It’s one of the news channels, and in bold across the bottom of the screen is the breaking news: SCOTTISH NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN CRISIS.
‘What’s going on?’ Erica demands, one of her hands still holding mine. I begin to feel the first stirrings of heat within her. I don’t let go. ‘You weren’t meant to hurt anybody!’
‘Relax, it’s not that bad,’ Jay says.
‘Not that bad? A nuclear meltdown?’ Erica cries.
Blizz, who is sitting on one of the armchairs, sighs dramatically and rolls her eyes, like none of this matters and we’re boring her. But I’m with Erica – a power-plant crisis seems like a pretty big deal, not something to take lightly.
‘Do you know how many fail-safes there are to prevent an actual nuclear meltdown? It’s practically impossible to cause any real damage. What we’ve done is trip a few wires, knock out the odd computer and make a few lights blink. And even if something did actually go dangerously wrong, the Vigils would be there in moments. A national crisis like this and they’ll all be there, vying for the spotlight. As usual.’
‘Leaving the Strand without any defence …’ Erica mutters, realisation creeping in. She looks back up at Jay, ‘You’re still going to go through with the plan, even though I told you that I wouldn’t be a part of it? You can’t make me do something I don’t want to.’
‘Oh, can’t I?’ And suddenly Jay is by my side. He’s wound his way between me and Erica and I lose her hand. He comes behind and wraps an arm around my neck, and if he had a knife I’d think that he was trying to reach around to hold it to my throat. Instead he swipes his thumb across my cheek. It’s a move that makes me physically gag. It feels like he’s trying to wipe his thumb clean on my face, but there’s a slickness, like he’s smeared something on me.
‘Leave Louise alone,’ Erica warns, her voice low.
I touch my fingers to my cheek, and when I bring them away again I find my fingers covered in wet blue stuff. He inked me! The bastard inked me! It’s creepy and deeply disturbing, and when I realise how easily he could have got to my eyes, I shudder.
‘Here’s what is going to happen,’ Jay says to Erica calmly. He’s still standing behind me and clamping his hands down on my shoulders, keeping me in place when I try to squirm. ‘You’re going to do exactly what I tell you to do, because otherwise your friend here is going to be in deep trouble. So let’s say you head down to the Strand now, swoop in and do that big explosion thing you’ve become so proud of, and when Blizz tells me the job has been done, your friends will be allowed to go home.’
‘You’re holding them hostage?’
‘I’m just going to keep them safe and sound right here. What happens to them ultimately is all down to you. Go home now and forget this whole thing ever happened, and I can guarantee that you’ll never see your friends again. Go through with the plan, and I’ll have no need to hurt them. Easy-peasy, and all down to you.’
‘Don’t, Erica. Whatever it is he wants you to do, don’t do it!’ I say.
She looks straight at me, and then glances down at Toby, still asleep and oblivious. Her hands ball into tight fists, and maybe I’m imagining it, but I think I can see them emitting a faint heat shimmer. Her powers are starting to return.
‘You promise me that the Scotland thing isn’t a big deal?’ Erica asks Jay. ‘Because if I find out that you’ve been hurting more people, or putting lives at risk …’
‘You don’t think Quantum and his boys and girls can figure out how to solve a little technical glitch? Deep Blue solves crossword puzzles more complicated than this. We both know what’s going to happen. They’re all going to traipse to Scotland, there’ll be cameras everywhere, and all those flyers are going to strike their poses next to the cooling towers. And most importantly, they’ll be gone long enough for you to do your thing without anyone interfering.’
‘What about all the regular people who work at the Strand? What about the other agents who’ll be there?’
‘We talked about this. You can set the fire alarm off first if you like. I don’t care. All I want is for that bloody place to be wiped off the map by the end of the day. You do your job, and your friends get to go home and watch EastEnders with a nice mug of cocoa.’ Jay’s hands clamp down even harder on my shoulders, and I think about his inky slime going all over my top.
‘Erica, you don’t have to,’ I say again.
She looks worried. ‘He’ll hurt you and Toby,’ she replies. ‘I have to go.’
She takes her mask from Blizz, who has reached behind her armchair to pull it out from where it was presumably left crumpled on the floor. Erica dusts it off first, before fixing it on her face and adjusting her hair so that it’s out of the way, using her heat-charged fingers to comb through and dry any strands that are still wet from her defrost. It’s the first time I’ve seen her wearing her full costume, and if it wasn’t for the sad expression on her face, she’d look magnificent.
‘Erica …’ I start. I want to tell her to walk taller, to hold her shoulders back so that she looks prouder, but with Jay’s hands still attached to my shoulders, keeping me in place and stopping me from bolting, it would be stupid.
‘You’ll look after them? You won’t hurt them, and you’ll let them go as soon as the job is done?’ she asks.
‘You have my word,’ Jay replies, taking one hand off me and holding it to his heart.
‘They won’t question why I’m there?’ Erica asks, putting off the moment when she has to say goodbye.
‘You just walk up to the door and walk in like nothing is wrong. If anyone questions you, just tell them you’re there for training. Nobody will worry about what the Vigils’ newest, brightest young star is up to. This is what’s so gloriously special about you, my dear: you’re a bomb in sheep’s clothing. You get yourself into position, sound off the alarm to get everybody else out of there, and then when I know that everything is in place, I’ll give you the call. Just remember to wait for my call before you do your thing.’
‘There must be another way,’ I butt in, feeling desperate. ‘Erica, you’ll be throwing away everything you’ve been dreaming of!’
‘Shut up,’ Jay says, pushing both hands back down on me. ‘Erica is part of the great new future, a future that’s not reliant on corporate greed. She understands what this is about and knows that the message needs to be loud in order for it to be heard.’
‘Don’t worry about me,’ Erica says to me. ‘It’ll be quick, and I’ll be fine. Just look after yourself and Toby. Soon all of this will be over and we can go home, OK?’
I glance down at Toby, who’s developing a drool glob that looks set to land on the carpet at any moment. I wonder if it isn’t too much to ask to be put to sleep until this whole mess is over. I don’t want to think of Erica doing anything that could cause trouble or hurt people. Erica doesn’t want to do this either. Whatever Jay has planned, there must be a way around it.
Blizz gets up from her armchair and goes to open the window. It slides up with a jagged creak, and then she holds it there, waiting for Erica to come over and clamber out.
‘I’m sorry about all of this,’ Erica says, and just at that moment, when she’s right by the window and has her hands on the ledge, I think that all she has to do is turn round and incinerate this room. One mega heat pulse would be all it would take to do away with Jay and his nasty little gang, but then I would be gone too. I’m Jay’s human shield. She’d have to burn through me to get to him. And with Toby on a cheap-looking carpet that is no doubt synthetic and flammable, I guess she’s already weighed up her options and decided that going along with Jay’s scheme is the best plan for everyone. Even if it means destroying everything she wants.
Before I can say anything else, any words of wisdom or encouragement or hope, she’s gone, flying up and away into the distance, leaving me breathless, scared and feeling very alone.
Jay turns to Blizz. ‘Use my bike. Get down there fast. If anything happens that isn’t to plan, you
find your way in there and sort it out. Call me if there are any problems. I’m not leaving anything to chance. Dozer, you take that cretin downstairs and load him into the car.’
‘Where are you taking him?’ I ask, frantic as Dozer gets up and reaches down to flip Toby over his shoulder.
‘We’re all going on a little trip,’ Jay reveals.
‘What? Where? You told Erica that we’d be here waiting for her!’
‘I tell Erica a lot of things. But I’ll tell you something: you are becoming a right pain in my arse.’ He turns to Blizz, who’s about to leave the room. ‘One more thing, love, before you go.’
He reaches around me and draws my wrists together, holding them out towards Blizz, who glides back over to us with a wicked smile on her face. She takes over the hold, gripping me with surprisingly strong arms for someone so slender. Then comes the cold. It seeps out from Blizz’s hands and flows into mine, and at first I panic because I think she’s going to freeze me completely solid like she did to Erica. I watch as the cold settles into my wrists until I can’t feel my hands any more. They just hang there, blue and limp and clasped together. She’s cuffing me with ice, and very quickly I find that I’m locked into crystalline manacles.
She gives Jay a kiss on the lips with a disgustingly audible slurp, winks at him with those ice-cold eyes and departs.
‘Where are we going?’ I ask again, tugging at my hands to try to pull myself free. My icy cuffs are sharp and painful; I quickly have to give up. I can barely wiggle my fingers and the cold seeps through my blood right up to my elbows. This is going to get uncomfortable very quickly.
‘We’re taking a little jolly to the Strand. It’s just not in me to keep you and your BFF apart.’ Jay shoves me so that I move forward and down the stairs to the flat’s entrance. Dozer, carrying Toby like he is nothing more than an oversized rag doll, follows behind us.
We pile into a small car, with Dozer at the wheel. Bizarrely, and in a turn that I can only put down to megalomaniacal lunacy, Jay reaches around me to make sure that my seat belt is done up. He does the same with Toby, but not before slapping him around the face a bit to make sure that he’s definitely still conked out.
‘Leave him alone,’ I urge through gritted teeth.
‘I take road safety very seriously, I’ll have you know,’ Jay replies, smiling. ‘We don’t want anything to happen to you two along the way.’
‘Why are you taking us to the Strand? What’s going on?’ I ask once Jay has settled into the front passenger seat next to Dozer. But instead of replying, he turns the radio on all the way up, blasting dark, heavy rock music that cuts through my ears like chainsaws. Miraculously, and perhaps blessedly, Toby remains completely asleep.
We’re going to the Strand. I don’t understand why this is necessary, except … But Jay wouldn’t do that. He put his hand on his heart and promised Erica that we’d be safe as long as she followed through with his plan. He couldn’t do that, could he? But it would solve the problem of making sure that we stayed quiet after the event. If we were gone, conveniently placed in the path of Erica’s destruction, we’d perish as soon as Jay gave her the go-ahead.
Jay doesn’t want to keep us safe. He wants to do away with us permanently. And he’s going to arrange it so that Erica does the job herself.
‘All my life, I wanted to be one of them. And it wasn’t just about the superpowers either. It was everything. The fame, the glory; I wanted to show everyone who had ever put me down. I would show them all.’
Jay’s turned the volume down on the music as we approach central London. He’s talking and talking and I let him, because I have no idea what else I’m meant to do. I’m lost. Erica’s gone, and Toby’s sitting beside me, snoring soundly as if nothing could possibly be wrong.
‘But you know what the reality is? You want to know what it’s really all about for your precious Vigils? Money. Targets. Popularity. Everything’s like one big contest to them; who can earn the most? Who looks best in photos? Who has the hottest outfit? I wanted to rescue Erica from all that before she got in too deep. She’s better than that crap, but her corruption was inevitable. She would end up just like the rest of them, consumed by her own vanity and greed. You know how this whole show is going, right? What it’s going to turn into eventually? Premiership football clubs signing up Vigils to patrol stadiums on big match days, corporations hiring Vigils as spokespeople. Not so bad, but then, a factory burns down: well, no one will save the people there because the local Vigils are funded by a competitor. If the governments can’t offer bribes, then there’ll be nobody to save the victims of the next train wreck. If a plane crashes in the wrong postcode, then wave goodbye to any survivors.’
‘That hasn’t happened yet. And how does blowing up the London headquarters change anything?’ I say, angling my head slightly so that I can see myself in the rear-view mirror, spying the ugly, war-paint streak of ink across my face.
‘They need to wake up! They need to take a step back and realise that what they are doing and where they are heading is wrong! The message needs to go out that we won’t stand for it! And who better to send the message than the newest, brightest young recruit? Revolutions don’t begin with a whisper, they start with a bang.’
‘There must be another way,’ I say, almost to myself really. I’m certain that Jay would never really take the time to change his mind about all of this.
‘I’ve been in that Vigil gutter too long. Imagine what it’s like when you wake up to find out you have superpowers, and a whole world of glory is spread out before you, only to then discover you’re not wanted. You’re sub-par, barely magic enough to make it into the fanzines. The Vigils tell you that they can give you everything, and what happens? I’m relegated to being the office errand boy, given the name Copyboy, like I’m some delinquent intern, and paid barely enough to live on, while the flyers and the ones with the model good looks get the sponsorship deals and the front pages. Do you know what it’s like to think you have it all, only for it all to mean absolutely nothing? Well, now they’re going to see. Now they’re going to have to face up to the consequences of their greed and vanity. Let’s see how they like it when they have no base for their operations.’
I think about this, about how if the London base didn’t exist, the UK Vigils would have to go to the next nearest base, maybe Paris or Barcelona, leaving the UK wide open. If a major disaster happened, if the Scotland power plant was a real and serious crisis, would they be able to get there in time?
We’re nearly there. The car curls around Trafalgar Square before turning left towards Charing Cross station. Jay parks up around the corner from the hidden entrance. I spy Blizz, straddling Jay’s bike and waiting for her next set of orders. Once we’ve stopped, she comes up to Jay’s window and leans in.
‘She’s in there – she’s put the place on emergency shutdown. It’s being evacuated right now. Once you give her the order, she’ll get to work,’ she reports in her Eastern European tones.
‘And how are things in Scotland?’ Jay turns to Dozer, who is back on his phone.
‘It’s good, innit. They’re all there. Even if they headed back now, it would be hours before they reached us. Even if Hayley Divine was going at top speed!’ he replies.
‘Then I guess we’d better get the two of you down there,’ Jay says to me. Then it’s a clap of hands and an unbuckling of seat belts before he opens the car door and yanks me out onto the street by my shoulder.
Blizz is over on the other side of the car, slapping Toby about the face with her cold hands to wake him up.
‘Leave him alone,’ I say, and she pauses to smirk at me, before continuing with her little game.
‘What you do to him?’ Blizz sighs at Dozer when it becomes apparent that she’s not getting anywhere. ‘He’s not waking up.’
‘Why don’t we just finish him off now, boss? Save ourselves hassle, innit?’ Dozer suggests, getting out of the car to try to wake Toby up himself.
�
��What would we do with a body?’ Jay replies, and I shudder. What the hell are we going to do?
Toby answers the question for me. Somehow he’s gone for Blizz. He’s awake, and he’s grappling with her, and when I bend down to get a better look I notice he’s keeping his eyes closed to stop Dozer from putting him to sleep, so he doesn’t know what he’s hitting or where. He’s just lashing out, all arms and legs as Blizz attempts to get close.
‘Get away from me!’ he yells, and I would use the opportunity to break free myself, but Jay’s hand is gripping my arm, and my wrists are heavy and hurting from the ice.
Finally Blizz gets a lock on Toby, and he screams in pain as she freezes up his left arm. When she’s done, she hurls him out of the car and Jay and Blizz force us both over to the entrance to the Strand. Dozer waits in the car; presumably he’s the getaway driver.
The Strand looks the same as it did last time I was here. Grim railings and graffitied hoarding shields the site from passersby. The maroon ceramic tiles are the only clue that this was once the entrance to a bustling underground station. Jay pulls open the door with slightly too much force in his eagerness to get inside, and then starts punching codes into the security keypad before leading us down the spiral staircase I was forbidden access to before.
There’s a red light flashing, dimming and lighting up our surroundings and, as we descend, we hear the loud wail of an emergency siren. Erica may have managed to get most of the people out of here, but surely there’ll be some who’ll stay, someone left here who can rescue us.
‘Are you all right?’ I mutter to Toby as we’re both shoved and prodded like animals down the narrow staircase, Jay leading the way in front of me, and Blizz behind Toby at the back.
‘My arm is so cold and heavy.’ He shivers. ‘What the hell are we doing? Where are we? What is this?’
‘Calm down,’ Jay snaps as we reach the bottom, stopping right in front of me.
It’s as I suspected. Whatever fire alarm or emergency protocol Erica activated, there are still people down here, manning their posts and keeping the base secure. There’s a guard or something, dressed all in black, standing with his back towards us just a little way ahead.
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