The Watchers (14 page)

“We have needed a Father Nature for a

long time,

And never more urgently than now,

When all over the planet,

Armoured men, in or out of uniform,

Terrorise each other, women and

children,

And what remains of the wildwood.”

Dr Dan Wood.

Mia stumbled into the quartz chambe
r
behind Keri. “Wow!” she gasped, as her eyes adjusted to its alluring light. Behind her, Jesus came in, dancing and laughing and smoothing his hands over the golden quartz as if it was life itself. “Beautiful! It’s beautiful.”

Uninterested, Keri paced across the floor and went straight to the other side, while Tom clicked his camera and Jesus broke off a piece of quartz and held it in the palm of his hand. The chamber was a similar shape and size to the last, about twelve foot in diameter. Like the others, it bore larger tunnels branching off in different directions, some big enough to walk through and some not. "Where do we go from here?" Keri called to the others. Mia noticed how keen she was to get through the tunnels to the end. She wondered if her eagerness was born out of fear.

The largest shaft going from the quartz chamber was lined with the same precious pinks as the quartz inside, except it was a tone darker, running into common rock a few meters along before the tunnel went to blackness in the distance. Above their heads, smaller random holes were dotted about where chutes the size of water pipes were only wide enough to place a hand into. Keri looked up at them, and as the eyes of her companions followed hers, she asked, “I wonder what those holes are for?”

Tom went closer and tried to reach them by standing on his toes. He fell short of about five inches so he stepped back just as a violent gust of wind blew out of each, making his hair whip about his face. “Look,” Mia yelled.

The currents of air formed shapes that looked like maidens with long flowing hair streaming behind them. As the group in the chamber looked on in awe, the airborne nymphs smiled and circled above their heads, their transparent robes becoming wrapped around their perfect bodies like shrouds of white silk. Their shoeless feet and their delicate hands were tiny and their limbs looked as if they had been sculptured out of ivory. “Oh, my goodness,” Keri muttered. “What are they?”

“They’re beautiful,” Jesus shouted with excitement. The sound of them swooshing over their heads made him raise his voice. “They must be the fabled air spirits. I saw an illustration of them in a book of folklore and fairy magic. They are known to bring either blessing or disaster.”

“Befriend the nymph. Remember?” Mia said, remembering Jesus’ fable.

She picked up Charlie from the floor, soothing him as he growled at the flying spirits. One of the maidens swooped to the centre of the room and crooked her finger. She was asking them to follow her. Then all seven flew like streams of wind through a single channel going from the chamber.

"I guess that's the way," Tom shouted as he ran after them. The group of four trotted along the tunnel as if they sensed the momentum was building. They were coming close to the end. Mia didn't know
how
she knew that. She was losing all sense of time and distance. She couldn't estimate how far they had come, nor to what depths, they had travelled, but she could feel her ears popping as if they were descending to deep levels at vast speeds. She was still running when she looked behind her, and in the darkness, she saw a dot of pink, the quartz chamber behind them looking as if it were miles away.

Then she heard a scream.

Mia turned her face forward and stopped dead in her tracks as she almost collided with Keri who had collapsed to the floor. Mia fell down next to her as Tom and Jesus both stood as if they were admiring a priceless picture in an art gallery.

Mia felt a sob charge from her mouth as she experienced a feeling of pure pleasure for the very first time. Then, as a solitary tear ran down her cheek, she shook her head from side to side. “No,” she whispered. “No, this cannot be.”

They stood on a stone terrac
e
protruding from an enormous vertical cliff face. Far below, a great ocean ran into the distance, green, the colour of angelica threaded with blue and silver. A mile across the sea was the horizon, where mountains darted into the sky under a vast landscape of rock, as they realised the ocean and the world they'd found themselves in, was cocooned within a colossal cavern. Set into the rock walls far away, a red sun blazed above the rugged peaks; a globe of fire, burning and rotating, and raging as it spun as if the earth's core itself was visible behind a layer of hardened glass.

To the right, the globe shone down over a sandy shore blending into a checked array of fields of yellow corn squared with purple lands of lavender. And through them, pure white horses ran and played, prancing and jumping as if their happiness was the only thing that mattered.

In the distance, beyond the fields, was a city made of rocks and caves. Tiny dwellings, like catacombs, plain and featureless, stacked upon each other like random building blocks. And between them, paths spiralled their way through, weaving like a labyrinth up to a palatial structure with twisted pointed turrets.

It was the fabled city of Caer Sidi. And there, amongst it all, the Angels roamed.

London

Alice Burton closed her office doo
r
. Even though she’d always favoured the open-door policy at Number 10, it was an impossible rule to administer. For one thing, most of the work she dealt with was top-secret and there were matters she certainly didn’t want any of her domestic staff to learn about. Most of the dealings she’d had lately were highly sensitive, so frankly, if she could remove the silly open-door policy she’d introduced at the beginning without losing her ‘people person’ reputation, then she would.

And that wasn’t the only change she’d regretted. There were some members of the cabinet who were starting to appear all wrong for the role she’d bestowed them. The Chancellor, for one. She’d promoted Peter Shepherd out of loyalty since he had helped the Tories win the election the first time, and he was there right beside her when she’d gained the majority on her re-election. It was a victorious time for them all, and Alice believed in rewarding loyalty.

At the same time, she’d also brought in his brother, Martin, and now they, the Shepherds, had surrounded themselves with men from the old school; men who knew their way around British politics better than anyone; men who had been in government forever. The Shepherd brothers had been with her behind the scenes with the Sous Llyndum project. They’d taken a silent approach, with the view to watching her back, picking up the pieces if anything went wrong.

Well, it did go wrong.

The Shepherds had come to see her the day after Geoffrey Barnes funeral. They proposed Alice should keep her head down until everything blew over, but they were there if she needed them, if by any chance anything ever came to light about her involvement. She knew it was an underlying threat, that if she ever stepped out of line, they’d leak the lot to the British press. Yes, if she had her time again, she’d never have allowed the brothers so much autonomy. They were so bent, the only reason she got reelected was because they wanted her right at the front where they could control her.

Alice pressed the buzzer on her intercom. “Get me Keri Rains.”

There was a pause as she waited for the call to come through. She needed Keri to help her with some diplomatic issues. There were things happening, which she needed to deal with, and Keri was someone who she could trust.

She and Keri went
way
back. Alice had been a high-flying, ambitious backbencher with a very persuasive demeanour, and Keri had been trying to get her foot in the door in acquisitions. They’d helped each other out, and Keri owed Alice more than a few favours.

Her secretary's voice came through the speaker. "Mrs Rains is unavailable, Prime Minister. She's on a short break."

“Find her,” Alice said. “I want her back. Today!”
Where the hell is she?
She needed to talk to someone about their storage facility under Salisbury Plain and she needed to talk about it now. She pressed the intercom once more. “Get me her husband, please.”

It had only taken a minute to get Harry Rains on the phone. “Madam Prime Minister.”

“Where is she, Harry?”

“You mean Keri?”

“Who do you think I mean? Come on, Harry. We’ve known each other too long for games. Where is your wife?”

“Keri and I are separated now, Alice. You know that.”

“So what? You still keep in touch, don’t you? Where has she gone? I need to reach her.”

“It’s personal.”

Personal! Since when did any of them get to have a personal life? She didn’t have one. What makes Keri Rains so damn special? “May I remind you who you are talking to here, Harry?”

“But you’ve always said…”

What? Hasn’t she always said there are lines people should never cross? God knows they’ve known her long enough to know that at least. “Harry!”

There was a pause the other end of the phone. He was thinking about it. Well, she’d give him ten seconds and then maybe she should mention the special bonus she’d given him last year.

When the whole Sous Llyndum incident had gone wrong and Colonel Geoffrey Barnes was regrettably killed, Harry Rains had cleared up the mess. It was Harry who’d arranged the seizure of Barnes’ papers and it was Harry who had sifted through the lot and destroyed every piece of paper, which could have acted as incriminating evidence if it had gotten into the wrong hands. Once everything had been taken care of, Colonel Geoffrey Barnes was given a military funeral befitting his rank and his devoted service to his country. The clear up had been Harry Rains best work.

“She’s in Wiltshire…Stonehenge,” Harry said.

“Stone..? What’s she doing there, for god’s sake?”

“It’s the solstice…our daughter’s birthday.” His voice drifted off.

“So?”

There was another pause. “Many go there on the solstice. It’s the new dawn….”

“I know what the solstice is Harry. What I don’t know is why on earth Keri has gone there. What? She’s some sort of new-age traveller now, is she?” Alice would laugh if she didn’t feel so stressed out.

“I’m sure you’ll hear from her soon. She’ll probably pick up her messages shortly.”

"Well, I hope so, Harry. There's some stuff going on here and I need my people around me. Get hold of her as soon as you can. As soon as you can, Harry. Do you hear me?"

Alice heard the line go dead. They must have been cut off. Damn ancient phone system, she grumbled.

Jay Pullman sat in a pavement caf
é
on a hill in Glastonbury town centre. The Tor was in the distance, with the tower at the top looking as if it was mocking him, like a single finger, erect! He turned his attention to the daily newspaper resting on the table next to his empty coffee cup. The English tabloid featured a picture of a bare-breasted girl on the inside page. Jay was contemplating the feasibility of her boobs being real, or not, when his interest went to a headline on page four.

Afghanistan's resources could make it the richest mining region on Earth.

Afghanistan, often dismissed in the West as an impoverished and failed state, is sitting on $1.5 trillion of untapped minerals, according to new calculations from surveys conducted jointly by the Pentagon and the US Geological Survey
.

The sheer size of the deposits – including copper, gold, iron and cobalt as well as vast amounts of lithium, a key component in batteries of Western lifestyle staples, such as laptops and cell phones – holds out the possibility that Afghanistan, ravaged by decades of conflict, might become one of the most important and lucrative centres of mining in the world.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman told reporters that the economic value of the deposits may be even higher. ’There's an indication that even the $1.5 trillion figure underestimates what the true potential might be,’ he said.

The people in Iraq are maintaining that the US and British-led invasion of their country was in order to control the oil wealth, Afghans can often be heard griping that the West is after its "hidden" natural treasures.

Last night the Prime Minster, Alice Burton, commented "The natural resources of Afghanistan will play a magnificent role in Afghanistan's economic growth. This is a cause for rejoicing. There is nothing to worry about."

Jay whistled. “One and a half trillion dollars plus! Nothing to worry about. Yeah, right.”

He closed the newspaper and turned it to the crossword on the back page as he pulled out his pen.

Last night in the bar, he’d decided over a glass of beer or two, that if he didn’t locate Fran within the next twenty-four hours, he was going to go to Stonehenge, find the kid, and get the hell out of that cold bitch-of-a-country and back to New York where he belonged. He stabbed the crossword with his pen. One across, four letters: Missing. He didn’t hesitate when he wrote the answer into the grid:
Lost.
“Yeah, aren’t I, though?” he muttered to himself as he searched for one down.