Gould looked as if he would object to that, but then fell silent again.
Score another point for the trained journalist, she thought.
“Right,” said Denny. “And all this tells me the Foundation – it's not what you claimed originally, is it? It's a hell of a lot bigger than some quaint old English charity looking into spooky happenings. I mean, maybe that's what it was, a long time ago when that Romola guy set it up. But now it's a front for something bigger.”
Gould nodded, looking uncomfortable.
“I mean,” Denny pressed on, leaning forward and jabbing a finger at the table between them, “there is no way you could do all this stuff without somebody in the British government turning a blind eye. Or maybe even helping? And if your government is aware of the Interlopers, at some level, I guess mine must be too, right? There's not much you guys don't share with the US. So if I go home tomorrow, I'll just get grabbed at the airport, end up at some secret base in Nevada, maybe?”
Gould glanced up at the camera that peered down at them from above the door. Denny looked up into the blank lens, gave a small wave.
“Hi Mister Benson!” she called in a mock-cheerful voice. “Can I have my paycheck now? With lots of overtime?”
Gould covered his mouth with a clenched fist, and gave a fake-sounding cough.
“Your first salary payment should be cleared by the end of the week, yes,” he said. “Do I take it you want to leave the foundation?”
Denny kept looking up at the camera.
“No,” she said, finally, turning back to Gould. “It's not like I can just walk into another job, not with such a weird, blood-stained resume. And before you ask, yeah, Frankie's in the same boat. So if Benson is agreeable, she'd like to join the team.”
“That's a good idea,” Gould said quickly, then he raised his voice a little and spoke in more measured tones. “Better to have someone with her knowledge inside the organization than outside as a … I think the term is ‘loose cannon’.”
Yeah, thought Denny, Benson wants to keep us close. Well, that could work both ways.
“Okay,” she said, pushing back her chair. “If there's nothing else, I've got an appointment with an old friend and a pizza.”
***
“We shouldn't be down here,” said Ben. “It's dangerous. Dad said so. And anyway, we're not supposed to leave the farm at all. Not without permission.”
Zoe looked up at him with her implacable, dark eyes. Ben had always found his sister a nuisance. But in the last couple of days, she had become something else. He tried to shy away from the thought, but it kept returning.
She's scary, now. Not just annoying.
“Don't be such a baby,” said Zoe, pulling at Ben's arm. The boy bridled at the insult, was about to retort that he was older by a whole fourteen months. He then looked into Zoe's dark, expressionless eyes and let her lead him on.
Maybe it's not the quarry, he thought. There's plenty of other places down this lane. There's birds' nests, and the badgers up in the copse, and the gun platform from the war.
But Zoe led her brother past all off the other attractions that fringed their farm, and kept going until they reached the fence with its faded signs reading DANGER and KEEP OUT. Zoe wriggled through a gap in the fence that was almost hidden by weeds, then stood waiting for Ben.
“I don't want to,” he protested feebly. “Someone might see.”
The thought of being caught by grown-ups, normally a worry, suddenly seemed a last vestige of hope.
“Don't you want to see yourself?” Zoe asked, tilting her head to one side. “Don't you want to see your twin?”
“I don't believe you!” he exclaimed. “I've got no twin! And if I did, why would he be living in a dirty old quarry that's full of water?”
“Scaredy cat,” said Zoe. “Scaredy, scaredy, scaredy cat.”
Then she turned and began to walk through the wild high grass. After a few moments, only the top of her head was visible. Ben heard a small, despairing noise come from his throat as he squeezed through the gap and started to go after her. It was easy to follow Zoe thanks to the straight pathway she made through grass.
She wasn't this brave before, he thought. It's like she's a different girl.
When he caught up with Zoe, she was kneeling on the edge of the flooded quarry, looking down into the gray water.
“What is it?” he demanded. “Your magic twin a mermaid, then?”
Zoe looked up, and again Ben felt a chill of genuine fear. The wind rustled through the grass, and he looked around, again hoping for an adult to shout, wave his arms, order them home. But they were alone. He looked back down at his sister.
“Look, this is daft. I'm going home and if you don't come with me, I'll tell on you.”
Zoe looked up, smiling now, then looked out over the water and pointed. Ben, annoyed and puzzled, could not make out what she was indicating. Then the surface of the murky water parted and something rose. It was red and white and had a face, or what was left of one. The face was that of Zoe, the eyes and mouth open.
“We didn't weight it down properly,” Zoe said, standing up and turning to face him. “We won't make that mistake with you.”
Ben gave a strangled cry of panic and staggered back. The grass rustled around him, and he froze. The rustling continued, and Ben noticed despite his panic that there was no wind. Zoe stepped forward, raising her hands. Her nails were no longer tiny pink ovals, but growing rapidly to become black talons. Her face, likewise, was changing, no longer the familiar pink oval of a little girl.
Ben spun around and started to stumble through the grass, His mind was spinning in fear-induced confusion, but all his instincts drove him toward home, the safety and sanity of his mother and father. They would save him. They had to. Behind him he heard a crashing as the creature sped along the narrow trail. He ran faster, reached the fence, scrambled through, every moment expecting to feel claws raking down his back.
Ahead of him, on the dirt road, was a figure, hard to make out as Ben was weeping in terror. He began to wave his arms above his head as he ran.
“Help!” he gasped. “Help me please!”
The figure did not move, and Ben hesitated, came to a halt. He realized, as his vision cleared, that the stranger was too small for an adult. Behind him he heard wire creak, glanced over his shoulder, and saw a creature in Zoe's clothes loping toward him. Ben spun around, mouth open to cry for help again, but froze. The words failed to form in his throat.
He was looking into his own face.
* * *
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Table of Contents
Prologue: England, Autumn 1914
Chapter 1: Mind Games
Chapter 2: Tricks of the Trade
Chapter 3: The Valley of Fear
Chapter 4: Creatures of Light and Darkness
Chapter 5: Dead Man's Diary
Chapter 6: Beauty, Beast
Chapter 7: Sex and Violence
Chapter 8: Creature of the Night
Chapter 9: Worse Things than Us
Chapter 10: Victims and Survivors
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