‘It’s pretty dangerous out there if you ain’t used to it,’ she said. ‘Nobody will think bad of you if you don’t come. You never knew Olivia, like I did.’
‘You going?’ Brooke asked.
Courtney shrugged, still not sure.
‘See, I’m not one of the fighters,’ said Brooke. ‘I got more important things to do here.’
‘I’m a fighter,’ said Courtney, standing taller and swinging her spear. God, she hoped that DogNut was taking this in. If she was going to put her neck on the line again, she wanted to make sure that DogNut was impressed.
‘You coming for sure then?’ DogNut asked.
‘Yeah, why not? I ain’t afraid.’
‘My gyal!’ said DogNut, and he put his arm round her and gave her a squeeze.
Before any of them could say anything else there were voices and movement from the main doors and a group of boys stepped in out of the light. They hurried across the atrium to the knot of waiting kids. Robbie was at their head, leather jacket tightly zipped, looking none too happy.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked, his gelled hair bristling.
‘What’s it look like?’ said DogNut. ‘We going on a sicko hunt.’
‘Who says?’
DogNut turned to Paul. ‘You tell him, blood,’ he said. ‘This is your party.’
Paul took Robbie aside and explained what was happening. As they talked, Robbie kept throwing looks over to DogNut. Like Brooke, he wasn’t happy that an outsider had come in and was shaking things up. Finally he came back and stood slightly too close to DogNut. His attempt to appear menacing didn’t quite come off as his broken nose only came up to DogNut’s chin.
‘You ain’t in charge here, Doggo,’ he said.
‘That’s right.’ DogNut shrugged and held Robbie’s gaze. ‘The nerds are.’
Robbie paused for a moment, weighing DogNut’s pointed words.
‘They look after all the boring crap,’ he said at last. ‘But anything to do with security goes through me.’
‘Yeah, I know that.’ DogNut offered Robbie a friendly smile. ‘But you wasn’t here so I had to start putting something together. Time is tick-tick-ticking away, soldier. You gonna come then?’
‘Course I’m gonna come.’
‘Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.’
30
As the kids marched out of the museum gates into the street, they bumped into Ryan and his hunters coming from the west along the Cromwell Road with their dogs. Compared to the kids in the museum Ryan’s gang looked even more wild and fierce than they’d done before. Dressed in their furs and leathery masks, heavily armed and battle scarred, they were a complete contrast to the elegantly dressed museum kids, who carried clubs and knives mostly. Although one or two, like Robbie, had lightweight swords hanging at their belts in fancy ornamental scabbards.
Ryan greeted him, and then spotted DogNut. He loped over to him, his heavy boots scraping on the tarmac, and gave him a high five.
‘You found your mates then?’
‘Yeah. Is all cool. Thanks for that – we feel well dumb not talking to you properly yesterday.’
‘Yeah. You are well dumb, Dog. So what was the smoke for? What’s going down?’
Robbie put himself between DogNut and Ryan. ‘I’m in charge here, Ryan – you know that. You talk to me. DogNut’s just a guest.’
Ryan shrugged. ‘Don’t make no odds to me who I talk to. So what’s up then?’
‘We’re going to get rid of a sicko that killed the sister of one of our boys at the museum.’
‘Just one sicko?’ Ryan looked amused. ‘You sure there’s enough of you?’
‘Apparently he’s big and hard to kill.’
‘Apparently?’ Ryan looked even more amused. ‘You mean you ain’t never even seen him.’
‘We’ve seen him,’ said DogNut. ‘Olivia was one of our party.’
‘The little girl who was with you?’
‘Yeah.’
‘She never made it, no?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Harsh.’ Ryan spat on the ground. ‘So, you really need all these soldiers to take on one sicko? There must be twenty of you.’
DogNut shrugged. ‘I don’t know how well this lot fight.’
‘We can fight all right when we have to,’ said Robbie indignantly.
‘So you need our help, or not?’ asked Ryan.
‘I can’t offer to pay you,’ said DogNut, and he nodded at Robbie. ‘That’s his territory.’
‘I guess we could give you some food, or clothing, or something,’ said Robbie. ‘But not much. Quite frankly I reckon we could kill this sicko by ourselves. As you say, how bad can one grown-up be? Just cos DogNut and his gang had a hard time.’
Before DogNut could react to Robbie’s taunt, Ryan interrupted. ‘Tell you what,’ he said. ‘We’ll do you this one as a freebie. I’m curious to see what this giant sicko can do.’
‘Cheers,’ said Robbie.
‘No problem. Just remember you owe us two, now.’
‘Sure.’
‘Show me the way then.’
Ryan looked at Robbie, and Robbie looked at DogNut.
‘Follow me,’ said DogNut, and he led them eastwards towards Harrods.
Courtney really didn’t want to be doing this. She could have slept all day. But she forced herself forward, plodding along with heavy feet. She wished she hadn’t been such an idiot and had stayed behind with Brooke. Why did boys always have to complicate things? She loved Brooke, she really did, she just didn’t want her to end up with DogNut. DogNut was hers. Courtney had to convince him that he’d be better off with a tough street fighter like herself and not a …
Well, whatever Brooke had become.
A house nerd.
Not that Courtney felt like much of a tough street fighter at the moment. Her guts had turned to water and all she really wanted to do was bend double and throw up. The thought of the Collector in his disgusting den terrified her more than she ever could have imagined.
Why was DogNut so keen to go back there?
Only one way to find out.
She sped up and pushed her way to the head of the column. DogNut was out in front, walking by himself, and she fell into step beside him.
‘What about Brooke, eh?’ she said, trying to sound like it didn’t really mean much to her. ‘She ain’t half changed.’
‘Yeah, I guess we all changed.’
‘She even looks different, don’t you think?’ Courtney went on. ‘I reckon she looked prettier as a blonde.’
‘Maybe. Most girls do.’
‘You think I should go blonde?’
‘You?’ DogNut looked appalled. ‘No way, gyal. You couldn’t go blonde anyways. With your hair you’d end up, like, orange, or something.’
‘Don’t you like my hair then?’
‘Never thought about it much. Is just hair.’
‘DogNut?’ Courtney decided to come right out and say it. ‘Why are you doing this?’
‘To help Paul.’
‘Really? It’s not because you feel guilty about Olivia?’
‘Yeah. That as well, I guess.’
‘But I know that ain’t all. You’re being devious. You got something else on your mind. I just know it.’
‘Gyaldem, eh?’ said DogNut, and he sucked his teeth. ‘Can’t get nothing past them, man.’
‘I can never tell when you’re being serious.’
‘Me either.’
‘But you are up to something, Doggs.’
DogNut leant closer to Courtney and spoke quietly, making sure that nobody else could hear them.
‘I want to be someone, Courtney.’
‘You are someone.’
‘No I ain’t. I want to be important. I want to be remembered. Back at the Tower I won’t never be nothing except one of Jordan Hordern’s captains. But I reckon the museum is ripe for the picking. I mean, how come Justin and the nerds are in charge? Who let that happe
n? Why ain’t Robbie running things? Ain’t he got no dignity, no self-respect?’
‘I dunno.’
DogNut glanced over at Robbie, checking he wasn’t near enough to hear what they were saying.
‘I’ll tell you why, Courtney, because he is a weak-ass dope. He don’t want to be in charge. He’s scared.’
‘What you saying then, Doggs? You gonna try to take over?’
‘Wouldn’t take much. I just need to show them all how tough I am, how I make decisions and get shit done. I wanna be top dog for a change, Courtney.’
‘What for?’
‘Power, girl. Power and respect.’
‘What for, though?’
‘Come on. I’d get all the best stuff for myself. All the best food. The best clothes. The biggest bed. All the buffest girls. And then Brooke will fall in love with me and we’ll live happily ever after.’
Courtney didn’t know what to say to this and she retreated into her own thoughts. She wasn’t always sure that she even liked DogNut, but there was nothing she could do about the way she felt about him. Maybe what he was saying made some kind of sense . Maybe she was attracted to him because he was tough, a soldier. Big man in road.
The column of kids halted, snapping Courtney out of her thoughts. She barged to the front to see what the holdup was and instantly wished she hadn’t.
Ryan and his hunters were battering a young father to death in the middle of the road, their dogs snarling and barking. The sicko was blind, his eyelids swollen and crusted with sores. Too feeble to make it back to wherever he lived, he’d been caught out in the daylight.
The hunters were laughing, and when they’d finished one of them knelt down to slice off the dead father’s ears. The boy inspected his work. He lifted up an ear that was little more than a gristly flap of skin and waved it in the face of one of his friends before lobbing it away. The other one he gave to Ryan, who hooked it onto the garland of severed ears that hung from his belt.
Ryan grinned at DogNut and gave a little waggle of his hips to make the ears dance.
‘How much further, Dog?’ he asked.
‘Nearly there,’ DogNut replied. ‘Is quite close to Harrods.’
‘You really reckon this giant sicko of yours is dangerous?’ Ryan asked, spitting on the dead specimen at his feet. ‘They don’t scare us none.’
‘Trust me,’ said DogNut, nodding his head and walking on. ‘He’s dangerous.’
Ryan fell in step with him.
‘Maybe we should just set his crib on fire?’ he said with a wicked leer. ‘Fry him up.’
Paul heard what they were saying and came over.
‘You’re not burning anything,’ he said. ‘Olivia might be in there. She might still be alive. I have to find her. That’s what this is all about.’
‘Yeah,’ said DogNut. ‘Agreed. I don’t like fire. Our last safe place was burned down when south London went up in flames. Don’t want to risk starting something we can’t control. The sicko’s den is stuffed to the roof with all crap that’ll burn. Any fire in there, the place is gonna go off like a bomb.’
‘So, what’s your plan then?’ Ryan asked, and DogNut started to tell him.
31
‘What do you mean I stay outside?’ Robbie was furious. He’d had enough of DogNut trying to run the show. The two of them were toe to toe in the middle of the street outside the Collector’s house, virtually spitting into each other’s faces.
‘Cool it, blood,’ said DogNut. ‘We need someone who knows what they doing out here, yeah? Otherwise we flush him out and he gets away. And not just that. He ain’t the only sicko in London. You get me? Once we in there someone got to watch our backs. Once we start kicking up a fuss, making all noise and that, the locals is gonna know we here, and any hungry ones might just be a likkle bit curious. Whoever stays out here is gonna have the most important job, yeah? When the fat man comes out, they gonna have to take him down.’
Robbie’s shoulders dropped. He could see the truth in what DogNut was saying. But he hadn’t given up the fight.
‘So why don’t you stay out here, big man, and I go in?’
DogNut made an elaborate gesture towards the house, sweeping his arm wide and half bowing.
‘Be my guest, soldier. You know where to go when you get in there? Cos it’s gonna be dark. Is like a maze, he got it so full of stuff. You reckon you’ll know where to find him? Yeah? Cos, take it from me, you wouldn’t want to be ambushed by him, and, like, overwhelmed.’
‘Maybe …’
DogNut smiled and put an arm round Robbie, giving him a squeeze.
‘This is the best way, brother, believe me.’
‘OK. Forget it. But next time you talk to me before you start making any plans.’
‘Yeah, sorry. Was just me and Ryan got to talking.’
‘So who’s going in with you?’
‘There ain’t a lot of room to move in there, so I want to keep it small, yeah? We gonna send one crew up to the top in case he’s there, another lot can take the ground floor and I’m gonna take the main war party down into the cellar, where he sleeps.’
‘I’m sending a small crew round the back, to the garden,’ said Ryan. ‘Just in case he tries to get out that way.’
‘The kids going into the house need to be ones who’ve been in there before, though,’ said DogNut. ‘Marco and Felix are gonna take the kitchen. Courtney’s taking the crew up to the top. I’ll lead the party down to the cellar.’
‘I’m coming with you,’ said Paul, stepping forward.
‘For real?’ said DogNut.
Paul swallowed and took a deep breath. ‘Of course,’ he said, staring at the pavement. ‘She was my sister.’
‘OK, but we don’t need no hero act,’ said DogNut. ‘You stick with me and you do what I say.’
Paul nodded.
‘I’d better come along too,’ said Ryan. ‘And I’m bringing my best fighter. You’ll need us.’
‘If you say so.’
‘I say so.’ Ryan put an arm round DogNut. He smelt like an animal, what with all the leather and fur and bits of dead flesh hanging off him. That and the fact that he obviously hadn’t washed in about six months.
‘This is gonna be fun …’ Ryan’s face split into a wide smile, his long yellow teeth showing wolfishly.
‘OK?’ said DogNut, and Robbie reluctantly nodded. ‘So that’s me, Paul, Ryan, Ryan’s hunter and, if you want to make sure that your guys are in on it, I’ll take one more from the museum. Who d’you suggest? Someone who ain’t scared of nothing and can fight up close if they got to.’
‘Jackson.’ Robbie nodded towards a stocky kid wearing hoodie and jeans who had close-cropped hair and a face like a potato.
‘He good?’
‘She.’
‘She?’
‘Yeah.’ Robbie grinned and raised his eyebrows. ‘Jackson’s the hardest kid at the museum.’
He called Jackson over. She looked serious and slightly shy.
‘You happy to go inside with the main team and flush the sicko out?’ Robbie asked her and she shrugged.
‘Why not?’ She smiled now and her face softened and she instantly looked like a little girl.
‘How old are you, Jackson?’ DogNut asked.
‘Thirteen. Why? You think I can’t do this?’ Jackson stopped smiling.
‘Didn’t say nothing. Just asking.’
Jackson sniffed. Held DogNut’s gaze. Her eyes were grey and clear. She carried a short spear with a long, extremely sharp-looking head. She twirled it in her hand, like a bandleader with a baton. The tip zipping past a millimetre from DogNut’s nose.
He laughed and stepped back.
‘Save it for the man, soldier,’ he said, and then called the rest of his team together.
‘We’re going in,’ he shouted. ‘And, remember, the show ain’t over till the fat sicko croaks.’
32
Courtney groaned. She was back in the Collector’s house. The last p
lace on earth she wanted to be. Her feet stuck to the squishy mashed layer of paper and food and excrement that lay on the floorboards, giving the effect of walking through wet mud. The stink of it, rising from the floor in wafts of damp heat, and seeping from the walls, nauseated her. She felt like she was inside the twisting wormholes of some giant sponge that had soaked up gallons of grease and sweat and slime that was all now slowly oozing out. The air seemed to be thicker in here. It clogged her nostrils and the back of her throat, making it hard to breathe. She was panting like a dog, hard and fast, unable to fill her lungs. Her pounding heart was pushing so hard she felt as if her skin might split, and sweat lay on her in a tight cloying sheet, like clingfilm, making her itch. She wanted to scratch herself all over. But she knew she must show no fear in front of the other kids – three of Ryan’s hunters and a fat boy from the museum. They were absolutely bricking themselves so she had to give them courage.
Just like dogs, the kids preferred to hunt in a large pack, and separated from Ryan, his hunters didn’t look so tough. These three stuck close behind Courtney and she reckoned if they did come across any sickos they’d be out of there in a flash. They were very different boys to the cocky, swaggering bunch who’d volunteered to come inside with her. Oh, they’d been warned about what to expect – they’d even laughed about it, boasted about what they were going to do, but as they’d forced the door open and walked into the hallway they’d fallen silent. The Collector had painstakingly rebuilt the towering piles of rotting newspaper and had spent some time jamming human bones into it.
The boys had grown pale and quiet. This was like nothing they’d ever experienced before. There was an alien atmosphere in the house. Alien and evil. Very little sunlight penetrated the building. It hadn’t been so obvious last night when it was dark outside, but the Collector had stacked stuff on all the window ledges, and the panes of glass were so thick with grime and dust that only a few spots of yellowish light showed here and there.
Courtney switched on her torch. It was a relief to be heading upstairs, away from what she knew waited in the basement, even though it brought back painful memories of when six of them had gone up last night and only five had come down. And there would be nothing worse than to be trapped up here again with these strangers, kids she didn’t know and couldn’t fully trust. A big part of her wished she could have stayed with DogNut.