Walls Came Tumbling Down

Century had slept until well past noon. He woke to the sound of nothing much and the slight disorientation of being in his own bed, after so long away. He vaguely wondered if he was going to die, because he hadn't taken his morning prescription. The thought at first paralyzed him into lying awake staring at the ceiling; then it got him out of bed.

Matt's computers were all up and running. Salvo looked pleased with himself. "Haxxored." He greeted Century with a huge grin. They were up in the dining room, which gave Century a double start. He was remembering another dining room with possibly this same hardware in it. The ghosts of the manor suddenly felt very close. Luleka was in his high-chair, beating a tattoo on the plastic table with a spoon. Century wasn't sure if that made the memory feel lighter or worse. He decided to focus upon the present.

"You hacked Matt's computer?"

"Yes." Salvo smirked. Century filled a glass with water and swallowed his pills, knowing that there was going to be a simple solution. Salvo was good with computers, as were they all. Wammy's House had been quite comprehensive in that training. But Matt was in a different league. There was that old joke, that had done the rounds of the Institution, about Matt's mother tongue being binary. "Though I admit that it did help that they didn't have a password on them. They appear to be set up for public access."

Century nodded. "We got them out of the hub."

"I've been reading the case histories to get myself up to date with..."

"Don't!" Century wailed. "I have to solve it! Don't look at it. Don't look at anything!" He caught sight of Salvo's stunned expression. "Please. Just got to do this, then I'll be alright. Swear to you, I do."

Salvo nodded slowly. "Right. My mistake. I will destroy the notes that I've made so far and back away from this." He wore a neutral expression, that told Century that either this was serious or he was over-reacting. "But if you need a sounding board, then I'm your man."

It was awkward for a few minutes after that. The dining room and kitchen were fundamentally the same room, just with a token sliver of an archway to differentiate them from each other. Salvo and Century got in each other's way, as Century made tea and toast for his breakfast, while Salvo mashed up vegetables for Luleka's lunch. Eventually Century cracked. "I'm sorry. Mae dwrgg gen i. I've just..."

"I know."

"I wish you and Fenian would stop talking about me behind my back!"

Salvo shook his head. "You told me, last night, and in several long messenger conversations, while you've been away." It was said mildly enough, but Century heard the rebuke. "Oh, and I had Deontic calling me up this morning, to whinge about you looting. I didn't tell her that you're here." He carried the meal over to his son. "This isn't going to be the last case ever. Even if you let this one go, there will be more. Though the world will lose a brilliant historian, if you go turning into a detective on us."

"I nearly died and..."

"You're going to have to stop thinking like that, or you really will be sending yourself into an early grave." Salvo warned him, gently. Century paused, then took up a half-eaten square of toast from his plate and began to slowly chew. "I'm not here to lecture you. I'm just telling you what I'm seeing here. Last night, I was prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt. You were tired and done in from that drive up here. Fenian can exaggerate. It all fits in. But you've had a night's sleep and you're still coiled up tighter than a snake's arse."

Century shook his head, dismissively, "I had this heart-attack, see? Two months ago and..."

"No." Salvo leaned forward, across the table to tap his finger onto Century's forearm. "The heart-attack was that severe pain in your chest, that you were hospitalised with and recovered from. You have medication to control that and the prognosis is good that you might not even have any long-term effects." He waited, watching the colour flash through Century's cheeks. "What's got you looking like this and snapping at everyone isn't the heart attack. It's you. Is the answer to a heart attack to pile on the work and stress yourself out?"

Century stared at his plate, then quietly took up his mug of tea and sipped it. "Is it you're after my case?"

"You're actually frightening me now. Who are you and what have you done with Iestyn?" Salvo pointed towards the hallway door. "I've got a week's worth of work in there, which needs doing within the next three days or else a man, who I believe to be innocent, could be executed. Chrissie has left with me two babies. The obvious one," he indicated Luleka, "and a ten year old in Syria, who is going to court this afternoon, while a key piece of his evidence is on our living room floor. Meanwhile, there is a case that I've been offered, that I'd really quite like to take, as it would build up my portfolio nicely. But I really can't see how I'm going to fit it in." Salvo gave a quick smile to say that he was just reporting on his status, not ranting. "Even if I wanted to, I'd be hard pushed to steal your case any time soon." He peeled back the wrapper of his chewing gum and popped it into his mouth. "Just reckon that you ought to chuck it at whoever is in a position to catch, then chill out around here until you're in a fit state to rejoin the rat race."

Century watched him stand to deal with Luleka. "I'm eighteen now, Sal."

"Well done." Salvo lifted his son out of the high chair. "I think you should aim for nineteen next. A few adjustments here and there and I still reckon you could make it." He engaged in some baby-talk, while reaching for the nappy that he'd put down and forgotten about earlier.

There was a brand new box of lollipops sitting in the centre of the table. Century peered moodily into space, then sighed and took one. The flicker of a smile, on Salvo's face, didn't go unnoticed. Century stood. "Your kid looks like a French girl."

Salvo's eyes widened, "Oh la la, Luleka! Lilac's little boy!" Luleka laughed happily, legs akimbo on the mat, as his nappy was changed. "Look at your French girl brown eyes; and your French girl brown skin; and your French girl little curls all over the top of your head." He beamed at the baby, whose visible heritage currently held a lot more of the Congo than Canada; though that had already changed as he'd grown. They'd all agreed that he looked like an African Chrissie, when he'd been born. "That's it. You laugh in his face. You go and tell TouTou Tyn-Tyn to go and watch 'Time Team' or something. He always enjoys shouting at the telly, when that's on."

Century sucked on his lollipop. "Am I taking Chad or Syria?"

"Neither of us are taking Chad, or else Chrissie will kneecap us." Salvo smiled. "That's hers. I'm dealing with Iraq. You can do Syria, if you like. It's only sending a fax, then hanging on a 'phone line to see if it's got through. Chrissie's already sent it twice and I've had three attempts. Good luck." He took Luleka and dropped him into the play-pen, before finding the fax and returning with it. "Cover sheet already done and everything. Then you can chill out for the rest of your life. Diolch."

"Written 'foxes' on this pad, you have." Century waved towards Salvo's notes, beside the computer screen with the Aberystwyth case files on it.

Salvo nodded. "Yes." He stretched up onto his tip-toes, yawned and then relaxed again. "I was just wondering why Matt's attached a sound-file of a vixen's mating call. The, er, vixen's scream file here." He leaned over and found it. "So what you all heard sounded like that?" Beside him, Century nodded, looking distant. "I was going to search through his audio recordings from the house to see if I could hear it for myself, because whatever it is, it's not going to be randy foxes."

"It wasn't the mating call, it was the alarm call." Century clarified.

"No." Salvo opened the very first link that Matt had attached to the August incident. "Alarm call is just what the YouTube video is called. But when you go in, it's the mating call. I should know. It's practically an orgy out there at times." He nodded towards the back window. "Scared the crap out of me and Chrissie, when we first heard it. You've just never got your headphones off long enough to enjoy the sounds of the countryside. You're very urban for a Welsh boy, aren't you?"

Century looked confused. "So why are you saying it isn't what we all agreed that it was?" He frowned. "Or are you saying that this is proof that there really was nothing out there? Because why would the foxes be off shagging, if there was danger about?"

Salvo looked incredulous. "Let me check this off here. You've got Mello, Matt, Deontic, you and Fenian, correct? Fenian who lives in the middle of fucking nowhere, from what I can make out. Dee and the other two, I don't know where they live, but they're only off the hook if it's in the centre of a city. You, I just give up on. Not one of you either already knew, or thought to check, on the mating habits of foxes."

"Alarm call, it was!" Century replied, emphatic on the point. "And Fenian didn't hear it. Just the four of us, it was." Uncertainty flickered for a moment in his eyes. "First time we went up there."

"Ok, right." Salvo opened the link. YouTube filled the screen, automatically playing the haunting shriek of something unseen in the woods. Century's hand tightened around the stick of his lollipop. The title on the page was 'alarm call - foxes'. The front page comments led them through a discussion about the relative merits of the poster's girlfriend in orgasm, versus this vulpine wail. "This is what you all heard?" Salvo asked, then continued without waiting for an answer. "I know it is, because Matt's typed, 'partido de audio positivos (MMDC) - zorros llamada de alarma' next to it. I translate that as something like, 'positive audio identification of a fox's alarm call'." He considered it. "Partido might mean match. I'd have to look it up. Either way, it's got your four initials against this link. That is the sound that you all agreed that you heard."

"Yes."

"And that is the vixen's mating call. Go to the beginning of the comments and you'll see that someone has told him." Salvo clicked to view all comments. "Hence the later conversation about his girlfriend."

"So there was nothing out there." Century looked a little stunned, though he had been trying to defend that position from the beginning of the case. It was a viewpoint that had been shaken inexorably, as events unfolded and the Gwrach-y-Rhibyn flew above their heads. "Matt was right. An hallucination, is it?" He blinked. "Why would my head do that to me? Where's the survival mechanism in that? We weren't drugged." He moved his lollipop to the other side of his mouth. "Unless the lead had got into the water. Is that what Deontic was pushing us towards?"

"I don't know, you'd have to ask her." Salvo was smirking. "Were you all this paranoid and self-absorbed while you were there?"

Century scowled. "It's not funny. Not funny at all! You're treating it like it's some big game, but it's not, see? It was bloody scary down there and not funny at all. I'd appreciate it if..."

"Iestyn." Salvo laid a hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't a joke. It was a question. In fact, it was a statement. I know it messed with you. The whole situation is deadly serious enough for me and Chrissie to be taking risks to try and stabilise it again." He raised his eyebrows, conveying the significance of this. "When she took that call from Deontic, asking her to represent Matt, Chrissie looked at me and said, 'Are we teetering on the edge of another civil war or are we already in one?' We could have battened down the hatches and hoped to ride it out, but we concluded that there was a chance to calm it down before it escalated into bloodshed. That's why she's down there, trying to get justice served, as quickly as possible, in a way that allows both Mello and Near to save face; and I've encouraged you to come home, even though you have hardware which we don't know might contain a tracking device. Linda and Luigi are shitting themselves. Chrissie is taking Mello and Matt. Linda is working on Deontic. I'm looking after you and Fenian." He wrinkled up his nose. "If he ever answers my e-mail that is. Because from the outside looking in, all we were seeing were a lot of increasingly high emotions, with five of our number appearing intent on winding each other up into war." He gave an apologetic smile. "I'm afraid that it did sound very paranoid and self-absorbed from where we were sitting. Not just from you. From all of you."

"Matt, it was, being antagonistic towards Fenian and Kiana." Century replied, coldly. "Fucking shit, out there, I'm telling you."

Salvo nodded, but repeated, "It was all of you. Hal too, and Lauren. Chrissie says that Valerie doesn't seem as together as her interview suggested either. The longer you were down there, the more extreme you all seemed to get." He squeezed his hand on Century's shoulder. "And you were only there for about two days. Linda got an e-mail from Deontic, which just said, in 20 point font, 'If Mello, Fenian, Century and Matt wash up dead at the end of this - I did it!' She had five exclamation marks at the end. Then a smaller bit, in brackets, saying, 'The bastards are seriously doing my head in with their fucking bickering.' Did you even know that Deontic could swear?"

"Dee wrote that?" Century looked shocked and deflated. "But we defended her! Went right on out there and..." He stopped, realising that Salvo might not know about Deontic's ordeal. "When did she write that?"

"Iestyn, calm it down. The point is that it was out of character. Looking at these notes, I'm seeing a whole lot of out of character, particularly in the fact that no-one is cross-checking the solid evidence that you did have." He shook his head. "There are errors that none of you would have made when you entered Wammy's House, let alone after graduation. It's like you all left your common sense at the door on the way in, and then just rode a paranoid trip all the way to the finale."

Century was still thinking about Deontic's e-mail, which had upset him more than he was letting on. "It's too easy to judge when you weren't there."

"You know that the hospital in Aberystwyth knows that they have a Letter in there? Because Deontic just blurted it out in reception. She even made them call Near to check, but one of Near's men intercepted the call and re-routed it to Luigi."

"Why Luigi? Hal was right there."

Salvo gave him a pitying look. "It was the Watari direct line, which was Wammy's House; which Luigi is currently looking after. He naturally panicked and just agreed to everything that they were saying, which was basically to do anything that Deontic asked them to. Then he found out what she was asking. It was that the internet and 'phone system, in Mello's room, be disconnected. So now Luigi is in bits, thinking that Mello is going to come after him, when this is all over. Meanwhile, Linda has turned up and she gets straight onto Dee to find out what is going on over there. Dee tells Linda that she is convinced that Mello is going to kill Matt, when he gets out of there, as revenge for Matt shooting him. She's advocating keeping Matt locked away, in the short term, for his own protection, then setting him up a false identity and hiding him away. She's taken possession of Mello's clothes, what he was wearing when he went into surgery, and she's hidden his mobile 'phone. Deontic is basically going out of her way to stop Mello getting anywhere near Matt."

"No." Century sat down hard on a chair. "He was arrested for attempted murder. No protection about it. Hal arrested him and called the transport to get him into the Watari cells." He paused, glancing at Salvo to see if a rant was forthcoming. The Watari cells were the target of a Chrissie crusade and they had both been subject to many of her diatribes on the subject. "Protection, is it? Don't know, do I? I don't think I know what's fucking real anymore about anything."

"I think that Hal's in agreement with Deontic, though we only have Dee's word for that." Salvo wandered across to the coffee percolator and poured himself another mug. "Want a cup of tea, cariad?"

Century's eyes had filled up. He quickly wiped the tears away. "Is it proper war? I thought it was more like, you know, classroom oneupmanship." He inspected the remains of his lollipop. "Can't take it right now, I can't."

"You're safe and sound up here with me. You're going to chill out on the settee, with some lollipops and Muse in concert on the DVD. It's going to get sorted out, now that we've got you covered."

"Not when they track the computers and come up by here."

Salvo shrugged, "Frankly, I hope they do. They can have the guest room and chill out as well. Then they save us the bother of working out how to get all of this returned." He brushed the scenario off, like it really was of no concern. "Did you definitely see Fenian get on that ferry? I'm less concerned about him hiding under a bed somewhere in Galway, than I am by the possibility of him freaking out and being on the loose in Wales."

"Don't know." Century thought back to Caergybi. "Got in the lane and queued for bloody ages. Don't think you can turn around out of that one. Got on the ferry as far I know, which is probably very little." He sniffed.

"You're doing fine." Salvo smiled, as he crossed to check on Luleka. "Honestly, I'd tell you if you weren't. You look really ill and I've never seen you stressed like this before. I didn't think you had it in you. But I can also see you starting to come back to ground. You seem slightly less edgy today than you did last night." He disappeared into the living room. "Hey Luleka! What you doing there? Is Boo-Boo Bear helping you make shapes?" There was the answering babble of his son happily at play. "That's a circle. Cercle." He pronounced it in the French way. "Tour."

Century listened to it all, passing blankly as background noise, while he stared incomprehensibly at the stilled fox video. He waited for Salvo to come back in, then asked tearfully, "So what you're saying is that there's clear evidence that it was all psychological; and all of us went insane."

"No, I'm not." Salvo sighed. "And I was only grinning at you before, because I'd practically spelt it out and you still weren't grasping the logic. But, from what I can deduce, that's not your fault. This case attacked all of you emotionally." He handed a tissue to the teenager. "Don't cry. It's all in hand now and I'm guessing that everything needful to find your answers is right here in these files."

Century blew his nose and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "Just tell me. I can't even see what we're missing. The foxes were definitely out there and comfortable enough with their environment to be having a little party. Ergo woods were safe; and we were off our heads."

"No." Salvo sat beside him. "Because there were no foxes out there. Or, if there were, they were cowering deep enough inside their earths, that you couldn't even hear their real alarm calls. Which, incidentally, is a lot shorter and sharper. More like a single yap." He opened up another tab on the browser and searched for the National Fox Welfare Society website, that he'd read earlier that morning. "And here it tells us that you're only hearing that mating call during three days in January. That's when the vixen is in season and her earth all picked out for babies. Time to start whoring her funky stuff. You were there in August and October. She's got cubs and, as far as Mr Fox is concerned, a permanent headache until next January."

Century closed his eyes. "Cachi."

"So given the visual and folkloric evidence, I would deduce that you never once, any of you, heard a single fox while you were at that house. You were hearing the Gwrach-y-Rhibyn."

"It was real."

"Yes."