Fanshawe blinked. He whispered, “It is a miracle. We are saved…”
“Yeah. Something like that,” Angus said.
“But… how…?” Poor old Fanshawe had endured complete sensory overload in the last hour. He had been kidnapped, threatened with torture and then seen three grown men vanish into thin air.
Jack sighed in frustration. “Harry… can you try and work yourself free of that thing and unchain us?”
It was no use. Even if Fanshawe had been in the appropriate mental state, which he wasn’t, he was well and truly trussed up.
“What now?” Angus said.
“If VIGIL are doing their job properly, they should also have got a space-time fix on our location and time period through the time phones.”
“But the Revisionists’ time phones are also activated so they will know where we are too.”
“That’s if Whitsun and Gift have escaped and reconnected with the Revisionists. Then they’ll have told them that we’ve got their phones, and they won’t be happy.”
“So we just have to wait and see who gets here first…?” Angus pulled on the chain again in frustration. But it was hopeless. They had got rid of the Spaniards, but they were still stuck.
“What’s that?” Jack said, suddenly.
“Footsteps? Upstairs in the house? Someone’s here already?”
“But is it VIGIL or the Revisionists?”
“Or some other joker?”
There was an almighty crash as the cellar door was forced open and splinters of wood rained down the stone stairs. Next, they heard someone gingerly making their way down the steps into the cellar. Angus and Jack craned their heads to try and make out the figure, but from their position, chained to the wall, their view was impaired. Suddenly a powerful beam of light shone towards them.
Jack whispered to Angus, “A torch?”
They didn’t recognise the figure silhouetted behind the bright light at first.
“Good evening, gentlemen. It looks like I got here just in time.” The voice was unmistakable — Dr Pendelshape.
Pendelshape scanned the room quickly to make sure there was no one else there. He then turned his attention to Jack and Angus.
“We don’t have much time. We’ve got to get you out of those chains.”
“Yes, but we don’t know where the key is.”
Pendelshape searched the wooden tabletops. The first things he spotted were the remaining three time phones laid out on one of the tables.
“At least we have those back,” he said. “And an extra one… a VIGIL time phone.” He smiled. “Now that is going to come in handy.” He opened each of them in turn and powered them down. “We don’t want anyone else to know where we are just now, do we?”
He quickly looked through the boys’ backpacks, that had been left on the floor, and found the two pistols belonging to Whitsun and Gift.
“I think you’re still a bit young to be carrying firearms.”
Pendelshape picked up the letter from Marlowe that lay, opened, on the table. He read it quickly and nodded. “As we thought — it confirms what we already know.” He put the letter back on the table and started looking about for the keys.
“Let’s try these.” He held up a metal ring with a number of large keys hanging from it and soon Jack and Angus were free.
“I have a carriage waiting outside that can take us to safety.” He paused and looked over at Fanshawe. “But there is one final piece of business I must attend to first.”
Pendelshape opened his doublet. Beneath it was a tight-fitting vest, similar to those the boys wore. It had a number of pockets and recesses and Jack noticed that one recess was shaped like a holster. It was from this that Pendelshape pulled out a pistol. He strode matter-of-factly over to where Fanshawe still lay and pointed the gun at his head. The action closely mimicked that of Whitsun and Gift outside Cambridge only a few days before.
“No!” Jack screamed.
Pendelshape swivelled round, a bemused expression on his face.
“No?”
“You can’t just
“He’s seen too much… he knows too much about the plot. He may upset our plan.”
Jack was outraged that Pendelshape, just like his thuggish friends Whitsun and Gift, could contemplate such a barbaric act.
“But, but… he knows nothing. The poor guy has simply been a messenger. He does not know who you are — or who we are for that matter. He is utterly harmless.”
Fanshawe, who was still attached to the rack, was slowly regaining his senses.
“I do not know anything of this…
Pendelshape thought for a moment and shrugged. “So be it. I will release you — you have young Jack here to thank — but you must leave this house at once. If you return or speak of any of these events you risk your life. Do you understand?” The decision not to murder Fanshawe was taken as easily as the decision seconds before to kill him. Jack was staggered by Pendelshape’s casual disregard for human life. Fanshawe looked at Pendelshape and then back at Jack. Jack nodded. Fanshawe sobbed with relief. Jack had saved his life twice in one day.
They emerged from the cellar into a large kitchen at the back of the house. It was night-time now and they could see only by the light from Pendelshape’s torch and a few candles that had been left to burn down. Pendelshape led them to the front door of the house and out into a clear, cold night. It felt good to be out of the dank cellar, breathing the fresh, crisp air. A small carriage waited with its driver a little further down the road.
Pendelshape pointed out Fanshawe’s route. “That way — it will take you to the Ludgate Hill eventually. And remember what I told you,” he added menacingly.
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Fanshawe answered.
Pendelshape turned to the carriage driver and whispered some instructions.
“Right — you two in there. No funny business. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
Jack and Angus had little choice. Fanshawe shook Angus’s hand and then glanced towards Pendelshape and the carriage, before putting both his hands over Jack’s and looking him in the eye. “Thank you, Jack, for all you have done for me.” Then he whispered, “I will repay you.”
Pendelshape was getting impatient. “Go!” he boomed out, as Fanshawe scurried off into the night.
Jack, Angus and Pendelshape climbed into the carriage and it rumbled off. Drained by a traumatic day, Jack, and then Angus, fell asleep.
The carriage picked its way up the bumpy road and away from the riverside mansions. An hour after it had melted into the night, two furtive figures appeared at the door of the house that they had just left. After an initial check around the outside, the two men proceeded to break into the house and search it. They found it empty but for the sinister torture equipment secreted in its cellar. If Jack and Angus had left the house only an hour later, they would have met the men and recognised them immediately as Tony and Gordon, their comrades from VIGIL.
The Beautiful Game
'Where are we?” Jack asked. He peered through a small window onto a muddy farmyard. The fields beyond had been dusted white from a light flurry of snow.
“Wembley Stadium,” Pendelshape said matter-of-factly as he busied himself at a small wood stove. He was cooking eggs and bacon, and had already managed to produce a pot of very acceptable coffee. He seemed to be completely at home. “Not literally of course. It’s where the new Wembley Stadium will be in the future. You’re probably sitting exactly where the England team would get changed.” He craned his head to view the frozen farmland that stretched into the distance. “As you can see, it’s a pretty far cry from the view out there today.” He served the eggs and bacon onto three dishes and placed them on the table. Jack was ravenous and the food
