The Unknown Spy (14 page)

At least everyone else is asleep, he thought as he followed the path toward the summerhouse, yawning as he went.

B
ut not everyone was tucked up in bed. The door of the boys’ Roosts opened without a sound and a figure in a trench coat slipped in, closing the door behind him. The fire in the stove had almost gone out and the room was dark, but the tall man moved catlike down the center of the room. He stopped at the cubicle where Les slept and drew a gun equipped with a bulbous silencer from his shoulder holster. He aimed and squeezed the trigger three times, each shot sounding like a muffled cough. Three small holes appeared in the blanket at chest height. Then the Unknown Spy slipped quietly from the room. He might have forgotten his own name, but he had forgotten none of his skills. His wife’s murder had been avenged.

D
anny and Dixie waited with Devoy. The taxi drove out from behind the pile of debris.

“I sent you out once before,” Devoy said, “withholding much of what I knew about what you were facing.
This is different. No one now lives who knows much of the kingdom of Morne. We do know that the kingdom is always hidden by extreme weather, so look for great storms, floods and other natural phenomena. Protect the Treaty Stone if you can, steal it if you must, but do not let it be broken!”

The taxi rattled to a stop. Devoy opened the back door. Danny and Dixie threw their bags in and climbed in after.

“I have told Fairman to bring you to your house,” Devoy said to Danny. “At least you know the territory there. After that you’re on your own.”

Danny was torn. The people he had known as his parents had cheated him, yet one part of him longed to see them, while another part longed for revenge.

“Go with care,” Devoy cried, “go like shadows in the night, go like spies.”

Dirty smoke billowing from the exhaust, the cab trundled off into the night, merging with the darkness.

M
any miles away in the fortress of Grist, deep in the Lower World, Ambrose Longford reached for a decanter and poured another glass of honey-colored dessert wine for Nurse Flanagan. The remains of a meal sat on the table in front of them. Longford lit a cigar from the candelabra on the table.

“Is the trap set?” Nurse Flanagan inquired languidly.

“I believe so.”

“Conal was a fool, sending Seraphim to attack the boy’s house,” Nurse Flanagan said. “Everything could have been lost.”

“Perhaps,” Longford said, “but it keeps the Cherbs in line—this failure has shown them that brute force is not the way.”

“No,” Nurse Flanagan said, raising her glass, “your way is always best, Ambrose—subtle and devious.”

“A compliment indeed,” Longford said, raising his own glass in return.

“We shall have the boy this time,” Nurse Flanagan said, “and the treaty will be broken.”

“Even though I say so myself,” Longford said, puffing on his cigar, “it is an excellent idea.”

MACARI’S ORIGINAL! REALLY NOURISHING AND EXCELLENT!

T
he taxi hurtled through the night, swaying from side to side. Dixie tried to engage Fairman in conversation but gave up after ten minutes of nothing but grunts from the cabdriver.

“Where are we?” Dixie peered through the glass into the darkness beyond.

“I think they’re called the Darklands,” Danny said. He knew the journey would be long and uncomfortable, so he wedged himself into a corner and tried to doze. In a few hours he’d be back home. Dangerous as Wilsons was becoming, he began to long for its shadowy halls.

“I like adventures,” Dixie said, “do you like adventures? I think they’re the best thing in the whole world.”

“Put a sock in it, Dixie,” Danny said. “I know you’re excited, but there’s a limit.”

On and on the journey went, the back of the ancient cab getting colder as the night wore on. Danny was warm in his trench coat, but he could see his breath in the air, and Dixie’s lips were turning blue. He took the coat off and spread it over both of them.

“That’s cozy,” Dixie said. “Do I get a story?”

“I don’t have any good stories,” Danny said shortly. Suddenly Dixie sat bolt upright.

“You are going to Morne as a student of the Lower World, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“But they forgot to tell me what I’m supposed to be a student of!”

“You’ll think of something,” Danny said. Dixie stared out the window, frowning.

“I know,” she said. “I’ll be a student of the Upper World. Tell me about it!”

So Danny told her about everything he could think of, including cars and planes, cell phones and televisions. Dixie’s eyes grew wider and wider, her expression more and more childlike. As he told her about tanks and warplanes and atom bombs, her hand crept out from under the coat and took his.

“Do people in your world really do such terrible things?” she asked. “Please don’t tell me any more.”

In a moment she was asleep. It took Danny a lot longer, but in the end he too was lulled by the endless motion of the cab.

* * *

T
hey were awakened with a jolt and thrown forward so that they slid off the seat and onto the floor.

“What …?” Danny cried as his head slipped into the foul-smelling space under the seats, Dixie on top of him. Daylight and cold air flooded in as the door was opened. With a groan Danny straightened and crawled from the cab, Dixie tumbling out behind him. He raised his head and found himself staring at the front of his house, or at least something that resembled his house. The front was scorched, the brickwork hacked as if by tearing claws. Slates had been blasted from the roof. The snow was still deep.

There was a thud as their bags hit the ground. It was the first time Dixie had seen the dark caverns that were Fairman’s eyes, and she flinched. Fairman bared his great yellow teeth.

“You’re here,” he growled. He clambered back into the cab and sped off, the car soon becoming a tiny spot in the distance.

“Doesn’t look like there’s anyone here,” Dixie said, and Danny felt a chill.

“Look,” Dixie said, reaching up and taking down a huge feather stuck in a crack of the wall. She smelled it and shivered. “Seraphim?” she said.

“Conal,” Danny replied.

Cautiously they stepped through the wreckage and into the main body of the house. Leaves blew along the corridors, and signs of the Seraphim’s attack were
everywhere, for they had smashed things wantonly as they went.

Danny and Dixie had just reached the front hallway when a familiar voice rang out.

“Stop right there or you’re dead.”

“It’s me,” Danny said. “It’s me, Danny!” He almost added “Mum” to the sentence, and felt sadness wash over him. He was shaken out of his sorrow by a loud crack. A splinter of wood flew from the doorframe beside him and scored his cheek.

“Hit the deck!” Dixie yelled. “She means it.”

Danny dived for cover as another shot whistled over his head.

“It’s me, Danny!” he shouted again.

“It’s enough that he’s disappeared without being taunted about it,” Agent Pearl cried. Danny lifted his head and saw his mother in the door of the downstairs bedroom. Her face was gaunt; the cool poised woman he remembered was gone.

“It’s me!” Danny insisted. She did not lower her gun. Danny raised his head.

“Danny, don’t!” Dixie warned. But he slowly stood up, his eyes on the barrel of the gun.

“It looks like Danny,” the woman said to herself, “but the eyes …”

“It’s a trick,” he said, “look.” He bowed his head and let the membrane fall into his hand.

“Danny …,” the woman breathed. She dropped the gun and ran forward, and for a moment it was as if they were truly mother and son.

* * *

F
ifteen minutes later they were sitting on a scorched sofa in front of a fire they had made from broken-up dining room chairs. Dixie had found a saucepan and was busy boiling water for tea over the fire while Agent Pearl told them what had happened since Danny had left. Dixie and Danny glanced at each other when they heard about the attack by the Seraphim and how they’d been repulsed by the ravens. Agent Stone’s wound had gotten worse. For days he had hovered between life and death while Pearl tended to him. When he slept, she guarded the house, dreading the return of the Seraphim.

Now, she said, he was weak but recovering.

“He sleeps for most of the day, but he’ll be so glad to see you, Danny.”

Danny looked away. Part of him wanted to put his arms around her; part of him wanted to wound her, to repay betrayal with betrayal.

“But there are other things to talk about,” Pearl said. Danny glanced sharply at her. “We have had no communication from the outside world. We used to be asked regularly for written reports on you, Danny, but we have heard nothing recently. The radio speaks of a big freeze. The schools and airports are closed. They are even saying that the sea is turning to ice in places. We have to do something.”

“It’s a pity you have to wait to hear from your handlers so that you know what to do with me.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Pearl said, “I meant that there
could be even more danger here for you, for all of us. I wish I had more information so I could protect you.”

Dixie’s eyes flickered from Danny to Agent Pearl, her face serious for once.

“You should listen, Danny,” she said. Danny’s eyes flashed.

“The mass of cold air seems to be centered in the mountains about twenty miles north of here,” Pearl said.

“Then that’s where we need to be,” Danny said. “That will be where Morne is located.”

“Is that where the Fifth needs to be?” another voice added. Danny stood up and spun around. Agent Stone stood in the doorway. His shoulder was heavily bandaged and his face was the color of parchment, but his voice was strong.

“What do you know of the Fifth, and the …” Danny stopped.

“The Lower World? Only a little—what I could find in old books and manuscripts. Most of the writers couldn’t accept that such a world existed in tandem with ours. Sometimes it seemed like a dream, even to me.”

Stone shuffled farther into the room, grimacing. “Then I saw them! Those wonderful Seraphim! So much more dramatic than they ever looked in the old paintings.”

“They don’t smell too wonderful close up,” Dixie said.

“Allow me to introduce you, Dixie,” Danny said sarcastically. “This is the man who pretended to be my father.”

“I don’t blame you for being bitter, Danny,” Stone said, moving into the circle of the fire, “but the truth is we did come to think of you as our own.”

“When you were here,” Danny said.

“Your fa—Agent Stone spent all his time in old libraries and research centers trying to find out who or what you are,” Pearl said.

“And Pearl spent weary days and nights protecting you, seeking to learn about those who gave us the mission of looking after you, and why. Do not judge things you don’t know about, Danny.”

Danny wanted to reply, but a small cold voice told him not to.
There will be time to show them what you know and don’t know
.

“Anyway, Danny,” Stone went on after a moment, “I had started to disbelieve the whole idea of the Lower World, when I saw the Seraphim and knew my theory was correct. There
is
a Ring of Five and there
is
a Fifth!”

Danny looked at him. How much more did this man know about him?

Suddenly Pearl held up her hand for silence. They all listened. In the distance was the faint hum of an engine. Pearl went to the window and peered out.

“I spoke too soon about not having contact with our handlers,” she said. “They’re coming for us.”

“Are you sure?”

“There’s no other reason for cars to be on this road.”

“Whatever happens,” Stone said heavily, “they mustn’t find Danny.”

Danny went to the window and looked out. Two jeeps were speeding down the snowy road. Both carried hard-faced men with guns.

“I’ll hold them off,” Pearl said. “There’s a Land Rover in the garage. Can either of you drive?”

“I can,” Dixie said to Danny’s surprise, “but we’re not leaving you behind.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Pearl said. “What can you do against them?”

In answer Dixie disappeared and reappeared at the other side of the room. Pearl blinked, but Stone muttered to himself.

“The Quality of Indeterminate Location. Staggering.”

“It won’t stop a bullet,” Pearl said. “Get going.”

Danny hesitated. There was so much more he wanted to know, but Dixie was pulling at his sleeve. “The treaty is more important.”

Danny watched Pearl take up a firing position by the window, Stone struggling painfully to join her. Abandon them and they’ll die, he thought.

Exactly!
The word came from another part of his brain.

“Okay,” he said to Dixie, “come on.” And without a glance back he ran out the door. Dixie hesitated, then followed. Pearl was looking at her.

“One day he’ll understand,” Pearl said sadly. “Look after him.”

* * *

A
s Dixie and Danny ran for the garage, they heard gunfire behind them.

“Come on!” Danny said, “leave them to it. It’s what they deserve!”

“They’re giving you a chance to get away. Be grateful,” Dixie said, panting as she struggled to open the garage door.