by Darren Shan
“Some of your team should have been keeping watch, Coley,” Dan-Dan tuts.
“Normally we would have had several lookouts in place,” Coley grunts, his cheeks reddening. “But the last few minutes have been crazy. In the chaos and confusion, our standards slipped. My apologies, sir. It won’t happen again.”
“Assuming I let you live to command another day,” Dan-Dan says pointedly.
I edge over beside Rage and his prisoner. Nobody tries to stop me. Owl Man is studying us with an indecipherable expression. “What now?” I mutter.
“We back off slowly and let these guys go on their merry way,” Rage says.
“You think they won’t shoot us?”
“Not as long as I keep the captain here under lock and key.”
“You really shouldn’t make jokes about my costume,” Dan-Dan says. “It’s rude and insensitive.”
“Like I care,” Rage laughs, and starts to back away.
“Hold it,” Coley barks. “You’re going nowhere until you release Lord Wood.”
Rage pauses and cocks an eyebrow at me. “This guy’s Daniel Wood? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t think you’d have heard of him.”
“Are you kidding? He was infamous. The newspapers called him the Child Catcher. Nobody could ever make charges stick because he operated in out-of-the-way countries where judges and the police could be bribed.”
“They could be bribed in less out-of-the-way places too,” Dan-Dan chortles. “I traveled more freely than the media reported.”
“I’m impressed,” Rage says. “You’re a celebrity. I must get your autograph before we go.”
“No one’s going anywhere until you release Lord Wood,” Coley says again, pushing up his sunglasses to glare at us.
“Don’t be stupid,” Rage says. “I’m not gonna do that. You’d shoot me before I made it to the top of the hill.”
“I can’t let you leave with him,” Coley retorts. “You’d kill him once you were out of sight.”
“What if I promise to set him free and cross my heart and hope to die?” Rage smiles.
Coley shakes his head and returns the smile. “You’re already dead.”
“Then it looks like we have a problem.”
I stare at Rage. “Surely you have a plan. You can’t have just charged in and risked everything without thinking it through.”
He grins sheepishly.
“You should have left me to the racists,” I groan. “At least then they wouldn’t have known we were bloody amateurs.”
“If I may make a suggestion,” Owl Man intercedes, and all eyes settle on him. “We have Becky’s friend, Vinyl, in one of the trucks.”
“So it was Vinyl you were after!” I shout.
Owl Man raises an eyebrow. “You guessed that he was my focus?”
“The second I saw you on the road, when you were traveling here.”
He smiles. “We are getting to know so much about one another, as good friends or enemies always do.”
“You let me see you on your way to New Kirkham,” I accuse him. “You sent the dog to lure me in. You wanted me to come after you.”
Owl Man spreads his hands. “Guilty as charged.”
“Why?”
He shrugs. “To see what you would do. Most of your friends perished in the first wave of zombie attacks. I lost track of any who survived. When I saw Vinyl with you in Hammersmith, I figured he might be a useful bargaining chip farther down the line. But first I needed to find out if you would risk everything to save him, so I called up the boys in the hoods—I’ve had them on standby for months now, for something like this.”
“You never told me about that,” Dan-Dan says petulantly.
“I do not share everything with my associates,” Owl Man says. “Especially those who cross me where the undead are concerned. You should not have done that, Daniel. This is my field of expertise. My wishes should have been respected.”
“It was a conflict of interests,” Dan-Dan says. “To you she’s a zombie, to me she’s a plaything. We had to clash sooner or later. I won’t hold it against you.”
“He takes setbacks so manfully, doesn’t he?” Owl Man says to me. Then he purses his lips thoughtfully. “You can have Daniel. We will take Vinyl. When you return to London, bring Daniel to us and I will arrange a swap. We can iron out the finer details then.”
“Wait a minute,” Dan-Dan squawks, losing his cool. “You can’t leave me in the clutches of these foul brutes.”
“We have no choice,” Owl Man says. “If you had let Becky go, as I asked, this could have been avoided. As things stand…”
“But they’ll kill me!” Dan-Dan roars.
“No,” Owl Man says. “Vinyl is one of Becky’s oldest, dearest friends. She came back to save him. She will not harm you if she knows that she can swap you for him later.”
“What about the others?” I ask. “They’re just as important to me.”
“Are they really?” Owl Man looks skeptical.
“I wasn’t sure that you had Vinyl,” I tell him. “I chased after the trucks to try to help the people in the cages.”
Owl Man sighs. “You have changed in so many ways. I am proud of what you have become. I wish I could care as much about people as you do.” He thinks about it for a moment. “I can make no promises, since there are lots of different factors involved, but I give you my word that I will do my best to have them returned along with Vinyl, assuming you are happy to restore Lord Wood to us.”
“You expect me to trust you?” I snort.
“What other option do you have?” Owl Man says sweetly, then turns his back on us and calls his dog. “Come, Sakarias, the jeep awaits. Mr. Coley, will you and your people get back in your trucks and escort us?”
“Boss?” Coley asks uncertainly.
Dan-Dan sighs. “Is there any other way we can resolve this?”
Coley licks his lips and thinks about it, then spits with disgust. “Not that I can see.”
“Then we’ll have to hope he knows what he’s doing. If the girl hasn’t delivered me to you within seventy-two hours, kill the boy slowly and painfully, along with everyone else from this rat’s nest of a town. Now get the hell out of here so that this dratted beast can release me. I have a terrible crick in my neck.”
The guards and Owl Man mount up and set off. I hate having to stand here helplessly, but given the way things turned out, we’ve pushed this as far as we can. To be honest, I’m amazed we’ve gotten away with this much. Best not to ride our luck any further.
As the trucks trundle away, Rage gives Dan-Dan some space, but holds on to him, using him as a shield in case there are any long-range snipers onboard.
“Thanks,” I tell Rage softly. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“I know,” he sniffs. “But what a kick! To take on those guys and force a standoff…” He punches the air. “That’s the most fun I’ve had in an age.”
“You’ll regret it in the end,” Dan-Dan says. “Anyone who has ever annoyed me has lived to wish they’d given me a wide berth.”
“Maybe,” Rage laughs. “But I’m like you, Dan-Dan. I believe in living for the moment. We could all be worm food tomorrow, so we’ve got to make corn today.”
“It’s make hay,” I correct him.
“Whatever.”
Dan-Dan stares at Rage. “You remind me of myself when I was younger. If I get out of this mess, maybe I’ll let you live. The world’s a more interesting place with people of our caliber in it to add spice to the mix.”
“I’m welling up at the compliment,” Rage chuckles.
Dan-Dan’s gaze turns my way and his eyes narrow. “As you know, young man, I’m fabulously wealthy. I can give you anything you want. From what Becky said, there’s no love lost between you, and you didn’t seem to care much about the others on the trucks. Name your price for my freedom and the girl.”
Rage mulls it over and studies me coldly. I stand firm and get read
y to fight. Then he grins and I relax.
“Sorry, Lord Wood,” he says, “but I don’t think you could match my price.”
“You don’t know until you ask,” Dan-Dan gurgles.
“True,” Rage smirks. “But luckily for Becky, I’m not in an asking mood.” He flashes his teeth at me. “At least not today. Try me again later if she gets on my nerves.”
“Some hero,” I growl, but although I try to maintain an offended expression, I can’t, and soon I’m smiling like a cat who’s used up all nine of her lives only to be given yet one more. Stepping into line with Rage, we turn with our hostage and head back to see what’s left of New Kirkham.
SIX
It’s hard to tell what’s going on from this far away, but the fact that thousands of zombies are milling around outside the walls makes it look like Jakob managed to shut the gate—otherwise they’d surely all have poured inside to feast. Whether he was in time to save the humans from the undead assailants who had already slipped in remains to be seen.
We quickly realize that getting Dan-Dan into New Kirkham is going to be a challenge. We can’t just slip a living human through the hordes of zombies packed around the perimeter. All three of us would be ripped to pieces before we got anywhere near.
Rage comes up with a plan. “I’ll head back by myself. If anyone’s still alive, I’ll get them to tell us where the entrance to one of their tunnels is. We can sneak him in that way.”
“But the tunnel entrances are a secret,” I remind him. “Vinyl wouldn’t tell us before, said it was against the rules.”
Rage makes a growling noise. “If Shane and the others have succeeded, we’ve just saved the town from the Ku Klux Klan. I think they’ll be happy to bend the rules this once.”
He heads off, leaving me alone with the despicable Dan-Dan. I want the creep to cower, but he lies back, picks a blade of grass and studies the clouds, a content smile plastered across his face as he tickles his chin with the grass.
“Owl Man was wrong,” I say softly. “I didn’t like Vinyl that much. He’d moved to a different school. Our friendship had run its course. And the others mean nothing to me—we don’t care about the living. You’re dead meat.”
Dan-Dan chuckles. “Nice try, but I’ve played poker with the finest gamblers in Las Vegas. Your bluff won’t work on me.” He looks over. “Owl Man. I like it. That’s what I’m going to call him from now on.”
“What’s his real name?” I ask.
“Heaven knows. He changes it all the time. He’s Petrus one day, Agamemnon the next, Zachary another. Occasionally Bob or Jack. Most of us refer to him as the guy with the large eyes, or simply Eyes Guy.” He makes a face. “Adults have such weak imaginations.”
I lie down close to Dan-Dan, hoping to make him feel uneasy. “How did you hook up with Owl Man? Last I saw of you, you were zipping along the Thames like a bat out of hell.”
“Oh, we’ve been doing business together for years,” Dan-Dan says.
“Years?” I snap. “You mean you knew him in the days before the zombies?”
“Yes. He knew the end was coming. He helped us prepare for it.”
“How did he know?” I bark.
Dan-Dan shrugs. “He has his ways and means. Anyway, we’ve been allies for a long time. When the world fell, I made my base on the HMS Belfast with the other members of the Board. Owl Man warned us against it. He said we’d be safer elsewhere, in a more secure facility. We ignored him, but had a plan B in place in case he was right. Hell, we had plans C, D and E.”
“And now?” I ask. “Where have you holed up since we ran you off?”
He smiles. “You’ll find out when you swap me with your friend. I’m not going to tell you too much in advance, giving you extra time to scheme and plot against me. I’m not as dumb as I act.”
I glower at the giggling child-killer in the ridiculous sailor’s outfit. I wish I didn’t feel responsible for Vinyl and the others. I’d love to give this psycho a taste of his own medicine. But Owl Man read me like an X-ray. I’m not going to harm Dan-Dan as long as he holds the key to the humans’ safety.
We don’t say anything else. Dan-Dan watches the sun as it moves across the sky and dips. I keep an eye out for Rage. Finally, not long before nightfall, he returns. He takes his time, not even bothering to jog.
“Glad you didn’t rush on my account,” I growl when he crests the hill.
“Nothing to hurry back for,” he says. “Everything’s fine. Once we shook up the Klan and threw them into chaos, the tide swiftly turned. Biddy Barry and her crew got their hands on all the weapons that the Klan had come with, turned them on their owners and then on the zombies who’d poured through the gate while it was open. They lost a lot of people in the battle, but they’ve regained control of the town and their defenses are solid. The surviving Klanners are being dealt with, as are the traitors who helped them take over the town in the first place. It’s all cool.”
“And the tunnel?”
“Sorted. Follow me. One of the others is coming to open it from their end.”
The entrance isn’t far away, a steel door set in the ground, covered over with very realistic-looking fake grass. Rage lifts the grass and knocks four times on the door. When it opens, I spot Shane inside. He scuttles out and high-fives his mate, bumps fists with me, then glares at Dan-Dan. “This the one you were telling us about?”
“Yeah,” Rage says.
“The child-killer?”
“None other.”
Shane shows his fangs. “Let’s kill him.”
“Easy,” I intervene. “We need this bugger alive so that we can swap him for all the people that the Klan took.”
Shane shakes his head. “If we let him go, he’ll kill more kids. I feel sorry for the prisoners who got carted off, but how can we justify letting this creep live when he’ll probably go on to kill far more than the Klanners are holding hostage?”
“I didn’t realize you thought about things so deeply.” I wasn’t expecting an argument like this with the normally monosyllabic Shane.
“I might not be a genius,” Shane says, “but I can count. If we return this merciless mug, we’ll save sixty or seventy lives—that’s how many we think they got away with. But if we kill him, we’ll maybe save hundreds.”
“Dan-Dan can’t kill that many children,” I argue.
“Of course he can,” Rage says. “He killed that many in the old days, if the rumors were true, and that was when the world was an orderly place. Now that he has a free hand, he could maybe run the numbers up into the thousands.”
“We made a deal,” I say stiffly.
“I didn’t,” Shane replies, and looks to Rage for support.
“I know where you’re coming from,” Rage says after a pause to consider his answer, “but I’ve got to side with B on this one. Lord Wood’s a serious player. If we kill him, there will be repercussions.”
“Like what?” Shane snorts.
“Like blowing up your beloved County Hall for a start, you silly boy,” Dan-Dan snaps.
I’m surprised. “I didn’t think you knew about that.”
“We didn’t,” he says. “Not until your dashing Dr. Oystein rescued you and we were forced to flee the Belfast. Justin and I were furious. We were all set to send out a search party to track down the lot of you and exterminate you like the vermin that you are. Owl Man had to admit that he knew about you already. He didn’t want your do-gooder of a doctor harmed. He wouldn’t tell us his reasons, but he threatened to cut us off if we acted without his backing. We relented, since he is useful to us, but if you break our deal now, Justin will level the place.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Shane grins. “We’ll skip County Hall before she blows.” He raises a menacing hand and moves forward.
Rage and I block his path.
“That’s not your call,” Rage says.
“County Hall is Dr. Oystein’s base,” I tell him. “He’s the only one who can make a decision like t
his.”
“We’ll take the sap back with us,” Rage smiles. “If Dr. Oystein gives us the thumbs-up, Dan-Dan’s yours.”
“The hell he is,” I snarl. “I want first dibs on him.”
Shane scowls. “I don’t care who kills him, just as long as he is killed.” He steps back. “But you’re right. It’s for the doc to decide. Come on, let’s hurry, I don’t want to miss all the hangings.”
“Hangings?” I frown, but he’s already jumped back into the tunnel. With an uneasy feeling, I let Rage and Dan-Dan go ahead of me, then follow after them, shutting the door on the world behind, before pressing through the gloom to face whatever storms are brewing in New Kirkham.
SEVEN
The town is awash with blood and corpses. The survivors are already gathering the bodies of the dead and cracking their skulls open for the brains inside—I guess they’ll send most of them back with us, for the Angels to store and feast upon. It’s a deal Dr. Oystein has struck with many of the compounds.
When they’ve scraped the heads clean, they douse the bodies with gasoline and add them to a growing mound that they’ll set alight later. No time for any ceremonies. They can’t leave the corpses rotting for fear they’d attract insects capable of spreading the zombie virus.
They’ve made a separate mound for the corpses of the undead, and Shane tells us that when the flames die down, a specially trained team will gather the remains and crush them up, then bag the bits and bury them deep. They have to be careful. Zombies are still contagious even after their brains have been destroyed.
The humans work in solemn silence. Some people are weeping, but only a few. Most have seen this before, when civilization crashed. It’s nothing new to them. There’s work to be done. If they feel like crying, they’ll save the tears for later.