Darwin reached her a couple of steps before the front door.
His arm grabbed her around the neck.
She yanked her elbow back hard, connecting with his stomach.
She needed to breathe.
He doubled up, his hold on her momentarily slipping.
It was enough for her to have time to reach the door and turn the handle.
He grabbed her again, more forcibly this time, his forearm pushing against her throat.
He pulled her back from the door.
"I said, come back here," he wheezed.
Maureen kept hold of the door handle and pulled it open as she was dragged backward.
It opened to let in the cold night air she so desperately craved.
It washed over her like oxygen, and she found herself taking a deep breath.
And there standing on the doorstep was a man with slightly unkempt balding hair and a half untucked shirt.
Maureen recognised him and her heart soared.
"Simon," she said, relief washing over her.
If she'd thought about it, she would have questioned what use he would have been against this colony of vampires, but at that moment in time he was her knight in shining armour.
But she felt the vampire flinch, the pressure on her neck easing a little.
She heard him gasp, as if this was a man they feared.
"Hello, Maureen," said Mr West, running a hand over his hair.
"Hello, Darwin."
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX - West’s Unexpected Gift
Mr West smiled.
He'd not wanted to believe the drone.
There had been too many random occurrences of late, too many incorrect data models for him to get excited.
But the drone had promised that he would go round and help Maureen and this gave him the perfect excuse to check.
He liked being a good neighbour.
And there he was, Darwin - presumably with Cassidy and the notebook nearby.
Darwin's immediate reaction was to leap at the door, bowling Maureen to one side as he slammed it shut in Mr West's face.
It was to be expected, he supposed.
But it was no use.
West had seen the intelligence reports, he knew that the Venefasia side-door of the gateway was locked.
The vampires had nowhere to go.
He turned and quietly walked back down Maureen's path as the sound of upheaval echoed from beyond the door.
Barricading themselves in, he concluded.
Good, that made it harder for them to escape into the night.
There would probably be some form of discussion, probably a few heated words before they started thinking about their next move.
That meant he had time... probably.
That word had seemed so disgusting to him once, the foul-mouthed curse of a heretic, but here...
here 'probably' pretty much summed up this world.
He felt a rush as he realised that he'd just made an analysis of the situation without simulation.
Humans called it "gut reaction".
He liked gut reaction.
There was something so freeing about casting aside the mathematics and just feeling the future.
It was like driving down a straight, empty road with your eyes closed: thrilling and just a little dangerous.
There was a spring in his step as he walked along the lane from Maureen’s to his own gate.
Things finally seemed to be coming together.
He'd felt betrayed when the drone had told him of Magellan and North's failed attempt to trap Darwin and Cassidy.
No, not a drone he told himself.
Referring to her as such no longer seemed apt, her work surely deemed her worthy of a name once again and Sally was as good as anything.
She'd achieved more than the combined forces of Magellan and North, a point he'd make them aware of when they arrived.
He stopped with his hand on his gate.
Did he really want to invite Magellan and North here?
Wouldn't it be better to acquire the notebook and then inform them that the task was done?
He shook his head.
No, he couldn't be sure of just how many vampires were now in Maureen's house.
He needed all available resource, which of course meant he'd get just Magellan and North.
Maybe he could talk them into bringing some heavily armed drones with them?
He didn't need gut reaction to know for certain what the outcome to that request would be.
The arrogant bastards.
There was always Sally if he needed her.
Four should be enough, even if there were twenty vampires next door.
He doubted Magellan would give her the honour of fighting beside them.
No, it was best she stay out of this, lest things went wrong and certain evidence needed destroying.
He walked up the path and into his house.
Sally stood in the hallway looking pensive.
"Well?"
"They're there," he said handing Sally his coat as he walked past.
"Now what?"
Her demeanour was sober.
What a shame she isn't willing to enjoy this victory, West thought.
The Dictatoriat stripped her of more than just her name.
"Now we call in Magellan and North."
Sally hesitated then asked as tentatively as she could, "is that wise, sir?"
Good, so they had not managed to take all sense of identity from her.
"It's perfectly wise, Sally."
He made sure to stress the use of the word 'Sally', though if it registered she was not giving anything away with her body language.
"I want them to share in the moment of our victory."
At that Sally managed a slight smile.
Mr West opened the door to the basement.
"Call them in, would you, Sally?"
She nodded and rushed off to comply as West started making his way down the stairs.
How he would have liked to have seen their faces when Sally told them.
They couldn't fail to accept his methods now.
Not only had they tried to outsmart him by launching their own trap - and failed - but now they had to witness as he captured the vampire and his cohort.
West felt very smug.
The basement looked something between an archaeological dig site and a renovation project.
The ground was covered in sand, only placed on top of the soil so that he didn't keep walking mud into the house above.
Dotted around, seemingly at random, scaffolding supported the house above, planks on the floor stopping the scaffolding sinking into the dirt.
On three sides there were dirt walls, the occasional bit of the foundations showing through.
On the fourth, the side that adjoined Maureen's basement, the wall had been revealed and carefully thinned.
In the centre, the back of the gateway swirled, different colours emerging and disappearing.
It had taken Mr West months to excavate this basement, the sounds of power drills and hammers in the spare bedroom upstairs used to mask the real work that had gone on.
From here they could safely study the gateway without fear of discovery.
West had to admit that it was both a thing of pure beauty and a freak of nature.
He knew what it was: a wormhole, a tear in the world.
His people made use of them, opening wormholes to travel great distances instantaneously. Yet he also knew how brief they were able to sustain them for, and the ridiculous amount of energy they could take.
There had been strong objections to the fleet coming here simply on the basis that the outward journey alone would take more than three years of his entire world's energy consumption.
Of course, they had come here not knowing what they would find, if anything.
Then they had found this.
Here was a wormhole that didn't just tear space, it tore dimensions.
He'd had people supply him with maps of stars, and used it together with what was known about the universe to try and pinpoint Venefasia's location.
Nothing matched.
Wherever Venefasia was it wasn't in this dimension.
That discovery in itself was mind-blowing but his people didn't care.
Their only concern was the primary mission.
Then there was the fact that the gateway maintained itself and by all accounts had done so for at least hundreds of years.
And not just one.
There were hundreds, if not thousands of these gateways, not all of them controlled by the Friary.
He walked up to and placed his palm less than an inch from the swirling air.
He wanted to place his hand through but knew better than to do so.
Wormholes had directions, enter one the wrong way and who knows where you went... certainly somewhere you never returned from.
He closed his eyes, trying to sense the gateway.
Maybe a slight breeze?
A sense of power?
No, there was nothing.
He opened his eyes and turned to see Sally standing at the bottom of the stairs.
He offered her a weak smile.
"Have you contacted Magellan?"
As if in response the air shimmered and Magellan faded into the room.
How different their teleportation technology seemed to the gateway in front of him.
It was the same science, or at least the tests he'd conducted since revealing the back of it appeared to indicate it was.
How little they really knew about these gateways.
Still, in a couple of minutes the notebook would be theirs, Ernest's years of observations being added to their science.
Perhaps the mystery of how the gateways stayed open would be revealed.
There was a second shimmer and Mr North stepped into view.
His head and arm was bandaged.
Sally had said he'd lost a tentacle in the fight.
West found himself instinctively reaching for his own arm, memories of his injury at Nanny Voodoo's still fresh in his mind.
West hailed his superior.
Magellan's body language betrayed him as always and West almost had to stifle a smirk at Magellan's obvious discomfort at being here.
"Where are they?" Magellan growled.
West pointed at the wall.
"Just through here."
"Good.
Let's get this over and done with once and for all.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN - Betrayal
Darwin's world was crashing down around him.
It had seemed like such a simple plan: grab the minibus, ferry everyone to the gateway and out into Venefasia.
But then D'Toeni had proved himself to be an arsehole, taken a dislike to Cassidy and started a fight. Cassidy had managed to drop the notebook, send the old dear into hysterics and running for the door.
And just when things couldn't get worse, who was standing there but one of the men who had been chasing him.
Without thinking, he pushed past Maureen and slammed the door shut in the man's face.
Back to the door he tried to think fast.
He'd seen what had come out of the head of Mr North back in Swindon.
No way was a simple door going to hold them back.
Maureen, recovering from being pushed aside, called to the door.
"Mr West, please help."
Darwin pushed her back and then grabbed at a bookcase and pulled.
It toppled, spilling books onto the floor before becoming wedged at an angle across the hall.
Darwin repeated the exercise with a second bookcase.
Monk poked his head out of the cupboard under the stairs.
"What's going on?"
"We've got company," Darwin replied, grabbing Maureen's wrist and dragging her toward the cellar stairs.
She tried to resist but Darwin tugged at her to enforce his superiority.
"Cassidy," he said, the girl watching from the entrance to the kitchen, "get downstairs."
In her hands, she clutched the notebook.
"Simon, please!" Maureen screamed as Darwin dragged her across the hall.
She was frantic.
"Send help."
Cassidy knotted her eyebrows.
"What?" Darwin barked.
Did Cassidy expect him to show compassion when she was screaming the street down?
He was trying to save all their lives right now.
Did she not understand that?
Cassidy said nothing and stomped down the stairs.
Oh great
, thought Darwin,
I'm in for another lecture
.
Whatever he did seemed to upset somebody, and frankly Cassidy was acting like a spoilt brat.
The vampires would kill Maureen anyway, why was she worried whether he was a bit rough with her?
It was Cassidy's fault the vampires were all pissy with him.
D'Toeni might be a dick, but he was a dick they all respected.
So what did Cassidy do?
Pick a fight with him.
Had she not been driving, he should have just left D'Toeni to it.
It just seemed to him that Cassidy was getting in his way of trying to earn the respect of his fellow vampires.
It wasn't deliberate - at least it didn't feel like it was - she just clouded things up, got in the way.