Master of Starlight Read online

  Master of Starlight

  KEITH SHORT

  Copyright © 2019 Keith Short

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents

  Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Matador®

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  Tel: 0116 279 2299

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  ISBN 9781838598846

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Matador® is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

  CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  PART 1 - LONDON 1990

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  PART 2 – EUROPE 2020

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  PART 3 – 2020

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  PART 4 – 2021

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  PROLOGUE

  London 2060

  ‘I can’t wait to get in there, Gunther. I gather it’s going to take at least three hours to get around these exhibits. What are we waiting for?’

  ‘Hold on, young man, there’s plenty of time for all that. I’d just like to take this in before we start the tour. The story behind this statue is even more fascinating than the one we’re going to hear about inside the museum, you realise?’

  ‘No, I don’t realise. Come on, let’s go. This was your idea for a day out, after all. I can’t believe it all started here and we’ve made all this progress since the third decade of the millennium. Don’t you find that fascinating? Aren’t you excited? Why are we waiting?’

  ‘Just indulge an old man. Come, sit by me for a while.’ He tapped the Chesterfield’s green padded upholstery and, once the frustrated youngster joined him, he pointed up to the statue in front of them. Together with the sparse seating arrangements that surrounded it, it was the only feature in the entrance hall of the magnificent old building. ‘You can see what a powerful man he was in the physical sense. And despite what the science historians would have you believe, he was a great man in every other sense. He had vision and he held his nerve. He backed the man, as Oppenheimer would have said.’

  ‘I don’t know about that. Rumour has it he made his money from the sex trade and other shady enterprises.’

  Gunther shrugged his shoulders and laughed. ‘Maybe he did. Who knows? But if it wasn’t for him committing his fortune to what was a fading dream for others, we’d still be reliant on the old thermal reactors. And you also have to remember, we were still burning coal and gas to produce our electricity in those days.’

  The young man gestured towards the plaque on the podium beneath the statue. ‘He must have been self-opinionated to have his statue inscribed with that.’

  ‘It was Leon Dabrowski himself who commissioned the statue and composed that testimony. In one way, you see, Vladimir Chekhov really was the father of nuclear fusion power. And the true history isn’t inside that museum over there. It began just a few miles from where we are now. Fate can intervene from the most unlikely corner . . .’

  PART 1 - LONDON 1990

  Starlight Lost

  CHAPTER 1

  Routine day over, feet up in front of mindless television and a relaxing cup of tea. Nothing life changing about that, she thought as she hung her nurse’s coat at the end of the row of empty pegs. Changing her life was something she could well do with but, at the same time, something she couldn’t bear to contemplate tonight. In fact, the prospect of a quiet evening at home made her sigh inwardly and smile, as if she’d just settled into a hot bath full of bubbles for the first time. But first there were routine checks to be made. She stared at the closed door at the end of the corridor and the trepidation slowly rising in her gut swilled away any thoughts of contentment. It would only take a few moments to cross her living room floor to the kitchen and seconds to check that the door to the outside was locked. But until she could be sure, she couldn’t relax. Nerves jangling and heartbeat rising, Jean Douglas opened her living room door – and threw her hands to the sides of her head.

  ‘Robert!’

  He was comatose on his back, his eyes staring through their liquid glaze to whatever it was he saw beyond her. A dirty spoon and saucer, a ripped-open plastic bag and a cigarette lighter – scattered among the discarded garments to either side. The leather belt he used as a tourniquet hung loose around his upper arm and, on his emaciated lower arm, a hypodermic needle dangled from one of his barely visible veins. Jean started sobbing. She’d seen it all before, but it was usually outside in the shed or in the yard, not in her living room, for God’s sake. Deep down, she always knew it would come to this one day. But that didn’t prevent the shock and the anger that went with it. Inside her home – her precious home. She had to scream.

  ‘You bastard! You lousy, useless smack-head! How could you do this in my house?’ Snorting with anger, she bent down hands on knees and snarled into his ear, ‘You and that sister of yours don’t pay a single penny for the privilege of living here. You even have me borrowing from the bank to pay your court fines and keep you in those stinking rags you wear. And God knows what you’re doing with the food in my cupboards. You’re not eating it, that’s for sure. Do you hear me?’

  But Robert wasn’t listening. She could tell he was incapable of that. And even if he heard her ranting, what would he care? Jean was already weary from her long day at work. Now, exhausted from her futile tirade, she sa
nk to her knees and looked at the debris surrounding her. Robert’s head rolled to one side. Powerless to do anything, she could only watch as bright yellow bile oozed from his open mouth and pooled on the carpet. Numb with despair, her head dropped into her hands. Can’t go on any more. But she had to keep going, she told herself. What else could she do? I still love him. Resigning herself yet again to her thankless task as a mother, she did what she always did – at least this time there was no need to haul his limp and withered body back into the house. She carefully removed the needle from his arm and summoned up the strength to lift her nineteen-year-old son on to the settee. She sniffed as she wiped away the tears of agony with the back of her hand, picked up the spoon and lighter and began her ritual clear-up once again.

  Jean hadn’t seen Robert for three days. Nothing unusual about that and there was little point in worrying. They say that drug addicts possess a natural ability for survival; they always know where they can find shelter among other users – another fix if they’re lucky. Robert had even apologised before he left, said he wouldn’t fix at home again if he could keep his house key. She couldn’t trust him, of course. But this evening she had a reassuring feeling inside that she was returning home to an empty and peaceful house. She closed the front door behind her and removed her coat. What was that clunking noise? She stood still and listened. There it is again. It was coming from upstairs. Oh God, he’s in the bedroom. She threw her coat to the floor and scurried up the stairs two at a time. This is the last time. He’s getting no more chances. She burst through the bedroom door and stopped dead.

  ‘Mary! What are you doing?’

  Her daughter – in bed with a stranger? And what a filthy mess. The stench of stale alcohol and sour body odour made her want to vomit. She covered her mouth and nose as the scruffy middle-aged man threw back the sheets to reveal his nakedness and brazenly walked towards her. He smiled at her, displaying his uneven black teeth as if proud of them. ‘You all right, love?’ he said, showing no shame as he stepped into his urine-stained Y-fronts.

  Jean turned towards Mary in bewilderment. Why? she tried to say, but the pointless question wouldn’t leave her mouth. Mary reached across to the bedside table for her cigarettes and lighter, eased herself up on the pillow and lit a cigarette. Her daughter’s breasts, reddened with scratches from the pawing they’d no doubt just received, the filthy assailant who was responsible perched at the foot of the bed and nonchalantly pulling on his socks – it was all too much.

  ‘You dirty slut! My bed, my bedroom. You didn’t even have the decency to use your own.’

  ‘My own bed wasn’t big enough, Ma,’ Mary said, as if deliberately goading her mother. ‘But don’t worry, I’ve left you some money over there on your dresser. My minder doesn’t know about this one.’

  ‘Take the bastard down to the park next time!’ Jean screamed. She turned towards her daughter’s client. ‘And I’ve seen better than that on a chipmunk. The only swelling you’ll get down there is with the clap. Now get out of my house before I call the police.’

  The man finished dressing as if he couldn’t care less, slung his grubby jacket over his shoulder and shoved an unlit cigarette into the corner of his mouth. As he squeezed his way through the doorway, he glared down and muttered into Jean’s face.

  ‘Cow!’

  She closed her eyes and grimaced at the smell of his foetid nicotine breath and the vile sensation of him brushing against her breasts. She wasn’t going to budge one inch until he left the house.

  The sound of the closing front door was the signal for the house to become tranquil once more. For a moment, the beautiful and effervescent schoolgirl she knew a year ago smiled at her from the bed. Captivated by her innocence, she felt her motherly love and wanted to hug her baby girl – bring her back home for good. She looked again at her ruined daughter – dishevelled hair, running mascara, a cigarette smouldering in her trembling hand. She was weeping.

  ‘I’m sorry, Ma.’

  Was there love buried behind those tearful eyes? She had to believe there was. It was all she had left to cling to in this miserable life.

  ‘I’m sorry too.’ But nothing they could say would bring that love to the surface. What was happening to her little princess? She shook her head in resignation – there was little point in starting another row. ‘Just change the sheets before you go, will you?’

  Worn and defeated, Jean went downstairs to the kitchen where she paced about aimlessly. How much more of this mental torture could she endure? The vicious circle her daughter was trapped in – work the streets, pay the pimp, snort the coke, work the streets – wasn’t Mary’s fault, she tried to tell herself. It was Robert who made that deal with local pimps. Her son had an incurable illness that held no respect for family values or middle-class status; he’d even prostitute his own sister for his next fix. She started to weep. The front door slammed. How could Mary leave the house like that, without even saying goodbye? Like she always did when she reached the end of her tether, Jean sat down at the kitchen table with her head in her hands – and cried some more.

  Jean was a community nurse in Camden Town but didn’t work Saturdays. This was the day she visited her local library – a place where she could hide from Robert and Mary, a secure shelter from her life of misery. But today, as she sloped along on her traditional pilgrimage, the scraps of joy she usually gleaned from her trip to the library felt absent in her heart. The morning was overcast and depressing, but that wasn’t the reason for her hunched gait; it was the weight of her problems pressing down on her petite frame. And how self-conscious she felt today without her neatly pressed nurse’s uniform. She wouldn’t normally think about what she looked like but today the awareness was lodged in her mind like a jagged shard of metal – she was dishevelled. She’d never let herself become grubby, of course; she was too proud for that. She washed her long auburn hair with regularity, even if she couldn’t be bothered to groom it. She’d let it dry naturally, leaving it bedraggled and unmanageable, but at least it was always clean and fresh smelling. She rarely looked in a mirror nowadays; if she did, she’d see how the grey strands were multiplying at pace, ageing her. Not yet forty, she’d already stopped looking after herself. Why should she bother about her appearance when there was no special man in her life? George had left a long time ago and she’d been glad to get rid of the evil bastard. Would anyone ever love her again?

  As she entered the old red-brick Victorian building, she bowed her head to hide her face, conscious as always of the prudish gazes of the librarians looking down on her as if she was some kind of homeless tramp. But at least they’d come to accept her presence. They even spoke to her sometimes and, to her consternation, today was one such occasion.

  ‘Here again, are we?’

  She didn’t look up; with her eyes swollen from perpetual crying, she was too embarrassed.

  The reference section exuded its usual calm stillness. She peered around at the familiar volumes on art and science. Normally, she’d lift the books unaided from the upper shelves, lug a pile of them across to her favourite table and study their diagrams and glossy photographs until closing time. But today she hadn’t the energy, the desire. She stroked her hand down the binding of a book entitled Cezanne Composition. One of her favourites, but maybe not today. She left the grand old hall, helped herself to a bundle of magazines and newspapers from the wall racks in the foyer, and found a free armchair. Welcome to the Nineties was the title on the front of one of the magazines. The headline’s optimism sent her into despair over her reprobate offspring – they were throwing their lives away in front of her eyes. She hated Mary for what she was doing, cringed at the thought of those grimy old men defiling her daughter’s body one after another. In fact, she was beginning to despise both of her children. There was a fleeting thought of suicide, but she forced it from her mind. After all, she loved her children, didn’t she? And she wouldn’t want them to be left
with the bother of organising her funeral. How can you love and hate someone at the same time? How could her children tear her in half like this? Browsing through today’s newspapers, she found concentration difficult. She turned the pages with no obvious purpose, until she came across a discreet advert in the Vacancies section of the London Evening Standard.

  In need of a caring mother, contact my father.

  She was intrigued. Given her dire family circumstances, there was a poignant note of irony in the wording and she couldn’t even be sure she was looking at a job advert until she read the small print. Wow! That was almost three times her current salary. This must be some rich father. But that wasn’t all. The job – a nanny – required someone to live in. Here was her opportunity to get away from her family problems. She’d be better placed to support Robert and Mary financially and at the same time she’d no longer have to put up with their degenerate behaviour. She could feel herself trembling with excitement. There’d no doubt be many applicants and despite her own impressive nursing qualifications, most of them would be better qualified and more experienced than her. It was a long shot but what did she have to lose? Life couldn’t get any worse, could it?

  CHAPTER 2

  Oleg Malkin bowed his head against the hammering rain. The sudden and unexpected downpour flattened his thick black hair and fogged his spectacles as he waited patiently for the approaching cortège. He shivered as the water from the drenched collar of his black woollen overcoat trickled down the back of his neck, yet he had no choice but to remain in this dignified position – he had to show his respect for the occupants of the lead car which was easing to a halt in front of him. Maintaining his sombre expression, he pondered the irony of the car’s luxury marque as he opened the rear door of the black Bentley. How emblematic of the English ruling classes to ride in such a vehicle. The passengers stepped out and Malkin’s head remained bowed as Vladimir Chekhov and his personal bodyguard passed him by without a word and laboured their way to the edge of the six-foot-deep rectangular hole − the final resting place of the pakhan.