6. Beneath Gemini 

"….Believe me.  They sold out. It's never been the same game since Tudor left. He was the man, the don." The man had been drinking. The alcohol in his system was increasing his volume to a tame shout. 

"I don't follow them." Rosh was tense. He had been waiting for their order forever. Why hadn't they just gone home to bed?

"Whad a ya mean you don't follow them? Are you a fa……."

"Stan. Quiet!" It was the tall, Asian man that had been serving them. The owner perhaps, Rosh thought. 

The old drunk stopped his verbal assault on Rosh. He had been making his way along the queue having a one sided debate about the latest football sell-out to the media giants. No one in the line had talked to him. Except Rosh.

"I am sorry George," The vagrant continued his assault on Rosh "but some things just have to be said. And I…." Rosh turned his back on the old man hoping that he would move on. He was too tired.

"Stop. I don’t want to here another word." It was the manager again, "Stan. You're banned. As of now! Banned. Out!" He was undoing his 'AbraKebabra' apron and moving toward the end of the counter. Rosh watched as Stan, realising that he had over stepped the mark, shuffled away towards the door.

"Every bloody week the same! Stanley you cost me money." He was out of his apron and lifting the counter-end up to walk through to the customer side. Stan was out of the door and gone. A few of the people in the queue were laughing not really bothered by the old man but happier now that he had left. At least the smell was better. Rosh had moved over to the end of the counter next to the condensation covered window.  He turned to the glass and wiped an arc of water away in the hope of seeing his wife patiently sitting in the Mitsubishi.

She wasn't. But somebody else was.

 

*****

 

"……..One!"

 Senga span around to face the door. With her torch-hand she pushed the door inwards, holding out the shockblock like a gun with the other. The room was lit by wall lights to the left and right. The ceiling was low, even lower than the corridors that she had travelled along to get here. The guard stood to the right of the door facing away from Senga. As she entered the room he turned to face her and she could see that he had a black telephone hand piece pushed against his ear. He had been talking as she entered and had abruptly stopped when faced with a damp looking women holding what looked like a thin pair of chrome curling tongues. Senga allowed her eyes to glance to the left. There was a low bench under the wall light. Sitting on the bench cupping a mug of some hot, steaming liquid, was the street girl. She had a dark, thick blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She smiled at Senga. She looked fine. The guard covered the bottom end of the phone with his hand.

"Who the hell are you?" He demanded. He was massive, both broad and tall. The still dripping poncho was hung on a peg on the back wall behind him. His             grey green tower guard uniform was tight around his arms and shoulders. He had removed his peaked hat along with the poncho and Senga could see the bluish sheen of freshly shaved skin on his naked scalp. His voice was soft and relative to his size, high pitched. It did not seem to match the body.

"What are you doing to this girl?" Senga shouted, moving slowly into the room. She held the chrome stun unit out straight like a gun. Although it wasn't a projectile weapon, if he made a move towards her she could disable him with one touch despite his size. But somehow, Senga didn't think he was going to attack her, he looked scared and confused.

"What?" He said looking directly at Senga. He still had the mouthpiece covered.

"The girl?" She nodded over to the seated girl "Why did you drag her down here? Answer me that one?"

"You mean Tanya?" He inclined his head towards the bench.

"You know who I mean. Well?" Had the girl been forced to give him her name?

"Well what? You mean why did I bring Tanya down here?" Senga was puzzled. Would a child murderer be so calm? Would he know the child's name? Would he give her coffee and a blanket? She began to doubt her reasoning.

"Please, bear with me" He uncovered the mouthpiece and began to talk.

"Sorry about that Mrs. Stanton. Yes, she's here with me." He paused listening to a voice on the other end of the line.

"Yes. The same lads. They were in a doorway at the base of The Gem." Pause.

"No, no problem. She only took a bit this time but I knocked out before she got too much." Pause.

"I certainly will Mrs. Stanton. When she's finished her drink I'll get her into one of the lifts and straight up to you. Good night." Pause.

"Oh. No problem Mrs. Stanton. Glad I can help. Bye." He turned back to Senga who had started to go a blush rose colour.

 "Now. Please, what are you doing down here. This is Municipal Circle property. You are trespassing you know?"

"I thought you...." How could she tell this man that two minutes earlier she had pegged him as a serial child killer.

"I saw...." She wanted to turn around and walk out. Suddenly she remembered what had started it all. He had slapped or punched the girl.

"Why did you hit her?" She challenged him raising the weapon again.

"Tanya? Why did I hit Tanya?" He turned to the youngster on the bench.

 "Why don't you tell this lady why I slapped your mouth Tanya?" Tanya' s eyes fell.

"I slapped her mouth because under her tongue was a two gram ball of 'rapture'. I slapped her mouth to get it out before she dissolved the whole ball and flew off to nirvana like the other little junkies." Tanya started to cry.

"That was Tanya's Mother on the phone. I gave her a call to say that Tanya was down her and that I would be sending her back up soon. It happens every few weeks down here." He frowned at Senga cocking his head to the side.

"Why did you think I brought her down here?" Senga felt like a child herself.

"I am sorry, I was in my car and saw you strike the girl. My mistake." She felt so stupid. She had completely miss-read the situation and nearly made a bad mistake. If she had zapped him he could have sued her and her company for millions.

The guard smiled. He could see how embarrassed Senga was and realised now that Senga, like himself, had only been acting in the interest of the child.

"Hey, don't you worry" He could see that Senga was really uncomfortable. He broke into a wide smile "It's nice to know that there are people out there who care for these kids" Senga had seen the results of taking too much 'Rapture'. It was not addictive like the main class three's but it has some devastating side effects, the most common being permanent brain damage. The problem was that it had become as readily available as street crack and half the price. Around the Circle it was available in every block for the price of a packet of cigarettes. The guard, Darrel, explained that he had seen the kids jump off the PSV and head into the doorway. When he had surprised them he noticed the little tin with the rapture powder which was ready to be mixed with a paste to form a sticky little ball that would be placed under the tongue. The kids had bolted, spilling the drugs and after catching hold of Tanya, whom he had had known since birth, he noticed that her eyes were wide and staring. He slapped her cheeks and she had spat the semi-disolved ball onto the pavement. The boys that had been with her had been taking the same stuff but had coaxed Tanya to try a ball twice the size that they had taken. If he hadn't of removed it from her mouth she would have been a dead girl. Or at least a vegetable strapped to a machine for life. He had saved her life, not, as Senga had wrongly thought tried to take it. Senga thought of Rosh buying their take-out. He would be out by now and wondering where she was. She had spent long enough in these dark corridors and rooms and felt uncomfortable standing in this doorway.

"Well, I will be getting back upstairs. Sorry I barged in on you like that. Is there a quicker way back up to ground instead of those corridors?" She didn't want to go back down into those tunnels.

"Yeah, use the service elevator on the left as you go out of here. Press for 'ground'." He motioned for her to go out of the room and around the central column of lift drives. She did as she was bid, half waving as she left the room. Tanya was still crying into her coffee. She walked clockwise around the massive assembly that housed the gears and wires that drove the lifts. At the back of the column was a small single person width lift door. It was used by tower personnel to access this basement area below the lifts. She hit the call button and heard the wine of smaller motors. Within seconds the black stained lift door opened sideways allowing her to enter. The lift was big enough for four people and was plastered with technical information and schematics for the lifts. It was obvious that the public had not been using this lift as there was no graffiti on the walls and no acrid urine smell that was part and parcel of most tower lifts that Senga had ever used. She turned to face the panel and punched for ground. She hit 'first' by mistake, so she quickly, hit ground. The lift doors closed with a whoosh of air. She felt a slight shudder as the lift started. The read-out by the panel showed 'base' for a second then changed to 'ground'. It then, instead of opening the door, carried on to 'first'. The lift stopped and the door opened. Senga waited for it to close so that she could go back down to ground. Nothing happened.

"I don't believe this." She was getting annoyed with herself now.

 This whole evening had gone drastically wrong, how could it get worse? She stepped out of the lift and looked up at the external read out. It read 'first', as did the internal one. Before she could climb back in, the door closed. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, slowly. Rosh would be fuming by now and probably starting to look for her. She moved her hand to the panel on the wall and pressed for 'ground'. As she pressed the button she read the little engraved plaque in front of her. 'This lift will not operate without a MCE code. Please use the main lifts'. She remembered. It was a service lift. Only technicians and cleaners would have the codes to access it from this floor. She would have to use the main lifts or the stairs. She was getting frustrated now and did not feel like standing around in a strange tower block waiting for a lift. She turned to the corridor behind her and looked for a sign showing the way to the stairs. There was one ten meters down the corridor suspended from the ceiling. She started towards the sign, reached it and followed a corridor of to the left, here we go again she thought. There were doors every four or five meters or so on each side of the corridor. Each was numbered and had different plaques and symbols attached. At least the lighting was better up here and in general it was little bit cleaner. She could see the door to the stairs coming up at the end of the corridor. She would be out in no time now.

 She had just passed the last door in the corridor  when she heard the report of a gun in one of the rooms to her right.

She froze. Two more muffled shots rang out.

 

*****

 

Rosh ran from the Kebab house doorway and angled towards Senga's car no more than ten strides in front of him. The Mitsubishi engine flared into life with an uncharacteristic roar. From inside the shop Rosh had been able to see a hunched figure, obviously not Senga sitting behind the wheel. The first thought that had entered his head was that the drunken old man had wandered outside and begun to pester Senga. As he had exited the shop, from the corner of his eye Rosh had caught sight of the hunched old man ambling his way up the street towards Circle centre. 

He crossed the distance to the car, moving towards the drivers side. He could see a small dark shape sitting behind the wheel and now he was nearer he could make out a second shaped croached down in the passenger seat. The engine revved followed by the sound of gears crunching awkwardly into place. The driver was looking backwards ready to launch the vehicle, in reverse, out into the rain soaked street.

Rosh grabbed at the driver handle. The face turned toward him from the driver's window. It was a young boy, early teens perhaps, matted black hair pressed against his head. He grinned out at Rosh, between his teeth was a stainless steel multi-tool, a commonly found implement used by mechanics and car thieves alike. 

The young thief floored the accelerator. Rosh's hand slipped from the wet handle preventing him being dragged with the car. Once fully clear of the Kebab parking space, the boy audibly slammed the gear stick into forward and powered down. Rosh had moved forward hoping to get in front of the car and, realising his mistake, he threw his body into a full forward dive to prevent the boy from striking him with the front wing. He hit the road hard allowing his body to roll. He ended up lying on his front, his head raised watching the tail lights of the Mitsubishi career off into the night. Thunder exploded in the sky as if echoing his anger.

In a second he was up. His body, fired with adrenaline wanted to give chase but he knew it was futile. The car was gone.

So where was Senga? He had seen into the car. The rear seats were empty, the only occupants being the car thief and his partner, possibly a gir from the glimpse that Rosh had seen. Panic raised its unwelcome head in the form of dizziness and threatened to overwhelm him. He bent forward, hands finding his rain soaked knees. He squeezed his eyes tight. He remembered this feeling of being powerless. A sickening feeling that washed over the entire body leaving arms and legs weak, stomach churning and head spinning. He had felt the same way in the casino in London when he last saw his Father.

"She ran into the tower,"

Rosh looked up. It was the old man. He must have heard the screeching of tyres and ambled back to watch.

"What did you say," Rosh was on him, reaching out with both hands he grasped hold of his sodden jacket lapels and pulled him close.

"Where is she?" The man was all clothes and now close up, Rosh's nose was assailed by stale, damp body odour mixed with stale whiskey breath.

"I said," The old man in Rosh's fierce grip, closed his eyes like a lord about to make a speech, "She ran into the tower. She jumped from the black Vee-hickle and proceeded to enta the building behind me!" He felt important because someone was listening to him and for once in his life, he had something to say.

"Where? You say you saw her go in? Show me where." Rosh demanded, he was in no mood for this and began to shake the tramp vigorously.

"Ok, ok, ok!" He could see that Rosh meant business. "In there. She followed a security guard in after he slapped a little junkie in the mouth. I was in a doorway across the street. Seen it all I did." He pointed down the street towards the block entrance. Rosh released his grip. A couple of people from the Kebab house were standing in the open doorway watching.

"Little fucker deserved it if you ask me. The slap I mean. It was one of them lot what jacked your car you know? Mean little bastards they are."

But Rosh wasn't listening, he was running in the direction that the old man had indicated.

 

*****

 

Senga was terrified. She had seen and done enough for one night and wanted to go home. Who could be firing guns up here? She was standing like a statue in the corridor outside the room. Somebody started to undo a series of locks and chains from the inside of the door. Who ever had been shooting was coming out.

Senga plunged through the door in front of her and was about to negotiate the stairs that lay in front of her when something made her stop. Could it be Darrel? Child killer after all? No-way. He couldn't have made it up to this floor and into a room before Senga, could he? She needed to be sure.

Turning around she pushed one of the thick double doors slightly open, just enough to allow her to peek back through.

A man wearing a long black leather raincoat was backing out of the room. He stopped for a second, he was bent forward carrying something that Senga could not see. He looked up the corridor, back towards the lifts. He continued backing out with his load.  As he emerged Senga could see that two people were in fact carrying the burden. It was a black plastic package around one and a half meters in length. It appeared to be heavy. If Senga had not heard the shots ring out she might well have believe that they were carrying a carpet.

She nearly let out a squeal.

The encumbered twosome shuffled down the corridor away from Senga. She had her hand clasped over her mouth to prevent any outbursts.

A woman emerged from the room and placed a key card into the door slot and secured the room behind her. She was a mature woman in a red dress, certainly older than the two men. Her hair was pure white and scraped back into a plat that ended half way down her back. She followed the two men away from Senga. They were half way to the end of the corridor when Senga heard a low buzzing noise coming from her handbag. It was the shockblock alarm warning of a low battery. She must have left it powered on. She fumbled to get the bag open. She was trembling and dropped some of the handbag contents onto the floor. Her temples banged as she tried to shut the power off without bringing the chrome cylinder out of the bag alerting the trio.

Click. Off.

She turned back to the doors and risked another peak.

They were coming back down the corridor.

She turned and fled, plunging down the stairwell without hesitation. Down around, down around. She heard the double doors fling open on the upper floor. She had a good head start and when motivated, Senga could move.

She reached the bottom of the stair well and was faced with another set of opaque double doors. She could hear hurried footsteps coming down the stairs behind her. Pushing through this next set of door Senga found herself in a wide, high roofed corridor. The temperature was a couple off degrees colder. She reasoned that it must be the ground level judging by the width of the corridor and the boarded shop fronts but it was not the place that she had originally entered. The corridor stretched both ways. To the left in the far distance she could she bright lights. The lifts. People?. Shops? She began to run.

She had cleared perhaps twenty meters when she heard the double doors burst open.  She glanced backwards to see the two men spill out into the corridor.

To her left she caught sight of a green Perspex sign which read 'Circle Personnel only'. Darrel? The pipework tunnels below the tower? She had more chance of escaping her pursuers down there.

Through the doors, stairs, landing, stairs, doors.

She was in the familiar dark tunnels with the expanse of overhead cables and pipes.

She ran blindly onwards. Left, right, left, left. She lost track and hoped that she was not the only one.

She was breathing heavily now and desperately wanted to reach into her bag and bring ou……Her bag?  She had dropped her bag. No shockblock, no keys, no torch. She slumped against the grime-smeared wall and sank to the floor. She rested her head on her knees and cried.

"Hey little lady, you get lost again?"