Fighting Pax

And then a wild and crazy idea flashed into his mind.

“Beyond the Silvering Sea!” he said, as loud as he was able. “Within thirteen green, girdling hills, lies the wondrous Kingdom of the Dawn Prince.”

Back in Britain he had been forced to read that book so many times he knew most of it by heart.

Doctor Choe Soo-jin blinked at him in surprise and annoyance. Above the surgical mask her eyes narrowed.

“No speak,” she ordered.

“Yet inside his White Castle, the throne stands empty!” he continued defiantly. “For many long years he has been lost in exile and thus the Ismus, his Holy Enchanter, reigns in his stead.”

The woman felt a strange prickling sensation crawl up the back of her neck. She gazed about the lab and it seemed to darken. Deep shadows crept out from beneath the counters and behind the sinks, seeping up through the floor. The dead fingers of Marshal Tark Hyun-ki quivered as the book they held twitched and tugged to get free.

In the vault, the metal box containing the wand of Malinda began to tremble and judder. On a shelf close by, the jaw of the unicorn skull opened slowly and the darkness seethed and breathed around it.

“Till the day of his glorious returning,” Spencer persisted, almost spitting the words out, “and the restoration of his splendour evermore!”

Overhead a fluorescent strip popped and the lab dipped into deeper gloom. Another bulb began to flicker. The syringe fell from Doctor Choe’s grasp. It dropped to the ground and she gripped the metal table for support as her head swam. The paper mask blew in and out of her mouth. A fresh morning breeze seemed to be moving through her hair. Sunlight was filtering through the fresh green leaves of spring. It was another ravishing day in Mooncaster and she had come to the bluebell woods with the other young girls from the village to wash her face with dew…

“For that day approaches,” Spencer recited, and now his voice was strong and reverberated in her ears. “The Lord of Rising Dawn is drawing nigh. He is returning to the land that was his. His light shall crown the hills with crimson flame and we shall bow before his unmatched majesty.”

“No!” the doctor declared vehemently. “I am Soo-jin!”

The spring light faded and the creeping shadows in the lab retreated. Breathing hard, she ripped the mask from her mouth and turned a stern, vengeful face on Spencer. The boy’s voice had dwindled back to a compressed whisper.

Doctor Choe stooped to retrieve the syringe. As she crouched, she heard something drop to the floor. Glancing under the table, she saw that the book had fallen from the Marshal’s hand. It was splayed open, white pages facing the ceiling. As she looked, one of them curled over, disclosing a black and white illustration of peasant maidens gambolling through bluebells.

The doctor straightened and hurried around. But, when she reached the space between the tables, the floor was empty. The book had gone.

She glared at Spencer suspiciously. The boy was still strapped down. He couldn’t have moved it. Her doubtful glance darted aside to the Marshal’s body. She scowled, angry with herself for even thinking such a thing was possible. So where was the book?

Beneath one of the sinks came the sound of rustling paper. The doctor drew back. Spencer fell silent and their eyes locked. He had only tried to get her hooked on the words of Austerly Fellows. He had no idea what forces he had awakened. Reading her concern was gratifying though and he couldn’t stop a smirk stealing on to his face.

There was another dry fluttering of pages. This time it was behind the blood analyser.

“Big mice you’ve got here,” the boy said mockingly.

Doctor Choe stepped away and went to the tray of surgical knives. She took up the largest scalpel and held it out in front as she approached the analyser. Cautiously, she leaned over and peered down into the gap between it and the wall. There was nothing there.

Suddenly one of the cupboard doors flew open. Test tubes, flasks and beakers exploded out, smashing on the floor. The doctor jumped back in alarm. Another cupboard was flung wide and Petri dishes came spinning into the lab like Frisbees.

“Vaccinate that!” Spencer taunted as the contents of a third were violently ejected.

The woman clasped the scalpel more tightly and went crunching over the powdered fragments, staring inside each cupboard. They were all empty, but the final one was still closed. Moving nearer and nearer, she reached out to yank the door wide and was primed to lunge the sharp blade at whatever was revealed within.

Holding her breath, she snatched the door open and stabbed wildly. The thin blade lacerated the melamine shelving then snapped. There was nothing in here but boxes of surgical gloves, masks and disposable aprons.

Her tense, squatting frame relaxed. But it was not over yet.

There was a clattering din. One of the metal trays came shooting off the counter above her head. It struck her temple with force and the instruments it contained showered down as she fell backwards. Sterile blades sliced her cheek and skewered her lab coat. Her skull smacked the tiled floor and she cried out. Her head thumped and for several moments she lay there in a shocked daze. Razor-sharp knives had kissed through her skin and rivulets of blood had begun to flow. Yet none of that mattered. As she blundered back, she’d caught a glimpse of something up on the counter, where the tray had been. It was the Marshal’s green book.

The doctor raised her head to look again. It was no longer there. Then she saw it. The book was now lying on the floor, by her feet. As she watched, the book raised itself upright.

“Not possible!” Doctor Choe exclaimed, shaking her pounding head. When she looked again, it had clambered on to her legs. Tilting diagonally, it balanced on one corner and swung the other forward, waggling itself along her body.

The doctor tried to hurl it away, but her arms were unnaturally heavy and she couldn’t move them. Her legs were the same. She was as helpless as Spencer on the examination table. Throwing back her head, she yelled for help then sobbed as she recalled the lab was soundproof.

Dancing Jax continued its relentless, shuffling progress until it came to a stop on her chest. With slow menace, its pages opened and her eyes were compelled to gaze.

Strapped to the table, unable to see what was happening, Spencer could only listen and try to guess.

“Doctor?” he ventured. “Doctor Choe?”

There was no reply. Spencer breathed a sigh of relief. He had saved himself, invoking the power of the book to ensnare her. But the real peril was only just beginning. The force he had unleashed was unstoppable and would sweep away everyone in the base. There was no escape now.

Minutes edged by, in which the only sounds were the woman’s soft, trance-like murmurs. Then, abruptly, she rose from the floor, appearing behind the Marshal’s body. A far-off look was in her glassy eyes and Dancing Jax was clasped to her bosom.

“I am the Four of Clubs,” she announced ecstatically. “I am Dulcie, the innkeeper’s daughter. All the boys and menfolk do like to kiss me, for I have ale on my ripe cherry lips, the tints of a warm summer evening in my golden hair and my pretty duckies do fill my bodice most bounteous. Blessed be.”

6

EVEN AS THE guards dragged Spencer into the lab, Martin and Gerald descended the steps from the terrace.

“You!” a severe voice shouted.

The two friends halted and looked down the corridor. Three soldiers were striding purposefully towards them from the main tunnel where a jeep was waiting.

“You, quick!” one of them ordered. “You needed.”

Neither Gerald nor Martin recognised them. They were dressed in the usual olive uniform of the People’s Army, but they had not seen their faces in the base before. Perhaps their duties kept them in the prohibited areas; those units never had cause to come here.

“You, come!” the same man called again. From the four stars on his uniform they could see he was a daewi, or captain.

“What is this?” Martin asked uncertainly. “What do you want?”

“Chief want see!” the Captain shouted fiercely. “You not keep wait!”

Martin’s and Gerald’s faces fell. Their desperate, reckless scheme was collapsing before it had begun. What was going on? Martin had never been summoned so brusquely before.

“Quick! Quick!” the Captain insisted.

“I have to go,” Martin whispered. “There’s no knowing when I’ll get back – or even if I will.”

“Don’t say that!” Gerald hissed.

“Whatever happens, the fog won’t last so you’re going to have to do this on your own. Get Lee to do his thing and you take those kids out of this place. I’ll try and keep them as busy as I can in here.”

The old man’s eyes glistened and he gave the slightest of nods. They both knew they probably wouldn’t see each other again.

“And you… look after yourself, you wonderful, dotty old gentleman. Good luck – it’s been an honour and a privilege.”

“Quick!” the Captain snorted for the last time. He grabbed hold of Martin’s arm and pulled him towards the jeep.

Gerald Benning watched them get into the vehicle. He couldn’t bring himself to shout goodbye. Instead he raised a hand in farewell and, under his breath, sang, “Hearts do not break! They sting and ache.”

The jeep roared off into the tunnels. Gerald turned his back and ran to Lee’s room. There wasn’t a moment to lose.

Lee was still sitting on the bed, staring at the steel cuffs. He didn’t look up when the old man entered, but recognised Gerald by his brown brogues.

“This is not a place you wanna be,” he grunted. “I ain’t got nuthin’ to say. ’Cept Baxter is a ass, I feel like crap, an’ if you think I’m gonna join in with your Christmas glee club, you is missing more than a tinselly tree – but I knows where you can shove one.”

“Never mind about that now,” Gerald said urgently as he cast a wary glance at the four guards chained to the lad’s wrists and prayed they didn’t understand English. “I’m taking the kids out of here, but I need your help.”

Lee raised his eyes.

“You what?”

“Things have changed – drastically,” the old man told him. “That doctor is planning to experiment on us.”

“She already does that, man. She’s got enough out of me to build a spare.”

“I mean she’s going to dissect us.”

“Get outta here.”

“I was never more deadly serious. I’m taking the kids and I’m taking them now, but I can’t do it without you.”

Lee could see he wasn’t joking yet he still gave a snort of laughter. “You’re hardcore crazy, guy,” he said. “You got no place to go and zero chance of getting there and you’re sayin’ all this right in front of my big mirror here, behind which, I am damn sure, is a camera. That’s so lame-ass dumb it deserves its own reality show.”

“Will you help us?”

“Help get you killed? You doesn’t need no help from me. You is on to a sure thing there.”

“Lee,” Gerald insisted. “It’s weapons we need, not attitude.” His eyes flicked either side, to the guards, and he said pointedly, “Those weapons.”

“What you sayin’?”

“I want you to go to Mooncaster and take your friends here with you.”

Lee shook his head. “My posse ain’t goin’ no place,” he said flatly. “Bad enough they have to stalk me here. I ain’t invitin’ them to no twisted Disneyland for an outing. When I go there, it’s gonna be a single one-way ticket.”

“You can’t be that selfish.”

“Watch me.”

“Don’t you care what happens to Maggie and Spencer?”

The boy returned his reproachful stare. “I already gave,” he said quietly. “You’re all deadsauce anyways, you know that – why you draggin’ it out? You’re good as ghosts already, hauntin’ this sad dump day an’ night. This ain’t no life and you got nuthin’ better in front. Get some smarts and give it up. Show’s over for you, been over since we got here.”

“You’re not that bitter,” Gerald replied, refusing to believe him. “I’ve heard and seen how much you adored that shining girl. A heart so full can’t become that callous.”

“Don’t presume to know me.”

“I don’t, but I know what love is like and, from what I hear about Charm, she wouldn’t want you to be this way.”

“End of conversation, old man. My services are not for hire. I ain’t no black cab. Now go get yourselves all killed and leave me be. I got a gut ache. When’s lunch comin’?”

Gerald eyed the rifles one last time and his hopes of escape plummeted. It was no use. The boy couldn’t be persuaded. Was Martin right about him after all?

In the dark, narrow space behind the great mirror, Eun-mi had been watching everything. She checked the video camera was still recording and picked up the old-fashioned base telephone to call her father. A look of gloating satisfaction soured her young features.

At that moment the lights in Lee’s room sputtered and the boy doubled over. He cried out, clutching his heart. His guards began to yell as the chains yanked at them when Lee rolled wildly from side to side. Gerald sprang forward and was shocked to see sweat pouring down the lad’s face.

He dashed into the corridor, but there was no guard on duty at the corner of the prohibited area.

“We need the doctor!” he shouted, trespassing into the forbidden area. “Quickly! I think Lee is having a heart attack!”

Down the passage he saw a discarded mop and bucket and, further along, two soldiers stationed outside the lab. The old man shouted again, but they aimed their Kalashnikovs at him and yammered excitably. Gerald swore at them and hurried back to Lee’s room.

The boy was shivering and writhing in pain. His four guards were shouting and shaking him roughly.

“Get off him!” Gerald snapped, pulling them clear. “Lee, can you hear me? Lee?”

He took hold of the boy’s hand. It was freezing. Above them sparks began to spit from the cables connecting the strip lights and the room skipped in and out of darkness. Lee swung his head round and his eyes bored into Gerald.

“Let go o’ me!” he hissed through clenched teeth as he pushed him away. “You’s gonna get your gats after all. Someone real close by is readin’ the book an’ goin’ to that place for the first time. It’s draggin’ me with it. Don’t you touch me or you’ll be comin’ too. Damn! It never hurt like this before! It’s ripping me apart!”

Gerald jumped back. The boy clawed the air as his stomach kicked inside him. The breath was slammed from his lungs and his eardrums screamed as if they were going to shatter. He gave one last agonised shout, then his arms dropped and he became as still as death. At the same time, his guards uttered wails of dismay and fear. Then they too crumpled, falling where they stood, either to the floor or across the bed.

Gerald could hardly believe it. Their minds or souls, or whatever it was, had gone into the world of Dancing Jax.

Behind the mirror, Eun-mi was urging her father to come at once. Then the line went dead. She looked into the room beyond and saw the old man approach the collapsed figures. Reaching down, he took the rifles from the unconscious guards then hastened to the door. Pausing, he said a grateful farewell to Lee.

“Good luck. I hope you find what you’re looking for in that place. Just don’t disappoint that dazzling girl. Don’t do what Austerly Fellows wants. Be the person she fell in love with. You’re far from scum, Lee Charles. Goodbye and thank you.”

Eun-mi watched him leave. She tried the phone again, but the earpiece was full of wails and crackles. She threw it down in anger and took her pistol from its holster.

The secret observation area was a thin, L-shaped space that hugged two sides of the medical room. The entrance was in the prohibited area and she groped her way through the narrow darkness to find it. When she emerged, she looked for the guards, but those outside the lab were nowhere to be seen. Pistol in hand, she ran round the corner – ready to shoot at anything that moved.

The corridor was deserted.

She looked fleetingly into Lee’s room and regarded the unconscious men with disgust. They were weak and would be punished for allowing their rifles to be taken.

Silently, Eun-mi proceeded, checking the dorms as she passed them. They were empty. The refugees were probably all gathered in the refectory, waiting to be fed. So much the better.

“You must be mental!” the girl called Esther scoffed when Gerald had hastily explained his escape plan and the reason for it. “They wouldn’t operate on us and cut us up. They’re not Jaxers here, they’re normal.”

There wasn’t time for Gerald to go into just how wrong she was.

“I’m not going to argue with you,” he said impatiently. “If you come now, there’s a chance, but if you stay you’ll end up in more jars than a range of jams in Sainsbury’s. The rest of you will need to wear as much clothing as possible, everything you’ve got basically. It’s going to be bitter out there in the fog and we’ll be sleeping rough for a while. Also we can’t carry anything: you need both hands to climb down the mountain.”

“Stupid old git,” Esther butted in. “You’ve got no idea where to go out there and we’ll be frozen solid by morning, if we don’t get blown up by landmines. I’m not listening to some senile geriatric who used to prance about in frocks.”

“Oi!” Maggie shouted her down. “Shut it. No one’s listening to you. You did this last time, in the camp. Dithering until the last minute and almost getting Lee killed. Just button it or I’ll smack you one. Gerald knows what he’s talking about. You can stop here for all I care, but I’m going to risk getting away. It’s Lee I’m pig sick about, having to leave him behind.”

There were eager noises of support from the girls who had been in Charm’s cabin back in the camp, which prompted hesitant, uncertain murmurs of agreement from the others. They were all horribly frightened, but they trusted Gerald completely. If he said there was no other choice, they believed him.

Little Nabi was still seated at the table. She was watching the hurried discussion with wide eyes. The unexpected shock of Gerald’s announcement had made everyone forget the six-year-old was even present. She couldn’t quite understand what was happening, but she knew her English friends weren’t supposed to have weapons. Imagining her father’s fury when he found out made her anxious and afraid for them.

“Give me one of them Kalashnikovs,” Maggie said to Gerald. “I won a cuddly rabbit at the fair once. That was a scary night. For one awful minute I thought I’d been shot in the bum, but it was only a packet of moist handy wipes that’d burst in my pocket when I bent over.”

Gerald passed her an assault rifle. It was lighter than she expected and she struck aggressive poses as she handled it.

“Commando girl,” she purred. “And no, that doesn’t mean I’m not wearing pants.”

“Don’t touch that lever on the right-hand side there,” Gerald warned. “That’s the safety catch. Up is safe, down isn’t, so let’s keep them up, OK? I don’t anticipate having to use them, not in here anyway, they’re just in case. I don’t even know how much ammunition is in the magazines, so no one get any ideas. I don’t need to tell you they’re not toys or replicas. These are lethal, so treat them with respect.”

He looked around for another he could entrust one to.

“Nicholas, how about you? Do you think you could?”

The boy shifted uncomfortably and looked to Esther for his answer.

“He’s not having anything to do with it,” she stated, arms folded tightly. “You walk out of here with them guns and you’re all going to get shot – and rightly so in my opinion.”

“I’ll have one,” the lad called Drew piped up.

“You’re mad, the lot of you,” Esther said, cracking her knuckles nervously. “It’ll be a bloodbath.”

“Where’s Spencer?” Gerald asked. “He’s handled a firearm before, hasn’t he? Didn’t he shoot one of those Punchinellos at the camp?”

“He’s mopping up in the no-go area,” Maggie told him.

“No, he’s not. The mop and bucket are there, but he isn’t.”

“Someone go fetch him from the loo then, quick.”

A girl called Sally jumped up to get him. Before she reached the door, it was kicked open and Eun-mi was standing there, arm outstretched, pointing the pistol, finger on the trigger.

“Drop weapons!” she shouted. “Drop or I shoot!”

Shocked, the refugees stared at her for several moments.

“Told you so!” Esther said.

Eun-mi moved her aim slowly across the astonished faces.

“I say drop!” she repeated.

Gerald was the first to comply and he told the others to do the same.

“She means it,” he said. “She wouldn’t hesitate.”

“Nabi!” the girl called to her sister in Korean. “Bring the weapons here. Be careful. Don’t let them take you and use you as a shield.”

Little Nabi gawped at her and had to be told again, more forcefully.

“Anyone moves, they die!” Eun-mi warned as her sister slid reluctantly from the chair and started collecting the AK-47s. “I aim for head. There will be no error.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Gerald tried to reason with her. “You can let us go. Just give us this one chance. You know what Doctor Choe Soo-jin is planning to do. You heard her at the meeting. You can’t want that on your conscience. It’s inhuman.”

Eun-mi tilted her head back proudly. “Doctor will be hero,” she declared. “She will find cure. She will save Democratic People’s Republic from Western sickness. Doctor Choe Soo-jin is pioneer and scientist most brilliant. Lives of European refugee little price to pay. Then Supreme Leader will save rest of world. Everyone will praise Kim Jong-un.”

“What about the life of Du Kwan earlier?” Gerald asked. “Was that a small price to pay? He didn’t need to die and nor do we. There is no cure to be found because there is no sickness. It isn’t physical. You can’t inoculate against the Devil.”

“Doctor Choe Soo-jin know best!” the girl shouted, refusing to listen. “Now no speak or I fire!”

Nabi placed the rifles at her feet and stared up at her miserably. “Do not hurt my friends,” she begged her sister in a forlorn voice that was close to tears. “Please. They are kind and nice. I like them, they are good.”

“They are enemies of our Republic!” Eun-mi answered. “You do not understand, you are too young. We have given them everything; food and shelter – when our own people are starving in the provinces. We give them asylum from their own degenerate kind and they show us only disrespect and bring disease. The Supreme Leader has demonstrated his great benevolence and mercy in saving them, but these are bad people. They have no gratitude, no discipline; their island is the corrupt puppet of America. They would have killed our soldiers to escape this base. They would have killed you too. Would you take their side against your own people? Would you betray our father and dishonour the memory of our mother?”

Nabi stared at her feet and shook her head.

“Go, now!” her sister ordered. “Fetch more guards and wait for our father – hurry.”

Nabi cast a wretched glance back at Gerald and Maggie. Her bottom lip quivered. Wiping her eyes, she ran from the room.

Eun-mi’s hand was steady. She almost wished one of the refugees would try something and give her a reason to fire. She had endured their offensive company for too long and had no qualms about pulling the trigger.

Nabi stumbled out into the corridor, tears streaking down her scrunched-up face. She cast around for any sign of the guards, but there was no one in sight and the long, empty passageway was unnaturally quiet.

“Help me!” she called out and her wavering voice ricocheted down the walls. The shadows lay deep in the recesses of doorways and the little girl wrung her hands together.

“Help us!” she called again.

No answer came. She took several apprehensive steps towards the forbidden area, but it was so dark down there she grew even more frightened.