4
They sent the two brothers home and made their way to the Island. The air was golden blue, the colours seemed deeper and more real than they had before. Sanctuary was silent in the early morning and Ben looked out across the water as if he had never really seen it before.
It looked vulnerable in a way it never had. He saw a bunch of people who had been exiled from their natural home on land to live as refugees on the water. They were kidding themselves that this could be a permanent way of life.
They saw Nicholas arrive on his shiny raft. His two bodyguards
(bullies)
flanking him. He saw them as he climbed onto the Island and walked towards them.
“Did you find her?” he said.
It took Ben a moment to realise he was talking about Kirsty. He shook his head, feeling bad for the girl they had forgotten about. “We need to speak to you,” he said.
“Of course, my office is always open.”
Five minutes later Ben was back in The General’s office, a cup of something like coffee in his hands. The aroma of it woke him from the daze he had fallen into without realising it.
“We found something,” he said. He was unsure how to tell Nicholas about the dam. As much as he disliked the man he knew he cared about Sanctuary.
“What is it Ben,” he said calmly. “Whatever it is we can deal with it.”
“The vamps are building a dam,” he said.
Ben explained as best he could their discovery of the dam without revealing that Aaron had already known about it. He described its structure and location and their best guess about what it meant. Nicholas listened in silence, nodding his head from time to time.
“This is troubling,” said Nicholas when Ben had finished. It was an under reaction compared to what he had expected. But he wasn’t to be put off.
“If we leave at once we can be back inside of two weeks,” he said.
“Leave?” said Nicholas, raising his eyebrows in mock surprise. “Where on earth would you go?”
“London,” said Ben, not picking up on the fact that Nicholas knew exactly what he was talking about but feigning ignorance.
“Why in the world would you go there?”
“We have to be prepared to fight them,” he said. “We need weapons and Aaron knows where we can find them.”
It was the first time he had mentioned Aaron by name. He had been sitting at the back of the room in perfect silence.
“Ah yes, Aaron,” said Nicholas. “The man of mystery. Quite a coincidence that you happened upon this little construction isn’t it?”
Aaron remained silent. Ben was worried that the conversation was beginning to stray from its original purpose.
“We have to do something,” he said.
Nicholas leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together beneath his chin. He did not speak for a moment and Ben thought he was considering the problem.
“I tell you what I think, shall I?” said Nicholas.
Neither Ben nor Aaron spoke.
“I think you knew about this before, let’s say around about the time you suggested a trip to London last time. What was that, say six months ago?”
It sounded about right to Ben. It was long enough ago that an election had been held and Nicholas had been voted in for another term. Long enough ago that farmers had been recruited and work had begun on the Back Field. He nodded.
“And would you say,” he said, looking at Aaron, “would you say that any significant progress has been made in that time?”
Ben turned to look at Aaron.
He hesitated and Ben wondered if he would lie. “A lot of the progress might be things we can’t see,” he said.
Nicholas nodded. “As I suspected.” He turned to Ben: “I suppose you didn’t notice the structure the last time you were out that way?”
Ben shook his head.
“So for all we know what you saw was up to two years old?”
Ben wanted to tell him he was wrong but how could he explain a ‘feeling’ he’d had.
Nicholas sighed. “Let’s say for the sake of argument that this is the work of vamps. Incidentally it could just as easily be the work of another human settlement. But let’s say its vamps: isn’t it possible that they gave up on it months ago?”
“Why would they…” said Ben.
“Perhaps they didn’t have the manpower, or perhaps they simply didn’t know how,” he said. “But doesn’t that seem more likely than you stumbling on a work in progress that hasn’t changed for six months?”
Ben turned to look at Aaron for help but he offered nothing. He couldn’t understand how Nicholas could be so dismissive of what he saw as an obvious threat.
“Now I appreciate you gentlemen coming to me with this information,” he said, “but I suspect concern for the girl and sleep deprivation have made it seem to you like a bigger deal than it actually is.”
He dismissed them from his office and all of a sudden the fact he hadn’t slept for more than twenty-four hours did seem like a big deal. He got onto the raft with Nicholas and weaved through the traffic approaching the Island. People called to each other across the water, some of them might have even called to him, but they seemed distant now.
They travelled along the river towards Ben’s boat in silence but they didn’t stop there. He glanced up at Aaron as they floated past but he could tell by the look on his face that it hadn’t been a mistake. He said nothing and waited to see where he would end up.
A few minutes later Aaron steered them up to a jetty beside a burned out boat. The windows were black and the wood charred and rotten. It was on the periphery of the village, the subject of occasional complaints from neighbours who would rather have it removed. He wanted to ask Aaron what they were doing there but Aaron would know he was wondering that and had apparently decided not to tell him.
Ben climbed out of the boat and Aaron threw a dirty canvas over the top of it. From a distance it would look like another piece of debris. The wooden struts complained as they walked along the pier and climbed aboard the boat.
It smelled of smoke, tobacco and wood. He could hear muttered voices coming from inside. Aaron knocked and then pulled open the door and led Ben inside.
5
He was sitting in a broken leather armchair looking at three other men. One of them he recognised at Anthony, the other two he didn’t think he had seen before. Aaron sat on a stool to his left. The boat was as battered on the inside as out; the bare floorboards were cracked and dirty, the walls stripped of colour. There was little furniture except the chairs. Black paint on the windows blocked any sunlight. The room was lit by three oil lamps burning on the floor.
No one spoke.
It was obviously some kind of secret meeting but to what end he had no idea. After a few minutes of silence he turned to look at Aaron, “what’s this all…” (about?) But Aaron shook his head and he stopped talking.
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and it opened. Two women came in, one he recognised as Sandra Wheeler and the other he didn’t know.
“Sorry I’m late,” said Sandra, “I couldn’t get away from Louise.”
Louise was Sandra’s daughter. She sat down in one of the chairs opposite him, the other woman remained standing awkwardly by the door.
“This is Kris,” said Sandra and they all turned to look at her. “Take a seat.”
Kris sat down next to Ben. He felt increasingly uncomfortable in the confined space at the centre of attention. Aaron stood up.