'And there he goes,' said Shibboleth. 'And there he's gone.'

And he was.

'He has gone,' said Kelly. 'But where did he go?'

'That's a question I've been asking myself ever since I saw him do it the first time.'

Kelly followed Shibboleth to the approximate spot where the Reverend Jim had vanished and stood looking into the darkness that spread all around and about. 'Where are we?' Kelly asked. 'What is this place?'

'It's nowhere,' said Shibboleth. 'Just a bombed-out car park. No buildings and no trapdoors leading into subterranean workings. I've been all over the place in daylight. It's paved solid. There's nothing. You tell me where he went.'

Kelly took off her goggles and stared at Shibboleth. What there was to be seen of his face looked genuinely baffled.

'Let me get this straight,' she said. 'The only evidence you think you have that the chapel is here, is that the man you think is the high priest of this chapel always vanishes right at this spot when you follow him.'

'Nicely put,' said Shibboleth.

'You idiot,' said Kelly. 'You clown. You stupid…'

'Easy,' said Shibboleth.

'You have no evidence. Absolutely none.'

'I wouldn't go so far as to put it like that. It is here. I know it's here. I'm not messing you about. I'm on the level. I know it's here.'

'Hold on,' said Kelly: 'Say that again.'

'I know it's here.'

'No, before that.'

'I don't remember exactly what I said. I'm on the level, I said that.'

'Exactly,' said Kelly. 'That is what you said.'

'I'm baffled,' said Shibboleth. 'What did I say?'

'Level,' said Kelly. 'You said, level. As in levels in a computer game. This is what all of this is about. Well, some of it anyway. Most of it, as far as I can make out. Games. And in computer games you go up from level to level and you do that by scoring points and gaining energy and reasoning things out. Bear with me on this. What if the chapel is here? Right here.'

'It is,' said Shibboleth. 'I'm sure of it.'

'Then what if we cannot gain access to it without some kind of password? Without knowing the cheat. We have to find the Easter Egg. The secret way onto the next level.'

'Go on,' said Shibboleth. 'I'm listening. What do you think the Reverend Jim did, then?'

'He did something,' said Kelly. 'But then he might have had something. Some electronic key. Some remote-control unit. Something.'

'Nothing computerized works around here,' said Shibboleth. 'Mobile phones don't work. Laptops, nothing.'

'Give me a moment,' said Kelly. 'I need to think about this.'

Shibboleth gave her a moment.

'Any joy?' he asked, a moment later.

'Yes,' said Kelly. 'I think I know how he did it. Let's walk back to where we were when he vanished.'

Kelly and Shibboleth retraced their steps as best they could.

'OK,' said Kelly. 'We were behind him here, and what did he do?'

'He bounced and bobbed along in front of us and then he vanished.'

'No, he did more than that. He danced along. He took little sidesteps and went forwards and backwards.'

'A pattern,' said Shibboleth.

'On the paving stones,' said Kelly. 'He danced out a pattern from one stone to another. No doubt without stepping on the cracks. It's hopscotch. The oldest game in the world.'

'I thought that was prostitution.'

'That's the oldest profession. But I'm sure that whores played hopscotch too.'

'They'll play anything you want, if you pay them enough. I met this girl once who…'

'This is neither the time nor the place,' said Kelly.

'That's what she said at first, but money talks.'

'I will hit you,' said Kelly. 'I have very little patience left.'

'So what do we do?' Shibboleth asked. 'Follow the high priest again tomorrow and try to dance on the same stones that he does? We could sprinkle talcum powder over them earlier in the evening. I saw that done in an old movie. What are you doing?'

'Just watch me through the goggles,' said Kelly. 'There's an old hand-held computer game called simon. It flashed lights on different squares and you had to copy what it did. I shall do as the Rev Jim did, you do what I do and let's hope for the best.'

'All right,' said Shibboleth. 'But I'm no great dancer.'

'Nor conversationalist,' said Kelly. 'But we can't all be good at everything, can we? Are you ready?'

'Ready,' said Shibboleth.

'Then here I go,' and Kelly bounced and bobbed away. She took the odd little sidesteps, then the dancings forward, then the steps backwards and then the steps forward again.

And then she vanished.

'Brilliant,' said Shibboleth. 'You did it.'

'No I didn't,' called a voice in the darkness. 'I just tripped and fell on my face.’

‘Anything hurt?’

‘Only my pride. I'm coming back to have another go-'

And so Kelly had another go.

And another.

And another.

And not to be beaten, she had another go too.

And another.

'This really isn't working, is it?' Shibboleth asked.

'There'd be a knack to it.'

'Not one you've mastered quite yet, by the look of it.'

'Perhaps you'd prefer to have a go yourself.'

Shibboleth shrugged in the uncertain light. 'I'd probably only fare as well as you,' he said. 'Although if I was going to do it, I'd probably do it exactly the same way the high priest did. By taking three steps to the right instead of the two you keep taking.'

Kelly returned to Shibboleth and punched him hard in the face.

'Oh, ouch, damn,' wailed Shibboleth. 'There was no need for that.'

'There was every need for that. If this is the way to get into the chapel, the service will be over before we even arrive. Do the dance. Go on, or I'll hit you again.'

'I think you've broken my nose.'

'I haven't. I could have done, but I didn't.'

'It really hurts,' moaned Shibboleth.

'Do the silly dance.'

And Shibboleth lined himself up, said, 'OK,' and did the silly dance.

And then he vanished. Just like that.

'Have you fallen over?' Kelly asked.

But there was no reply.

'Oh,' said Kelly. 'You did it. You actually did it.'

She stood alone there in the uncertain light, looking down at the pavement slabs through her infra-red goggles. They shone faintly, offering up the heat of the day that they had stored within their ancient granite pores. A giant chessboard? A game board? An entrance? To what?

To the chapel of It.

Kelly drew draughts of healthless Mute Corp Keynes night air up her nostrils. This was to be it. Possibly a confrontation with It. Possibly anything. And this Shibboleth had gone before her. Was he on the level? Or was he leading her to her doom? Should she go on, or turn away and run? That was an option. Not much of one, but it was an option.

'I have to see this through,' Kelly told herself. 'Innocent people have been hurt, killed. I don't know what I can do about it. But I have to do something.'

She glanced all around and about. She was all alone.

If she was going to do it.

Then now was the time.

To do it.

To do

It.

Kelly took another breath and blew it out into the night. And then she too did the silly dance.

From paving stone to paving stone and never stepping on the cracks.

And she, like Shibboleth, vanished.

The moon appeared from behind industrial clouds-. It shone down upon the great paved space, turning the paving stones the colour of a silver without price.

And out of nowhere, or so at least it seemed, a fat man appeared. He was the fat man who had leaned upon the lamppost opposite the Swan and studied Kelly through his macrovision spectacles.