The Switchers Trilogy Part 24

The vampire mind was beginning to exert irresistible pressure upon her weak rat personality. Tess Switched quickly, before she lost the initiative, and found herself human again. There seemed to be no other choice, and at least this way she could think straight.

Or so she hoped. Without the extra nocturnal senses of the rat, Tess was helpless there beneath the ground. The darkness was total; silent for a moment as the rats adjusted to her altered presence, then full of their unseen scuffling and scratching. And, worse than that, there was someone in the enclosed s.p.a.ce who was watching her without being seen.

'Where are you?' she said to the darkness. There was no answer, and if someone was breathing, the sound was lost behind the restless activity of the rats. Tess had never known claustrophobia before. She experienced it now: a brief, breathless panic at being enclosed on all sides. But the feeling didn't last long. A moment later it was replaced by sheer terror as she thought about the being that was closed in there with her. In that minute, her body seemed to become dysfunctional, as rigid and useless as a Cindy doll propped up against the cold stone wall.

She had been wrong about thinking straight. The truth was that she couldn't think at all. A low sn.i.g.g.e.r slid out of the darkness, but she couldn't tell where it came from. Tess's fear suddenly converted into fury and, completely without thinking, she let fly with a series of the foulest swear-words she had ever heard.

The reply was another mocking laugh. All around them the rats continued working in the darkness.

'What are you afraid of?' said the vampire, his voice like poisoned syrup.

'What do you think I'm afraid of?' Tess was still shouting, her voice ringing back at her from the cold stone and damp earth. For an instant she wondered if she could be heard above the ground. There might be people around the park, sleeping overnight perhaps, to be early in tomorrow's queue to see the phoenix.

'But you have nothing to be afraid of, Tess.' The rich voice was amplified somehow by the enclosed s.p.a.ce so that it seemed to be coming from all directions at once.

'Not much, I don't.' Tess jumped as a pebble flicked out by the eager digging of one of the rats bounced off her temple. She took a deep breath, aware of a trembling throughout her whole body. 'You're doing what you did before, aren't you?'

'What did I do before?'

'In the street the other day. You've got me trapped into a corner so that I'll have to Switch and become like you.'

The air seemed to be getting thinner. It smelled of rats and of ancient corruption. For the first time Tess thought of the original function of these tombs. She shuddered, and a new determination entered her heart. 'I won't, though,' she said. 'I have more tricks up my sleeve than you could imagine.'

It was a lie. Tess hadn't the faintest idea how to get out of this one, but her words seemed to have some effect, because the vampire fell silent for a while.

A rat scuttled over her foot. In the reprieve, she reached out with her rat mind to talk to it, and to her surprise a familiar signature of baby images came back. It was Algernon, camouflaged by the darkness; just another of the guys. Her mind flowed out to him, filled with relief at meeting someone familiar in this ordeal. Algernon's baby-talk returned; he was exhausted but proud of himself to be here working for the master. Reaching down to her feet, she found his little form beside her shoe. She closed her hands around him, antic.i.p.ating his warmth against her face and neck, the pleasure of pets, the giving and receiving of comfort. But this new Algernon was no one's pet. He jerked wildly and jack-knifed in her hands, swivelling his head round and sinking his teeth deep into the flesh of her hand. Tess cried out and whipped her hand away, flinging Algernon out into the darkness in an automatic reaction. Straightening up, she felt the damp wall behind her again. Algernon's allegiance had changed. There was no comfort to be found in this place.

The shock of the betrayal seemed to deprive Tess of the last of her energy. Her breathing had become rapid and shallow as though there wasn't enough oxygen in the fetid atmosphere. She wondered briefly whether or not the vampire needed air and decided that he probably didn't. Nothing down here in the darkness seemed to be in her favour.

There was a flurry of squeaks as a fall of fresh earth and stones sent a party of miners scattering in all directions. In the relative silence that followed before they started work again, Tess came close to panic, gripped by a vision of the whole place caving in and burying her alive.

Martin's cold voice s.h.i.+fted her attention. 'Do you know what we're doing here, Tess?'

'Overseeing your archaeological dig, I suppose.' At the back of her mind, Tess knew much more, but the idea wouldn't come forward. It refused to be put into words.

'Yes. But do you know why?'

The understanding niggled its way out and, in a ghastly moment of realisation, Tess did know. He must have seen the expression on her face, even though she couldn't see him, because he said, 'Don't be so shocked. Everyone needs a place to sleep, after all.'

It was always the way, according to the legends. Vampires slept beneath old churches in coffins or in mausoleums exactly like these. She heard Martin's hand slap against the cold stone.

'This here is my bed,' he said. Tess didn't hear him move, but a moment later his voice came from another part of the chamber, near where the rats were working.

'And this, if you agree, will be yours.'

Tess shuddered at the thought. 'No way.'

'No? Perhaps you'd better hear me out, first?'

'If you like. But nothing you can say is going to convince me.'

'Convince you of what?'

'Convince me to become a vampire.'

The voice was smooth as ever, and tinged with a touch of triumph. 'But I don't need to persuade you to become a vampire, Tess. You are one already.'

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

'DON'T BE RIDICULOUS,' SAID Tess, aware that she was speaking into a darkness that was impenetrable to her eyes. 'I'm not.'

'Don't believe me, eh? You really haven't done your homework, have you?'

'Perhaps I have, perhaps I haven't. But I know one thing for certain, and that is I'm not going to discuss anything down here in this dungeon. There's no air. I can't breathe properly.'

Martin considered for a moment, then said, 'Fair enough, I suppose. I need to take a look at the surface anyway.'

There were various exit tunnels, but Martin, in rat form, led Tess up the least arduous of them. On the surface they found themselves among trees and, after a careful check around, they Switched back to the way they had been beneath ground.

The place they were in seemed familiar. Tess knew the park well, but it was a good while before she got her bearings and realised that they were very close to the place where she and her parents had been playing frisbee earlier that day. The dip in the ground where they stood made sense now that she knew there was a cavern beneath and that the roof had begun to subside, but there was no sign at all of any church. If there had been one, it must have been destroyed or abandoned and the stones cleared away to be used in other buildings.

She glanced across at Martin, hoping he had chosen to be human for this encounter, but there was no such luck. The pallor of his cheeks and the shape of his mouth made it clear what he was, even in the darkness. Even so, she was glad to be out in the open where she would have more chance of escape.

'All right, then,' she said, 'let's hear what you have to say.'

The vampire began to approach, but Tess held out a hand like a traffic policeman. 'Stay where you are. I can hear you perfectly well from there.'

He laughed. 'If it makes you feel better. But you don't need to worry. I've already fed tonight.'

The trees rustled in the wind. The clear weather of the previous days had given way to heavy cloud rolling in from the west. Tess had no coat and she had left her hair-band on top of the piano at home, so her hair was blowing around all over the place. They were small worries, though, compared with what she was confronting.

'Well?' she said. 'Explain to me just how it is that you think I'm a vampire.'

'I don't think. I know. Have you forgotten what happened that night in Dorset Street?'

'Nothing happened. I Switched, that's all.'

'You Switched all right. But you were too slow. Don't you remember my teeth on your throat?'

Tess remembered all too well: the icy pinp.r.i.c.ks, the feeling of being sucked under.

'It took you too long to make up your mind,' Martin was saying. 'I tasted your blood. I made you mine.'

Tess's jaw stiffened. There was steel in her veins. 'What do you mean, "yours"?'

'You really don't know, do you? I thought you were just acting stupid, but it's true, isn't it? You really haven't read the stories.'

Tess scowled at him, aware that her position was growing weaker by the minute. Martin hissed at her, 'Everyone whom the undead feed upon become theirs, didn't you realise? Oh, you'll go on living, all right. You might even lead a normal enough life, provided you can stay out of my way when I'm hungry. It's not the same for you, of course, but most people never even know that they have been my victims. Until they die, that is. Then they know. As you will know, when you become like me. One of the undead, one of my minions, until the end of time.'

Tess was silent, absorbing the horror of what he had said. That fact wasn't new to her, after all, even though she hadn't remembered it. It was basic to the myth; the main reason that was always given for the need to wipe out vampires.

'Your phoenix,' Martin went on, 'is doing a great job in spreading his sweetness and light, but do you think it will last? Do you think people will go on dancing on the gra.s.s and being delighted with each other? Give them a few days and they'll forget it all, go back to their drab and selfish little existences as if nothing had ever happened. But in the meantime I'll be going from strength to strength. Some of the older people I've preyed on will be joining me quite soon, and then they'll start recruiting for themselves. So in fifty years' time I'll have an army of followers, and every one of them a vampire, practically impossible to defeat. You should be thankful to me, Tess. I've made you immortal!'

The word caused a freezing tide to race up Tess's spine. To be immortal, to live for ever, that was what all this was about. The trees huffed again and Tess looked up at them. They were so strong and serene, so much of this world, the here and now. For the moment she needed to be like them, living in the present and not in the world of future possibilities. It comforted her to see herself not as she might be but as she was: a schoolgirl, about to enter her Junior Cert year. The trees moved in the breeze. The winter gra.s.s lay tangled at her feet.

'This is ridiculous!' she shouted. 'I'm not immortal and nor are you. You're just a boy, Martin, however you've dressed yourself up with your special power! Tomorrow you'll be lying in your bed watching a video!'

Her voice was high and full of emotion but his, when he replied, was as deep and calm as a bogland lake.

'I won't, though. That's why I called you here tonight.' Despite the darkness and the distance between them, Tess could make out the cruel smile of satisfaction on his face as he went on, 'I'm glad you told me about that fifteenth birthday stuff. I might have been caught on the hop if you hadn't. It's tomorrow, you see. My fifteenth birthday.'

He waited, watching her reaction as she struggled against a fate which seemed to be blocking her at every turn. When she made no answer, he continued, 'I want you to be with me, Tess. I'm going to be the master of this city and you can rule it by my side, but only if you come with me now; share my hideout down below. No one will ever find us there. We'll be safe. We'll be able to come and go as we please.'

His voice was persuasive, reaching beyond her defences to the part of her mind that was vampire. She found herself wondering why she was bothering to put up such a resistance. What was so wonderful about her life, after all? She existed in a state of almost total isolation; there was no one she could share her secrets with apart from Martin, and even he would be gone soon. It was clear now that she wasn't going to have any more adventures like the one which had taken her and Kevin across the planet in search of the krools, and even if she did, no one would ever know about her powers. She still felt resentful when she saw members of the US armed forces taking credit for ending the climatic threat, when it had been she and Kevin who had done it. She missed him, as well, even after all this time. She had been so delighted to see him return as a phoenix, but what good had it done her? She was as lonely as ever, and he was locked up in the zoo. It seemed to make so much sense, here in the darkness, just to let go of all resistance and slide along with the current. No one would ever tell her what to do again. The world would be hers for the taking.

But it would be a world of perpetual night. She would never see daylight again.

'No!' she said, surprised by her own decisiveness. 'I'll never agree to it.'

Martin shrugged, calm as ever. 'Suit yourself. You're mine anyway. But if you don't come now, if you wait for your death instead, you'll be nothing special to me then. You'll just be one among millions, serving me, spreading my power. It's up to you.'

'Yes. It is up to me,' said Tess, her voice strangely different, as calm now as his was. Because as he was speaking, the conflict of the last few days had suddenly become sparklingly clear in her mind. There wasn't just one kind of immortality being presented to her; there were two.

'But what if I don't die?' she went on. 'Then what will you do?'

'What do you mean, if you don't die? Everyone dies.'

'What if I became a phoenix instead? What would happen then?'

Now it was Martin's turn to be stunned into silence. For a long time the two of them stood facing one another while the trees leant over them, nodding in the breeze as though discussing the possible outcome. Then the vampire straightened up and moved a single step forward.

'If I hadn't already gorged myself tonight I would settle the issue here and now. But it doesn't matter. Your dayglo friend won't win out. How long do you think he can go on burning away like that before his gas runs out?'

'I don't know. What difference does it make, anyway? He'll rise up again, whenever he needs to.'

'You think so? What if there aren't any ashes for him to rise out of, eh? Does anyone know what happens then?'

'Ashes are only metaphorical. He'll rise again no matter what the circ.u.mstances are.'

'How do you know? Has it ever been tested?'

'You don't need to test things like that. You just know them.'

'Do you?' As he spoke, the vampire seemed to be swelling and moving towards her, like a shadow with a light receding behind it. 'Well, I don't.'

A black cloud pa.s.sed over Tess's head and vanished into the night. She stood still for a moment, searching the empty skies. Then something began to tug at the edge of her mind. Something urgent and demanding, making her restless and fidgety. Something she was supposed to do? Something she'd forgotten? She let down her guard and the message flooded in. It was being sent in Rat, and to her rat mind it was utterly irresistible.

'Top speed to the zoo. Phoenix is the enemy. Tear it to pieces.'

Tess took a few strides in the direction of the zoo, but realised that it was useless to try and go above ground. Now she knew why the dirt floor and gravel in the exhibition building had seemed so important to her that day.

That was the only way in.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

TESS SWITCHED AND MADE a dive for the nearest tunnel. Despite the huge underground mesh of interlinking pa.s.sages, she had no problem finding the quickest route to the zoo. Rats work according to a precise logic of their own, and although it would have made no sense to her human mind, the way was clear and simple.

By the time she reached the well-established network of runs beneath the zoo, the place was stiff with rats. They had come from all corners of the city, some above ground but most of them below, and they were still pouring in. Despite the apparent chaos, work was already proceeding in an orderly manner. Tess asked around and soon got the low-down on what was happening. New tunnels were being constructed beneath the exhibition building and backup parties were ferrying the freshly-dug soil and rubble out to the surface, emerging among the bushes and spreading the debris around carefully to avoid detection.

Tess joined one of the earth-s.h.i.+fting teams. She made sure that she pulled her weight and did nothing to delay the proceedings, but whenever she got the opportunity she dodged forward a place in the line, working her way towards the head of the tunnelling team.

She had no idea what she was going to do. Her human mind was struggling desperately to rise above the instinctual mire of rat behaviour, but it was about as successful as a moth in a jar of honey. Occasional insight broke clear, but it was always the same: she had made an awful mistake, betrayed Kevin, and there was nothing she could do to stop the impending horror.

As she worked, still edging her way closer to the lead diggers, she kept a close eye open for any rats that she knew. If she could find Algernon, or Nose Broken by a Mousetrap-even stupid old Long Nose-she might be able to win them over. Between them they might spread the word and talk some sense into the rest of the rats. But she had about as much chance of meeting them as of meeting a long-lost friend in a football crowd. There were hundreds of rats working on her particular tunnel, but not one of them was known to her. With an increasing sense of dread, she worked on.

There seemed to be nothing else to do. Even if she deserted the rat legions and went out on to the surface she would still be helpless. She had long since ruled out the possibility of releasing the phoenix on her own, since there was no way of getting into the exhibition hall apart from this underground route. The only thing she could do was to be there when the final confrontation happened, and to pray that the vampire was wrong about the weakness of the phoenix power. She could hardly stand to think about what would happen if he wasn't.

The going became more difficult as the tunnellers began to bore into the heavy rubble foundations of the building. Reports were coming in from various separate reconnaissance teams. There were two men in the building, apparently, keeping watch on the phoenix. Of the several dozen tunnels that were under construction, eight of them were on target, right beneath the phoenix's cage.

The rats abandoned the useless tunnels and gathered where they would be ready to pour into the good ones as they were completed. The ground beneath the gla.s.s cage babbled with images as the rats reported their progress to each other, their vivid communications pa.s.sing easily through mud, stone or concrete. But above their heads, where Jeff Maloney sat playing cards with a highly-paid guard from a security company, there was no way of knowing that anything was going on.

Extra workers were drafted in to dig holes in the tunnel walls so that large stones being moved out of the foundations could be lodged instead of being dragged all the way out. The lead tunnellers, Tess among them, wove their way around the biggest stones, loosening the smaller rubble and shoving it back to the next in line. Then, suddenly, the leading rat froze as a tiny shower of loose sand and earth dropped down on to her nose.

Jeff Maloney turned his head at the sound of a few white quartz pebbles moving in the phoenix's cage. The lights were turned off so that the bird could sleep, and the only illumination in the building came from a small lamp on the table where the two men were playing their game. The phoenix was on its perch, high above the potted shrubs, sleeping soundly. Only the dimmest radiance gleamed from its feathers.

'Probably a mouse,' said Jeff.

'What was?'

'That noise. Didn't you hear it?'

The security guard shook his head. 'You keep mice as well?'