Simon Green - The Man with the Golden Torc

"Do you want to meet him or not?"

"Does he have three friends called Ratty, Toad, and Badger?" I said hopefully.

Molly sighed. "This is revenge for me introducing you to Mr. Stab, isn’t it?"

"No, really, I can’t wait to meet Mr. Mole in his hole."

She looked at me. "Your arm’s worse, isn’t it?"

"Yes. Let’s go."

Molly summoned up another spatial portal, frowning with concentration. The process seemed to take longer this time, and sweat ran freely down her face. The air churned and whirled before us, spinning around and around like water going down a plughole. It plucked us off the hilltop and into itself, and we were off on our travels again.

When Molly and I reappeared, we were standing in a toilet cubicle. It was very cramped. Molly and I were pressed tightly together, face to face. Anywhen else, I might have taken a moment to enjoy it, but unfortunately I had one leg jammed down the toilet bowl.

"Oh, shit," said Molly.

"Don’t even go there," I said, struggling to remove my foot from the bowl. "Do I take it we’re not where we were supposed to be?"

"Of course not! But it could have been worse."

"Oh, shit," I said.

"What?"

"It would appear the previous occupant didn’t flush. Would you please breathe in so I can get my foot out?"

We struggled together for a moment, banging loudly against the sides of the cubicle, and finally I was able to jerk my foot free. The bottom of my trouser leg was soaked, and I didn’t want to think what with. I glared at Molly.

"Today started out with a knife at my throat and yet still has managed to go steadily downhill. Where the hell are we?"

"Paddington railway station."

"Really?" I said. "I remember it as being somewhat bigger."

"Fool. We’re in the ladies’ toilet at Paddington. Which means…someone tried to intercept my portal spell."

Getting out of the cubicle took some cooperation and a certain amount of brute force, as the door opened inwards, but eventually we spilled out into the main toilet area. Half a dozen women stopped adjusting their dress and repairing their makeup to stare at us. Molly glared right back at them.

"Come on; don’t tell me you’ve never thought about doing it in a cubicle."

"I feel like such a slut," I said. "Promise me you’ll spank me when we get home, mistress?"

The half dozen women couldn’t get out of the toilet fast enough. I grinned at Molly, but she wasn’t in the mood.

"All right," I said. "On a scale of one to ten, how bad is this?"

"Oh, I think this one goes all the way up to eleven. Someone must have tried to override my spell’s coordinates to make us arrive at a destination of their choosing. Where they could be waiting for us. But, being the happy paranoid little soul that I am, I long ago preprogrammed my spell to be prepared for such an eventuality and, at the first sign of outside tampering, drop me off at a predesignated emergency arrival point."

"God, I love it when you talk technical."

"Shut up. I chose this place because a toilet cubicle is one of the few places where you can just appear out of nowhere without being noticed. Do I really need to add that I did not have two people in mind when I chose this arrival point?"

"Why Paddington?" I said.

"It’s a central London station, with trains always going somewhere. You can just pick one at random, hop on, and disappear without a trace. Now, let’s get out of here. The only people powerful enough to intercept a portal spell would have to be major league sorcerers. Which could mean your family."

"Why not Manifest Destiny?" I said, just to be contrary.

"You heard Truman. They put their faith in science, not magic. My kind are only allowed in as fellow travellers. What interests me is how your family could know that you’re travelling with me now."

I shrugged. "We probably have agents buried deep within Manifest Destiny. We have people everywhere, in every kind of organisation, so we won’t be surprised when they try to start something nasty. How else do you think we know everything that’s going on?"

Molly looked at me. "And you didn’t think to tell me this before?"

"Sorry; I thought you knew how my family operates. Besides, I’ve been distracted. I’ve had a lot on my mind, just recently."

"Is there anything else I ought to know?"

"There’s something squelching in my shoe."

"I should have stabbed you while you were still asleep," said Molly.

We made our way up and out and onto the Paddington station main concourse. The wide-open space was full of people bustling back and forth as though their lives depended on it or just standing together like sheep, staring vacantly at the changing displays on the information screens. Train engines roared loudly, people spoke loudly into mobile phones, doing their best to look as though their calls were vitally important, and every now and again the station loudspeakers would blast out some deafening but totally incomprehensible statement.

I relaxed a little. I like crowds. Always somewhere to hide, in a crowd. Molly and I pretended to examine the menu on a nearby fast-food stall while taking a surreptitious look around. It all seemed normal enough. Two armed policemen wandered by, burdened down with flack jackets and equipment, alert for everyday problems. They weren’t interested in Molly and me. They didn’t know people like Molly and me even existed, the lucky devils.

"I liked this place a lot better before they gave it a makeover," I said to Molly. "There used to be a restaurant here where you could order chili con carne and chips, and beans and bacon and sausages, and pile it as high as you liked. Now, that was a meal and a half. I used to call it the cholesterol special. You could feel your arteries hardening just looking at it."

Molly regarded me with distaste bordering on disgust. "I’m amazed your heart didn’t just explode."

"I always did like to live dangerously. Speaking of which, don’t turn around too quickly, but spot the two guys approaching from four o’clock. I think we’ve been made."

"Already? Damn." Molly sneaked a look in the direction I’d indicated. Two men in anonymous dark suits were striding towards us, holding their hands up to their faces and talking to their wrists. Either they had radios up their sleeves or they were Care in the Community. Molly scowled. "They could just be plainclothes policemen…"

The two men produced automatic weapons from slings under their jackets and opened up, actually shooting through the packed crowd to get at us. Men and women crashed to the ground, bleeding and screaming and dying. People were thrown this way and that by the bullets’ impact, and one man’s head exploded. The woman with him sank to her knees beside his kicking body, howling her grief and horror. People ran screaming in every direction and dived for what little cover there was. And the two men with automatic weapons ran straight at Molly and me, firing without pause. The armed police came running, and the two men shot them down, hosing them with bullets till they stopped moving.

I ducked behind the fast-food stall, and Molly was right there with me. Above us, bowls of soup shattered and blew apart, spraying hot liquid everywhere. The staff inside the stall shrieked and ducked down, their screams almost drowned out by the chaos and the roar of gunfire. The whole stall rocked and shuddered as bullets pounded into it again and again. How many guns did these bastards have? Shouldn’t they be running out of ammo by now? I risked a quick peek around the corner of the stall. The two men were coming right at us, firing steadily, followed by a dozen more men in dark suits from all across the concourse, running to join them. There were dead bodies everywhere in spreading pools of blood.