Kingdom Of The Nanosaurs (trilogy)

Kingdom Of The Nanosaurs - chapter 19

19. The battle of Buckingham Palace

The entire population of London seemed to be on the move and traffic in most parts of the city was clogged up. There was a heavy police presence and thick crowds surrounding allotments, market gardens and supermarkets. Rationing fever had taken hold of the capital and wherever Morgan looked from his high vantage point aboard Taurus he could see people marching, holding banners aloft and chanting. He could see news placards for the Evening Standard proclaiming tales of riots and rationing and the latest shadow abductions. Outside Hampstead tube station a small, gnarled man was screaming and waving newspapers at passers-by. “Read all about it. Read all about it,” he yelled. “Shadow victims come back as monsters.”

They had finally deserted the goods train somewhere in Willesden where it ended its journey. Armed guards were waiting for it as was a line of trucks with men and hoists ready to unload the containers. Morgan wondered where all the food was heading: no wonder there was a high security presence. If the ordinary people knew there was food under their very noses there would have been a full-scale riot.

Taurus found little trouble carving a path through any crowd but he kept to as many open spaces as possible guided by Morgan, heading across Hampstead Heath, down Hampstead High Street towards Paddington, Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace.

If Morgan and Winston had seen nanosaurs before then nothing had prepared them for the number of variety of artificial animals in the streets and in the skies above London. Still, they only saw two other minotaurs and the sight of a boy and the ape riding one didn’t cause that much of a stir. Morgan had to admit, to have manufactured so many of these weird creatures, not just in England, but all over the world was an incredible achievement, although Morgan bitterly hated to admit it. Didn’t Natzler say that nanosaurs could replicate themselves under his control? Morgan had no idea how that could be done.

Somehow, they had to get right close to the Palace and that meant finding routes around the marching, flag waving crowds, abandoned vehicles and the frequent police and army checkpoints.

There were many anti-nanosaur banners in evidence with the slogan: ‘Nanosaurs – what use are they? We can’t eat them so get rid of them’.

On Park Lane the crowds had thickened into a slow moving trudge of anxious and depressed humanity. Some people had nanosaur pets with them; bouncing kangaroids and pink unicorns seemed to be popular and some smart types were being carried above tree height by pet eagloids, nano bats and other winged creatures. Above the heads of the marchers a flotilla of winged dogs flapped happily in the sunshine and clambering up the exterior of some of the houses and hotels were a number of climbing nanosaurs; giant, fluffy centipoids, nano apes and monkeys bristling with multi coloured furry spikes. Almost reaching the top of the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner, Morgan shivered at the sight of a bizarre nano scorpion with an inflated curling tail the tip of which flashed and emitted blue and red sparks.

Morgan noticed a couple of police motorcyclists approaching with their sirens blaring and lights flashing heading for Constitution Hill. Magically, the crowd parted before them like the waters of the Dead Sea. Winston shouted to Taurus who increased his pace, almost trampling people in the process, until he was trotting directly behind the motorcyclists. The police riders looked back and stared at Taurus but did not stop. If they came to a halt here they might never move again. The crowds thinned around Green Park and cordons were in the process of being erected. Taurus increased speed and crossed Hyde Park Corner roundabout dodging gridlocked buses, coaches and cars. People flying, carried by nano birds of various descriptions, zoomed past Morgan waving excitedly. The people on board were screaming and yelling with excitement, many of them drinking as they swooped and swirled over the grounds of Buckingham Palace and out again, warned off by police loudspeakers and the patrolling air sharks.