Chapter 398: Hello from the Other Side

Chapter 398: Hello from the Other Side

I took the notebook from Flossie. She was holding it out for me like it was no big deal, like it was a book she had found lying around and was lending me.

How did you know which buttons to press?

Maurice taught me, said Flossie. It took a bloody long time to remember the order, though. What Ah did, right, was Ah made it into a song in me head. That way Ah could memorise it as a

Alright, alright, no need to turn this into an episode of Behind the Music. I just thought it was strange he chose you.

Why? said Flossie, squeezing her mouth into a little bud of irritation. Ahm very reliable.

True, I said. She was the least likely to turn traitor. Well, least likely to do it successfully. Youre right, sorry. If I needed to trust someone with something like this, Id probably choose you, too.

Her face relaxed into a smug smile. Damn right.

When did he teach you? asked Jenny. Clearly, shed been left out of the loop on this one.

Yo and Claire were off doing your special girls club, said Flossie in a la di da voice that indicated she didnt care she wasnt invited, she really didnt, she was far too busy to come even if theyd asked. Ah used to bring him a packed lunch when he were too busy to eat.

And didnt Dudley mind you swanning off to see another man? I asked.

Who do yo think made the sandwiches?

It must be nice to be in a proper, secure, comfortable relationship. Still didnt think it would last, though.

I turned the notebook over in my hands. It had a soft leather cover with a strap tied around it. Were all the answers in here? I hoped so, considering how alien all these runes surrounding us were. If it was that complicated just opening a cupboard door, chances were it wasnt going to get simpler working out how to operate the rest of the spires abilities.

I didnt even know what the spire could do, other than blow shit up. And I wasnt really looking to utilise it in that capacity. Unless I had to.

Arent you going to open it? asked Jenny.

Yes. In a minute. There was no point waiting. Even if the book contained bad news, delaying wouldnt help.

Why would it contain bad news?

What are you new? I didnt see this book as the answer to all my problems. Yes, it had been left for me, most likely in a genuine attempt to assist me, but that process of someone trying to help you actually ending up helping you never seemed to work out as intended for me.

I know, I was worrying for no good reason. But thats the whole thing with anxiety. It doesnt need a reason.Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only

I opened the book. On the first page was a scrawled message to me.

Colin, if youre reading this then Im probably dead. And most likely you were the one who killed me.

I felt he was being a little presumptuous. Yes, he was correct, but back then he didnt know that would be the way things played out. It was just a possibility, but he had gone ahead and made it the dedication.

Things could have turned out differently, and then it would have come across as a very passive-aggressive opening to a book, making him look like a mean-spirited and angry author out to blame everyone else for his problems. Mind you, that would have helped get it on the Booker Prize shortlist.

But, as it happened, he was bang on. How had he known? He didnt have clairvoyant powers and neither did any of the others, as far as I knew.

Its a curious thing when people guess right and then act like they deserve some kind of credit. Throwing out answers in the hope you might get lucky when you have no idea what youre talking about is a very common method of trying to impress people. Or as its called on the internet, Reddit.

Were set up to encourage that sort of behaviour, to be honest. We desperately want answers to our questions, so much so that if someone acts like they know were inclined to believe them. If they werent sure of the facts, why would they be so confident about it? They even wrote it in all-caps.

If you turn out to be wrong, there are a million ways to explain it away as not your fault. And if you happen to get it right by some convergence of the planets, then youre set for a life as wise old magi. Everyone will want some of your insight and perception because of that one time you fluked it.

Ive tried my best to get you to a place where you can do the rest without me. Im hoping you can find a way to get me back but dont worry if you cant. It was fun. Thanks for letting me hook up with the girl of my dreams.

It was hard to read this message from the dead, even for someone as numb as me. He was being gracious and forgiving, which is the best way to fire up the guilt receptors and set them to full blast. Bastard.

I thought the whole spire was the aerial, I said. If true, the state of the spire was probably the reason we were getting such bad reception.

We had a TV that used to do this, said Flossie. It just needed a good whack on the side. She walked up to the wall and hit it with her small fist.

Careful, said Dudley, you dont want to hurt yourself.

No worries, lover. She kicked the wall.

I dont think Before I could tell her what an idiot she was being, the screen cleared and showed an image of Shrine Island from the air. Birds flew past and you could almost feel the wind blowing through the trees. It wasnt hard to recognise, the image was very high-definition, even better than the crystal ball the Council had shown me.

Had Maurice been watching me? It would explain how he knew where I was and what Id been up to.

There was a pop and the screen went black. Smoke seeped out of one of the consoles.

Flossie broke it, I said. We all saw you. Flossie was outraged at having been caught again. First it was accomplice to murder, now its changing channels without asking. I bet youre the sort of person who cant remember where they put the remote control and everyone has to start pulling up the sofa cushions.

Ah am not! Yo take that back.

Whatever had broken, it didnt help to press the runes again. None of them were responding anymore.

The knobs and levers had been old and not in great condition to begin with, so it wasnt surprising they would break down. Even less surprising they would choose the moment I was actually making headway to do it. Rigged system is rigged.

There was no way I could fix it, I didnt have the first clue. It was like looking at an old VHS player and thinking, How could people live like this?

I had Maurices book, however. He must have run into a few problems testing this stuff out. Hed managed to keep it going long enough to get to the island, so he may have come up with a workaround.

There were plenty more pages to go through, my only worry was that I might get bored with a long bit of pointless description, put it down and never pick it up again. I solved that problem by skimming through it. Not the way a book is meant to be read, perhaps even disrespectful to the author, but Id already murdered him, so I think we all knew where we stood.

It wasnt until I got to the last page that I found something interesting. Not what I was looking for, but a big showy ending nonetheless. The last set of runes were titled: Save Maurice.

There were twenty-three runes to press.

If Id known this was here, I would have tried it first, maybe got it off before the machinery went kaput. But its just bad form to go to the back of the book first. Looking for spoilers is a sign of a weak intellect and poor self-control, both of which Im guilty of, but fiction is different. You already know theres going to be a happy ending. Youre not going to waste so many hours reading the fucker if the pretend world turns out to be as shitty as the real one.

With this spire not being operational, the obvious answer was to find a spire that was working. Peter had managed to get inside one of them, there was no reason I couldnt, too. Better still, I could just take his.

Okay, Ive got everything I need from here. We need to get inside another spire. One that hasnt been exposed to Flossies magic touch.

Hey, Ah have a very nice magic touch, dont Ah?

Dudley nodded enthusiastically.

We made our way down to the bottom of the spire and out the way we came. I didnt exactly have a plan, but you have to feel these things out. We would start with a quick recce of the different spires and see if they were all the same. If all else failed, I could always actually read Maurices notes. There just better not be a love triangle in it.

My schedule was immediately disrupted by Caim and company waiting for us down below.

Didnt I ask you to stand on the wall? I said. Youre the only thing between us and 4000 Cubans trained to kill us.

What? said Caim.

Never mind. What is it?

Were being attacked, said Caim, very calmly.

Oh, you mean like I said we would? Obviously, this was no time to be crowing about how I was right and doing my told you so dance (yes, I have a dance), but there was hardly going to be time after we were all dead with our intestines spilling out of our eviscerated corpses. So now may not have been a good time, but it was the only time.

Caim pointed up in the air. I followed his finger to a ship, a boat with wings, floating in the distance. My ship, the one Id nailed Richinas wings to. Using my own ship against me, the cheek of it. I dont mind people trying to kill me, comes with the territory, but you touch my stuff without asking? Now weve got a problem.