CHAPTER ONE - THE CITY

CHAPTER ONE

Silver stepped off the train onto platform eight, glanced around in anticipation and inhaled deeply. Twenty-five sets of railway tracks terminated on the east side of Smokesville’s main train station, twenty-three sleek and shiny trains stood parallel to each other, at rest after delivering the hordes of commuters to the capital’s centre. Crowds milled forward, an anxious heaving mass, intent on streaming into the city streets.
But Silver paid no attention to them as they pushed past her, despite the occasional whack on the shoulder or the jamming of luggage into her legs. She stood, without moving, a few feet from where she had alighted, and stared about her. A huge colourful dome above her head obscured the sky from view, the elegant pillars supporting it stretched high above her head, a spectacle without match in Micropolis, the tiny village by the sea where Silver grew up.

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She didn’t gaze upwards for long. Her attention was really focused on the crowds about her. Their faces fascinated her, the eyes that looked intently ahead, the brows knotted in concern, the mouths, set straight and firm. Misery, unhappiness and fear – she read all three emotions on their faces. This reading, rather than depressing her, gave her a feeling of hope: these were the people she was here to help. They needed her.
Silver remained where she was, enjoying the feel of the throng passing her by, absorbing the sense of the sheer immensity of the city. Eventually most of the passengers from the train had exited through the distant barriers, and she was left alone. Behind her, a far distant circle of light indicated where the train tunnel met the outside, but her way led ahead.
Picking up a heavy suitcase in either hand, Silver set off blithely along the platform. Gently swinging her cases, Silver mused on what her first mission would be. Perhaps a force of invading gigantic grasshoppers would descend on Smokesville, or maybe a master criminal determined on destroying the livelihoods of all the citizens of the city. Or worse, plan a series of nuclear explosions that would tear the foundations of the city apart.
Silver wasn’t sure how she would handle that last scenario but she was determined to do her best to help the hapless denizens of Smokesville. After all, that was what she was born to do.
Reaching the exit barriers, she dropped her case and rooted in her pockets for her train ticket, still musing about what she could and would do.
No ticket. Of course, she had put it in her purse.
No purse.
Silver remembered some of the people who had pressed against her as they left the train. She had been too busy day dreaming about her new life in the city to notice that she had been robbed. Biting her lip, she could feel the colour rise in her cheeks. How stupid of her. And now a petty thief had run off with all her money, her savings for her visit to Smokesville.
As she hesitated around the exit barrier, a man dressed in a uniform approached her.
“Hurry along there, Miss. I’ll be allowing people to board soon.”
Beyond the exit barriers, a row of shops and stalls lined either side of a corridor, which ended in a gate forty or fifty yards away. Silver could see a crowd of people waiting to be allowed through.
“Just place your ticket in the slot there, and the barrier will raise and you can leave,” the official said.
“Well, my ticket has been stolen,” Silver said. “So I can’t put it in the slot.”
The man’s pleasant demeanour diminished. “You’ve no ticket.”
“My purse was stolen – “
“You’ve no ticket?” The man frowned. “It’s against the law to travel by train without a ticket.”
“I didn’t – it – ”
“You could be imprisoned for this.” The guard shook his head. Producing a whistle, he blew three sharp toots on it. Instantly half a dozen guards ran up from nowhere.
Silver gasped. “But my purse has been stolen – ”
The guard would not listen to her. He raised the barrier, stepped inside and took her arm, and to Silver’s shock, she found she was under arrest. Rather than come to the city to fight criminals, as she had hoped, she was now being arrested as a felon and fraudster.