by Nick Cook
Ethan appeared out of the fog and grabbed the back of my jacket. A snarling howl echoed through the building I’d just leapt from.
My arm muscles burned as I hung on to Ethan.
He gritted his teeth. ‘God, you weigh a ton, man. On the count of three…’ He hooked his other hand under my armpit. ‘One, two, three!’
I heaved myself up with every scrap of strength I had as Ethan pulled on my jacket. I managed to hook one leg over the guttering, and with a final push, I shimmied on to the roof.
I rolled to my back, breathing hard. ‘I slipped,’ I said between chest heaving gulps.
Ethan stretched his hand and shook it. ‘So I gathered!’
‘And you saved my life.’
‘No problemo. You can thank me later, especially if it involves a hot meal.’
‘You’ve got a deal there. Just please tell me there are no more daredevil leaps involved after that?’
‘No, we’re all good from here.’
My shoulders dropped and I nodded.
Another wolf howl echoed from the building behind us.
‘Time to make ourselves scarce,’ Ethan said.
With Domino leading the way, we clambered away over the rooftops. Gavin’s wolf cries became lost in the distance.
I had to fight the temptation to bend down and kiss the pavement when I stepped off the last step of a rusty fire escape, seemingly a lifetime later.
‘So where are we then?’ I asked.
Ethan walked up to a wall hidden in the fog ahead of us. ‘That’s what used to be Billingsgate Fish Market.’ He waved his hand, like a tour guide, to the bank of fog. ‘Tower Bridge is just over there and St Katherine’s Dock is right next to it. We’ll be there in less than ten minutes on foot.’
My thoughts shot to Dad and Waverider. ‘I hope Dad’s got it fixed.’
Ethan shot me a questioning look. ‘What fixed?’
‘Oh god, there’s so much you need to know. I’ll explain when we get there.’
He gestured to the fog. ‘More than the wolves that are after you? I’m not sure I want to know…’
We began to walk along the road, until Domino suddenly froze and tilted his head to the sky.
Ethan squatted by him. ‘What is it, boy?’
I cast a wary gaze skywards. ‘Probably shadow crows hunting for us.’
‘Shadow crows? You have some very interesting enemies, Jake. What exactly am I getting into here?’
‘You can still walk away from this.’
He gave me the longest look and shook his head. ‘No, I have to know because otherwise I’ll always be left wondering.’
‘In that case, thank you.’
‘No problemo.’ He peered through the mist around us. ‘OK, I have an idea.’
My stomach did a slow flip. ‘No more rooftops, please?’
He grinned. ‘Don’t worry, I keep my promises – I’m about to introduce you to a hidden side of London most people never get to see.’ He spun on his heel and marched off, with Domino and me chasing after him.
Chapter Seventeen
We approached an old pub with boarded-up windows covered in graffiti and faded posters. The pub’s sign was long gone.
I followed him down some stone steps to a green metal door. He glanced around and slammed his shoulder against it.
‘Why are we breaking into the cellar of a deserted pub?’ I asked.
‘You’ll see…’
With a grinding squeal, Ethan shoved the door open a crack. He slipped through the gap, followed by Domino.
I squeezed after them, the door frame scraping my chest. If I lived through this night, my self-healing ability would have a lot to deal with – once I got it back.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but gradually I could make out a dingy square room full of cobweb-covered barrels. I still couldn’t see an obvious exit.
‘And how are we meant to get from a pub cellar to St Katherine’s Dock?’ I said. ‘Teleport ourselves?’
‘Think a lot more low-tech.’ Ethan walked to the rear of the room where one of the barrels had been shoved up against the wall. He braced his back against the barrel and pushed it aside. Just behind it, some bricks had been removed, creating a dark hole in the cellar wall.
‘One secret passage at your disposal, Jake.’
‘To where exactly?’
‘A disused sewer.’
I tried to ignore the ridiculously large spider crawling out of the hole. ‘A sewer? It looks so inviting.’
‘If you want to take your chances out on the streets, be my guest. But there are only a few rats down here. With whatever it is that’s chasing us, I know what I’d prefer.’
‘Rats? This day just gets better and better.’
Ethan fished a small torch out of the pocket of his combat-trousers and toggled its switch. A needle beam of light lanced out from it. Without hesitating, he ducked down and disappeared through the hole.
The sharp edges of the bricks dug into my ribs as I followed him through, plunging straight into a face full of cobwebs. Just great. I wiped the spider silk away to see Ethan walking along a long tunnel lined with curved walls. A thin ribbon of rancid stagnant water glistened at the bottom. It might have been disused, but the stench was still strong, like a food compost bin ripening on a hot summer’s day.
‘You could have warned me about the smell, Ethan.’
‘Oh that? You get used to it after a while. I don’t notice the pong any more.’
‘Probably because your nose lining has been destroyed by it.’ I caught him up. ‘How do you know about this place?’
‘It’s part of what’s called “hidden London”,’ he replied. ‘We swap info about places like this, all the time.’
‘Who’s we?’
‘People like me – who live on the streets. The homeless, abandoned and the runaways…’ He gave me a glance back over his shoulder.
‘So what’s “hidden London” exactly?’
Ethan gestured around us. ‘The parts of London that most people never get to see – the secret tunnels, forgotten buildings, even buried Roman temples. I know them all.’
‘I saw something on YouTube about that once. Old underground train tunnels, now blocked up, disused bunkers, that sort of thing.’
‘They’re the ones. And they’re great places for taking shelter when the weather gets seriously bad on the streets.’
I peered at Ethan’s back as he continued along the tunnel. His life sounded way beyond hard. What had led him to a life such as this in the first place?
Domino, who’d taken up the lead, barked at a large rat that scooted past Ethan. The thing stared straight at me – I was blocking its escape. The rat seemed to pause for a moment and then scampered towards me, crawling up and over my shoulder, before leaping down from my back and scurrying away.
‘That is so gross,’ I said, wiping myself down in case he’d left me a gift. ‘How can you sleep down here?’
‘I don’t sleep here…but other places like it…’ His gaze darted around the tunnel, then he added, ‘Look, there’s something you probably need to know about me before we go much further.’
‘Please don’t tell me that you’re an axe murderer.’
He laughed. ‘Nothing quite that bad – it’s just that I see…’ He peered at the dribble of water running around his feet. ‘I see ghosts, Jake.’
‘Ha ha. You can stop winding me up now.’
‘Seriously, Jake. I wish I was screwing with you, but I’m really not. ‘
‘Right…’ Something occurred to me then. ‘Look, I have to ask and hate to not be politically correct – but you’re not on anything, are you?’
‘Oh, thanks for the cliché. I’m homeless, so if I’m not insane, I must be on drugs. I would’ve thought you’d have been a bit more open-minded. Especially considering whatever you’re being chased by at the moment.’
Ethan had a point there, more than he realised. There was so much
to tell him that he was going to find hard to get his head around. And the sanity thing hit home for me too. When the Awoken gene had first been activated in me, I had been worried that people would think I’d gone crazy.
I sighed. ‘Look, I’m sorry, Ethan. I’m certainly in no position to judge anyone.’
He stuck his hands in his jacket pockets and raised his shoulders. ‘I know how this must sound to you. But before you think I’m completely mad, Domino can see them as well. That’s one of the reasons why we don’t sleep here. He whimpers like a puppy when they’re around, don’t you, boy?’
Domino padded back to Ethan and gently headbutted his leg.
‘When did you first start seeing these things?’ I asked. If the timing matched up, it had to be something to do with being Awoken.
‘About two months ago – around the same time I recovered from the Zoom virus. Man, that was a serious downer.’
It all made perfect sense, but I needed to make sure. ‘Did you happen to have a head-splitting headache to start with, maybe even saw the world in black and white for a moment?’
‘How did you know that? You’re right. I thought the virus was back – either that or I’d eaten something well past its sell-by date from a supermarket bin. But that didn’t stack up, because I felt fine the next day.’
‘I know all this, Ethan, because it happened to me too.’
He gawped at me. ‘It did?’
‘Yes. I’m as sure as I can be that this ability to see ghosts is all part of your Awoken gift.’
‘My what?’
‘I can’t explain it all now. But I will when we stop and get a proper chance to talk.’ I tapped at my diver’s watch.
‘Yeah, I know. Places to be, nightmare creatures to avoid. Come on then – the sooner we get there the sooner you can give me all these answers.’
As we moved through the dark sewer, the only sound I could hear was the occasional dripping of water dropping into the stagnant water.
Domino let out a short excited bark and I saw two tiny pinpricks of light ahead in the inky blackness.
‘Just how many rats are there down here, Ethan?’
‘Hundreds, thousands…actually millions, probably.’
‘Just as well Chloe isn’t here to see this. She would be totally freaked out. She has a total phobia about rats.’
‘Who?’
‘A friend who’s in deep trouble. I need to find her.’ I didn’t add, ‘And someone who’s been having dreams about you.’
‘I’ll help you, if I can.’
If we had more time I would have explained why that was going to be extremely difficult because of what I was up against. But I didn’t. ‘Thanks…’
A pool of light glowed in the blackness ahead of us and beyond that a solid wall. We stepped into a small round chamber. My eyes followed the shaft of slatted light to its source – it was coming from the metal grille over the sewer exit.
‘So what do we do now?’ I asked.
‘This is as far as we can go underground,’ Ethan replied. ‘We have to do the last stretch to St Katherine’s Dock overground.’
I pointed up at the drain cover. ‘We’re going up through that?’ I glanced around us. ‘So where’s the ladder?’
Ethan shook his head. ‘There is no ladder; we climb the wall.’
I took in the slime-covered walls. ‘Do I look like Spider-Man to you?’
Ethan snorted and walked towards the wall. He reached up with his right hand and stuck his fingers into the oozy slime.
I pulled a face at him. ‘Nice…’
Ethan ignored me and pushed his hand further into the gunge. He smiled and started to clear the slime away with his palm until he uncovered a small hole in the brickwork.
‘There are some handholds here that will get us to the top.’ Ethan grasped a hole, pulled himself up and reached higher with his other hand. He felt around, then plunged his fingers into the gunk again. Handhold after handhold, he clambered up the wall until he was just beneath the drain cover.
‘You made that look ridiculously easy,’ I said to him.
‘That’s because that was the easy part.’
Ethan let go with one hand and pushed with one leg against the wall to swing out. He reached up with his other hand to the grille and, with a clenched jaw, he pushed the sewer cover. With a clatter, it tipped up and over to reveal sooty fog billowing over the exit above us.
‘This is the hard part coming up!’ Ethan said. He let go of the wall and swung out on his left hand to grab the edge of the drain. A second later, he’d hauled himself up through the hole.
His slime-smeared face reappeared as he grinned down at me.
‘You should consider a career as a circus acrobat with moves like that,’ I said.
‘I’ll be sure to ask them next time I’m at the Job Centre.’
Domino nudged my leg as though he was trying to encourage me.
I patted his head. ‘OK, I get the message.’
Trying not to imagine what creepy-crawlies might be nesting in those handholds, I shoved my hand into the first one and gripped on to the jagged surface beneath the slime. I didn’t even try to put on a brave face. By the time I reached the top, my legs were shaking and my jaw was jammed together so hard my teeth were aching.
Ethan had his head through the hole, watching my progress upside down, but his face was serious, the humour gone. I guessed he could tell this was tough for me and wasn’t going to mock.
‘Now just grab the edge and pull yourself up,’ he said.
I breathed through my nose, trying to slow my heart from speeding away like an express train. ‘Right…’
Without looking down at the ten-metre drop, which felt more like a hundred, I reached out my fingers until they locked on to the edge of the sewer cover.
‘That’s it – swing out now,’ Ethan said.
Every fibre of my being fought that instruction, but I’d no alternative. With my heart threatening to burst, I swung out in an arc on one hand and tried to grab the edge of the opening with the other.
I missed.
I found myself dangling by one arm, my shoulder muscles screaming in agony, with Domino barking up at me from the floor far below.
‘I could do with some help here, Ethan!’
‘Sorry, I thought you were showing off,’ his voice said from above.
‘Seriously?’
He laughed and I felt his hands lock on to my wrist as he heaved me up and out of the sewer. The guy was seriously strong for someone with a wiry build.
I crawled on to the grass and snatched in a lungful of the cold, foggy air.
Domino’s bark echoed up from the old sewer.
‘What about him?’ I asked between gasps.
Ethan grinned. He put two slimy fingers in his mouth and let out a short, sharp whistle.
I heard an answering bark from below. I peered over the edge into the drain to see Domino disappearing back down the tunnel we’d travelled along.
Ethan pulled his beanie hat further down over his hair. ‘There are smaller tunnels Domino can get through that we can’t. He’ll work his way to a storm drain that leads out to the river. Give him a while and he’ll track us down.’
I wiped my grimy hands on the grass and for the first time noticed the massive stone walls around us. ‘Where’s this place, Ethan?’
‘We’re between the outer and inner walls of the Tower of London.’
‘Holy crap. I guess that’s one way to avoid buying a ticket.’
‘Yeah. Normally this place would be chocka with tourists at this time of day, but they must have closed it early because of the weather. And there was me hoping we could just walk out of the main gate along with the crowds.’
‘Couldn’t we just say that we got shut in by accident and ask to be let out?’
Ethan shrugged. ‘Worth a go. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?’
‘They could throw us in the Tower.’
He snorted. �
��We’ll take that risk. OK, if we follow this wall, we’ll eventually get to the gatehouse. And there we should find someone to let us out.’
We had just set off into the swirling fog when a rasping call echoed around us.
I started running. ‘Quick – that could be a shadow crow!’
But Ethan shook his head. ‘I don’t know what these shadow crows are exactly, but that’s just one of the Tower’s ravens.’
The raven’s cry rasped out again, this time with a second one joining in. It was soon followed by others until all we could hear was the constant cawing of ravens hidden somewhere on the fog-cloaked walls above us.
‘Something’s upsetting them,’ Ethan said. ‘Maybe these things that are chasing you?’
I was about to answer when searing pain blazed through my head.
Ethan grimaced too. ‘Shit, not this flipping headache again.’
‘I’m afraid that’s no ordinary headache.’
‘Something to do with whatever it is you won’t explain to me yet?’
‘Uh-huh. But hold on, because if everything has gone to plan, it should stop when we get to the dock.’
Ethan thinned his mouth at me. ‘OK…’
We started to move again, but after three strides a man’s voice called out of the gloom. ‘What the hell are you two doing in here?’
We stopped as a man wearing a black and red embroidered uniform and an old-fashioned black hat emerged from the gloom. Weird outfit or not, the guy looked as though he could rip me apart with his little finger.
‘It’s one of the guards – a Beefeater,’ Ethan whispered. He raised his voice. ‘I’m really sorry, but we got lost in the fog. We’ve been trying to find our way out for ages.’
The guard looked me up and down, then moved to Ethan, where his eyes lingered with a look as if he had a bad smell under his nose. ‘Don’t see how. We checked through the whole Tower twice. You must have heard us calling out about having to close early?’