The Superpower Project (14 page)

The two animals slowed, finally allowing themselves to stop.

Megan floated down to join them. “Cam! When did you learn wolf?”

Cam lay on the shale, growls turning gradually to laughter as he became himself once again. “My superhero name is totally going to be Wolfman,” he said. “That was amazing.”

“There's nothing like it,” said John. “Well done, both of you.”

John waited until Megan flew upwards again before he whispered, “Just remember, the more you do it, the harder it is to want to turn back. Make sure you always have a reason to keep
two
feet firmly on the ground instead of four.”

“No worries. I'd miss TV and biscuits too much,” said Cam.

“Yeah, that's what I used to think.”

John shut his eyes for a moment, thinking something over. “Megan, TJ,” he called, beckoning them to where he and Cam were sitting, “let's head back to the cave. I think it's time I told you both what happened the last day my generation of guardians were all together – the day Clutha Chemicals won.”

***

Out on the river, the little boat Cam had heard puttered on, out towards the islands.

In its wake, a girl bobbed up and down in the icy-cold water. She watched the strange old man, the flying girl, the tin man and the wolf-boy turn back along the coast towards the lights of the town.

She wanted to shout out, to swim towards them and say hello. Instead, she waited until they were out of sight and spun the waves around to push herself up onto the surface. Then she walked across the waves towards the shore alone.

Back in the cave, John was rifling through his bookshelf. He lifted an old leather-bound book from underneath a little statue of Sarah's monster Gorskyn. He opened the book and took out a black-and-white photo that had been tucked inside it. He passed it to Megan.

The photo showed four smiling teenagers standing on a hillside. Tin Jimmy was saluting next to them.

“That's my gran,” said Megan, singling her out immediately, “and you, John… and Hannah and Tam?” asked Megan, pointing at the two she did not recognise.

John nodded, and looked at TJ. “Have you remembered it all yet, Jimmy?”

TJ looked at the picture, staring intently at the two. “I remember her laughter, his jokes. I remember… it all went wrong…”

“Yes,” said John, “sounds like it's coming back to you.”

Cam pointed at the photo. “What went wrong?”

“Hannah liked to call herself a water witch,” said John, appearing to ignore Cam's question and gently taking the photograph from him. “She could control waves, swim like a fish. A right wee mermaid. Tam had invisibility.”

“And what happened to them?” prompted Megan.

“Thanks to Jimmy, we knew Clutha Chemicals were after the power under the water. Watt built his shield almost three hundred years ago; for all we knew, Clutha Chemicals would be able to smash it open with modern equipment – they had somehow got their hands on a submarine. So we weren't just trying to hide the sigils, we were trying to stop them getting that sub near the power at all. We knew we were in danger of death or capture, so Sarah made sure the sigils were all hidden somewhere new, somewhere even we didn't know about in case we were questioned.”

“And were you caught?” asked Cam.

“Clutha Chemicals knew we were coming before we even got there. We fought long and hard – we destroyed the sub – but Hannah and Tam went down with it. Hannah could hold her breath for a long, long time, but not that long.”

“Wait, what?” asked Cam, genuinely shocked and now much more worried than usual. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” said John. “It's not something I like to talk about. Fortunately there isn't anyone out here to tell.” John winced as he said this, and stripes rippled across his face.

“I… remember…” said TJ slowly.

Megan and Cam stared at one another in silence. For the first time since unfolding the letter from her gran, Megan didn't want to know any more, didn't want all the answers, didn't want to be involved.

Cam leaned forward. “Wasn't there anything you could do?”

“We were still in terrible danger. Sarah had been swept away by the current – I didn't know if she was dead or alive. Jimmy and I ran from there to Port Glasgow and the bomb shelter where we agreed we would hide him if things went wrong. Then I ran too. The people on the submarine had all seen me, but they hadn't seen Sarah. I had to get away to avoid getting both of us in trouble. I ran for the hills. And I've been hiding ever since.

John looked at TJ guiltily. The robot was as blank-faced as ever.

“It was worse for Sarah though. I ran away from the world, but she had to stay in it. Hannah and Tam's deaths and my disappearance were covered up as a big local tragedy of course. There was talk about river contamination being to blame, but most folk thought Hannah and Tam and I were just some unlucky kids caught in the currents. Life moved on. Clutha Chemicals closed down in 1966. No wonder really. They'd lost their sub, killed off most of the guardians and lost the sigils too. Things were quiet for a long time until earlier this year when I first felt it again, the fizzing in my chest… I always thought that was the thing under the river calling out to us, pulling us into action. And that's how I knew it was going to start again, that the guardians would waken.”

“There are five,” said TJ quietly.

“I can't believe Gran had to deal with all of that and never told anyone,” said Megan.

John coughed awkwardly. “It took Sarah a long time to begin living a normal life again. I think it helped her to tell stories, write fantasy books – all those river monsters and shape-changing werewolves.”

Megan looked at the old photo again, at the smiling friends in their early teens who had no idea what was going to happen. “I wonder who our other two are,” she whispered.

John went to place the photo back inside the book. “So y'see this is why I want you both to be ready. More ready than we were.” He shook his head sadly. “I don't want to lose anyone else.”

“Hold on a second…” Cam was looking at the newspaper, really squinting at it. He set the clipping down on the ground and took out his mobile phone, snapping a photo.

“What are you doing?” asked Megan.

“Look more closely at the picture,” said Cam. “Doesn't one of those doctors look a little familiar?”

Megan picked the clipping back up and peered at it, while Cam was zooming in on the photo on his phone. The photo was a little blurry, but even if Megan had not been able to recognise the man from the photo, she could read the name badge he was wearing.

“Professor
Finn
!” shouted Megan.

“So yeah, maybe Clutha Chemicals disappeared,” said Cam, “but it looks like someone is carrying on the family business.”

“Makes sense,” said John. “We need to find those sigils before they do.”

“Oh good,” said Cam, “because number four on the map is a graveyard.”

The old cemetery had not been used since the end of the nineteenth century. People still died after that, of course, but there was no more room to squeeze them in, so a nice new cemetery got built somewhere else instead. Now parts of the old one were being carefully dug up and moved to accommodate a new Bingo hall.

Cam was waiting for Megan and TJ at the cemetery gates. “Why would anyone demolish a graveyard?” he said. “That's got to be bad karma.”

Megan stared at the portacabins and portaloos nestled alongside the ancient stones. “So… what do we reckon then… zombies or ghosts? Based on our luck so far?”

“I think we have enough
real
stuff to worry about, thanks,” said Cam. “Like my mum finding out I'm not really on the basketball team. Or in the chess club. Or singing in the school show…”

“Yeah… my parents are expecting me to be crowned Maths Champion of the World with all the extra work I've been doing…”

“Ghosts are very real,” interrupted TJ, surprising them both.

“What? Don't be ridiculous. Dead people floating about everywhere?” Cam waved his arms around to make his point.

“Not dead people. Memories, emotional recordings impressed upon objects. I see the playback.”

For a moment, nobody spoke.

“Your robot's broken,” said Cam. “It's seeing things.”

TJ clapped a rusted hand on Cam's shoulder and pointed into the graveyard dusk.

“Over there is a little girl crying at an old graveside. The grave is of a boy. He died very young. The girl cannot see us, is not really there. The stone, the soil, the trees, have all recorded her emotional response, the many days she wept here. I see the playback.”

“But… but there's no one there,” said Cam, genuinely peering across the graveyard.

TJ clicked, whirred and turned to Megan. “Your friend is broken. His eyes don't work right.”

Megan once again reminded herself that TJ was a robot and not an actual person. “Is that how you heard the children whispering at Crowfell?”

“Maybe,” said TJ, “or maybe I remembered them from when I was there.”

“So, where are we supposed to be looking? Does your gran want us to start digging up random graves?” asked Cam.

“I don't think she'd make us go that far,” mused Megan. “What about in there?” Megan pointed to an ornately carved stone structure near the far wall.

“The crypt,” said TJ. “Crypt first.”

“And… just to check,” said Megan, “are you… seeing anyone at the crypt right now?”

TJ studied the back wall intently. “No.”

“Ok then,” said Megan. “Let's go.”

“I wish your gran had left you a map of chip shops,” said Cam.

TJ pulled at the crypt gate hopefully. “Locked.”

“You know what we need,” said Megan, smiling, “a skeleton key.”

Cam just scowled at her.

“I have burned out the lock,” announced TJ. “There is no key required.”

The gate creaked open in exactly the sort of way Cam hoped it wouldn't, and they stared down the steep stairway that descended underground.

“This probably isn't the time,” said Cam, “but I'm not totally sure what a crypt is. Is it, like, where they store all the garden tools and lawnmowers?”

Megan quickly silenced TJ with a look. “Uhm… yeah,” she said.

At the bottom of the stairs, a carved wooden door opened into a small room.

“Bit posh for a shed,” said Cam.

“Look at the carvings,” said Megan, “they're really weird.”

In place of the cherubs, angels and roses traditionally found in cemeteries, the carvings on the crypt door included skeletal knights, sea monsters, flying horses and crows.

“Cheery,” said Megan.

“Not much room for gardening stuff in here,” said Cam. “What are all these name plates for?”

For a moment it was quiet enough in the crypt to hear a penny drop.

“Crypts are actually where posher families would all get buried together,” said Megan quickly, which she hoped would make it easier for Cam, like when you rip off a plaster.

“We're in a
grave
!” shouted Cam, backing towards the stairs, then turning around with a start just in case there was a vampire walking down, on his way home. “People are buried in here! Right here!”

“Do not worry Cameron, they pose no current threat.” TJ patted Cam reassuringly on the arm. “There. There there.”

“Doesn't this seem like the most likely place for a hidden sigil Cam?” asked Megan.

“It seems like the most likely place for a horror movie.”

“It's so sad,” said Megan, tracing her fingers across the engraved lettering of the name plates. “So many of them died really young. Wait. This one says Watt – it might be a clue!”

“Hold on a second… She died one hundred and eleven years before she was born?” said Cam. “That's a hard life.”

TJ reached out to touch the plate, and it fell from the wall.

Cam squealed, “Are there bones behind it?”

TJ took the remaining brick carefully from the wall and examined it. “There is some writing carved onto the brick, but it is hard to make out.”

Megan took it from him, while TJ stuck his hand without hesitation into the gap left by the brick.

“TJ, don't do that!” said Cam. “Something could grab you.”

“There's something else written here,” said Megan. “I think this says ‘ill'?”

Cam knocked the brick out of her hand. “Plague grave. It's a plague grave. Let's get out of here!”

TJ pulled his hand from the wall. “I cannot reach all the way in, but I am sure there is something there. A smaller hand could reach.”

Megan sighed. “Of course it could.” She took off her glove and began rolling up her jumper sleeve.