad back to make sure you’ve killed again,” jeered Exspectre, a small, pale boy. Toxique’s assassin family had their doubts about his willingness to follow the family trade.

“Don’t be stupid, Exspectre,” said Smyck, the ringleader of the group opposed to Danny. “Toxique couldn’t even squash an ant without crying about it.”

“Never mind them,” Vandra said to Toxique, “we’d better go.”

Toxique couldn’t stop jumping from foot to foot and asking Vandra if she knew what they were wanted for.

“Please stop it, Toxique,” she begged, “you’ll find out soon enough. Toxique. Toxique! What is it?”

The boy had fallen to the ground, holding his head and moaning. Vandra dropped to her knees beside him.

“Talk to me!” she begged. “What’s wrong?”

“Something … something terrible is going to happen.…”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. Not here. Danny …” Toxique cried out as pain gripped him.

T
o Les it felt like an hour passed between the moment the executioner pulled the lever and the terrible crash of the trapdoor opening. Pearl plunged downward with a despairing wail, echoed by a terrible cry from Danny. Les turned away. Only Nala kept his eyes fixed on the scaffold. The small group of soldiers at the base of the structure seemed at a loss. In the distance a siren sounded. Danny turned to Les with tears in his eyes.

“They’re all gone,” he said. “I can’t hold the power in. Run, Les! Take Dixie and Nala.”

“I’m not running,” Les said.

“Then I can’t help you,” Danny said calmly. A volcano was growing inside him, grief and power mingling in an all-consuming rage. Nala stood to the side, ignored. Only he had stayed alert, staring, listening.

“Where’s Dixie?” Les swung around suddenly. “She was here a moment ago!”

Nala sprang forward, running toward the base of the scaffold. A black curtain, erected for the purpose of concealing the hanging body within, barred his way. He plunged through it.

“What on earth is he doing?” Les said, glancing nervously at Danny. Suddenly the curtain fell aside and they could see the scene within. Dixie was desperately supporting Pearl’s legs, stopping the noose from doing its foul work. Nala had grabbed the woman’s legs at the other side.

“Stop, Danny!” Dixie cried. “Stop whatever you’re doing and help us!”

Les reacted first. Dixie was staggering, and Nala
wasn’t tall enough to get a proper grip. If Dixie fell, the rope would snap Pearl’s neck. Already Pearl was gasping for breath.

Danny bent his head to concentrate. He knew that the power would tear him apart if he did not master it. Now … now … the fractions of seconds felt like hours, for the power of the Fifth distorted time itself. It was too much. He could hold it for seconds, minutes perhaps, but he could not put it back.

He lifted his head and took in the situation under the scaffold with a glance. That, at least, he could help. In one swift movement he took the Knife of Implacable Intention from his inside pocket and threw it. The knife did exactly as its owner intended it to do: just as Dixie’s knees buckled, it flashed in front of Pearl’s face, severing the rope, and she fell, sobbing, to the floor.

The soldiers went for their guns, but Danny unleashed a fragment of the power welling within him. The men tumbled to the floor, the gallows itself swayed, and the executioner fell to the ground with a sickening crunch.

“Get out of here now!” Danny yelled. “I can’t control it!” The soldiers grabbed the executioner and bolted for a trapdoor leading to a tunnel. Before they could react, the trapdoor slammed shut, locked from the inside. Danny’s mother looked at him groggily. He saw her wounds, her eyes swollen and bruised. The power raged within him. He took Pearl in his arms.

“Outside!” The others followed him as he raced out of the building, giving orders as he went. “Dixie, disappear
and reappear outside the wire. Les, can you carry my … Agent Pearl?”

Les put his arms around Pearl’s waist and lifted her.

“She weighs less than Dixie,” he said quietly.

“Wait,” Danny said, “take Nala first.”

“I stay with you.”

“No,” Danny said. “You’ll die. Les, you must lift him out.” Les looked at the Cherb in disgust.

“Please,” Danny begged. “He saved Pearl. She would have died.”

With a disgusted look on his face Les rose, grabbed Nala by the shoulders and hauled him into the air. Nala didn’t struggle.

“I wait for you,” he said quietly. Les flew back over the fences, Nala dangling beneath him. Danny writhed in pain.

“Go, Dixie!” She started to protest, but his expression frightened her. “Please,” he moaned. Dixie hesitated, then disappeared.

Danny knelt and took Pearl’s hand. She turned her head. He could see the glint of blue through her swollen eyelids.

“What’s happening to you?” she whispered.

“Talk to me,” he said, “tell me what I was like when I was small.”

“When you were small? You remember the time you made a race car out of the old bath in the garden? I found you with a saucepan on your head. You were convinced you’d driven to the North Pole.”

“Keep talking,” Danny pleaded. Pearl spoke of his childhood, of baths and bedtimes, of toys and teddy bears, until the moment when Les plucked her gently from the ground and took off over the barbed-wire fences of the camp. When Danny saw that they had reached a safe distance, he bowed his head, weariness overtaking him. He no longer had to resist.

T
en miles away, Conal, flying hard, saw a blue flash and heard a boom rolling across the hills. He smiled grimly. The first part of Longford’s plan had come to fruition.

T
wo hours later, helicopters hovered over the base site, spotlights focused on the desolation below. No buildings had been left standing. The fence posts that once held barbed wire were charred sticks. Teams of heavily armed special forces combed the wreckage. Firemen directed their hoses onto smoldering rubbish. It would have been impossible to keep it quiet: the force of the blast had shattered windows for miles around. Television news helicopters replaced the military choppers over the site as the air force began to focus its attention on the countryside and woods around the base.

Silent residents stood in clusters in nearby towns and villages. There had been rumors of a possible terrorist attack, but they had never thought it would come to their quiet backwater. None of them had any idea what the installation had been used for, or what and whom had been
carried by the trucks that drove through at night. They stayed outside until their radios and televisions told them that there might be one or more dangerous fugitives in the area; then they went into their houses, locked their doors and waited for dawn.