Crawlers

9:21pm

'My Queen?' said Steadman, interrupting again. 'One of our police stations has noticed that those two officers aren't responding to radio.' 

He paused as if this news was significant. 

'Well?' he asked, when I didn't reply. 'Aren't you going to do something?' 

'What do you suggest I do, Steadman?' I asked back, through the young man's mouth. 

'The obvious step, one would think, would be for you to make those two police call in. Use your power on them. Do what you do. If you don't, very soon you're going to have a lot more of them on your hands.' 

'That,' I told him, 'is precisely my intention.' 

The speakers on the pit's brick walls were silent again for a moment. 

'You want more people to come?' said Steadman. 'Are you sure you can handle that?' 

'You doubt me?' 

'Not at all,' Steadman blustered. 'It's just that-' 

'It's just that in your experiments on me down here,' I told him, 'I ruled just a few at a time. You weren't alive to witness my power all those years ago; you've never seen for yourself the full extent of what I can do. So now I rule some two thousand subjects in this building of yours, you worry I'm not really strong enough to rule more. Correct?' 

'Tell me again how it works,' said Steadman. 

The voice from the speakers was thick, urgent, with none of the arrogance to which I had grown all too accustomed. Steadman needed reassurance: to continue to believe in me he required another glimpse of what I was offering him. So, for what I hoped was the last time, I gave him a reply. 

'When you feel my hand upon you, Steadman,' I began, 'you experience two things. The first is the physical shock as I penetrate your nervous system, but that is brief; next comes what will feel like complete and total normality. You simply find that all your wishes now coincide with mine. They will coincide so sweetly,' I told him, 'that you might not even be aware of a difference.' 

'Less of the "you", please,' growled the voice from the speakers. 'I'm not one of your subjects and I'm not going to be. May I remind you that we are in this as equals: you need me, my Queen, and don't you forget it.' 

'A slip of the tongue,' I assured him. 'Please let me continue.' 

'Very well.' 

'I can control my subjects directly if I choose, of course. But the simplest and most efficient way to rule is to allow them to rule themselves - to let their own natures limit and shape them to my purpose.' 

'And what exactly do you mean by that?' 

'When my hand is upon someone I know everything about them. I see what they see. I experience the world as they do. But I also know the contents of their minds - the deepest secrets of their lives. One of those secrets is this: the vast majority want to be ruled. They may pretend independence but in fact they crave acceptance, approval, the comfort of the herd. They want their decisions made for them. They long to be directed by a higher power...' I paused. 'By us.' 

'You are... persuasive, my Queen,' said Steadman. 'But I'd be more confident you can keep your end of our bargain if those schoolchildren weren't still on the loose.' 

'I told you, Steadman,' I said patiently. 'They didn't escape - and I can prove it. Would you like to hear a secret from one of the youngsters right now?' 

'You can do that?' said Steadman. 

Concentrating, I picked one. 

'It is a memory of school,' I told him. 'All tonight's adult subjects, too, have strong school memories: those years seem strangely significant to your kind. But this memory is particularly potent, being recent. 

'It concerns a note passed during a lesson. The note is folded many times; its paper is soft and faintly greasy from the touch of many fingers. I unfold it carefully and find that the note has been signed, not just by one person, but by the whole class: twenty-two of my peers have put their name to what it says. When I read the message, my skin goes hot and tight and I tingle all over.' 

I paused, intrigued. The memory was harsh and bitter. I felt the squirming sensation in my subject's guts. I noticed how, in the memory, the background sounds of the class and the other details of the moment seemed to fade and shrink, until four words were all that was left. 

'Well?' asked Steadman. 'What does it say?' 

'The signed note says,' I told Steadman, 'We all hate you.' 

For a moment Steadman was silent. 'Kids,' he said - but the amusement in his voice was false. I suspected that he had similar secrets from his own school years. I looked forward to discovering them. 

'Am I to understand, then,' he asked quickly, 'that someone in that room is already under your control?' 

'Correct. I have already begun to undermine the most effective members of the group, and the others got this far only by luck. These children are no threat. Soon, if I keep them where they are, they will neutralize themselves. 

'So,' I told him, 'send more adults for me to rule.'