Chapter 33

Mimi ran stumbling down the stairs of the ziggurat, trying to keep her footing in the face of constant explosions. She ducked falling debris and arrived at the bottom of the steps to find a crowd of Grey Agents standing, looking blearily around at the spectacle of destruction. Looking closely, Mimi could see they were no longer Grey Agents. They were the children they had been before they were possessed by the creatures from beyond the gate. Their eyes were no longer that strange golden colour but had returned to the normal range of human hues: blue, brown, grey, and green. The grey clothes hung off their bodies. Wires peeled away from their bald skulls, the vestiges of their possession. They saw her coming and pressed in around her, hands out, beseeching.

“Where are we?” they asked. “Where’s my mommy? Where’s my daddy? I want to go home!” Mimi raised her arms. “I cain’t explain everything to ya right now! All I know is we gotta get outta here! Follow me if ya wanna live.”

She pushed her way through the crowd and they began to follow her. She ran back across the chamber, threading her way through burning wreckage. The former agents trailed behind her in an unruly, confused mob on the verge of panic.

She ran up the steps onto the catwalk and immediately saw the open door to the transport bay. Maggie and Thomas waited for her, waving frantically.

“Over here! This way,” the brother and sister called.

Mimi led her horde across the catwalk and through the door. Inside, she found the open bay strewn with wreckage and burning equipment. Transport pods were ranged all around the walls of the vast bay. She looked straight across and saw the open elevator waiting. Parveen waved from the side of the door. The elevator was truly enormous, meant to carry the huge cargo pods. All the children from the Hall of Batteries had been loaded aboard the elevator and there was still plenty of room to spare.

Mimi pointed to the elevator and shouted, “Go! Go! Go!” The former agents needed no urging. They sped across the bay and began boarding the elevator, joining the children freshly liberated by Parveen.

“Who are they?” Parveen asked, pointing at the crowd of children following Mimi.

“They was Grey Agents, but now thur children again.” She waved off further explanation. “No time fer talk. Hamish is holding things together long enough fer us ta git. Now let’s git.”

Satisfied that the loading was underway, Mimi turned back and walked out the door onto the catwalk.

“Where are you going?” Maggie demanded.

“I’m goin’ back for Hamish.”

“Then we’re coming, too,” Thomas announced.

Mimi was about to argue when a gigantic, rumbling crash rolled across them. The stone floor beneath them heaved like a living thing. Looking out through the bay door, they saw the entire far wall of the gate chamber crumble. Behind the wall millions of litres of seawater from Narragansett Bay surged to fill the gap. Steam billowed as the fires were swiftly extinguished. The ziggurat teetered, then dissolved under the weight of the water. The tiny figure that was Hamish disappeared in the foaming deluge.

“Holy jumpin’,” Mimi said softly. She knew that any chance of returning to save Hamish was gone. The water swept swiftly towards the door. Mimi, Maggie, and Thomas backed into the transport bay. As soon as they were safely across the threshold, the steel door lowered to seal off the bay.

“Thanks, Hamish,” Mimi rasped, dashing tears from her eyes with her sleeve. Loudly she said, “Let’s get outta here!”

The three children turned and ran for the elevator.

The elevator rose slowly. The rumble of explosions and the surge of water faded.

Parveen sat beside Mimi with their backs to the wall. They were exhausted, but they had to make sure everyone was safe. Maggie and Thomas had introduced themselves, and Mimi had taken an instant dislike to the brassy girl with the curly hair.

Parveen chuckled at that.

“It’s because you two are exactly alike, you know.”

“Are not.” But Mimi didn’t have the heart to argue. She looked around the elevator. The children who had been agents looked a little shell-shocked and confused but otherwise healthy. Mimi’s heart went out to them. She could only imagine how horrible it must have been to live with those creatures inside your body for so long. They would need to heal.

In one corner, Cara sat with her brother’s head in her lap. She stroked Aidan’s bald scalp as the boy slept. Bundles of wires still sprouted from his skull, but his skin was already taking on a more natural pinkish hue. Cara looked up as Mimi passed. They shared a smile.

Noor sat beside Parveen, chatting quietly. She and the other children who had been in the Hall of Batteries looked surprisingly well. They had been fed and rested, but lack of activity had made them stiff. After Parveen had unhooked them from the cables and pumps, they had regained consciousness very quickly. They had managed to get to the elevator under their own steam.

Satisfied, Mimi returned to her place beside Parveen and sat down, allowing her eyes to close for the briefest moment.

The elevator shuddered to a halt. The doors slid open to reveal the back of the house on Angell Street. They had come up in its garage. Sunlight streamed into the elevator, and the warm smell of cut grass flooded Mimi’s nostrils. Mimi and Parveen left Maggie and Thomas to unload the escapees while they went around to the front of the house.

The grass was strewn with the wreckage of the shattered window. In the middle of the perfectly manicured lawn, a knot of wounded Guards stood gathered around Mrs. Francis where she sat holding Mr. Kipling’s head against her chest and rocking gently back and forth.

As Mimi and Parveen drew near, they could see that Mrs. Francis’s face was streaked with the tracks of drying tears. She looked up and her eyes were red. Seeing Parveen, she smiled sadly. “I knew you could take care of yourself, Parveen.”

Mimi knelt beside Mrs. Francis and looked at the face of Mr. Kipling. He looked as if he could be asleep, save for the ashen pallor of his skin. His eyes were closed. He looked peaceful.

“Silly, brave old man,” Mrs. Francis said softly. “He saved me. We made it through so much together and in the end, I lose him to a teapot.” She smiled weakly and stroked her husband’s head. “Sweet, silly, brave old man.”

Mimi felt the tears start anew. She’d thought she couldn’t possibly have any more, but they came.

“He loved flowers,” Mrs. Francis said. “And he loved you, Mimi. Like a daughter. And you, too, Parveen and Hamish X. We were his little family.”

At that, Parveen broke down and wept. Mimi had never seen such an outburst from the little boy who had crossed the world with her, shared so many adventures, and always kept his feelings to himself. The most he ever gave was a fleeting smile, but for the old naval officer he wept hot with great, shuddering sobs. Mimi wrapped her arms around Parveen and pulled him close. Then Mrs. Francis reached out with her soft, plump arm and pulled them all into her warm embrace.