“We really need to go!” Breezer said. He trotted along the riverbank path, skirting around the dead Choppers. From back the way they'd come, Jack heard more smashing glass, and a high, loud hooting sound that made his balls tingle with fear.
They ran. Lucy-Anne and Jenna went together, talking, their laughter perhaps a little too high and mad. Jack grasped Rhali's hand and squeezed, and when she squeezed back he felt a rush of gratitude. He hoped she felt the warmth developing between the two of them—if not, he would make sure he told her what he felt at the first opportune moment. But she also recognised the strength of friendship and history between him and Lucy-Anne. He hadn't even scratched the surface of how incarceration had affected her, but it seemed her mind was still sharp.
Still running, Jack leaned across to kiss her cheek, and she surprised him at the last moment by turning to him. Their lips met, and for a blissful instant nothing else mattered.
“Well, now,” Rhali said as they mounted the ramp leading down to the pontoon.
“Yeah,” Jack said. They had to let go hands and walk in single file, but he thought their touch would last forever.
“Andrew's with me,” Lucy-Anne said. “He knows. He…” She trailed off, confused and scared.
“I didn't see Andrew,” Jack said. But did I see someone with her? Just for a moment?
“He came with me. From Hampstead Heath. Rook and I went there to find him, and Nomad was there, and Rook fell and I ran, but then Andrew came to me and he's…dead, but not gone. Not quite gone. He brought me down here…and I dreamed I'd meet you all here!” She went from confused to delighted, her expression changing in a flash as she looked from Jack to Sparky to Jenna. Then her smiled dropped again as if punched from her face. “There's a bomb!”
“We know,” Jenna said. She held Lucy-Anne and it was strange to see. The girl they all knew was not someone to be held or pitied. “The Choppers planted it, Miller triggered it. We've got maybe eleven hours.”
“You know?” Lucy-Anne asked. “Why? Who's Miller? How did you find out?”
“There's so much to tell you,” Jack said. “And it sounds like you have a lot to tell us. But your leg's bleeding. Here. Let me—”
Lucy-Anne frowned and pulled away from Jenna, and for a moment it looked like she was going to jump back onto the pontoon before they'd even set off.
“Andrew?” she said, scanning the shore. “Andrew.”
“You're back with us now,” Jack said.
“Jack's told me a little about you,” Rhali said kindly.
Lucy-Anne's face crumpled. The tears came without warning, and after a few deep sobs she rubbed them away just as quickly. “Oh Jack, I'm so tired,” she said. When she slumped down, Sparky was already there to catch her. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
“Breezer?” Jack asked.
“Yeah.” He pushed a button and the boat's engine coughed and grumbled, but did not catch.
From somewhere out of sight on shore they heard the hooting from those strange, wild women.
“Breezer, now would be a good time for us to escape.”
“Yeah.” He pushed the button again, keeping it pushed in so that the engine turned and grumbled and turned again, and then it caught. Clouds of smoke belched from twin exhausts at the vessel's rear, and Breezer slumped in relief.
“Your London river tour is about to begin,” he said, pushing the throttle forward. The boat bumped against the pontoon and then moved away.