Long Shadows by Jodi Taylor

Author:Jodi Taylor [Taylor, Jodi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472267511
Google: o1EHEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2021-08-04T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

I couldn’t take it in. The implications . . . if the drug worked . . . What was I saying? Of course it worked. It had just worked right in front of my eyes.

I opened my mouth, stopped to think a little and then closed it again. ‘Can you tell me anything else?’

‘Not much. It’s something that’s appeared in the last six months and, unusually, its target group doesn’t appear to be young people.’

‘Is it expensive? Perhaps they couldn’t afford it.’

‘You might be right. Most users seem to be in their early to mid-forties and upwards. About the time people start to lose their parents or their grandparents. People they love. And just the right age to begin to feel the faint fingertips of mortality themselves. When birthdays begin to lose their sparkle. And they’re old enough to have a bit of money behind them, which they definitely need because, to answer your question, Ghost is expensive. Very expensive.’

‘What do the survivors say?’

‘Nothing. There aren’t any.’

‘They all die?’

‘They do.’

‘All of them?’

‘Every single one. Cage, where did it go afterwards? The thing on his chest?’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t know. Mr Allenby died and only moments later it disappeared.’

That wasn’t something I wanted to think about. Mr Allenby’s demon had disappeared just after he died. Suppose, once summoned, your demon pursued you for ever. That you were never rid of it. Even after death you and your demon travelled the long road of eternity together.

I pulled myself back from that thought to listen to what Jones was saying.

‘What you’ve told me today is game-changing, Cage. From what we can discover, the drug is advertised as offering the bereaved a chance to chat with loved ones again. In every case that we know of, not more than twelve hours later, the person who has taken Ghost is dead. Cause unknown. Autopsies show their hearts just stopped, which isn’t particularly helpful. Now you’re telling me something sits on their chest and eats them to death.’

‘That’s what I saw,’ I said, defensively.

‘Calm down. I don’t doubt it for a moment.’

‘How are you going to convince people of this?’

‘Leave that to me.’

‘But if you tell people what I saw, they’ll think you’re as weird as me.’

‘No one’s as weird as you, Cage, so stop worrying.’

‘Could you give me a moment?’ I said, because I wanted to think.

I stood up and walked to the front window, pulling aside the curtain to look out over the green. The rain still hammered down but it was just normal rain now and the drains seemed able to cope. The green was empty; no one was in sight anywhere. Not only had Mr Allenby been taken away, there was nothing to show that he had ever been here.

I thought about him running as if his life depended upon it. Zigzagging across the grass as if he was trying to shake something off. First one way – then another. Yes, he knew something was behind him. He was running from something tangible.

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