They landed back at the opera house, but this time right at the top
among the technical cubbyholes and storage spaces. “The last thing we
want is her getting hold of the TTC,” Tom said, looking out to check the
coast was clear. “Everyone ready?”
“Let’s get it over with,” Ruth said.
Quickly they found some stairs and made their way down. The audience
were still milling around foyers and stairwells, getting in the way,
but at least it made it easier for them to leave the TTC well behind
before they were noticed. They managed to reach the doors to the
auditorium before someone spotted them and they were marched up to the
stage where the adjudicator was still fuming. Ruth looked around. The
cast and audience had gone, and the place seemed deserted apart from the
adjudicator, her guards and the fantoms. That was probably just as
well.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” the adjudicator said, standing
over them as they were driven up onto the stage and pushed roughly to
the ground. “And where did you get to? More to the point, where is the
TTC?”
“Don’t say anything,” Ruth said to the others.
“Don’t say anything?” the adjudicator mimicked, her rage evident.
“Oh you’ll tell me. You’ll tell me in exchange for your deaths when
you can’t take any more. After what you did today I will make sure you
suffer.” We weakened her authority, Ruth thought, made her look a fool.
If we fail now I’ll wish I’d just let her kill me before.
The fantoms closed in. She took a step towards them.
“Now!” Tom yelled. Adam pulled the baton from his sleeve and began
to conduct. “Stop him!” the adjudicator shouted, lunging forward, but
Ruth and Agnes barred her way. She pushed them away angrily, and Ruth
fell, catching her weight on her barely recovered ankle. She gasped in
pain, as she struggled to stand up.
The fantoms were under coming Adam’s control. At his direction they
formed a ring around the five time travellers. The adjudicator snatched
a wand dropped by one of the faries and began to conduct in opposition
to him. Several of the fantoms stopped, looking from one conductor to
the other, confused.
“You’ve got to stop her,” Adam said urgently. “I don’t know if I can hold them.”
“Order them to attack her,” Agnes said.
“I am! That’s what’s confusing them.”
“Then order them to do something else,” Tom said. “Order them to
leave the building, to go and guard something, anything that gets them
out of the way. Better that risk her using them against us.”
Adam tried. Slowly, the fantoms turned and began to leave the
building. Ruth sighed. Without their help, their chaance of success
was even slimmer. And the adjudicator still had human guards, who must
be somewhere in the building- probably searching for them. Surely,
before long they would return.
Her heart sank. Two more fantoms were emerging from the wings. One
looked more flaky than the others- the one she and Patrick had created
alone. The other, she was fairly sure, was the surviving original.
They were ignoring Adam. They began advancing on the time travellers.
She’s controlled them for longer, Ruth thought, and they know us and
hate us- or me, at least. Adam can’t compete with her control over
them.
“It’s no good,” she said. “Run!”
“She’s right,” Tom said. “Split up. It’s our only chance- they can’t follow all five of us!”
“I don’t need to,” said the adjudicator in Ruth’s ear. She jumped-
and her ankle gave way once more. She tried to run, but the adjudicator
had her arm in a grip like a vice. She could not free herself. The
others were disappearing up the aisles and through various doors,
unaware, but Ruth did not make a sound. There was nothing they could do
for her.
“I’ve got unfinished business with you,” the adjudicator said.
Ruth faced her. “Then get it over with,” she said, trying not to
show she was afraid. Perhaps if she distracted the woman’s attention
her friends might yet be able to escape.
“Oh, it can wait a little longer,” the woman replied. She pulled a
gun from somewhere inside the costume that she was still wearing. She
pushed Ruth down so she was kneeling in the position- in the exact
place- where Iolanthe had waited for her death. I’m even still in the
costume, Ruth thought. How stupid we were- I was- to think we could
stop her. There’s no hope. What have we done?
Maintaining her painfully tight grip on Ruth’s shoulder, the
adjudicator looked up and called, in a sing-song voice that could be
heard all over the building. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.
I’ve got your friend and you cannot get far.”
To her horror Ruth saw Patrick’s face peeping over the rail round the
front of the gallery. And there was Adam, looking out from behind the
curtain of a box. She shouted:
“Don’t listen to her! She’ll kill me anyway, and she’ll kill you to if you give yourselves up. Don’t listen!”
There was one of the fantoms, in the dress circle, crushing seats as
it searched. Where was the other? She looked back up to the gallery.
There it was, framed in the doorway. It had just seen Patrick.
“Patrick! Look out!” she yelled.
The story continues...
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