Dangerous Games

Chapter 13 part 1

"You look dreadful." Claire looked at me with a worried expression on her face.

"Thanks, Claire, I love you too." It was lunchtime, and we were both back in the canteen where we had been twenty-four hours earlier. As you can imagine, I'd come in to work late and looking rather dishevelled, neither of which had gone unnoticed amongst my fellow coppers.

"No, I quite understand. It was my fault for pushing you too far. Look, I'm sorry I didn't stay last night, but you'd obviously been through the wringer. Somehow I managed to get you up the stairs and into bed."

"Yes, I wanted to thank you for that. You undressed me too, I noticed."

A wry smile came over her face. "It was my pleasure."

"Actually, I was rather glad you weren't there, to be honest. Last night was terrible, and I don't think you'd have welcomed being in bed next to me thrashing around."

"Did you have the nightmare again?"

"The worst one ever. This time the lift was taking me down into the fires of Hell. I could feel my skin starting to burn."

"Was she there?"

"Yes. Same question as before, but this time it was Anita Patel."

She looked at me with a sympathetic expression on her face, as if to say 'I wish I could get inside your skull and help you out.' Instead, she said "You know, one of these days that lift in your head is going to take you to Hell and never bring you back."

"Yeah. You're not wrong."

"Well, I've not been idle in your absence. I've got the whole thing arranged. We have nine other officers at our disposal tonight, and I managed to get hold of this from the equipment store." She put a small box camera on the table in front of her. "This is one of those new body cameras that we'll all be wearing in a few months. Just clips onto the uniform like this."

She leaned forward and clipped the thing to my chest. They'd been gradually introduced over the last year or so to various forces up and down the country to reduce the number of complaints from the public about police brutality.

What bothered me was the fact that Claire was so matter-of-fact about the whole thing. That sick feeling was starting to rise up again in my gut.

"Electrical equipment doesn't work," I said thickly. "On the Elevator Game, I mean. The web said that anything electronic doesn't work."

"Only some sites say that electrical equipment fails to work. And besides, didn't the good professor have a camera and some sort of tape recorder?"

I'd been a bit slow on the uptake, but now I picked up on something. "Tonight? You said something about tonight."

"Yes. It's all arranged. Your big mission into the great unknown is tonight."

Suddenly I was wide awake. "Tonight? I thought I had a few more days to practise before the big day."

"No, it's tonight." She leaned in. "You must understand that you and I are the only ones who understand about your ... er, problem. If we delay any longer, people are going to start asking why."

Then the light dawned. "You did this! You arranged the timing of this ... this thing."

"Yes," she admitted. "I did. I knew I had to push you or you'd never go through with it. You can do this, you know. You can do it. I knew it the moment you went up and down in that lift three floors yesterday. I have every faith in you."

"That was three floors in an ordinary building. You're asking me to go to another world."

A note of exasperation came into her voice. "We both know two people who have done it and returned unharmed, and they didn't have any special weapons or training. I don't understand you. I really don't. This is the adventure of a lifetime. Didn't you always dream of being whisked off to some magical fairy tale realm when you were a child? Well, it finally looks as though it's going to happen."

"So, that's how you see this. As a fairy tale."

She took my hand in hers, quite openly. "Look, I'll be there for you. I'm one of the officers who'll be keeping guard for you. I'll even take the tenth floor if you like, so that I can be with you when you arrive – in spirit, at least." She laughed, slightly nervously. "And if you're not out of there by day break, I'll mount my own expedition to come in after you."

Suddenly we both became aware at the same time that the atmosphere in the canteen had gone very quiet. We looked up to find every eye in the place upon us.

"Oh dear," she laughed, this time genuinely. "It would appear that our secret is out."

...

It was the dead of night, and unusually cold for late August. I looked at my watch, which read a quarter to three. I was walking around outside Lakeside House, taking what could turn out to be my last deep breaths of fresh air – ever! I heard the swing doors go and a moment later Claire joined me.

"What are you thinking?"

"I was trying to commit the sensation of cool, fresh air to memory. I shouldn't think there'll be much of it available in Hell."

"Oh, don't be so melodramatic! We're not shooting you into space like a chimp."

I tried to think of a witty response to this – and failed. Instead, I asked "Why does it have to be three o'clock in the morning? The professor went up during daylight."

"Because we're trying to keep this low-key. Three o'clock is the time when the fewest people will be using the lifts. Anybody with any sense will be tucked up in his bed by then. Believe me, I don't like having to go through this on the graveyard shift either."

"At least we're being paid overtime."

"Now, do you have your instructions?"

I took out the folded piece of paper from my pocket, and started reading. 'Enter the lift on the first floor, then travel to the...'"

"Great." She cut me off. "Assuming you do get to the netherworld, what do you intend to do when you are there?"

"First of all – throw up. From what I've seen in those photographs there's a large plant pot at the corner of the landing. That'll do nicely."

"Ha ha, and when you've finished throwing up?"

"Look around for Anita, of course. Do a reccy. If possible, get some hard proof that the place actually exists and that police officers don't spend their time away with the fairies. Easy."

No, not easy. I wasn't feeling happy about this at all, but was trying my hardest to cover up my insecurity. There was no hiding anything from Claire, though. She'd seen me at my worst – vomiting into a carrier bag.

She took my arm, reassuringly. "Great. You're putting a very brave face on this. And remember, once you come back the conquering hero, whether you've got Anita with you or not, I've promised I'll spend the night with you."

I forced a smile. "Something for me to look forward to."

"Besides," she added. "You'll always be my conquering hero." She kissed me lightly on the cheek – a memory I would cherish as I burned eternally amongst the fire and brimstone.

Her police radio crackled. She lifted it to her ear and pressed the receive button.

"Right, everyone's in place," she said, suddenly business-like. "It looks as though we're on."