Candleman by Glenn Dakin Page A

air and catches them in his mouth,’ added Theo.
    ‘That
is
bad,’ sighed Chloe.
    They were deposited at the tall shining metal gates of a stately red-brick building in a quiet square off Harley Street. Chloe had to peer closely at a damp-speckled brass nameplate, because the murky fog was getting thicker. She pressed a buzzer.
    ‘It’s just like that ghastly mist we found seeping out of the central canal in the network,’ said Chloe.
    ‘Maybe it followed us up here,’ Theo remarked. For him, fantastical things were just as possible as real things; he had never been encouraged to distinguish between the two.
    Soon, a distorted voice invited them to identify themselves.
    ‘We have an appointment to see Sir Peregrine Arbogast,’ Chloe shouted into the security intercom. ‘It’s Chloe Miles and Luke Anderson.’
    The electric gate swung slowly open. They crunched up the gravel drive of the enormous house. Thick evergreens towered overhead, dripping dirty fog.
    ‘I’m giving you a pretend name,’ Chloe said. ‘Just in case.’
    ‘My name is pretend anyway,’ said Theo. ‘In case of what?’
    ‘Think of it as a game.’
    A wrinkled, overly made-up secretary showed them through into a large marble waiting room, with an enormous stuffed owl on a plinth in the middle. There was a beautiful relief carved into the stone wall of Noah’s Ark and the animals coming in two by two. Theo frowned.
    ‘Funny,’ he remarked, gazing at the picture. ‘Most of the animals in that scene are the ones that never
made
it on to the ark – like the giant sloth and the unicorn.’ Suddenly he grinned. ‘Oh look, there’s a sivatherium.’
    ‘Can we focus a bit here?’ asked Chloe, who had never heard of a sivatherium. ‘We’re going to meet the great Sir Peregrine Arbogast and he’s going to examine you.’
    ‘Is he an Unrelenting Vigilance?’ asked Theo.
    ‘Shush!’ urged Chloe, alarmed. ‘No, he isn’t. And don’t mention them again. Sir Peregrine is a respected expert on unusual conditions. I pulled a few strings to get him to meet you, as he’s a sort of semi-retired recluse. Be careful what you say to him.’
    ‘Why do we have to see him?’ Theo asked anxiously.
    ‘Well, if you really have got a terrible disease we need to know as soon as possible … so
I
can avoid catching it,’ Chloe said.
    Theo’s heart sank. Chloe was more worried about herself than him. She didn’t seem to understand what a critical moment this was. Suppose this expert found out that Theo could kill people, and called the police to take him away? Suppose it turned out that everything Dr Saint had said was right, and Theo had to go back into the Mercy Tube tonight?
    ‘Luke Anderson,’ called a nurse’s voice from down a dark corridor nearby.
    Theo arose, feeling as if he had just been summoned for execution.

Chapter Eight
Person Thirteen
    ‘B ow down before me, you wretched creature!’ Dr Saint stood by the Memorial in the centre of the Empire Hall gardens and peered through the filthy smog at the small dark figure lurking on the edge of his sight.
    The vapours had done their work. The forbidden substances locked in their rusting underground silos for over a hundred years had been released into the network’s canal system, where they had combined, smouldered and crawled to the surface to provide London with an experience it had not known for many long years – smog.
    ‘I am not fit to bow before you,’ said the creature in a sad voice as it made a deep, if rather lopsided bow. ‘Only to serve you and be gone from your sight. Why have my people been released?’
    ‘The Society of Good Works is preparing the day of Liberation,’ Dr Saint said, ‘when all who were betrayed and forgotten shall be released into honourable service.’
    ‘Freed to be slaves!’ cackled the figure suddenly. ‘It’s like the good old days!’
    ‘The lost, the pitiable and the vile have ever been the concern of my caring Society,’ remarked