Captives

SIXTY-ONE

The beating of dozens of wings sounded like disembodied applause, receding gradually into the darkness.

Trevor Magee stopped and looked up as the pigeons took off, anxious to avoid him as he made his way across Trafalgar Square. To his right was a hot-dog stand with a number of people gathered around it. From where he stood the pungent smell of frying onion was easily detectable. To his left one of the massive bronze lions that guarded the square had become a meeting place for some teenagers grouped around a ghetto blaster. Music was roaring from it. Magee didn't recognise the tune. Ahead were the fountains and Nelson's Column, jabbing upwards towards the overcast heavens as if threatening to tear the low cloud and release the torrents of rain that seemed to be swelling in them.

Magee walked on, across the square, hands still dug firmly into his pockets. Every so often he would glance over his shoulder.

As far as he could tell no one was following him. His pace remained steady as he walked past the low wall surrounding the fountain.

A man was standing precariously on the wall urinating into the water.

Magee stopped to watch him, his face impassive.

'What the fucking hell are you looking at?' the man slurred, almost falling into the water.

Magee stood his ground a moment longer, then headed towards the stone steps. He took them two at a time, pausing at the top to look back across the square.

He scanned the dark figures moving about in the blackness, saw the odd flash-bulb explode as tourists took pictures of one of the capital's most famous landmarks. Then he crossed the street in front of the National Gallery, glancing up at the massive edifice of the building in the process. There was a man outside, close to one set of steps, selling hot chestnuts, the smell of burning coals and roasting nuts filling Magee's nostrils. The sights of London at night were something to behold but how many people, he wondered, ever noticed the variety of smells?

He continued walking, past a queue of people filing aboard a sight-seeing bus, jostling for the best positions as they reached the open upper deck. Finally he turned into St Martin's Place.

Across the street, on the steps of St Martin-in-the-Fields church, there was movement.

Magee could make out two figures crouched on the steps near the top, quite close to the door of the church.

They were passing a bottle back and forth between them.

As he looked more closely he saw what appeared to be a bundle of rags behind them. On closer inspection the bundle of rags rose and revealed itself to be a woman, filthy dirty, her skin so grimy she was almost invisible in the gloom.

As Magee watched she tottered down the steps and wandered off down Duncannon Street in the direction of the Strand.

He stood watching her, his face set, the muscles in his jaw pulsing angrily.

After what seemed an eternity he moved on, casting a cursory glance across at the two men sitting on the steps outside the church. As he reached Irving Street he paused again, looking behind him.

Still no sign.

Magee quickened his pace, walking up the centre of the wide road, passing restaurants on either side. The people inside them reminded him of goldfish, seated in the windows, bereft of any privacy from prying eyes as they ate. He emerged into Leicester Square slowing his pace again, glancing once over his shoulder before moving off to his right, past a line of people waiting to enter the Odeon. Two buskers were playing banjos, walking up and down the line, while a dwarf scampered in and out of the waiting cinema-goers with an outstretched hand, cajoling money from the queue.

He was holding a flat cap full of coins. As each woman dropped money into the cap he would kiss her hand before skipping on to the next.

He even looked up at Magee, who merely ignored the little man and walked on, hands still dug deep into his pockets.

A drain had overflowed at the end of the road and water was running down the tarmac. Mageie paid it little heed as he continued his nocturnal stroll, looking around him constantly, occasionally slowing down to look over his shoulder or perhaps changing direction quickly, ducking into a group of people.

Just in case.

He could hear shouting up ahead; and there was a large gathering of people around a man who was obviously standing on a box of some kind.

Magee pushed his way carefully through the crowd until he reached the front. The man was dressed in a combat jacket and jeans, and behind him stood two more men, their hair cropped short, dressed in a similar fashion but holding two flags, a Union Jack and a red flag with a cross on it. Another was handing out leaflets with 'THE JESUS ARMY' emblazoned on them. Magee took one, glanced at it and stuffed it into his pocket.

The man on the box was shouting about death and re-birth, Heaven and Hell.

Magee smiled.

He walked on, heading round the square towards the cinema.

To his right he saw another of them.

Man. Woman.

At first he couldn't be sure. As he drew closer he saw that it was a man huddled beneath a thick overcoat, sitting on the pavement watching the crowds go by. In front of him he had a piece of cardboard on which was scrawled: HOMELESS AND HUNGRY.

Magee looked at the cardboard and then at the man who, he guessed, was younger than himself.

Two girls passed by and tossed coins into his small plastic cup.

The man nodded his thanks and watched the girls walk away. Both of them wore short skirts. He smiled approvingly.

Magee glared at him, his hands still deep in his pockets.

He hardly felt the hand on his shoulder.

He spun round, his heart thumping against his ribs.

He had been careless.

'You got a light, please, mate?'

A man stood there with the cigarette held between his lips. When he repeated himself, the words seemed to sink in. Magee nodded and fumbled in his coat pocket for some matches he knew were there. He struck one and cupped his hand around the flame.

'Cheers,' said the man and disappeared back into the throng.

Magee nodded in silent acknowledgement and slipped the matches back into his pocket.

As he withdrew his hand he felt the coldness of the knife and corkscrew against his flesh. He patted them through the material of his overcoat and walked on.