like Earth, disrupting the environment on many different levels, including the spontaneous generation of new and deadly viruses.
Arthur thought about that as he watched the sleepers march, occasionally intervening to keep them moving. His presence now with the Fifth Key would undoubtedly destabilise something on Earth, maybe even create something really bad like the Sleepy Plague. He would not be able to linger, and perhaps should not even stay long enough to go home and check up on his family. But he desperately wanted to see if his sister Michaeli and brother Eric were all right, and also to find some clue to where his mother Emily might be or who might have taken her, if Sneezer was correct and she was no longer on Earth at all.
A ringing phone interrupted his thoughts. It got louder and louder, closer and closer. Arthur scowled. He didn’t have a mobile phone, but the old-fashioned ring tone was coming from the pocket of his paper suit…
He sighed, put the Fifth Key in his pocket and rummaged around to see what else was in there. When his fingers closed on a small cold tube he knew hadn’t been there before, he pulled it out and found a full-sized, antique candlestick-style phone with a separate earpiece that could neither have fitted into his pocket in the first place or come out of it if it had. It was, in other words, a perfectly normal manifestation of a House telephone, behaving according to its own magical rules.
“Yes?” said Arthur.
“Stand by,” said a voice that sounded much more like a human telephone operator than a Denizen. “Thru-connecting now, sir.”
“Who’s that?” asked someone else. A familiar, masculine voice—again not a Denizen.
“Erazmuz!?” asked Arthur in surprise. Erazmuz was his oldest half-brother, a major in the army. How could he be calling on a House telephone?
“Arthur? How come the screen’s off? Never mind. Is Emily home?”
“Uh, no,” said Arthur. “I’m not—”
“Eric? Michaeli?”
Erazmuz was talking really fast, not letting Arthur get a word in, so he couldn’t tell him that he wasn’t home, even if it was the number that Erazmuz had dialled.
“No, they’re not—”
“That’s…”
Erazmuz’s voice trailed away for a second, then he came back, talking faster than ever.
“OK…you’ve got to grab any bottled water and food, like tins or packaged stuff, and an opener, get warm clothes and head down to the cellar as soon as you can, but no more than ten minutes from now. Ten minutes maximum, OK? Shut it up tight and stay down there. Do you know where Emily and the others are?”
“No! What’s going on?”
“General Pravuil has just flown in and he’s ordered the launch of four micronukes at what’s left of East Area Hospital at 12:01. If you get to the cellar, you should be OK, just don’t come out till I get there. I’ll be with the clean-up—”
“What!” exclaimed Arthur. “Nukes! I can’t believe you—the army—is going to nuke part of the city? There must be thousands of people—”
“Arthur! I shouldn’t even be talking to you! Don’t waste time!”
There was a clear sound of desperation in Erazmuz’s voice.
“We can’t stop it; the general’s got every clearance—the hospital’s been declared a viral plague nexus under the Creighton Act. Get water and food and some blankets and get down to the cellar now!”
The line went dead. The phone started to fade in Arthur’s hand, becoming insubstantial, its sharp edges turning foggy and cold.
“Hold on,” ordered Arthur. He tightened his grip. “I want to make a call.”
The telephone solidified again. There was a sound like a distant choir singing, followed by some indistinct shouting. Then a light, silvery voice said, “Oh, get off, do. This is our exchange—we don’t care what Saturday says. Operator here.”
“This is Lord Arthur. I need to speak to Dr Scamandros urgently, please. I’m not sure where he is—probably the Lower House.”
“Ooh, Lord Arthur. It’s a bit tricky right now. I’ll do my best. Please hold.”
Arthur lowered the phone for a second and looked around. He couldn’t see a clock and he had no idea what time of day it was. Nor did he know how close this private hospital was to the big East Area Hospital—it could be next door for all he knew. Leaf, Martine and Vess were in the other rooms, settling down sleepers, so there wasn’t anyone to ask. Many more of the old folk continued to shamble past.
Arthur ran up the ramp, narrowly missing slowly-swinging elbows and widely-planted feet. He kept the earpiece to his head, but he couldn’t hear anything now, not even the shouting in the background.
“Leaf! Leaf! What time is it?” he shouted in the general direction of the door. Then he raised the telephone and, hardly lowering his voice, insisted, “I must speak to Dr Scamandros! Quickly, please!”
Leaf came running back as Arthur ran forward and the two nearly collided at the door. In recovering, they turned several sleepers around. It took a moment to get them sorted out, with Arthur still trying to hold the phone.
“What time is it?” Arthur asked again.
“Time? I wouldn’t have a clue,” puffed Leaf. “It’s night-time outside.”
“Ask Vess, quickly. The army is going to nuke East Area Hospital at 12:01 Saturday morning!”
“What!?” shrieked Leaf.
“I can probably do something,” said Arthur hastily. “I have to check with Dr Scamandros. Find out how close to East Area we are!”
Leaf turned and ran. Arthur pressed his ear harder against the phone, thinking he heard something. But the only sound was the shuffle of the sleepers as they slowly passed by him. The telephone itself was silent.
“Come on, come on,” whispered Arthur anxiously, half into the telephone, half out into the air. He had an idea about something he could do, but he needed to check with Scamandros about exactly how to do it and what could go wrong.
No answer came from the phone, but Leaf came running back.
“It’s ten minutes to midnight on Friday night!” she shouted. “We’re less than half a mile away from East Area. This even used to be part of the big hospital years ago!”
She skidded to a halt next to Arthur and gulped down several panicked breaths.
“What are you going to do? We’ve only got ten minutes!”
“Hello!” Arthur shouted into
