London Belongs to the Alchemist (Class Heroes Book 4)

by Stephen Henning

  “A police impound?” Lolly queried, disbelievingly.

  “Relax. It’s remote, massive, and there’s only one kid working in some shed. He’s loyal to me. Nobody else for miles around. It’s perfect.”

  “Ok,” agreed Lolly. “Just make sure you have my information,” she added.

  “Don’t you worry your pretty little head over it,” he oozed, and then the phone went dead.

  Dartford. That was the other side of London. She couldn’t ask James to teleport her there, as he wouldn’t know where it was. Nor did she want the Blakes to know anything about this arrangement with Nicky Cairo. And that made her realize that she would have to lie to them. Lie to James, lie to Yvonne. Lolly had never had a problem telling lies before. Lies were good. Lies were useful. Lies ensured you got what you wanted. Except now the prospect of lying troubled her.

  She would have to steal a car. Easy enough. She just wished she didn’t have to go on her own. She longed to tell James, but there was no way he would help her rescue Daddy.

  She took a deep breath and rang Al.

  “Hi Lolly,” he answered. “Did you see my video?”

  “I did,” said Lolly. “Pretty cool. So what’s happening Saturday?”

  “You’ll have to wait till Saturday to find out,” replied Al, mysteriously.

  “Nicky is pretty angry about his car.”

  “Good. The guy is a joke.”

  “I’m meeting him tomorrow. I need to pay him the balance of the drugs. Can I collect them from you tomorrow morning?”

  “Sorry, Lolly. I got business meetings all day.”

  “But you promised. I need those drugs to pay Nicky.”

  “Like I said, Nicky is a joke. Sorry, Lol. I ain’t got time for that.”

  “Al, I need those drugs. You have to give me what I want.”

  “Lolly, I didn’t like giving you the stuff the other day. I don’t want drugs going to Nicky Cairo for him to get rich off. That’s not why I do what I do.”

  “But—”.

  “Sorry, hun, Sam’s trying to call me. Gotta go.”

  And Al hung up on her, leaving Lolly fuming. She sat on the bed trying to plan her next move. She could try forcing Al to hand over the drugs, but long term she and her father would need Al as an ally. It wasn’t worth alienating him. She liked Al, but she wished he was working to her plan rather than his own childish scheme.

  No, the pragmatic thing would be to screw over Nicky Cairo.

  She had the stash of Super D taken from the boy at Sam’s school. That would be enough for now.

  ***

  She left the bedroom and walked down the hallway. Sam walked past holding her phone and frowning. Listening to Al’s manifesto, no doubt.

  Poor Sam. Al was a fascinating guy but not exactly boyfriend material. He was too committed to his pointless cause.

  Lolly knocked on James’s door. He called out so she entered. He was lying back on his bed, playing with his phone.

  “Hiya,” said Lolly. He barely looked up. Lolly’s heart pounded. What had she done? Did he somehow know that she was planning to rescue her father? Or had he just gone off her? Maybe he’d just looked at her and seen something he didn’t like? Was it this stupid apron she was wearing? She untied it and took it off.

  “I know I’m hard to resist, but you don’t have to undress for me,” he mumbled, cracking a smile.

  Lolly laughed in relief.

  “What’s happening?” she asked, not even sure what she meant by that.

  He wasn’t very forthcoming. Lolly sat on his bed.

  “Do you like me?” she asked. He looked surprised.

  “You know I do,” he replied. “Even with pastry on your face.”

  “Why?” she asked, fishing, while rubbing her cheeks.

  He considered for a bit.

  “Because you make me shortbread,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

  “So you did know,” she scolded, pulling the pillow out from under his head and pushing it onto his face. He grabbed the pillow and they both laughed.

  “That’s more like it. You seem like you again,” she observed, happily.

  In reply, he just groaned and pulled the pillow against his head.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  “Al’s got it sorted. You’ve got it sorted,” he replied.

  “What does that mean?”

  “I had a fight today. Foster and a bunch of his losers attacked me. All of them were on Super D.”

  “So?” shrugged Lolly. “You may not be super strong but you’re infinitely superior to them. In every way,” she added, stroking his cheek.

  James turned away.

  “He beat me,” said James, simply. “Because I couldn’t use my powers in public. Now I’m angry with myself. I don’t want that ever to happen again. But Dad says I’m not allowed to, y’know, draw attention to myself.”

  Lolly considered.

  “You are what you are, James. I like your parents a lot, but they have to accept you are different now. I’d never let anybody get the better of me.”

  He was such a wonderful boy, but he had to man up. He needed some hard knocks. That was how she had been brought up.

  “So are you a proper superhero then?” he asked, the faintest suspicion of a smile returning to his face.

  “You are such a geek,” she said, running her hand across his chest. “Superhero is such a nerd word. We are what we are.”

  “You should wear a superhero costume,” said James, smirking.

  The cheeky boy! Lolly knew exactly what he was thinking.

  “Oh, really? A tight little outfit. A short red skirt?” she asked, playfully.

  “That’s it,” said James, his grin so wide she thought his ears would fall off. “Maybe some red boots.”

  “Oh, you’d just love that, wouldn’t you?” she said, with mock sternness.

  “I would, actually.”

  “Dream on, geek boy,” she said, hitting him with the pillow again. “I’ll do that when you wear an outfit made of tinfoil and cardboard.”

  “I’d look great,” James declared confidently.

  “How old are you now?” she asked James. It was hard to tell. He was tall and quite stocky for a younger boy.

  “I’ll be 15 in June. How old are you?”

  “I’ll be 17 in July. Perhaps I’m a bit old for you?”

  He turned to face her. There was something in his expression that told Lolly a serious question was coming.

  “How many boyfriends have you had?” he asked.

  “Don’t make it sound like I must have had loads,” she replied, outraged.

  “I didn’t mean that. It’s just I don’t really know that much about you. And, you know, you’re like me. We’re different, aren’t we. Does that make it… weird?”

  “You tell me. From what I gather, you’ve had hundreds of girlfriends already.”

  James shrugged. “Hasn’t there been anyone…” he was trying to choose his words, “special?”

  Lolly took a deep breath.

  “Yes,” she said, finally. “There was someone. But it wasn’t great. And I’ll never see him again. It’s no big deal.”

  Before James could ask any more questions, to Lolly’s relief, Yvonne called from downstairs, asking Lolly to help clear up the baking things. Lolly sighed.

  “I’ll give you some alone time with your phone,” she said, and backed out of the room. As she walked down the stairs, Lolly’s emotions swung again, like a pendulum. She felt guilty about lying to the Blakes. She forced herself to bury those feelings. It was easier.

  Chapter 39

  Lolly helped Yvonne clean the kitchen, but in silence, and she declined to help cook dinner.

  At six o’clock, when beef casserole was served, Lolly could only pick at her food. She’d barely eaten all day. That was something that hadn’t happened in years.

  “Look what I found in the local paper,” said Roger, after Lolly had pushed the apple pie dessert
around her bowl.

  Roger picked up the newspaper from the nearby book shelf, opened it at one of the centre pages and placed it on the table. Lolly, Sam and James peered over. The headline said:

  ‘Are Our Youth Out Of Control?’ It was a news story about anti-social behaviour involving teenagers in Ealing’s Walpole Park. The article reported that a large gang of youths had rampaged through the park and the nearby streets, thrown bricks at car windows and houses, and had a stand-off with the police. They obviously had no photos of the actual incident, so instead the paper had used images from the film A Clockwork Orange, and were drawing comparisons with the out-of-control lead character ‘Alex’ and his fellow ‘droogs’.

  Lolly laughed.

  “It’s not funny,” snapped Roger. “We hear enough about kids in hoodies causing problems as it is. But now, thanks to Alvin and, in part, your father, the children in this borough can go on superpowered rampages. And you,” he added to Sam, “were right in the middle of it. Do you really want to be mixed up in this kind of trouble?”

  Sam looked chastised.

  “It’s just the local paper,” pointed out Lolly. She couldn’t let this go. Just for once Sam had shown some spirit and she shouldn’t be blamed for that. “Sam was helping out her friend. What was she supposed to do, leave the girl in the park all night to get mauled?”

  “It’s not just the local paper, actually, Lauren,” said Roger, sternly. “If you bothered to keep up with the news, you’d see that there have been reports of this kind of event happening all over London.”

  “Roger, you are such an over-protective father. And believe me, I’m an expert on that subject.”

  “Thank you for your wisdom, Lolly,” he snapped.

  Lolly sighed. Daddy could be overbearing, too.

  Roger picked up his iPad and put it on the table. The browser was already on the 24/7 Interactive News page.

  ‘Growing Pains! Teenage Crime Wave Spreads Through London!’ was the headline.

  “That’s quite clever,” chuckled Lolly. She liked the press. They had written some rather nice things about her over the last year or two, praising her cool, her glamour, her beauty and her status as a model daughter. ‘The Lovely Lolly Turns Sweet 16’, was her favourite article.

  “There’s nothing clever about any of it,” returned Roger. “Read the article. It charts the sporadic outbreak of anti-social behaviour amongst London’s teenagers over the last month. And it is getting worse. Ealing is one of the boroughs mentioned and I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

  “You think Al is behind all this, don’t you?” snapped Sam. “Why don’t you give him a break?”

  Roger took a deep breath.

  “Sam, I know this is hard to hear, and believe it or not, I’m not saying this just to stop you having a boyfriend or to ruin your life. But you know he is passing on Super D. He admitted it when he was in this very room. You’re an intelligent girl — do you think it is likely that Super D might be the reason these kids are going berserk?”

  Lolly watched with interest as Sam’s heart had a conversation with her head. Head obviously won, but the heart wasn’t pleased.

  “I suppose,” she conceded. “I just don’t understand. I think he’s a good person. I can’t believe he wants to hurt anyone.”

  “Sweetheart, I agree with you. I liked him too. But for your own sake, you have to stay away from him.”

  Like that’s going to happen, thought Lolly, but didn’t say anything.

  Sam lapsed into silence.

  “And Lolly,” said Roger, looking directly at her.

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve given a lot of thought to your situation.”

  “You’re not kicking her out, are you?” shouted James. “You promised she could stay.”

  Wow. James really wanted her to be here.

  “Will everyone just relax, Lolly can stay as long as she likes,” implored Roger. “I’ll leave,” he added, presumably as a joke. Nobody laughed.

  “But Lolly, you can’t just hide in this house indefinitely. We need a plan for you. I suggest we contact your mother in Switzerland.”

  “She won’t want me,” said Lolly, without hesitation.

  “She might. You haven’t seen or heard from her for several years, am I correct? She is still your mother. She will want to keep you safe. She won’t let you down, I promise you.”

  The last thing Lolly wanted was to have the Blakes contact her mother. If all went to plan, in a few days her father would be free and there would be no further problem. If only she could tell the Blakes that.

  “Can you let me think about it?” she asked. Delaying tactics were all that was required.

  “Of course,” said Roger. “You’re welcome here as long as you need.”

  ***

  After dinner, Lolly said she was tired and went to bed, much to James’s obvious disappointment. But she didn’t want to sit with them and lie to their faces about what she was going to do tomorrow. She got ready for bed and tried to get comfortable, but it took several long, boring hours before she finally got to sleep.

  Chapter 40

  Friday 20 April

  Lolly waited until the twins had gone to school before she got up. She snuck into the bathroom, showered, brushed her teeth, and slipped back into the bedroom to dress. She was tired, hungry and miserable, but she didn’t want to have to sit with Yvonne or Roger over breakfast.

  She perused her wardrobe. The black leggings and top were missing. Yvonne must have put them in the wash! This was ridiculous. What about her blue jeans? Gone too. She opted for a simple, high-necked, black mini dress.

  She wrapped the bag containing the packets of Super D in her coat, collected her phone and bag, and walked down the stairs purposefully but without running. She had decided to avoid leaving by the front of the house, so she turned right at the bottom of the stairs and headed for the lounge.

  “Morning, dear, do you want some breakfast?” called out Roger.

  “I’m fine, thanks. I need to see Nicky Cairo again. He wants more money. I’m going to pay him off.”

  She made it as far as the French windows at the back of the lounge before she heard a scraping of chairs from the kitchen.

  “Is that such a good idea?” asked Roger, following her into the lounge. Yvonne was just behind him.

  “Is it even wise to leave the house?” she asked. “Especially dressed like that? You don’t exactly pass by unnoticed.”

  “I’ll be fine. And I’ll be back.” She unlocked the French windows and opened one of the doors.

  “You haven’t even eaten,” said Roger, worriedly. “You know you need regular meals. You hardly touched your dinner last night.”

  “I’m fine,” Lolly reassured them. “I’ll get drive-through,” she added, stepping into the garden.

  “But you don’t even have a car,” pointed out Roger.

  Lolly closed the door to cut off any more well-meaning protests. She hurried to the back of the garden and, as she had done on Tuesday night, vaulted over the fence into the alleyway that led to the main road.

  ***

  Minutes later, she saw what she needed. A black four-by-four pulled up on the double-yellow line outside the delicatessen on the other side of the road. A blonde-haired woman — dressed in pyjamas and slippers, bizarrely — hopped down from the vehicle and marched into the shop. On her way back from doing the school run, concluded Lolly.

  Lolly crossed the road, avoiding the angry traffic. She leaned against the four-by-four and waited for the woman to return.

  Before long the woman emerged from the shop, holding a small bag in one hand and her car keys in the other.

  “Thank you,” said Lolly, snatching the keys and giving the woman a shove backwards. Lolly climbed into the vehicle and started the engine. The blonde started shouting and swearing at her, and leaned in through the open window.

  Lolly caught a whiff of strong perfume and something nice to eat.

&nbs
p; “Thanks again,” she said, and snatched the bag of food. She pushed the woman clear of the car, gunned the engine and roared off.

  Lolly laughed as she saw the hysterical, gesticulating woman in her pyjamas, framed in the rear view mirror. Be grateful I didn’t kill you, thought Lolly. She took a look in the bag. A smoked salmon bagel. Her stomach rumbled painfully. She demolished the bagel in less than a minute. She would need to eat again before the meeting. It was nearly half past nine. The meeting was at twelve. Plenty of time.

  ***

  But Lolly’s journey was a slow one. As soon as she hit the M25, she was stuck in traffic. Lolly was fairly confident it would be some while before the police started looking for the stolen four-by-four. However, she didn’t want to be late for the meeting, and her patience was exhausted by the endless stop-start of the traffic. She wanted to use her flame power to drive a torrent of fire through the queue, atomising everything in her path.

  She looked at the sat nav on her phone. Still over forty miles to go. Nearly a quarter past ten.

  Her stomach rumbled so painfully that she had to clutch it. Why hadn’t she let the Blakes feed her? Daddy never let her leave the house until she’d eaten breakfast.

  ***

  It was raining lightly by the time Lolly reached the car impound yard at Dartford, close to where the Queen Elizabeth Bridge crossed the River Thames. She had only just made it in time. Twelve o’clock exactly. Her nerves were frazzled by the long drive and the expectation that the police might spot the stolen vehicle. She had wanted to get here early to scout around the location. No such chance now.

  The whole area was barren, industrial and dirty. The ground, the buildings, even the sky had a rusty hue. It also felt very remote, which was presumably why Nicky Cairo had chosen it for the meeting.

  Lolly drove up to the main gate. It was a simple chain-link fence, rusty and virtually hanging off the struts. A dirty sign informed her that the site was managed by Guard Safe Site Security Ltd, on behalf of the Metropolitan Police. The gate was open so she just drove in.

  She took the four-by-four slowly up towards a dirty old shipping container, which seemed to have been converted into an office, with a window cut into one side. A young guy pressed his face up against the glass and then withdrew.