Death & Co.

by D. J. McCune

  ‘I won’t sacrifice everything I have worked for to right your mistake, Heinrich.’ Nathanial’s face was calm but Adam could see the tension in his father’s jaw. ‘I don’t know why you appointed Darian but what is done is done. In any case, you know he will do everything he can to block my appointment. I can’t do this, even for you, old friend.’

  ‘I could command you, you know.’ Heinrich said mildly. He sighed and his shoulders slumped. ‘But I will not do that. Not to you. All I ask is that you give it some thought.’

  Nathanial bowed his head but didn’t reply. The two men sat in silence for a few moments. Now that the initial shock was wearing off, Adam was getting bored and uncomfortable. His foot had gone numb and the fur collar on the ceremonial cloak was tickling his nose. He was desperate to move and sneeze but if the two men knew that he had overheard their conversation …

  Heinrich stood. ‘We should not keep the others waiting any longer.’

  Nathanial shook his head and answered automatically, ‘No of course not.’ His face was sad and he rested his hand on Heinrich’s shoulder for just a second. ‘I’m sorry, my friend.’

  Heinrich smiled. ‘Don’t be sorry. We of all people know there is nothing to fear. I will be ready soon – maybe even impatient.’ His voice became lower but as he turned towards Nathanial Adam could see the old man’s eyes were bright. ‘Don’t you wonder sometimes what it must be like? To step through? To see the other side? All these years we have relied on our books and learning but soon … Soon we will see the far side of the road.’ He grinned. ‘I for one am curious!’

  Nathanial’s eyes were a little too shiny. ‘Some day,’ he said softly. ‘Not just yet, I hope. Don’t leave us too soon, Heinrich.’

  Heinrich chuckled and opened the study door. ‘You’ll be the first to know.’ Nathanial smiled and clapped the older man on the back, following him out into the hall, leaving Adam alone with one numb leg and his thoughts in turmoil.

  He managed to count to ten, then couldn’t wait any longer. He sneezed explosively, hopped out of the cupboard and fell flat on his face, trying to rub the feeling back into his foot. Lying on the floor, blood rushing painfully into his toes, his head whirled with everything he had heard. He tried to imagine Nathanial on the Concilium but it all seemed unreal. It was like your dad being asked to be a king of the world! They would be Luman royalty. The idea of it made Adam squirm with embarrassment.

  As he slipped out into the hall he tried to come up with a plan. He needed to go upstairs, drink some brandy and try not to throw up. Then as soon as he could escape he would go up to bed and stay out of trouble. That would be the best thing. Just lie low and avoid attracting any attention to himself …

  ‘What are you doing down here?’ Adam leaped a foot in the air and glared at Chloe who had appeared from nowhere. She glanced at the closed door behind Adam. ‘Father isn’t in the study. He’s upstairs – where you should be.’

  ‘I’m going now,’ Adam snapped. His heart was still beating fiercely. ‘What are you doing down here? I thought they’d have you pouring drinks or something.’

  She held up a tray of glasses. ‘They all brought different liqueurs as a present. There’s a really disgusting German one Heinrich brought. Luc gave me a sip. Anyway, they ran out of glasses.’ She eyed Adam hopefully. ‘You could take them up if you wanted. It’s bloody hard walking up millions of stairs in a floor-length dress.’

  Adam might have taken pity on her but at that moment two enraged female voices began shouting from behind them. He turned round; the hall was empty. Obviously his mother and Auntie Jo were in the kitchen having one of their sporadic arguments. Most of the time they stuck to sniping at one another but occasionally they really let loose.

  Chloe rolled her eyes. ‘Actually, on second thoughts I’ll take them up myself. I’m not going back in there before I have to. They’re going to start throwing things in a minute.’

  Adam watched her stomp upstairs (no mean feat in high heels), intending to follow – but curiosity was getting the better of him. He was discovering a talent for eavesdropping. Maybe he could be a spy if the whole doctor thing didn’t work out …

  Feeling only a tiny bit guilty he slid towards the kitchen door. Elise was talking heatedly. Her accent always became stronger when she was angry. ‘You cannot insult a guest in this house! Especially not a Curator!’

  ‘Standards must be slipping if that serpent slithered his way onto the Concilium,’ Auntie Jo grumbled. ‘Anyway, I was rescuing you. He had you backed into a corner! He would have jumped on you like a dog on a bitch if he could have!’

  ‘Pah!’ Elise spat. ‘I do not need your help, Josephine! Darian’s family is well connected! There are unmarried sons!’

  Adam could almost hear Auntie Jo rolling her eyes. ‘You wouldn’t seriously marry your own daughter off to someone like him, would you?’

  Elise didn’t answer but Adam could hear pans being slammed into the huge stone sink. Suddenly, worse than that, he heard another sound – a sound he had only ever heard once before. It was the sound of his mother crying.

  Auntie Jo sighed. ‘There’s no point getting upset, Elise.’

  Elise gave a choking sob. ‘I know! But why did they have to make Darian a Curator? He hates Nathanial! There will be no rest! He will be watching for any blunder, however small. And Nathanial is so tired! Always so tired! If only we had more sons.’

  Auntie Jo made a comforting noise. ‘You’re a good wife to Nathanial.’ She gave a sudden snort of laughter. ‘God knows you drive me to distraction but he seems quite fond of you.’ She sighed. ‘You never know, maybe some day they’ll get their act together and finally allow women to be Lumen.’

  Elise made an outraged sound, somewhere between a squawk and a gulp. ‘I do not think things are as desperate as that yet!’

  Auntie Jo laughed. ‘You’re a true product of your upbringing, Elise. Never questioning, never challenging anything.’

  ‘Our upbringing, Josephine,’ Elise snapped. ‘Your family raised you well – all of you. Your views are not their views.’

  ‘Let’s not talk about my family.’ There was a dangerous edge to Auntie Jo’s voice, something taut that Adam had never heard before. Maybe she realised it herself. She cleared her throat. ‘Look, I think we’ve had enough arguments tonight, don’t you? I’m going to have some toast. Go nuts! Have a slice!’

  Elise sighed. ‘Not all the problems of the world can be solved by toast, Josephine.’

  ‘No,’ agreed Auntie Jo. ‘But toast is a great place to start!’

  Adam managed to gulp down a mouthful of brandy without spluttering and chatted for a few minutes with Rashid. He stood feeling edgy for another hour, listening to people talking, avoiding Darian at all costs. He also avoided Heinrich although he felt guilty doing it. Heinrich was a nice man but Adam wasn’t sure what the etiquette was when you had hidden in a cupboard and overheard a Luman cheerfully discussing his own demise.

  At last, he made an excuse and muttered his farewells. Up in the safety of his bedroom he tore his bow tie off and flung it in a corner, thankful that no one at school would ever know that this was how he had spent his Saturday night. His date with Melissa felt even more unreal after the evening he’d just had.

  He tried to sleep but his mind was packed with thoughts, wriggling around like live sardines in a can. He couldn’t stop thinking about what Heinrich had said to Nathanial – that Adam’s outburst reflected badly on Nathanial; made it seem like he was losing his grip on things. The intensity of his shame surprised Adam. Lying in bed a great, hot wave of guilt almost scalded him. He thought about his mother’s tears and her worries about his father.

  It was time for him to step up and be a better Luman. He was getting too old for whining and complaining. If he was sent on a call-out he would go and do what he had to do. But the other part of him – the part that wanted a normal life – was equally sure that he would keep saving people if he got the chance. He would h
ave to take a break for a while, wait for the dust to settle – but as soon as Darian’s suspicions had time to wane he would tune into his premonitions once again.

  Tucked up in bed, warm and cosy, his fear of the Concilium had shrunk to something manageable. He was only fifteen! They couldn’t go round murdering fifteen-year-olds! He would just have to be careful not to get caught …

  Extremely careful.

  Chapter 13

  Adam was almost excited on Monday morning as he hurried towards the biology lab. He didn’t expect any of his friends or family to understand why but the weekend at home had dragged by. Everyone was subdued after the Concilium’s departure – and Darian’s accusation. It had taken a major effort just to look Nathanial in the eye over breakfast on Sunday morning.

  Here in school all of that felt far away and unreal. Adam was just a normal boy in a blazer that was getting too short in the sleeves. He wasn’t a potential fugitive with a death warrant hanging over his head. He was just on his way to class to sit beside Melissa and chat and maybe see if she fancied another coffee some time …

  Except she wasn’t there. Adam’s good feelings slid down a notch as he sat alone at the bench. After today they only had one more lesson working together and it was the following day. What if she was absent again? He would never get to ask her out!

  The stool beside him felt very empty. Was she OK? Was her mum OK? He chewed his lip, wishing he had texted her over the weekend. At least that way she would have known he cared. He sighed and rested his chin in his palm. The problem with dating was that he hadn’t a clue what he was doing. In his world Nathanial and Elise would arrange everything for him so they hadn’t really taught him the basics. It was like trying to play a game without knowing any of the rules. With a blindfold on, in a foreign country, in the dark. Under water.

  He managed not to set the bench on fire again but was still glad when break time came round. Scuttling through the corridors, he kept his eyes peeled for Michael Bulber but so far so good. Once through the library doors he gave a sigh of relief. Mrs Nostel was bananas – but happily that meant she wasn’t scared of The Bulb or his son. If the Beast started causing trouble she would throw him out – which would at least give Adam time to think up a good story.

  There was no sign of Archie but the other two were already there. Dan was nibbling Brazil nuts and playing some kind of game on his phone. Spike glanced up from behind his laptop, not looking friendly. ‘You didn’t by any chance run into The Bulb on Friday afternoon, did you?’ When Adam nodded he cursed and glared at him. ‘Great. That’s why he’s been bragging to the sensei about having shown love to an enemy. Or, to be precise, to “a particularly odious specimen of a boy; a slimy, sneaking toad who makes my skin crawl, a weaselly worm who had tormented my own son”.’

  Dan grinned. ‘All that poetry has paid off. He put a lot of effort into that!’

  Adam blinked, not sure whether to be flattered or annoyed. Then he shrugged. ‘I thought you’d be happy it worked. You saved me.’

  Spike didn’t look very happy at all. ‘I wanted to make him sweat for a while. Now we’re going to have to give him something else to do.’

  Adam felt a sharp pain in his palms. When he looked down he was surprised to find his fists clenched, nails digging in. ‘Yeah, sorry about that. Next time I’ll just let the Beast tear my head off, shall I? You know, so you can play your little game a bit longer.’

  Dan groaned. ‘I told you the Beast would get you. You should forget about Melissa. Plenty more fish in the sea. And you know, Melissa is a nice fish. But there’s no point having all those fish floating about waiting if a … a great white comes and swallows you before you can get your hook into any of them. And then it eats the fish you wanted to eat anyway.’

  Adam struggled to follow Dan’s metaphors to their tortured conclusion. ‘Melissa’s not a fish. And the Beast isn’t a great white. He’s just a bully.’ Except he’s not, he admitted to himself. He’s more than that. He’s a psycho bully.

  ‘So did you go out with her?’ Dan demanded, once again timing his question to perfection.

  Adam kept his voice casual, trying not to antagonise Spike any more than he already had. Spike was fun to have as a friend but as an enemy he could pretty much hack into your life and turn it upside down … ‘Yeah, it was OK. She had to go home early. Don’t know if we’ll go out again.’ He turned to Spike. ‘You never know what a girl is thinking.’

  Spike made a noncommittal sound. ‘Who knows what girls think about. Mostly make-up and pop stars. My sister’s always bleating on about that guy with the blue hair. She has posters of him everywhere.’

  Dan grinned. ‘That’s the guy who dressed up as a girl in his video. He put on high heels and everything.’ He picked up his pencil case and warbled into it, ‘Oooh, you’ll never know what it’s like to walk in a woman’s shoes!’

  There was a stunned silence. ‘You have reached whole new depths,’ Spike muttered.

  Dan shrugged, totally unconcerned. ‘High heels must really hurt to walk in. Why do girls do it?’ He shook his head, mystified. ‘Their minds are different. You probably have to be a girl to understand how they think.’

  ‘We could get The Bulb to do that.’ The idea, like most brilliant ideas, was sudden and simple. Adam had a flash of wicked exhilaration. ‘You know, now that he’s helped an enemy and all. The final hurdle could be to walk in a woman’s shoes for a day. To really get inside the female mind!’

  ‘He’ll never do it,’ Dan said, torn between disbelief and longing. ‘I mean, he just wouldn’t … would he?’

  Adam grinned. ‘Depends how badly he wants what the sensei’s got. Secret, ninja-wrestling knowledge. I think The Bulb would do pretty much anything to learn that.’

  Spike stared at him for a long moment, then gave a grudging nod. ‘It’s not a bad idea,’ he admitted. ‘But I’m not sure it’s enough of a challenge. Maybe we should make him dress up as a woman.’

  Dan shook his head. ‘Even The Bulb has his limits. We don’t want to push him too far. I mean, we actually want him to pass the test, remember? So we can go to Japan?’

  Spike sighed. ‘Yeah, I know.’ He pulled some dried skin off his lip and inspected it. At last he nodded. ‘OK. Shoes it is then. I’ll fire off the email later. Seems a pity to finish it all so soon but I suppose we need to give him time to rearrange the trip.’

  There was a sudden panting sound behind them. They turned in unison to find Archie in a state of nervous collapse and extreme oxygen deprivation. He managed to spit out his words in staccato bursts. ‘The Beast. Coming here. Adam. Looking for you!’ He sank onto his knees, adding unnecessarily, ‘I ran. All the way. Here.’

  Spike snorted. ‘Great. What does that nutter want?’

  The blood had drained from Dan’s face and he was already reaching for his inhaler. ‘I told you not to go out with the fish! And now Jaws is coming!’

  Adam’s stomach clenched, though not with fear. After all, even Michael Bulber wouldn’t be mad enough to attack him in the school library. Mrs Nostel would fight him off with her dried weeds. No, what was really worrying Adam was what the Beast might say in front of his friends. He hadn’t spent the last three and a half years telling lies and keeping his life a secret only to have his cover blown now. He could just imagine his friends’ faces if the Beast started babbling about Adam vanishing into thin air …

  ‘You should probably go.’ Spike was staring at his laptop screen as though his life depended on it. There was just the faintest hint of a smile playing across his lips. ‘At least, if you want to take Melissa out again without crutches.’

  Adam weighed his options rapidly. He couldn’t let Bulber blab in front of his friends – but he couldn’t let Bulber corner him either. It was too risky escaping into the Hinterland in the middle of a corridor. Mad as it seemed, he could only see one solution. ‘Yeah, that’s OK. I’m going to go and find him.’

  Dan’s face turned the colour of yoghurt.
He took a quick hit from his inhaler. ‘Are you mad?! Are you completely insane?!’ He gaped at Adam, wheezing a little. ‘I mean, all right, you took his fish – but when the great white is coming for you, you should at least try to escape! You don’t just throw yourself straight into its jaws!’

  Archie was squinting at Dan as if he had never seen him before. ‘Fish? What fish? What are you talking about?’

  Adam rolled his eyes. As he walked away, he could have sworn that he heard Dan whimpering behind him.

  Typically, now that Adam actually wanted to see Bulb junior, his nemesis was nowhere to be found. Adam wandered the corridors without success. He had hoped to find the Beast somewhere fairly public but with a sinking heart he realised he was going to have to hunt further afield.

  He wandered through the playground, clutching his blazer to his chest. The sky was heavy with the threat of snow and the wind cut through his thin shirt. Adam paused and stared towards the back of the sports hall. He knew that the Beast and his cronies sometimes went there for a sneaky cigarette but it was a bit too private for Adam’s liking.

  Sure enough, as he approached he could smell smoke. He stayed in the playground but walked to the very edge of the wall, where he spotted the Beast surrounded by his minions. They hadn’t seen him yet, which gave Adam time to plan his strategy – which was basically not to let the Beast kill him. Deciding that fear would be fatal, he took a deep breath and tried to keep his voice steady. ‘Heard you were looking for me.’

  The whole group jumped including Michael Bulber. Then one of his friends, a slight, spotty boy nicknamed Weasel, gave a yelp of surprised laughter. ‘I don’t believe it! He came to you!’ He leered at Adam. ‘You really are thick, aren’t you?’