Giant Killer

Li Jun began to work again on what they thought of as the “courtyard” structure, adding detail to the walls and the beginning of a door.

“Maybe she’s just playing Minecraft …” grumbled Kelly.

“Come on, Li Jun!” said Delta, as if she could snap her out of it by force of will.

Commander King looked again at the structures and began to wonder.

“What troubles me is it’s too big … Look at how many figures she’s drawn. Imagine having to support all those people. Every one of them is a security risk. Haven’t they got homes to go to, bars to drink in, phone calls to make …?”

Al stared at the figures too, at the stone walls, at the fireplaces and candlesticks … Then he looked around the control gallery, at its lighting and stacks of computers and glittering screens.

“She hasn’t drawn a single screen, a single phone, a single piece of hardware. There are no lights even …” said Al, thinking hard.

“So?” said Kelly.

“So they’re off-grid!” said Al.

“Off-grid?” said Delta.

“I mean, living slow – no communications, no Internet, no conventional power. Goodbye modernity – hello total isolation.”

“Total security,” added Commander King.

“Rank all the possible locations by geographical isolation,” said Al to one of the technicians.

Moments later, on the new list, the Monastery of Mount St Demetrius of Thessaloniki had shot up – to number seventeen.

“What else have we got?” said Al, still manically pacing. “Come on, Li Jun!”

Grandma handed Li Jun a cup of tea and a Welsh cake, looking over the girl’s shoulder at the cloudscapes. “Looks heavenly, dear.”

Heaven …

Something fired in Li Jun’s brain. She thought of stained glass. She thought of a face.

She dived forward and immediately started to draw. Grandma, Al and everyone at Hook Hall watched intently as a face began to appear … A male face, a beard. It wasn’t a very good face, but then Li Jun added another detail that gave it away—

A halo …

Al turned to the technicians and shouted, “Cross-reference with religious buildings! Or a building with some kind of church or chapel in it!”

The technicians entered the filter and a new ranking list was drawn up, by age, materials, isolation and religious use. At number nine on the list was the Monastery of Mount St Demetrius of Thessaloniki.

Then Li Jun added colour to the halo – gold … and a great fissure opened up in her mind. She said the word “Abbot” aloud and immediately started to draw an Orthodox Christian cross …

Now only one name remained on the list.

NINE

Hearing his name called and smelling Finn, Yo-yo ducked out of the rough-and-tumble in the ratters’ yard and ran up to the kitchens. He found the good girl among a forest of legs – Yap!

“Good boy! Come!” said Carla.

She took Yo-yo into the service passage, ran her fingers through her hair and deposited Finn onto Yo-yo’s head.

Finn disappeared into his fur and made his way through to a position just behind Yo-yo’s left ear. His old pilot position. Back home, he’d been able to steer Yo-yo wherever he wanted to go. But now? After so long?

There was only one way to find out.

“Up, Yo-yo! Up, boy!”

YAP!

Finn felt the whole happy mountain of Yo-yo erupt beneath him as he jumped clean into the air.

“Good boy! Through the door!”

“Don’t do anything stupid!” Carla warned, as Yo-yo pushed through the swing doors back into the kitchen.

“What’s over there, what’s on the other side?” Finn demanded, and Yo-yo yapped and ran joyously through the legs, dodging dropped pans and puddles of soup. Finn clung on happily, riding a galloping dinosaur once again, all the old feelings coming back as they broke through the far doors to hit the Forum.

Directly opposite, Finn could see the arched entrance to the catacombs, which Olga had told them led eventually down to the Caverns.

“Through there, Yo-yo,” ordered Finn, and the dog bounded ahead. “Come-by!” he yelled to steer the bounding dog the right way. No one noticed because no one cared about a dog. The ratters were even more invisible than the Carriers, given freedom to roam and licence to kill.

A little beyond the archway was the catacombs door.

“What’s in there?” Finn demanded.

He felt Yo-yo rise as he stood on his back legs and pawed at the handle till it turned, the same as he’d done at Grandma’s house all his doggy life.

The door swung open – and they were greeted by skulls, set into the walls like bricks, the remains of thousands of ancient monks. Yo-yo whimpered.

“It’s all right, boy. Go on.”

They trotted down the skull-studded passageway, claws skittering across the flagstones. Finn heard a distant hum – mechanical? – coming from somewhere beyond, and footsteps too, ahead of them. There!

“Easy, Yo-yo,” Finn urged as they closed on the figure hurrying ahead of them. Finn remembered her as the one who’d struck Carla the blow – the Abbot’s secretary. Could she be on her way to the Caverns? Where else would she be going?

“Follow the lady. Easy. Nice and slow,” ordered Finn.

Yo-yo obligingly padded after her as they wound through the catacombs, keeping at a steady distance. Eventually they emerged at the top of a steep stone staircase.

The secretary was disappearing through an archway far below and the hum was getting louder.

“Down you go, boy.”

When they reached the bottom, Finn saw the archway was the entrance to a tunnel into the bedrock. Three burly Siguri stood guard.

“Lie down!” ordered Finn, so that Yo-yo would remain hidden from view. How were they supposed to get through? Wouldn’t the Siguri just kick back a dog?

With a squeak, a solution presented itself. A few feet ahead, a brown rat emerged from a drain cover. Immediately, Yo-yo’s body twitched.

“That’s right, boy! Chase the rat! Fast, boy!”

YAP!

“Hey!” one of the Siguri called in surprise, as a dog exploded out of the darkness. He raised his gun – but just as quickly one of his comrades stayed his hand.

“Ratter! Let him do his job!”

All three stepped aside as the rat sped forth, with Yo-yo snapping at its tail – YAP YAP YAP!

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