So Below: The Trilogy

by Matt Whyman

  He turns to consult with his crew, only to jump aside on finding Billy so close behind.

  “Yes, I know,” says the Executive Deck Hand with a sigh. “I smell of ponds. It’s hardly my fault, though.”

  “Never mind that now,” says Julius. “Did we bring the rope?”

  “Naturally.” Billy touches two fingers to his lips and whistles sharply. A boy Yoshi recognises from the bunker hurries across with a tough-looking climbing rope looped over his shoulder. Billy takes it from him, asks everyone to stand at a safe distance, and focuses on the skylight above.

  “What’s the plan?” asks Yoshi, mystified, as Billy positions himself directly underneath it.

  “I like to call it an escape strategy,” he replies, without looking down. “The best gamers know how to get out of a situation before things get really messy.” Billy pauses there, boggy water still dripping from his clothes, and considers what he’s just said. “Now is not the time for details,” he offers instead. “Give me some space to work here.”

  “Don’t we need a grappling hook or something?” Yoshi looks up. The roof is one flat surface but for a skylight crammed with stars. As he sees it, there’s no earthly means of anchoring the rope.

  “Hurry,” pleads the kid with the earpiece. “The limo is turning onto Threadneedle Street.”

  “Do it, Billy,” says Mikhail. “Remember the magic words.”

  With an acid-tinged look at the kid with the red-spiked hair, Billy uncoils a loop of rope. “The only words I need to utter right now,” he growls, “are ‘back’ and ‘off’!”

  Yoshi does as instructed this time, ready to watch him swing the rope. Instead, Billy simply pushes one end through his fist. Instead of flopping as he continues to push, the rope rises as if pulled up on a string.

  “That’s a trick,” declares Scarlett, like she’s seen right through it.

  “Of course it’s a trick!” scoffs Billy. “The Indian Rope Trick is a classic of its kind. Only this time we don’t plan to have one child climb to the top, but everyone who wants to leave. Now, please be quiet while I concentrate.”

  Yoshi turns to Julius, all out of amazement now. “What’s wrong with the drain?” he asks. “Why can’t we leave the way you arrived?”

  Julius crinkles his nose. “Close encounter with an alligator,” he says, like it’s some big secret, and promptly breaks away to encourage Billy in his bid to save them all.

  27

  WHAT GOES UP . . .

  All eyes are on the rope. Inch by inch it rises towards the skylight. Finally the tip pokes through the gap that Yoshi had created. Billy coils the last of the length at his feet, and steps back proudly.

  “Voilà!” he grins. “Who’s going first? Not me this time, I can assure you all of that.”

  “I’ll do it.” One of the smaller kids grips the rope, and tugs it just to be sure. Quietly satisfied, he proceeds to shin up without any fear that it might collapse. Even before he’s halfway up, Billy sends another crew member on their way.

  Yoshi watches them go. He half suspects there must be some kind of wire inside, but doesn’t care to find out now. What matters is that they’re leaving, and with little time to spare. Julius stands beside him now, urging each climber to move quickly. “So what’s going to happen once everyone is on the roof?” Yoshi asks, aware that he is the only free runner.

  Julius smiles. “We thought perhaps you could teach us parkour. The crew caught sight of you on the cams. Some of them knew all about free running, but none of them were aware that you could do it. Now, all of them want to try it out.”

  “Even you?” asks Yoshi, not meaning to sound rude.

  “Oh no.” The old man chuckles at the thought. “This is as high as I’ve dared to come in decades. I think it was worth going the distance to save you, but it’s time I headed back.”

  “You’re going into the drain again?” Yoshi tips his head, confused. “What about the alligator?”

  “The devil hasn’t got me yet,” says Julius, before turning to clamber back into the empty water feature. “Don’t hang around,” he warns the boy. “And bring as many special friends to the bunker as you can,” he adds, gesturing at the highest floors. “Even thinking about taking to those stairs makes me feel giddy. Besides. I’d only hold you back.”

  “Will you be OK?” asks Yoshi, feeling a sudden wave of affection for this old man after all he’s done for him. “Can you make it back on your own?”

  Julius lowers his legs into the giant plughole. He looks down into it for a moment, and comes back smiling. “How can I get lost in my own world?” he asks.

  “But what about the alligator?” Yoshi asks again.

  Julius touches a finger to his lips, bidding the boy to keep that kind of talk to himself. “If we all believed there really is one lurking in the sewers,” he says quietly, “every big-game hunter in the world would drop down to flush it out.”

  “But Julius—”

  “Don’t worry about me,” he assures the boy with a wink. “There are a great many more dangers on the surface of the city than beneath it. I’ll be just fine.” And with that, Julius Grimaldi pushes himself off the lip of the drain. His straggly, snow-white hair and the tails of his coat seem to hang in the air momentarily, and then whip out of sight like he’s just dropped into an abyss. With no time to check on him, Yoshi turns his attention to the balcony he’s left behind.

  “We have to get them out of here,” he tells the girls at his side. By now, just Billy, Mikhail, and the kid with the earpiece remain at the foot of the rope. A column of determined-looking street urchins continues to clamber towards the skylight, where those who have already made it reach down to help.

  Mikhail looks at Yoshi, sees him sizing up the stairs. At the same time, two fierce headlights sweep from one side of the lobby to the other, causing everyone to duck and turn around. Through the main glass doors, a white car can be seen pulling up in the forecourt.

  “There’s no time,” says the Russian boy, gripping the rope for the kid with the earpiece now. “Come on!”

  Yoshi faces the twins, ignoring his appeal. “That thing you do,” he says. “Can you use it as a distraction?”

  “You want fire?” asks Blaize, and sharpens one eyebrow. “Why didn’t you ask earlier?”

  With no time to stress the urgency of their situation, Yoshi turns to address the girl with the dark hair and dress. “Livia, I don’t remember where the central lock is. You have to help!”

  “Follow me,” she says. “It’s inside Aleister’s office.”

  She dashes for a hallway behind them, not even glancing at the guard still sprawled on his back at the foot of the stairs. He’s just coming round, and clearly seeing the wrong kind of stars. Yoshi hurries after her, ignoring Mikhail and Billy as they urge them to return, only for his thumping heart to sink on seeing his strange angel stop outside a door. She’s frowning at a row of glowing digits on a panel beside the handle.

  “It won’t open!” he cries, trying the handle several times. “Everything is on lockdown!”

  “It’s Aleister who sets the code.”

  “Do you know it?” asks Yoshi hurriedly.

  “I’m not a mind-reader,” she reminds him, the haze of light around her like a torch in this dark recess. “What’s frustrating is that there are several of them locked in their rooms up there.”

  “If they can pick up on my thoughts now,” he mutters, “they’d know we tried our best.”

  Yoshi scans the numbers, not knowing where to start. It’s a standard four-digit combination, but even he knows it could take a lot longer to crack than the minute or so they have left before the main man arrives. He toys with the nickel around his neck, counting out loud from one to four and back again. Livia enters both sequences in vain, and then punches the panel when nothing happens. She turns to Yoshi, despair in her eyes. Then her gaze falls to the dog tags around his neck. For he’s stopped fretting with them now. Instead, Yoshi is pinching one
of the plates so tightly he can feel the numbers imprinted on one side: 1, 1, 2 and 3. He glances at Livia’s own tag, finds she shares the same thing. Examining the other plate reveals her name followed by a 4. Yoshi narrows his eyes, making more connections.

  “There are others upstairs made to wear these tags,” she tells him. “Nobody knows what this sequence is all about. The staff won’t even say why we’ve each got another digit after our names. I’m worried my 4 shows the amount of years left before they let us go.” She glances at the 5 after his name. “I always hoped I was wrong about that.”

  “How many have these tags?” asks Yoshi, punching in the number before she can speak.

  “I can’t be sure,” she admits. “Six of us, maybe. Seven, counting you.”

  Yoshi stabs the enter button as she says this. The numbers turn from red to green, as does Livia’s aura.

  Yoshi stays on the threshold of this, the main office, keeping watch on both sides. The office is sparse. Just a big oak desk with a half-smoked cigar in an ashtray. A high-backed leather swivel chair is behind it, facing the wrong way. Yoshi can almost see the brute sitting there. Just a glimpse of his bald crown, before he spins around and scares the living daylights out of some poor kid caught up in all of this. The faint crunch of footsteps on gravel reminds him exactly where the very man is right now: outside the building, but on his way in.

  “Hurry,” he hisses into the office. “As fast as you can!”

  Livia heads directly for another panel of buttons on the far wall. She’s been here before, or at least scoped it out on a previous visit. Deftly, she selects two buttons. The first triggers an almighty clapping sound. The locks withdrawing, Yoshi hopes and prays. The second causes a click and then a hiss of static when Livia breathes into a microphone spot underneath it.

  “The doors are open,” she announces, and immediately her voice booms around the building. “All the guards have gone. You still have time before Aleister arrives, so run for the hills, my friends! Go home to your families and leave this place behind!”

  “What about Aleister?” Yoshi holds out for an answer, but already Livia has finished her broadcast and is dashing for the door.

  “The element of surprise is on our side right now,” she calls back to him. “Your magician mates just showed me that.”

  28

  LEAP OF FAITH

  It could be an avalanche, such is the noise that greets the pair as they sprint for the lobby. The first kids to thunder down the stairs reach the marble floor just before Yoshi. They fan out for the main doors, spilling around the weed-matted basin that was once a water feature, cheering and hooting wildly. High above, framing the skylight, he sees his crew hauling Billy and then Mikhail onto the roof. They’re yelling at the twins to climb the rope, but Blaize and Scarlett keep their eyes fixed on the lobby doors, true to the boy who is savouring every last detail of this moment.

  Yoshi spins around gleefully, sees Livia watching the scene unfold. Washes of bright colour shimmer and swoop around her, and then change quite dramatically. Her eyes clearly meet something coming through the doors, and those psychic fireworks freeze and turn ice-blue.

  “Oh dear,” says Yoshi, registering the change. “We’re too late, aren’t we?”

  She nods, not even blinking. The boy turns. He sees the last few kids run wide for the doors, then scramble to clear this looming figure who has just stepped inside. There he is, with moonshine behind him, the bald brute in the mink coat. This man he now knows as Aleister calmly removes one leather glove after the other. Yoshi meets those tight blue eyes, his own fear matched by fury and frustration at not making it out in time. Slowly, the whoops and cries from the escaping kids fade. Instead, a silence fills the space on the back of all the cold air coming in through the open door. Even the crew on the roof pull back from the skylight, as if they can’t bear to witness the fate of the boy and his friends.

  “Welcome home, Yoshi. All that time searching the streets, and I find you’ve returned to the fold voluntarily.”

  As soon as Aleister speaks, Yoshi recognises his voice. It doesn’t quite match his body, he remembers, thinking back to their last exchange as he cowered from the man under a buckled vent. There’s no boom or bass to carry it. Instead it seems to float and weave through the air. A strange-sounding hiss, almost, with a hint of the orient in his accent.

  “I’m not planning on staying,” replies Yoshi, squaring his shoulders now. “I only popped in to catch up with friends.”

  “And let them loose like this?” Aleister spits back suddenly. He glares across the lobby, only to his restore his calm just as abruptly. “Then again, I suppose among the scores of children you have just ejected, only a handful showed real promise.” He pauses there, acknowledging Livia and the twins with a nod. “In fact, it appears you’ve made a fine selection yourself. All four of you have proven your potential, after all. You should wear your tags with pride!” Yoshi sees Blaize and Scarlett pick at little plates around their necks. He doesn’t need to inspect them to feel sure that he and Livia share the same sequence of numbers as the twins.

  “What do you want with us?” asks Livia, stepping up beside Yoshi now. “Our families signed us over because we need help to understand ourselves. We need to know why we’re different, and how we can control our gifts. All you’ve done is drag us around churches and make us feel like we’re letting you down!”

  Aleister spreads his big hands. “With three more specimens like you, believe me, I’d be thrilled by your abilities.”

  “Seven,” breathes Yoshi, working things through in his mind. “Seven psychics, for seven ley lines in the ring.”

  The sound of slow clapping draws his attention back across the lobby.

  “Well done,” growls Aleister. “It seems your little field trip has taught you a great deal. It’s a shame you’ve set my project back by months, but I can always find more children who share your gift. Now, go to your rooms before I have to show you the kind of power that I hope one day you’ll demonstrate for me.”

  “No way,” spits Yoshi, and marches to the point on the floor directly under the skylight. “This show is over, Aleister. We’re out of here.” He reaches for the rope, ready to anchor it for Livia and the twins. Just as soon as he grips it, however, the whole thing collapses onto the floor. The boy looks in shock at the tangle, and then peers up sharply. A head pops over the edge of the skylight. It’s Billy, looking sheepish.

  “Didn’t anyone teach you the trick?” Billy calls down, and then snaps angrily over his shoulder: “Who was supposed to instruct Yoshi? It was on the memo that went round when he arrived . . . what? It was supposed to be me? Are you sure? Oh!”

  “Billy, just get us out of here!” cries Yoshi, aware that the brute has begun to advance across the floor. “Help us!”

  “There’s only one trick you can pull now!” Billy calls down, cupping his hands so the boy can hear him. “The vanishing act!”

  “Where are the mirrors?” yells Yoshi, as the twins step together to block the brute’s path.

  “You don’t need any!” shouts Billy. “You just need to run as fast as you can!”

  “Oh thanks!” Abandoning all hope of escaping via the roof, Yoshi wheels around, searching for an exit. Aleister is closing in now, ruling out any dash for the doors. He sees the twins step in front of his path and join hands tightly. A second later, the ground beneath the brute’s feet begins to smoulder. Aleister looks down, smiles to himself as if in approval, and continues to advance, unconcerned. With Livia at his side, Yoshi watches this fiery defence cooling rapidly. Briefly, he considers throwing the rope into the drain down which Julius dropped, but there’s just no time now. All he can do is grab Livia by the wrist, yell, “Follow me!” and scramble over the rocks into the silted swamp bed.

  “Where are we going?” She splashes after him, across the matted bed of weeds, and then digs in her heels when he stops at the black hole in the middle. “Are you crazy?”

&nb
sp; It had alarmed the boy to see Julius appear to freefall into this drain, but what choice does he have? “This way!” he calls to the twins, as they retreat over the rocks on the other side, and join them on the swamp floor.

  “What’s down there?” asks Scarlett.

  “We’re about to find out.” Yoshi glances at the brute now hauling himself over the rocks towards them. “All I know is our only chance now is to go underground.”

  “You’re the boss,” says Blaize, coming up behind the boy now as if she might protect him. “Just don’t you dare suggest ‘ladies first’,” she finishes, and without warning gives Yoshi a hefty shove. “If this is a leap of faith, we’re following you!”

  29

  WHERE DOES IT END?

  It’s a hole into hell! This is the first thing Yoshi thinks on plunging into the gloom. Being pushed in was the first surprise, just as it is to drop past the overflow gully that the crew must have crawled through to get here. Finding nothing underneath him now is the real shocker, and for a second or so the freefall is more like an out of body experience. He can see himself plunging into darkness, arms flailing to keep himself upright. Fleetingly, something brushes his backside. He feels it again, but this time it seems to scoop him forwards. The third time he connects with this steep, smooth surface, Yoshi whoops out loud. The chute they’re in might be inclined like a mountain slope, but it’s levelling out now and delivering him from danger at full tilt. He glances up behind him, spots three dots within a shrinking circle of light.

  “Enjoy the ride!” he yells, half laughing as the velocity pulls his stomach into shapes. “We’re safe now—”

  The splash takes his breath away. Yoshi cuts off his own sentence with a gasp, and then quickly finds his feet. In this gloom he can barely see his own hands. What he senses clearly enough is that he’s chest deep in something wet that doesn’t smell quite right. Behind him in the chute, the glow from Livia’s aura begins to brighten. As it casts a light on the watery surface, Yoshi figures all will become clear soon enough, only to find out, face first, when the girl herself torpedoes in behind him. It isn’t quite sewage, but then neither is it goat’s milk. This is the run-off from London’s gutters, with the exception of the odd sneaky addition, plumbed in on the sly like so much of the city’s waterworks.