“Going somewhere, Davy boy?” cried Adam, leaping forward. He seized David and spun him back around. Instantly Adam’s other hand fastened around his throat like a ring of ice. David gasped as he felt the ghostly fingers grip him and sensed his mind being quickly enveloped by the power of Adam’s will. He tried to resist, but his world was already smothered by a crushing darkness, leaving nothing but the sound of Adam’s voice.
“Tell me where he is!”
David managed just one word as his consciousness failed. “No …”
“Tell me!” Adam shouted. “Or I’ll fill you with pain till you burst.”
“David!” It was Petra’s voice.
Adam looked to one side and something struck him. Then it was his turn to stagger back, releasing David as he did so. For a moment he looked pained and his dreamself grew faint, but with a dismaying lack of effort he snapped back to full, ferocious clarity. Petra was standing over David as Adam raised his arm to come back at her. But Petra wasn’t the only newcomer.
“Enough,” said Dishita as she stepped out of the shadows behind Adam. “It’s over, Adam. The end of the line.”
“The end of the line?” Adam laughed, nodding his head toward the railway station around them. “Was that some kind of joke, Dishita? Personally, I find the idea that two girls and a schoolboy can stop me much more amusing.”
In reply, Dishita flew at him. Adam raised his arms and caught her hands, and the two of them spun crazily through the air, each wrestling to free a hand and hit the other. Petra looked down at David.
“I hope you weren’t trying to impress me,” she said, the hint of concern in her voice almost hidden by anger. “Because you didn’t!”
David forced himself to look her in the eye.
“Where’s Théo?” Petra said.
“Gone …”
“No!”
“I’m so sorry. But I couldn’t just stand there …”
“What have you done?” Petra looked horrified. “Didn’t you think Adam would have haunters with him? The station is probably crawling with them. Théo …”
David tried to speak, but stopped. Petra didn’t appear ready to listen to him now anyway. She called Misty and shouted at her to bring the other team to help.
Adam and Dishita finally separated, each flinging the other away. They dropped back down to the ground at different ends of the workshop, both clearly drained by the effort.
“I doubt there’s anyone there who could come, sweetheart,” called Adam to Petra. Then, in front of them all, Adam’s suit reappeared, as perfect and unruffled as if he’d just stepped out of a tailor’s shop. He tugged the front brim of his hat low over his eyes and leaned nonchalantly on his gleaming black cane, the perfect picture of self-controlled malevolence.
“So you see, it’s you who have reached the end of the line. My new colleagues have seen to that.”
“How could you join them?” Petra spat back. “Murderers! How can you bear to work with them against your own friends?”
“You know the answer to that better than most, Petra,” Adam said, “and since I know you won’t be joining us …”
Before anyone could move, Adam flicked his cane forward and sent it flying straight at Petra. She cried out as she dropped back, the spectral cane zinging through the air above her. Dishita darted forward, but Adam was impossibly quick. David could only watch as he leaped high above Dishita then dropped down behind her. Before she could turn, a dreamwalker’s door had appeared behind Adam. He knocked it open with his cane — miraculously back in his hand — and raised his hat.
“So long,” he said, stepping through.
David acted instinctively. There was no way he could let Adam escape, not if Eddie really had disappeared again. This might be his only chance to save him. He flung himself at the door as it began to slam shut, and got one arm through. He pushed with all the force left in his battered mind.
Petra was with him in a moment.
“You can’t hold it open that way.”
“Can’t let him go,” gasped David. The door was pushing back harder and harder, crushing him as Adam willed it to close. Despite the pain, David could see what looked like water through the doorway — water and buildings, and was that a crane? And he could tell Adam was there somewhere, looking on with an amused smile.
Petra leaned into the door herself, but even together they couldn’t do more than gain a little extra space.
“David, get out!” shouted Petra.
David pulled his arm back before it was too late.
The door slammed shut and vanished, leaving nothing but a faint tang of river air in the room.
David sat in the Archive with an aching head and said nothing. The professor sat opposite him and the other dreamwalkers, while a motley assortment of technicians, assistants, and science types from the Map Room stood and looked on. But it was Roman who was asking all the questions.
Théo’s chair was empty. Roman paced across the middle of the room with a look of fury as Dishita explained what had happened. When she came to the part where David broke cover and approached Eddie, causing a public sensation and ruining the rescue, the room became very quiet and Roman stopped right in front of David.
“If your own life wasn’t so obviously at risk,” said Roman eventually, “I would once again be asking myself just whose side you are on.”
“Oh, come on, Commander,” said the professor, speaking for the first time since the debriefing had begun. “David’s hardly going to be helping Adam, is he? It was just a … a mistake.”
“A mistake!” cried Roman. “Our founder is in danger — he needs help, not mistakes. He certainly deserves better than this.” And he flung a newspaper down on the desk, right under David’s nose.
The paper was yellow with age, sealed in plastic, and folded to page five. It was dated December 18, 1940. Under the title “The Paddington Ghost” was the photograph David had found in Adam’s room. It showed the same view of the railway station, the trains, and the evacuees, but the detail was dramatically different. In the center of a scene of running figures and terrified faces, there was a vaguely human form, translucent, and with its arms raised. The quality of the photo was poor, but David didn’t need to look too closely to recognize himself standing more or less in the place where Eddie had been in the original picture. Eddie himself was now nowhere to be seen. David glanced up and saw everyone in the room staring at him.
“You have turned a quiet historical moment into a freak show,” said Roman in the tone of a judge about to pass a death sentence, “and wasted our best chance to catch Adam.”
“We’ll have to go back,” called one of the technicians, and there was a rumble of agreement from around the room. “Try again.”
The professor shook his head.
“That particular moment in time is too full of dreamwalkers already, ours and theirs. And with the panic and the crowds, we’d be going back into chaos. We might still be able to pick up Eddie’s trail in the streets outside, but in the station that historical moment is far too unstable now.”
“We could hardly have destabilized it more if we’d tried,” said Roman. “It’s high time we interviewed the boy again. I don’t trust him.”
“David is not working for the Haunting.” Professor Feldrake’s voice was raised now.
“No?” said Roman. “Maybe not. Maybe he really is just that stupid. But I knew we should never have assigned her to his case.” And he pointed at Petra. She looked furious, but instead of reacting with a characteristic outburst she just sat there smoldering.
“That’s an outrageous thing to say,” cried the professor. “And grossly unfair. Petra is totally loyal.”
For a moment Roman looked uncomfortable, as though he knew he’d said something he shouldn’t have. Then he took refuge in an outburst of his own.
“Why must we work with kids?”
“We would hardly be working at all without them,” countered Professor Feldrake.
&
nbsp; The room fell silent again. The tension in the air said it all. David looked at Petra and wondered what Roman had meant when he’d pointed to her.
Jiro came into the room.
“We’ve finished the analysis,” he said. “The events at Paddington station at midday on December eighteenth, 1940, have been substantially altered, though the short-term effects are negligible; it’s just another ghost sighting, nothing to worry about. The photo was even branded a fake soon after it was published. We’re still trying to assess the long-term impact. As for Edmund Utherwise, the other team tried to trail him, but he slipped away in the chaos.”
There was a ripple of dismay around the Archive.
“Where’s the other team now?” the professor asked.
“They were attacked, knocked out of their dreamwalk. Misty counted twelve haunters present at the end, not including Adam. They didn’t stand a chance.”
“And this man Charlie Grinn?” Roman asked. “Anything more on him? An address?”
Jiro shook his head. “We’re searching the Archive, but there’s not much. He could be anywhere.”
“Adam knows how to contact him, though,” Roman said. “And we have enough about Grinn to know he’s just the man Adam needs. The worst of it is that Edmund Utherwise probably still isn’t aware he’s being hunted by a real flesh-and-blood killer.”
“Why did you do it?” said Dishita, suddenly turning to David. She didn’t seem angry, just completely astonished about what had happened. “Didn’t you see the skylights? Théo was almost in position; we were seconds away from making a double strike. Adam was completely preoccupied, and the police almost had Eddie. I just don’t get why you did it.”
David was torn between rage and complete embarrassment at how badly things had gone. But he wasn’t about to be made to look a fool.
“There was a man with a knife right behind him. The nearest police helmet was right across the station. I couldn’t just …”
“Helmet?” Dishita looked incredulous. “There was a plainclothes policeman on either side of Eddie, David. What do you think I’ve been doing all night? I spent hours of delicate maneuvering to make sure there’d be real detectives there, only to have you prance about in front of them like something out of A Christmas Carol!”
Plainclothes? David was about to protest, but he shut his mouth. He simply hadn’t thought of that. He put his head in his hands.
“It was his first proper dreamwalk,” said Petra, trying to come to David’s defense. “And I hear Théo will be okay. In time.”
“But we don’t have time!” Roman roared over her. “Théo is one of the strongest dreamwalkers we have left, and we need him now.”
“That’s out of the question,” said the Dreamwalker Project’s surgeon, a young woman seated beside the professor. “Théo has had a serious mental shock. He should make a full recovery eventually, but I won’t be clearing him for dreamwalking for at least three months. And that’s at least.”
“And what about the three from the other team?” asked Roman, his eyes still on David.
The surgeon shook her head.
“It’s too early to say, but again there’s no way you can have them in the next few days. And you should count yourselves lucky I haven’t signed Dishita off too.”
Roman put his hands into his silver-black hair and rubbed his temples.
“Okay, let’s start trying to clean this mess up,” he said, turning away from David. “We always knew Adam would need help to eliminate Sir Edmund, and now at least we know who it is. We have to work on Grinn’s location and then throw everything we have left at Adam when he next makes contact.”
“But even the police at the time didn’t know Grinn’s address,” said the professor. “Look at the file. He lived in an underworld, always in hiding. We can’t waste time looking for him. The person we should be looking for is Eddie.”
“Hunting for Eddie would be fine, Professor, if David here would tell us what he knows,” snapped Roman. “But he won’t.”
“Not won’t, can’t.” David took his head out of his hands. “Don’t you think I’d have told you if I knew where Eddie was? It’s just that …”
David found that everyone was looking at him again, and he stopped. What could he say? The professor put his hands together tightly, almost as if he were praying, and spoke.
“David, if there’s anything you can remember, anything at all, now is the time to tell us. Even the smallest detail could help us find your grandfather.”
David looked down again and shook his head. He’d have given anything then to help make up for the mess he’d just created, but he couldn’t tell them what he didn’t know. However, even as he thought this, he had once again that strange back-of-the-mind feeling that there was something he wasn’t quite remembering.
Roman crossed the room and picked several important-looking files out of a messy pile beside the professor, like a man fishing coins out of a dustbin. The professor himself sat staring at the floor and said nothing.
“We have work to do,” said Roman. Even David noticed that the authority in the room had shifted. Everyone was waiting for Roman to speak.
“I want two full research teams working on Grinn’s location, and I want a report within the hour. Dishita says Adam escaped to a waterside location, and after the scare at the London docks earlier, we’ll start there. All remaining dreamwalkers are on standby. I want to be ready for Adam Lang the moment we have something. Professor, you can finish up here.”
He strode across the room, but paused at the door.
“Ah, and David Utherwise is suspended from the Dreamwalker Project. If he was ever on it, that is. He is confined to the Lodge until further notice. We will send someone to continue his interrogation.”
Then he left, as did everyone but the professor and the remains of Dishita’s team.
“That was very reckless, David,” said the professor once the Archive had emptied. “How’s the head, by the way?”
David had been suffering from a splitting headache since the attacks by the girl haunter and Adam, and he’d even been wheeled from the Somnarium on a gurney. However, within five minutes he was able to stand, and he’d insisted on being at the debriefing to face the music.
“It’s fine, thanks,” he lied. “Um … I’m really sorry, Professor.”
“Well, it can’t be helped now,” said Professor Feldrake. “Roman hates having to work with you youngsters anyway. He resents you, I’m afraid. He has never got over losing his own abilities.”
“Roman was a dreamwalker?”
“Oh, yes, one of the first generation. He worked directly with your grandfather and was quite a star. To lose all that and be forced to watch as others take your place, well, I can see why he’s so unforgiving. Especially with Adam. But don’t judge him too harshly, David. In the end, he wants exactly the same thing as the rest of us, even if I do think he’s going about it the wrong way. The best thing you can do now is rack your brains.”
“I do have the feeling there’s something I’m not quite remembering.”
“There you are, you see. Concentrate on that,” said the professor, but his positive tone didn’t sound quite genuine. “And I’m afraid you’ll have plenty of time for thinking now. You won’t be allowed back here in a hurry, or near the Somnarium.”
“I thought you were in charge.”
“Well, technically, yes, but things are getting serious, and Roman’s been itching to replace me for years. He probably will too, at least while the emergency lasts. The truth is, my position has been shaky for some time, and the people who fund the Dreamwalker Project are terrified of what the Haunting might do with Adam on their side. I’m afraid I can’t help you, David, not now.”
“But I’ve got to find Eddie!”
“Leave that to us,” said the professor, getting to his feet. “We’ll do all we can to keep him safe, that I can promise you.”
The professor ushered the dreamwalkers out of the Archive.
Two security men who were waiting outside took up positions on each side of David and he was marched off with the others behind him. It was humiliating. As they crossed the Map Room and went up the stairs he felt everyone’s eyes on him.
They were about to leave the gallery overlooking the Map Room when an alarm broke out. David turned and even the security guards seemed curious. Looking over at the great dazzling hologram in the center of the room he could see the ugly black mark he’d noticed earlier, creeping though the rainbow light like a spreading scar, and the whole sphere seemed to be trembling and fizzing louder than ever.
“Not again,” groaned the professor, his knuckles going white as he gripped the railing.
“It’s spreading?” said David.
“The time line is altering,” said Dishita in a voice full of accusation. “Bit by bit. There are more changes now, more pressures on it than before. The longer Eddie’s actions deviate from the past that founded all this, the deeper the rupture. If we can’t patch things up soon, if Adam and Grinn find Eddie first, then the whole course of history will shift and force us into a new present. And if that happens there’ll be no one left here to deal with it.”
As they watched, the black scar branched, and a second jagged line began to deface the beautiful sphere.
The alarms were still blaring as David was led away.
Eddie tried to run again, but his chest ached so much he thought he’d faint. Surely he’d put enough distance between himself and the station by now?
He’s still after you, said the voice of his doubt. How did he know you’d be at the station? You’ve told him too much …
Eddie didn’t know what to think of that. How had David known where to find him? He coughed again and looked at the faces of the people in the street. They were watching him. Why were they looking at him like that?
Ahead was the entrance to a public park. Eddie slipped inside and hurried on until he saw a bench. He sat down and bunched his legs up under his chin. He pulled his hair a little. Soon his breathing became more measured and his mind clearer.
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