by Matt Whyman
The monster in question acts hurt all of a sudden. He points at himself, looks over his shoulder just to check the guard hadn’t intended to insult anyone else. “You didn’t want to say that,” he declares, shaking one foot after the other to lose the clinging weed. “You really ought to apologise, or face the consequences.”
The girls glance at Yoshi, seemingly unimpressed, but he knows just what’s going on. This beast may have revealed his true nature, but in doing so he’s continuing to draw the guards in. Cautiously, Yoshi begins to size up their escape routes. “We’ll go on my word,” he whispers to Livia and the twins, still watching the dripping-wet figure below and wondering how far he might take it.
“Don’t push me,” the beast warns the boss guard. “I’ve seen a lot of sewage on my way here, followed by an unexpected downpour when I spun the hatch just now. Nobody told me I’d find two tonnes of murky water on top of it. My brief was to make a surprise entrance. I didn’t expect the surprise to be on me! So, sir, if you’d care to show some politeness at least, we can leave here without anyone getting hurt.”
The guard chuckles for a moment. He clears his throat to regain control, but it’s no good. He guffaws loudly, his eyes shining in a bid to keep it together, and then laughs so hard that those guards around him swap goofy, nervous glances.
“What’s so funny?” asks Livia, as the laughter quickly spreads. “There’s no excuse for bad manners.”
“Never mind that.” Yoshi gestures for the girls to follow him. “Let’s go!”
The boy moves lightly on his feet, using the commotion as cover. Nearing the stairs, he glances back to check the others are close behind. When he faces forward once more, he only has time to gasp before crashing into something solid that’s just blocked his path. It’s the boss guard. A man who is laughing harder than anyone else, but who must have been watching their every move. And now here he is, still chortling away, but with one strong hand clamped around the boy’s arm.
“You should stick around,” he tells Yoshi, still cracking up at what seems to him like one lame attempt at a rescue bid. “You’ll miss the best bit, when this clown gets ejected from the premises. It’ll give you a taster of the kind of kicking we have in mind for you.”
Below, the so-called swamp monster is mashing through the puddles left in the water feature. “You leave them alone!” he warns, jabbing a finger accusingly. “My friends will be joining us at any moment. And they really don’t like it when people pick on me, or anyone else!”
The boss guard rocks back on his heels at this. He’s seriously tickled, even if his crack team of security professionals appear more baffled than anything else. They’re laughing along with him, but really do so just to fit in. For they’re also swapping nervous glances with one another, plainly unsure what’s going on. All in all it’s a grand distraction. Whatever they make of this uprising through the slime and the weeds, sheer bravado is what has disarmed these guards so effectively. Yoshi wriggles in vain to free himself from the security chief – the only guard to lose himself to laughter and yet maintain his authority – while the girls look on in despair.
“Easy now!” this boss guard warns Yoshi, recovering his composure for a moment. “You’ll really have to try harder next time.”
The boy looks up into his sniggering face, and hangs his head in defeat. That’s it, he thinks to himself. This show is over. He mouths an apology at the swamp monster down there, who shrugs like he gave it his best shot. Then, much to the surprise of Yoshi and the girls, the monster takes a step back to assist a second figure from the drain hole – a raggedy old lion of a man, looking half-lost but strangely pleased to be here. More so, in fact, as the laughter and uproar sounding from every level falls away to silence.
“Julius!” cries Yoshi, twisting helplessly under the boss guard’s grip.
“What’s with the pensioner?” asks Blaize, with a note of derision. “Is he here to hand out toffees?”
On the bed of the former swamp, overlooked by several floors and illuminated by the ambient lighting like a scooped stage in the round, Julius Grimaldi steps up to address his rapt audience.
“Please forgive my young friend here for kicking up such a stink,” he says, but thinks twice about clapping the swamp monster on the shoulder. “When I asked brave Billy here to spin open the hatch I believed only wires and cables would spill out. Had I known it wasn’t a service hatch, I would’ve asked him to find another point to surface.”
Billy No-Beard rids himself of yet more slime with a pointed flick of his wrists. “It’s the last time I go first,” he mutters, and faces up to Yoshi once again. “In fact,” he suggests, with the hint of a glint in his eye, “why don’t you show us the way out of here?”
“Nobody goes anywhere!” This is the boss guard, who demonstrates he means business by crooking his arm around Yoshi’s throat. “Butch, for the last time, I’m ordering you to the lobby. Escort these jokers from the premises, and have the water feature refilled immediately. If Aleister’s precious ecosystem has been disturbed, it could end up brimming with our blood.”
“Understood, boss!”
Butch heads for the steps that would take him to the water feature, eager to follow orders. He barely moves, however, before Julius cries, “You really don’t want to come any closer, young man. Not if you know what’s waiting in the wings at this moment!”
Yoshi hears this and gives up struggling against the boss guard. If there’s a chance that Julius can outwit the guards then this is it. He checks that Livia and the twins are watching, sees their eyes widen at what creeps from every hallway in the lobby.
“I’m scared,” says Livia. “Really.”
“Me too,” breathes Scarlett. “What are we looking at here?”
“Well?” asks Blaize, glaring at the boy. “This had better be good!”
The mood lamps in the lobby are designed to foreground the water feature and the mangrove around it. They shine in from the surrounding hallways, cutting the walls with slanting light. Looking down from the balcony, it’s impossible to see where each hallway leads. All that can be seen is the beam shining from each one, strong enough to throw down a shadow to forewarn of another presence. Yoshi is just wondering where the rest of the crew might be stationed, when something happens that makes sense of things for him. For as Julius Grimaldi and the Executive Deck Hand turn slowly in opposite directions, so a pack of looming shadows stalk into the light.
“Now,” says Billy, wiping his cheeks clean with his fingertips, “are you going to let Yoshi and his friends come forward, or do we have to unleash the dogs?”
A growl strikes up from one of the hallways next, quickly matched by others.
“They sound big,” a guard near Yoshi observes, and then whimpers when the shadows begin to shape into the pointed ears and pinched eyes of a wild-looking dog indeed. “Very big!”
“Stay calm!” comes the order from the boss guard. “It’s just another illusion,” he assures them, but it’s clear that even he doesn’t sound so certain this time. By now, the lights have revealed an entire pack. They might be hanging back in the darkness, but the shadows on the walls suggest these dogs look set to leap. “I’m a trained handler,” the boss calls out next, clearly hoping that might make them go away. “I didn’t make it to the top in the security business without knowing how to handle big dogs.”
As if in response, one of the shadows appears to rise up on hind legs and walk like a human.
“Those are no dogs!” splutters Butch, backing away from the rail as yet more dark, canine shapes reform against the wall.
“You’re right,” says Yoshi, keen to get in on the act if it means one last chance at escape. “They’re werewolves!”
His claim draws looks of disbelief from the girls, but it’s all too much for Butch and several other guards. They take off in a hurry, deaf to the threats from their superior.
“Werewolves are a myth!” rages the boss guard, furious that so many of hi
s men are deserting their posts. With his nostrils flaring under the bill of his cap, he throws Yoshi to one side and storms for the stairs. “But you two jokers will be history when I get my hands on you!”
“OK, I admit it!” Billy shows him his palms, stalling him at the top of the stairs. “These are not werewolves.”
Julius seems surprised by this admission. Even some of the shadows fall back on all fours, ears pricked and heads cocked in confusion.
“So, what have you got hidden down there?” asks the boss guard, his curiosity beginning to overtake his anger.
“You don’t want know,” warns Billy, though he seems unsure what to add.
Julius frowns. Billy shrugs. The pair look like actors who have lost their lines.
Slowly, the boss guard begins his descent of the stairs. “I do believe you’re bluffing,” he growls, and signals at those who value their jobs to step in line now.
“Let them go!” Yoshi calls out, ignoring this clear chance to get away, but the boss is deaf to them now. Down below, the old man in the patchwork coat and the mud-caked kid beside him look as if they have been struck by stage fright. “I’ll do whatever you say, but don’t hurt them,” pleads the boy, concerned only for the safety of Julius and Billy. They might belong to a crew he’s only just fallen in with, but they’ve also come to mean a great deal to him, he realises with his next breath. “I’m begging you to let them go,” he yells. “They’re like . . . like family to me!”
26
A SHOW OF STRENGTH
The boss guard halts at the foot of the stairs. He rests a hand on each banister, as if to restrain all those behind him.
“Give it up,” he barks at Billy. “Stop making a spectacle of yourself.”
“Spectacle?” Billy shoots a finger to the air. “I’ll give you a spectacle!” The look on his face tells Yoshi that he’s only just conjured up what he’s about to say. Even so, he seems very confident all of a sudden. Stepping forward now, Billy cups one hand to his mouth as if to conspire with his audience. “What we have here,” he reveals, pointing at the gloomy hallways, “is a rare sight, both feared and revered by the residents of Chinatown.” The shadows on the walls shift and flex, as if the creatures lurking back there are growing restless. “You may think the kids here are freaks,” continues Billy, in his element now, “but you won’t know the meaning of the word until you’ve seen what I am about to summon up.”
“No!” shouts Julius, stepping forward himself. “If you give the word these fiends will slay every single one of us!”
“Then give us what we want!” Billy demands, addressing the balconies still. “Otherwise, we’ll take our chances!”
“Billy!” the old man hisses, looking very scared all of a sudden. “This is a lobby, not a gladiatorial arena!”
The boss guard remains at the foot of the stairs, breathing heavily through flared nostrils.
“No deal!” he says, glaring at Billy from under his peaked cap. “Bring it on, my friend. It’s high time this pantomime came to an end.”
“Pantomime?” For a second time, Billy clutches his heart as if a knife has just been thrust in. “This is no pantomime, sir. We’re here for our friends, by any means possible. Consider this a show of strength!”
“Don’t do it,” hisses Julius, standing behind him like some dignitary’s interpreter, but it’s too late now.
“You leave me no choice!” Billy is beginning to get a little carried away, thinks Yoshi, but even he takes a sharp intake of breath, along with everyone else, when the Executive Deck Hand steps up onto the biggest boulder in this former water feature. There, he crouches on one knee and then flings out his hands as if casting some kind of spell: “Feast your eyes on the infamous . . . Opium Vampires!”
All heads turn just as Billy has directed. The first thing that happens is the silhouettes disappear. Just snap back into the gloom and vanish. Then, from somewhere in the deeper reaches of the hall, a scraping sound can be heard, like a dead foot dragging behind a good one. At the same time, a twist of purple smoke creeps into the atrium. This is followed by a shadow that crosses both the wall and the floor. It’s huge, far bigger than before – a muscular torso with what looks like great pointed wings unfolding. The old man is the first to react, shrinking behind Billy and gripping his shoulders fearfully.
“What have you done?” he says, trembling. “Why did you have to bring them here?”
The boss guard snorts, but he’s clearly not comfortable. He turns to share a comment with the guard behind and finds all of them have melted away. “Hey!” he says, spinning around now. “Don’t leave me to handle this alone!”
Billy consults the time. He wipes a smear of mud from his watch face, and says, “If you want to get away with your life, I advise you to head for the exits. These fiends are here for a blood fix. They promised to spare me if I led them to fresh feeding grounds. When I learned about this fine building, all tucked up behind gated gardens, I knew they’d find it hard to resist. You shouldn’t have been so secretive about what goes on here, fellas. If something terrible happened, the outside world wouldn’t know about it for ages!”
A screech from one of the halls rings around the atrium now. It’s a terrible sound, like a high-karate chop from hell, followed by a manic cackle. Yet more talons of purple smoke emerge from other halls now, followed in turn by the shadows of wings as big as yacht sails.
Watching from the balcony, with guards turning tail by the second, Yoshi becomes aware of a slender hand slipping into his own.
“Don’t worry,” he whispers to Livia, and squeezes tightly. “They’re here for us.”
She looks at him in horror, as do the twins.
“Vampires are here for us?”
“That depends,” he says under his breath, “on whether you believe in magic.”
By now, just a handful of guards remain at the balconies. Most are too dumbstruck to realise their colleagues have deserted them. Down below, the first set of wings opens wide, casting the boss guard in shadow. He looks up with a start at the silhouette before him. Whatever it is seems to float out of the smoke, defying both gravity and reason. He staggers back with a cry, only to snag his heel on the lowest step and sprawl onto his back. Before he knows what’s looming over him, Yoshi has grabbed his three friends and is racing for the stairs . . . for this is their opportunity, with the distraction at its height. Indeed, he doesn’t stop for the boss guard at the bottom, and nor do Livia and the twins. One after the other, they trample over the poor man as he tries to stand, the final foot catching him a glancing blow.
“You did it!” Yoshi rushes for this dark and looming apparition, leaving Livia and the twins to stare aghast into the light. “I’m so glad to see you!”
“What can it be?” Blaize asks her sister, who simply watches as the silhouette touches the ground once more, and even seems to shrink by a couple of metres as it steps forward to greet the boy.
“Mikhail!” beams Yoshi. “You make a great vampire!” In each hand, the spike-haired Russian is clutching the corner of a long curtain. When he lets them go, they fall back in place over the long facing windows in the hallway. “Tell me,” Yoshi presses him, standing back to get a better look, “how do you float on air?”
“Not now, my friend.” Mikhail turns his attention to the girls. “I’ll teach you how to levitate if you choose to stick with us, but for now let’s leave a little to the imagination, huh?”
“Oh go on, please!”
“Yoshi, I’m busting to ask how your pretty friend here can make her head light up, but now is not the time to swap illusions.”
“Mine isn’t an illusion,” Livia protests, but Mikhail just smiles like they all say that.
Just as her aura begins to blaze an indignant puce, one of the crew calls out across the lobby. “It’s time to pull the troops,” he declares, drawing their attention. “Look lively, people!” With his finger pressed to his ear, it’s clear he’s in touch with the Bridge. At leas
t a dozen rag-tag punks cross the floor now, emerging from the halls where this elaborate shadow play has just been performed. They move with some purpose, like stagehands after a performance.
Yoshi turns to Mikhail. “How did you all get in here? I only saw Billy and Julius climb out of the drain.”
The Russian boy smiles, snaps his finger and thumb away to his left. When Yoshi looks back at him, he’s holding a bunch of flowers in his other hand.
“Consider it a misdirection master class,” says Mikhail, and wheels around to face the twins. “Here’s a variation,” he adds, and swishes the bunch like a scimitar. It’s all too fast for Yoshi, but the resulting split is no surprise to him now.
“Nice move,” he says, as Mikhail presents a bunch to Blaize and then to Scarlett. “Maybe a little bit cheesy, though.”
As if to show their agreement, the twins admire their flowers. Their expressions don’t change, even when both bunches suddenly wilt, blacken and begin to smoke.
“Oops,” says Blaize, and grins at her sister.
“It’s the thought that counts,” says Scarlett, and drops the burning bunch on the floor.
“Now that is what I call a trick!” Mikhail’s voice is pitched a mile high. “You girls are cutting edge. Come on, put me in the picture.”
“Like you just said,” smiles Yoshi. “Now is not the time.”
The kid with his ear tuned to the Bridge cuts into their conversation now. He says, “Move it, people. I got a report of a limousine pulling into the Strand.”
“Aleister!” breathes Livia. “He really is on his way here.”
Julius climbs out of the empty water feature now, careful not to get his boots too muddy. The former swamp monster is close behind, muttering to himself about a trip to the Chinese laundry.
“Good to see you again, Yoshi,” the old man shakes the boy’s hand, looking genuinely pleased and relieved. “I’m delighted that you found what you were looking for, too,” he adds, winking at Livia and the twins. “Encountering one psychic child is one thing. Meeting several in the space of a few days is either a miracle or fate. I prefer to think it’s the latter, but let’s discuss this back at the bunker. Under the circumstances, I think it might be safest if you all join Yoshi as our guests.”