The Blood Tree Read Online Free PDF Page B

off.
    â€œAnd . . . ?” I said impatiently.
    â€œAnd then the phone rang in the sentry box.” She gave a shrug. “By the time I was finished there the workmen had gone.”
    â€œWhat?” Hamilton said. “In the space of a few seconds?”
    The guardswoman bit her lip. “Well, it was longer than that, guardian. The command centre had a list of things for me to check.”
    I might have known. The City Guard is notorious for inventing activities to keep its people on their toes.
    â€œAll right, Moray 58,” I said. “Give a full statement to Knox 111.” I watched as she moved swiftly away without waiting for Hamilton to dismiss her. She had some sense.
    Davie came over and we stood looking down the hole.
    â€œWe’d better find out what they were after,” I said. “Where’s the scene-of-crime squad?”
    The public order guardian was shaking his head. “Oh no. That’s a restricted area down there. We’ll have to do the preliminary check ourselves.”
    â€œReally?” I said, my curiosity beginning to get out of hand. “Can we get in through the basement?”
    Hamilton shook his head even more firmly. “The old Parliament records were sealed by Council decree in 2005. It’ll need another Council order to get that seal broken. I want to know what’s been going on down there before I ask the Council for such an order.”
    This was getting seriously interesting. I’d known for years that the pre-Enlightenment Scottish Parliament’s archive existed, but I’d never allowed myself to get too excited by it since the Council, in its high-minded disapproval of what it regarded as a corrupt system of government, had put the records out of reach even of its own researchers.
    I pulled on the protective white overalls and rubber gloves that Davie handed me. When he and Hamilton had done the same, I dangled my legs down the hole and felt for the top rung of the ladder.
    â€œYou don’t mind me going first, do you, Lewis?” I asked.
    â€œI’ll be right behind you, Dalrymple,” he replied grimly. “And don’t open any files unless I’m present.”
    â€œI’d never do a thing like that,” I said as I climbed into the surprisingly well-lit subterranean cavern.
    The guardian snorted. “And the Tourism Directorate will be closing down its knocking shops tomorrow.”
    The electricity cable certainly hadn’t been in need of maintenance. The vast basement was lit up like a shopping centre in pre-Enlightenment times – before looters nicked everything in sight, including the light fittings and bulbs. Roof-high shelves crammed with dark blue cardboard files stretched away in orderly lines. Dust that hadn’t been disturbed since I was in my early twenties hung in the air like plankton in the southern oceans.
    I moved forward carefully to give the others room then bent my knees and examined the floor. The flagstones in the vicinity of the hole were covered in rubble and earth, and there were plenty of footprints for the scene-of-crime people to take casts of later on. They looked like your standard work-boot to me.
    â€œThe size of this place,” Davie said in astonishment.
    Hamilton nodded. “It was enlarged in the early years of the century. The Scottish Parliament was a great producer of paper.”
    â€œAnd the Council isn’t?” I said under my breath. “Have you been down here before, Lewis?”
    â€œEm . . . a few times. When we were preparing to close it up.”
    â€œGreat,” I said. “You’ll know your way around then.”
    The guardian shook his head. “Hardly. It’s a long time ago.” He frowned at me. “Anyway, you’re the archive lover.”
    I glared at him. “If the Council used computers properly, I wouldn’t have to spend most of my waking hours in the city’s waste