“H’m,” I said ruefully. “Sounds efficient, that Coker. How many of us mugs fell into that little trap?”
“I’d say we got a couple of dozen-though it turned out as five or six of ‘em was blinded. When we’d loaded up about all we’d room for in the truck, we beat it an’ left the rest to sort theirselves out.”
Whatever view Coker took of us, it was clear that Alf bore us no animosity. He appeared to regard the whole affair as a bit of sport. I found it a little too painful to class it so, but I mentally raised my hat to All. I’d a pretty good idea that in his position I’d be lacking the spirit to think of anything as a bit of sport. I finished the tea and accepted another cigarette from him.
“And what’s the program now?” I asked him.
“Coker’s idea is to make us all up into parties, an’ put one of you with each party. You to look after the scrounging, and kind of act as the eyes of the rest, like. Your job’ll be to help us keep goin’ until somebody comes along to straighten this perishin’ lot out.”
“I see,” I said.
He cocked his head toward me. There weren’t any flies on Aif. He had caught more in my tone than I had realized was there.
“You reckon that’s goin’ to be a long time?” he said.
“I don’t know. What’s Coker say?”
Coker, it seemed, had not been committing himself to details. Alf had his own opinion, though.
“‘F you ask me, I reckon there ain’t nobody goin’ to come. If there was, they’d’ve been ‘ere before this. Different if we was in some little town in the country. But London! Stands to reason they’d come ‘ere afore anywhere else. No, the way I see it, they ain’t come yet-an’ that means they ain’t never Loin’ to come-an’ that means there ain’t nobody to come. Cor, blimy, ‘oo’d ever’ve thought it could ‘appen like this!”
I didn’t say anything. All wasn’t the sort to be jollied with facile encouragements.
“Reckon that’s the way you see it too?” he said after a bit. “It doesn’t look so good,” I admitted. “But there still is a chance, you know-people from somewhere abroad..
He shook his head.
“They’d’ve come before this. They’d’ve had loud-speaker cars round the streets tellin’ us what to do by now. No, chum, we’ve ‘ad it there ain’t nobody nowhere to come. That’s the fact of it.”
We were silent for a while, then:
“Ab well, ‘t weren’t a bad ol’ life while it lasted,” he said, We talked a little about the kind of life it had been for him.
He’d had various jobs, each of which seemed to have included some interesting undercover work. He summed it up:
“One way an’ another I didn’t do so bad. What was your racket?”
I told him. He wasn’t impressed.
“Triffids, huh! Nasty damn things, I reckon. Not natcheral, as you might say.”
We left it at that.
All went away, leaving me to my cogitations and a packet of his cigarettes. I surveyed the outlook and thought little of it. I wondered how the others would be taking it. Particularly what would be Josella’s view, When Alf reappeared with more food and the inevitable can of tea, he was accompanied by the man he had called Coker. He looked more tired now than when I had seen him before. Under his arm he carried a bundle of papers. He gave me a searching look.
“You know the idea?” he asked.
“What All’s told me,” I admitted.
“All right, then.” He dropped his papers on the bed, picked up the top one and unfolded it. It was a street plan of Greater London. He pointed to an area covering part of Hampstead and Swiss Cottage, heavily outlined in blue pencil.
“That’s your beat,” he said. “Your party works inside that area, and not in anyone else’s area. You can’t have each lot going after the same pickings. Your job is to find the food in that area and see that your party gets it-that, and anything else they need. Got that?”
“Or what?” I said, looking at him.
“Or they’ll get hungry. And if they do, it’ll be just too bad for you. Some of the boys are tough, and we’re not any of us doing this for fun, So watch your step. Tomorrow morning we’ll run you and your lot up there in trucks. After that it’ll be your job to keep ‘em going until somebody comes along to tidy things up.
“And if nobody does come?” I asked.
“Somebody’s got to come,” he said grimly. “Anyway, there’s your job-and mind you keep to your area.”
I stopped him as he was on the point of leaving.
“Have you got a Miss Playton here?” I asked.
“I don’t know any of your names,” he said.
“Fair-haired, about five foot six or seven, gray-blue eyes,” I persisted.
“There’s a girl about that size, and blond. But I haven’t looked at her eyes. Got something more important to do,” he said as he left.
I studied the map. I was not greatly taken with the district allotted to me. Some of it was a salubrious enough suburb, indeed, but in the circumstances a location that included docks and warehouses would have more to offer. It was doubtful whether there would be any sizable storage depots in this part. Still, “can’t all ‘ave a prize.” as Alf would doubtless express k-and, anyway, II had no intention of staying there any longer than was strictly necessary.
When Alf showed up again I asked him if he would take a note to Josella. He shook his head.
“Sorry, mate. Not allowed.”
I promised him it should be harmless, but he remained firm. I couldn’t altogether blame him. He had no reason to trust me, and would not be able to read the note to know that it was as harmless as I claimed. Anyway, I’d neither pencil nor paper, so I gave that up. After pressing, he did consent to let her know that I was here and to find out the district to which she was being sent. He was not keen on doing that much, but he bad to allow that if there were to be any straightening out of the mess it would be a lot easier for me to find her again if I knew where to start looking.
After that ii had simply my thoughts for company for a bit. I knew I ought to make my mind up once and for all on the right course, and stick to it. But I could not. I seesawed. Some hours later when I fell asleep I was still seesawing.
There was no means of knowing which way Josella had made up her mind. I’d had no personal message from her. But All had put his head in once during the evening. His communication had been brief.
“Westminster,” be said. “Cor! Don’t reckon that lot’s goin’ to find much grub in the ‘Ouses o’ Parliament”
I was woken by Alf coming in early the following morning. He was accompanied by a bigger, shifty-eyed man who fingered a butcher’s knife with unnecessary ostentation. Alf advanced and dropped in armful of clothes on the bed. His companion shut the door and leaned against it, watching with a crafty eye and toying with the knife.
“Give us yer mitts, mate,” said Alf.
I held my hands out toward him. He felt for the wires on my wrists and snipped them with a cutter.
“Now just you put on that there clobber, chum,” he said, stepping back.
I got myself dressed while the knife fancier followed every movement I made, like a hawk. When I’d finished, All produced a pair of handcuffs. “There’s just these,” he mentioned.
I hesitated. The man by the door ceased to lean on it and brought his knife forward a little. For him this was evidently the interesting moment. I decided maybe it was not the time to try anything, and held my wrists out. Alf felt around and clicked on the cuffs. After that he went and fetched me my breakfast.
Nearly two hours later the other man turned up again, his knife well in evidence. He waved it at the door.
With the consciousness of the knife producing an uncomfortable feeling in my back, we went down a number of flights of stairs and across a hail. In the street a couple of loaded trucks were waiting. Coker, with two companions, stood by the tailboard of one. He beckoned me over. Without saying anything, he passed a chain between my arms. At each end of it was a strap. One was fastened already round the left wrist of a burly blind man beside him; the other he attached to the right wrist of a similar tough vase, so that I was between them. They weren’t taking any avoidable chances.