And why not? Children needed someone strong in charge. They didn’t have to like him, just as long as they did what they were told. He was keeping them alive, wasn’t he? Looking after them. Offering them a future. Once the hard part was over, once the last rotten, diseased adult had been hunted down and exterminated, they could do whatever they wanted. London was theirs. England. The whole planet. Theirs for the taking.
David saw himself as an entrepreneur. He’d always enjoyed watching The Apprentice, and had dreamt of going on it when he was older. Well, now he didn’t have to be an apprentice. He was the boss, wasn’t he? He was Lord Sugar.
There was still a lot of work to be done, though. He knew that. Until every kid in the area recognized his authority he couldn’t relax. Hopefully his meeting this morning would lift him another step up the ladder.
He walked over to the mirror that hung above the fireplace and checked his appearance. His mother had always told him that appearances were important. First impressions. He needed to look like the boss, with an air of authority. He smiled at what he saw.
His mother would have been proud.
He was wearing a suit and tie. His dark hair was neatly cut and combed to the side. His pale, freckled skin was clear and spot-free. Not like some kids out there who looked almost as bad as the pustule-covered grown-ups. He was only fourteen, but had the manner of an adult.
He liked what he saw.
Even so, he patted his hair flatter and fussed over his tie knot. He had to admit he was slightly nervous. This meeting meant a lot to him; it wasn’t just about power and business. There was more to it than that. He had other plans, and he’d started to put them together the first time he’d met her.
Nicola. The girl from the Houses of Parliament, the one who called herself prime minister. She could call herself whatever she wanted as far as he was concerned. It was just a name. She wasn’t in charge of anything except her own scrawny little bunch of kids. Even after she agreed to everything, which he was fairly confident she would – hadn’t she asked for this meeting? Yes, even afterwards, he would let her keep the title. Let her think whatever she wanted to think. Let her pretend to be in charge.
Nicola. He wished he didn’t feel so fluttery. But there was something about her …
He turned away from the mirror. Embarrassed. Unable to hold his own gaze any longer.
He knew what that something was. She was pretty. Beautiful, really. With her long red hair and her green eyes.
A princess.
That was how he thought of her. Royalty. He pictured the two of them, side by side, king and queen. Their two worlds united. The two of them united. Like Kate and Will.
He blushed. He was getting ahead of himself.
That wouldn’t do. He had to maintain his self-control. Not get carried away. The business deal was the important thing to get sorted today. The rest of it? Well, with any luck that would follow, but he mustn’t let it get in the way of their negotiations.
He had no idea what she thought about him. He wasn’t bad-looking, not film-star material, but not ugly. His freckles were annoying, and people had always teased him about them … The main thing, though, was that he was important. Important and powerful. Girls were attracted to that sort of thing, weren’t they? Especially now that they needed looking after. He might not be Action Man, but he was tall and healthy. He had that air of confidence. He was a king rather than a warrior.
And girls went for those types.
Didn’t they?
He was pretty sure they did. Although his own experience of girls was fairly narrow. He had no brothers or sisters and had gone to an all-boys school. That was why he was nervous. He didn’t want to behave like a fool around her and give himself away. He wanted to come across as grown up. In control.
He was aware, though, that there was a special power that girls had. It was nothing to do with strength, or cleverness, or authority. It was to do with …
He was blushing again. He poured himself a glass of water from the cut-glass carafe he had carefully placed on a silver tray that sat on the gleaming table top.
There was a knock on the door and he moved to the fireplace, stood in the pose he had rehearsed, copied from one of the paintings at the palace, showing some general or other posing with all his medals and honours. Legs apart, chest out, hands behind his back, a superior half smile on his lips.
‘Yes?’ Dammit. He’d wanted his voice to sound deep and manly, and it came out strained and pinched, sounding to his ears almost like a squeak.
‘She’s here, David.’
‘Bring her in.’
The door opened and Pod, his chief of security, came in with Nicola.
She was as beautiful as he remembered. And she was wearing a long green dress that matched her eyes. That pleased him. He didn’t like girls to wear jeans, unless they were working. In his opinion girls should look smart and feminine …
No. Don’t think like that. You’ll start blushing again, you idiot. Be businesslike.
‘Hello, Nicola,’ he said, pleased that his voice had settled down. It came out sounding much more relaxed. ‘Come in. How are you?’
‘I’m fine, thanks. How are you, David?’
‘Very well.’ He turned to Pod. ‘Did everything go as planned?’
‘Yes.’ Pod grinned. Pleased with himself. ‘I brought her up the back way, by the servants’ stairs. Nobody saw her come in. Nobody will see her go out. This meeting will be completely secret.’
Now David turned to Nicola. ‘You didn’t come all the way up here from Westminster by yourself, though, surely?’
‘No. I brought some friends and we paid some hunters to escort us. The others are waiting over the road in your safe house.’
‘Good. I think it’s best this way. No need for anyone else to know our business for now.’
‘I suppose so.’
David looked at Pod, who was standing there in a rugby shirt, the collar turned up. He wasn’t the brightest kid in the palace, but he was loyal and knew how to follow orders.
‘You can leave us now, Pod, thanks.’
‘Will do, boss.’ Pod said goodbye to Nicola and went out, pulling the door closed behind him.
‘That’s better. We’re alone now,’ said David, and instantly regretted it. It had come out creepy. He had to keep this businesslike. To cover his embarrassment he indicated that Nicola should sit at the table and he poured her a second glass of water.
‘So,’ he said, handing her the glass. ‘There’s a lot we need to talk about.’
‘Yes. I suppose there is.’
Nicola looked a little awkward and nervous too. That was good. David sat down. Drank some water. Wiped his lips. Looked up at her. Important to maintain eye contact.
‘Do you want to start or should I?’
‘Well, you invited me here,’ said Nicola, keeping her eyes fixed on his. He looked down before he could stop himself. Damn.
‘But it was you who originally suggested we should meet up,’ he said, and forced himself to look her in the eyes again.
‘Did I?’ Nicola shrugged. ‘Maybe. I can’t remember exactly how it came about.’
‘You sent Ryan Aherne over with that letter.’
‘Yes, but only after I got your letter …’
David forced a laugh. ‘Well, let’s not argue about that. It doesn’t really matter how it came about, does it? The thing is we both wanted a meeting.’
‘Sure,’ said Nicola.
‘I’ve tried to get you to meet me properly before,’ said David. ‘What changed your mind?’
‘I suppose it started the other day when those kids arrived from the Tower of London.’
‘Yes. You know they came here afterwards.’
‘Yeah. They seemed all right at first, I suppose. It was only after they’d gone that I started to think it was all a bit weird.’
‘Weird?’ David took another sip of water. His throat was dry.
‘Was it a coincidence tha
t they came to ours?’ Nicola asked. ‘They had a story about looking for some friends, but … You don’t know, do you? You can never be too careful. Anyway, we had a sitting and it came up that perhaps they’d been spies of some sort.’
David tried not to smile. Of course it had come up. His plants at the Houses of Parliament had been told to bring it up. To spread unease. They were the real spies.
‘I agree,’ he said. ‘I don’t think they were all they seemed. When they came here, they immediately started poking around and asking a lot of questions. They were very curious, wanted to see everything. I knew them from before, you know?’
‘Yes, I think they told me that.’
‘I know their leader,’ said David. ‘A boy called Jordan Hordern. He’s – how can I put it? Well, if you met him, you’d know what I meant. Let’s just say he’s the kind of guy who wants to be in charge. From what I gather it’s a hard life over at the Tower of London. I wouldn’t put it past him to be thinking of looking for somewhere else to move to. He could well be probing our weaknesses, checking us out, planning to take over.’
‘That’s exactly what we were talking about in parliament,’ said Nicola, leaning towards David excitedly. ‘I think it’s getting more and more important that we establish some proper stability around here. It’s ridiculous that we’re all living so close to each other and yet it’s almost as if we’re enemies.’
‘You’re so right,’ said David seriously. ‘We must never forget that the real enemies are the grown-ups. We shouldn’t be competing with each other; we should be working together.’
Nicola drank some more water. David watched the movement of her throat as she swallowed. She carefully set her glass back down on the table.
‘The other thing is that gang in St James’s Park,’ she said.
‘The squatters?’ said David. ‘What about them?’
‘They’re raiding us nearly all the time now,’ said Nicola. ‘They come steaming in and take food, supplies, water. There’s nothing much we can do to stop them, except lock the doors. But we can’t stay cooped up inside forever. They wait for someone to come out and just …’
‘Steam in,’ said David.
‘Exactly. We don’t want to get into a fight with them, but they’re making things really difficult.’
‘It’s the same for us,’ said David. ‘We wanted to develop the park, you know, grow food there, and they just dug everything up and attacked our guys. I agree – we definitely need to do something about them.’
‘What can we do, though?’ asked Nicola. ‘We can’t attack them.’
‘Why not?’
‘Well, they’re kids. I made some promises during the election.’
‘You had an election?’ said David, amused. ‘I didn’t notice.’
‘It was just an internal thing,’ said Nicola. ‘Every year the kids at Westminster vote on who’s going to be, you know, prime minister. This year they voted for me because I promised them a few things.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like never to attack other kids … And …’ Nicola laughed, embarrassed, unsure whether to go on.
‘You can tell me.’ David was still very amused by Nicola’s situation.
‘I promised never to have anything to do with you.’
Now David laughed. ‘Well, we all make promises we can’t keep, Nicola. Now that you’re in charge I suppose you’ve realized that it’s not as easy as it looks, is it? And sometimes you have to change your mind about things. They’ll get over it. If you sort things out for them, make their lives safe and secure, they’ll forget all the promises you made to get elected, and they’ll keep voting for you year after year after year.’
‘I hope so.’ Nicola frowned. ‘I mean, I think if I can stop the raids by the squatters, as you call them, then I’ll be popular. But how can we stop them? What can we do? We can’t go wading in there. They’re not adults. They’re not diseased. They’re just kids.’
‘They may be kids,’ said David, ‘but they’re not obeying the rule of law. As you say, we need to establish order round here, and they’re just pushing things towards chaos and anarchy. We can’t let that happen. You and I, we’ve worked hard to make things better, to rebuild. If they’re going to behave the way they do, then I think we’re justified in turning the water cannons on them.’
‘You’ve got water cannons?’
David laughed again. ‘No. It was a metaphor. I just mean there’s no reason why we shouldn’t come down heavily on them.’
‘You’d attack them?’
David crossed his arms and leant back in his chair. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I’d only be doing to them what they’d like to do to me. What they have done to you. We need to bring them into line and we can only do that if we’re united.’
‘Even if we unite, though,’ said Nicola, ‘we don’t have enough fighters. Certainly not ones who’d be happy to attack other kids.’
‘Leave that to me,’ said David. ‘I’m working on something. But we have to think further ahead than just cleaning up the park. It’s about more than just attacking the squatters. Yes, they’re a common problem we share, but we share loads of other problems as well.’
‘Are you suggesting an alliance of some sort?’ asked Nicola.
‘I am. A union between your camp and ours. You wouldn’t have to change anything. You could keep all you’ve got and run things how you liked at Westminster, but we’d be working together. We could hold regular meetings, share resources, information, fighters.’
David went over to a little side table and picked up a pile of papers.
‘I’ve drawn up a contract,’ he said, sitting back down. ‘It’s more than just a treaty – it’s a sort of constitution.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Nicola as David pushed the papers towards her across the shiny table top. ‘It’s all a bit sudden.’
‘Why did you come here?’ said David, pressing on now that he felt he had the upper hand.
‘To talk.’
‘About what?’
‘Well …’
‘About something like what I’ve proposed.’
Nicola thought about this for a few seconds before replying.
‘Yes,’ she said at last. ‘Something like this. But, as I said, you’re not exactly popular at Westminster. Quite a few of the kids there came from here. You’re seen as being a bit, well, bossy. The idea of teaming up with you would scare some of them. They’d think you were just trying to take over.’
‘That’s where the royal family comes in,’ said David, smiling broadly, but trying not to look smug.
‘What do you mean?’ Nicola was more than a little confused.
‘Haven’t you heard?’ said David. ‘We have members of the old royal family here.’
‘I’d heard rumours,’ said Nicola, ‘but I never believed any of them. I thought it was a joke.’
‘It’s not. It’s all true. We found them here when we arrived. None of the big names, unfortunately. I think they’re all dead, or in a bunker somewhere. My lot are mostly minor royals, but royals nevertheless. It’s always been my dream to reinstate them on the throne. That way, it will appear that they’re in charge, and people won’t worry so much about what I’m up to.’
‘Let me get this straight, David.’ Nicola looked bemused and appalled. ‘These are adults? Diseased mothers and fathers?’
‘Think of them more as dukes and duchesses.’
‘But diseased?’
‘Yes. Don’t worry, we keep them safely locked up in the dark, so that they don’t degenerate too badly.’
‘I don’t want to be ruled by a bunch of zombies.’ Nicola was shaking her head, her eyes wide.
‘You wouldn’t be, Nicola. They’d just be figureheads, something to put on the stamps. They’d just represent an old order. Stability. Tradition. Something to unite everyone. Kids need that sort of thing. You and me, we’d hold the real power.’
Nicola stared at the papers in front of her, tryi
ng to take this all in.
‘I don’t expect you to sign anything now,’ said David. ‘Take the agreement away with you and study it. Make any changes you think it needs. It’s nothing complicated, but … You’re like me, Nicola. We both like rules, structure. We both like things to be organized. Perhaps our beliefs might be slightly different, but in the end we both want what’s best. Best for our kids, best for the future, best for the country, if you like. Together we can be strong and we can deal with any future threats. At the moment, fighting off the grown-ups is what’s holding us all together. Once the last grown-up’s been killed and we don’t have a common enemy there’s a danger that everything will just fall apart. There’ll be more problems like the squatters, and who knows what Jordan Hordern might be plotting? This is the first step to properly uniting everyone in London. We can make alliances with more and more kids, all join together under one banner. We can clean out all the grown-ups in this area. Work out how best to use the hunters. Be ready to deal with people like Jordan Hordern. Make London safe. Then we really could call ourselves king and queen.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Well, you know what I mean,’ said David, desperately trying not to give himself away. It had come out without his meaning to say it. ‘I’m talking metaphorically again. You know, we’ll be, like, joint rulers. Not husband and wife.’
Nicola leant forward, put her elbows on the table and rested her chin in her hands. She smiled at David in a slightly superior, mocking way that he found unnerving.