Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 155

Chapter Twenty-Three

 

‘A terrorist?’ Elle says with her hands on her hips. ‘That little old lady that you kidnapped? Seriously?’

                ‘I’m deadly serious, Elle,’ Windermere replies with a blank expression. ‘If we hadn’t taken her when we did then countless more people would have died.’

                ‘And we’re supposed to trust you?’ I step forward. I’m sick of people lying to us, taking us for a ride, doing whatever they can to use us for their own ends.

                ‘If you come upstairs with us, you will. You can’t blame me for my actions, Easton, I’m only doing my job.’

                ‘You’re a ghost!’ Yates exclaims from behind us. ‘You’re not supposed to have a job.’

                I swell with pride for my friend in that moment for embracing his freedom.

                ‘Some of us like structure to our lives,’ she says. ‘We stay as we were in life.’

                ‘Why don’t you just let us go?’ I ask. ‘We don’t know anything about ghost physics, Teague, Robin or anyone else.’

                ‘We will let you go,’ Windermere assures. ‘Once you come upstairs with me to see what we’ve been doing here.’

                ‘You swear you’ll let us go?’ Elle says.

                ‘I swear.’

                ‘Why the sudden change of heart? A minute ago it was all medieval cells and barred doors.’

                ‘There are as many opinions in the dead as there are in the living. Those who are more…medieval, tend to be more forceful. I assure you, I was one of the main players in being gentler in our approach.’

                I really don’t know whether we can trust this woman. I look at Elle and then Yates. Elle shrugs and seems happy to go along with things. Yates gives a small nod.

                ‘What do you want to show us?’

                ‘Our prisoner,’ Windermere says. ‘And what he and people like Robin have been doing to the world.’

                ‘Lead the way then, Windermere.’

                The woman spins on her ankle and beckons us to follow her. I notice the man at her side lets us past him before following us himself. With one of them either side of us I can’t help but feel that we are still prisoners in this game.

                ‘What kind of terrorist was Robin?’ Elle stands closest to Windermere and is clearly intent on more information.

                ‘She wrote a paper in the eighties,’ Windermere says. ‘About what happens to us after we die. A lot of people took it to be science fiction, they discredited her ideas. Needless to say, she didn’t take kindly to their views.’