Necropolis

eyes. They had given her back her own clothes, but her hair, cut so short, still felt unfamiliar to her. At least she had lost the contact lenses. She had taken them out the moment she had been left to herself. .
    "Are you okay?" Matt asked.
    "No." She sounded miserable. "How long have I been asleep?"
    "I don't know. They only brought me here an hour ago."
    "When was that?"
    "About eight o'clock."
    "Night or day?"
    "Day."
    Matt examined his surroundings. They were in a bare, windowless room with brick walls and a concrete floor. The only light came from a bulb set in a wire mesh cage. From the moment the solid steel door had been closed and locked, he'd had to fight a sense of claustrophobia. They were deep underground.
    The policemen who had brought him here had forced him down four flights of stairs and then along a corridor that was like a tunnel. Ordinary policemen. The same as the ones who had arrested him. It seemed that the shape-changers, the fly soldiers, and all the other creatures of the Old Ones had decided to leave Hong Kong. He wondered why.
    Despite everything, he had been relieved to find Scarlett. She looked very different from the photograph he had seen of her. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like for her, being stuck here on her own.
    "Why are you here?" Scarlett asked. She still couldn't keep the disappointment out of her voice.
    "I came for you," Matt said. He wanted to tell her more, but he didn't dare. There was always a chance that they were being listened to.
    'You shouldn't have. I've ruined everything. I'd have got away if I hadn't…" Scarlett stopped herself. She couldn't bring herself to talk about her last meeting with her father.
    Matt sat next to her so that they were shoulder to shoulder with their legs stretched out on the floor.
    From the way he moved, she could see that he had been hurt. He looked pale and exhausted. "Why don't you tell me everything that happened to you?" he suggested. 'You could start by telling me where we are. Do you know?"
    She nodded. "The chairman came to see me…"

    "Who is the chairman?"
    "Just some creep in a suit."
    "I think I may have met him."
    "He wanted to gloat over me," Scarlett continued. "He told me that you were on your way, but I'd hoped he was lying. This is an old prison. We're right in the middle of Hong Kong. It was left over from Victorian times."
    "So when do they serve breakfast?"
    "They don't. It's bread and cold soup, and they bring it once a day."
    Matt lowered his voice. "Hopefully we won't be here that long," he said. It was as much as he dared tell her, but even so, Scarlett felt a glimmer of hope. 'You know I went to your home in Dulwich," he said, changing the subject.
    "Was that you in the car? There was an accident —"
    "It was no accident."
    "I knew it had to be you," Scarlett said. "They planned it all very carefully, didn't they? Using me to get you here. Are any of the others with you?"
    Matt nodded briefly and Scarlett understood. They both had to be careful what they said. She gazed at him as if seeing him for the first and the last time. "I can't believe you're here. I can't believe I'm really talking to you. Do you know, I've even dreamed about you."
    "Don't worry about it," Matt said. "We all dream about each other. It's how it works."
    "There's so much I don't understand."
    "Join the club."
    "It looks like I already have." She took a deep breath. "I don't know where my story even begins, but I suppose I'd better start with St. Meredith's…"
    She told him — briefly and without fuss — and as she spoke, Matt knew that he was going to like her.
    She had been through so much, and in a way her experiences reminded him of his own at Lesser Mailing, the way she had been reeled into something so completely beyond her understanding. And yet she had coped with it. She had been brought here. She had been locked in this room for three days. But she hadn't cracked. She was ready to fight back.
    She finished talking, and it seemed to Matt that just for a moment the building trembled as something, a shock wave, traveled through the walls. Scarlett looked up, alarmed. Part of her knew what was happening and had even been expecting it.
    "What?" Matt began.
    "It was nothing." She said it so hastily that he could see she didn't want to talk about it, didn't even want to imagine what might be happening outside. "Tell me about yourself," she went on quickly. "Tell me how you got here. Did you go to the temple? They've