Page 105 of The Lost Future of Pepperharrow

She nodded. ‘This isn’t the ideal place to bring him. We were in and out of here all the time years ago. He probably can’t tell which occasion it is.’

‘Why were you here?’ Thaniel said, without really caring.

‘Well, he was Home Ministry. Half the job was to turn up to the British and American parties. We all used to go, the four of us. I mean Countess Kuroda and …’ She shook her head and waved her hand once, like she was clearing a ghost that had wisped too close in front of her. Her eyes ticked around the room. ‘They used to use this as the cloakroom. When you got sick of the ambassador you ducked down here, had a cigarette, bitched about gaijin and then – once more unto the breach.’

Thaniel nearly laughed. They’d all been wondering why the legation was so bloody haunted, but Mori had said it, in that recording at Yoruji; wherever there was a clairvoyant in and out, there were plenty of ghosts.

‘He needs – a flare. Something to show him when now is,’ he said instead. ‘Something to stand out.’

Takiko only glanced at him and shrugged a little to say she wouldn’t be helping him to think about it. Her eyes slipped away, full of sadness, but he could see that being sad wasn’t going to change her mind.

Six came down not long later, taking the stairs carefully because they were steep. Thaniel went to her and picked her up before she could come too near. She stiffened. ‘Put me down, I’m busy. Good evening,’ she added to Takiko, and didn’t seem to find it irregular that she should be there. ‘Busy,’ she said to Thaniel, who set her down.

She had another packet of flour, and as soon as she was on her own feet again, she feathered little handfuls of it into the air and watched intently as the ghosts formed.

‘Why did you say Mori was dead when he isn’t?’ she added.

‘I thought he was.’

‘Hm,’ said Six, and hurried after the coat-tail of a half-formed ghost.

‘What,’ said Takiko, who had stood up. She was staring at the ghost.

‘We have ghosts now,’ Six explained. ‘Where have you been?’

‘Away,’ Takiko said, looking shocked.

Half-heartedly, Thaniel told her about the engines at Aokigahara, the scientists, the electricity, and what Mori had said about ghosts and clairvoyants.

‘Six, petal … can you stop doing that?’ he had to add. He could taste the flour. ‘I can hardly breathe as it is.’

‘No. You said he was dead and he wasn’t.’

He bent forward and pushed both hands over his face.

‘Six,’ Takiko said. ‘What’s over there?’

‘A bookcase,’ said Six, a bit flat.

Takiko lifted her eyebrow. ‘You’re not little enough or strange enough to get away with being obnoxious. Look where Mori’s looking.’

Six looked, then frowned and bumped across to strew flour into the air there. She could only do a bit at a time, and it was a broad space. It would keep her occupied for a bit. Thaniel nodded ruefully to Takiko.

Willis came back with a tray full of sandwiches and onigiri, and tea.

‘This might be the last food we get for a while, so set to,’ Willis said, a bit gruffly. When she went up to him to see what there was, Takiko looked quail-sized. ‘The kitchen staff have run away. They saw the translators boarding up the office.’

‘Oh, real chicken,’ Takiko said reverently. Willis laughed. She took two sandwiches and gave one to Six. Six looked up, surprised, then took a bite out of it while Takiko was still holding it. Thaniel hated them both in an awful little spike for that. He wanted to remind them that he was still here, Six was still his, for now. He squashed it, appalled with himself.

‘Vaulker’s hovering at the top of the stairs, by the way. Probably trying to work himself up to an apology,’ Willis said.

‘No need.’

‘How magnanimous.’

‘It’s just translation,’ Thaniel said, wondering if there might be a way to persuade Mori to eat something. He didn’t look too thin yet, but he had turned fragile. ‘Translating Eton to Lincoln is harder than London to Tokyo, stupid not to expect problems. You didn’t believe me either, did you?’

‘No. I always did wonder why you didn’t just change your accent. Save you a deal of bother.’