“I do have a name,” the Traveller replied. “It’s Graham Fletcher.” He smiled to himself. “Do you realize that’s the first time I’ve actually spoken those words in more than seven years?”
“Why did you never tell anyone?” Jamie asked.
The Traveller was serious again. “Because I never wanted to be their friend,” he said. “I had to remind myself that I wasn’t part of their community, that I would never be one of them. I knew that one day I would have to leave.”
“You know who I am, don’t you?”
“That’s right, Jamie. I know all about you … and Matt and the others. The Gatekeepers.”
“You’re with the Nexus.”
Jamie remembered the organization he had met when he was with Matt in London … the men and women who had been waiting for them in the secret room in Farringdon. Graham Fletcher hadn’t been there. Jamie was sure of it. But on the other hand, ten years had passed since that meeting – at least, for him. The Nexus would have changed since then. It was surprising that it still existed at all.
The Traveller nodded. “That’s right.”
“So it wasn’t a coincidence that you were in the village. You were waiting for me.”
“Waiting for you for seven years, Jamie. Away from my friends and family. You have no idea how glad I am to see you.”
So he had friends. A family! And he had been prepared to abandon them for all this time, simply to help him. Jamie suddenly saw the Traveller in a completely different light and tried to imagine what it must have been like for him. He wondered briefly if it was right to leave Holly outside. Shouldn’t she be hearing this? But it was probably better that way. After all she had been through, she needed time on her own.
The Traveller must have been thinking the same thing. He lifted the kettle off the gas, then made three mugs of coffee. He took one up to Holly, returning almost immediately. Once again the two of them were on their own.
“She’s doing a good job,” he said. “You’d have thought she’d been steering boats all her life.”
“So are you going to tell me about yourself?” Jamie asked.
“Of course.” The Traveller brought a second mug of coffee over to Jamie. “I work for a remarkable person,” he said. “I think you know her. Her name is Susan Ashwood.”
Jamie recognized the name at once. Susan Ashwood was the woman who had once helped Matt. She was a clairvoyant, with the ability to see into the spirit world. She was also blind. She wasn’t the sort of woman it would be easy to forget.
“She sent me to the village,” the Traveller went on. “She knew about the door in the church – and she also knew that the Old Ones hadn’t found it. She believed there was a chance that one of you would show up and she told me to go there and wait for you. I can tell you, there have been times when I’ve cursed her and cursed myself for believing in her. But now I’m glad. She was right all along.”
“So the Nexus still exists,” Jamie said.
“What’s happened in Britain – all over the world – it’s the reason why the Nexus was created in the first place. We’re here to help you and the other Gatekeepers. It’s what we’ve been waiting for.”
“Can you help me get to London? To Saint Meredith’s?”
“We’re on our way there now. We’re going to enter the canal system, Jamie. It’s the best way to travel. There are no trains or planes. The roads are too dangerous, too exposed. But the canals have always been hidden. They twist their way round the edge of towns, through fields and old industrial estates, and people have forgotten they’re there. They belong to another age. If we can keep going, we can get to the very heart of London.”
“If?” Jamie had picked up on the word.
The Traveller sipped his coffee. He had been cradling the mug between his hands. “It’s not going to be easy, he admitted. “Right now we’re on the river. To get into the canal system, we have to get to Four Ways lock. I came through it on the way up from London but that was a while ago. If it isn’t working, we’ll be continuing on foot. Then we have to pass through a couple of towns. They may still be inhabited and anyone who sees or hears us could be a threat. Finally, the police are going to be looking for us. Fortunately, they have no idea we’re on a working boat. If they knew that, we’d already be dead.”
“What about London itself?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, to be honest with you. In a few days, you’ll see it for yourself.”
Jamie yawned. Suddenly it all seemed too much for him – everything that had happened during the day, everything that lay ahead.
The Traveller noticed. “You should get some rest. You must be worn out. Why not take the forward bunk? It’s quieter there.”
“What about Holly?”
“I’ll stay with her. After tomorrow, we’ll take it in turns at the tiller. The Lady Jane‘s not difficult to steer.”
“Do you have enough fuel to get to London?”
“So many questions, Jamie! Get this in your head. I’ve been preparing for this journey. I’ve been waiting for it for seven years. Now go to sleep!”
Jamie slept.
Almost at once, he found himself back in the dreamworld, a short distance from the library, as if he had never left it but had simply closed his eyes the last time he was there and then opened them again. His first thought was to look for Scott, his twin brother, but there was no sign of him and that worried Jamie. He knew something was wrong. It had been obvious the last time they had seen each other and right now he would have given anything to spend a few minutes with him – in this world or anywhere. Matt and the others seemed to have gone too. Jamie wondered how long it had really been since the last time the five of them had met and talked, but he knew it was impossible to say. Time worked differently in the dreamworld. It might feel as if only a few seconds had passed, but it could be a week or even a month.
Jamie hated and feared the dreamworld, even though he knew that it was somehow on his side. He remembered the strange figure of the gold prospector who had approached him at the ocean’s edge and who had tried to give him a warning. “They’re going to kill him.” Why had he appeared to be a threat? Why couldn’t he have just walked up and explained what he meant? And, for that matter, why was this world so grey and desolate? He looked across the empty landscape and shivered. Being here was like being dead.
He heard a soft footfall on the dust and twisted round, fearing the worst, then relaxed. It was Matt, on his own, walking towards him. Jamie was happy to see him. It wasn’t just that the two of them had become close during their time in London and later, on the way to Hong Kong. Matt was the undisputed leader of the Gatekeepers and Jamie was confident that he knew how this would end and that somehow he would get them all out alive.
The two of them stood facing each other.
“Hi, Jamie,” Matt said.
“Hi.” There was a pause. Jamie wasn’t sure what to say. How much did Matt know? “I got out of the village,” Jamie continued. “Someone from the Nexus has found me.”
“I know. Everything is happening the way it should. But there’s something I have to tell you. To warn you about.”
It was strange. Was that what Matt had become? Just another warning to be thrown at him by the dreamworld?
“Your journey’s not going to be easy, Jamie. And London’s going to be worse. The Old Ones know about St Meredith’s and they have it surrounded.”
“Is the door working?”
“Not yet. All the doors are locked.”
“Then what’s the point of going there?”
“They’ll open … in time. And that’s why I had to see you. You have to know the right moment to get into the church and break through. You can’t delay. You must do it at exactly the right time.”
“How will I know?”
Matthew smiled but there wasn’t a shred of happiness in his face. Jamie had never seen him so old, so defeated. “You’ll know. There’ll be a sign. When you see it, go for i
t, and if everything works out like I hope, you’ll reach Antarctica.”
“Will you be there?” he asked. “Will Scott?”
“Jamie, I can’t answer your questions. All I can tell you is that it will happen the way it’s meant to happen.”
“But I have a right to know!” Jamie felt something rising in him. He wasn’t sure if it was anger or sadness. “What’s wrong with Scott? The last time we met, he hardly talked to me. And those clothes he was wearing…” Jamie broke off. “And what about you, Matt? How do you know so much about everything all of a sudden? What’s happened to you?”
Matt smiled. “I’ve been to the library.” He paused again. “This is the last time we’ll talk before the end,” he said. “I’ll think of you on the Lady Jane. And in London. Just remember – wait for the sign. Don’t try anything until then. And when you see it … don’t hang around!”
“Hold on, Matt…”
But then Jamie opened his eyes and found himself back on the boat. Holly was asleep on the bunk opposite him and they were still chugging slowly down the river. Matt had gone and another day had begun.
THIRTY-SIX
I felt terrible about George’s death. I was sick and miserable and at the same time guilty because even though so many other people had died, he was the only one I really cared about. I had actually seen Tom Connor and Mr Christopher and Reverend Johnstone killed and I knew that nobody was going to be left alive, not even Rita and John, who had been like parents to me and who had looked after me since I was small. Maybe there was just too much grief for me to cope with.
I wasn’t much good for anything when we tumbled aboard the Lady Jane and set off down the river. This was the first time that I had been on anything with an engine since I was about six. For that matter, I had never seen a helicopter before either. Both these things should have been a source of wonderment for me, but all I could think about was … well, nothing. I didn’t really have any thoughts. If my life were a strip of ribbon, it was as if someone had just cut off the entire length right up to where I was now, so that looking back there was nothing and I couldn’t imagine anything very much ahead either. Part of me wished that I had died in the village. It would have been easier.
I wanted to hate Jamie. After all, it was his appearance that had brought the Old Ones to us. But I couldn’t do it. If anyone was to blame, it was Miss Keyland for going against the wishes of the Assembly and making the telephone call in the forest. At the same time, I wondered if we hadn’t been kidding ourselves all along. We hadn’t been living in the village. We’d been surviving – and it couldn’t really have gone on much longer. Rita had practically said as much when we parted company. The crops had been failing, the water supply dwindling. Whichever way you looked at it, we had been running out of time. I didn’t think it then but maybe in some way the arrival of the police, the sudden end, had been a mercy.
I don’t remember very much about the race to the river, scrambling down the bank in the darkness, somehow finding the boat and clambering on board. I was probably in shock. I think Jamie untied the ropes, or maybe it was me, but the next thing we were pulling away with the engine under my feet and a sense of total disbelief. How had the Traveller kept the boat in working condition without anyone finding out? Where had he got the fuel? I was standing there in the pitch-darkness when he asked me to take the tiller so that he could go inside and talk to Jamie, and I nearly fell overboard. How could I possibly steer a huge boat like the Lady Jane when I had never been on or in the river, not so much as to get my feet wet? I wanted to refuse but he didn’t give me a chance and suddenly I found myself standing there, my eyes fixed on the water ahead.
“The secret is not to do too much,” he said. “Small turns! Don’t push too hard. I’ll be right back.”
And then he was gone and I was on my own. At first, I was angry. How could he just leave me like that? But almost at once I understood what had really been in his mind. I was so focused on what I was doing, so desperate not to crash into either of the banks, that I had to leave all my other emotions behind. It was exactly what I needed and I found a kind of peace, feeling the vibrations of the engine running through my hands and with the deep throb of the engine in my ears. There was something quite awesome about being in control of so much power. Even the electric light, skimming over the water, always a few feet ahead of me, was something wonderful.
I don’t suppose I was there for much more than twenty minutes, although it felt longer. Then the Traveller reappeared and told me to get some rest. I didn’t think I’d sleep. I might have been worn out but I didn’t feel tired. I started to argue but the Traveller wasn’t having any of it. “Go to bed, Holly,” he said. “You can crawl into the bunk opposite Jamie. He’s already out like a light. And you’re going to need all the sleep you can get.”
He was right. My head touched the pillow and that was that. I didn’t so much fall asleep as plummet.
When I opened my eyes, Jamie was already up and grey light was streaming in through the windows. I looked out and saw the riverbank moving slowly past, drab and muddy with just a few tufts of grass. It might once have been beautiful, only it wasn’t now. The weather was bad and the water was so very black. I didn’t have any idea what time it was. If I’d been in the village, I’d have been in the orchard by now or else I’d have heard it from Mr Bantoft, and that was my first thought that morning. I’d never hear a word from the farm manager again. Not from any of them. That was over.
I got up and made my way through the boat, making sure not to hit my head on the pots and pans that hung down from the ceiling. Everything was very low and very narrow – like a miniature house, where everything has been squeezed together. Jamie was on deck with the Traveller, the two of them standing together by the tiller.
“So you’ve finally made it!” the Traveller muttered. “You’ve missed breakfast but you’re just in time for lunch.”
Lunch? Had I really slept that long? I looked around me at the unfamiliar surroundings – fields stretching out on one side, with a thick mist hanging over the grass and a few stunted trees twisting up, and a scrubby hillside on the other. It wasn’t much of a view but for me it was new – the first time my eyes had had something new to see in fifteen years. I imagined that people coming out of prison would feel the same.
“What is for lunch?” I asked.
“Tinned salmon. Tinned tomatoes. Tinned beans. Tinned stew. It’s really whatever tin you want to open.”
We’d run out of tins in the village ages ago so the Traveller could have been describing a whole banquet as far as I was concerned.
“Are you OK, Holly?” Jamie asked.
I nodded. I should have been feeling worse but the sleep had helped – that and the distance we had come. I had managed to leave some of the nightmares behind me.
We came to a humpback bridge with a lane crossing the river and the Traveller lowered our speed and pulled in so that the old brickwork covered our heads. He seemed to know what he was doing, which was just as well because I had no idea where we were heading or what we would do when we got there.
“Take the ropes, Jamie…”
We tied up under the bridge so that if one of the helicopters happened to pass, we would be out of sight. The Traveller turned off the engine and we all went down to the galley, crowding around the table – me and Jamie on one side, the Traveller on the other. He opened various tins and also boiled the kettle and made real coffee out of a jar, which was only the second time I had ever drunk it, although I’m sorry to say I didn’t much like the taste. The salmon was amazing though; soft and juicy and filling. It made my head spin to think that the river might once have been teeming with fish like this.
So there we were, the three of us, sitting in that cramped but cosy living space, hidden under the bridge, perhaps forty or fifty miles from the village. I waited for the Traveller to speak and eventually he did.
“My name is Graham,” he said. “You can call me that, if you
like. I was talking to Jamie last night. I’m with an organization – you might call it a secret society – that wants to help him.” That made sense. I had never met anyone who looked more secretive than the Traveller. Those dark eyes of his had never given anything away. “The society is called the Nexus. Jamie knows about it and he knows he can trust me.”
I was sensible enough not to say anything just yet. Anyway, my mouth was full. It had been full more or less from the moment I had sat down.
“The Nexus are waiting for us,” he said. “We just have to get to the Sheerwall Tunnel, which is on the edge of London – and this is the best way. As I said to Jamie last night, the canals have always been hidden away. They were almost forgotten, even ten years ago. And the good news is that the police don’t know we’re on a boat … otherwise, they’d have been after us already.”
“So what’s the bad news?” I asked.
“It’ll still take us three days to get there. Three days and three nights, travelling non-stop. We’re going to have to take turns at the tiller. You did a good job last night, Holly. First we have to get off the river and into the canal system. We’re about a mile from the Four Ways lock.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“I came this way seven years ago. Of course, it was all very different then. Things were bad but they quickly got a lot worse as the food stocks ran out and the seeds stopped growing. The lock may have been vandalized. It may not be working. If that’s the case, we’ll have to abandon the boat and continue on foot.”
He reached down and to my surprise he produced two guns – heavy pistols – which he laid down on the table with a clunk. They looked completely bizarre, sitting there, next to the plates of food. One was for Jamie, one for me.
“We can’t let anybody stop us,” the Traveller continued. “If anyone sees the boat moving or hears the engine, they’ll know we have fuel. There was a time when people might have helped us. Not any more. We have to assume that everybody is our enemy and that they’ll kill us for what we have. So if I tell you to shoot, you mustn’t hesitate. Holly, you know I wanted to leave you behind and I’m not going to apologize for that. My job is to get Jamie to London and that’s all that matters.”
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