The Domino Men

Chapter 17

I stepped out of the car at the furthest end of Downing Street to find a world fallen into darkness. In open defiance of the TV’s predictions of clear skies and moonlight, an impenetrably dense, freakishly pervasive fog had descended upon the whole of London.

Fog was everywhere. The city was steeped in it — thicker than smoke, saturating clothes, sinking insidiously into lungs. It was as though we had been dragged half a dozen generations to the era of the gas lamp and the hansom cab, the ancient queen and the advent of the war.

I was struck by the thought that perhaps such an age was not so far away as it seemed, that it was only the short lives of human beings which gave the illusion of distance. Perhaps, from some greater vantage point, the span between the age of Victoria and our own would appear no more than a handful of seconds, a few spasms of the little hand around the clock.

The whole of Whitehall had been sealed off and the most famous street in England was crowded with the sounds and sights of war. Arc lights blazed impotently against fog banks. Men in uniform swarmed around an armor-plated vehicle which had been backed close to the door of Number Ten and there was everywhere the glint of gunmetal, the growl of orders, the dull jangle of weaponry. These were preparations for disaster, it seemed to me. This was insurance against catastrophe.

As I emerged from the car, Mr. Steerforth materialized by my side, flint faced and grave, in his element surrounded by military strut and bustle.

“You’re with me,” he snapped, and strode away. As I followed him towards Downing Street, the fog closed in around us.

We were close to the door of Number Ten and Mr. Jasper was in sight when Steerforth passed me a pink, flesh-colored piece of plastic, shaped something like a tadpole. “Dedlock wants to speak to you. You know how to use these?”

I started to complain, asking whether this was really necessary, when Steerforth thrust the thing hard into my left ear. A tendril groped its way into my earhole. I felt a savage poking through the doughy wetness beyond and cried out in pain and shock. Although the pain ended almost at once, I was left with an unshakeable unease, a permanent, shivery sense of intrusion. I heard a familiar voice, too loud, in my head. “Good evening, gentlemen.”

I imagined him grinning gummily, staring down across the river from his eyrie.

“This is the form tonight will take. The Prefects have already been released from their cell. They are to be taken from Number Ten under guard and placed in the armored vehicle which I imagine you see before you now. From here, they will direct us to Estella. The end of the war is in sight. I would suggest that this is cause for jubilation.”

Steerforth spoke up. “With respect, sir, I strongly recommend that we stand down for tonight. There are too many variables in this fog. We should wait until we’re in control of the situation.”

“We have total control, Mr. Steerforth.”

“We can’t see more than half a yard in front of our faces, sir. I don’t think you understand the risks-”

“It is you who does not understand, Mr. Steerforth. We cannot afford to wait. Do you think the House of Windsor is sitting idle? Do you think that they would surrender in the face of a touch of fog? They will be preparing themselves for the endgame. We cannot sit idly by and watch this city slide into chaos.”

“I’m aware of the stakes, sir.”

“No!” Dedlock shouted. “You are not! You have no idea what I’ve given up to make this happen!” I felt a twinge of pain in my head and pictured the old man splashing in his tank, impotent and enraged. I tugged at Jasper’s sleeve and asked if there was any way to turn down the volume.”

Jasper tried to shush me, but it was too late, and Dedlock was growling in my ear again.”

“Are you trying to shut me up, Mr. Lamb?”

“No, no. Of course not.”

“I think you’ll find me a difficult man to silence.”

“Sorry,” I said, and mercifully, the conversation rolled on.

I felt my mobile phone shiver in my pocket and pulled it out as discreetly as I could. There was a text message from Abbey.

Thinking of you x

The little X made my heart soar. It made me want to sing.

Steerforth was still protesting. “Please, sir. Please reconsider.”

“You’ve been working for the Directorate for thirteen years, Mr. Steerforth, is that correct?”

“Almost fifteen, sir.”

“You’ve served in Algeria, Khartoum and the Sudan. And you’re frightened of a bit of London fog?”

“It’s not the fog which scares me, sir. I’m frightened of what it might be hiding.”

“This discussion is at an end. Do not question my authority again.”

All at once, a hush fell upon Downing Street, an atavistic silence.

Two figures strolled through the black door of Number Ten — creatures dressed as schoolboys, forced to walk unnaturally slowly, shuffling in tiny steps like old men. A metal chain ran between their ankles and their hands were shackled and cuffed in front of them. They were as criss-crossed and tightly bound with manacles and locks as was the ghost of Jacob Marley.

Hawker and Boon were flanked by men with guns, killers who eyed their captives with the keen suspicion of keepers at the most dangerous wing of the zoo. Weapons were trained upon every part of the Prefects’ bodies by Directorate officers with paranoiac minds and itchy fingers, who were trained to murder in an instant and to relish it.

Yet Hawker and Boon were laughing. They were positively full of mirth, beaming and winking at one another as though they were on a school trip on the last day of term.

“Corks!” said Boon. “Fresh air! Have you missed it, old thing?”

“Rather,” said Hawker. “It’s absolutely topping!”

“Course we’re used to having the run of the playground. Such a shame the beaks kept us in detention so long.”

“Asses.”

“Swine.”

“Rotten brace of polecats.”

“I say,” said Boon, and I had a terrible feeling that he was looking at me. “Isn't that Henry Lamb?”

“Beards! It’s old lamb chop.”

“Lamb chop! Over here!”

Had they been able to raise their arms, no doubt they would have waved.

For six long minutes they stood there, keeping up their ceaselessly see-sawing conversation, their endless, babbling cross-talk, until they were marched at gunpoint into the back of the armored van.

As the door clunked shut, a man in uniform jogged up to Steerforth. “Sir?”

Steerforth looked irritated at the interruption. “What is it, Captain?”

“We’ve got a civilian, sir. She’s asking to see Lamb.”

“I thought we’d sealed the whole street off.”

Spots of color appeared on the man’s cheeks. “We’ve no idea how she got in. It seems she…”

“Yes?”

“It seems she slipped through…”

“Keep her detained until after this thing’s over. Least she deserves for poking her nose in.”

“She knows more than she should, sir. She’s naming a lot of names…”

Before Steerforth could reply, an elderly woman trotted impatiently out of the fog. “Henry? There you are, dear. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

She advanced on Steerforth. “You must be the new boy.”

Steerforth looked affronted. “I’ve served the Directorate for fifteen years.”

“Like I said. The new boy.”

“Everyone,” I said, trying to ease the tension. “This is Miss Morning.”

“Thank you, dear,” the old lady said. “They know who I am.”

Dedlock was shouting. “Who’s there? Steerforth, let me see.”

Mr. Steerforth looked as though he were going to be sick. “Now, sir? Does it really have to be now?”

The growl of the head of the Directorate: “Let me in.”

Poor Steerforth. He convulsed once, twice, three times, his face squeezing and contorting in agony.

“Miss Morning?” he said. The body was Steerforth’s but the voice, cracked and bitter, belonged unmistakably to Dedlock. “Time, it seems, has not been kind to you. Or even mildly understanding.”

Miss Morning thrust out her chin pugnaciously. “And how is life underwater, Mr. Dedlock?”

“What are you doing here?”

“You’re about to do something very stupid indeed.”

“I’m doing what is necessary to win this war.”

“The Prefects don’t give a jot about your war.” They’re playing a larger game.”

Steerforth’s face was turning a terrible scarlet color. “I’ve outmaneuvered them.”

“Come now. You’ve done no such thing. This situation is entirely of their own devising.”

“I am the one in control here.”

The old lady sounded tired. “Oh, but they’ll escape.”

“Escape?”

“Of course, they’ll escape. They’re the Prefects.”

Steerforth turned toward the soldier. “Captain, make sure this presumptuous secretary is put in a holding cell.” The captain place a hand, slightly squeamishly, on Miss Morning’s shoulder but she scarcely seemed to notice.

“Why can’t you see?” she said. “This is their fog.”

“Move them out,” Dedlock snarled before, all at once, Steerforth’s face sagged back into its familiar lines.

We stood and watched, transfixed in solemnly respectful silence, as the armored vehicle reversed out of Downing Street, turned laboriously and began to progress down Whitehall, creeping through the fog.

“You mustn’t let this happen!” Miss Morning said, jerking at my sleeve.

“What can I do?”

Perhaps I am retrospectively crediting myself with too much perspicacity but I was unable to shake the feeling that what we were watching was somehow less than real, that we were just spectators and that all of this was merely an illusion.

“Dedlock!” Miss Morning was almost shouting now. “Unless you finish this right now, people are going to start dying.”

In monumental indifference to the old woman’s warnings, the vehicle continued its stately progress down Whitehall. Bikes rode close by on either side. Dozens of guns were trained at it, ready to fire at the slightest sign of trouble.

It was then that we noticed something was wrong.

It began as a trickle, a thin line of red smoke, curling out from under the doors. I watched it grow larger, as though a fire had been lit within. Then great clouds of red smoke were pouring out, streaming into the fog, staining the night scarlet.

Dedlock bellowed in our ears: “What’s happening?”

“I see it!” Steerforth ran toward the van as it skidded to a halt, and the rest of us followed.

Dedlock: “What the hell’s going on?”

Miss Morning appeared by my side. “It’s happened already. They just couldn’t help themselves.”

The old man was screaming out his fury. “Mr. Lamb?”

“I don’t know,” I snapped. “I can’t make anything out in this fog.”

As we drew close to the vehicle, Steerforth opened the door and clambered inside. The fog made it impossible to be certain what had happened, although, of course, I think I already suspected. All of us did, I suppose.

At last we were close enough to see.

Jasper was talking to his master. “Its’ bad, sir. It’s really bad.”

I stared into the van and saw the truth of it. The vehicle was empty. The prisoners were gone. The Prefects had vanished in a puff of smoke.

Miss Morning turned away. “It’s finally happened,” she murmured, her voice shot through with bitterness. “The Domino Men are loose.”