Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 110

                I make it look like I’m considering the option. ‘I’ll stick with my limited knowledge, thanks.’

                Teague throws his hands in the air like he’s at the end of his tether.

                ‘If this afterlife of yours and Thacker’s is so great, why don’t you let yourself go now?’ I ask. ‘You’re a ghost, just float away like dust on the wind.’

                ‘Because I’m not dead, yet,’ explains Teague, adopting the schoolteacher gaze once more. ‘I’ve taken on the form of the dead, I’ve merely expanded the parameters of my molecular structure.’

                ‘Well lucky you,’ I say. ‘I tell you what,’ I continue. ‘How about we play the ‘who can keep quiet the longest’ game while I wonder where my friends might have gone.’

                ‘We could revisit my lab in Rome?’ Teague suggests.

                I make the ‘uhp uhp’ sound adults make when they keep loud children quiet. I hold up my finger and place it on my lips. Teague had worn my patience away a long time ago, somewhere between chasing me through my memories and becoming a preacher. I can only imagine what sort of fun and games he’d conjure if we went to his lab. In his own territory he can do what he likes. I’ve made it my personal mission to keep the man under control.

                I cast my mind back to before I disappeared, we had been discussing going to New York to find Benjamin. For all my friends know, that’s their only solution to finding me again. If they’re looking at all.

                I shake my head, of course they’re finding me. I can imagine Elle leading the way, getting the two boys to pull their weight.

                ‘Come on,’ I say.

                ‘You lose.’ He smiles.

                I don’t reply. I grab his hand and make as good an image as I can for New York City. I don’t remember going there as a child but I remember visiting the station with Yates. I think of the bustle, the sea of people and the constellations mirrored on the turquoise ceiling. I think of the announcements and the noticeboards and the smell of pretzels on the air.

                I feel a lurch as we enter the Edge. I don’t know where I’m going, that much is clear to me. I hear Teague cry out beside me. I relish the fact that I’m causing him some discomfort, to him it must feel like he’s travelling on a rollercoaster, blind and paralysed. At least I have a destination in mind.