Contagion (Toxic City)(22)

“I didn't see Andrew,” Jack said. But did I see someone with her? Just for a moment?

“He came with me. From Hampstead Heath. Rook and I went there to find him, and Nomad was there, and Rook fell and I ran, but then Andrew came to me and he's…dead, but not gone. Not quite gone. He brought me down here…and I dreamed I'd meet you all here!” She went from confused to delighted, her expression changing in a flash as she looked from Jack to Sparky to Jenna. Then her smiled dropped again as if punched from her face. “There's a bomb!”

“We know,” Jenna said. She held Lucy-Anne and it was strange to see. The girl they all knew was not someone to be held or pitied. “The Choppers planted it, Miller triggered it. We've got maybe eleven hours.”

“You know?” Lucy-Anne asked. “Why? Who's Miller? How did you find out?”

“There's so much to tell you,” Jack said. “And it sounds like you have a lot to tell us. But your leg's bleeding. Here. Let me—”

Lucy-Anne frowned and pulled away from Jenna, and for a moment it looked like she was going to jump back onto the pontoon before they'd even set off.

“Andrew?” she said, scanning the shore. “Andrew.”

“You're back with us now,” Jack said.

“Jack's told me a little about you,” Rhali said kindly.

Lucy-Anne's face crumpled. The tears came without warning, and after a few deep sobs she rubbed them away just as quickly. “Oh Jack, I'm so tired,” she said. When she slumped down, Sparky was already there to catch her. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

“Breezer?” Jack asked.

“Yeah.” He pushed a button and the boat's engine coughed and grumbled, but did not catch.

From somewhere out of sight on shore they heard the hooting from those strange, wild women.

“Breezer, now would be a good time for us to escape.”

“Yeah.” He pushed the button again, keeping it pushed in so that the engine turned and grumbled and turned again, and then it caught. Clouds of smoke belched from twin exhausts at the vessel's rear, and Breezer slumped in relief.

“Your London river tour is about to begin,” he said, pushing the throttle forward. The boat bumped against the pontoon and then moved away.

Those women had something of the water about them, Jack thought. But when he saw them appear along the riverbank at the metal railing, they paused and watched the boat chugging away downriver. He sensed a moment of indecision in them as they seemed ready to give pursuit. But then they leapt into the water and swam in the opposite direction, moving incredibly quickly across the water's slugging surface before diving and disappearing from view.

“Trick?” Jenna asked. Jack wasn't sure. He readied himself, prepared to fight them if he had to. He imagined their slick fingers and tentacles curling around the boat's safety rail, their unnatural faces peering at him, showing him their teeth. But a few moments later he saw them surface and scramble up onto the opposite bank, and they disappeared south of the river without another backward glance.

“Weird,” Jenna said.

“Yeah. Maybe there're easier pickings that way.”

No one replied. None of them wanted to discuss what, or who, those easier pickings might be.

The boat was a small tourist vessel that promised “The most picturesque views of London, bar none.” How one boat could offer any more picturesque views than any other, Jack did not know. But right then he thanked the owners of the City Sleeker for running their business on the Thames. He hoped they'd not been in London when Evolve hit, but disaster had struck at the height of summer, and he knew it unlikely. He didn't want to ask Breezer about where they'd found the Sleeker, nor how many bodies it had contained.

It was about thirty feet long, the front half open, the stern covered with a glass canopy. The cabin was right at the stern, raised a little from the canopy so that the captain could see along the length of the boat. Seating was arranged looking outward, not ahead, with an open area of deck down the centre for those who wished to stand. Life belts were strung beneath seats, and on the covered area's roof was a lifeboat, strapped down and covered in a tarpaulin. No one wished to be reminded of their vulnerability.

Jack and Sparky uncovered the lifeboat and familiarised themselves with its release mechanism. None of them wanted to go into these waters, and with the amount of detritus in the river, the chance of hitting a submerged object was too high for comfort.