The Mortal Knife (3 page)

It was fair to say that Dan now had Adam's full attention, although probably not for the reasons he thought. ‘You
what
?'

Dan nodded triumphantly. ‘You heard me. I was there when that nutter blew himself up in Trafalgar Square.' He shovelled another handful of Brazil nuts into his mouth.

Adam took a slow breath in and fought to remain calm. ‘Yeah, I know. But you said something about a photo? You got a photo?'

Dan swallowed hard. ‘Yep. I was at the front of that gallery heading down into the square and it looked really cool with the stage and stuff, so I took a couple of photos on my phone. And then –
wham
! Massive explosion! And there was all this black smoke in the air. People were screaming and stuff.' His excitement at telling the story faded as the memories overtook him. ‘It was pretty terrible really.'

‘Yeah, it was,' Adam said softly. He started when the other three looked at him sharply. ‘I mean, you know, the pictures. On the news. Really bad.'

‘They didn't have too many pictures on the news.' It was Spike who had finally looked up from the laptop. ‘Most people were videoing the concert, so they were looking the wrong way. So they've only got the CCTV footage and most of it's coming from the wrong direction. But by the time I've finished with this they'll have Dan's picture too.' He turned the laptop round towards them. ‘Check this out.'

The other three leaned closer and stared at the image on the screen. Adam sucked in a breath between his teeth. The familiarity of the scene was what really jolted him. The whole square was bathed in sunlight. He could still remember how unseasonably warm the day had been and the holiday atmosphere in the crowd, everyone enjoying the weekend. Dan by a quirk of fate had been standing in exactly the right place to capture the whole scene. There was the column, at the far end of the square. There was the band bounding onto the stage, the spiky-haired lead singer waving his guitar in the air in greeting to the crowd.

And there, in the centre, between the fountains were two dark figures, alone and separate from the rest of the crowd. At the very top edge of the photo a tour guide could be seen leading a group towards the column. The group would never reach their destination. A few seconds later the bomber would detonate himself, in spite of Adam's pleas – and then all hell would break loose.

Adam closed his eyes and fought back a wave of nausea. He could still see it in slow motion – that moment when the bomber raised his hand and Adam
knew
what was going to happen. He had barely had time to step into the Hinterland and even there the force of the blast had scoured his face like hot sand. And when he had opened his eyes and seen a woman's leg lying in the physical world  …  He gulped and reached for his water bottle.

‘Are you all right?' Dan was looking at him oddly.

‘Yeah, I'm OK. It's just weird, you know?' Adam managed a weak smile. ‘Blowing yourself up like that. Some people are mental.'

‘That's not the maddest bit.' Spike's voice was low and intent as he zoomed in on the photo, focusing on the two figures. ‘People keep talking about the bomber and saying they found bits of him – but no one is even mentioning this other guy. I've been digging around a bit and the police know there were two people there – but they only found the remains of one man. So who the hell is the other guy? And where's
his
body?'

Archie squinted at the screen. ‘Maybe he was the bomber's friend? Or maybe he was just some tourist and that's why no one knows who he was.'

‘But what happened to his body?' Spike persisted. ‘Even that close to a bomb, you don't just disappear. There would be some of you left. I mean it would look more like mince than body but it would still be there.'

‘Maybe it vaporised.' Adam cleared his throat and struggled on. ‘You know, with the force of the bomb. Like people in nuclear bombs. They just kind of vanish.'

Spike shook his head. ‘Not hot enough mate. They should have found some of him left, even if it was a good distance away. You know, a bit of foot in one of the fountains or something.'

‘Shut up!' Adam said. He was on his feet without quite knowing how he'd managed to get there. His hands, resting on the table, were clenched into fists. He had seen it all – the body parts, the shredded clothing, the woman lying bleeding with her mouth moving silently. And the screams. He could still hear them in his head, the way they started slow, like whimpers and built into something loud and shrill and full of terror. ‘Stop talking like that! Like it was  …  in a computer game or something!'

Spike stared at him unperturbed. ‘What's your problem? They didn't find the other guy, so he must have escaped – which basically makes him a
real
ninja. Nothing wrong with tracking him down. And no one else died. If some loony wants to blow himself up, just be happy he only took himself out of action. Everyone else was OK.'

‘They weren't OK,' Adam hissed. His anger was a bright, hot pulse, squashing the air out of his lungs, even though he knew it wasn't Spike's fault. ‘Just because they didn't die it doesn't mean they were OK! How could you see something like that and be OK?'

Dan nodded. ‘Tell me about it.' He narrowed his eyes and appraised Adam. ‘Maybe you should get some counselling too.'

Adam almost snorted but managed not to. He tried to imagine sitting down and telling his whole sorry tale to some unsuspecting therapist. The
counsellor
would need counselling by the time Adam had finished  …  ‘It's just mad someone doing that. And seeing the photo.'

Spike shrugged. ‘You'll be able to see even more by the time I'm finished with it. I've got some software at home I can run the photo through. See if I can get the faces.'

Adam stared at him in horror but before he could speak someone cleared their throat behind him. ‘Hi Adam.'

He turned around and froze. Melissa was standing there, the faintest hint of a smile on her face. He stared at her for what felt like a full minute until someone kicked him under the table, bringing him back to his senses. ‘Ummmm  …  hey. Hi. How are you?'

‘Yeah, good thanks. How was your holiday?'

Adam couldn't stop looking at her mouth. He remembered exactly what it felt like. It had haunted a couple of his dreams over the last week. His cheeks began to slow burn even thinking about those dreams  …  ‘Yeah, it was good. Brilliant.'

She looked confused for a second. ‘Oh right. I thought it would have been rubbish. You know with being grounded.'

Adam frantically backtracked. ‘Yeah, it was crap, really rubbish. But good too. You know, because it was a holiday. Even though I was grounded. But yeah, it was good. And crap.'

She blinked but thankfully decided not to press him on the issue. ‘So I have to go to the art room today but maybe we could hang out at lunchtime tomorrow?'

‘That would be great,' Adam said, somehow managing to sound cooler than he actually felt.

‘OK, great,' she said and smiled. She looked around Adam's friends and her smile faltered a little in the face of three pairs of shocked eyes staring at her. ‘Erm  …  sorry to interrupt. See you tomorrow.'

‘See you,' Adam said, beaming after her. He watched her walk away and turned back to his friends, who were still gaping. ‘
What
?'

‘She came to find you! The fish came to find you!' Dan's eyes were like saucers.

Adam groaned. ‘Stop calling her a fish!'

Dan ignored him. ‘But she still likes you! Even after everything, she
still
likes you!'

Archie held out his fist and waited for Adam to bump it. ‘Mate, you are totally in there. You're a legend. You threw up on her and she
still
wants to see you.'

‘I mostly missed her  … ' Adam muttered, shame-faced at the memory of his not-so-romantic Valentine's night with Melissa. It had ended in him showering her feet with vomit, courtesy of Michael Bulber. With hindsight he should never have taken a
crisp
off the Beast, never mind a whole drink spiked with illicit internet substances. No wonder it had tasted so horrible.

‘Yeah, I wonder what the Beast will make of you hanging out with Melissa in school,' Dan mused. ‘I mean, you may have emptied the net beneath his nose but swimming about dangling bait in front of the great white is just asking for trouble.'

‘Enough with the shark metaphors already,' Spike muttered. He was staring intently at the laptop once again. Adam eyed him cautiously. According to Dan, Spike had harboured a secret crush on Melissa but had never acted on it – at least not beyond lurking in the corridor outside the art room and stalking her online. That was the thing about Spike – no matter how smart he was, he always had to approach things from sideways on, sneaking in, finding access points. The problem was that approach didn't work for everything. You couldn't hack your way into someone's affections. Sometimes you just had to tackle things head on.

Like now for example. Adam tried to keep his tone casual. ‘So what's this software you have for zooming in on pictures?'

Spike shrugged. ‘It's the same kind of thing the police use to enhance images. I've modified it a bit though. Plus this image is better quality than CCTV, even though it's pretty far away.'

Adam frowned at the figures on the laptop. Now the initial shock had subsided he wasn't as worried. After all, the bomber and he were both blurs – plus Adam was mostly turned away from the camera. He'd been wearing giant sunglasses and had his baseball cap pulled down over his face  … 
The baseball cap!
A sudden shockwave ran through him. Dan had brought him the baseball cap back from a holiday in America – and had brought the same hat for Spike and Archie too. If Spike actually managed to zoom in on the logo  …  would the others recognise it? Adam stood up, feeling rattled, just as the bell rang for the end of break. Trying to play it cool, he shrugged. ‘Well, you're wasting your time. If the police haven't managed to find anything I don't see how you're going to.'

Spike glanced up and his eyes gleamed. ‘I'll take that as a challenge.'

Adam tried to smile but as he walked away he had a horrible feeling getting Spike off this project would be like parting a starving Rottweiler from a steak.

Adam could hardly keep his eyes open on the bus on the way home. His teachers, apparently incensed at a week's holiday, had cracked the whip all day and given him enough homework to keep him going until he was forty. He yawned, trying not to nod off on the shoulder of the girl beside him. Now she was out of the school grounds she had replaced all her facial piercings and if Adam slumped towards her he was likely to end up impaled.

As he trudged the short walk from the bus stop to his house, he thought about Melissa and felt a rising sense of excitement – followed almost immediately by a wave of terror. The thing was, he'd gone to see her and kissed her just after the bomb had gone off, riding high on a wave of adrenalin – the courage of the damned and all that. But what was he going to do tomorrow?

Adam sighed. Having a girlfriend was a big no-no in the Luman world. Betrothals were semi-arranged by well-meaning parents, although never against the will of the parties involved. Because of this Lumen didn't really do the whole dating thing – which meant Adam was completely clueless about the art of seduction.

His brother Luc had managed to overcome this particular hurdle – but that was just Luc. He had the gift of the gab and an easy charisma that filled Adam with a potent blend of envy and admiration. In fairness to Luc, he
had
attempted to help Adam on Valentine's night – and had also brought him safely home after Michael Bulber's stealth attack.

There was no point asking his friends for help either. None of them had girlfriends and they weren't likely to have in the short term. Archie liked girls with the kind of impossible proportions that existed only in his sketchbook (and what could kindly be described as ‘niche' websites). Dan burned with hopeless passion for the elf maidens on the pages of his fantasy books and Spike was too intent on world domination to ever admit to anything as petty as actual
emotions
.

So, for now, Adam was on his own when it came to wooing Melissa. She'd told him he needed to practise kissing, so he'd taken her at face value and tried to practise on his own hand. The trouble was it tasted revolting – kind of warm and salty. Maybe he should have smeared some lip balm on it first.

He reached home and pressed his palm to the electronic scanner pad on the stone pillar beside the wrought-iron gate. The house was hidden from view behind a high iron fence, dense shrubbery and lots of old trees. The electric gates opened smoothly, then swung closed behind him on silent hinges.

Adam kicked his way up the gravel driveway, unmoved by the graceful grey stone house with its leaded windows and heavy front door, stained glass gleaming above the dark wood. Of course, what could be seen above ground was just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath the clipped lawn and ornamental trees the ground was hollowed out into vaults, crypts and a huge ballroom and dining chamber. He trudged round the side of the house, heading for the back door in the hope of a quick snack in the kitchen. Sam and Morty had been running free in the paddock but as usual heard his approach and ran to greet him, barking in welcome. They were huge – Irish wolfhounds trained as herding dogs – although it was souls they herded, not sheep.

After an energetic wrestling match he escaped from the dogs and into the kitchen. He was hungry and tired and needed some thinking time. He would throw together a quick sandwich, take it up to his room and have some chill-out time. Just some quiet thinking time, that was all he needed  …