‘I remember.’
‘What do you remember?’
‘How you and Ethan and Jon used to play in the woods when you were children. You told Gabrielle on your way to the hyperloop station on Remembrance Day, back in the summer.’
Of course, she would have known that. She had access to all of the recordings, all the exchanges with Ethan and what happened at the Foreign and Commonwealth office. He snorted dismissively at the summer carnival the Government contrived to remember those who were lost in the pandemic. In less than 48 hours it would be the real Remembrance Day. 11AM on the 11th of November. The sinister significance of the date twisted a freezing knot in his stomach. Gabrielle and Ethan’s lives were on the line; he had no intention of allowing them to be added to the roll of the remembered. He leaned into the wind and moved off along the track bed of the long disused railway line.
He turned up his collar. With the temperature falling, the snow crystallising and the leaves freezing, it was like walking through a bowl of breakfast cereal. His thoughts turned to Gabrielle with each anxious step. He couldn’t deny he was looking forward to seeing her again but any sense of excited anticipation was jaded by the reason for his being there. They hadn’t seen each other for months and now he turns up with this.
A fork in the track brought them to a halt. A narrower path fell away towards the river. The main track carried straight on. They were at the neck of a tear-shaped peninsula where the land between loops in the river was no wider than 200 yards.
‘Look. The abbey is just across the river,’ Sofi said. ‘We can’t be far.’
Helix nodded. ‘Not many signs of—’
‘Listen.’ Sofi held her hand up. ‘There.’
‘Kids.’ He laughed. ‘I’d know that sound anywhere. Kids charging around in the woods. Come on.’
Sofi fell in beside him and they traipsed down the slope, ignoring the amount of noise they were making. The kids were bound to spot them and then scamper off to tell the grownups. The path was obvious, even in the fresh snow, winding between mature broad-leaf trees, through coppiced clearings and around piles of sawn logs and brushwood. Helix flinched as Sofi stumbled, grabbing his arm to catch herself from falling. He scrambled for traction as the ground fell away, leaves, branches and twigs cascading over them as the fell into a deep, straight-sided, water-filled pit.
15
40 Hours
The cacophony of bells and scrap metal that echoed through the woods as the fragile pit cover collapsed under Helix and Sofi’s weight had reduced to an occasional dull clang on the breeze. A heavy cloud of exasperated breath drifted skyward as Helix exhaled. The eight-by-eight-foot star-filled frame overhead offered no answers. ‘Millions of pounds of technology between us and we walked into a fucking man trap,’ he said, shaking a blob of mud from his hand. He sniffed the air and suppressed a retch. The unmistakable stench of a camp latrine confirmed that what they were waist deep in, wasn’t just water.
‘Listen,’ Sofi whispered. ‘Somebody’s approaching.’
Leaves and small twigs rustled and cracked as eager breaths grew louder. Clouds of breathy steam swirled above the pit’s edge. The bodies the fog emanated from remained hidden. Helix draw one of his P226s, Sofi followed his lead with her own weapon.
‘It’s Helix,’ he called. ‘We’re looking for Gabrielle Stepper. Is she here?’
A giggle was admonished in a series of shushes, whispers and more rustling of leaves. ‘Any adults up there?’ he added. ‘Hello.’
Thin streams of steaming liquid and clods of dung arced through the air from all sides of the pit adding to the rancid soup they stood in.
‘Get away from there,’ an older voice boomed amongst the trees.
Giggles were snatched away in hastily taken breaths. Flashes of untamed light licked around the trees surrounding the pit, growing stronger with the measured footsteps that accompanied them.
Helix’s eyes narrowed in the light as the flaming torch silhouetted a long-haired man who peered down into the pit. ‘We’re looking for Gabrielle Stepper. Is she here?’ he said.
‘She’s already told that bean counter to piss off,’ the torch bearer spat. ‘For a supposedly educated man, he’s a bit slow on the uptake.’
‘Bean counter?’
‘Nothing but trouble since she turned up,’ the torch bearer replied, his eyes searching for agreement on the other side of the pit.
Small faces peered over the edge. Orange torchlight danced across their grubby faces and wild hair. One young visage carried a more serious countenance. Helix recognised her from the gold frame, smiling behind the cracked glass. ‘Lauren?’
‘Hi,’ she mumbled, brushing her straggly blonde hair from her face.
The light increased in proportion to the swelling the crowd who jostled for space to gain a better look at the captives. ‘Helix?’ a familiar voice said. ‘Helix, is that you?’
He spun around, his hand shielding his eyes from the torches. His breath caught in his chest as his eyes fell upon the swollen stomach of the woman who’d occupied his thoughts for most of the last six months. That was why she hadn’t written. She’d moved on.
‘Gabrielle?’
Sniggers rippled through the crowd.
‘Ha!’ She laughed. ‘Even with a bun in the oven you still can’t tell the difference.’
‘SJ?’ he said, happy to take foolishness over crushing disappointment any day.
‘Kids. Fetch a ladder,’ she ordered.
Helix cleared his throat. ‘Where’s Gabrielle?’
SJ half turned, made a space between her and the torch bearer. ‘She’s coming.’
Gabrielle’s stumbling arrival almost shoved the torch bearer into the pit with Helix and Sofi. ‘Helix.’ She clutched her hands to her face. ‘My God. I’d only just said to SJ a couple of days—’ She beamed, her eyes glassy in the light of the flickering torches.
‘I’d have sent a message but, well you know…’ He said, holding his hands up, pit water running from the smart-fabric. ‘This
