Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
www.penguin.com
First published 2014
Copyright © Dee Shulman, 2014
www.parallonbooks.com
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted
Typeset by Jouve (UK), Milton Keynes
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
ISBN: 978-0-141-97220-6
Prologue
1: Lost
2: Company
3: Aftermath
4: Reunion
5: Stand-off
6: Recovered Memories
7: A Simple Plan
8: Doubts
9: Power
10: Rebellion
11: Blog
12: Gentle Persuasion
13: Codes
14: Secrets and Lies
15: Interrogation
16: Duty and Love
17: Promise
18: Challenge
19: Distraction
20: Hell
21: Disclosure
22: Crime and Punishment
23: Manoeuvre
24: Categorization
25: Surrender
26: Fear
27: Taken
28: Insurrection
29: Contact
30: Defiance
31: Announcement
32: Development
33: Purpose
34: Presentation
35: Control
36: Insurrection
37: Operation Minotaur
38: Battle
39: Bait
40: Choices
41: Release
42: Storm
43: Carnage
44: Surveillance
45: Search
46: Betrayal
47: Treatment
48: Comfort
49: Reconnaissance
50: Defence
51: Ambush
52: Impasse
53: Bodies
54: Wrong Side of the War
55: Curfew
56: Torn Apart
57: Care
58: Revelation
59: Rescue
60: Tremor
61: Choices
62: Suicide Mission
63: Blood
64: Retribution
65: Guilt
66: God
67: Tsunami
68: Cross
69: Vengeance
70: Clash
71: Team
72: Sacrifice
73: Shadow
74: Scream
75: Mirror
76: Triggers
77: Guests
78: Channelling
79: Reset
80: Call
81: Faith
82: Afterlife
83: Forever
Acknowledgements
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For Max
PENGUIN BOOKS
Praise for the Parallon series:
‘Full of twists, immaculately researched, it is very exciting and unpredictable’ Independent on Sunday
‘It’s a great ride with evocative settings and intense emotion’ SFX (4 stars)
‘WOW … that rare gem of a book that I can’t stop thinking about and will read again and again … Outstanding! It’s ten times better than Twilight’ Waterstones, Cardiff
‘Vivid … captivating and passionate’ London and South East Libraries
‘It’s a page-turning intellectual teen read that ANY adult would enjoy. Open the page, open your mind and go with the flow. TIP TOP TERRIFIC!’ Waterstones, Thanet
‘I enjoyed this book because of the strong characters and the fact that Dee Shulman doesn’t simply rely on magic for this union’ Books For Keeps
‘Crammed with ideas and imagination [Delirium] is a highly recommended, intelligent and enigmatic novel guaranteed to leave readers hungry for the concluding volume’ Jake Hope, Droplets of Ink
‘Oh my god! What a book …’ Best Books (5 stars)
‘Could not put [Delirium] down. A great sequel to Fever … densely plotted and endlessly fascinating’ amazon.co.uk
‘Absolutely brilliant book. Could not put it down once I started it! This series just gets better and better … A very clever read, while being thrilling, romantic and original’ goodreads.com
London AD 2012: After two expulsions, orphaned sixteen-year-old rebel misfit Eva Koretsky unexpectedly wins a place at St Magdalene’s School for the highly gifted. There she finally makes some friends, joins a band (the Astronauts) and gets to play with the school’s new electron microscope. When virologist Professor Ambrose shows her some unusual slides, she can’t resist exploring further, and inadvertently becomes infected by a deadly virus. Defying all medical prediction, Eva survives, but is severely weakened and plagued by vivid nightmares.
Londinium AD 152: When eighteen-year-old gladiator Sethos Leontis is dangerously injured in the arena, he is taken to the house of his patrons to recover. There, he falls in love with Livia, their adopted daughter. But she is betrothed to Cassius, the ruthless Londinium procurator. Seth and Livia plan to flee, but Cassius and his guards intercept them. Seth is forced to watch Cassius cutting Livia’s throat before they turn on him.
Parallon: Seth wakes up miraculously healed in a shimmering world where he has the power to invent his own environment. But he is alone – and Parallon without Livia is an empty prison. When he discovers the vortex, a fiercely guarded time corridor, and survives the experience, he becomes the reluctant protégé of Zackary, the vortex’s mysterious guardian. Meanwhile, fellow slave Matthias has arrived in Parallon and, as more and more people follow, Seth discovers that all the inhabitants are connected by a devastating fever. Zackary finally agrees to help Seth track the fever by sending him through the vortex to begin research in the formidably equipped St Magdalene’s School.
London AD 2013: Seth walks into the St Mag’s biology lab and finds himself face to face with Livia. Except she calls herself Eva. And she doesn’t know him.
When Eva sees Seth for the first time, some buried memory is triggered, but she doesn’t trust it, especially as his presence seems to be exacerbating her nightmares, and his touch is almost overwhelming. Despite every effort to avoid him, she continues to be magnetically drawn to him, until she can resist no longer. He finally convinces her that she somehow shares a past with Livia and helps her remember their passion, and Cassius’s vicious revenge.
But the rediscovery of their love is marred by the knowledge that Seth believes he carries a deadly virus, and one kiss from him could kill her. Having already lost her in one life, Seth decides, to Eva’s dismay, that he is not prepared to take that risk.
The rift this causes almost breaks them both, and finally unable to hold back any longer, Eva reaches up to kiss him, determined that wherever their love takes her it is a place she wants to go …
London AD 2013: Eva survives the kiss, but her health is deteriorating fast. She and Seth begin a desperate search to find out about the virus, both aware that her time is short. Despite all her computer-hacking skills, Eva cannot find a source. She is sure the mysterious Professor Ambrose holds the key, but she can’t uncover his whereabouts. Meanwhile, Seth’s blood-sampling experiments have revealed that his blood is 100 per cent lethal to every teenager at St Magdalene’s. Teachers appear less susceptible, proving that there is an age correlation.
TV news journalist Jennifer Linden is investigating a series of mysterious disappearances and forms a reluctant alliance with DI Nick Mullard, the detective heading the investigation. When the Astronauts’ record producer is arrested as a murder suspect for one of the disappeared, Eva comes into direct contact with Nick and Jen. Seth catches Eva just as she’s about to tell Nick about Parallon. Though Seth prevents her from speaking, he feels completely betrayed. They argue and she watches in despair as he heads away into the storm. When he fails to return, Eva believes he has left her forever.
Parallon: The Romans, under the ruthless magister (aka Cassius), have taken over, transforming Parallon into a tyrannical Roman state, boasting a huge arena for endless gladiatorial battles. Determined to avoid slavery a second time, Matthias shows the Romans the vortex, which they greedily appropriate in order to acquire an army of vicious soldiers.
London AD 2043: Worried about the way the escalating traffic is affecting the vortex’s stability, Zackary sends Seth into the future to locate astrophysicist Louis Engelmann, an expert in wormholes and dark matter. While there, Seth, increasingly suspicious of Zackary and his motives, sneaks into Zack’s lab and discovers the Parallon files – a digital environmental simulation, uncannily similar to the physical world of Parallon. But before he can find out more, Seth gets caught, and in his struggle to escape, accidentally infects Engelmann’s colleague, Lauren Baxter, with the virus. Finding herself in Parallon, it becomes Lauren’s unenviable task to try and repair the extremely unstable vortex.
London AD 2013: Matthias has been sent by Cassius to find Seth and bring him back to Parallon. Assuming he’s with Eva in 2013, he unwittingly leads Cassius right to her. Seth arrives too late to prevent Cassius’s death blow, and desperately tries to infect Eva with his own blood. As her body slowly disappears, Seth realizes that she will arrive unguarded into the hostile world of Parallon. He has to reach her before Cassius does …
Eva Koretsky, misfit, genius hacker, singer and guitarist with the Astronauts
Sethos Leontis, originally first-century AD gladiator slave in Londinium, travels to London 2013 via a time corridor
Astrid Rettfar, bass player and band leader of the Astronauts
Rob Wilmer, in love with Eva, plays keys in the Astronauts
Sadie Bekant, drummer in the Astronauts
Rose Marley, school matron
Dr Crispin (aka The Crisp), headmaster of St Magdalene’s
Professor Ambrose, visiting pathogen virologist
Jennifer Linden, TV journalist, Channel 7 News
Nick Mullard, London City Detective Inspector (in a relationship with Jen Linden)
Brodie Covington, MI5 operative, former colleague and friend of Nick Mullard
Theo Mendez, indie record producer
Domitus and Flavia Natalis, adopted parents of Livia
Sabina, Cassius’s house-slave (helped with Seth and Livia’s escape attempt)
Vibia, Natalis house-slave (helped with Seth and Livia’s escape attempt)
Professor Louis Engelmann, astrophysicist, former mentor to Zackary
Lauren Baxter, astrophysicist, colleague of Engelmann
Anton Trepov, doctor and friend of Zackary
Rana Shah, Zackary’s intern
Cassius Malchus, the magister, formerly Londinium procurator and husband to the missing Livia
Otho, one of Cassius’s elite guard
Rufus, one of Cassius’s elite guard
Pontius, one of Cassius’s elite guard
Matthias, formerly Seth’s best friend and fellow slave
Georgia, one of Matthias’s girlfriends
Clare, friend of Georgia, in love with Seth
Elena Galanis, a café waitress whom Matthias inadvertently infected in 2013 London and brought over to Parallon
Winston Grey, a motorcyclist whom Matthias inadvertently infected in 2013 London and brought over to Parallon
Zackary, enigmatic figure who lives near the river and the vortex
‘No!’ Zackary stared at the cage in horror. How could this be happening to him now? He thought he’d finally cracked this thing. In fact he was so sure this time that he’d virtually written his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
So what the hell was happening to that rat? It was definitely sick. He glanced across at the others. They were all fine. Well – better than fine, actually. Their memory function was now off the scale. They could navigate even the most complex mazes with 100 per cent accuracy. And they could do it fast. On the multiple T-maze trial, each rat had completed the course in less than nine seconds. Their knowledge didn’t have to be learned and memorized any more. It was embedded.
He’d created super-rats, which meant he was on the verge of step two: creating super-humans. Once his Memory Data Transfer program was operational it would change the world. Implanted memory would not only serve as a powerful medical remedy for dementia, stroke and brain trauma, but more significantly could eliminate the requirement for virtually all education.
Instant knowledge.
No more need for schools, universities or internships, ever. And although world recognition would be his primary reward, Zackary had no doubt that his twenty-three patents would be worth billions.
He glanced uneasily across at the sick rat. It was now lying on the floor of its cage, shuddering.
This wasn’t the first time he’d had to deal with viral transmutation. The damned Tachyovirus had nearly finished him. One tiny code anomaly inserted directly into the hippocampus had killed 112 rats. But he’d eliminated Tachyo. He’d rewritten all the maze code, and ceased using the hippocampus implants. The direct receptor transmissions had been working like a dream. Until this last transmission. So how could it have caused such a reaction? He’d only incorporated one additional data stream: the preliminary human memory program. There shouldn’t have been any glitch with it though. He’d used exactly the same direct receptor system as before.
This had to be an anomaly. The rat had to be suffering from some totally unrelated ailment.
But in his heart Zackary knew how unlikely that was. He peered into the cage. No. This looked nothing like Tachyo. It was way more virulent. The rat had started sickening within moments of transmission.
He knew he couldn’t move on to trialling the other rats, let alone the human subjects he’d lined up, until he’d checked out the damn animal. He’d have to take a blood sample and eliminate any possible connection with the data transmission. So he pulled on a pair of latex gloves, unsealed a syringe and lifted the rat out of the glass cage to examine it. He couldn’t believe how fast its health was deteriorating. It was now bleeding from its mouth and nose. Sighing, he inserted the syringe. The rat jerked violently, swung its head round and viciously bit his hand.
‘Christ!’ hissed Zack, frowning as he watched two small beads of blood oozing through the latex. ‘Useless bloody gloves,’ he cursed.
He gripped the rat’s mouth shut to prevent any further attack, continued drawing blood until the syringe was full, then placed the shaking animal back inside its cage. It shuddered for a few seconds and then went still. Dead still. Zackary checked its pulse. There wasn’t one.
He peeled off the gloves and threw them in the incinerator, cleaned his hand with an antiseptic wipe and took the blood sample across to his EPQ-scope. Pipetting a drop of rat blood on to a slide, he clipped the slide into place, set the record mode, then keyed in the magnification and watched the monitor.
‘What the hell?’ he breathed, instantly recognizing the spiky thread-like structures. But there were too many. They were everywhere: wriggling across the screen, invading the T-cells, multiplying faster than he could conceive. Tachyo had never proliferated this fast. There had to be something wrong with the EPQ-scope. He was just about to recalibrate, when he realized the screen had gone completely blank.
‘I knew it. Damn malfunction!’ sighed Zackary, more than a bit relieved.
He restarted the EPQ-scope and pulled out another slide, then turned to the syringe to collect a second blood sample. The syringe was empty. Could he have taken out two syringes? He frowned. Where the hell was the rat-blood sample? He started banging around the lab looking for it. No sign of it at all. Cursing, he picked up the empty syringe to draw a second sample, and watched in dismay as it slipped through his shaking fingers. He stood blinking at the floor for a few moments, wondering why it appeared so blurry.
The recording, he suddenly remembered. He could slow down the recording of the first sample and see what was going on.
Zackary increased the magnification so that he could focus on one unique T-cell. Then he slowed down the playback time by 100. But it was still too fast to follow, so he slowed it down by 500. This time he saw everything: individual spiky threads worming into the central T-cell cavity, then splitting over and over until the cell was so bloated it burst. Only it didn’t splatter everywhere – it just disappeared, leaving a completely empty screen.
Zackary snorted. Matter couldn’t simply dematerialize. He played the recording again. And again. He banged his fist on the table and stood up. His legs felt shaky. He felt queasy. Thirsty. He needed water. As he moved across to the sink he glanced over to the sick rat.
The cage was empty.
Zackary swayed for a moment, gaping. How could it have escaped? It was dead … and the door was still clip-locked shut. Nonetheless his eyes swept around the room looking for an escaped dead rat. He stumbled across the floor to his monitor screen, slumping down in front of it.
He had to look over the transmission data again. If Tachyo was back he needed to find it and eliminate it. Right now. He was hosting a meeting later that day with the five competing tech companies. He’d guaranteed them watertight results.
God, it was hot in here. He lurched over to the window to let in some air, then sat back down at his screen, moving straight to the Parallon simulation. This was the data transmission he’d been trialling on the sick rat. He started scrolling through the code, comparing sequence strings, looking for anomalies. He scrolled through screen after screen, page after page, and was about to abandon it when he spotted something … a repeating code sequence jumping line by line up the screen, overwriting and replacing the original code. With each line the process speeded up, moving faster and faster up the screen, devouring years of Zackary’s painstaking programming.
He blinked at the screen in horror. He had no doubt that he was watching a Tachyo-hydra: a super-virus that proliferated as he watched, and was now aggressively wiping out all his data – his world-changing data. And it wasn’t going to stop until there was nothing left.
He began frantically trying to power off the computer, knowing that it was the only way to freeze the virus, but he’d programmed in a power-source override system which would take him at least twenty minutes to disarm. He glanced back at the screen. He didn’t have twenty minutes. He didn’t have twenty seconds. The virus had now devoured its way through 426,788 screens of data. Only six left. He stared at the screen in defeat, watching the sweat of his past and the dreams of his future evaporate.
And he had just transmitted that virus directly into the brain of a rat – and the rat had been as powerless to defend itself from the infection as his computer had been. It had skipped right across the organic component in the synthesized brain receptor at the most devastating pace.
He stared at the screen. The Parallon file – the summation of seven years’ work – had only three lines of code left … He scrubbed his eyes. This had to be a nightmare. The screen was swimming. The whole room was spinning. He tried to stand up, he needed to adjust the thermostat, it felt like a furnace in here, but he couldn’t seem to locate his legs. Why was the floor hovering at that strange angle? Why was he shivering in a pool of vomit? Why had the room gone so dark? Why was everything fading to nothing?
I opened my eyes and found myself staring up at a cloudless, velvety black sky. I blinked, mesmerized, as always, by the awesome pattern of stars scattered across the universe. But for some reason the view didn’t fill me with the usual sense of tranquillity. Cold fear was coursing through me and I couldn’t remember why.
I jerked my eyes away from the sky and looked around. I was lying on my back on hard pavement, in the middle of a dark, empty street. Unfamiliar buildings loomed over me. And I was completely alone.
My heart was pounding in my chest. I jumped to my feet … What was I doing here? I had to remember. Sounds. I could hear sounds. Marching feet. I shuddered … I knew those sounds … Roman soldiers … Guards …
Oh God, not Londinium. Please not Londinium. I stared wildly around me, my heart sinking: even in the murky moonlight there was no mistaking the marble columns, the uniform, ordered Roman buildings, straight paved roads. Swallowing the mounting panic, I glanced down at my clothes and frowned. In all my visions of myself in Londinium I was wearing long, fine tunics. But this time I was dressed in jeans, trainers and a white T-shirt … covered in blood.
Whose blood? Mine?
Suddenly memory crashed into me … Cassius. He’d ambushed me. Again.
How had the most feared Roman procurator managed to find his way into my world? He’d caught me outside a London rock venue!
Matthias! I hissed as the fragments fitted together. Matthias was how. Seth’s treacherous friend had led Cassius straight to me.
And Cassius wanted me dead. I had felt his hands round my throat. I had seen death in his eyes. Yet here I was. Alive.
How had I escaped? And how the hell had I ended up in Londinium again? I hit my head in frustration. I just couldn’t remember.
Tramp. Tramp. Tramp. The soldiers were getting closer. Were they coming for me? Was Cassius with them?
I started running – I didn’t care where I went as long as I got away from them.
Staying close to the buildings, skimming through shadowy columned peristyles, keeping my steps light and soundless, I moved on and on, not once daring to stop. And my legs carried me easily. Running felt effortless, natural. Like it always used to. How was I managing to run this hard, this long, this fast? I’d been too weak to do much more than crawl for months. Was I dreaming? Had I fallen into one of my strange visions again? Would I wake up in hospital?
Or never wake up?
I stopped dead … I could feel my heart thud, hear my panting breaths, feel my pulse race. This felt real. I leaned against a column and shut my eyes, relishing the cool stone at my back. Stretching my arms above my head, I skimmed my fingertips slowly along the ridged surface. My body felt so good. Like new. Like it didn’t have a virus raging through it, crippling every cell.
I couldn’t suppress the shiver of pleasure. It had been so long since I’d felt this way. Truthfully, the last time I felt this fit, I’d been too damned fixated on other stuff to notice … fighting with Mum and my stepdad, or running away from Downley Comprehensive … Now that old life didn’t feel like it belonged to me any more. Even St Mag’s felt weirdly remote. But that was good. I couldn’t let myself think about St Mag’s – not yet. I had to stay focused.
My eyes scoured the street. I’d chosen a useless place to stop. Even when I craned round the column I could barely see to the end of the road. I needed to get higher up if I was going to be able to find out where I was, or where the soldiers were headed.
Cautiously, I crept out of my hiding place and edged along the buildings to the end of the street. But this road proved as dark and deserted as the one I was leaving. The moon’s feeble light barely touched the vertical columns and porticoes, which loomed like pallid ghosts in the night.
I stood for a moment wavering. I could hear sounds, though it was hard to locate their source. I held my breath, ears straining. There they were again … Definitely movement … rustling. I hurried quickly on, looking neither right nor left, until the bright flames flickering from two marble urns stopped me in my tracks. I felt a sudden wave of familiarity. They were flanking a pair of huge carved doors. Some part of my brain knew this place, could name it … the Temple of Jupiter. My heart was pounding again. I’d been here. Without thinking, I quickly skirted round the side of the temple, knowing that as soon as I’d edged my way to the back of the building I’d find … our meadow. I stood in silence, inhaling sharply as the scent of grass suddenly pushed me back to another time – a snatched moment with the boy I loved: I could taste him, feel the warmth of his arms round me, hear the urgent words he was whispering … to me, to Livia.
But as I looked for the heavy oak tree, our treasured meeting place, the momentary brightness of my memory was eclipsed by the ominous darkness that now shrouded everything. The warmth of the meadow evaporated, and I was staring at huge sinister shadows and looming hostile shapes.
Get a grip! It’s only bushes and trees!
But my body was ignoring my brain’s commands and began retreating towards the entrance of the temple. Maybe I could hide inside? I pushed hard on the doors. They were locked tight. I leaned against them in frustration. I wanted to pound my fist against the wood, but knew how stupid that would be. So, reluctantly, I turned away and squinted along the street. My stomach lurched. I was on very familiar ground here. Way too familiar. Just a stone’s throw from the gaudy palace where Cassius had held me captive. I could even make out the silhouettes of the monstrous golden eagles that marked the building’s grand entrance. I turned to go back, but the sound of the approaching soldiers forced me to veer on to a small unfamiliar side street. It was pitch-dark, but my legs remained steady as I crept relentlessly forward until I was rewarded with the glimmer of moonlight ahead. I rushed towards the light, but when I reached the end of the road, I froze.
Oh God. The forum. It was bigger than I remembered. And in my memory it was always daytime. Always filled with people. And noise. And … Seth. My treacherous mind conjured an image of him, a heavy wool cloak draped over his injured shoulder; his clear blue eyes burning into me.
A wave of misery and loss suddenly rocked me. How had I let him in again? Thank God Astrid wasn’t here to catch that moment of weakness. She’d worked relentlessly over the months since Seth stormed away to help keep him out of my head.
But it wasn’t fear of Astrid’s wrath that forced my brain back to my present crisis. It was the sound of marching footsteps … terrifyingly close.
I was now standing frozen in the middle of the forum, like I’d deliberately placed myself there for target practice. I gazed frantically around. There was absolutely no cover here. I had to move. Fast. There was a road on the far side. Could I make it across before they saw me? I had never sprinted so hard, my own footfalls and heartbeat thundering in my ears, drowning out all other sound. I’d just about reached the road, and was on the point of ducking behind a low wall, when I felt a hand suddenly pressing against my mouth, and an arm banding across my chest.
‘Thank you, Zeus,’ gasped Seth as he staggered out of the river on to the bank. Hunching over, he tried to catch his breath. It was dark, but there was enough moonlight for him to to be able to make out the numerous injuries his journey through the vortex had caused. He was pretty sure he had cracked a few ribs this time too. But the pain didn’t bother him, especially as he could already feel the healing taking place, reassuring him that he had arrived in Parallon.
‘I should be thanking Lauren Baxter not Zeus for my safe passage,’ he thought ruefully, as a wave of sickening guilt washed over him. Lauren had probably just saved his life, and all he’d done to deserve it was ruin hers. She’d had a great career at NASA until he’d destroyed it by infecting her with his lethal virus. Now she was trapped under savage Roman rule in Parallon, spending every waking hour trying to stabilize the vortex. If it wasn’t for her, he’d be either flailing around in a hell of dark matter or … dead.
But he didn’t have time right now to indulge in either guilt or gratitude. He had to get moving; his position by the water was too exposed. Crouching low, he ran silently towards the deep shadow of buildings. Within minutes he was nearing Zackary’s house, but he wasn’t stopping. He needed to hurry north, to the place where Eva would have arrived – before anyone else got to her.
He heard the guards long before he saw them. Patrols didn’t move stealthily. Their function was to assert power and instil fear; so they didn’t hide. Which meant they were easy to circumvent. Keeping to the shadows, Seth moved quietly past them, but his eyes continued to scan the streets warily. The guards would not be his only enemies. If Cassius was controlling Parallon in the same way he had Londinium, it was unlikely he’d operate without a network of secret police: men who knew how to move silently. Seth had been ambushed by them before, and he wasn’t about to make the same mistake again.
Desperate to get to Eva, he moved fast but carefully, all senses on high alert. Which was how he heard a distant figure pounding heavily in his direction. Who travelled so recklessly through this dangerous Roman prison? He shut his eyes briefly.
Please don’t let it be Eva.
His stomach twisted with anxiety. She would have no idea where she was, or what kind of hell she’d landed in. Immediately Seth headed towards the sound. As soon as he was close, he let out a snort of disbelief, and hauled the idiot he recognized off the road and into a doorway. ‘Matthias! Do you want to guarantee every Parallon guard knows you’re back?’
‘Seth!’ beamed Matt, ignoring his censure. ‘I was trying to find you!’
‘Lucky I found you first,’ hissed Seth, rolling his eyes. ‘You’d better hide out here while I look for Eva.’
‘No way, man. I’m coming with you,’ argued Matthias.
‘You’re not. I intend to travel undetected.’
‘I’ll keep quiet!’
Seth shook his head and pushed Matt back into the doorway. ‘Wait here quietly, brother, until I get back.’
Matthias gazed up into those clear blue eyes and nodded mutely. His heart swelled with happiness. Seth was here. His world was back in balance.
Rob was staring blankly down at the blood-stained clothes at his feet.
‘Christ, Rob, the police are here.’
He heard the words, but they didn’t penetrate his dazed brain. He was too confused. The last half-hour had effectively wiped out all coherent thought.
‘Rob, the police are here,’ Astrid repeated urgently.
‘The police?’ he echoed stupidly. Astrid was pointing towards the two sets of flashing lights at the end of the street.
Rob frowned. He was having a problem focusing. All he could do was look down at the blood. Eva’s blood.
‘Guys! We’ve got to get rid of Eva’s stuff.’
‘What?’ he rasped, suddenly alert, suddenly aware of another woman – the woman now reaching purposefully towards Eva’s clothes. His hand shot out, grabbing her shoulder and forcing her away before he was even conscious of his own fury. ‘Don’t you dare!’ he snarled. ‘Don’t you dare touch Eva’s things.’
‘So you want the police to find them, do you?’ the woman snorted impatiently.
Rob stared at her in disbelief. ‘Who the hell are you?’ he choked. ‘Astrid, do you know who this woman is? Because I bloody don’t.’
‘This woman has a name,’ hissed the stranger. ‘Jennifer Linden. And I’d really appreciate it if you addressed me by it in future.’
‘I’ll bear it in mind,’ he growled, fixing her with a burning gaze. ‘Now perhaps you and your name could just get lost. Because there is no way we are going to get rid of anything of Eva’s.’
He crouched down and ran a tender finger along the blood-soaked white T-shirt, his shoulders shuddering.
‘You clearly weren’t paying attention,’ Jen snapped. ‘Because if you were you would probably have noticed that a couple of minutes ago your friend, Eva, disappeared into thin air.’ She paused to stare at Rob and Astrid ferociously. ‘So, forgive me for asking, but how exactly were you intending to explain that small detail to the police and ambulance crew heading this way?’
Rob clenched and unclenched his fists. He was struggling to hold it together, let alone argue. He hadn’t drunk or smoked anything that could possibly account for the nightmare he was now stuck inside. What the hell was going on? One minute they were playing the best gig of their lives and being offered an American tour; the next, their singer, the girl he loved, lay dying on the pavement. Then that bastard, Seth – the same bastard who had abandoned her weeks ago – was attacking her with a knife! And when he’d tried to stop the maniac, this Jennifer bloody Linden woman, and that weird Matthias guy, had held him back. So he’d been watching with impotent rage when the impossible happened: Eva Koretsky stopped breathing … and then literally disappeared. And instead of pulling the knife on Seth and making him pay, he had stood there gawping while Seth charged off into the night muttering something about getting to Eva before Cassius could.
Rob wasn’t stupid, yet he was having a hell of a problem working out what in God’s name was going on. He gazed imploringly at Astrid, but she was staring down at the bloodstained pavement looking as dazed as he felt.
Jen Linden’s eyes were fixed on the three policemen emerging from their cars. She quickly pulled Astrid and Rob into the shadows behind a parked van. The police flashed their torches into the street, giving a cursory glance around.
‘Probably a hoax call. We should head back to the Underworld,’ one muttered to the other.
‘Aw, really? I hate that place. Rock venues always bring on my migraine.’
‘You’re such a pussy, Trev! But we’ve got no choice. That’s where the call-out came from. Better do some witness checks there just in case.’
Jennifer’s mouth twitched. ‘Good luck with that,’ she muttered under her breath. They’d have a job getting a coherent statement from anyone there. It was dark, loud and totally rammed. Suddenly her mobile vibrated in her pocket. She winced when she noticed one of the policemen had a phone to his ear. Damn. She hadn’t thought to block her number when she’d dialled 999 earlier. Who’d have guessed the response teams would be so efficient? Praying the PC was too far away to hear the faint buzz, she held her breath until her phone went silent and the police continued on their way.
‘Look, guys,’ she breathed to the frozen pair beside her. ‘They might well come back, and if we get caught standing over the remains – I mean, the – er – stuff Eva left behind, the police are going to come up with the wrong conclusion. Those blood-stained clothes aren’t going to help them catch the monster who did this to her. They are just going to implicate us … We have to get rid of them.’
Astrid and Rob just stared blankly back at her, which she decided to take as tacit acquiescence. Slipping from behind the van towards the clothes, she paused momentarily to gaze down at the grim way they retained the shape and position of Eva’s body. Exactly as Nick’s had. Her thoughts shifted involuntarily back to that awful hospital bed … the frantic team of doctors … Nick’s motionless body … No – she couldn’t let her mind take her there. She snatched up the clothes and tossed them straight into the wheelie bin she’d crouched behind earlier.
There was still blood all over the ground, but she was pretty sure the gathering rainclouds would rectify that situation before the police decided to come back.
‘Right,’ Jen hissed, ‘we need to get you two back to your people at the Underworld without being spotted by the police.’
She reached for her phone, hoping the map app would offer a circuitous route to the venue.
‘Damn.’ The screen was flashing with a voicemail alert. ‘Looks like I’ll have to come up with something viable to tell the cops,’ she muttered, homing in on their satellite position. ‘OK, we can cut through behind the tube station, and get to the venue that way,’ she grunted. ‘Let’s go.’
A few minutes later Rob and Astrid stood dazedly at the back entrance to the Underworld.
‘You two look completely shell-shocked,’ murmured Jen, feeling an unexpected wave of empathy. She had, after all, been a total wreck herself when Nick had disappeared. But she couldn’t get sentimental. There was too much at stake. And too many unanswered questions. Especially about this evening.
‘That guy – Seth … who exactly is he?’ Jen asked.
‘I thought you had all the answers,’ snapped Rob.
Astrid shook her head at Rob and sighed. ‘Basically Seth is – was – the love of Eva’s life.’
‘Hmmm – well, it certainly looked like he reciprocated,’ mused Jen.
‘Oh yeah? He walked out on her,’ contradicted Rob icily, ‘and broke her heart.’
‘When did he walk out?’
‘Months ago.’
Jen frowned. ‘How’d they meet?’
‘School. He was in our year.’
‘You’re kidding, right? No way is that guy a school kid. He’s army, SAS … I dunno. You can’t have not noticed the way he’s built … the way he moves.’
Rob bristled. ‘He was at our school –’
‘Until he wasn’t,’ hissed Jen. ‘So how long was he at your school?’
‘He arrived the term after Eva.’
‘That really helps.’
‘Seth started at St Mag’s in January,’ clarified Astrid. ‘And disappeared in May.’
‘So where’d he go?’
Astrid and Rob shrugged.
‘Weren’t you curious?’
‘We were doing everything in our power to try and stop Eva thinking about him. She was a total mess. The last thing we were going to do was speculate about where he’d gone.’
‘So what was he doing back tonight?’
Neither of them answered. The question hung in the air.
‘Did Eva ever mention a man called Cassius?’
‘The guy that Seth went after?’
Jen nodded grimly. ‘Cassius was the psycho that killed her.’
‘What happened, Jennifer?’ choked Rob.
‘By the time I got there, she was already on the ground. But I saw him. Huge. Terrifying. And when that Matthias guy and I tried to stop him, he seemed kind of triumphant … gloating. He lifted her limp body, and tore into it with that huge knife …’
‘Why?’
‘Apparently it was a message for Seth.’
‘What?’
Jen shrugged. ‘He really hates Seth.’
‘So – definitely not a random psycho.’
‘Oh no. The way he attacked her was … personal. Sick.’
‘Did Matt know him?’
Jen nodded. ‘Definitely. So did Seth.’
‘Jeez,’ whistled Astrid, biting her lip.
‘So. Eva never mentioned Cassius?’
They shook their heads.
‘How well did you two know her?’ asked Jen quietly.
They blinked back at her.
‘Aren’t you guys like – best friends?’
‘What are you getting at?’ growled Astrid.
‘Well, didn’t she tell you anything?’
Astrid’s jaw twitched, and Jen shifted back defensively. ‘OK – whatever. We need to stay in touch,’ she continued. ‘I don’t know if Seth’ll turn up again, but if he does, you have to ring me. Immediately. Any time. I really need to talk to him. Now, give me your phones.’
Rob’s eyes widened, waiting for Astrid to erupt. Nobody pushed Astrid around. But she said nothing at all. Just handed over her phone.
A few minutes later, Jen had updated all three contact lists, and was shoving open the stage door. ‘Let’s just hear it one more time,’ she whispered.
‘Hear what?’ asked Rob.
‘Your story!’ snorted Jen impatiently.
Rob rolled his eyes. ‘Seth came back and persuaded Eva to run away with him – to Greece.’
‘Rob, you have to get this right. You will be questioned hard. The disappearance of a pair of teenagers will not go down well. St Magdalene’s security will be scrutinized. And the press might start sniffing around once they get any kind of love angle going. Which means you will be asked a lot of questions about Eva and Seth … So – did you have any idea she was planning to run away with him?’
‘She wasn’t –’
Jen looked exasperated. ‘We can’t let them suspect anything other than elopement. So – as her best friends – it’s better if you had a feeling she was keeping something from you.’
Rob’s fists clenched white, but he remained silent. Jen sighed. ‘Look – I’m sorry you two had to get involved in this. It’s big, it’s messy and it’s very scary. Probably the less you know about it the better.’
Astrid’s eyes flashed. ‘I have just watched one of my best friends bleed out on the pavement, Jennifer,’ she hissed vehemently. ‘I have no idea what is going on, or what this big, scary mess is, but don’t you dare tell me the less I know about it the better. And if you expect me to betray Eva by pretending she didn’t just get viciously attacked, but skipped blithely off into the sunset, then you don’t know me at all!’
Jennifer pressed her fingers between her brows and massaged the skin. Astrid had just reminded her how incandescent she herself had been when the MI5 guy had told her to lie about Nick’s death.
‘Astrid, the last thing I want is for you to betray Eva,’ she said finally, her voice husky. ‘But think about it. Eva clearly didn’t want you to get involved in this either.’
Astrid stood silently for a moment, biting her lip. Then she took a deep breath and nodded reluctantly. ‘So, do you think she died because she knew too much?’
Jen didn’t think so. Eva’s death looked way more personal. But Astrid didn’t need to hear that. ‘Maybe,’ she answered.
Her eyes drifted momentarily towards a movement near the front of the building. She craned round to see more. It looked like the police were heading in their direction.
‘You’d better get inside,’ she urged. ‘Try to say nothing at all until Eva is missed.’
‘That’s going to be dead easy with Theo and his American guys,’ Astrid muttered.
Jen raised her eyebrows.
‘Yeah, OK, I’ll come up with something,’ growled Astrid. ‘You coming then, Rob?’
Rob moved robotically towards the door.
‘By the way,’ Jen said suddenly, ‘I don’t suppose Eva ever mentioned Parallon to you, did she?’
They both looked blankly back at her.
‘Just a thought,’ she sighed, turning and walking away.