London Eye: 1 (Toxic City) Read Online Free PDF

shadowed with worry.
    Someone jumped down from the bridge's underside and pressed something against his back. “Do what I say, or I blow your kidneys all over your shoes.”
    Jack glanced at Emily, and her face broke into a smile.
    “I really wish I'd had my camera ready for that one,” she said.
    “One of these days, Sparky…” Jack said, turning around.
    “Yeah?” Sparky was still pointing his finger-and-thumb gun. “You and which army?”
    “I thought we were meeting under a viaduct?”
    “Just along there,” the boy nodded. “Couple hundred yards. I decided to wander back here, make sure we weren't followed, or nothin’.”
    “Everyone get here okay?”
    “Fine.” Sparky grinned, rubbing his cheek. “Jenna gave me a right slap on the bus when I tried getting frisky, though.”
    Jack examined his friend's red, slightly swollen cheek. He nodded. “Good.”
    “Let's go!” Emily said. She ran along the towpath, scaring several ducks into the water.
    “You've got to help me look after her, Sparky,” he said quietly.
    “You know I will.” Sparky slapped the back of Jack's head, hard, and laughed. “But you know something? I think she'll be looking after us.” Behind the laughter he was deadly serious, and Jack reminded himself yet again how blessed he was with friends.
    They descended from the towpath down a steep slope, and when they entered the damp shadow of the viaduct Jack felt a chill that had nothing to do with temperature. Rosemary, Jenna, and Lucy-Anne were waiting for them there. Lucy-Anne gave him a nervous smile, but he could see that she was excited, too.
    “We're about to leave the world you know,” Rosemary said, and Jack's chill seemed to settle into his bones.
    The brick arch of the viaduct leaked in several places, raining water down around them and turning the ground into a quagmire. Jack had often wondered what would happen if such a canal bridge were to collapse. Would the whole waterway drain away down here? Would everything in its path be washed away? The red brick was swathed in moss, and from the ruts in the ground it appeared that the leaks had been dripping for a long time.
    “It's less than ten miles to the Exclusion Zone from here,” Jenna said. “We're walking the rest of the way?”
    “Not used to exercise?” Rosemary asked, smiling.
    “I love walking,” Jenna said. “It's just that…won't we be seen?”
    “Only if people look in all the wrong places. Like I said, we're leaving your world, going somewhere different. Slipping between the lines. It's not a quick journey, but we'll follow paths that will take us all the way into London, undetected and safe.”
    “And your friend Philippe showed you the way?” Lucy-Anne asked.
    “Yes, Philippe. Though he's hardly a friend.” Rosemary smiled sadly. “London's not an easy place for friendships right now, I'm sad to say. I do have some, but…well, there's so much paranoia.”
    “So how do you know you can trust him?” Sparky asked.
    “I think I'm a good judge of character.” Rosemary looked around at the five of them, saving her smile for Emily. Then she pointed away from the viaduct and along an overgrown path that seemed to lead into darkness. “We're going there.”
    Jack's friends glanced around for a beat, meeting each other's eyes as though waiting for a decision to be made. It was Emily who started after the old woman, glancing back at them all with eyebrow raised.
    Sparky started singing. “We're off to see the Wizard— ”
    “If you sing any more,” Jenna said, “I will kill you in your sleep.”
    “The wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Sparky even started skipping.
    They followed Rosemary, placing themselves completely in her hands. It was the riskiest thing any of them had done since coming together after Doomsday, but Jack knew it was the right thing, as well. They had all been aware that one day, the time for action would arrive.
    Very soon, Jack had the real sense that they were travelling