Ben Aaronovitch - Rivers of London

‘The Home Office has never really understood that science and magic are not mutually exclusive, sir. The founder of my society provided proof enough of that. I believe there has been a slow but steady increase in magical activity.’

‘The magic’s coming back?’ asked the Commissioner.

‘Since the mid-sixties,’ said Nightingale.

‘The sixties,’ said the Commissioner. ‘Why am I not surprised? This is damned inconvenient. Any idea why?’

‘No, sir,’ said Nightingale. ‘But then there never was any real consensus as to why it faded in the first place.’

‘I’ve heard the word Ettersburg used in that context,’ said the Commissioner.

For a moment there was real pain on Nightingale’s face. ‘Ettersburg was part of it, certainly.’

The Commissioner blew out his cheeks and sighed. ‘The murders in Covent Garden and Hampstead, these are connected?’ he asked.

‘Yes sir.’

‘You think the situation will get worse?’

‘Yes sir.’

‘Enough to warrant breaking the agreement?’

‘It takes ten years to train an apprentice, sir,’ said Nightingale. ‘It’s better to have a spare just in case something happens to me.’

The Commissioner gave a mirthless chuckle. ‘Does he know what he’s getting himself into?’

‘Does any copper?’ asked Nightingale.

‘Very well,’said the Commissioner. ‘On your feet, son.’

We stood. Nightingale told me to raise my hand and read me the oath: ‘Do you, Peter Grant of Kentish Town, swear to be true to our sovereign Queen and her heirs. And well and truly serve your Master for the term of your apprenticeshood. And ye shall be in obedience to all the wardens and clothing of that fellowship. In reverence of the secret of the said fellowship ye shall keep and give no information to any man but of the said fellowship. And in all these things ye shall well and truly behave yourself and secretly keep this oath to your power so help you God, your Sovereign and the power that set the universe in motion.’

I so swore, although I did almost stumble over the clothing bit.

‘So help you God,’ said the Commissioner.

Nightingale informed me that as his apprentice I was required to lodge at his London residence in Russell Square. He told me the address and dropped me back at the Charing Cross section house.

Lesley helped me pack.

‘Shouldn’t you be at Belgravia,’ I asked, ‘doing Murder Team stuff?’

‘I’ve been told to take the day off,’ said Lesley. ‘Compassionate — don’t get on media’s radar — leave.’

That I could understand. A family annihilation involving charismatic rich people was going to be a news editor’s dream story. Once they’d picked over the gruesome details, they could extend the mileage by asking what the tragic death of the Coopertown family told us about our society, and how this tragedy was an indictment of modern culture/secular humanism/ political correctness/the situation in Palestine — delete where applicable. About the only thing that could improve the story would be the involvement of a good-looking blonde WPC out, I might add, unsupervised on a dangerous assignment. Questions would be asked. Answers would be ignored.

‘Who’s going to Los Angeles?’ I asked. Somebody would have to trace Brandon’s movements in the States.

‘A couple of sergeants I never got a chance to meet,’ she said. ‘I only worked there a couple of days before you got me into trouble.’

‘You’re his blue-eyed girl,’ I said. ‘Seawoll’s not going to hold it against you.’

‘I still reckon you owe me,’ she said as she picked up my bath towel and briskly folded it into a tightly packed cube.

‘What do you want?’ I asked.

Lesley asked if I was likely to get the evening off and I said I could try.

‘I don’t want to be stuck here,’ she said. ‘I want to go out.’

‘Where do you want to go?’ I asked, and watched as she unfolded the towel and refolded it into a triangle shape.

‘Anywhere but the pub,’ she said and handed the towel to me. I managed to stuff it into my rucksack, but I had to unfold it first.

‘What about a film?’ I asked.

‘Sounds good,’ she said, ‘but it’s got to be funny.’

Russell Square lies a kilometre north of Covent Garden on the other side of the British Museum. According to Nightingale, it was at the heart of a literary and philosophical movement in the early years of the last century, but I remember it because of an old horror movie about cannibals living in the Underground system.

The address was on the south side of the square where a row of Georgian terraces had survived. They were five storeys high, counting the dormer conversions, with wrought-iron railings defending steep drops into basement flats. The address I wanted had a noticeably grander flight of stairs than its neighbours, leading to double mahogany doors with brass fittings. Carved above the lintel were the words SCIENTIA POTESTAS EST.

Science points east, I wondered? Science is portentous, yes? Science protests too much. Scientific potatoes rule. Had I stumbled on the lair of dangerous plant geneticists?

I hauled my rucksack and two suitcases up to the landing. I pressed the brass doorbell but I couldn’t hear it ring through the thick doors. After a moment, they opened on their own. It might have been the traffic noise, but I swear I didn’t hear a motor or any kind of mechanism at all. Toby whined and hid behind my legs.

‘That’s not creepy,’ I said. ‘Not even in the slightest.’

I pulled my suitcase through the doors.

The entrance lobby had a mosaic floor in the Roman manner and a wooden and glass booth that, while in no way resembling a ticket booth, indicated that there was an inside and an outside to the building, and that one had better have permission if one wanted to proceed inside. Whatever this place was, it certainly wasn’t Nightingale’s private residence.

Beyond the booth, flanked by two neoclassical pillars, was a marble statue of a man dressed in an academic gown and breeches. He cradled a mighty tome in one arm and a sextant in the other. His square face held an expression of implacable curiosity, and I knew his name even before I saw the plinth, which read:

Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night;

God said ‘Let Newton be’ and all was light.

Nightingale was waiting for me by the statue. ‘Welcome to the Folly,’ he said, ‘the official home of English magic since 1775.’

‘And your patron saint is Sir Isaac Newton?’ I asked.

Nightingale grinned. ‘He was our founder, and the first man to systemise the practice of magic.’

‘I was taught that he invented modern science,’ I said.

‘He did both,’ said Nightingale. ‘That’s the nature of genius.’

Nightingale took me through a door into a rectangular atrium that dominated the centre of the building. Above me there were two rows of balconies, and an iron and glass Victorian dome formed the roof. Toby’s claws clicked on a floor of polished cream-coloured marble. It was very quiet, and for all that the place was spotless I got a strong sense of abandonment.

‘Through there is the big dining room which we don’t use any more, the lounge and smoking room, which we also don’t use.’ Nightingale pointed to doors on the other side of the atrium. ‘General library, lecture hall. Downstairs are the kitchens, sculleries and wine cellar. The back stairs, which are actually at the front, are over there. Coach house and mews are through the rear doors.’

‘How many people live here?’ I asked.

‘Just the two of us. And Molly,’ said Nightingale.

Toby suddenly crouched down at my feet and growled, a proper rat-in-the-kitchen growl that was all business. I looked over and saw a woman gliding towards us across the polished marble. She was slender and dressed like an Edwardian maid, complete with a starched white bib apron over a full black skirt and white cotton blouse. Her face didn’t fit her outfit, being too long and sharp-boned with black, almond-shaped eyes. Despite her mob cap she wore her hair loose, a black curtain that fell to her waist. She instantly gave me the creeps, and not just because I’ve seen too many Japanese horror films.