Blood Red City Read Online Free PDF

said.
    â€˜I don’t make the rules,’ Miss Manners told him. ‘But don’t let me catch you sharpening anything you shouldn’t.’
    â€˜You’re not getting mine,’ Davenport said. ‘For three very good reasons.’ He counted them off on his fingers. ‘First, I’m not a civil servant. Second I don’t have one, though I do possess a pocket knife. And third, I prefer a fountain pen anyway.’
    â€˜Leaving our pencils to one side for a moment,’ Brinkman said, ‘as usual we have more questions than answers. So let’s see if we can’t find those answers.’
    â€˜Assuming the Germans don’t arrive this evening,’ Sarah said. ‘I’ll blame you, Leo, if they do.’
    There was a smattering of laughter. It was a national joke that if Britain was invaded on a Thursday evening at 8.30pm, the landings would be unopposed as the whole of Britain – including its armed forces – would be listening to It’s That Man Again on the wireless.
    *   *   *
    â€˜A cat?’
    It was one of the rare occasions when Sarah had seen Dr Wiles show surprise.
    â€˜You want me to find a cat ?’ he repeated. He buttoned his threadbare tweed jacket, then changed his mind and unbuttoned it again before peering at Sarah and Guy over his wire-rimmed spectacles. Then he sniffed, all trace of surprise abruptly gone. ‘Well, I suppose anything’s possible in this game. You’d better tell me all about it. Find yourselves somewhere to sit.’
    It wasn’t as easy as he made it sound. Sarah and Guy finally managed to unearth two chairs from beneath piles of papers and message transcripts. Wiles fussed round, making sure the papers were properly transferred to the floor, which was the only other available surface.
    â€˜Debbie,’ he called across to a young woman in army uniform.
    â€˜It’s Eleanor,’ Sarah corrected him, but the woman didn’t seem to mind.
    Wiles ignored the comment in any case. ‘I think we’re going to need tea. Lots of tea.’ He frowned as she turned to go, and pointed to the far wall. ‘And whose bicycle is that?’
    Eleanor glanced at it. ‘Yours,’ she said.
    â€˜Ah. Good. Well, just leave it there, then, will you, in case I need it? Thank you.’ Wiles slumped down behind his desk. He was almost invisible behind the piles of documents. ‘Now then. Tell me about this cat.’
    â€˜It’s transmitting,’ Guy said.
    â€˜Is it indeed?’ Wiles raised an interested eyebrow. ‘Like a UDT, you mean? We monitor transmissions from them all the time, though we still don’t really understand what their purpose might be.’
    â€˜More like an Ubermensch,’ Sarah said.
    â€˜The men somehow controlled by the mysterious Vril.’ Wiles nodded. ‘Then it’s likely to be a two-way communication. Instructions coming in, and experiential data going out. What the cat sees, hears, smells … How do you know about it?’
    â€˜From some sort of occult ceremony,’ Sarah admitted.
    Wiles’s eyebrow rose higher. ‘Glad I asked.’
    â€˜It seems significant,’ Guy explained. ‘The Vril are looking for something, so far as we can tell. Using the cat.’
    â€˜Ah! So that’s why you want to know where this cat is, so you can find out where they are looking.’
    â€˜Exactly.’
    Wiles leaned back, staring up at the wooden ceiling of the hut. ‘We haven’t picked anything up. But we can double-check what the Y Stations have been sending in. Can’t we, Eleanor?’ he added as she handed him a mug of tea.
    â€˜He knows who I am really,’ she murmured to Sarah as she passed across another mug. ‘I’d offer you sugar, but even if we had any, I wouldn’t know where to find it.’
    â€˜If the Y Stations didn’t pick it up, but Crowley’s