The Fandom(17)

‘Our pretty friend is attracting a little too much attention,’ Saskia says, glancing at the other Imps. Even wearing overalls and with her newly chopped hair, Alice draws the gaze of several Imps.

‘Get used to it,’ Katie says.

I kick her under the table.

‘You was right, girl.’ Saskia’s eyes move to a figure slinking towards us. The controller from canon. Only this version of the controller has so many freckles that they can’t quite fit on his cheeks, spilling on to his forehead, his eyelids and lips. And he looks more defined, his features whittled away so only the sharp bits remain, his face filed into a weasel’s. My stomach tightens.

He stands over Alice. ‘Well, what have we got here? A pretty girl the wrong side of the city walls, always a pleasure.’

‘Give it a rest,’ Saskia says. ‘She’s just finished a long shift. We all have.’

He taps his star-shaped badge, just like in the film. ‘This demands a little more respect, woman.’ He turns his attention back to Alice. ‘So how come I haven’t seen you around before?’

Alice looks at Saskia.

The controller smiles. ‘You can talk for yourself, I reckon, pretty mouth like that.’

I begin to wish Saskia had knocked a couple of Alice’s teeth out.

‘Look, we were just going, OK?’ Saskia says.

‘You just got here.’

‘And now we’re leaving. I’ll get my friend, he’s round the back with Zula. He got shot by some Gem soldiers.’ She’s trying to win brownie points, but she just sounds desperate.

The controller laughs. I notice how pink his tongue is, like he’s been sucking on a gobstopper. ‘Well, aren’t you the heroes?’

Saskia hurries towards the bar, but the controller doesn’t leave. He drags up a chair, shoves Nate out of the way, and sits beside Alice. ‘What, she your mum or summit?’

Alice giggles nervously.

‘Aunty.’ I flatten my vowels so I sound more like him, but my voice comes out a little shaky.

‘Yeah, she’s a right pain,’ Katie says, unable to mask the lilt of her Scouse accent.

The controller drapes an arm around Alice’s shoulder. ‘Well maybe you should ditch your aunty and come sit with us.’

Alice looks rigid as a board. ‘I don’t think she’d approve.’ But she changes her voice a little, sounding more Imp, and manages to hold his eye like she isn’t bricking it. For a moment, I think she’s going to pull it off.

‘You’re shaking,’ the freckly controller says. He leans into her and I imagine how foul his breath must smell. ‘It ain’t cold in ’ere, you know? Why are you shaking?’ He sticks out his bottom lip like he’s worried about her. ‘Am I making you nervous, sweet’eart?’

She opens her mouth, I think to answer, but the controller doesn’t give her the chance. ‘’Ere, Terry.’

Another Imp sidles over, star-shaped badge pinned to his lapel. He has receding grey hair, and his stocky build suggests he has no problems finding food in the starving city.

The freckly controller smiles. ‘I got a trembling, pretty girl over ’ere. And while I would like to think it’s down to my good looks, I suspect it’s because she’s a stinking Gem.’

Everything seems to slow. Nate grabs my hand under the table, his palm slathered with sweat. I wish I had Rose’s last thistle-bomb right now. We could sure use a decoy.

Terry studies Alice’s face for a moment and looks a little perplexed. ‘She hasn’t even tried to look like an Imp. No wig, no fake scars, she’s just rubbed a bit of dirt in her face and hacked off her locks. It’s a poor show really, a tad insulting p’raps. I mean, I know we Imps are thick, but still . . .’

The freckly controller shakes his head and tuts like he’s disappointed. ‘Gem spies are really slipping.’

‘She’s not a Gem,’ I say. My voice sounds tinny and unreal.

‘Yeah, leave her alone,’ Katie says.

The freckly controller looks at me, then Nate, then Katie. ‘I guess travelling with Imps is good thinking, helps her to blend in.’

‘She’s not a Gem,’ Nate repeats, all the strength stripped away.

‘Pipe down, young ’un. You may be an Imp, but if you’re helping a Gem, that makes you as bad as them.’

‘What about this one?’ Terry thrusts a finger into my sternum. ‘She’s verging on Gem material – she’s pretty enough.’

The freckly controller looks at me long and hard. ‘No cheekbone enhancements, her lips are too thin, they would have plumped those, and she has a mole on her cheek, they would have sliced that off.’

I don’t know whether to feel offended or relieved.

He leans into me. ‘Don’t look so miserable, who’d want to be a stinking Gem?’ His breath tastes like damp wood and gin. Suddenly, he grabs my hair and yanks my head back – it feels like my scalp is going to rip away from my skull. My mouth automatically lolls open and he runs a finger over my teeth – it feels like a slug and can’t taste much better. I hear my friends shout their objections, but the controller ignores them.

He shakes his head. ‘Clean but wonky – definitely Imp.’

Terry does the same to Alice so she can move only her eyes, which swivel in their sockets, large and engorged with fear.