The Race

by Ian Berry

  The ceiling didn’t put up much resistance, I barely had to use any super strength at all. I quickly had a pile of wet stuff on the floor and a hole I could get through.

  “Can you turn on the taps to let the water run out?”

  This was done and very shortly the water stopped there as well. I needed to get rid of Rob again.

  “Sorry, Rob, can you find me an adjustable spanner that goes up to about twenty five millimetres? In the workshop somewhere perhaps?”

  Rob left on this manufactured errand. That left me free to re-solder the joint with heat vision. By the time Rob came back, I was happy with my repair. I accepted the spanner when he held it up. Then a pantomime. I banged the pipes a bit, said ‘owe’ a couple of times and muttered a swearword - for the look of the thing you understand. The people below couldn’t see what I was doing.

  “Right. That should do it. Turn off the taps in here and go turn the water back on.”

  Saskia rushed off to see to the stop tap while Rob and I dealt with the taps in the loo. It was obvious when the water came back on - there was a whooshing noise. What was also obvious was the lack of water pouring out of the ceiling.

  I dusted my hands together. “There you are, guv. That’s fixed it.”

  “What about the mess, Dad?”

  “Don’t worry about it. We’ll sort it out tomorrow.” He turned to me, “You are due a big hug later tonight. You’ve saved one hell of a mess.”

  “My pleasure, Rob,” I said gently. “Least I could do, really.”

  “Right. We’re all going home to get cleaned up. Tea out tonight, my treat.”

  “Sure, Dad? Don’t have to.”

  “As Saskia has just said, least I could do. Go home and get ready the pair of you.”

  I could see Saskia grinning as she got into the mini. “What’s the joke, Twin?”

  “Not a joke. Sad really. Dad didn’t know what to do. Saskia and Saskia, the two-girl emergency service to the rescue.”

  “Made him happy though.”

  “There is that.”

  Six

  Monday. To get into the main building of the plant pretty much means you have to go through Reception, unless you sneak in through the warehouse or whatever. This means you pass Petra, the Receptionist.

  “Hi Saskias. What have you done to Melanie? She’s like the cat whose eaten the canary this morning. Has to be you two. Stuff like that always is.”

  “Just let her help us yesterday. I expect the thought of adding that to her CV has done the trick.” grinned Saskia.

  “It’s nice to know people are happy,” I said. “We’ll try to make sure it lasts all day.”

  Melanie did have a grin on her face. “Hello you two. I had a brilliant time yesterday. Dad was actually jealous of me. I know you didn’t need to let me ride in the helicopter so I need to say thank you.”

  “Not required, Melanie,” I said. “But gratefully received non the less.”

  Melanie was busy on the brochure for Jeff, we helped where we could - at least until mid-morning. Saskia’s phone rang, just her normal mobile, no name, just a number.

  “I think that’s the local nick, in fact I’m sure it is.”

  “One way to find out, answer it.”

  She did this. “Hello. This is Saskia Hunt.

  “Saskia, this is Harold on the desk at the nick. I’m sorry, I don’t really want you but you are our only point of contact for those flying friends of yours. We have a bit of an emergency.”

  “Under the circumstances I forgive you for saying you don’t want to speak to me. Can you give me an idea, or is it secret?”

  “There’s been a train crash. Normally not a problem, if you see what I mean, but it’s happened in the middle of the Totley Tunnel near Sheffield. We’re having difficulty getting to the people and wondered ...”

  “No more, Harold. Let me see if I can raise Kyra and Katya. Either I’ll talk to you or one of them will.”

  “Come on, Twin,” I said. That’s one of the longest tunnels in the country. They have a big problem.”

  We made sure Melanie knew we were ‘out’ for the rest of the day, then made our way quickly to our secluded corner. Before we took off, I made the MI5 phone appear and rang Harold.

  “Harold? This is Kyra. Tell the boys we’re on our way.”

  “Thanks, Kyra. Appreciate it.”

  We took off straight up, changing to be Kyra and Katya as we lifted into the air, curving over towards Sheffield away over on the horizon. It didn’t take long to spot the Sheffield end of the tunnel. There were lots of people round the entrance but so far no rescue vehicles.

  “We heard you had a spot of bother over here. Can we help? Whatever you need us to do.”

  “There are two trains in the tunnel. As far as we know it wasn’t a head-on. We’ve not managed to get any rescue vehicles in here yet, they have to come by rail. Some paramedics and firemen have walked in but it’s a mile and a half or more.”

  Another man spread even more gloom. “We’re worried about the air quality in the tunnel. There should be a wind blowing into the tunnel here and then up out of the cave.”

  “You mean the Cathedral?” I asked.

  “Yes. We wondered if the entrance has been blocked somehow.”

  “Quite possible. We’ll go in and see what’s going on.”

  Saskia followed me as I flew into the tunnel. It was pitch black but I could still see thanks to my super vision. A mile and a half in, we came on a scene of devastation. There were carriages everywhere, wedged into the tunnel really quite tightly. Most people seemed unhurt but almost asleep.

  “The air must be really bad,” said Saskia. “How can we revive them all?”

  “Look for a gap in the tunnel wall, a sort of vertical slit. That leads to the cave, that’s where the main ventilation shaft is.”

  We looked about us with super vision. “Is that it?” asked Saskia. “There, behind that carriage.”

  “Mm. Must be. Look further through the rock, there’s a big open space behind the wall. That’s the Cathedral. Looks like the gap’s blocked. We can do something about that.”

  We couldn’t get to the original gap - that was behind a carriage - we’d have had to take too much time shifting hardware. I spotted a thin area of the rock wall and proceeded to make another opening by drilling into the rock with my bare hands. I quickly made a hole about the size of an average man. I could feel a draught begin to blow into the hole I’d made. Not nearly strongly enough. Plan B seemed to be required.

  “Saskia. Come through the hole into the cave.” She did this. She had the presence of mind not to look about her in awe and go ‘wow’ or similar, there was no time for that.

  “Take a deep breath of the air in the tunnel then blow it out up the cave. There’s a ventilation hole at the top. We can blow the bad air out and good air will come in down the tunnel. That’s how it’s supposed to work. We just need to help it a bit.”

  We did the sucking and blowing for a while until we heard people begin to revive outside in the tunnel. Now for the actual rescue.

  “Let’s put the last coach in the line back on its wheels, fill it with people and push it out. We can cram ‘em in like sardines for the short time they’ll be in there.”

  The firemen and paramedics were dealing with what few injuries there seemed to be so Saskia and I set about righting one coach. Then we had a problem. We could see - but nobody else could. Unless they had a torch it was pitch black!

  Ok then - Plan C. I shouted for attention. “Because you can’t see, Katya and I will collect you one by one and load you into a coach. Please try not to panic, we’re only going to carry you. When we have a coach full, we’ll wheel you out.”

  Saskia and I began a shuttle service. One person each from
where they were to the upright coach. There was no panic and people mostly did what they were told. Maybe the effect the Saskia Magic was having on them, we’d never know for sure. All went according to plan until one of the firemen called out.

  “Kyra? Katya? Can you help? There’s a child trapped under this coach. Don’t think he’s badly hurt but we can’t get to him.”

  We joined the man who’d shouted. A glance with super vision showed there was indeed a young boy under the coach.

  “If I lift,” said Saskia, “can you get him out?”

  “I’m not sure we dare. It looks a bit ricketty to me.”

  “I can do it,” I said. “Lift gently Katya.”

  I didn’t have to wriggle under the carriage, I basically flew under just a fraction off the ground, slowly and gently. As Saskia lifted, I eased the small child out from under the twisted metal, reversing my flight under to emerge into the clear air again. With the boy given into the care of the paramedics. Saskia and I returned to our shuttle service for the rest of the passengers.

  When the first coach was full, Saskia volunteered to push it out while I did what else I could to help. It was a mile and half to the tunnel mouth, I didn’t expect her back for several minutes. I had a bit of luck when the next coach in line went back onto its wheels as easily as the first one. I began the shuttle service again to fill the second coach. With that one full as well, I began to push them to safety.

  It took three or four minutes to reach daylight. Long before that Saskia had passed us on her way back in. She called greetings as she zipped past but didn’t stop. In the open air, I discovered that Saskia had shoved her carriage well down the line to allow space for more to emerge, like the one I was currently pushing. Once it was up against the first one I turned and dived back into the tunnel.

  We did the trick with the coaches a total of four times. On the fourth and last coach the firemen and medics came with us with the injured people they’d been tending by torchlight up until then.

  Some of the men in charge joined us. “It’s a bit of a mess in there,” I said. Do you want us to clear it up for you? You’ll have a bit of a job otherwise.”

  “Can you do that? Will you do that? That’d be really marvellous. Doesn’t matter where you put the wreckage, we can clear it all away later.”

  Saskia and I dived back into the tunnel. Bit by bit, we moved the wrecked rolling stock out of the tunnel. There was one point where it all moved and I was buried under a load of scrap metal, but I’m a super girl. It was like pushing your way out of a paper bag. Easy-peasy.

  Eventually we’d cleared all the big stuff out of the way. Saskia had questions she’d been saving up. She asked them while we were still in the middle of the tunnel.

  “Ok, Twin. How d’you know so much about this tunnel? About the cave - what did you call it? The Cathedral?”

  “They found the cave when they were digging the tunnel in about 1890 or thereabouts. It was made part of the ventilation system. If you want to know more stuff, up ‘til the High Speed Rail Link was built under London, this was the longest tunnel in the UK. It’s now been demoted to the longest non-electrified tunnel in the UK.”

  “But how do you know all this stuff?”

  I sighed. “Dear Saskia. Before I met you my social life was zero. I spent my time while not at work reading and watching TV. Even before I was changed to be Saskia, my memory was pretty good. I have a lot of useless information sloshing around in the back of my mind.”

  She put her arms round me. “No need for all that now. No need for zero social life. You are not alone, I am here with you, now and always.”

  I hugged her back. “You have no idea what that means to me. You’ve given me back my life.”

  I realised we were both crying. What made me begin to giggle through the tears was the sight of Saskia’s tears making clean tracks down her grubby face. When I told her what I was giggling about, she looked at me more closely. My face must have been the same because she began to laugh.

  “What a pair we are. We’ll have to change to be clean before we meet anybody else.”

  “We could just fly out of the other end of the tunnel and sneak away.”

  “But we won’t do that, will we?”

  “No, we won’t. Come on, our public awaits.”

  Not only did we change to be clean, we changed to our black shirts and pants. The little colourful costumes have their place but that place is not in front of a crowd of people all clapping to celebrate your achievements.

  “How’s the little boy?” I asked.

  He answered me himself. “I’m fine thank you. Did you pull me out?”

  “I pulled, she lifted,” I said gently.

  “Well thank you both.”

  “You are very welcome,” said Saskia.

  The men in charge approached. I said, “Your trains are battered, your tunnel is battered but your passengers are fine. I’d call that a result. Wouldn’t you?”

  “Needs a check over, said Saskia. “We had to poke a new ventilation tunnel into the cave,” then she remembered, “into the Cathedral.”

  “We’ll look out for it,” laughed one of the men.

  There was nothing left to do but take our leave. We did this in our usual vertical fashion, waving as we left the ground.

  Despite it feeling like many hours had passed, the rescue had taken only two or three hours. It was still only mid-afternoon. We’d missed lunch but that didn’t matter at all, we didn’t mind. On the way back I had a thought.

  “What shall we tell Melanie? She’s already putting two and two together and getting four hundred. We disappear from the plant and the SuperTwins do a very public rescue. Then we reappear. I know she’s fairly sure there are four of us but still ...”

  “Hm. Have to give some thought to that. Just telling her it’s Security Service business is all well and good, but it is a coincidence.”

  “Between now and next time we need to come up with a cunning plan. Anyway, here we are. Need to go tell James what’s happened. He likes to know what we get up to.”

  To get to see James we needed to pass Amanda. It turned out she’d been looking for us anyway.

  “Saskias, there you are.”

  “What’s up, Amanda. Problem?” asked Saskia.

  “No. Nothings up. No problem. In fact, quite the reverse. Your dad has fixed me up with a new car, well, not new but you know what I mean. All sorted out to the satisfaction of all parties. Didn’t he tell you?”

  “No, but that’s not unusual. We all just get on with whatever needs doing, patting each other on the back isn’t a requirement.”

  “That’s typical of your family, and you Saskia Chandler. Anyway, thanks for arranging it for me. I owe you a favour.”

  Instead of the sarcastic or humorous remark I’d have expected from Saskia, she just said gently, “You’re welcome Amanda. We try to help where we can.” I found myself nodding in agreement.

  James was in his office as usual. “Hello you two. Been out doing stuff again I see.”

  “James,” I said, “How did you know? Do you have spies? Or have you wanted us for something and we’ve been missing?”

  “Simple really. There’s nothing going on at the moment that we need to discuss, therefore the only reason you’d come and see me is if you want something or if you want to tell me why you’ve not been around. I guessed the latter. Seems I was right.”

  “That’s very logical,” said Saskia. “Is your middle name Spock?”

  While James laughed quietly at that, I said, “We were out over lunch. Watch the news tonight. There’s been a railway accident. All sorted, nobody badly hurt.”

  “That’s good news. Er, I do have a problem you can help me with. Might be a bit interesting to arrange.”

  “Speak on, Bos
s.”

  “R and D are making progress with those magic credit cards you gave me. They’ve asked for fingerprints and DNA from the actual owners of the cards. Now that’s you two. If I just send you to be tested, there’ll be difficult questions about where you got the cards from in the first place. What do we do?”

  “Simple James,” I said. “The cards aren’t ours, they belong to Kyra and Katya. Obviously they can’t use them here, they only work where they come from. They’ve given them to you to copy because they can’t go back home so it doesn’t matter. All a bit sad really.”

  I could nearly see James’ mind working as he sorted the real bits from the fiction in my last speech. “I see. Yes. All we say is what you just did, no details. Kyra and Katya won’t say any more anyway. So you two change to be them and go and get yourselves fingerprinted and DNA tested. Should work.”

  “You know us Saskias and planning stuff James. When d’you want us to do it?”

  “Now?”

  “Mm. Not now James,” I said. “The other two are supposed to be rescuing people from a train crash. No point R and D wondering how we seem to be there and here at more or less the same time. We know the timing’s right, after all, we’re here, but let’s not have people wondering. We’ve got enough of a problem with Melanie.”

  “Why, what’s she done now?”

  “Not really a problem, but she’s beginning to notice that we aren’t around while Kyra and Katya are. We’re getting away with it at the moment because she spent the evening with all four of us when Anya Chernikova visited from the Russian plant. She ought to be convinced there are four of us but we’re going to have to watch out.”

  “You could get that Voice character of yours to do something, couldn’t you?”

  “Yes, and we may have to I suppose,” said Saskia. “But we don’t want to. Mucking about with people’s memories strikes me a wrong somehow.”

  “Arrange for us to go to R and D tomorrow, James,” I said. “It’ll all work out in the end.”

  Seven

  Winter was approaching fast. The weather was getting colder by the day. Saskia and I had to address a problem which we’d noticed each winter we’d been together so far. As super girls, we didn’t feel the cold. We’d been quite happy working near the North Pole wearing just our tiny super costumes. That’s fine for Kyra and Katya but not for Saskia and Saskia. We had to make sure we dressed appropriately for two ordinary girls subject to the cold weather. Discussions about what to wear were usually more about how thick and how many layers as much as about what we actually looked like.