Private London

Chapter 70

The overhead monitor showed that the train would be arriving in one minute.

As I looked up at it a train clattered into the platform. Jubilee Line. False alarm.

It was very warm. One of those days you get in May which are like a glorious early summer and I was wearing polarised aviator sunglasses against the brightness of the sun.

Finchley Road is an open-air station. From there to all destinations west, the Tube is actually overground. It is at Finchley Road station heading east that the Metropolitan Line enters the tunnel network. The underground labyrinth connecting all parts of London. The Jubilee Line train left. Thirty seconds later the Metropolitan Line train came in.

It was crowded, particularly for a Sunday. But there was a big concert on later at the O2 Arena, the re-formed Take That were headlining and thousands of people were heading east for it.

Harlan Shapiro and I stood up as the train pulled to a stop, and headed to the door which opened opposite the seat we had been told to wait at.

Harlan Shapiro stepped aboard.

I scanned the carriages and what faces I could see I didn’t recognise. The doors closed and the train began to pull out.

I let the carriage go, then jogged alongside the train and leapt in between two of the carriages where there was a small gap for the guard to walk through.

The train picked up speed and as it went into the tunnel the lights dimmed and it became dark.

My feet flew from under me and I fell backwards towards the gap.