Lockwood Read Online Free PDF Page A

enamelling on the point. Feel really good. They’re worth a try.’
    I hesitated. ‘That means leaving the cakes alone with George . . .’
    Lockwood just grinned at me, flicking his blade to and fro so that the air sang.
    It was hard to say no to him. It always is. Besides, I wanted to try the new rapier. I drew one from the box and held it loosely across my palms. It was lighter than I’d expected, and balanced differently from my usual French-style épée. I gripped the handle, looking at the complex coils of silvery metal surrounding my fingers in a protective mesh.
    ‘The guard has silver trace-work on it,’ Lockwood said. ‘Should keep you safe from spurts of ectoplasm. What do you think?’
    ‘Bit fancy,’ I said doubtfully. ‘It’s the kind of thing Kipps would wear.’
    ‘Oh, don’t say that. This has got class. Give it a try.’
    A sword in the hand makes you feel good. Even before breakfast, even when wearing flip-flops, it gives you a feeling of power. I turned towards Floating Joe and cut a standard ward-knot around him, the kind that keeps a Visitor penned in.
    ‘Don’t lean in so much,’ Lockwood advised. ‘You were a bit off-balance there. Try holding your arm forward a little more. Like this . . .’ He turned my wrist, and altered my stance by gently adjusting the position of my waist. ‘See? Is that better?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘I think these rapiers will suit you.’ He gave Floating Joe a nudge with his shoe so that he swung back and forth, and I had to skip aside to avoid him. ‘Imagine he’s a hungry Type Two,’ Lockwood said. ‘He wants human contact, and is coming at you in a rush . . . You need to keep the plasm in one place, so it doesn’t break free and threaten fellow agents. Try doing a double ward-knot, like this . . .’ His rapier darted round the dummy in a complex blur.
    ‘I’ll never learn that,’ I said. ‘I couldn’t follow it at all.’
    Lockwood smiled. ‘Oh, it’s just a Kuriashi turn. I can take you through the positions sometime.’
    ‘OK.’
    ‘Tea’s getting cold,’ George remarked. ‘And I’m on the penultimate slice of cake.’
    He was lying. The Swiss rolls were still there. But it
was
time to eat something. I had a fluttery feeling in my tummy, and my legs felt weak. It was probably the late night catching up with me. I ducked between Joe and Esmeralda and went over to the table. Lockwood did a few more exercises, swift, elegant and flawless. George and I watched him as we chewed.
    ‘So what do you think of the Swiss rolls?’ I said, with my mouth full.
    ‘They’re all right. It’s things like
Kuriashi turns
that I can’t stomach,’ George said. ‘Nothing but trendy claptrap, invented by the big agencies to make themselves look fancy. In my book, you thwack a Visitor, avoid being ghost-touched, and peg it home. That’s all you need to know.’
    ‘You’re still sore about last night,’ I said. ‘Well, I am too.’
    ‘I’ll get over it. It’s my fault for not researching properly. But we shouldn’t have missed that stone. We could have had that case done and dusted before that Fittes rabble showed up.’ He shook his head. ‘Bunch of stuck-up snobs, they are. I used to work there, so I know. They look down on anyone who hasn’t got a posh jacket or neatly ironed trousers. As if appearance is all that counts . . .’ He stuck a hand inside his tracksuit bottoms and had an indignant scratch.
    ‘Oh, most of the Fittes crowd are all right.’ Despite his exertions, Lockwood was scarcely out of breath. He dropped his rapier into the rack with a clatter and dusted the chalk off his hands. ‘They’re just kids like us, risking their lives. It’s the supervisors who cause the trouble. They’re the ones who think themselves untouchable, just because they’ve got cushy jobs at one of the oldest, biggest agencies.’
    ‘Tell me about it,’ George said heavily. ‘They used to drive me mad.’
    I nodded. ‘Kipps is the