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"Like silhouettes Just flickers, really," she lied, though she wasn't sure why she withheld the truth It felt personal to her Intihosts"

"Perhaps they are But either way, they're old things, whispering down here the way the beams and boards in an old house will creak when the wind blows Nothing to con-cern yourself with"

Jazz hesitated a li her curiously Then the h to erase the conversation "Nothing to worry about, though I don't talk about the echoes with the others They've enough superstition a you now, Jazz girl

It's the Hour you've got to be careful of Just because things have been quiet down here doesn't h the twisted steel door and into a huge circular tunnel, which had been ground into the rock and unlined There were not even any supports built here for line and platform It was unfinished rather than abandoned; this place had never formed a true part of the Tube Perhaps a plan had been drarong, or money had run out, but this was a route that led nowhere There was graffiti on one wall, but it had faded with ti the tunnel at its highest point and following the curve

"We call it the Hour of Screah it doesn't last an hour, and soh the Underground --at least, through all those places hidden ahere people aren't supposed to be or even know about Or where there are people like us

Because in a way, I suppose some of us are as lost as the spirits that make the scream"

"Spirits?" Jazz asked "But you said you didn't think --"

"It's old London that cries out, young Jazz You know the saying, If a tree falls in a forest and there's nobody there to hear it, does it make any noise at all? The Hour of Screa tree It happens whether there's anyone to hear it or not, because it's just a part of how things e, and die, and then they fall So it is with history History's all about rise and fall, you know that, girl?"

Jazz did not respond, because she thought it was a ques-tion that did not call for an answer

"Everyone knows about the Hour of Screahts

"True," Harry said "But not everyone knows not to lis-ten To hear it is painful Perhaps da

I've seen people driven et better, Jazz It touches the people shouldn't bear the burdens of the dead When I first caether, when I was on h one day The lady I'd hooked up with for a while, Kathryn, she refused to cover her ears, refused to sing her song Said she was proud Well, proud she may have been, but after the screams she was mad as well

She ran Tried to catch her, but she ran faster than I She went deeper than I ever had or have since, and for all I know she's still running and still going deeper"

"You said she'd be dead by now," Cadge said Harry nodded and sighed again "And I'm sure she is

But still I wonder, and hope"

"But what is the Hour of Screams?" Jazz asked "You say spirits, but what spirits?"

"Old London," Harry said "The restless spirit of the old city, wailing in grief In pain too No one knows for sure, not even I But perhaps it's the remnants of London's past not yet at rest: people, places, events, dark deeds, and there are plenty of those The tiring soul of one of the world's old-est cities"

"What does it have to do with the the echoes we've heard?" Jazz asked

Harry studied her "Perhaps nothing And perhaps the Hour's what happens when the whispers wake up for a bit"

"Maybe it's just the sound of trains in the distance," Jazz said

Cadge laughed "If you'd 'eard it, you'd never say that"

"It's not just a sound," Harry said "Younow, Jazz, and cover your ears and sing it when you know the Hour's coe, the sight of weary shadows, the taste of rot, the feel of the screah it wants to carry you away"

"But it doesn't last an hour?"

Harry shook his head "Soe said "Here we are The way down"

They had reached the end of the desolate tunnel, and Cadge aih hole in the wall to their left It had been hacked into the concrete rather than forate bolted in The gate seemed to be closed, but Harry stepped forward and shoved it open It creaked

"Another way back to the United Kingdom?" Jazz asked

Harry smiled "There are several," he said "It wouldn't do to live somewhere down here with only one way in or out"

Why not? she wanted to ask But h infors down here, heard them, and out of everyone she seemed to see and hear the most

What that meant for her when the Hour of Screams came, she really didn't wish to know

Maybe it would be best if she did not hang around long enough to find out

The ree went first,under pipes and sidestepping pools of stag-nant water that reflected rainbows of grease Jazz followed, race He was a natural down here

Harry Fowler followed thehts, and Jazz wondered how long he had been down here He must have a history, a pro-fession, perhaps a wife and children soet, or destinies yet to fulfill He was much older than all of them, and older people had ht She always feared more than me Tried to make me as scared as her, but it took this to make that so

They heard sounds in the distance, and Jazz froze at every one But Cadge did not, and Harry always calmed her with a smile or a shake of his head They knew the sounds of the Underground, which belonged and which did not

Jazz knew that she had a decision to make The tih her new home She had to decide whether to wait for that to happen And if she did wait, she had to decide whether she would choose a song to sing or open up her senses and listen