The World House, page 32
"Bastard!" Tom appeared from behind them, pushed past Ashe and dived on to the unconscious Chester. He put his hands around his throat and began to squeeze.
"I'd stop him if I were you," said the prisoner to Ashe, "unless you fancy winking out of existence in a few seconds' time – something that would be catastrophic for all of you, I hasten to add."
Ashe grabbed Tom and, with Miles' help, they pulled him off the unresponsive Chester.
"Motherfucker killed Elise and Pablo!" Tom shouted. "Motherfucker!"
The prisoner smiled. "Young love," he sighed and, with a wink, sent Tom to sleep in Miles' arms.
"Right," the prisoner said, looking around, "anyone else? Any last-minute rescues or attempts at revenge? No? Excellent, I have a train to catch." He turned back to Ashe. "All of you are now utterly tied into this chronology," he said, "so I advise you to hear me out before attempting any more pointless acts of heroism."
In the far corner of the concourse there was a rumbling noise followed by a shower of glass as a section of the roof fell in.
"Hmm," said the prisoner, "the house really is suffering, isn't it?" He turned back to his audience. "No matter, I'm sure you'll manage to stabilise things."
"We'll manage?" asked Penelope.
"Yes, my dear, it's up to you now to get everything back on track. Any reality can take a few paradoxes as a tap on the chin, but this one needs stabilising as fast as you can before the whole lot comes crumbling down. And as much as that may seem an attractive proposition, I should make clear that if this place goes it'll take the human race with it. The connection runs both ways, you see. This place feeds off them and they in turn are connected to it. You know how the events in the library extended into 'the real world' – just look at poor Alan here, his head's screwed more than a dockyard hooker when the Navy's home."
"Nice," said Miles.
"One tries." The prisoner pointed at Ashe. "You will agree that if it were not for your timely intervention then Sophie would be dead?"
"Yeah," said Ashe, looking at the body of Whitstable, "I guess that's true."
"Then you need to take that box and make sure it gets to the right people. Without the help of young Tom and the sadly departed Pablo and Elise, you would have died in the cellars of this house. You need to ensure their past selves receive the box and use it, otherwise you will cease to exist. Alongside you will go Sophie and…" he looked at Miles, Penelope and Carruthers "…correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there some bit of ghastliness with a polar bear?"
"Yes," said Carruthers, "Ashe shot it, otherwise it would have most certainly killed one, maybe all of us."
"But without Ashe we would never have been there in the first place," said Miles. "He was the one who found the doorway through to that room."
"Causality, eh?" said the prisoner. "It's a bitch."
"Forgive me for speaking on everyone's behalf here," said Carruthers, "but what effect in real terms would our deaths actually cause? Don't get me wrong, I'm rather fond of my continued existence, but even I'm not so frightful an egomaniac as to think the survival of everything depends on it."
"But it does!" the prisoner beamed. "So feel proud. There are countless people who have appeared here…" he turned to Ashe, a point suddenly occurring to him "…and mark that you return the box somewhere suitably useful in order for them to always have done so – but you were the key players," he continued to the rest of them, "all of you. You interacted with Alan here and throughly embedded yourselves into the chain of events that leads us to this point. Now you just need to travel these lines… " – he gestured over his shoulder at the platforms – "and ensure that everything occurs as it should.
"If you don't, this place will breathe its last and the rest of your species with it. And none of us want that. Not even me. If humanity is to be wiped out then I wish to get my hands dirty doing so. And that said…" He pulled a mackintosh and trilby out of the air, put them on and tipped his hat at a suitably jolly angle. "I must catch my train."
He flipped Chester up on to his shoulder as if the man weighed nothing more than a small holdall and marched towards one of the platforms.
"Don't worry about this one," he called behind him, "I'll get him to his destination for you. Never let it be said I don't do my bit." And with that he vanished from sight, a hail of crumbling plaster raining down in his wake as a section of the platform wall gave way.
"We can't just let him go, surely?" asked Miles.
"Darling," said Penelope, "if you have the superhuman abilities it would take to stop him then feel free to give chase, otherwise I can't see we have much choice."
"She's right," said Ashe. "We're all bound into this now, and he's left us with our hands full." He looked up at the cracking roof. "So let's get to work."
WORK WILL RESUME ON THE WORLD HOUSE IN
RESTORATION
BY GUY ADAMS
COMING SUMMER 2011 FROM ANGRY ROBOT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Guy Adams trained and worked as an actor for twelve years before becoming a full-time writer. If nothing else this proves he has no concept of a sensible career. He mugged someone on Emmerdale, performed a dance routine as Hitler, and spent eighteen months touring his own comedy material around clubs and theatres.
He is the author of the best-selling Rules of Modern Policing: 1973 Edition, a spoof police manual "written by" DCI Gene Hunt of Life On Mars. Guy has also written a two-volume series companion to the show; a Torchwood novel, The House That Jack Built; and The Case Notes of Sherlock Holmes, a fictional facsimile of a scrapbook kept by Doctor John Watson. He is the current chair of the British Fantasy Society.
www.guy-adams.com
ANGRY ROBOT
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Midland House, West Way
Botley, Oxford
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Open the box
An Angry Robot paperback original 2010 1
Copyright © Guy Adams 2010
Guy Adams asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 0 85766 037 4
EBook ISBN: 978 0 85766 038 1
Set in Meridien by Argh! Nottingham
Printed in the UK by CPI Mackays, Chatham, ME5 8TD.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Guy Adams, The World House
