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  ‘This doesn’t explain why they are trying to kill me.’ Bishop spoke up.

  ‘I don’t think that’s the end of the story.’ Mary could see it wasn’t, something about the way ben wouldn’t look at them told her that.

  ‘It was the first time I’d ever said it out loud really. Kind of set something off inside me, I could Doctor Hassan, with him saying you were alive and he knew where you where, I thought I could reach out to you, speak to you.’ Ben his head down and his eyes shut, something glistened and fell from his eye.

  ‘He arranged to meet you?’ Asked Mary, she knew the story already, she jested wanted to help it along.

  ‘Yeah, in some old field next to some abandoned warehouse. I couldn’t do it alone. So Brian and Chris came with me, they had to stay outside, Doctor Hassan was pissed I’d even brought them. I said they were my ride and he seemed a little better with that, they waited in Brian’s Car, when we came out of Pratchett’s they were gone.’ He’d glazed over a big part and everyone knew it.

  ‘Did you free us?’ Cameron asked.

  ‘That came later. Like days later. I saw you though, all white and covered in ice, you looked like you were sleeping, Doctor Hassan explained I needed to be there legally, because you were on her row. One of you had to have the okay to be woken, and I’m the only one who could help, he was going to move you he said, to a new place, but moving you when you were out was dangerous. So, we’d have to wake the lot of you.’ Bens blood shot eyes finally surfaced.

  ‘So, you woke us?’ Cameron asked again, maybe if he knew who woke him he could piece the final bits together himself.

  ‘No, that’s what I’m saying, we never got the chance, Brian and Chris woke you, well I think Chris did, Brian was the guy who killed your friend I think.’

  ‘Oh, the cult nuts killed Shield? Do you know why the unfroze us?’ Bishop asked, finally feeling like he was getting somewhere.

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘For fucks sake.’

  ‘But I’m willing to help and find out.’ Ben said standing up in a simple movement. His mother simply just watched.

  ‘Aren’t you going to stop him?’ Steph asked.

  ‘If staring death in the face has told me one thing, its if you have questions go find answers, if my son has questions I’m not the person to stop him asking them.’ Liz got up slowly and with thanks to her chair, she scurried back off to her bedroom, in hopes her son would return.

  Chapter 18

  The four of them headed out, Ben handed his mother his drug dealer phone, now fully charged and ready to be used. She had her own but Benji was a bit on edge about his mother’s phone, being it was a little useless, no one wants to give you a phone contract when you may die before you finish it.

  Cameron’s car sat in front of the green home, it stood out like a sore thumb in this neighborhood if you could call the guy next door which hung photo frames at ten at night, a neighbor.

  ‘Hey you little shit get off that.’ Yelped Cameron like a bulldog with bad tooth, two teens were leaning on the bonnet of the car, taking photos of one enough on their phones. They both scurried off, the roaches had seen the light.

  The three, Steph, Ben and Mary. Everything got to the car and got in, there was no arguments of ego sat where, the mild issue was that Cameron hadn’t unlocked the door, Mary reached over the window and pulled at the lock? For a two hundred year, old women, she already had the general idea of how cars worked. The door unlocked and Ben got in followed by Steph.

  Cameron spent three minutes cleaning the hood of his beloved car. Once he got in nobody spoke to him, even when dying he seemed to think he would live forever.

  ‘What?’ he finally said after a few seconds of the three of them starring at him.

  The car started and moves on. The curtains of Liz’s room twitched and fell back unto place. Her only son just left with the only man she loved, she wished in a little bit of her heart that Cameron had died all those years ago, Bit the bullet or whatever.

  In the bat sears Steph and Ben sat like two children just been told off, they were silent and made a point of not touching each other. Mary and Cameron the parents in this situation seemed to chat on about small thing which they understood but their stand in children could never imagine, they talked about Allen Shields, who he was in life and what he meant in death. They spoke about Simon and his inability to help in any situation and how he seemed to freeze up regularly, Somnus and its many building and finally the children of Bishop and how it was a cult.

  ‘And cult are bad.’ Cameron made a point of this.

  ‘What are cult?’ He asked driving the point home.

  ‘Cults are bad.’ Steph replied, knowing this question was aimed solely at her. She felt like a child being told off for wondering off.

  When you meet your child for the first time, I presume, you get an emotional rush, and instant connection where the animal part of your brain is switched on, an animal part that tells up I repeatedly to care for your off spring, for these off springs are the future of your race.

  Being his son, his real son, he finally met, was not sat in the back seat of his sports car. Cameron’s need to care had kicked in, somewhat for his car, and for his son but mainly for his car.

  ‘The doors open. Did you leave the door open? Cameron was now out of his car and was wondering up the steps towards his home, they had formed a plan on the way, first, they were going to grab Barry. A little leverage would go a long way, and Barry may have been that leverage, then they’d go to the site where the children of bishop met. The shipping crates at the old docks, confront but not kill, and that was the important part, Brian, and Chris. Nobody wanted them dead, Steph and Ben knew these people, they were their friends, Cameron needed answers, one question still never fitted together. Why? Mary didn’t care, she’d just been there for the ride. Since Liz’s house, she’d went into fits of silence. The worrying silences a mother goes into when her child’s been out all night and hasn’t called, the silences that can be stopped with a hug.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Cameron stopped Mary, he had noticed the cold shoulder she’d seemed to have developed.

  ‘Yes, Cameron, I am fine, just thinking things through. There is a fix for what we’re going through, I can feel it, it rattles around inside my head, I’m just a little.’ She went quiet for a second or two, Cameron thought it best to finish her sentence.

  ‘Foggy?’ she nodded in reply. The other two had run up to the house, they figured it best, if a man who’d been tied up was still in there he’d rather see his friend then the people who had taken him, the door was already open, Steph hoped it was her mistake, and that Barry would be sat there, asleep probably or watching something on the television she’d left on for him. Some papers flew out of the doorway like they did in movies.

  Let's face it when the pit of your stomach has fallen from your center and now can be found somewhere close to left sock, you know something is wrong, Cameron knew something was wrong, Mary knew something was wrong, even Ben knew something was wrong. Steph, on the other hand, was one of those people who would deny something was wrong, lie to herself to such an amazing degree that she would be able to convince people around her nothing was wrong, as long as they would listen. Nobody in this situation was willing to listen. Why would they?

  ‘He’s still in there.’ She tried to convince herself and the other around her, she wouldn’t even lie through her teeth, which was common courtesy when lying was involved.

  To Cameron, the stairs looked daunting, but he knew he must climb, though, his body had become tired beyond relief and his mind had started to feel the same phasing Mary’s had before.

  At this point he realized he’d been driving a car which most likely, he was not permitted to drive, firstly the car wasn’t insured. Not that he knew of at least and secondly, his driving license would have been well out of date now.

  A single step, without thought, Cameron had already made it up a step, there was ten in total, he’d
had two put in because he didn’t like the idea of there only being eight steps. Twenty percent, that’s a good start, he wobbled a bit and throwing caution to the wind he positively jumped the remaining eight.

  A breeze had pulled even the small amount of heat the house held out into the wild and some pieces of paper with it.

  Nobody was there, no Barry at least, no Chris or Brian, which was something which had pushed its way across bens mind could have happened.

  ‘What happened?’ now imagine this, if you can, the second Bishop steps into his home for the second time, the whole world goes into slow motion, possibly with the Beatles here comes to the sun playing through the whole house, papers and still flowing around the room, wind catching them just before they fall, he turns his head left, again all in slow motion, the living has been turned upside down, a sofa is overturned. The tapes have been pulled from the wall, with the TV which lay sparking on the floor, somebody has been here, not just Barry, trying to free himself but somebody looking for something.

  ‘What the fuck has gone on here!’ Bishop yells, the slow-motion ends and the needle scratch skips the rest of the song.

  ‘If I was to make a guess, Chris and Brian have been here. Looking for something.’ Mary points out, a knife lays next to the seat Barry was once tied too.

  ‘They must have followed Barry’s GPS.’ Steph pointed out, she was silent again, not giving on any more deals.

  ‘GPS doesn’t work like that.’ Cameron shook his head nothing had changed that much, phones had gotten smaller but GPS was just an idea from a science journal he once snorted coke from.

  ‘They probably just used find my friends, it tells you where your friends are on your phone.’ Steph pulled her phone out to show him but it did nothing, the screen stayed a black mirror.

  ‘Oh, mines dead.’ Steph looked and Benny who shrugged. Mary and Cameron stared blankly at Steph, there was an unsettling annoyance in their face, Steph couldn’t see what she had done wrong. Which was nice for her.

  In seconds, it was out of her hands and seemed to have found its self-flying across the room with some vigor.

  ‘Hey!’ Steph pushed Cameron a little on the shoulder which barely knocked him back before he stood up straight again.

  ‘If they can track us with that it can stay here.’ Cameron said with a flatness to his voice, even the little effort it had taken to throw the flimsy piece of glass had taken a lot of energy away from him.

  ‘I don’t think you have the right frame of mind.’ Mary stepped in, Ben looked her, somehow, he already knew what she was going to say, Ben was smart like that.

  ‘This find your friends? I’ll make a guess here; a window can be looked through both ways.’ Mary stated without explanation.

  ‘She means if he can find Benny we can find him, yeah, but only if Brian’s left his on. He’s good, too smart to just leave his phone on.’ Benji answered, knowing Brian well had its uses, but Brain was unruly, you could never know what he was thinking if he didn’t want you too. At this point, Brian, didn’t want anyone to know where he was nobody would find him.

  ‘Yeah, he is, he seemed pretty switched on, but His friend Chris.’

  ‘Chris is and idiot. Clever girl.’ Benji, said in an Australian accent.

  ‘You both do that.’ Steph commented.

  ‘Do what?’ Asked Cam.

  ‘quote things, movies and stuff.’

  ‘So?’ Ben asked.

  ‘It’s something I’ve never done. It’s as if it’s in your genes.’ In this time, Mary had been fiddling with Steph’s phone, found some bits and bob which would work and rigged a charger up for it.

  Steph looked over, just a glance at first, then she looked back again.

  ‘I probably have my cable in the car. Probably in my bag.’ Steph told Mary, Mary looked deflated.

  Her work was never apricated.

  ‘It’s a bit old that phone, it’ll take a bit to charge, would anyone like a drink?’ Steph said rocking on the heels of her feel.

  ‘A tea would be nice.’ Mary replied with in seconds, soon as one person put their order in the rest followed, it was two teas and a coffee to order. Ben didn’t want anything, he’d had his fill at his mother’s. As was standard to do in the UK.

  ‘Where’s your kitchen.’ Asked Steph. Cameron sighed. Cameron pointed behind him at a door, a door she hadn’t noticed being a few chairs had been piled there, obviously, Gilly moved them there, when Gilly cleaned get cleaned like you’d wipe down a pub. Chairs pile a mile high and they tables rubbed down with a damp cloth, never wet, just damp. Steph trundled off.

  ‘She’ll be out of luck, if there’s any stuff there it’ll be older then her.’ Ben pointed out, he thought fast, much faster them Cameron, there was an odd jealousy in that, Bishop couldn’t put his finger on why.

  There was a shake and a small light behind Mary, a blue luminosity filled a small part of the room.

  ‘What’s that.’ Mary asked, as she spoke a sweet chime played from the piece of glass.

  ‘Just her phone turning on.’ Explained ben.

  ‘Ha, one hundred percent.’ Laughed Cameron. There was something funny about that, Cameron just couldn’t explain what.

  Something flashed in the inside of the phone and it stopped charging. Mary pulled the phone from its sparking wire and pasted it over to Ben.

  ‘Perhaps turn of find my friend before our friends find us first.’ She hoped they hadn’t thought they’d come back to the mansion, if she was a woman in her right mind, which she most of the time was, she had a feeling that Brian and Chris would be using their time at its best, preparing for Cameron to find them.

  ‘There’s no coffee, and the squish is eleven years out of date.’ Steph came back in.

  Chapter 19

  Stephanie held her phone at arm’s length, as if it was going to explode at any second.

  ‘It’s never charged that fast before. It’s hot, is it supposed to be hot?’ she asked never taking her eyes from it, not even for a second.

  ‘I’m not sure dear.’

  ‘It works, that’s what’s important at this point.’ Ben got up from the sofa he’d been leaning on, it had been turned over, as if something may had been hidden under it, which there hadn’t been, not now at least. There had been some big bags of heroin at one point, but when Bishop had claimed to go clean, those bags were the first thing to go. He remembered days before joining a narcotic anonymous meeting. The one Cameron had joined gave a twenty-four-hour period in which you could do what you wanted, drink yourself silly, go for it. If you wanted to smoke your own weight in herb you could, heroin was one of the ones which was dangerous, you spent a day taking all the stuff you wanted and you’d end up dead, but to those who ran these meetings that was just a quick way of getting rid of you. If you wanted to get clean you’d get clean, cold turkey, from day one. If you didn’t, your clogs would be popped and you’d be traveling down the river sticks in minutes.

  The find my friend software on Steph’s phone was open, it was turned off, this was Bens doing.

  ‘Do I turn it on?’ asked Steph, she’d let the phone slightly move closer so it was visible now.

  ‘I’d say so.’ Bishop said sarcastically, he sometimes used sarcasm to hide his fear, or guilt or hunger, he was always sarcastic. She swiped her finger over the mirrored glass, it left a great grease streak, Steph was sweating. The phone made a noise like somebody cocking a very small fire arm, followed by a weep sound that only machines could make.

  ‘take your protein pills and put your helmet on.’ Bishop spoke in a very heartened tone, the wiz of the phone made him thing of Bowie, no idea why.

  ‘Maybe we should head to the car?’ Mary pointed out as little circles filled Steph’s screen as if it was pulling data from somewhere, nobody seemed to care where from.

  ‘Brian’s phone is off.’ Steph said holding her phone now inches away from her face looking at a tiny map which had drawn itself on the screen.

  ‘
We guessed that, what about Chris’s?’ bishop said holding the door for the other three to exit, this time closing the door as he left, locking it and trying the handle multiple times.

  ‘Chris’s is on. He’s at this grass bit.’ Steph didn’t have a clue where this huge patch of grass was, it wasn’t the same patch of grass which held the old shipping container, where the cult of bishop conducted its meeting.

  Ben grabbed the phone, wrapping his hand around Steph’s so she was unable to release the device.

  ‘This is where he got the containers from. It’s just where the council holds the old unused shipping containers.’ Explained ben.

  ‘That’s fucking standard. That’s where all the best deals go down, get Carter style.’ Bishop caught up.

  ‘Do you drive?’ Bishop asked his son.

  ‘Yeah?’ Ben said and found himself catching a pair of car keys.

  ‘I can’t.’ ben said, denying his dreams of driving the day off car.

  ‘You can, well you can more than me, my driving licence is probably twenty years out of date, and when Mary was dossing around, her mode of transport constantly shit in the street.’ Cameron pulled the seat forward and allowed the girls in the back.

  ‘I could drive.’ Steph said, knowingly setting herself up for a fall.

  ‘Yeah and you could not, so this time, for now it’s a could not.’ Steph had gotten into the back seat by now, to emphasize his word Cameron slid the seat, back and locked Steph into the back.

  Sliding across the front of the car like a cop movie, Bishop got into the passenger side of his car. It felt odd, like when you’re drunk and try to put a show on the wrong foot.

  ‘All the fun of the fair.’ Bishop said pulling his door closed. He had no idea why he said it.

  The car started stuttering at first. Then it purred like nothing Ben had heard before. They were off. Just to fill in some of the Americans out there, it’s very common for the British to learn to drive in manual cars. It’s a rite of passage, as it were. So, there is little to worry about him driving a car from the seventies. The tires spun and shot the red rocket from the mansion of Cameron Bishop. It all looked very rock and roll.