Page 26 (2/2)

Jazz shook her head "Doesn't matter"

He pointed at her plate with his fork "You're not going to try?"

She collected up some lamb and rice, made sure it was liberally coated in the sauce, and popped it in her mouth It tasted heavenly She half-closed her eyes as she chewed,the side of her fork to slice off a portion of the bhaji and ready it for her next mouthful That was equally superb

"Is there anything you're not good at?" She hated her-self for asking, but damn him, he'd prepared a feast in the time it took her to have a bath

"Chutney"

Jazz sh an-other mouthful "The apparatus"

"Hm roohtful and contemplative "Well that blade you stole is part of it"

"Right So it's a weapon"

"Oh no, not a weapon! And that's not really a blade It's a gear"

"So what does it do?"

Terence ate so a sip of wine He had not asked her again whether she wanted any, and Jazz was beginning to regret saying no He exa to see past her outer self to the real Jazz beneath This is the real ht She wondered whether he heard

"I' to trust you Partly because I like you and I think you're trustworthy, but mostly because you have se-crets too, Jazz Lots of secrets And so each other a great deal We both hold pieces of a puzzle, I suspect Perhaps this evening we can make it whole"

"Perhaps," she said "But you know nothing of littering "Which is why they're secrets But Pooh was right: some secrets are heavy, and a burden shared is easier to carry And soht"

"So noe're friends?" Jazz asked

Terence shrugged and ate so, and it see rooain "This really doesn't seem like you," she said

Terence held his hands up, ht Maybe that's hten for me I never really had a hoician," Terence said He put down his knife and fork, took another sip of wine, and rested his elbows on the table "But when he found out the price of e he wanted if it ician, he tried to become a savior But the Blackwood Club killed him"

"They killed your father," Jazz said in a monotone

Terence nodded

"Why?"

"Because the cause of the Blackwood Club --their rea-son for being, froht up until today--has been the acquisition ofpoured so his own

"Go on," Jazz said

"You know some of this," he said "Don't you?"

She took a drink It was cool and refreshing, but she heard hervoice at the back of her mind Drink too et back You need your wits about you all the tilass, then took another mouthful

"Tell me your story," she said "Then I'll tell you what I know And if we meet somewhere in the middle --"

"We will We do!"

Jazz stared at her host

"The spirit of London," Terence said He waited for a reaction, but when Jazz gave hihosts down there in the Underground --the Tube lines, the shelters, the sewers and storage places, and places far deeper too The souls of London past, played out again and again; the spirit of the ancient city itself All big cities have a hidden soul, do you know that? London has al-ways been a turbulent place, a place of learning and o who had a e than most people do no, a child'skind of input, ht two hundred, six hundred, a thousand years ago"

"Polluted by what?" Jazz asked

"TV The cult of celebrity Society nowadays places i people Three hundred years ago, it was the learned types of London who held ers on the pulse of the city Now so theic in that?"

"I have no heroes," Jazz said

Terence beca at Jazz with his fork "Yes, but you're unique!"

Jazz ate her final mouthful of food and followed it with ain, tapping his wineglass with the signet ring on his right hand, almost lost in his oorld

"Your father?" Jazz said

"My father Alan Whitcoician who tried to become a savior He knehat the spirit of London was, you see He knew there was trueto be picked up and learned by who-ever had the desire But sometinized its true state: tor-tured"

Jazz paled and Terence stared at her, but she said noth-ing Let hiht

Then I'II decide whether I should talk to hienius, froreatness The more he knew about the tortured spirit of the old city, thethrough books and records There are places in London designed to keep secrets, which keep them still, butknowledge, and at the end of that ti"

"The apparatus," Jazz said

"Yes, the apparatus The Blackwood Club knew of hiate the hidden secrets of London without theenius ca the an apparatus ments and parts, which, when finished, would put the spirit of old London to rest"

"And the o doith it The tiicians is dead, Jazz Huhs on society like Marley's chains A people, a cul-ture, a city like Londonits skin"

Jazz frowned "Sorry I don't understand"

Terence gave it a ed on "The direction of my life has been totally defined by the ed by their past, even shackled by it Until we put the past to rest, we can'tour dead ancestors on our backs"

Jazz shivered, thinking of her o

"Think of a deposed king who cannot accept a world in which no one bows to him anymore,"

Terence continued "Even ordinary people are often affected by the lory days Now extend that idea to an entire city Once, London was the heart of an eic thrived here The collective consciousness of London had an i is dead, Jazz