Page 75 of No Man's Land

Brooke all but clicked his heels in his eagerness to obey.

He led them out of the clerk’s office into a larger room filled with machine parts that Josef assumed related to boiler making. Picking their way through them, they made their way towards a stout door of heavy, dark wood that lurked in the far corner of the echoing space. Two new bolts had been installed, top and bottom, and they gleamed in the daylight streaming in through the windows.

With obvious trepidation, and not a little excitement, Brooke slid back the top lock and then crouched to undo the one at the bottom of the door. It proved stiffer, and he ended up kicking it open with his foot. Then, from his pocket, he produced a set of keys and unlocked the brass lock at the centre of thedoor. The key turned with a portentous clunk, and Josef’s pulse jumped over a beat or two.

They were really doing this.

“You have your electric torch?” Alex asked quietly, his gaze fixed on the heavy door as Brooke hauled it open.

Josef nodded, reaching into his coat pocket. “I hope the batteries last.”

“Indeed.”

Flicking on the light, Josef stepped forward, shining the beam through the door and over an iron staircase that spiralled down into the dark. On the walls, his torchlight flashed over decorative tiles of the kind used in Underground stations. Hairs rose on the back of his neck, alongside a powerful urge not to enter that dark stairwell.

But Alex crowded in at his shoulder, and what choice did they have? They had hours, perhaps less, to find what they needed to save Alex from a fate that was quite literally worse than death. And the thought of what Josef might be forced to do if they failed was enough to propel him forward. He’d do anything—anything—rather than that.

“Follow me,” he said, stepping through the doorway into the narrow stairwell. “And watch your footing.”

Behind him, Alex said, “Thank you for your help, Mr Brooke. Lock the door after us please, and don’t open it again for anyone but Seargent Lake, here.”

Brooke frowned at Josef, as if the order was somehowhisfault. “But what about you, sir?”

“Nobody but Lake,” Alex repeated severely. “And now the door, if you please?”

With a nod and an aborted hand gesture that may have wanted to be a salute, Brooke closed the door. Josef watched the disappearing sliver of daylight until it was gone, and thedoor shut with an ominous thud, plunging them into deeper darkness. The only light came from Josef’s torch.

“What was all that about?” he said, glancing over at Alex. In the unblinking light of the electric torch, he looked quite different, his features casting shadows across his face and his dark blue eyes black as night. “Why only me?”

“You know why,” Alex said, rolling his left shoulder. Josef’s gaze fixed on it, and on the way that Alex was flexing his left hand.

“What is it?” he whispered. “Do you feel… worse?”

Alex responded by hefting his stick like a cudgel. “Let’s go down.Quietly.”

And what else could they do?

Despite his best efforts at stealth, Josef’s boots clanged on the iron staircase, the light of his torch bobbing ahead of them. Not too far ahead, mind, just enough to reveal the next couple of steps. As they descended, the air grew dank with the scent of musty disuse.

Strange, how the old C&SLR tiles lifted the hairs on the back of his neck. Strange that this station was still here, buried beneath the city as the world above moved on. Not even the war had touched it.

Behind him, Alex suddenly stopped with a swift indrawn breath.

Josef turned, looking back at him. It was too dark to see his face now. “What?” Josef whispered.

A long pause followed before Alex whispered, “I can…sense them.”

Shit. Josef’s heart punched against his ribs as he sniffed the air. Nothing. And that wasn’t a stink you could miss. “Are you sure? I can’t smell them.”

“Very sure,” Alex said, stiffly. “They’re down there. Not near, but we’re on their trail.”

Through a dry throat, Josef said, “Good. That’s good.” His words came out papery thin, though, because what did it mean that Alex could sense their presence so easily?

As if he needed to ask.

“I’ll go first, now,” Alex said, passing Josef on the narrow stairs. Close enough that he could smell the herbal aroma of Alex’s poultice, and beneath that…

He almost choked on the faint sickly stench.

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