The Power of Five Oblivion

did.
    “My name is Graham,” he said. “You can call me that, if you like. I was talking to Jamie last night. I’m with an organization – you might call it a secret society – that wants to help him.” That made sense. I had never met anyone who looked more secretive than the Traveller. Those dark eyes of his had never given anything away. “The society is called the Nexus. Jamie knows about it and he knows he can trust me.”
    I was sensible enough not to say anything just yet. Anyway, my mouth was full. It had been full more or less from the moment I had sat down.
    “The Nexus are waiting for us,” he said. “We just have to get to the Sheerwall Tunnel, which is on the edge of London – and this is the best way. As I said to Jamie last night, the canals have always been hidden away. They were almost forgotten, even ten years ago. And the good news is that the police don’t know we’re on a boat … otherwise, they’d have been after us already.”
    “So what’s the bad news?” I asked.
    “It’ll still take us three days to get there. Three days and three nights, travelling non-stop. We’re going to have to take turns at the tiller. You did a good job last night, Holly. First we have to get off the river and into the canal system. We’re about a mile from the Four Ways lock.”
    “How do you know?” I asked.
    “I came this way seven years ago. Of course, it was all very different then. Things were bad but they quickly got a lot worse as the food stocks ran out and the seeds stopped growing. The lock may have been vandalized. It may not be working. If that’s the case, we’ll have to abandon the boat and continue on foot.”
    He reached down and to my surprise he produced two guns – heavy pistols – which he laid down on the table with a clunk. They looked completely bizarre, sitting there, next to the plates of food. One was for Jamie, one for me.
    “We can’t let anybody stop us,” the Traveller continued. “If anyone sees the boat moving or hears the engine, they’ll know we have fuel. There was a time when people might have helped us. Not any more. We have to assume that everybody is our enemy and that they’ll kill us for what we have. So if I tell you to shoot, you mustn’t hesitate. Holly, you know I wanted to leave you behind and I’m not going to apologize for that. My job is to get Jamie to London and that’s all that matters.”
    He’d certainly made that clear the night before. I remembered him turning to me in the village with all the police running amok, killing anyone they came across, and saying, “Find somewhere to hide.” Until someone came and cut my head off or set me on fire. That was as much as he cared about me.
    “Where are we going in London?” Jamie asked.
    I wanted to know too. Part of me had always wanted to see the capital but at the same time I dreaded it. Miss Keyland had occasionally talked about London. She had shown us pictures of red buses and Piccadilly Circus and the Houses of Parliament. We all knew about the ninth of May, when the terror came. But she had never shown us what had happened next. It was as if she didn’t want us to know what remained.
    “You’ll see when you get there,” the Traveller replied. “Don’t expect me to talk about it.”
    “St Meredith’s is surrounded,” Jamie said. “And the door isn’t even working.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “Matt told me. Can the Nexus get me there?”
    “Yes.”
    “All right. But I’m the one who’s going to tell you when we break in.”
    The Traveller looked at Jamie with something close to a scowl. “And how will you know when’s the right time?” he asked.
    “I just will.”
    The Traveller was going to argue but then he thought better of it. “All right. You’re the boss.”
    Was he? I wasn’t actually sure who was in charge. It was the Traveller’s boat. He was the one who had made all the calls so far. He had decided where to stop and even what we were going to eat. But there was something about Jamie that I hadn’t noticed before. Somehow, he seemed stronger than ever. The Traveller was twice his size and probably twice his age. But he was only here for Jamie. We both were, really. He and the Five … that was all that mattered.
    We cleared the stuff away and set off again. The Traveller turned a key to start the Lady Jane ‘s engine and he must have looked after it well during all those years as it kicked in at once. Jamie and I untied the ropes.