Another scrawny man stumbled forwards, dragging the chain with him. Thaddeus knelt in front of him, fitting key after key into the lock. It took him six attempts to find the right one. The lock turned stiffly and then sprang open. The man staggered free, still with the cuff around his ankle but free of the chain.
“Gawd bless you, sir,” he said, running for the exit as the slaves began to pull the rest of the chain free.
“Wait,” Thaddeus called, before Archie could reach the doorway. “Wait – how many chains are there?”
Archie glanced around, “Can’t be more’n twenty.”
“I’ll never unlock them all on my own. Stay – help me. Please.”
For a second Thaddeus thought Archie was going to ignore him and run, but then he nodded. “Give me some of them keys,” he said.
Thaddeus thrust half the bunch of jangling metal towards him and then ran to another of the slave lines. He looked around but couldn’t see J anywhere. There were so many people to save…
He and Archie were down to the last two chains when the rumbling turned into a cruel, cracking sound like an earthquake. Then followed a loud, forbidding splash of water. The weight of the flood juddered the rock face, sending chunks of jagged stone thudding to the ground amid the terrified slaves. The younger were helping the older, the able-bodied aiding the injured, but none were moving fast enough. Any minute now, Thaddeus thought. Any minute now and we are all lost…
Thaddeus undid the last chain and then spun around, still searching for J. Maybe Archie has already let him out, he told himself – maybe J’s already on the run.
And then a movement caught his eye, in the far corner of the mine. It was J, but he wasn’t running. He was trying to help another boy, one who looked to be about his age. J had his arm around him and was trying to drag him up because the boy obviously could not walk alone.
“J!” Thaddeus shouted, running towards them. “J–”
There was a huge splitting noise as if heaven itself had broken in two. Thaddeus looked up to see a crack running, floor to ceiling, up the mine’s wall right behind the two children.
And then the water came.
Twenty
Don’t Look Down
“Where is Thaddeus?” Rémy asked as soon as they were inside Abernathy’s rooms. “If you survived, he must have, too. Where is he, Desai?”
Desai’s eyes were weighted with sadness. “I am sorry, Rémy. He went to the mine. He could not leave those people to drown without at least trying to rescue them.”
Rémy swallowed hard. “Then… then… He was alive, but…”
Desai nodded gently. “I am sorry. He was… is a brave, brave man. But I fear that the flood…”
Rémy turned away abruptly. “Don’t,” she said, hearing her voice crack, just a little. “Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear…”
“Very well,” Desai said softly. “Then let us concentrate on the task at hand.”
Abernathy’s private chambers were surreal – a vast living room that would not have been out of place in any of the most expensive houses in Paris, apart from the fact that it was circular and had no windows. The walls were lined with bookcases specially constructed to fit the space. There was a curved desk, comfortable chairs, and heavy velvet curtains hid an alcove that contained a large, opulently-dressed bed. Gas lamps hung from the walls, lending a dim, flickering light.
There was, however, no sign of the Darya-ye Noor, nor anything that looked as if it could serve as a power link.
“Where is it?” Rémy asked, turning around in a circle. “It should be here! The Professor said it would be here!”
Desai shook his head. “It must be concealed somewhere.”
Rémy took out the map, running to the desk and smoothing out the now-crumpled pages. She pointed to the sketches showing Abernathy’s chambers. “It says there’s a corridor. There can’t be! This is all there is. Argh!” Rémy shouted in frustration, “He’s done it again! The Professor has tricked us – again!”
Desai rested a hand on her shoulder. “Perhaps not. Perhaps this map is just not quite accurate. We must search.”
“There’s no time!”
“Time is all we have left, Rémy. Let us not waste it!”
She nodded, attempting to calm herself. “D’accord. D’accord. But where? There is nothing here but books!”
Desai turned and went to one of the bookcases. “Perhaps that is what Abernathy wants you to think. Perhaps we should see what is behind them. Yes?”
He prised his fingers between the wall and the wood. Rémy crossed the room to help him. They pulled the bookcase from the wall, but found nothing behind it.
“The next one,” Desai said. “Hurry!”
The next bookcase yielded nothing, nor did the next. The noise of the rumbling had grown so loud and so close that it drowned even the sound of Abernathy’s machines.
“It’s too late,” Rémy said, in despair. “We’re in the wrong place. We must be!”
Desai didn’t answer. Instead, he went to the next bookcase in the row and pulled. He paused for a second and then looked at her.
“Quickly,” he said. “Help me…”
They didn’t bother to keep the bookcase standing. There was no time. Instead, between them they wrenched it forward until it toppled to the floor with a deafening crash, books tumbling to the floor as they slipped from the shelves.
“Mon Dieu!” Rémy exclaimed.
Behind it, set in the wall, was a chamber. It was circular with a glass front and silver walls that closed it off from the surrounding rock. The chamber also had a circular silver floor, a platform that fitted snugly within the space. The platform had its own half-walls, which rose a few feet, culminating in a smooth handrail. It looked to Rémy like a smaller version of the machines that dockers use to load ships in port.
Rémy pressed her face against the glass, trying to see inside. “The diamond – where is it?”
Desai stepped to her side. “I do not think this is what we are looking for, Rémy.”
“What? But it must be! Why else would Abernathy have a secret chamber hidden behind a bookcase?”
Desai didn’t answer for a second. Instead, he tilted his head so that he could see up inside the chamber. “Look, there,” he said. “It has no roof. I think this is a method of escape.” He indicated the silver platform, and then a box with a lever that was fastened to the handrail. “One stands on the floor, and it moves. Upwards.”
Rémy’s mind whirred. “It leads to the surface? It is a way out?”
Desai frowned. “Either that, or it leads to the power chamber,” he said. “Although I find it unlikely he would want to manhandle a bookcase out of the way every time he needed to check on the machine’s workings.”
He turned to look at the final bookcase they had not tried. Without a word they both went to it. Rémy was expecting that they would have to tip it as they had the other, with considerable effort. But to her surprise, when Desai pushed, it swung forward smoothly.
“It’s on a hinge!”
“Indeed,” said Desai, “and there is the reason why.”
He was right. Behind the bookcase was a wooden door. Rémy opened it, feeling a cold gush of wind rush past her and into the room.
Beyond, it was dark. Desai pulled one of the dimming lamps from the wall and held it out as they moved forward. It was another passageway, damp and dark. Rémy took a few steps and then froze.
“Oh no,’ she whispered.
Before them at some distance was another door, made of plain and simple wood and with no sign of a keyhole. But between them and the door was a great chasm in the ground. There had obviously once been a narrow bridge over the abyss, but it had been hacked apart.
“So,” said Desai gravely. “Abernathy
once again proves himself to be insane, but not a fool.”
Rémy walked to the edge of the chasm and looked down. It seemed endless. A deep, heavy draught rolled up and over its edge as she stared into it. God only knew how deep it was, or what was at the bottom. She looked to the other side. There was no way to jump it. She stepped onto the wooden stairs that had once led to the now broken bridge, and looked to the other side. The steps over there were still intact, hanging, splintered, into the chasm. If only she could reach them…
“I need a rope,” she said. “Or a wire. Something, anything that I can throw across and pull taut.”
She ran back into Abernathy’s chamber and began to search, ripping drawers from their chests, turning their contents onto the floor. Desai followed her, joining in with more vigor than a dead man should ever have.
“Here!” he said. “Look – here!”
Rémy looked up to see him holding a rope, still coiled in on itself. It was wide and rough, more so than she would usually walk, but right now she would take anything.
She ran back to the chasm, uncoiling the rope as she went. Then Rémy pulled off her boots, tying the end of the rope to one of them. She gauged its length as she unravelled it – it would reach, but only just. Then she leapt back on to the top step and dangled the rope, boot attached, from her hand. She could feel Desai behind her, tense but wisely staying silent.
Rémy felt everything fade away – the endless rumbling, the quaking of the ground, the darkness of the chasm below her. She could do this. She’d done this since she was a child. This is what she was good at.
She swung the rope and let go. Her boot sailed through the air, its weight taking the rope as she let it feed out between her hands. It struck the last piece of wooden rail left on the other side of the abyss, winding itself tight.
“Yes!” Rémy whispered, pulling the rope as hard as she could to see if it would budge. It stayed put. Then she began to tie off her end, knotting it firmly around the wooden stump of the stairs. It wasn’t perfect but it was tight, and that was all that mattered right now.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Desai asked, as she stepped up to the rope. “I will not be able to follow you.”
She looked at him and smiled. Behind them, the sounds of Abernathy’s machines began to change, warring with the roaring flood. There was a clanking, whirring noise, as if a thousand metal birds had taken off at once.
“I am our last chance,” she said. “Use the escape hatch. If I don’t succeed, warn whoever you can. The police, the government. Anyone. Yes?”
Desai gripped her hand for a second and then nodded. She turned away, stepping swiftly out over the void. The rope did not sag, and her bare feet gripped the coarse fibres well. She walked forward – one foot, two feet, the abyss yawning wide below her…
There was a sudden commotion behind her. She heard footsteps and then a shout of shock from Desai, and thought that Abernathy had sent his men for them after all. She turned gracefully, her arms held out, spinning on the narrow rope without ever losing her footing.
But it wasn’t Abernathy or his men. It was Thaddeus Rec.
It was Thaddeus, carrying one small, bedraggled boy while another – J, she realized, it was J, alive! – wearily gripped his trouser leg. All three were drenched, muddy water streaked their faces, their hair, their clothes. Thaddeus looked exhausted, pale-faced and gaunt, and he had frozen, stock-still in the light cast from Abernathy’s chamber, staring straight at her.
Rémy’s heart stopped. She thought she was going to black out. She felt her knees buckle, her feet losing their fragile grip on the rope.
“No!”
The shout was from Thaddeus. He rushed forward, thrusting the boy he held into Desai’s arms and lunging towards the chasm’s edge as Rémy’s feet lost their grip. She twisted herself into a half-turn, until she was parallel with the rope, and forced her feet to follow it. Her legs split along the rope as she threw her arms out for balance. The rope shivered but held.
Rémy breathed hard, sucking in great lungfuls of cold, cloying air as she forced herself to regain her calm. She couldn’t look at Thaddeus. She was shaking too hard, and afraid of losing her balance again.
“Are you trying to kill me?” she asked, though it wasn’t at all what she had meant to say. “Idiot!”
“What are you doing?” he asked. “What on earth are you doing?”
“The power chamber,” she said. “I have to get to it. I can still stop Abernathy.”
“No,” said Thaddeus. “I don’t think you can. The water is right behind us. We only just escaped. Nothing can stop him now. All we can hope is that the flood won’t fill the cavern. Maybe we’ll be safe here in Abernathy’s chambers. Maybe we can survive.”
Rémy gingerly folded her legs under her, silent as she regained her feet. She turned to face Thaddeus. “No,” she told him. “But Abernathy built an escape route. You can use it.” She smiled at him briefly. “I am so glad,” she said quietly. “I am so very glad that you are alive, Thaddeus.”
“Rémy,” Thaddeus said, his voice echoing across the chasm as she turned away from him. “Rémy, don’t do it. Come back. There’s nothing we can do now. Please. If you don’t come now, you won’t make it back across before the water comes.”
“I don’t need to,” she said, finding her way along the last few feet of rope. “All I need to do is remove the diamond, and his plan will fall apart. I can still stop him.”
She jumped onto the broken top step and then to the hard ground beyond, finally turning to look at him. Thaddeus was staring at her.
“You’ll – you’ll die,” he said. “You’ll either drown or be trapped down here, until the air runs out, or… or until you starve.”
Rémy looked at him calmly. “Don’t worry about me, little policeman. Now, go. Use the escape shaft before it is too late.”
He shook his head and climbed up onto the destroyed steps, instead, standing over the taut rope. “I’m coming, too.”
Rémy’s heart leapt into her mouth. “Don’t be a fool! You’ll never make it across!”
“I will if you help me.” He put one foot on the rope. “Tell me how. Show me how.”
“No,” she said, and felt tears pricking her eyes again. “No, I will not. I cannot – it’s too difficult for a beginner.”
Thaddeus looked at her, his eyes alight. “I can’t let you do this alone. I won’t – I can’t leave you behind.”
“You can,” she said, “you must.” She looked at Desai, standing behind Thaddeus “Desai – make him go. Take him. Please. You have to hurry! Listen!”
The sound of water was crashing closer now, a huge, drowning weight crushing everything in its path. They couldn’t see it yet, but it was an unstoppable tide, a natural monster, and any moment now it would be close enough to swallow them all. But still Thaddeus did not leave the rope. Instead, he made as if to step forward, out over the abyss.
“No,” Rémy cried, fear engulfing her. “Don’t! You’ll fall, Thaddeus! Stop wasting my time. You’ll fall!”
“Then I’ll untie the rope and swing across. You can pull me up.”
She shook her head. She wanted him out of here, safe. Rémy grabbed her end of the rope, where it was caught fast around the end of the crumbled steps, and began to undo it. “Step back. I will not let you follow me.”
“Don’t!” Thaddeus shouted. “Rémy, listen to me. Listen!” he paused, shaking his head, as if screwing up his courage. “I can’t live in the world, knowing you are not in it, too. I don’t want to. If you’re determined to sacrifice yourself, I won’t let you do it alone. I can’t. Do you hear me, Rémy Brunel? Do you hear me?”
Rémy stared at him, and the expanse between them seemed immeasurable. Her sight was blurred and she was crying, but still she could not say a thing. She did n
ot want him to die. She did not want to be the reason for it, and she did not want to die knowing that he was not living on in the world because of her. But she couldn’t say any of this. She couldn’t.
“I love you,” he said then, simply, into the incongruous silence that had spun itself around them. “I can’t help it. I don’t care if you don’t feel the same. I don’t care if you think I can’t know after only a week. I just – love you. So, don’t let the last time I see you be me leaving you to die alone. Just… don’t.”
The silence was shattered by a frantic shout from J. Rémy tore her gaze away from Thaddeus and looked through the open doors of Abernathy’s chamber. Beyond it, a wall of water was crashing onwards, stopped only by the cavern itself. She could see the escaped river pouring out of the wall, millions of gallons of water gushing down into the launch bay where Abernathy and his men stood, safe and secure and expectant in their fantastical machines. But soon it would be full, and the only place the water had to go was where Desai, J and Thaddeus stood on the other side of the abyss.
Twenty One
The Last Tide
Rémy stared at Thaddeus across the chasm.
“You are an idiot,” she shouted at him. “An idiot. Do you know that?”
“Are you going to let me across?”
She hesitated for another moment. The water roared behind them, gushing closer with each second, but she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from his. Rémy nodded, reluctantly.
“All right,” said Thaddeus, undoing the knotted rope. “Here’s what I’m going to do –”
There was another, deeper roar from behind them. Rémy looked over Thaddeus’ head, through the two open doors in Abernathy’s chamber and out the other side to the cavern beyond. In the gap she could see the eerie blue light of the submarines as they began to move, buoyed up by the water.
“Desai,” she shouted, over the din. “Go. Go!”
Desai didn’t need telling twice. He grabbed J by the hand, still holding the other boy in his free arm. J fought him, desperate to stay with Thaddeus, but Desai dragged him away, out of sight, into Abernathy’s escape chamber.
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