'Because although we have no idea how most threads and links got created, we do know that some have the ability to use the threads to trap another. They can create a game, a series of bastard hard challenges, designed to either kill or trap the adventurer. What Victoria is trying to say...'
'Trying?'
'Ya ha. What Victoria is trying to say is that it looks like this is what's happening here. Someone is messing with us. But there is a way out. We simply have to figure out what the rules are - what the pattern is and then play our way out'
'Play our way out?'
Chapter 22
"I think it's wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly."
-Steven Wright.
Press play
Euston Underground Station, 10 May 1941
Sitting down where they could Michael, Victoria and Gabriel took in the underground station around them. Despite being at least twenty metres below street level, they could still make out the sounds of bombs falling above. Every once in a while, one would land somewhere nearby, a small trickle of dust slipping from a crack in the curved roof above.
It was difficult to tell how many people were down here. Hundreds at the least, possibly a thousand. Huddled and curled up, every inch of space taken, dimly-lit faces peered from the hazy gloom, blanket-smothered and swaddled in layers of clothes, mothers held their children, elderly men staring stoically into space, the faint sound of a woman crying into someones shoulder. It smelt ripe too: sweat, smoke, burnt clothes, piss and fear. Candles flickered all around, a distant mournful, half-hearted song drifting from the other end of the platform.
'Where are we?' Victoria asked them.
Gabriel looked to Michael.
'I think we're in Euston station' said Michael, his eyes flitting from side to side.
Gabriel sighed. 'We need to figure out what's going on here. A merry jaunt around London was fun for a bit, but this isn't right. This has been engineered. It's like someone is playing a game with us'
'Yep' Victoria said, 'I was getting the same impression'
'What do you mean?' Michael asked, looking between them.
Victoria moved closer to him, lowering her voice. 'This seems like it's been engineered. Like someone is mucking us about, sending us on a wild goose chase of some kind. What we need to do is figure out what the pattern is. We need to figure out what connects the places we've been. There has to be something - it can't simply be arbitrary...'
Michael raised a hand. 'Stupid question time' he said.
'Shoot' Gabriel said.
'How did the rips and the links get created in the first place?'
It was Victoria's turn to sigh. 'Truth is, we're not entirely sure. Excavations carried out in Baghdad about twenty years ago dug up a locked chest with clay tablets in them. The tablets tell the story of someone called 'Isa'. We don't know much about this person, I mean we're not even sure if Isa was a man or a woman...'
'She was a woman' Gabriel interjected helpfully.
'We don't know that' Victoria said somewhat testily.
'She was'
'He was not'
'She bloody well was...'
Michael interrupted. 'Yo. Geek Squad. Back to the story please'
Victoria continued. 'So anyway, yeah, Isa seems to have developed 'Vuja De' skills. What we now call rip-jumping. Isa could move through time - backwards, always re-emerging back to the point where he started off...'
'She' Gabriel added, looking the other way and giving a small, curious little girl who was sitting beside her sleeping mother a smile.
'Can you please shut the fuc...' Victoria started.
'Language' Gabriel intoned solemnly, with a raised hand.
Victoria rolled her eyes and looked back to Michael. 'Isa is the earliest record we have of one of us. But the tablets don't specify if he created the rips or if he was simply using existing threads through space/time to move around. But, the tablets do specify one interesting thing, and this is why I bring Isa up; they say that Isa was a master of something called "The Game".'
'The Game?'
'The tablets tell the story of Isa's journey through a series of challenges, each one more weird and gruesome than the next. Monsters, death traps, riddles, puzzles and chases across a maze of different times. What's important here is that Isa's journey was set up for him. Someone designed it - someone who wanted to stop him from getting to where he wanted.'
'Which was?'
'Home'
'And this relates to us how?'
Gabriel cut in. 'Because although we have no idea how most threads and links got created, we do know that some have the ability to use the threads to trap another. They can create a game, a series of bastard hard challenges, designed to either kill or trap the adventurer. What Victoria is trying to say...'
'Trying?'
'Ya ha. What Victoria is trying to say is that it looks like this is what's happening here. Someone is messing with us. But there is a way out. We simply have to figure out what the rules are - what the pattern is and then play our way out'
'Play our way out?'
'Yep' said Victoria with a nod.
'Okay' Michael said, looking down to his blackened hands, 'then what have we got so far? We've been in the 14th century and met Geoffrey Chaucer'
'Yep' Gabriel chimed.
'Then we came out in 1888 and met that nice man Jack'
'Uh huh'
'Then we moved backwards again, to meet Thomas Paine' Gabriel added.
'Sound man' Michael said.
'Then,' Victoria carried on, 'we come out here. In the blitz.'
The three of them went silent. They looked at each other. Then at the floor. Then around them. Then back to each other.
'Okay' said Gabriel, 'What connects Chaucer, Jack the Ripper, Thomas Paine and the blitz?'
Again, no-one seemed to have anything approaching an answer.
Victoria went to speak, opening her mouth momentarily and then closing it again. Gabriel shifted his weight from one side to another. Michael pursed his lips, staring across the platform at the wall of the tunnel. 'Maybe we're meant to meet someone else here? Someone famous like the other three' he said.
'What makes you say that?' Victoria asked him.
'Well, only that it was clear from what happened that whoever, or whatever that person in Whitechapel was, he could do what we do. He could rip-run. And he was good at it.'
'But' Gabriel said quietly, 'the other two couldn't'
'True' Michael conceded. 'They couldn't'
'Hmm' they said collectively.
'Hang on' said Michael, sitting up slightly, 'what about connections between those times?'
'I thought of that' Victoria said. 'I can't find any obvious links between 1941, 1791 and 1888. Oh and, whatever year that was when we were on the road to Kent...'
'What did you say?' Michael asked.
'I was saying that I can't find any connection between those dates...'
'No, no. You said something about Kent'
'Yeah we were on the road from London to Kent...'
'And then we were in Islington, right?' Michael added, excitement growing in his voice.
'Right' said Gabriel uncertainly, looking from Michael to Victoria.
'And then Whitechapel, right?'
'Uh huh'
'And now we're in Euston'
Victoria looked from Gabriel to Michael and back again.
'Sorry Michael, you've lost me'
Michael counted off with his fingers. 'The Road to Kent. Islington - the Angel pub. Whitechapel. Euston...'
'Sorry, I'm lost as well' Gabriel said.
Michael sighed and started again, one finger at a time. 'The Old Kent Road. Whitechapel. Angel. Euston...' he said with a growing grin. 'Jesus! Weren't you two ever kids?'
'Oh God' Victoria said, her jaw opening. 'Oh my God'
'There it is' Michael said.
'There what is?' Gabriel asked.
'Let me help you' Michael said. Leaning forward and using his finger, he drew a large square in the dirt. Within that square, he drew another one, creating a border inside the lines of the main square. Starting in the bottom right hand corner, he began to divide the border area into smaller pieces - each one marked off from the other. Michael stabbed his finger into the first one. 'The Old Kent Road' he said, 'Whitechapel' he carried on, his finger stabbing into the second quadrant. On to the third; 'Angel'. Then the fourth: 'Euston. You see it now?'
Gabriel's face screwed up in bafflement for a few moments and then, slowly at first, his face changed, his mouth opening into a huge 'O', his jaw hanging down.
'Claudia was right' Michael said, 'she was telling us the truth'
'What? What do you mean?' Victoria asked him.
Michael looked at her and smiled. 'It is just a game'
Gabriel sat bolt upright. 'Oh for fucks sakes! You're telling me that we're on a...'
Victoria cut him off. 'Language please'
The little girl giggled.
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