James Munkers (8 page)

‘Human child,' Jem supplies. ‘Going to change the balance between good and evil.'

‘“Human child”,' I scoff. ‘What's that supposed to mean?'

Jem is quiet for a moment. ‘It means,' he says eventually, ‘that the people out on the football field aren't from Earth.'

We stare at each other, then down at the dead body lolling in the chair He's not serious. Mr Barrack is an
alien
?

‘You don't think he's going to come alive again or anything, do you?' I ask, jumping off the desk and backing away. ‘Or a squid thing is going to tear out of his chest and attack us?'

‘I doubt it. I don't think the Rambler would have left us here with it if it was going to do anything like that.'

‘We still don't know if we can trust him,' I say.

‘He saved our lives. He's one of the good guys.'

‘With a name like “the Rambler”? That's totally an evil guy name. If he's good he'd have a name like “the Stroller”, or “the Power Walker”.'

‘My name,' a voice from the doorway says, ‘is Will. And thanks for asking.'

Oops! He's back, and carrying a stretcher.

‘You can hear your voices all the way down the hall. Do either of you remember me telling you to shut it?'

‘Sorry,' Jem says. ‘Just talking.'

‘Well it's lucky for you that we've diverted everyone up towards the back of the school, otherwise you'd be talking to Saint Peter.' He whacks me in the chest with one end of the stretcher. ‘Here. Grab an end.'

‘Where'd you get this?'

‘I found the sick bay. I also found the door leading down to the boiler room.' He reaches under the body's arms and lifts. ‘Time to dispose of the evidence,' he grunts.

Five minutes later we're inching our way down some stairs to the basement. Will goes first with the light, I come next holding one end of the stretcher and Jem brings up the rear with the other. At one point Jem almost loses his footing, the stretcher wobbles between us and Mr Barrack ends up sliding down until he's draped around my neck.

‘Sorry,' Jem says.

‘Eugh mehn!' I reply, the skin on my back crawling.

The staircase is too narrow to do anything about it just now, so we keep going until we reach the bottom and Will pulls the body back into position. Then it's a simple matter of opening a burning hot furnace and shoving a one-hundred-kilogram man into it without singeing our faces off. Easy.

‘Congratulations, lads,' Will says, mopping sweat off his brow. ‘You've just dispatched your first Hoarder.'

‘Cheers.'

‘Glad we could help.'

‘Is it always this arduous?' I ask as we climb the stairs back to the ground floor.

‘Well, if you had anything approaching magical aptitude, it would have been a lot easier. You've got a lot of getting better to do.'

‘I'm still not sure I'm your guy,' I say, reaching for the door handle at the top of the stairs. ‘I tried to do something earlier, but nothing –'

The door handle turns as I'm about to touch it. The door opens. A hooded figure is standing before me on the other side. I gasp in fright. A flash of blue bursts in front of me and slams the door shut.

I have a split second to think, ‘Hey, I did it,' before I go flying backwards. Past Jem. Past Will. I crash down the stairs and knock myself unconscious.

I wake up to Jeremy slapping me in the face. It doesn't make me feel any better.

‘I think he's coming round,' he says to someone.

‘About time – it wasn't that big a staircase.' It's the Rambler, Will. He's sitting behind the steering wheel of a car, and I'm slumped on the back seat with Jem hovering over me. How did I get here? I guess they carried me here after I fell. After I attacked the thing at the top of the stairs.

‘Did I get it?' I ask groggily. ‘The thing on the other side of the door?'

‘Oh, you got it,' says a new voice. I turn my head to see Pippa Green staring at me from the front passenger seat. She's holding a bloody handkerchief up to her temple.

‘What are you doing here?'

‘Saving your life, you ungrateful sod,' Will replies for her. ‘Who did you think was charging about diverting the Hoarders away from us?'

‘I don't know. I guess I figured it was those other guys. The good guys. What did you call them?'

‘Guardians. And allow me to introduce you to one,' he says, gesturing to Pippa.

‘You're a Guardian?' I say to her.

‘Well, what did you think I was?'

‘We just figured you were crazy,' Jem says. Straight shooter, Jem.

‘Good. It suits me to be thought of as crazy,' Pippa Green says. ‘It means I get away with doing all manner of things.'

I pull myself into a sitting position. Ow, my head. ‘So, are Guardians aliens as well?' I ask through the pain.

‘As well as what?'

‘Hoarders. We got the impression that they were outer-spacey from the whole “human child” prophecy thing.'

Pippa looks at Will. ‘You didn't do a stellar job at explaining all this, did you?'

‘Hey, I was busy being stealthy. Well, as much as I could with two loud-mouthed teenagers in tow.'

Pippa shakes her head. ‘You drive. I'll spill.' She climbs into the backseat between me and Jem as Will starts the car. ‘Seatbelts, please,' she tells us as she does up her own. I'd never thought of aliens as the buckle-up sort.

Once we're on our way she turns to me. ‘You're a smart lad, James. What do you know about String Theory?'

‘We're having a physics lecture now?'

‘It's relevant,' she says.

I sigh, and try to think through the pounding in my head. ‘Well, which one? There are five string theories. They're all trying to explain the make-up of the universe – how it all works, how it all fits together – but none of them explain everything. Someone's gone and joined them all in an overriding theory called M-Theory, which has got the closest to describing all the different dimensions that make up the world. I think they've found eleven dimensions all together.'

‘They have,' Pippa says, ‘but they've missed a few. There's a twelfth and thirteenth. That's where the Guardians and the Hoarders come from.'

‘They're from other dimensions?'

Pippa nods. ‘They're dimensions that are made up primarily of energy. When Guardians and Hoarders pass to this dimension they retain a connection to the energy of their own dimension, which gives them their power.' She takes the handkerchief away from her head and holds it out in her hand. Little white pinpricks of light start dancing over it and it lifts gently off her hand to float in front of her.

‘Cool,' Jem says, prodding it experimentally with his finger.

‘Hang on,' I say to Will as he steers us around a sharp bend. ‘If Guardians can do that floaty thing, why in God's name were we hefting a dead body all over campus? Why didn't you just float it about?'

‘Whoever said I was a Guardian?' he replies without looking around.

‘What are you then?'

‘Will's an ex-Hoarder,' Pippa says.

Does she mean he used to be evil? Doesn't surprise me.

‘So how come you're helping us?' Jem asks him.

‘It's a bitch of a thing called redemption,' Will says. ‘Since I lost my own power, I'm doomed to scurry about in the mud of Ouse helping my old enemies.' He takes his eyes off the road then, to turn and look at me. ‘Which means I'm not a big fan of yours.'

‘What's wrong with me?' I ask. Probably a lot, by his standards.

‘The power,' he says, turning away again. ‘I'm supposed to have it, and you're jolly not. No one from this dimension is supposed to have the power of the other dimensions.'

My heart sinks. ‘What are you saying? That I'm just one big mistake?' I wonder if everyone who's ever beaten me up could sense that, somehow.

‘No,' Pippa says, shaking her head. ‘You were meant to happen. You've heard about the prophecy?'

I nod slowly. ‘Something about changing the balance? I don't even know what that means.'

‘It means you can end a war – a war that's been going on for generations, that's threatened the very fabric of existence in every dimension. It means you're probably the most important person on the planet.' She looks me deep in the eyes. ‘It means you're going to save the world.'

She's got to be joking.

‘I really, really don't think I am.'

‘Aw, go on,' Jem says. ‘You'd be great.'

‘We're not talking about me trying out for the lead in the school play, Jeremy,' I snap. Then I look at Pippa. ‘Listen, I'm sorry about your Hoarder problem or whatever, but I really think you've got the wrong guy. I'm just a loser kid with no friends –'

‘Hey!'

‘–
one
friend, a mad family, no athletic abilities and an overactive imagination. I mean, I see imaginary blue creatures, for crying out loud.'

Pippa pulls a bit of paper out of her pocket. ‘You mean these imaginary blue creatures?' she says, handing it to me.

I unfold the paper and peer at it in the gloom. It's a print-out of the photo of me causing havoc in my English class back in London. I'm in mid-flight across the classroom, and there are glowing blue creatures all around me.

‘Hey, you can see them!' I exclaim. ‘You can see the blue animals.'

‘What blue animals?' Jem says, peering over Pippa's shoulder to get a better look at the paper.

‘You mean you can't see them?'

‘Humans can't see them,' Pippa says. ‘Nor can Hoarders. Your power is from the Twelfth Dimension, so only you and the Guardians would have been able to see it while it was in its inactive state.'

‘Hang on,' I say. ‘You told me you couldn't see the animals.'

‘No I didn't.'

‘Yes you did. That night in my garden. I said, “Nice cat,” and you said, “What cat?” You couldn't see it.'

‘Of course I could,' she says, ‘but it wasn't a cat. It was a manifestation of your excess power.'

‘You mean his power is leaking out in the form of fluffy blue animals?' Will says, and once more turns to stare at me. The car goes careering across the road. ‘What kind of a pansy superhero are you?'

I ignore him. ‘Where did you get this?' I ask, waving the piece of paper in Pippa's face.

‘Off the internet.'

‘You've been looking for me on the internet?'

‘We've been looking for you everywhere. As I said, you're of great importance to us. The question is,' she says, narrowing her eyes, ‘why are the Hoarders interested in you?'

‘Well, wouldn't they be?' Jem asks. ‘If this prophecy is true and Jim can tip the balance in either direction, wouldn't they want him just as badly as the Guardians do?'

‘They would,' Pippa replies, ‘if they knew anything about the prophecy.'

‘They don't know about it?'

‘They shouldn't. It's been a closely guarded secret for more than a century.'

Jem whistles. ‘Then someone's talked?'

‘Or they've found out about James's power some other way, but there's no way of knowing how much they know. They may not even realise it's James. If it wasn't for that photo, we wouldn't have found him ourselves.'

‘Well, one of them threw a dagger at my head,' I remind her. ‘That's a pretty clear sign they're after me, right?'

‘
One
of them,' Will says. ‘One of them threw a dagger at you, and we took care of him. Believe me, if all the Hoarders knew who you were and wanted to kill you, you'd be well dead by now.'

Oh, yay.

‘What about those other Hoarders on the football field after that?' Jem asks.

‘Well, they obviously caught the light show, didn't they? A power source that wasn't from a Guardian or Hoarder? Of course they came running.'

‘So what do we do?' I ask.

Pippa turns to face me. ‘We go on full-scale alert,' she says. ‘We assume nothing. We collect as much information about the Hoarders' interest in you, if any, that we can. We put up a protection shield around your house and watch your every move, as well as everyone else's. We check into the background of everyone you come in contact with. And, most importantly, we run a full diagnostic on you and your powers: where they come from, how you got them and what you can do with them. The fate of the world rests on your abilities, so we need to find out as much as we can about them.'

‘Can't I just go home?'

She stares at me for ages, and I wonder if she's going to yell at me. Then she shrugs. ‘For now, yes. You should get some rest.' She taps Will on the shoulder and he pulls to the side of the road. Pippa clambers over me to get out of the car, and stands on the pavement with the door open.

‘Do you know what the “M” in M-Theory stands for?' she asks me.

‘Well, the guy who came up with it didn't say,' I answer. ‘People have suggested that it could stand for mega, or mother, or…' I look up at her.

‘Magic,' she finishes for me. She shuts the door and disappears into the night.

Will said I'd be safe once I'm inside the house, but the second I set foot in the door the monsters converge.

‘Where the hell have you been?' Michael roars.

‘It's been hours!' Mum screeches.

‘We've been looking everywhere.'

‘Do you know how worried we've been?'

I'm pretty sure I trump them on being worried this evening, but I wisely keep my mouth shut on that score. I shrug. ‘Jem and I were practising football all evening.'

‘Don't lie to us,' Mum snaps. ‘Dad went to the football field, and do you know what he found?'

Oh God. What did he find? A pool of blood? A patch of vomit? A nice shiny dagger? A fine collection of extra-dimensional baddies?

‘Your
jumper
.'

I laugh out loud in relief. This is, of course, a mistake. I've never seen either of them look so angry.

‘Tell us the truth, mister,' Michael says. ‘Now.'

Not likely.

‘We were practising football,' I say. Which, come to think of it, is true. ‘But then we finished. And went for a walk. And got lost.'

‘Jeremy's lived here his whole life, James. How could he get lost for hours on end?'

‘No, well, he found out where we were real soon. But then, ah, we, ah, came across a friend of Jem's. Will. He, er, his car had broken down. Yeah, flat tyre. And we stopped to help him fix it.'

They don't say anything. They just stare.

‘Because we're helpful,' I clarify. ‘It took a while because it was dark. And then he drove us home. Because he's nice.'

Mum snorts in a steadying dose of oxygen. ‘So what you're telling us is that you've spent the evening hanging around in a car in the dark with a strange man?'

Oh. I didn't think of it like that.

‘Well, the word “strange”, it doesn't really –'

‘Enough,' Michael snaps. ‘You can stand there telling us tales all night, James, but it doesn't change the fact that you're irresponsible, disrespectful and a liar. Now go to your room.'

Did he just send me to my room? How old does he think I am? I haven't been sent to my room since… since…

Suddenly I'm standing in a different house in front of a different father.
James, go to your room!
he yells at me.
Go! NOW!
And he yells on, words I can't catch, that I don't understand, but I know that if he keeps going he'll disappear and I won't be able to find him, no matter how hard I try.

But he'll never stop. He's been yelling in my head for more than ten years.

‘STOP IT!' I scream. ‘JUST STOP IT!'

There's a ringing silence, and for a dreadful moment I think I've lost another father, that he's disappeared like the last one. Then my vision clears and I see him standing in front of me. I exhale in relief.

He doesn't look so happy.

‘Don't you ever raise your voice to me!' Michael shouts. ‘You're grounded for a month, young man.'

I stand there in the middle of the room, digesting this speech. For a few seconds I feel as guilty as he thinks I am. Then I remember what happened tonight – what I've seen, what I've been told – and resentment surges through me. I storm down the hallway without another word. Grounded for a month, huh? Well, let's hope the world doesn't need saving anytime soon, then.

When I get to my room the door slams behind me without my even touching it, and the force of it makes me stumble down the steps onto the floor. Looking down, I see dark blue electricity playing around my fingers. It looks like anger brings this on as well as fear. Different colour, though. I lie down on my bed and try to breathe deeply, figuring I'd better calm down. The lightning's just disappeared when there's a soft knock on my door.

‘Go away,' I call.

The door opens anyway. It's Claire. I should have known. Telling her to go away never works. She sits down at the top of the stairs looking worried but determined.