by Matt Whyman
“Jenks don’t like this,” he grunts, sniffing now in the direction of the mummy casing. “It might be the Jenks Catcher.”
Yoshi frowns quizzically. He recalls how many of the troglodytes were known by the same name, presumably handed down from one of the butchers who first found refuge from the fire, but this was news to him. “What Jenks Catcher?” he asks.
“Growing up in the lair,” the wretch replies, “we are always warned never to venture past the back of beyond.”
Yoshi frowns. “What is that?”
“A great wall,” Jenks replies. “One constructed by our forefathers to keep the tribe safe from harm. Only the dead pass through there,” he continues. “Nobody would be so foolish to cross the back of beyond and expect to come back alive.”
“Because of the Jenks Catcher?” Yoshi sounds unconvinced. He glances at the mummy casing. It’s clearly empty as a husk, but that doesn’t mean the contents are prowling around somewhere up stream, scaring the troglodytes. In a museum, the casing could be just as important as anything that might once have filled it. “Jenks,” he says finally. “You worry too much. It sounds like you’ve been spun a tall story to keep your kind from venturing far from home. We’re told fairy tales like that on the surface, and for the very same reason.”
“Don’t lose your nerve, comrade!” Mikhail claps the creature on the shoulder. “You’re in safe hands. If anyone knows how to vanish in a puff of smoke when the going gets tough, it’s us.”
Yoshi steers his attention towards the black tunnel behind them. “We should get going. The longer we’re missing from the bunker, the more suspicious Julius will become.”
“Very well,” replies Mae Lin, as everyone waits for her to lead the way. “But you guys should know that I’ve never been further than this before.”
Yoshi swaps a glance with Jenks. “Well, it can only take us to one place. We can’t get lost.”
“It’s what we might find when we get there that worries me,” Livia points out, but sets off with Mae Lin all the same. “Those troglodytes didn’t take kindly to your appearance in their lair the last time. How are they going to react when a whole bunch of us show up?”
“Things have changed,” says Yoshi, thinking not just of the elder’s demise as he says this, but also his view of the brute who claimed to have finished him off.
Billy glides alongside Yoshi now. Together, they follow the party into the dry river tunnel. “Here’s hoping it’s a change for the better,” he says. “Let’s face it, the last time they came after us, things couldn’t have seemed much worse!”
“Trust me,” says Yoshi, as his torch beams cut through the darkness. He places his hands in the pockets of his mink, and is reminded that it doesn’t belong to him when something cold and scaly nuzzles against his wrist. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I thought we were being tricked.”
Jenks falls in behind everyone else, providing a lantern-like glow at the back just as Livia does at the front. It doesn’t last long, however. No more than a matter of minutes, perhaps. Livia is the first to come to a sudden halt. With no word or warning, she stoops to pick up something from the riverbed, upon which her aura pales visibly.
“Guys, I think perhaps we should be just a little concerned.”
“What is it?” asks Yoshi, stepping into her light to see for himself.
Livia hands him the strip of bandage she’s just found, and awaits his response. The boy swallows, and then clears his throat. He looks around at the others, as if perhaps someone else can give a better explanation for its presence here than the one they’re all clearly thinking. “Oh, come on!” he says finally. “You don’t really believe there’s some kind of ancient mummy loose in the tunnel, do you? It’s an urban myth. No matter what story Jenks here has been sold, it can’t be true.”
“You’re right,” says Billy, whose cheeks are drained of colour. “An urban myth, just like the one about the crocodile in the sewers.”
“And the lost tribe of troglodytes,” adds Livia pointedly. “Who would believe such a community could have existed for generations under the streets of London, huh?”
Yoshi consults his thoughts for a moment. “No way,” he says finally. “I admit the crocodile and the troglodytes turned out to be real, but not this.”
“Fair enough.” Livia shrugs, and then steps aside. “Then perhaps you’d like to go first.”
21
One of our mummies is missing
You might be taken aback by the kind of things to be found on a dry riverbed. All sorts of surprises can appear when the water disappears, and not just discarded shopping trolleys. Everything from fossils onwards can emerge when the water level shrinks, as Yoshi and his friends have just discovered for themselves.
Once upon a time, the Walbrook flowed at ground level, as did eleven other London rivers. Throughout history, architects would order them to be redirected, or even piped underground, to make way for their grand designs. And so while the scrapers reached for the sky, these vital arteries became smothered, strangled, buried and forgotten. Against all the odds, some still run freely. The Neckinger, Counter’s Creek, The Falcon and The Fleet continue to flow deep beneath the city streets. A few have found their own course through the clay, while most gurgle through pipes of every size and material. As Yoshi knows, having waded through half its length, The Walbrook ends prematurely where a section of the tunnel has collapsed. The water now spills into a chasm, but the tunnel still exists beyond it, where the lost tribe resides. That’s why a small party of street magicians and psychics are heading towards their goal from the opposite end, and making new discoveries with every step they take.
“For the last time,” insists Yoshi, as he reluctantly leads the way. “There is no mummy at large down here.”
“If you say so,” replies Mikhail from behind. “But if Julius was here, he’d tell you there have been stories of several sightings. He’s told me the tale himself. According to him, it’s said to haunt the vaults of the British Museum in protest for being unearthed from the Valley of the Kings and then put into storage once the exhibition closed.”
Yoshi halts at this. His shoulders sag as he turns to face the young Russian. “When it comes to life underground, Julius has a story about everything!”
“Too right,” Mae Lin chimes in. “Even I’ve heard that tale from him. According to Julius, passengers on tube trains that pass through the museum’s ghost station have spotted a mummy on the platform. It’s never been proven, of course, but some say it’s the spirit of an Egyptian king. I suppose if I had been laid to rest in the heart of a grand pyramid, I’d be less than happy about finding myself dumped and forgotten down here. I’d be hopping mad, in fact!”
Yoshi raises his hand at this, bidding for their silence. “I’m sorry,” he says, “before we start scaring ourselves down here in the dark, can we just accept that the story has probably been dreamed up by Julius himself. He really needs to get out more, I think.”
“Dream on!” chuckles Billy. “Julius hasn’t been above ground in decades! This is his world now, and he knows it better than anyone! If Julius says there’s some truth behind the story, we should at least watch our step.”
Yoshi draws breath to protest, but decides against it. “Very well,” he sighs, “but perhaps we can stay focused on the task ahead. We’re here to bring Jenks home, after all.”
With that, he swings his twin beams into the dark path ahead. The riverbed stretches into the gloom. It’s littered with rock, worn smooth by the water that once flowed through this tunnel.
“See,” he says. “There are no mummies hiding out here.”
“No, but look at that!” Mikhail springs forward, with both torchbeams locked onto what looks like a tangle of metal. He wrestles the object into his possession, and turns triumphantly.
“Now that’s what I call a bicycle,” the young Russian says in admiration and hauls it upright. The big wheel matches him in height, but the little one at the other
end of the frame is buckled beyond use. “What a shame,” he says, “this would’ve been a cool way to make an entrance!”
“It’s called a penny farthing,” says Livia. “Something like that must be well over one hundred years old!”
As she steps across to inspect it further, her aura picks out yet more archaeological curiosities: pre-war coins, fragments of pottery, and enough timber strewn around to reconstruct a galleon ship.
“This is like walking through history,” agrees Blaize, who has spotted an object of interest herself.
Her sister sees it at the same time, and steps across the riverbed to investigate. It takes some effort for them both to stand the fossilised tusk up for everyone to see. “Could this be from a woolly mammoth?” asks Scarlett.
“Looks that way,” agrees Billy, who heads deeper into the tunnel now, clearly anxious to seek out some treasure of his own. “Oh!”
The Executive Deck Hand has travelled on his rollerblades to where the river bends away, then stopped dead.
“What is it?” Yoshi rushes to catch up, and finds him standing over yet another shred of bandage. Billy stoops to examine it further.
“I don’t like this,” he says, as the others gather behind him. “Shall we consider this trip sunk and head for home?”
A sharp glow falls over him next, and then a hand drops down to pluck the strip from his grasp.
“You can turn around if you like,” says Livia, “but I won’t be joining you.” She glances at Yoshi and shoots him a wink.
The boy looks to the others. “If anyone does want to go back to the bunker,” he says, “maybe now is the time. I admit I’m feeling rattled, but I have to see this through.”
As he speaks, Jenks lopes around to his side. He’s peeled off his glasses, revealing milky, sightless orbs, but in the torchlight they still twinkle. “Jenks is most grateful to you all,” he grunts. “There is not far to go now. I sense it.”
“Really?” Scarlett turns to her sister, who is equally surprised to hear this.
“How can you tell?” asks Blaize, who returns the tusk to the riverbed.
The wretch clambers onto a boulder and tips his chin high. He then flares his nostrils wide. “Jenks can smell it!”
Billy sniffs the air.
“Anything?” asks Mikhail.
“Something unpleasant,” says Billy, and screws his nose up. “Is it a pig sty?” he asks, and then answers his own question with a startled gasp.
“You’re right,” says Yoshi. “Jenks’ people breed pigs, after all.” He reaches up to sharpen the focus of his twin beams. “Are you with us, then, Billy, or are you out?”
Billy scans the riverbed ahead. Immediately, his torch beam picks out yet another strip of bandage. It’s draped like a towel from a jag in the tunnel wall. This time, it makes him shake his head and grin. “I’m in,” he tells them all. “It seems we’ve come so far there’s no going back now.”
“Good man!” Mikhail claps him on the back. “If anyone in the bunker calls you a big soft pussycat again, they’ll have to answer to me.”
Billy’s lips pucker as if pulled by drawstrings. “Who’s been saying I’m a big soft pussycat?”
“Nobody!” Mikhail counters quickly. “It’s just a figure of speech!”
Eyeing him suspiciously now, Billy volunteers to lead the way. “Someone has to go first,” he grumbles, moving off in the direction of the bandage he’s just spotted. “But from here on in, I’m not stopping for anything.”
“Go for it,” says Livia, who falls in behind him to pick up the next strip. “Show us what a brave buccaneer you can be!”
22
In case of emergency, make magic
Every kid who has ever spent time in the bunker below Chinatown shares a common bond. They might grow up to surface as adults and take different paths in life, but all arrive with one thing on their mind: a desperate need to find a place of safety.
Yoshi might have dropped in to escape from The Foundation, to be joined soon after by Livia and the twins, while Mikhail simply came in from the cold one day and never went out again. The young Russian hadn’t made a big deal about his background, claiming only that life in Siberia was just too cut off from the real world. Billy No-Beard had also been reluctant to give much away about his past. Some of the crew guessed he had suffered at the hands of bullies for daring to be different. This was down to the way he came alive within the bunker, finding rollerblades for his feet and dressing in flamboyant costume. It was, quite literally, a world away from the one above, with rules about respect, and the understanding that everyone unites when the going gets tough.
“What was that?” Billy No-Beard swivels around on his rollerblades, and applies the toe brake. He shields his gaze on finding himself facing so many torch beams. “Did anyone else hear a noise ahead?” he asks, keeping his voice low. “It sounded like foraging.”
Yoshi touches his finger to his lips. “It could be,” he says. “That animal smell is getting stronger.”
Beside him, enshrouded by her luminous aura, Livia has folded every length of bandage they have picked up on the way. They ceased counting at the same time that Livia refused to explain why she wanted to keep them, and that had been a long way back.
“Why don’t you go and investigate,” she suggests to Billy. “You did promise you would stop at nothing.”
“Good idea,” says Mikhail. “Consider yourself the advance guard.”
Billy touches his fingers to his chest in surprise. “But I was just about to let someone else take a turn at going first!” he protests, his voice jacking up a notch. “It isn’t fair on you lot if I get to lead the whole journey.” He rounds on the young Russian now. “Tell you what. Why don’t you volunteer for the job?”
Mikhail collects Jenks in his arms. “I’m the bodyguard,” he says flatly. “Jenks needs me.”
“How about you guys?” Billy addresses the twins now, sounding increasingly desperate. “You could take each other for security.”
“That’s enough!” Mae Lin steps forward, her twin beams glaring brightly. “So young and yet so spineless,” she mutters. “I’ll do it.”
“No, wait!” This is Yoshi, but nothing is going to stop Mae Lin now. She marches between them, catching nobody’s eye and makes her way into the darkness. “You can’t go alone!”
“Watch me,” she calls back, leaving Billy and Mikhail to glare at one another.
“I’ll go if you go,” the young Russian offers first.
Billy’s scowl breaks into a smile. “I was going to say that first, but you got in before me.”
“I’m coming too,” says Yoshi. “We can’t let an old lady like Mae Lin wander into the unknown.”
“She’s certainly on a mission.” Livia hefts the weight of bandages from one arm to another. “It seems to me the closer we get, the more determined she becomes.”
Yoshi watches Mae Lin clamber over a ridge of bricks where part of the tunnel roof has fallen in. She’s wearing stockings under a long dress, and very sensible shoes indeed. “I can’t work out what makes her tick,” Yoshi agrees. “But we wouldn’t have got this far without her help, so let’s not abandon her now. Come on. Follow me!”
They find Mae Lin waiting for them on the far side of the bricks. She’s dimmed her lights, and motions for them to be silent. Yoshi follows her line of sight as she turns to face forwards once more, and sees movement in the darkness. He crouches instinctively, keeping low with everyone else
“What is it?” he asks under his breath, aware now that something is padding around in the river bed up there.
“Animals,” she says matter of factly. “Don’t let them hear us.”
“The pigs!” Billy strains for a better look. “I don’t think it’ll matter if they pick up on our presence, Mae Lin. “
“Not pigs,” she says to correct him. “Not what you think at all, in fact.”
This time, Livia rises up for a clearer look. Accordingly, her aura pu
shes back the gloom, to reveal what’s causing all the noise. It isn’t swine, as she had forewarned, but scavengers of a kind that leaves the party dumbstruck.
“Are those jackals?” asks Yoshi, noting their pointed ears and hunched shoulders. There are five in total, and they’re pulling at something unrecognisable from this distance.
“What are jackals doing down here?” asks Livia, and then answers her own question. “Oh yeah. The breakout at the zoo. What kind of dumb vandal would purposely unlock their cages?”
“We didn’t do it on purpose!” blurts Mikhail, upon which he finds himself under the spotlight of several torch beams. “Yoshi was going to teach me how to be a jump runner. We surfaced inside the zoo by accident and . . . well, things went beyond our control, OK?”
For a moment, nobody speaks. Finally, Billy breaks the silence by tutting loudly. “Under the circumstances,” he tells Mikhail, “I reckon it’s down to you to work out how we’re going to get past them.”
The young Russian watches the jackals tugging their prize in opposite directions. A moment later it tears in two, which is when the party see what it is for themselves.
“Gross!” winces Blaize.
“So that’s how the mummy went missing from its casket.” Scarlett looks away. “They’ve dragged it all the way here!”
“It’s just a bunch of bandages,” observes Mae Lin. “Wrap a body up for a thousand years or more, don’t be surprised when you end up with dust.”
Yoshi smiles to himself. “At last, an urban myth that really did turn out to be just that. At least we don’t have to worry about the Jenks Catcher any more!”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better about trying to pass a bunch of jackals,” says Mikhail. “Aren’t they dangerous?”
“Only if you show weakness,” says Billy, knowledgeably. “Jackals are like vultures. They pray on the injured and the vulnerable.”