Michael Pryor - Laws of Magic 05 by Moment of Truth

Author:Moment of Truth
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-04-21T13:25:55+00:00

Nineteen

Cycling back to their base, Aubrey realised what had changed dramatically in Divodorum.

‘No children, George,’ he called as they swooped along the nearly deserted Haussman Street.

‘What?’ George angled around a dog that was standing in the middle of the road and looking mournful.

‘Families have fled. Women and children, at least.’

The city had the feeling of a place with no heart, a place waiting to be put out of its misery. The artillery bombardment in the hills sounded like giant footsteps in the distance, impossible to ignore.

Aubrey cycled on, grimly.

The factory was deserted when they arrived. For a moment, Aubrey stopped dead, looking around the emptiness, unwilling to think the worst, but finding it was presenting itself insistently, like a least favourite uncle at a family reunion.

George flapped a slip of mauve paper at him. ‘They’ve gone to the woods above the station. They want us to join them for lunch.’

Relief was one of the best feelings of all, Aubrey concluded. ‘Shouldn’t we be rationing our food?’

‘If we eat our way through the stores I’ve put down, that’ll mean we’ve been trapped here for a year. Which would suggest we’d have problems other than food to worry about.’

They found Caroline and Sophie on the grassy knoll overlooking the station, the place Aubrey had first surveyed Divodorum. A blanket was spread out and the two girls were chatting innocently enough, if one overlooked the field glasses sitting on top of the picnic hamper.

George picked them up. ‘Hard to explain these, what, if a suspicious Gallian police officer happens by?’

‘George, George,’ Sophie said. She rummaged in a knapsack and found a slim book. She opened it to show colour plates. ‘We are bird watchers, no? I am looking for a warbler. And a crake. And – how do you say this one? – a mallard?’

‘Well, I’m convinced,’ Aubrey said. ‘But what about your fallback, just in case someone else isn’t? Your story behind the story? You don’t want to be mistaken for Holmlanders.’

‘We’ve been sent by the Central Railway Company,’ Caroline said. She slipped off her royal blue jacket to reveal a high-necked white blouse underneath. ‘The firm is interested in passenger and freight possibilities in this area after the war, but wants to remain secret because of rumours that a rival company is in the area, sniffing along the same lines.’

Aubrey sat on the blanket and plucked a blade of grass. ‘Nicely done.’

While passing platters of cold chicken and salad around, they shared Saltin’s news. Sophie had never met the airman, but had heard of him. ‘He was a hero after you rescued him, George.’

‘Well, I say,’ George took a pickled onion from a jar, ‘Aubrey was there too. Quite helpful, he was.’

Aubrey let this pass, with a smile. ‘If the remote sensers aren’t aboard this train, we’ll need to decide what to do next. Communication, first, I’d say. Caroline?’

‘We can, tonight, but we must be careful. I have the impression that they’re out there.’

‘The Holmlanders? Of course they are.’

‘Listening, I mean, trying to intercept any communications.

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