Smoking Power

Chapter 24

Clarence.

I recognise his voice immediately. Stepping into the doctors office completely, I can see the slight smile that tugs at the corner of his lips. Behind him, the other man steps into the room.

Straight away my eyes zoom in on the telepick resting in his hand. He looks kind of familiar, but I still don't fully recognise him.

"It's a pleasure to meet again." Clarence nods at Amber and I. "I do believe you've met Clark before."

My eyes snap back to the other man in the room. I recognise him now. He's the man that was with Clarence in the Escaletti tunnels. He's the man that told Clarence they had to go before he could finish answering my questions.

"Hello." I quickly say to Clark before turning my attention back to Clarence, "I need answers for everything. No riddles or leaving me with questions. I need answers."

"Of course, of course. I do quite apologise for any unanswered questions in our last meeting. But it is not safe here, as I do believe some people are searching for you." Clarence waves for me to come closer.

As I approach I can hear someone from the reception speaking into a phone. "Yes, yes I'm positive. Those kids that lit the fire. Yes those ones. They're here." It's a scratchy voice. Probably one of the old men I saw in wheel chairs. I'm still surprised how everyone I've met in this horror hospital can speak English.

I sheepishly look back at Clarence, "Yeah, we may of lit a police station on fire."

"Never mind that now, we need to get that piece and get to Headquarters. Once we arrive there I'll explain everything." As I listen to Clarence speak, I can't help but notice how he speaks in old English a bit. Now that I think about it, Marco and Gareth speak a bit like that too.

"You might want to shut your eyes." Clark interrupts my thoughts.

Obediently I squeeze them tightly closed. When I open my eyes a couple of moments later, we are back in the old run down room where we opened the first gift before. It looks a bit different now than it did before when we first entered, black smoke still covers most of the room. Around all the scorch marks there's the remainder of the wooden pole lying across the ground in a pile of splinters.

I smile to myself when I see the image we all make. Clarence and Clark in formal sea blue and forest green suits. Amber and I with black faces from the dirt with tattered clothes. Finally there's Declan, also with a black face, completely unconscious and lying on a hospital bed with faded clouds on the sheets.

"I hid 'em over 'ere." Amber walks over to the corner of the room and pulls a couple of loose floorboards out of the way to reveal a neat stack of bronze boxes. She picks up the pile and puts them on the intact side of the bench before looking at Clarence and Clark. "Do you know how we get the next piece?"

"Not entirely, but between us I'm sure we'll figure it out soon. But right now, we need to get back to Headquarters so you might want to shut your eyes again." Clarence smiles at us before shutting his own eyes.

When I open my eyes again we are standing in front of a large building. Surrounding the large building, there's multiple clusters of smaller buildings. I can tell by the way they're built that they're all part of Clarence's group. It's like it's own town.

"Where are we?" Amber mutters after we've finished absently staring at anything and everything around us.

"Headquarters." Clarence looks around at our surroundings and smiles as if he's seen it all a thousand times before. He probably has. "But if you must know, we're in an abandoned part of North England. Just to be on the safe side, we have an invisibility pocket surrounding us." He nods towards the outskirts of the town.