The Wonderground

35 - Ring Ring

Rose hefted open the heavy door to Clavis Majstar's office. The six were tired, filthy and sweaty. They drifted into the office to find Kaiata seated in Clavis' chair with her knee-high boots up on his desk. She was surprised to see them and fell backwards out of the seat.

"I am so sorry," blushed Kaiata as she recovered, stood to greet them and dusted herself down. "You were not meant to see that. You will not tell Clavis will you?" She stopped blabbering when she saw the state of the six children.

She pointed to the six chairs they had sat in the day before. Was it only yesterday? They slumped gratefully into the seats. A teenage boy in a Wonderground uniform that was too big for him stumbled awkwardly into the room carrying a tray of mugs. He clattered it awkwardly onto the desk, spattering potato tea over the commander's paperwork. The boy doffed his cap towards Kaiata before retreating, tripping over his untied shoelaces, and scurrying away without speaking.

Rose reached for the nearest mug and knocked it over clumsily just as Kaiata was trying to pick it up. The piping hot contents spilt over Kaiata's gloved right hand. She yelped in pain. "Why you clumsy little...!" she snarled.

"I'm so sorry," apologised Rose.

"It is fine," hissed Kaiata irritably. She bit the middle finger of her glove and whipped it quickly off her hand. Her skin was an angry red colour. She sucked her fingers to ease the pain and stormed from the room. None of the children heard the door being locked from the outside.

Elliot stared at the spillage. His face was anguished and he was holding his breath.

"Are you okay Elliot?" asked Jack.

"Her hand," managed Elliot. "Did nobody see her hand?"

"We all did, Elliot," said Amelia. "It was awful, we know. It was an accident." She smiled reassuringly at Rose.

"That's why she wears gloves," concluded Elliot, muttering to himself.

"What are you gibbering about?" asked Jack.

"Kaiata has a tattoo between her thumb and index finger," Elliot explained, "identical to the one on the conductor's hand from the Crimson Sandstorm."

"She's a Gatekeeper," said Rose sceptically. "It's probably just the logo of some Lowdown sports team."

"Was it an 'S' intertwined with a dagger?" asked Charlie.

"You saw it too?" replied Elliot.

Charlie paled visibly. "No. But I saw the same tattoo on Erimos' hand when he kidnapped me."

"She's meant to be a good guy," said Isla naïvely. "What are we saying? She's one of them?"

"What should we do?" asked Rose.

"The doors." Jack stared at the wall of newspaper clippings and photographs. "We're at The Portal Gate, remember? Any of those doors takes us back to the Upworld."

"Which do we choose?" asked Isla. "They could lead anywhere."

"I don't think so," suggested Jack, stepping closer to the spiderweb of coloured strings. He prodded each photograph in turn. "Red telephone box," he said, pointing at a picture of the Tower of London. He found one in a picture of a castle on a hill. "Another red telephone box." He scanned the wall. There was another red box on a seaside pier. "Every one of these landmarks has a red telephone box. What if the phone box is the portal? That would mean that all doors lead back to Britain at the very least."

"He's right," said Elliot impressed. "Clavis said that the original portal splintered into many when the London Underground was constructed. It makes sense that all the newly formed portals would be close to the original."