Tunnels 06 - Terminal

out.
    Then Stephanie felt the disturbed air and caught glimpses of the Brights sweeping close overhead. Martha had dropped her crossbow after taking the shot, but she still had the deadliest weapons at her disposal; her ‘fairies’ would do anything to protect her.
    It immediately brought Stephanie to her senses. She realised the precarious situation she was in. I am not going to die here, she told herself.
    ‘Move!’ Stephanie snapped at Martha, quickly heaving the woman across the pavement with her. And when Stephanie felt her back was against the wall, she pulled Martha in as close to her as she could, making sure she was tucked well behind the portly woman and her tent-like clothes.
    Stephanie knew she might be safe from the Brights for the time being, but she had no idea where she was going to go from there. She wondered about the door Danforth and the soldiers had emerged from, but she couldn’t see it from where she was.
    Martha was sobbing silently. Stephanie could feel her body shaking against hers.
    ‘It’s all right, girly,’ Martha said after a moment, in a rather pathetic voice. ‘I don’t blame you. He wasn’t a nice boy. Nothing like my sweet Nathaniel. Nothing.’
    Stephanie and Martha regarded Chester where he lay, face down, the bolt protruding from his back.
    ‘He’s really dead, isn’t he?’ Stephanie asked.
    Martha shrugged, then replied, ‘You have nothing to fear from me. I don’t blame you for anything. You and I were both taken in by him.’
    Stephanie considered this. If what Danforth had said was true – and this was a gamble given his past form – it didn’t matter much if the Brights killed her, because they were all going to be dead soon from the American missiles anyway.
    ‘Okay,’ Stephanie said eventually, removing the knife from Martha’s throat and letting go of her. ‘I’m sorry I did that to you, but …’
    Martha took several steps to the edge of the pavement.
    She didn’t turn, but slowly stretched her hand with the mangled fingers up into the air, and gave a sad, dejected little whistle.
    Here it comes , Stephanie thought, bracing herself. I’m going to end up like those dead soldiers.
    And the Brights did come, but instead of attacking Stephanie, they collected around Martha, enclosing her as their wings thrummed the air.
    It was hard to count how many were there, but Stephanie thought it might be all of them, all seven.
    Then, before she knew what was happening, Martha’s feet had lifted from the pavement.
    She rose into the air, borne aloft by her fairies.
    And she rose further and further up into the sky, her headsagging forward onto her chest. Then the Brights whisked her away over the buildings, like some Gothic, nightmarish version of Mary Poppins.
    Stephanie almost smiled at the thought.
    Martha Poppins.
    Let’s Go Fly A Bright.
    She knew Chester would have found that amusing. Poor twisted Chester, who had been put through so much and lost so much, and been broken by it.
    She found she was staring at his lifeless body, but couldn’t go near it. She had been attracted to him, to his recklessness, and maybe deep down she’d believed that she could help him. Save him from himself. But now she felt nothing for him.
    And she was hit by the realisation that maybe she was like him.
    Broken.

 
     
     
    Chapter Nineteen

    A rmagi occupied the entire square in front of the cathedral – there were so many it was standing room only. They waited silently, their compound eyes turned towards the splintered doors at the entrance. As a jet-black Bentley slipped smoothly up the hill from Ludgate Circus, they moved aside to let it through. The car horn was sounding insistently as it drew to a halt.
    ‘Something happening out front,’ Jiggs reported. He was using his periscope to try to see through the cathedral doorway but the massed Armagi made it difficult. ‘I think a limo has just pulled up,’ he said incredulously.
    ‘Give you one guess who that is,’ Drake said, as Elliott peered through her periscope, but couldn’t see very much either.
    ‘Want me to blat them with the big peashooter?’ Jiggs offered, pointing at the aiming controls for the tank’s 120-millimetre cannon. ‘Can’t promise I’ll get anywhere close, but it’s worth a try.’
    They heard the car horn again.
    ‘Don’t bother. They’re not that careless,’ Drake said. ‘Theywouldn’t show themselves unless there was something they wanted.’
    ‘Careless … very