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Peter glanced over his shoulder. Then he turned back to me, his voice dropping lower. ‘That’s the one. It’s back in the papers, because now it looks like it wasn’t an accident, right? Well, back at the start, Watts was causing all kinds of trouble about it. New officer, asking the wrong questions, saying it seemed suspicious … Cartwright used to say what a nuisance he was being and how he was going to have to deal with him … course, it turned out Watts was right all along, wasn’t he? They found explosive residue in the pipes and that. And a week later, Watts is dead. Funny, that.’

I was fighting to stay sober. I knew this was important. I knew this mattered. ‘You’re saying Watts got killed because he knew something about Crace?’

Peter nodded. ‘You know what room was most damaged in that mansion fire? Crace’s study – where all his papers and letters were. Not a scrap left. Sounds awfully convenient to me.’ He leant back. ‘Open your eyes, Stephen. This country is run by men with nefarious designs and unimaginable power. If you ask me, they had some reason to silence Crace. Something they didn’t want anyone to know – so they got rid of him. And when Watts worked out it wasn’t an accident, they had to get rid of him, too.’

The room was swinging like a pendulum around me, although, in fairness, it’d been doing that for a while. ‘Blimey.’

‘That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Shall I let you in on a little secret?’

He opened his mouth – and was cut off by an almighty clang. The bell being rung for last orders.

‘That’s you done for the night, comrades!’ said the barman. ‘Finish your drinks and take the rally somewhere else.’

Everyone cheered. I turned my head to hear what Peter had to tell me, but he was already gone. I quickly drained my pint so I could find him, but as soon as I put my glass down there was another full one in front of me.

‘That’s your shandy, mate,’ said Walt. ‘Come on, get your round in before they close up!’

The gas lamps were suddenly turned up bright. My head was frothing like foam in a current. I took a sip of my shandy, and it wasn’t shandy.

‘Right!’ said Derek, struggling to light his cigarette. ‘Where next?’

‘It’s midnight, Derek. Everywhere’s closed.’

‘Bollocks it is. What about the park?’

‘That’s closed, too, you pillock.’

‘We’ll climb the railings! Bit of midnight football – used to be a bit nifty in my youth. We’ll stop by mine for a ball.’

‘I’ve got a bottle we can take with us.’

‘That’s a lad! Wine?’

‘Poitin.’

‘Is that … like wine?’

‘A bit, yeah.’

I was being led to the door, carried, really. I was looking over my shoulder to find Peter so I could ask him that question about the secret he was going to tell me, but I couldn’t see him, and, frankly, it didn’t matter, because I was having the time of my life. I was about to say that I needed to leave because Miss Decima would be wanting her winkles soon, and then I remembered that she was meeting her secret source, and I had just enough time to wonder who that might be when I was marched through the doors and the cool night air hit me like the first clap of the sea. And that was more or less the last part of the night that I can remember before everything else that happened went and happened.

20

Four days and nine hours until the announcement of the emergency public safety measures in Parliament.

As Stephen climbed over the railings and vanished into the darkness of Kensington Gardens, London became the shadow city once more. Seven million people, and twenty thousand horses, were fast asleep.

But in a city of seven million people, there’s no accounting for everyone.

In the Gore, someone stood beneath the sickly yellow light of a gas lamp, watching Miss Decima’s study window in silence.

In her study, Miss Decima gazed at the clock as the minute hand made its way towards midnight.

In the corridor outside her front door, someone crawled on their hands and knees, searching for something that they had lost.

In the basement, someone sat facing a closed door, clutching a knife in a shaking hand.

And far across London, the first of the bombs was being constructed.