“Angels can see in the dark,” he replied.
“Of course you can,” I said with a sigh, starting to feel foolish for my fear now that I was standing safely next to him. How could you ever compete with an angel? I thought. Well, at least he hadn’t been the one to solve the puzzle. “So, where are we?” I asked.
“In a low room, quite large, that extends out at least one hundred feet in every direction, except to our left,” he said. “There’s a wall about forty feet away to the left, and it has a door on it.”
“Is the wall with the door the right direction?” Hunter asked. I could hear her shuffling closer to us. I held out my free hand, and she bumped into it with her shoulder. We linked elbows. “Will it lead us to the river?”
“Aye,” Gavin answered. “The Thames is that way.”
“Then let’s go,” Hunter replied, nudging me so that I, in turn, nudged Gavin.
Gavin led us slowly into the dark. We’d only taken about fifteen steps when a whooshing sound filled the air. Two beams of light flared ahead of us. I shut my eyes against the sudden brightness, and when I opened them, I could see there were torches hanging on either side of a large wooden door—actual torches!—and they were burning with a bright fire. A man stood next to them, glowing in the light.
“Is it a ghost?” Hunter whispered, digging her nails into my arm. I was relieved I wasn’t the only terrified one.
“There are no such things as ghosts,” the apparition called out to us in a deep, male, English accent. “You’re either on this earth, or you’re not.” I recognized the voice, but couldn’t connect it to a face.
Gavin picked up the pace, as if he was excited to get to the man. A few steps closer, and I saw why. It was Alfred, the salt-and-pepper-haired guard.
“You’ve found your young friend, I see,” Alfred said, nodding at Hunter. She smiled at him like a family member. They’d obviously run into each other a few times over the last twenty-four hours. I was glad she’d had someone looking out for her before Gavin and I arrived, but I couldn’t figure out why he was in the subbasement, and how he’d gotten there. I hadn’t seen anyone else in the crypt.
Gavin stepped forward and gave Alfred a hearty handshake.
“And you’ve chosen a path,” Alfred said, gesturing toward the door behind him. “You’re off to Magnificat, then?”
“How do you know that?” I asked, startled that a night watchman knew about Magnificat or our plan.
“Why else would you be down here?” he answered simply.
“It’s all right,” Gavin assured us. “He’s an angel.”
“How do you know?” Hunter asked.
“Angels can see the breath of other angels and demons,” I explained, secretly wishing I had the same ability. Alfred did seem like an angel now, especially the way Hunter was beaming at him.
“Very true,” Alfred answered. “And I’m happy to assist you in any way that I can.” He had a calming presence, just like Gavin.
Hunter seemed awed. “So Magnificat is behind this door?”
Alfred nodded. “Aye, through the tunnel. And after your handiwork on the roof, I’m guessing you won’t be alone in there.”
“What do you mean?” Her wide eyes danced in the torchlight.
“Once you pass through this threshold, you’re no longer protected by St. Paul’s,” Alfred answered. “While it is easier for demons to fly in from an open sky to snatch their prey, they can still come after you on foot. They’re quite fast, you know. And they do roam the tunnels, in every direction they are able.”
“Tunnels? You mean there’s more than one tunnel behind this door?” I gulped.
“There’s an entire network under London, and they’re all connected,” Alfred said, confirmation of what Gavin had told us in the café. “Every tunnel has hundreds of offshoots and openings. But luckily your path to Magnificat, while one of the longer tunnels, is straight as an arrow. All you need to do is keep running, and leave the rest to Gavin and myself.”
“You?” Hunter asked, her face softening. “But I don’t want anything to happen to you! I’ve already caused everyone enough trouble.” She moved forward and gave Alfred a big hug. That Hunter, she sure likes to hug people. Although in this case, I couldn’t blame her. There was something so sweet about Alfred. He reminded me of my grandfather back home, and I felt a pang of homesickness. Weird, I thought to myself. That’s the first time I’ve thought of Scotland as “home.” Just in time to possibly never see it again.
Alfred chuckled. “I’ll not have you worrying about my wellbeing, young lady. I can hold my own, you know. Besides, I can’t let Gavin here have all the fun. Two beautiful ladies are too much for this young chap.”
“Hey!” Gavin said, playfully punching at the older angel’s shoulder. Before Gavin’s fist could connect, Alfred’s hand shot up and caught it in a white-knuckled grip. Alfred was no weak old man.
He tossed Gavin’s fist aside and opened the door with a flourish. We peered over his shoulder and saw that the tunnel was made of tightly packed earth on all four sides, was extremely narrow, and was very, very dark. My new-found claustrophobia kicked in. As long as we don’t have to go too far and Gavin is with me, I thought, I can make it. Hopefully.
“It’s exactly five hundred meters from here to Magnificat,” Alfred explained. “Not terribly far, but in the dark, you can get disorientated.” Five hundred meters didn’t seem too bad, until I did the metric conversion in my head: five hundred meters was about the length of four-and-a-half football fields. As if a long, suffocating tunnel filled with demons wasn’t bad enough, I remembered I was not a great runner.
“What do you mean ‘in the dark’?” Hunter asked. “We have the torches.”
“We won’t be taking the torches with us, Miss Hunter,” Alfred answered. “It’s better for you girls to run in the dark, so your eyes won’t serve as a distraction.”
“Being able to see is a distraction?” I said.
Alfred nodded. “It is when what you see might override your desire to run. Can’t have you stopping. For anything. You two must run straight, run strong, and not stop until you reach the end. Just keep running!”
“So the demons can see in the dark?” I asked.
“Yes, same as Gavin and me. But you needn’t worry about them. Just run as fast as you can, and let us deal with any uninvited visitors.”
The tunnel’s small girth required us to traverse it single file. We decided that Gavin would take the lead, followed by Hunter—since she was a faster runner and wouldn’t end up crashing into me—then me, and finally Alfred, who would guard us from the rear.