ill, not when they're such
an honest bunch."
The word honest was a strange one, Jazz thought, as ap-plied to a bunch of thieves. But it also made
her proud. They might nick things, but they were all honest to one another. At least, almost all of them. The
image of Stevie Sharpe hid-den in the alley shadows had failed to leave her, and being down here in the
dark only seemed to make it more solid.
"It went okay," Jazz said. "Cadge had to do a runner too, but I had the stuff by then. And I left
without them even sus-pecting me."
"And what did you fetch, Cadge lad?"
"Nuthin'."
Jazz frowned —she remembered him running with a box of condoms in his hand. But she kept
walking and did not look at the boy.
"Nothing at all?" Harry asked.
"Dropped it," Cadge said. And I wonder how scarlet he is right now? Jazz thought. These
shadows are good for hiding a lot.
They veered left into a disused tunnel, walked for a hun-dred yards, and came to an abandoned
station platform. From there they made their way down an old maintenance staircase, hearing the rustle of
rats retreating before the wash of their flashlights. Cockroaches scurried out of sight. In the drier tunnels,
they were rarer, but in the damp, rot-ting places, cockroaches and other bugs were plentiful. Jazz forced
herself not to take much notice of them.
The stairs were slippery here, layered with a thin green slime, and at the bottom of the staircase a
curtain of water fell in a continuous waterfall. Harry produced a small re-tracting umbrella from his pocket,
opened it up, and di-verted the water far enough for Jazz and Cadge to step through. "One of the oldest
water-distribution systems in the world, down here," he said as he stepped through. "More water leaks into
the ground than reaches Londoners' taps." He brushed a few droplets of water from his coat shoulders.
"Lucky for us, eh? Free water whenever we want it. I only wish they could heat some of it for us. Then life
would be grander than grand, eh, Cadge?"
"Life's grand as it is, Mr. F."
"It has its moments, for sure."
Something rattled in the distance and Cadge spun around. They were at one end of a short
brick-lined tunnel, and the steel door at the other end was twisted open. The noise came from beyond.
Rats? Jazz wondered. A train in the distance? She was al-ready becoming familiar with how
strange the noises were down here.
"It's nothing," Harry said.
Cadge glanced at Jazz and smiled. "Really was a good nick," he said. "You're becoming an expert."
"I think she has the light hands and gentle touch of a thief, for sure," Harry said. He squeezed Jazz's
shoulder. "I think you'll go far."
"I'm still not sure..." she said, but she trailed off.
"Still not sure you want to stay," Harry finished for her. "That's to be expected, and I honor that, Jazz
girl. Honor it completely. If ever it's time for you to go, you'll go with our blessing. I tell that to all my kids,
and I mean it."
Cadge walked ahead of them, pretending to check out the open doorway.
"I'm certainly not going yet," she said. Cadge turned around and smiled.
Something screeched in the distance. It seemed to come in from a long way off. Jazz was already
learning to judge sound down here, and this one had lost many of its lower frequencies, swallowed by
concrete, brickwork, and the solid rock of London's legs.
The smile froze on Cadge's face. Harry cocked his head and frowned. "Mr. F.?"
The screech came again and Harry shook his head. "No, Cadge. I think it's just metal on metal.
Something collapsing somewhere far off, maybe. Or perhaps someone else taking a secret tunnel to
somewhere we don't know."
"Collapsing?" Jazz asked.
Harry nodded. "Old places down here, Jazz. And some bits are older than you believe. Sometimes it's
just time to fade away."
"Sounded like a scream to me," Cadge said. "And comin' closer."
Harry shook his head again. "I've heard it often enough," he said.
"Heard what?" Jazz felt scared and excluded, and she looked back and forth from Harry to Cadge.
"Hour of Screams," Cadge said.
The phrase chilled her, the echo of Cadge's voice fading away to nothing in her ears.
"You mentioned that the other day," she said, then turned to Harry. "Cadge told me I should ask you
about it, but I'd forgotten. Is that what we just heard?"
Harry frowned at Cadge. "Not at all." Then he turned to Jazz again. "Walk with us. Let's get back to
the kingdom. I wanted to tell you about this in my own time, in my own way. But it seems
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