RETURN
GOTOITALY
FIND
LURIABIO
INEAGLE
HOUSE
STAYOFFLINE.
When I am finished decoding, my mind is reeling. My heart beats faster, my breathing deepens and my senses sharpen. Survival kicks in. Incredibly, I find the sensation liberating, invigorating even. Within seconds, I have scanned every person on the upper deck for potential threats.
The only line of emoticons that doesn’t make sense is ‘Luriabio’. Perhaps it’s a person or a place. Eagle House makes perfect sense now. The derelict building site in Italy. But the words that keep echoing in my head are ‘trust nobody’.
What did Albert know?
When I look up and out of the window, the bus is pulling into Oxford Street. I scan the road outside, curious to see the turning for Callico House, wondering if the secrets concern Albert’s family. As the bus crawls along past the turn-off, I crane forward, pressing my forehead against the cold glass, only to spy three white squad cars in the distance, at the far end of the road leading into the heart of Mayfair, sitting outside the entrance to Callico House, their lights flashing.
I thrust myself back in my seat, even though nobody could possibly recognise me from the road, let alone the house. An instinct to survive seems to crystallise inside me, even if I have no idea right now what the danger might be. I’m tempted to call Alice, but whenever I think about the emojis for ‘trust nobody’, I hear Albert’s voice. When he gave firm advice, I listened. Instead of getting off at my stop, I remain on the bus and continue toward Tufnell Park.
My mind keeps going over what he could have uncovered. Albert specialised in all manner of viral disease prevention and cure. Sylvie Leblanc’s specialism was respiratory infections. She was heavily involved in developing effective vaccines against each variant of COVID, while Stephan Dytrovich spent many years studying genetic lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis andoccupational lung diseases. They all sounded similar to me, but Albert told me that in medical circles, they were considered as different as night and day. If they had all been singled out to be killed, there had to be another reason, something that involved me. Why else send me the secret message?
By the time I reach my stop, I am exhausted trying to hypothesise a solution to make sense of the riddle.
Josh had suggested meeting up outside the Tube station at six. I can’t go back to Callico House now. How can I, when a place I have always considered stuffy and tedious might prove to be dangerous, or even deadly? Just after midday, and I now have an afternoon to kill. I need to hear a friendly voice.
“Angel Gabriel. How’s it hanging?” comes Josh’s cheerful voice down the phone line, by way of an old greeting.
“Are we still good for tonight?”
“You bet. Actually, I was going to message you. Instead of hanging around outside the Tube entrance—we’ve both done enough of that in our days—there’s a pub called the Frog and Fox on the high street. Bit of a dump, but the beer’s decent enough. I clock off at five, so I’ll meet you there for a quickie at six, and then we can head to my place. Shan’s working from home, so he’s knocking up some food in your honour. How does that sound?”
“Josh, tell him not to go out of his way. We can order takeout—”
“Are you kidding. He loves showing off. And his food is amazing. Learnt from his Bengali grandmother, so he says. Not that I give a shit as long as he feeds me.”
“And Josh—”
“Of course you can stay over. But you’re on the sofa bed. We don’t do threesomes.”
“Still the funny guy.”
“We had a feeling you might want to get away right now. How long do you need? A week? Two? At least until after the funeral?”
“I’m not going to the funeral—”
“What the fuck!”
“It’s fine. The family don’t want me there, and I don’t want to be anywhere near them. It’s a win-win. Long story.”
“Are you okay, mate? You sound weird. Well, weirder than normal. Must have been a rough ride for you over—”
“It’s not that, Josh,” I say, but then hesitate. “I’ll tell you all about it tonight.”
“Sounds ominous.”