Page 135 (1/2)

‘We’ve arrived,’ Kari down from the chaise, I could see he had his hand at his belt, around the hilt of his sabre ‘Shall we go?’

I Mash and Bend Myself

‘This is it?’ I stared incredulously at the building down the road which Karim had pointed out ‘This is where the wealthiest man of the British Empire keeps a document that is so important he has killed people for it?’

‘Second-wealthiest,’ Mr Ambrose commented coolly ‘I am the wealthiest man of the British Empire, not that reprehensible individual who calls hiestured towards the house It was a two-story brick building, slightly slanted, with dark stains on the front wall The noise of cheap piano n which designated the established Lord, I just had it up to here with ht answer!

Looking around again, I got a fuller iht not look like what I expected Lord Dalgliesh’s fancy headquarters to look like, but it certainly seeh to be the lair of a lord of the criminal underworld The houses around us were dilapidated Black sh none of it actually came fro lines criss-crossed between the roofs, or at least I assu from them didn’t look much like clothes to s up to dry

In a doorway not too far down the street sat a thin figure, wrapped in just such rags It didn’t move I shivered

‘Where are we?’

My voice wasn’t nearly as forceful as before

Mr Ahbourhood Nobody’s eyes were better for cool assess to a dirty street sign I couldn’t for the life of me decipher

‘Where’s that, Sir? I’ve never heard of such a street before’

‘It’s only natural that you wouldn’t have It’s near the docks - in the East End’

The East End

Every child in London knew that naet lost and end up right here: in the stinking, rotting liver of London, where all the refuse its heart didn’t want to deal as dumped until further notice It was a labyrinth of sether because they had no o anywhere else They looked for work at the docks or at one of the nu hard labour and poisonous food slowly killed them off, one by one

And when they happened to stumble across some unlucky member of the upper classes in their ho their displeasure at these circuels[46]

Shuddering, I took in s once more, then looked back the e had come Maybe…

‘Do you wish to return to Empire House?’ Mr Ambrose asked curtly ‘Karim can drive you back, Mr Linton’

I hesitated A scream sounded in the distance It wasn’t the kind of har put his foot in a puddle of water, either Wind howled through the street, driving the fog past us It seemed thicker here, somehow, than in the rest of the city Darker As if a thousand sinister things were hiding in its depths

Mr Ambrose seemed to sense ht actually have been so akin to compassion in his voice ‘You can leave if you are afraid’

Immediately, I raised my chin and met his eyes