Kairos by Gwyneth Jones

Author:Gwyneth Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473230316
Publisher: Orion

Fifth Angel

1

The Shit-Coloured Rolls Royce

On the day James drove to Berkshire, Candide was poring over a book of roadmaps in the attic that smelled of cat shit. The maps were at least ten years out of date but they were the best he had. He’d taken the book from his mother’s car.

‘She won’t notice. It’s such a tip in there.’

Otto’s native untidiness struggled for expression elsewhere, but in the interior of her car it flowered freely. Sandy and Candide viewed the results with disgust. He was working out a route to the original pill factory: Isobel Porter House, where BREAKTHRU kept most of its evil vivisection units.

‘Did they tell you who Isobel Porter is?’

‘She’s a fictional character, in Finnegan’s Wake. They’ve got a thing about Finnegan’s Wake. I don’t know why, I think it’s just deliberately random.’

Candide knew about Isobel Porter house from Animal Liberation: Sandy had heard of it at her seminar. Recruits were sent there for training. They worked as lab technicians, in the ‘pharmaceutical research’ that the Company still pursued – though they were no longer producing vitamin pills. Angels in need of ‘re-demolition’ would be sent there, or to one of two or three similar centres, for refresher courses. Yesterday’s effective work, said the Company, is today’s meaningless ritual, and meaningless ritual serves our purpose very well, because BREAKTHRU isn’t a religion, but BREAKTHRU is what religion is—

‘It’s up in the West Midlands Conurbation.’ Candide was impressed. He’d often been to London, to Underhill and to Devon. The world outside those three destinations might as well be intergalactic space for all he knew of it.

‘Stop saying “The West Midlands”,’ said Sandy. ‘People don’t like being lumped under points of the compass, especially not the underprivileged. It causes riots.’

He peered up at her, from under his fringe.

‘You come from there, don’t you.’

‘Near enough. A long time ago.’

‘Good. I need a native guide. What should I say?’

‘Up there, between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, you’re in the Black Country.’

Candide jeered in disbelief. ‘The Black Country,’ he intoned ominously. ‘Where Pure Evil dwells … This isn’t a game, Sand. Stop messing around.’

‘It’s true, honest.’

He laughed. But to Candide, she thought, the distinction between game and life was a protection. He was in pain, real pain, but he was enjoying, very much, the game of planning this rescue expedition. His way of dealing with mental agony was to enjoy himself. It was a state of mind she could understand; close to her own.

‘What makes you so sure Vera is at their head office?’

The child sighed weightily. ‘Three reasons.’ He held up a finger. ‘First, that’s where the big labs are, and it might be the only place where they still keep animals. They’re very secretive, but Animal Liberation thinks they’ve scaled down. And the blackmailer definitely told me “she’ll be in the torture labs, with all the other lost pets”. He said that. I think it was a slip.’ He raised a second finger. ‘Second, he would want to get her away from my friends, to somewhere remote and well-guarded.

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