Blood Red City Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘Since you have to shoot off, Leo, we’d better get started.’
    â€˜Mrs Archer sends her apologies,’ Miss Manners said. ‘She’s busy with something down in her cavern under the British Museum. I didn’t really understand what.’
    Brinkman nodded. ‘And I assume Dr Wiles won’t be joining us.’
    â€˜I doubt he even remembers we’re having a meeting,’ Sarah said.
    She was right. Henry Wiles was a brilliant cryptographer who headed up a small team at Station X – Britain’s secret code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park. His job was to try to make sense of emissions intercepted from the UDT craft and other Vril sources. The same emissions that Crowley’s séances seemed to pick up.
    The main topic of discussion was Crowley’s information from their meeting a couple of days previously. Brinkman summarised the little he and Guy had learned. Then Miss Manners gave a brief account of her subsequent meeting with Jane Roylston.
    â€˜This arrived in this morning’s post,’ she said, unfolding a foolscap sheet of drawing paper and pushing it into the middle of the table.
    Everyone leaned forward to see. On the paper was a pencil drawing, just as Jane had described to Miss Manners. But now the shape was shaded, symbols drawn across it as if engraved in whatever material it was fashioned from.
    â€˜What is it?’ Sarah asked.
    â€˜That’s the question,’ Miss Manners replied.
    â€˜Could be Sumerian,’ Davenport mused, rubbing his chin. Of all of them, he was the most versed in history and archaeology. ‘Have you shown Elizabeth?’ he asked. They all knew that his knowledge was minuscule compared with Elizabeth Archer’s expertise.
    â€˜Not yet,’ Miss Manners said. ‘But I shall.’
    Curator of the British Museum’s Department of Unclassified Artefacts, Elizabeth Archer was knowledgeable in areas that very few people knew existed. She was also responsible for a collection of artefacts that even fewer people knew existed – a secret archive of whatever could not be explained, or ought not to exist according to conventional science and theory. Her experience, advice and insight were invaluable to Station Z.
    â€˜Wiles may have some idea about these symbols, whatever they are,’ Brinkman said.
    â€˜Runes?’ Green suggested. ‘They remind me of some of the stuff in that burial site in Suffolk.’
    â€˜If it’s something related to the Vril, then that would make sense,’ Guy agreed. ‘We saw some very similar symbols in their base in North Africa.’
    Davenport nodded. ‘Several of them were the same, I’m sure.’
    Brinkman sat back in his chair. ‘It seems to me that before Leo heads off to entertain the nation, we have a few things to follow up on. We need to know what this drawing represents. So wrack your brains, check any sources you can. Miss Manners will show it to Mrs Archer, and a copy to Dr Wiles too please.’
    â€˜There’s the cat as well,’ Miss Manners said.
    â€˜I’m sorry?’ Sarah said.
    â€˜Jane – she said she was somehow connected to a cat. She saw through its eyes.’
    â€˜So if we knew where this cat is, it might give us a clue as to what it’s doing,’ Guy said.
    â€˜And why it’s important,’ Sergeant Green added. ‘There’s a reason the Vril want this thing, whatever it is. If we knew that, we’d know if we want it, or want to stop them getting it, or really don’t care either way.’
    â€˜Oh, that reminds me,’ Miss Manners said as she retrieved the drawing, ‘I shall need your pencil sharpeners.’
    â€˜May I ask why?’ Leo Davenport enquired.
    â€˜There’s a memo going round. Pencil sharpeners are now banned within the civil service, to conserve pencils. There’s a shortage.’
    â€˜That’s ridiculous,’ Guy