City of Halves

by Lucy Inglis

  She looked around, then examined the bruise on her arm again. A breeze had picked up, whipping her hair across her face. She shivered inside her jacket. A taxi went by, a man asleep in the back seat, papers open on his lap, illuminated by the interior light.

  Lily walked out into the centre of the bridge. She leant against the parapet for a minute, but the cold iron chilled her flesh through her jeans. Straightening up, she pulled out her phone, listened to the message again and then pushed the ‘call back’ button. Behind her, a telephone rang.

  She turned, and caught her breath.

  A man almost identical to Regan was standing twenty feet away. His hair was slightly shorter and neater, and his neck was bare. He was dressed in black motorcycle leathers.

  ‘Hi, Lily, I’m Ellis.’

  ‘You . . . you’re his brother. And . . . you’re David Smith.’ And I am a colossal idiot.

  ‘Yeah, well done.’ He smiled, but there was no warmth in it. ‘I wondered if you’d get that one.’

  Lily’s brain burnt with questions, but fear was gripping her gut. She took a step back. ‘You tricked me. Why am I here?’

  Ellis folded his arms, the icy wind ruffling his hair. ‘Well, that’s the thing. We need you.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Come with me and I’ll show you.’

  ‘And Vicky Shadbolt? Mona Singh? The mothwings? I’m assuming that’s all down to you too.’ She took his silence as confirmation. ‘What did you need them for?’

  ‘You haven’t worked it out? Maybe you’re not as clever as I thought. I’d have expected you and him to have worked it out by now.’

  ‘Regan?’

  His mouth twisted slightly at the name.

  ‘Why do you look like that? He’s your brother,’ Lily said slowly.

  He rolled his eyes. ‘He’s a crusader, as out-dated as those asthmatic shopkeepers.’

  ‘He’s trying to do what your father did.’

  ‘What? Die for nothing because he won’t recognise the world has moved on?’

  Lily swallowed. ‘Is that what happened to your father?’

  He said nothing.

  ‘And your mother?’

  Ellis looked away, then looked back at her and shook his head. ‘Sorry to have got you here under false pretences. But we’re running out of time. The project needs to move ahead. Now.’

  Lily pushed her phone into her pocket and zipped it up carefully. ‘I’m sorry too.’

  ‘You must come with me – you see that, don’t you?’

  ‘No. Why?’

  You’re part of the project. We need you.’

  ‘I’m not part of any project.’ Lily shook her head.

  He smiled, this time looking genuinely amused. ‘You are.’

  ‘You talk as if you know me,’ Lily said warily.

  ‘But I do,’ he said.

  ‘No, you don’t.’

  He folded his arms. ‘I know your height, your weight, your blood type. That you broke your wrist in the playground when you were seven because you wanted to play with the others instead of waiting on the sidelines like you were supposed to. I know that you like Italian food and eat salted popcorn while watching old films. You’ve a knack for coding and hacking, but you’ve never let on to anyone apart from your father how good you really are. And that little scar under your chin? You got that when you slipped rock-climbing in Scotland two years ago, which you shouldn’t have been doing, as you well know. Putting the whole project at risk on a stupid whim.’

  ‘Project?’

  ‘Yes.’ He paused. ‘Want me to go on?’

  Lily swallowed and nodded.

  ‘I’ve been watching you for almost five years.’

  ‘For which you should seek help,’ she said immediately, then paused. ‘Wait. You’re apache85.’

  He nodded eagerly. ‘Fantastic proxies, by the way – and that digital steganography skit you ran on Transmedia was something else. You’ve given me the slip more than a few times. That layered Caesar cipher on the Noble forum was you, wasn’t it?’

  Lily hesitated, then nodded slowly.

  He smiled, satisfied, punching the air. ‘I knew it. They said it was impossible that a sixteen-year-old girl was using hexadecimal characters like that, but I knew it was you.’

  They looked at each other.

  ‘The blood-banking. Is that even real?’ Lily asked.

  ‘Your blood type is exceptionally rare, and we do bank your blood in case you need it. But, yes, we test it too.’

  ‘Test it for what?’

  ‘Everything. We thought the bandogge incident may have changed the nature of it, but it appears not. His blood hasn’t affected you at all.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s as pure as ever.’

  ‘Pure?’

  ‘Yes. That’s one of the things that’s remarkable about it. No free radicals, no heavy metals, despite living in one of the most polluted cities in Europe.’ He shook his head, as if in wonder.

  ‘The blood tests, the blood drive. It’s you, isn’t it?’

  Ellis grinned. ‘I can’t take all the credit, but yes, that’s us.’

  ‘What is it for?’

  ‘Operation Harvest. The first large-scale identification of any remaining Type H females.’

  ‘So far, so gross. And a harvest doesn’t sound much like identification to me.’

  Coming over the bridge from the south was a black lowrider van. Lily turned to him, dismayed. They regarded each other warily.

  ‘Why do you want us? Why me? Why Vicky?’

  ‘You’ll understand soon.’

  ‘You made her believe the two of you were in a relationship.’

  He shrugged.

  ‘What about Mona Singh?’

  ‘Mona is already proving valuable to the project, even if the results are rather more . . . unpredictable than we had imagined. Three limbs, one too few, five limbs, one too many, you understand? But we’re making real progress. And that’s why we need you now. You’re too important to the project to put yourself at risk the way have been doing. If only you could have stayed home with your daddy, playing your little online games. Safe and warm in the safest place in London. But no, now you’re on the streets almost getting yourself killed. And it has to stop.’ His tone was final.

  She edged back.

  ‘You can’t outrun me. You know that.’

  ‘I don’t know anything about you,’ she said.

  ‘Why not just come quietly?’

  She looked past him, seeing the van pull over on the kerb. Below the bridge, the Thames surged. ‘He’s tried to find you. For years. He—’

  Ellis’s jaw clenched. ‘He’s living in the past, like my father – who threw his life away trying to rescue me.’

  ‘So what’s the future? The Agency? You?’

  He laughed. ‘You do know a lot, don’t you? But not quite enough. Not yet, at least. You will soon, though. Because you’re part of it, Lily. Part of the future.’

  ‘You sound like someone from a cult. You need to get out more.’

  Ellis stepped forward, his face suddenly intense. ‘You should come with me – please – try to understand.’

  ‘You killed that man Jack, at Bank station. I saw you do it.’

  He made a frustrated noise. ‘He was putting all our work at risk. You don’t understand. We can change the world!’

  Lily drew back, shaking her head. ‘Not like that,’ she said, her voice not as strong as she had hoped.

  The van door slid back, and a pair of high-laced black boots swung out as the man who had tried to take Lily before eased himself on to the pavement using the handrail. He straightened up, looking at her. He grinned.

  ‘You,’ she said.

  ‘Hello again, trouble. Going to come quietly?’ His voice had taken on a lisping quality, and patches of mottled skin were visible at his neck.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Ellis snapped.

  ‘You sent in for back-up.’

  ‘No, I sent in for trans
port. I don’t need back-up.’

  They watched each other. Ellis looked more than slightly angry.

  The agent’s eyelids flickered and he shrugged. ‘I don’t take my orders from you yet, kid.’

  ‘I said I’d bring her in alone.’

  The agent cast a cold glance at Lily. ‘Doesn’t look as if she’s going anywhere of her own free will any time soon.’

  ‘Not now, obviously,’ Ellis ground out.

  Lily glanced around again. There must be a way. Nothing. No way out. Except the river. She took a step towards the parapet.

  Ellis guessed her intention and took a step towards her, hand out. ‘Don’t you want to see your mother again?’

  The man in black made a lunge for her but Ellis knocked him out of the way easily, catching Lily in an iron grip as she tried to dodge away. He restrained her without effort, pulling her against him and turning on the agent. ‘Touch her and you won’t touch anything else for a very long time.’

  The agent said nothing, his cold snake eyes regarding Ellis. His lip curled slightly.

  Ellis dragged Lily to the back of the van. She put up a fight for about two seconds, until he held her so hard her ribs creaked and a squeak of pain escaped her. He pushed her on to a bench seat lining the side wall of the van.

  ‘My mother’s dead,’ she gasped, holding her side.

  He sat down opposite, long legs bent. The snake-eyed agent had climbed into the passenger seat in the front of the van. It drew away smoothly and performed a U-turn, heading back south of the river.

  ‘Are you so sure of that?’

  They watched each other in the flashing lights of the street lamps. The van took a right turn. Lily played with the talisman nervously.

  ‘Did my brother give that to you?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, sullen.

  ‘So you believe in the fairy nonsense?’

  She ignored him, because she didn’t have an answer. Through the grille at the front of the cab, Lily could see Vauxhall approaching. They were by the river again.

  ‘Where are you taking me?’

  ‘The lab.’

  ‘But where is it?’

  He watched her, weighing her up. ‘Battersea. The old power station.’

  Lily frowned, thinking. ‘Battersea.’ Her eyes met his as the penny dropped. ‘You’ve been buying trafficked girls. From Anton Andreyev.’

  He raised an eyebrow. ‘You have been doing your homework.’

  ‘But you’ve stopped. Why?’

  Ellis folded his arms as the van paused at a traffic light. ‘Because the girls weren’t suitable test subjects, although they were cheap and plentiful. Already full of pollutants, shit dentistry and a lifetime of bad diets. Useless.’

  His flat, irritated tone made the bile rise in Lily’s throat. ‘Human life’s so cheap to you?’

  He raised a black eyebrow. ‘Cheap? You should see what he charges.’

  She looked away and swallowed, determined to keep calm. The headlights passed over their faces in flashes. Overhead, the brief whirr of helicopter blades as a pilot came in to land at the heliport. Fear settled in her gut.

  ‘That’s why you took Vicky. You were already watching me through the surgery. Easy to pick another girl from the same dataset.’

  He nodded.

  ‘How many girls have you got in this lab?’

  ‘You’ll soon see.’ The van slowed, pulling into the kerb. Ellis reached over and drew the door open, looking over his shoulder at Lily. ‘I have to make a stop here. Pick something up.’

  ‘More hostages?’

  His winged eyebrow kinked upwards, but he said nothing. He got out and slid the door closed. ‘Watch her,’ he said through the passenger window.

  Lily looked inside her bag, wondering if there was anything at all in it that she could use. The two agents up front were talking, not watching her. In the side pocket of her satchel she had a box of matches and a Swiss Army knife. Because her father had taught her all about how to survive after Lily decided, aged ten, that the Girl Guides were sexist.

  She unwound the scarf from her neck and made a miniature firebomb by pulling out four matches, striking them and stuffing them into the box. They flared instantly. Lily piled her scarf on top of the matchbox in a small bundle, and moments later the black wool crackled into life. The flames took hold and she threw herself against the grille.

  ‘Help, please!’

  The snake-eyed agent was out of the seat immediately, cursing her. He flung open the sliding side panel and grabbed her arm. The talisman burst into fiery life as soon as his hand touched her, almost blinding them both. The man fell back as if burnt. Lily jumped from the van, sprinting for the Embankment.

  ‘No!’

  The shout behind her, the voice so familiar, brought her to a halt. She turned. Ellis stood in the middle of the road, in his arms a blanketed bundle, pale hair spilling free over his left arm. A car rushed the amber light heading towards Southwark and the horn blared. Ellis leapt out of the road, arms full, bellowing in frustration.

  Lily. Lily. The river. Jump. A soft voice like mercury slid into her ears. Do it. Do it now. It’s your only chance. RUN.

  She spun round and ran. Ellis ditched his burden and sprinted after her. She hit the parapet, vaulted and landed in the freezing water with a bang, tide raging. The shock knocked the breath from her. The current was flowing downstream, fast towards the sea. It swept her beneath Lambeth Bridge, eastwards, deep below the water.

  Lily was a strong swimmer, but she knew that survival in the Thames was measured in multiples of seconds rather than minutes. She surfaced beneath the bridge, gasping. Her brain was already blurring with cold. Something grabbed her, an arm beneath hers, crossing across her chest.

  ‘Don’t fight, I have you!’

  They sped through the water. The current created rough waves that smacked the breath from Lily, burning her with salt. They were moving almost impossibly fast. Westminster Bridge, then a minute later, Blackfriars. Beneath the modern steel of the Millennium Bridge was an ancient wooden staircase. Crouching just above the angry high tide was Regan. The arm that was holding Lily slackened.

  Gripping on to the railing with one hand, Regan bent out over the water, catching Lily and hoisting her into his arms. She was almost frozen and half drowned, her head lolling against his neck. She saw a naked girl in the water – young, perhaps no more than seventeen. Her thick, matted hair was a dull white, spilling over her chest, full of shells and old pieces of broken glass. In the water, a shining tail glowed orange and blue.

  ‘Eleanor, thank you,’ Regan said.

  ‘My pleasure, halfbreed! We are all square now, yes?’

  Regan nodded. ‘Yes.’

  They shook hands. ‘So now I go,’ she said. ‘Rachel is missing.’

  Regan straightened, Lily still in his arms. ‘Missing?’

  ‘Yes. Since this morning. I thought she had gone out to the Thames Barrier. She likes to watch it work. But I’ve been out beyond Gravesend . . . I need to find her. And you need to get her inside, before that precious blood freezes solid.’ Eleanor reached up, grasping Lily’s trailing hand. Her mercury voice slipped through Lily’s brain again. Good luck, blood girl. Good luck and a fair wind in your sails. Lily tried to speak, to thank her, but nothing came out. Eleanor reeled back into the water with a quick salute, her tail sparkling orange and blue, the broad fin disappearing under the glowing lights of the bridge above.

  Regan turned, climbed the steps and began to walk northeastwards, back towards the Rookery. He moved fast, without ever seeming to break stride. Lily couldn’t speak, her jaw locked with cold, her teeth unable even to chatter. A couple of late-night drunks in crumpled suits staggered past towards the last train to somewhere or other, but their expressions were uncomprehending and no one stopped Regan.

  He strode through the alley into the Rookery, his boots clattering on the wooden treads, which glistened with frost. Inside the flat, he pushed open the bathroom
door and sat Lily down on the single wooden chair, turning on the taps. Water crashed into the enamel tub, echoing in the freezing hall.

  ‘Come on, up.’

  With his typical efficient movements he stripped off her jacket. Beneath, her clothes clung, sodden. She was shuddering in waves.

  ‘Your brother. He’s alive.’

  Regan’s hands stilled. ‘You saw Ellis?’

  She took a breath to speak. He held her face, looking into her eyes.

  ‘Lily, focus. You saw him? My brother?’

  ‘He asked if I wanted to see my mother again. Does that mean she’s alive too?’ Her teeth clattered.

  He ignored her question and kept talking, hands against her face. ‘Listen to me. Listen to my voice. Think. And start from the beginning. From when I left you.’

  ‘How did you find me?’

  ‘I told you, the talisman. It connects us. I can kind of see where it is, when someone touches you who means you harm. The quickest way to get someone to you tonight was Eleanor. She’s the fastest thing in or on the water.’

  ‘But . . . how do you find her . . .?’

  He pulled a face. ‘She doesn’t take calls. I went to the river and yelled. She owed me, big time, so she was honour-bound to come.’

  ‘Owed?’ Lily put a hand to his, covering his fingers.

  ‘It doesn’t matter, it’s done. We’re even now. Just tell me what happened.’

  Bewildered, Lily struggled free and pulled her phone from her pocket on the chair.

  He stepped back. ‘Doesn’t water kill those things?’

  She pressed the menu button with trembling fingers. It blinked into life. ‘It’s the case. They call it “lifeproof” – it’s waterproof and shockproof. Dad made me buy it as a condition of him getting me the phone.’

  Regan nodded impatiently. Lily’s hands were so cold that the phone didn’t register when she tried to unlock it. He took it from her and looked at the screen, swiping his thumb across it.

  ‘Touch the phone icon. And the little reel of tape on the right.’ Her teeth chattered so loudly she shut her mouth with a snap. ‘Press the last message and listen,’ she said through gritted teeth.