The part-time barman flipped an amber cap from a bottle of Hartnell’s finest and shook his Brylcreemed head. “Haven’t seen him since the night before last,” he said. “But shouldn’t he be at the football ground organizing the free rock concert?”
“I’ll go and see.”
Like the Road to Calvary, the football ground was filling nicely. All traffic in the Ealing Road had come to a standstill as crowds milled pavement to pavement. Omally pushed his way into these crowds and into the floodlit stadium.
At the far end, flanked by mammoth speakers, Sonic Energy Authority were already on stage. The lead singer, the now legendary Cardinal Cox himself, was giving a spirited solo yodelling rendition of the Blue Peter theme.
“Far out,” said a lady in a straw hat. “And in C.”
“A minor,” said Paul.
“Have you seen my friend Jim?” John asked the lady.
“My name isn’t Jim,” the lady said.
“No, I meant have you seen my friend whose name is Jim?”
“The one whose kitchen you blew up?”
“Yes,” said Omally in a dismal tone. “That’s the one.”
“Actually, yes,” said the lady. “I saw him down at the Butts Estate about half an hour ago.”
“What was he doing?”
“He was being thrown out of a long black limousine.”
“Ah,” said John Omally.
Jim Pooley sat all alone in a corner of the Shrunken Head. But for Sandy the sandy-haired barman, Jim was the only person in the place. (Well, the Memorial Park was only a beer can’s throw away, and the beer there was free.)
Jim stared into his second double vodka. He was trembling from head to toe. Unshaven, pale of face, bruised and bloody about the nose regions, Jim looked the very picture of despair, which indeed he was. After giving Jim a warning kick or two in the ribs, Derek had driven the limousine back to Penge, supposedly to collect Suzy, who would be delivered safely to Jim as soon as he had delivered the unsafe contents of the nasty little bag to Professor Slocombe.
But what was Jim to do?
Could he really bring himself to destroy the Professor’s ceremony and probably even the Professor himself, knowing as he did, or at least felt reasonably certain he did, that the ceremony, once successfully performed, would elevate mankind to some almost god-like state?
If it worked.
But then what if it wasn’t going to work anyway? Then it really wouldn’t matter if he destroyed it.
And ultimately what did matter, other than Suzy? Not much, in Jim’s opinion. Not anything at all, in fact. When you love somebody as much as Jim loved Suzy, the rest of the world can go to hell.
Jim downed his second double. His fingers strayed to the little lump on his right temple. Fred’s blokes knew exactly where he was at any given moment; he couldn’t trick them. He could dump the horrible wriggling bag into the canal, but perhaps that had a transmitter stuck inside it too. He was in really big trouble here, and he was all on his own this time.
Jim looked down at his wrist, to the place where, had he worn a wristwatch, he would have worn it. The one he wasn’t wearing now had belonged to John Omally. John had given it to Jim as a present.
“Nine o’clock,” said Jim. “What am I going to do?”
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” said Derek.
“What are we going to do?” asked Clive.
Clive was driving, Derek was in the back. Fred was in the back too, and Suzy was sitting between Derek and Fred. They were out of Penge now and heading for Brentford.
“We’re going to party big time,” said Derek. “Roll into Brentford, let some blood and party big time.”
“Shut your mouth,” said Fred.
“Aw, come on, Fred.” Derek waved his Uzi in the air. “We’re mean sons of bitches, ain’t we? We’re the God-damn horsemen of the Apocalypse.”
Fred made low growling sounds. “You can let as much blood as you like, once that Pooley has put paid to the Professor.”
Derek cocked his weapon in the manner that sometimes got a cheap laugh. “I don’t know why you’ve bothered with all this subtle stuff. You should have arranged a nuclear accident, flattened the whole frigging borough.”
“Dear oh dear.” Fred rolled his eyes. “You really don’t get it, do you? When Pooley introduces our little bagged-up friend into the Professor’s magic circle, the entire ceremony will be reversed. Goodness won’t come flooding into the world. Its opposite number will. Mr Pooley will turn this entire planet into a seething cesspit of evil. Which is just the way my master wants it to be.”
“You’re one bad mother,” said Derek.
“Yeah,” said Fred. “Ain’t I though.”
There really didn’t seem any way that Fred’s car would actually be able to drive into Brentford. All the roads in were now blocked by other cars, engines off, doors locked, their owners and passengers gone to join the party. And it really was growing into some party. A PARTY! in fact. Folk from all around were descending on the borough, eager to engage in the free festivities. The novelty of this little west London town’s genuinely celebrating the millennium two years before the rest of the world had a certain pulling power.
Fred’s limo ground to a halt. “Get a move on,” said Fred.
“I can’t,” said Clive. “The traffic’s all snarled up.”
“Then put the car into overdrive.”
“Overdrive? What good’s that if I can’t move?”
“Didn’t you ever see that film The Car?”
“I did,” said Derek. “Absolute corker. This big evil black car comes out of the desert and wipes out all these people in a little mid-west American town. And The Car is really the Devil.”
“Wasn’t Bradford Dillman in that?” asked Clive.
“Nah, Bradford Dillman was in Bug.”
“Now that was a good movie.”
“The Swarm was better.”
“The Swarm was crap.”
“Shut it!” shouted Fred. “What I am trying to say to you, Clive, you little twat, is that you’re driving The Car. Stick it into overdrive.”
“Overdrive,” said Clive, finding the switch. “Overdrive, OK.”
Clive flipped the switch and The Car rose up and crunched over the roofs and bonnets of the un-parked cars.
“Nice,” said Fred.
“Rock’n’roll,” said Derek.
“Let’s all Rock’n’roll,” cried the lead singer of the Lost T-Shirts of Atlantis. “This one’s called ‘Happy in the World’.”
The crowd roared approval and the Lost T-shirts launched into a classic.
“Now that one’s in C,” said the lady in the straw hat.
“I agree,” said Paul. “Fancy a bunk-up?”
“Stand up,” said Dr Steven Malone. “It is time for us to go.”
