‘I’m sorry, I don’t follow you?’
‘There are things that should be done that are not pursued. Because of the possibility of a stroke of the pen. There are, I suspect, other patients who might benefit from this equipment, from the precious electricity that’s being used to keep my daughter alive when perhaps she is really dead already.’
‘You mustn’t give up hope,’ the doctor said.
‘There are other lives that might be saved, if it were not for the possibility that this one might end. At the stroke of a pen.’ He let go of his daughter’s hand and stood up. ‘If it weren’t for the special authorisation from the White Tower, this would all have been turned off long ago, isn’t that right?’
‘Well…’
‘And perhaps the best and kindest thing for everyone, even for my daughter, is to let go. To move on. To accept reality.’ He looked straight at the doctor, fixing him with a determined gaze. ‘Tell me, give me a straight answer to a simple question: Will she ever wake up? Yes or no?’
The doctor held his gaze for a several seconds. Then he looked down at the woman sleeping so peacefully in the bed. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry. But no, she won’t.’
‘Thank you.’ The man stood up. He leaned across the bed and kissed the woman gently on the cheek. ‘Good bye,’ he whispered.
The only change in the woman was moisture on her cheek where his tears has fallen.
‘Turn it off,’ the woman’s father said. ‘Let her go in peace.’
The doctor nodded sadly. ‘If that’s what you want, Chief Inspector.’
But Jackson Albright had already gone.
*
The candles were burning low in the Toymaker’s workshop. Even the noise from The Last Drop had faded to silence. There was the faint lap of the water against the back wall of the building, the faraway cry of a confused seagull, the distant cough of a motor launch smuggling water and fuel… And the constant ticking of the Skeleton Clock on a shelf in a back corner of the workshop.
The knocking was loud and insistent. The Toymaker frowned.
‘You expecting anyone?’ Revelle asked.
‘Hardly.’
They all followed him through to the shop.
‘Good job you locked the door behind us,’ Cath said.
Jake held Sarah tight as her father unlocked the door. But the street outside was dark and empty. He was about to close the door again when something on the ground caught his eye.
‘What have we here?’ The Toymaker bent down to the small figure lying motionless outside the door. Like an abandoned baby left on a night time doorstep.
‘It’s a doll,’ Sarah said, pulling away from Jake and hurrying to look.
They all crowded round. It was a doll fashioned in the shape of a little girl with dark ringlets of hair and red cheeks. She was wearing a checked dress – light and dark, though the exact colour was difficult to tell in the gloom of the street.
As Sarah picked it up, the doll’s eyes opened. When they returned to the workshop, they could see in the candlelight that the dress was red and white, and the doll’s eyes were bright blue. Its face was fragile porcelain or china.
‘Someone must have left it to be repaired,’ Sarah said.
‘It looks all right to me,’ Revelle said.
‘It can wait until the morning, anyway,’ the Toymaker said. ‘I have one just like it on display in the shop, actually. A nice piece. The head is hollow, which makes it quite fragile. Yes, put it carefully with the other dolls waiting for me to look at them, would you, please, Sarah?’
The drawings that Sarah’s father had made of Jake’s White Knight were spread across the workbench. Revelle, Cath and the Toymaker talked earnestly and urgently through their plans and options. Exhausted, Jake and Sarah were soon asleep. Jake’s head was resting on his arm on the workbench. Sarah was leaning against him.
Her hair had fallen back from her face, and the scaly skin round the gills slitted into her cheeks caught the light as they slowly opened and closed. Her father leaned across and gently brushed her hair back over. She stirred and sighed in her sleep, but didn’t wake.
Sarah moved only slightly, but it was enough to disturb Jake. He yawned and opened his eyes, slowly waking and remembering where he was. He could feel the weight of Sarah’s head on his shoulder, and moved slowly, so as not to wake her too.
He could hear Cath and Revelle talking with Sarah’s father, a low mumble of conversation. The distant ticking of a clock, the wash of the tide, and a scraping, fumbling sound from the back of the workshop. He stared into the darkness, his head tilted at an angle so that everything was off kilter. It sounded like there was something moving about. Careful, furtive, feeling its way round. Maybe a cat…
But the Toymaker didn’t have a cat. Jake sat up abruptly. Sarah gave a cry as she was jolted suddenly, waking up and glaring at Jake.
‘What is it?’ the Toymaker asked at once, seeing Jake’s expression.
‘Can’t you hear it?’ Jake said.
There was silence. the noise was gone.
‘What was it?’ Sarah asked. ‘What did you think you heard?’
‘Must have been dreaming,’ Jake admitted. ‘I thought it was one of those Kraken things come back to get me.’
On the other side of the workbench, Revelle smiled reassuringly. Behind him, the back wall of the building exploded.
Bricks and mortar, planks and glass crashed across the workshop. A tentacle whipped towards the workbench. It curled in the air, flexing and stretching. Suckers breathed like mouths, tiny filaments like teeth bristling inside. It slapped down on the floor, shattering a half-finished dolls’ house.
Another tentacle was snaking along the side wall, knocking down shelves, sending toys and wood and tools flying. A cardboard box landed on the floor and split open to allow the contents to escape. A dozen glass eyes for dolls rolled out – green and brown and piercing bright blue.
‘The clock!’ Sarah’s father exclaimed. He leaped to his feet and ran – straight towards the thrashing tentacles.
Sarah grabbed for him, but she was too late. Revelle and Cath were shouting, but their cries were lost in the high-pitched screeches coming from the Kraken as it tore its way through the wall, forcing its huge, bulbous body into the workshop. A single massive eye stared balefully from the pale glutinous flesh of its body. The glass eyes rolling across the floor seemed to stare back at it, unblinking.
Jake leaped over a tentacle, ducked under another as he followed the Toymaker. The shelf in the back corner was collapsing as the Kraken pushed past. the pale angular shape of the Skeleton Clock was clearly visible in the flickering light. A candle rolled along the shelf, still burning. Till it fell, snuffed out, leaving a dark trail of smoke behind it and splashing into the water that surged across the wooden floor.
The clock was falling too – toppling forward as the shelf gave way. Jasper Hickson launched himself forwards and caught it as it dropped. He cradled it safely in his arms, his face etched with relief.
Until a huge tentacle knocked him savagely sideways. He collided with another tentacle coming the other way and collapsed, the breath knocked out of him. He clung desperately to the clock as he fell.
Jake reached the Toymaker before he hit the floor, catching him awkwardly, but helping the man regain his balance. Together they staggered back across the room, desperately dodging the flailing tentacles that flew at them.
Sarah was edging away towards the door to the shop. Revelle and Cath were cornered – a mass of tentacles snaking and sliding towards them.
Jake skidded to a halt, Sarah’s father running past him.
On the floor in front of him was a doll. It had been knocked from one of the shelves. It was lying on its back, blue eyes wide open. A little girl with dark ringlets of hair and red spots painted on her cheeks, wearing a checked red and white dress. The doll’s brittle, fragile face was cracked diagonally from the hairline to the jaw.
Jake picked it up
. The world round him seemed to have stopped. He could see the tentacles moving, his friends shouting. But all his attention was focused on the doll. On the grey powder that seeped out of the crack in her face and drifted like smoke…
Cath was screaming. A tentacle wrapped round her leg, dragging her down to the floor and across the bare wooden boards.
‘This is it,’ Jake realised. ‘This is what it’s after. The doll.’
A slimy tendril drew across his cheek. A tentacle curled round his waist.
Jake turned, ignoring the tentacles. He drew back his arm and hurled the doll as hard and as far as he could. The tiny figure hit the Kraken above the eye. the china head exploded in a cloud of dust. The screeches and shrieks reached a crescendo as tentacles whipped back.
Jake felt the pressure round his waist release. Cath was pulling herself to her feet – Revelle running to help. In the doorway to the shop, Sarah was hugging her father. The Skeleton Clock was standing intact on a shelf close by.
The Kraken drew back, its bulbous pale body glistened in the moonlight. Water splashed across the floor. Tentacles withdrew, disappearing after the rest of the creature into the water outside. Leaving behind a shattered wall at the back of the building.
‘It’s gone,’ Jake cried out in relief and triumph. ‘We did it, it’s going!’
The ticking of the clock was exaggerated by the sound of a hand clapping to the same rhythm.
It was Gabriel Mandrake. He stood in the doorway from the shop. Marianna Patterson was with him, a Defeater’s machine gun slung over her shoulder and pointing at Sarah and her father. Beside her, the golden head of Azuras glittered above its glistening, wet, scaly Phibian body.
Chapter 24
‘I had hoped that the Kraken would save us the trouble of having to kill you all,’ Miss Patterson said as she entered the wrecked room. ‘So much simpler for us if the popular Toymaker was the victim of a terrible accident – an unprovoked attack by the same creature that apparently wrecked one of the floating restaurants just a few nights ago.’
‘We can’t all achieve what we hope for,’ the Toymaker said. He gently pushed Sarah back into the ruined workshop, away from Miss Patterson and the others.
‘You can’t just shoot us,’ Revelle said. ‘It may be the middle of the night, but people will have heard. There will be witnesses.’
‘Or will you shoot them too?’ Cath asked.
Miss Patterson sniffed. ‘If I have to. But several Defeaters are clearing the area now. I’m disappointed in you, young lady. I thought you had such potential.’
‘Sorry,’ Cath said shortly. She was sitting on the wet floor rubbing her leg where the Kraken had grabbed her.
‘No matter. It’s Chief Inspector Albright who disappoints me the most, but I’m sure I can turn my disappointment to satisfaction.’ Miss Patterson turned to one of the Defeaters who had entered behind her, Mandrake and Azuras. ‘Please escort Officer Revelle and his colleague here to the White Tower. I’ll deal with them when I return.’
‘Something to look forward to,’ Revelle muttered as he helped Cath to her feet. Her face betrayed the pain as she put weight on her wounded leg.
Revelle helped her across the room. ‘I’ll see you soon,’ he called to Jake and the others over his shoulder as he left.
‘Unhappily, that will not be possible,’ Miss Patterson said when they had gone.
Jake wanted to go to Sarah. But he was afraid that if he moved, Miss Patterson or one of the Defeaters would shoot him. She might shoot them all. Except, of course, that she wanted the Knight.
‘Kill us, and I’ll never tell you where the last chess piece is hidden,’ Jake said.
Azuras stepped into the room. Jake could see now that he was wearing a long, dark cloak with a hood, like one of the Brotherhood of St Pauls. ‘Give me the White Knight,’ he said. Webbed fingers clutched greedily as he extended his hand.
Jake shook his head. ‘You’ll never get it. Not unless you let us go.’ He glanced at Sarah and her father on the other side of the workbench. The Toymaker smiled and gave the smallest nod. It was enough to bolster Jake’s confidence.
‘We’ll find the piece,’ Mandrake insisted. ‘We were prepared to search for it after you were all killed by the Kraken.’
Jake did his best to look surprised. ‘You think the Knight is here?’
Mandrake looked confused. ‘But surely, you brought it to the Toymaker. You showed it to his daughter. If you don’t actually keep it with you, then it’s here.’
‘Well, good luck finding it,’ the Toymaker said. He made a point of sitting down on one of the stools by the workbench. ‘You go ahead, don’t mind us.’ The wooden box that contained the Knight was on the table in front of him. With a display of apparent nonchalance and disinterest, the Toymaker straightened the papers and plans on the desk. As he did so, he turned them upside-down, hiding the detailed drawings of the chess piece.
‘We’ll just wait here, shall we?’ Sarah said with the same easy tone, distracting them further from what her father was doing – as he slipped the wooden box from under the papers and into his lap.
For the first time, Miss Patterson looked disconcerted. ‘You assured us it would be here,’ she hissed at Mandrake.
‘It is,’ he insisted. ‘It must be.’ But he didn’t sound as confident now.
Azuras was shaking with anger and frustration. ‘I must have it!’ he yelled suddenly. ‘This body is already dead, it’s starting to decay – to rot and stink. I must have the final chess piece to complete the puzzle.’
‘You will,’ Mandrake assured him. ‘You will, and we shall have your secret. The secret of Rahan the Wise. Soon.’
An armed Defeater appeared in the doorway. There were more of them in the shop beyond. He walked quickly over to Miss Patterson. ‘The street is clear, Ma’am. I’ve left a couple of men to keep it that way.’
She nodded. ‘Mandrake,’ she called.
‘Yes?’
‘Take a couple of Defeaters, and get the chess pieces and the table. We’ll do it here.’
‘Here?’
She glared at him. The gun twitched slightly in his direction. ‘Yes, here. I want these people to witness our triumph. I want them to understand what they have helped us to accomplish. Eternal life, and eternal salvation for our glorious City.’
‘If you’re sure.’ Mandrake waited just long enough to see he wasn’t going to get an answer, then turned and strode out of the workshop. Jake could hear him talking to the Defeaters in the shop.
‘You,’ Miss Patterson said to the Defeater who had just come in, ‘do you see that girl?’
The Defeater glanced at Sarah, sitting on the stool by the workbench. Her father put his arm round her shoulder. ‘Yes, Ma’am.’
‘If the boy hasn’t told me what I want to know by the time Mandrake returns with the chess table and the pieces,’ Miss Patterson said, ‘kill her.’
The Defeater glanced again at Sarah. He hesitated only a second before he said: ‘Yes, Ma’am.’
*
Any hope Revelle had that he might be able to overpower the two Defeaters escorting him and Cath was dashed when they reached the boat. There were two large motor launches moored at the end of the street. Standing beside them were another two armed Defeaters. Revelle could see a third in the cabin of the nearest boat. He swore quietly.
‘Not yet,’ Cath murmured. ‘We may get a chance later.’
‘No chance once they get us in the White Tower,’ Revelle whispered back. Cath was leaning heavily on him as he helped her along, but he sensed that her leg was nowhere near as bad as she was making out.
‘No talking,’ one of the Defeaters behind them ordered. ‘Get on board.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Revelle said sarcastically. It earned him a jab in the ribs from the Defeater’s gun.
As he helped Cath up on to the front boat, Revelle had a good view out across the water. the moon was bright, and he could clearly see the scum of filth on the top
of the water, the floating bits of plastic and wood, a rotting apple core…
‘She is completely bonkers, you know,’ he announced as he stood on the deck. ‘Your Miss Patterson – crazy.’
‘That’s enough,’ one of the Defeaters on the boat said sharply.
‘But, really. I mean, what’s with these Phibian creatures?’
‘You know about them?
‘We know everything,’ Cath said.
The two Defeaters who had escorted them from the shop had climbed aboard now. One of them cast off and the engine coughed into life.
‘She going to turn you lot into Phibians, then?’ Revelle asked pleasantly. He had to shout above the sound of the engine.
‘No chance,’ the Defeater shouted back. ‘She knows the Phibians are stupid. useless.’
‘You think?’ Revelle was looking over the side of the boat. He watched the water churning white below the motor. ‘They seem quite intelligent to me.’ He watched the ripples spreading out from the boat, catching the moonlight.
‘They only live for a few months. They’re a failure. She’s always said so.’
‘That a fact?’ Revelle watched the dark shapes swimming silently, elegantly alongside the boat. Their scaly bodies shimmered in the moonlight.
The Defeater laughed. ‘Know what? When this is over, after tonight, she’ll have got this secret and she’ll create new creatures that will live forever. Then she says we can use the Phibians for target practice.’ The Defeater raised his gun and mimed shooting first Cath then Revelle. ‘Bang bang. And they’re not the only ones. Got that?’
Revelle nodded. He nudged Cath, hoping she would look over the side, follow his own eyes as he watched the Phibian swimming beside the boat look up at him with its large, pale eyes. For a moment he felt a connection, and he knew the creature had heard the conversation.
‘Yeah,’ Revelle said, looking back at the Defeater. ‘We got that, thanks.’
*
A warm breeze was blowing in off the water. It ruffled Jake’s dark hair as he sat with Sarah and her father close to the hole torn in the back wall of the Toymaker’s workshop. Two Defeaters stood close by, covering the group with their machine guns. The moonlight glinted on the water outside.
The Skeleton Clock Page 22