City of Halves (12 page)

Lily watched him go, standing up slowly. She looked at the can in her hand with suspicion. He jumped on to his motorbike, started it and roared off up towards Shoreditch, blue lights flashing. As he approached the lights they turned red. The bike's siren came on and he shot through the traffic, disappearing under the old railway bridge.

Lily walked back towards Bishopsgate, dumping the can in a litter bin. Regan appeared from the churchyard and fell in step with her.

‘Was it him?'

‘Yes.' Lily dusted her hands off on the backside of her jeans. She explained about putting the app on to the phone. ‘So –' she pulled out her own phone – ‘in theory, all I have to do is install it on
my
phone, and we can see exactly where
his
phone is.'

Regan watched her download the app and key in a PIN. ‘How did you learn all this? Do they teach you in school?'

Lily concentrated on the phone. ‘No. And it's a long story. But it really started when Ellie Watts wanted to know where her boyfriend went when he said he was going to extra tuition.'

‘Was he going to extra tuition?'

‘No.' Lily turned the phone to him. On the screen was a map with a red flashing dot. ‘He's exactly where he said he would be. On Shoreditch High Street.'

‘You sound as if you like him.'

She shrugged. ‘He seemed nice. And we don't know he's done anything wrong. Yet.'

He looked at her. ‘No. Come on. Let's get something to eat.'

They ate noodles and hot soup in a Japanese cafe near the station that was full of Shoreditch hipsters. Lily glanced around at the cool crowd, with their unusual clothes and extensive tattoos. ‘You know, you fit right in here.'

Regan said nothing, just pretended to stab her through the back of the hand with a chopstick. She grabbed it and they had a half-hearted tug of war before Lily laughed and let it go.

‘And you know you need to get a phone.'

He shook his head and pushed her bowl towards her before picking up his own. ‘I manage fine without.'

‘I bet the Agency uses them. And all the technology they can get their hands on. Why give them the advantage? And it would make it a lot easier to keep in touch with Lucas.'

‘Only if he had one too, which is about as likely to happen as I am to be struck by lightning.'

Lily sat back, studying him. He continued eating, ignoring her scrutiny. ‘Deliberately staying in the nineteenth century won't help you.'

‘Eighteenth,' he said without looking up.

‘What?'

‘Eighteenth century. It's when Lucas and Elijah were alive. They're pretty much stuck there.'

‘Doesn't mean you have to be. Is that the real reason you don't have electricity?'

He changed the subject. ‘This is really good.'

‘You like Japanese food?'

He shrugged. ‘I like anything I don't have to cook myself. And hot. In that order.'

Lily picked up her bowl, warming her hands on it, washing down the noodles with the savoury soup. On the wall was a large, peeling poster of Hello Kitty. ‘I come here with Dad sometimes. He knows all the best places to eat. Particularly the ones that serve you quickly. And lots of it.'

Regan finished the last of his food and started on Lily's leftover noodles, which she'd pushed away.

She watched him. ‘Are you usually this hungry?'

He stopped eating, looking guilty. ‘You didn't want it, did you?'

Shaking her head, she laughed.

‘I just eat whatever's in front of me. Old habit.'

She raised an eyebrow.

‘Living with Lucas and Elijah. They don't need food.'

‘So what did you eat?'

‘I did fine. The amount of food thrown away around here every day is incredible.'

‘You ate . . . food that other people had thrown away?' she asked hesitantly.

‘I ate what I could get. We aren't all the children of rich lawyers.'

‘My father isn't rich.
We're
not rich. We don't own our flat, and he does legal aid a lot of the time. We don't even have a car. I told you, my parents grew up in care. They came from nothing. The only thing Dad spends money on is me and food, and that's only because he's always trying to get me to eat more. Everyone in Temple treats us like a charity case, because of what happened to my mum, and because my dad is amazing at what he does, even though it doesn't make money like criminal law. He's never taken a holiday since I was born. The Rookery is worth a fortune. Millions. You're far richer than we are,' Lily said in a rush, the guilt she felt over her father's lifestyle making her snap.

He looked at her for a long time, then shrugged. ‘Irrelevant. It's not for sale. Ever.'

Silence.

‘You really are close to your father, aren't you, defending him like that?'

‘Yes. He's the world's most decent man. He spends his life fighting for people who have no one else to help them. That's
why I need to find Harris Stedman. And at least I know he was in Hackney now, no thanks to you.'

Regan raised an eyebrow.

A thought struck her. ‘Is he Eldritche?'

He shook his head. ‘No. He's a weaselly, dishonest excuse for a human being.'

Lily bit her lip, her palms on the formica-topped table. He sat back, finished.

‘You don't like us humans very much, do you?'

He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. ‘I like you, don't I?'

‘Most of the time I really can't tell.' Her phone buzzed on the table between them. She looked at it. ‘He's on the move. Back in this direction. No, slightly east. He's stopped again. Near the fire station. It's probably the depot, or wherever they're based, don't you think?'

Regan looked at his watch. It was old, a vintage thing with a canvas strap. Lily looked closer. It was like a pocket watch with the case pierced out so that the hands were visible beneath. She wondered how she hadn't noticed it before.

He saw her looking. ‘Elijah collects old watches. He's obsessed with the passing of time. He gave it to me when I left the bookshop. Almost three. Clocking off?'

‘Maybe.'

They pulled on their coats and headed out of the warmth of the cafe. Lily shivered in the frozen air. A frost was settling back on the City. People headed back in their droves towards Liverpool Street, heads down against the cold. Regan, wearing only the thin Henley beneath his coat, seemed unaffected. He tugged up the wide hood, hiding his face.

They soon found the fire station. Jack was letting himself out
of a side door, dressed in jeans and a jumper and a thick duffel coat. He turned left and began to walk quickly back into the City.

‘That's him,' Lily said, pointing. ‘We'd better hang back a bit. He thinks I've gone home. To Chiswick.'

They followed at a careful distance. Jack took the main roads back into the City. Lily and Regan kept well behind him, without ever losing sight of him. After ten minutes, they ended up back at the Bank of England, where Jack headed down into Bank tube station. Lily and Regan followed.

‘Do you have a pass?' Lily asked, pulling her travelcard from her bag.

He tugged one from his back pocket. ‘Yep. Thanks to Sid and his adventures.'

They followed Jack through the barriers.

On the downward escalator, Lily turned around, lifting her chin to look up at Regan. ‘We'll have to stick closer to him here.'

‘Why?'

‘This place is a nightmare. You have to go along the platforms of one line to get to another.

He nodded. ‘Yes. But depends which line he takes.'

‘We could lose him. The tracker doesn't work down here.'

He tilted his head, not taking his eyes from Jack's back. ‘We won't lose him.'

At the bottom of the escalator, Jack took a left turn on to the Central Line platform but he didn't stop and wait for the train, instead following the arrows towards the Northern Line. The platform was relatively crowded, and he threaded in and out of the knots of commuters.

The billboards on the other side of the tunnel advertised for blood donors, large red letters on white backgrounds. From tomorrow, mobile blood-donation centres would open in the City for a week. Lily's brain registered the date printed on one of the huge posters, and the caduceus in the bottom right-hand corner.
Trickery, theft
. Regan ducked in front of her, striding through the crowds of people in his usual fashion. Lily hurried in his wake, pushing when they closed ranks. Then Regan stopped and turned to her.

‘I'll get on to the next carriage. If he's working for the Agency, he could well recognise me. You stick close to him.'

‘But he knows who I am too! I should have been on the Central Line to Chiswick an hour ago,' Lily protested.

‘Tell him you got lost in the station and then saw him. It's plausible enough. Stick close to him. I won't be far away.'

He moved into the crowd. The far end of the platform was congested and Jack walked along the yellow line, close to the edge, to avoid the crush of people. Lily pushed and edged her way closer to Jack, until she was just behind his left shoulder. The rails began to rattle far off in the dark.

Lights appeared in the tunnel. The crowds of people on the platform stirred as a hot, metallic wind signalled the arrival of the train. Jack, only a foot in front of Lily, was looking down at the phone in his hand, checking the time. He was standing right at the edge of the platform.

As the train charged from the tunnel a hand reached over Lily's shoulder, sending Jack falling with a quick shove. Falling out over the track, into the path of the oncoming train.

Time seemed to slow down. Jack twisted in the air in a futile attempt to save himself. Lily grabbed for him, their fingers
clashing but failing to grip. In that second, a strong hand caught the scruff of her jacket and hauled her backwards.

The noise of the impact was deafening. Then the noise from the people crowding the platform, the collective intake of breath. The driver braked instantly, but Jack's body had already been pulled beneath the wheels and on to the live rail. As thousands of volts charged through his mangled corpse, there was an explosion of sparks, then flame as his coat ignited and began to burn fiercely. Wisps of black smoke carried the smell of burning flesh to those on the platform. A woman began to scream.

Lily tried to turn, but the hand on the back of her collar was immensely strong. Mayhem erupted on the platform all around them.

She wriggled. ‘Let me go.'

Abruptly, she was released. Turning, she saw the back of a tall man with black hair, wearing a black motorcycle jacket with a caduceus pattern spread across his shoulders, stamped into the leather. He moved through the crush easily, pushing through people like water. As he passed under the ‘way out' sign, he turned slightly and Lily saw his profile. She frowned. Perhaps Gamble wasn't as confused as Regan thought . . .

The man stepped into the exit tunnel and was lost from sight.

Regan appeared at her side. ‘What the hell happened?'

She jumped. ‘We have to get out of here,' Lily said. ‘The . . . I can't explain here. Someone pushed him. It's the Agency, I know it is.'

Regan almost towed her through the crowd, pushing people out of the way if they didn't move quickly enough. It became almost impossible to take a step as the exodus began. As she
passed the first exit tunnel, she glanced into it, but she couldn't see anything but the coat and shoulder pack of the man in front of her. Announcements came over the tannoy, but the noise of the crowd was too much to make out what it was saying. The scorched smell was overpowering.

At last they made it to the exit, the bottleneck suddenly clearing as people ran for the escalators. There was no sign of the man in black. They made it out of the barriers and went back the way they had come in. By the exit Lily noticed a large dragon mural built into the tiles by the designers of the station.

They ran up the final few stairs into the fresh, cold air.

Regan threw his hands up and cursed. ‘Did you see his face?'

Lily tried to catch her breath. ‘I—'

Regan's jaw tightened. ‘I can't believe I lost him,' he burst out angrily.

Past his shoulder, by the Mansion House, Lily caught sight of a black van creeping forward. ‘They haven't lost us. Behind you,' she said, ‘that van. It's them. They've seen us.'

He didn't look, but took her arm. ‘Come on, then. Let's give them a run for their money.'

They began to walk swiftly down the fortified western wall of the Bank of England.

‘Where are we going?'

‘The dragon's lair.'

‘What?'

‘We'll be fine.'

At the end of the street they arrived at a busy junction, with roads coming from all directions and a broken traffic cone acting as a makeshift roundabout. The van was in a short queue of traffic behind them, and as they crossed the road the light
turned green and it followed them. Regan pulled up his hood and walked into a narrow alley to the north of the massive blank-walled Bank of England, off the ancient street called Lothbury, Lily on his heels. The van immediately turned in after them, lighting them up in the headlamps and making it hard for Lily to see ahead of her in the glare. Regan seemed unfazed, and led her and the van deeper into a maze of small streets. Most of them had only a few doorways, and the windows were high, well above Lily's head.

‘Where are we going?'

‘Nowhere. Look up.'

Lily glanced up at the dark sky. She saw nothing, then a flash of silver streaked between the buildings high above them, a lashing tail just visible for a second as the dragon landed, cat-like, on the edge of an old office building.

‘It knows we're here,' she said, staring.

‘Yep. It will also know they're here. And my bet is, it won't be happy about that. Plus, it'll be getting hungry as it wakes.'