Terror Firma by Matthew Thomas

Author:Matthew Thomas [Thomas, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2000-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

1 This is a customs official’s idea of a joke.

1 Despite what airport designers might like to think, this is not a common train of thought: ‘I’ve just stepped off a plane. I know what I need – an overpriced pair of socks, and a pair of earrings you could more economically buy wrapped up in a Christmas cracker. Now where can I purchase such things?’

33. Reunions

Kate sensed something was wrong as soon as she put her key in the front door. It was no one specific thing, just the sure knowledge that her home and place of refuge had been compromised.

A more retiring soul would have backed off there and then, retracing their steps to the underground to run for their life, or taken a trip to the nearest police station to see if one of their good apples could make her an appointment that week. But neither of these options were available to her, for reasons she was not keen to share. Steeling her nerves she opened the front door and stepped into the dark room.

She didn’t have to search long to find evidence of her visitors. One of them was slouched casually in an armchair opposite the door, clipping his toenails with her kitchen scissors and drinking a diet coke. Kate was about to ask who the hell he thought he was when she caught sight of Dave. Her oldest friend was lying on her couch, a damp flannel draped across his forehead and a low moan rising from his lips.

‘What the fuck is going on?’ she asked, for once feeling her choice of language to be entirely justified.

The man lounging on her armchair rose with casual grace. ‘Hi babe, you must be Kate? Heard a lot about you from wavy Davey over there.’

Several choice replies sprung to mind, none exactly suitable ways her mum would have considered to greet a guest. Kate studied this overly-familiar house-breaker. He was of no discernible age, the lines on his weather-worn face at odds with the sharp freshness in his glinting eyes. An unruly mass of frizzy grey hair was held back by a sweat-stained bandanna. He wore what might once have been a white cotton vest, above a pair of ludicrously creased and stained suit trousers. Every inch of his parchment-brown skin was covered by tattoos or old scars, in some places both. He was perhaps the most wizened individual she had ever seen, but animated by the sort of youthful vigour that wore you out to look at him.

‘Sorry to have to drop in unannounced, but in one of his rare lucid moments Davey told me you were expecting us.’

Kate’s grip on reality wavered for a second. ‘Yes, he emailed that he was coming back. And that he would have … company.’

Frank’s eyes narrowed infinitesimally. Hurriedly Kate broke away from their unnerving spell. ‘What the hell have you done to him?’ She glided over to Dave’s side, where he seemed to be reliving a particularly unpleasant dream.

With a small yelp he woke.

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