Obsidian Pebble (38 page)

“Where are you going?” Ellie asked as Oz rushed out.

“Said I'd meet Caleb in the tenants' kitchen,” he said, and didn't stop to explain.

Caleb was sitting at the table when Oz got there, his coat hanging on the chair next to him, a small pool of rain beneath it. His face was unreadable, but his eyes were full of troubled wariness. He didn't get up.

“Oz, I am so sorry for what happened.”

“Mum said that, too,” Oz said. “Though I can't see how it's your fault or hers.”

“I should have known Lucy was heading for trouble. And as for Rollins…” Caleb rubbed the back of his neck in despair. He kept his gaze on the table as he spoke. “I think I owe you a bit of an explanation.”

“Yeah, so do I,” Oz said.

It earned him a glance from Caleb, but no immediate words.

“Mum thinks Rollins and Lucy Bishop were working together. They weren't, were they?”

Caleb shook his head. “Rollins managed to slip under everyone's radar. But he did know Edward Bishop. He was part of the same research team. He lost his job in disgrace after the experiments, and was trying to get back into Gerber's good books by finding the artefacts.”

“So he was working for Gerber.”

“Indirectly.” Caleb nodded. “But there'll be no proof.”

“Lucy Bishop tried to smash the artefacts when we found her. She blames me for what happened to her brother. Why did she do that?”

“There are things about Gerber that not many people know or would understand,” Caleb said, looking suddenly awkward.

“Do you mean the fact that he has a fifth artefact and has been experimenting with it ever since he found it or stole it from the Shoesmiths in 1914?”

For the first time that Oz could ever remember, Caleb's mouth fell open in dumbstruck wonder.

“How…?”

“Me, Ellie and Ruff, we make a very good team,” Oz said, and allowed himself a small grin at Caleb's surprise.

“So, you know that one of his so-called experiments made Edward Bishop very ill. Lucy was supposed to be protecting you. But in truth, she was trying to find the artefacts to see if they could help her brother. I didn't know he was in the park all this time.”

“Is that why she followed us when we went to Garret and Eldred's?”

“She was actually making sure that Gerber's men weren't following you. Unfortunately, it was all proving too much for her. Like her brother, she is very clever, but she's also what some people like to call highly-strung. She must have snapped and stolen the artefacts to try and use them herself. She failed and then turned on them.”

“And on me. Lucky Ellie's a blue belt in taekwando.”

Caleb said nothing.

“Rollins said something about Lucy. He said she was Obex. Was she?”

Caleb sighed and looked out of the window. He seemed to be weighing things up in his mind. Finally, he turned back and said, “Obex is a society sworn to keep the artefacts from getting into the wrong hands.”

“Puffers' hands?”

Caleb let out a mirthless laugh. “You lot ought to work for MI5. Yes, Puffers. Greedy, meddling, ignorant people, like Gerber, who think that the artefacts have been sent for their benefit.”

“What do you mean, sent?”

Caleb's eyes held Oz's gaze now. “Some people think that the artefacts aren't from here, Oz. I mean, the here that we live in every second of every day. Some people think that they're from somewhere else.”

It was suddenly very quiet in the kitchen as the storm abated momentarily. Oz looked up at the window. The night was impenetrable beyond it.

“You mean, like another planet?” he whispered.

Caleb shrugged. “Planet, existence, universe, who knows? Somewhere different, definitely. But some of us think they're here for a reason. And that reason is not to turn people like Edward Bishop into feral lunatics.”

Oz was remembering snatches of conversation between Caleb and Lucy Bishop, and suddenly he looked at his father's friend as if seeing him for the first time.

“You're Obex, too, aren't you?”

“Yes, I am, Oz. And so was my father, and his father, too. We took an oath. As I told you before, our prime concern is for the artefacts. Sometimes that makes our choices… difficult.”

Oz didn't quite understand what Caleb meant by that, but he wanted to know more. “Did my dad know?”

“Yes, he did. And I made him some promises.”

“What sort of promises?”

“Amongst others, that if the artefacts found their way to you, I'd help protect you.” Caleb's eyes fell away. “And I failed in that promise.”

But Oz was intrigued. “What do you mean, found their way?”

“Exactly that. It's one of their abiding mysteries. They choose people. Morsman. Your dad. You. None of this is an accident.”

“The Puffers, do they know all this?”

“They do.”

Oz shivered, but then looked down and shook his head. “You're going to have to explain all this to Mum. Make her listen. She doesn't believe anything I tell her. I know she doesn't want to believe you, either, but something happened in that basement. Something I can't explain yet. But Mum wants to leave here, and I can't, not now.”

Caleb shook his head. “Oz, I…”

“You have to,” Oz pleaded. “I know this stuff isn't good for her. I can see what it's doing to her already, and I don't want her to be like she was before, but we owe it to Dad to stay here and find out what all this means.” There was a long moment of loaded silence in which Oz did not let his gaze fall away from Caleb's face. Finally, Caleb nodded.

“Okay, I'll try,” he said. “But I'm not hopeful.”

Relieved, Oz led the way up to the second floor and across to the spiral staircase that took them back down to the main kitchen. Mrs. Chambers sat at the table, an empty glass in front of her and a bottle of unopened malt whiskey next to it. She looked up, defiant, as Oz entered.

“Well, if your dad could do it…” she said with a shaky, unconvincing smile.

“Mum?” Oz said in a panicky voice, but then Caleb entered the room behind him.

“What do you want?' she said, her mouth suddenly ugly.

Caleb looked first at the glass and then at Mrs. Chambers. “Gwen, we need to talk.”

“After what's just happened here?” Mrs. Chambers demanded.

“
Especially
after what has just happened here.”

“What is there to talk about? Rollins is in custody, Lucy Bishop is in hospital. Penwurt is still standing.” She raised her glass in mock salute.

Caleb was shaking his head. “This is just the beginning. The Puffers…”

“Puffers? That's another one, is it? Another of those stupid, silly little words like ‘artefact' and ‘Obex?'”

“If you'd let me explain…”

But Mrs. Chambers was shaking her head. “I don't want to let you explain. Michael was always trying to explain, and look where it got him!” Anger flared and she thumped the empty glass back down onto the table.

“Mum…” Oz started to say, but she silenced him with a look.

“Stop it. I won't have any of this superstitious claptrap in my house. I won't stand for it.”

She pushed herself away from the table and walked to the fridge. “You want to know how I'm really feeling, Oz?” She turned to the calendar and ripped it away from the magnets to reveal Oz's childishly ugly drawing in all its glory underneath.

Oz felt all the blood drain from his face.

“There! That's how I'm feeling, okay? The black dog is well and truly out of its kennel. And having him here spouting his rubbish”—she pointed at Caleb—“makes it ten times worse. Can't you see, Oz? It's poison. All of it is pure poison. How many more people are going to get hurt because of some ridiculous made-up nonsense?” Her face suddenly hardened. “Well, I know one thing, it isn't going to be me or mine anymore. As soon as the insurance money is settled for the fire, that's it. I've made up my mind. We're off.” She turned her burning eyes on Caleb. “Then you and your Puffers can have this place and everything that's…”

There was a sudden blinding flash of light followed by a clap of thunder that shook the crockery and sent at least one pan crashing to the kitchen floor. The house was plunged into darkness. From somewhere upstairs there was a strange thudding sound. Oz felt his way to the mudroom and groped around for a torch.

“Have we just been hit by lightning?” Oz asked when he got back to the kitchen, pointing the beam first at his mother and then at Caleb.

“I think so. But the turret roof has a conductor,” Caleb added in reassuring tones.

“Great,” said Mrs. Chambers in a voice that dripped acid, “even the weather has it in for me.” She took the torch from Oz and found some candles, which she quickly lit and placed into saucers dotted around the kitchen.

But Caleb wasn't going to let things lie. “Gwen, hasn't what has happened here opened your eyes? There's danger lurking. A real danger that won't go away, even if you move.”

“Grow up!” yelled Mrs. Chambers, rounding on him, and in the candlelit room her face looked monstrous, deformed by her anger.

“Oz?” Ruff's voice called to him from upstairs.

Oz took the torch and ran up the stairs. The bedroom was empty when he got there, so he doubled back and went straight to the library. Ellie and Ruff surveyed the room, using their phones as torches to illuminate a floor covered with books.

“Nothing broken,” Ellie said. “We just heard this tremendous crash. Must have blown all the books off the shelves.”

“Almost blew out the Xbox, too,” Ruff said with real concern.

“What's that smell?” Oz asked,

“Ozone,” Ruff said. “Lightning makes that.”

“Some of these books are still steaming,” Ellie said, picking up one that looked more than a bit charred.

“It's hot inside a lightning bolt,” Ruff said.

“You don't say,” Ellie replied tartly.

After a heavy and awkward little pause, Ruff asked, “Is everything all right with your mum, Oz? We heard shouting…”

“No, it's about as
not
all right as it could be,” Oz said, feeling his face burn at the memory of his mother with the whiskey. But then he remembered about the pebble and the dor. “What about
The Victorian Gentleman's Guide to Herbalism
? Have you checked it?”

“Got it. Yeah, all okay.” Oz watched as Ellie opened the book and took out the pebble. “Ow, it's really hot. And look, it's glowing.” She ran her thumb over the lit-up maker's mark and handed it to Ruff, who did the same.

“Must have had the full force of the strike,” Ruff said.

Oz took it from him. It felt like a baked potato in his hand, and the maker's mark was glowing bright yellow, much brighter than he'd ever seen it before. Without really thinking, Oz put his thumb over it. He sensed the change at once. It was like flicking on a switch inside his head. He'd felt it before, in the basement last night, only this time there were no wavy lines or flickering images, just the feeling of a door opening and of something dropping into place. He realised suddenly that it was much lighter in the room than a moment ago.

Oz heard Ellie gasp, quickly followed by a shaky “Wow,” from Ruff. Oz spun around and saw what had caused Ruff's surprise. In the centre of the room stood a girl with coffeecoloured skin, short dark hair and grey eyes. She wore a short-sleeved orange tunic and seemed to glow from within, like a TV set.

“Welcome, Oscar Chambers.”

Oz couldn't speak. He'd seen the face and heard the voice before, in his head, but this was… He glanced at Ellie and Ruff and stammered, “Ca…can you see her, too?”

Ellie nodded. Ruff swallowed loudly and said tremulously, “Is it a genie?”

The girl turned to Ruff. “I am a Siliconano Osaka-Protocol Holoquantum five fifty point…” Her voice petered out and she looked momentarily confused. “Apologies. Memcore analysis reveals permanent damage has been sustained to manufacturer attribution comms.”

Oz had no idea what she was talking about, but he couldn't help noticing that she shimmered slightly and seemed to hover a good two inches off the floor. She was older than them by perhaps four or five years. Her accent was slightly odd, but Oz couldn't put his finger on why.

“Who are you?” Oz asked.

“I am a Siliconano Osaka-Protocol Holoquantum—”

“Soph,” Ellie said brightly. “S.O.P.H, Soph. As in Sophie.”

Ruff's face cumpled in cringing alarm. He put a hand up to his mouth and whispered to Ellie, “Soph? Are you mad? She's some sort of alien spirit, not a piece of furniture.”

“I have no objection to that name,” said Soph.

“Do you have anything to do with the pebble?” Ellie asked, throwing Ruff a triumphant grin.

Oz felt a faint tickle in his head, and then the girl said, “You are referring to the base unit, Ellie Messenger. Yes, I am the base unit's avatar.”

“How do you know my name?” Ellie said, startled.

“I have accessed your preferred epithet through Oscar's database.”

“Ask her to speak English,” Ruff hissed.

“I know what she means,” Oz said in a whisper. “She's getting your names from me. I can feel her inside my head.”

Ruff stared at him as if he'd suddenly turned bright purple.

“So, let's get this straight. You are the pebble? You are the artefact?” Ellie went on.

Oz felt another tickle. “If by artefact and pebble, you are referring to the base unit, then the answer is yes.”

“I've seen you before,” Oz said, “in my head.”

The girl inclined her head. “Limited power has not allowed full manifestation up until this point. The base unit is damaged and the main memsource and cognitive linkage devices are disconnected.”