Will gazed up. “What are those?” he asked.

“Airships,” said Rune. “Electric airships. The very latest in transport for the upper classes.”

“Of course.” Will nodded thoughtfully. Memories were there, in his head. Memories of the launching of the Dreadnaught and the death of his ancestor, Captain Ernest Starling of the Queen’s Own Electric Fusiliers. A death that Hugo Rune had somehow been involved in.

“And what are those?” Will pointed once again.

They rose, dozens and dozens of them, higher than the spires of the churches, diminishing into the distance on every side, slender metal towers, surmounted by great steel balls, which flickered and sparkled with electrical energy.

“Tesla towers,” said Hugo Rune. “The brainchild of Mr Nikola Tesla, who created them through the aid of computer systems invented by Lord Babbage. Power stations generate electricity, which is broadcast from these towers on a radio frequency. Wireless transmission of energy. No cables. It has totally revolutionised technology. There will be no internal combustion engine. Automobiles will be fitted with electric motors, which receive the broadcast electricity. No heavy batteries required, hence electrically driven flying craft and soon, we are promised, a ship that will voyage into space.”

“Electricity without wires?” Will shook his blondy head. “Incredible. We have nothing like that where I come from.”

“And there would be nothing like it now if I had not persuaded Mr Babbage to exhibit his Analytical Engine at The Great Exhibition in eighteen fifty-one. It was I who introduced him to Her Majesty, God bless Her, and suggested that she grant him Royal Patronage to develop his inventions for the glory of the British Empire.”

“But he didn’t,” said Will. “I read all about Mr Babbage; he was ignored, his genius never received recognition. He was never given Royal patronage, he never met Mr Tesla and Mr Tesla never perfected his wireless transmission of energy.”

“Not in the version of history that you were taught, which is not the version of history that you now personally inhabit. Tell me, young man, which version do you now choose to believe?”

Will shrugged and shook his head once more.

“I will teach you all that you need to know,” said Rune. “And together we will defeat the evil that seeks to deprive the future of these wonders.”

“Evil?” Will shook his head once again. “You can’t defeat evil. Evil isn’t a something. It’s a concept. It’s not a thing.”

“This evil is a thing,” said Rune. “A number of things. Thirteen things in fact.”

“Thirteen things?” Will asked.

“Evil in human form,” said Rune. “The Chiswick Townswomen’s Guild.”

12

“Now just hold on there!” Tim McGregor did waving his hands in the air. “Are you telling me that I am your brother?”

“Half-brother,” said Will. “Different mums. And I’m just telling you what Rune told to me.”

“But my mum and your dad? That’s disgusting.”

Will shrugged and took a sip from his latest pint of Large. It tasted good. Not as good as Rune’s champagne but cooler though and good.

“But if it’s true,” Tim made a thoughtful face. “Then it means that I am a descendant of Hugo Rune.”

“We both are. If it’s true.”

“But I am his magical heir. Me.”

Will shrugged once more.

“Cease with all these shruggings,” Tim told him. “This is incredible. I mean, Rune. Hugo Rune, the greatest magus of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”

“I don’t know about that. But hang about, Tim. You mean that you have actually heard of Hugo Rune?”

“Heard of him?” Tim laughed loudly. And Will recognised that laugh. It was the laugh of Hugo Rune. “Heard of Rune? The man is a legend in the annuls of the occult. The guru’s guru. The Logos of the Aeon. The One and Only. The Lad Himself. The founder of the church of Runeology.”

“There is no such church,” said Will.

“There was.” Tim nodded his hairy head. “It wasn’t too big a church. It only had a congregation of about six. Women mostly. Young women, wealthy young women.”

“Sounds about right,” said Will.

“Hugo Rune wrote The Book of Ultimate Truths. I have a copy.”

“You have a copy of a book? You never told me this.”

“You said you didn’t believe in magic. You’d have sneered if I’d told you.”

Will all but shrugged, but didn’t.

“But this is so brilliant,” Tim was now all smiles. “I always knew I was special. But Hugo Rune’s magical heir! Fantastic. So, when do we go back into the past? What do I have to do? Will I get to cast spells and stuff?”

“I’m sure you’ll get the opportunity to try. But not yet. You have to hear all of the story-so-far first.”

“I’ve heard enough,” said Tim. “Finish your pint. Where did you park the time machine?”

“I didn’t return here in a time machine.” Will sipped further Large. “Time machines are old-fashioned. That’s not the way I travel through time now.”

“Oh,” said Tim. “So how do you do it? By magic?”

“No, not magic. It’s done by vegetable, actually. But all that’s a year on in the story.”

“A year on?” Tim scratched at his hairy head. “Are you telling me that you were there in Victorian times for a year?”

Will nodded. “Haven’t you noticed that I look a bit older?”

“I’m a bloke,” said Tim. “Blokes don’t notice stuff like that. Although, perhaps, now that I look at you closely. You didn’t have those big Victorian sideburns yesterday, did you? And you are dressed in Victorian costume, which you weren’t when you went to the toilet on the tram.”

“The sideburns took me nearly a year to grow.”

“I’m loving this,” Tim rubbed his hands together. “I didn’t like the bit where I got killed next Friday night. But I assume I’ll be dodging that.”

Will nodded.

“So I love all the rest. Especially the magic. He actually cast a spell on your knees, did he?”

“I suspect the champagne was drugged,” said Will.

Tim laughed once more. “It was magic,” he said. “Rune was one of the greatest magicians of his, or any other, age. He spoke every language known to man and could play chess blindfolded, against six grand masters simultaneously, and beat every one of them, whilst engaging in, shall we say, congress, with a woman in an adjoining room.”

“So he told me,” said Will. “Although I never actually witnessed such a competition.”

“And darts,” said Tim. “He played darts with the Dalai Lama. Hands-off darts. Using his powers of telekinesis.”

“I never actually saw that either. Although we did visit the Dalai. Nice chap.”

“You visited the Dalai Lama?”

“With Rune. We travelled for nearly a year. Rune was always on the move. Outwitting the forces of evil.”

“Witches,” said Tim.

“Creditors,” said Will. “Rune never carried money, you see. He said it was beneath him to do so. He said that he offered the world his genius and all he expected in return was that the world should cover his expenses. We stayed in a lot of first-class hotels. But we always had to leave them speedily and stealthily, and under the cover of darkness.”

“But all the time he was teaching you his magic?”

“He informed me that I had to grow physically before I could grow spiritually. I spent all my time dragging his steamer trunk about.”

“Oh,” said Tim once more. “But you got to see some amazing sights, I’ll bet.”

“That’s true enough and we did it in style. We journeyed across the Victorian world, always travelling first class and always failing to pay for our tickets. We crossed China, where we were the honoured guests of the Mandarin. We had to leave in a rush though, because Rune engaged in, as you put it, congress, with a number of the Mandarin’s concubines.”