Iain Pears - Arcadia

‘I am a man of my word.’

‘Good. That doesn’t mean, by the way, that you should abandon your comrades. Tell Catherine that I say her secret must be paid for.’

‘I do not understand what you mean, but I will tell her.’

‘Splendid.’

The young man bowed once more and followed the crowd to the place where domain business was conducted. Catherine had already gone.

‘May I go with him for a bit?’ Rosalind said.

‘Of course, my dear. But not for long. We need to talk. You, Jay, should go with Henary. I suspect he needs company. I imagine you have a few things to talk about with Aliena as well.’

Rosalind grinned and skipped after Pamarchon, catching him up and taking hold of his hand. Arm in arm, they walked into the trees and disappeared.

The following morning, as day broke over the hills, Jack woke and swiftly got up. He had a long day ahead of him; Emily had offered to drive him to a refuelling station, and there he would try and get a lift north. After that he would make it up as he went along. He didn’t dare travel on ordinary transport, as he would be spotted the moment he bought a ticket, so he would take a longer, more complicated route that gave him a reasonable chance of going into hiding. Then he would blend into the background, unnoticed amongst so many millions of people.

‘Are you ready?’ Emily always seemed to be up before he was, bright and fresh.

‘Yes. If I can take some bread with me...?’

‘Of course. We can go in an hour. There’s not much point leaving before that, as there won’t be anything on the road yet.’

‘I’d rather go now.’

‘I have a few things to do first.’

He supposed that she was worried. If anything went wrong and it became clear that she had been helping him, then the consequences would be bad for her. He was grateful she had offered, and even though it was somewhat selfish, he had accepted without hesitation. It saved him a six-hour walk.

‘Very well. I’ll go and collect the document. I’ll need to wrap it well.’

‘I’m not sure Kendred has quite finished.’

She led the way into the next room, which had been set up as Kendred’s laboratory. Jack had spent an hour in there with him the previous evening, watching to make sure he did not in any way damage anything. He was impressed by his care; Kendred snipped off only a tiny amount of paper to run his tests and for the rest of the time examined it carefully under an old-fashioned microscope, saying nothing and grunting occasionally. He was still working when Jack had left, and looked now as though he had been up all night.

‘Are you nearly finished? Jack wishes to leave.’

Kendred stretched himself. ‘Nearly.’

‘What are your conclusions?’

‘I am absolutely certain that this is a genuinely old document, dating back to the eighteenth century. The paper is certainly that old, the ink is of the same age. I have found nothing in the other papers which refers to it. So how do we explain it? The script cannot have been written then.’

‘Luckily, I do not have to worry about explanations,’ Jack said. ‘I was told to find it and return it. More than that I cannot...’

A low throbbing sound in the air had been growing steadily as they spoke. Jack had noticed it in the back of his mind but had paid no attention. He should have been more alert. Even Emily was quicker; she walked outside to look in the direction of the noise.

‘Helicopter,’ she said.

‘Several of them,’ Jack said as he joined her. ‘Big ones. That’s bad.’

There was no point in trying to run or hide, even if they had wanted to. Jack knew full well that advance soldiers would have surrounded the retreat already, taking up position and checking for any threats before the helicopters arrived. This was the end of the operation, the grand finale, not the beginning. There was nothing to do except stand and wait. Somehow or other they had been tracked and followed.

Four huge helicopters flew overhead, making last-minute checks, then pulled back into the middle distance. Jack didn’t want to think how many guns were now trained on them, but he warned the others — the Retreat had only a dozen or so inmates and they all came out to look at the noise — to move slowly and deliberately, to keep their hands away from their clothes, to do nothing which might even be thought of as threatening.

They nodded nervously as he told them what to do, and watched as another machine — vast and terrifyingly noisy — loomed overhead, then settled down like a metal insect in the field opposite. Ten soldiers jumped out and spread across the ground, weapons at the ready. Two ran towards Jack and Emily; they did not speak, did not explain themselves, and no one was foolish enough to protest. Jack put his arm round Emily, both to give comfort and to warn her not to move. He knew from experience how nervous the soldiers would be. ‘Gently,’ he said quietly. ‘They’re doing their job. Let them get on with it.’

Then came the grand climax of the event, which was, he realised, choreographed to perfection. As the helicopter’s engines died and the huge rotors stopped, two more men leapt out and opened the doors; they put a set of steps up to the side of the machine. Then a small figure appeared at the doorway, blinked in the bright morning air and came down the steps, assisted by a guard who, almost touchingly, held his arm to steady him. He walked slowly towards them, then went straight past into the building. From the gestures of the soldiers, Jack gathered they were meant to follow, so he gripped Emily by the arm even more firmly. ‘Come with me. Don’t be alarmed,’ he whispered. ‘It’s a good show. It’s meant to frighten. If he’d wanted anything else we’d all be dead by now.’

Oldmanter was sitting in the one chair by the fire, which he briefly gazed at with what seemed almost like appreciation. Jack, Emily and Kendred were lined up in front of him. The bodyguards took up position at the doors and windows.

‘You understand my caution?’ he asked, gesturing at the guards with a lazy flick of the hand.

‘They are not necessary,’ Emily replied. ‘You know we do not approve of violence in our group.’

Oldmanter ignored the remark and looked around him at the room, which was bare and whitewashed, with wooden floors that had been scrubbed so often they were almost white as well. ‘Unusual. Not healthy, but appealing to the eye.’

‘Would you care for some refreshment?’

‘Would I care to drink some unhygienic muck that is not scanned in advance, out of a receptacle which has not been properly sterilised?’

Emily flushed.

‘No, thank you. I haven’t survived as long as I have by taking unnecessary risks. Shall we get down to business, or do you prefer a leisurely period of polite conversation first of all?’

‘I would like to know why you have come here. We have done nothing wrong.’

‘You think not? I could give you a very long list if I had the time. Unregistered Retreat, harbouring a fugitive. In fact, you know perfectly well why I am here. I want that document. Would you hand it over, please?’

‘I’m afraid I cannot,’ Jack replied. ‘You know that I am duty-bound to Dr Hanslip.’

‘He is under arrest and has been stripped of his status.’

‘Since when?’

‘Since we raided his institute last night. I took the precaution of bringing him here to demonstrate, in case you doubted my word.’

The old man flipped a hand and one of the guards walked out. They stayed there — Oldmanter sitting, the others standing, the guards with their backs to the wall, eyes flitting nervously everywhere — until the door opened once more, and two guards brought a dishevelled and badly beaten Hanslip into the room.