Free The Unknown Spy by Eoin McNamee

wearing a parka. There was rope looped over his shoulder, and climbers’ crampons hung from his belt.
    “Getting very busy on the rooftops this morning. Unauthorized entry all over the place.”
    Danny got to his feet, eyeing the blunderbuss warily.
    “I’m a pupil at Wilsons,” he said. “We were in the courtyard down there and someone attacked us with a dart. I was chasing him.”
    “One of these?” the bearded man said, holding up a dart tipped with red and black feathers.
    “Yes.”
    “He threw one at me too.”
    “Good thing it didn’t hit you,” Danny said. “It’s poisoned.”
    “Is it?” The man raised an eyebrow. “So what makes you think you can come up here willy-nilly? These rooftops is highly organized places. You can’t just be running about.”
    “Sorry,” Danny said.
    “There’s lead flashing that’s hard to fix and there’s expensive copper sheeting and slates and tiles, not to mention the aerials. Looking after the roofs is a full-time job.”
    “I’m sure it’s hard,” Danny said, guessing that the little man looked after the roofs, “but they look like very well-cared-for roofs.”
    “Do they?”
    “I’ve never seen better-looking roofs. Look at the way they’re keeping out the snow,” Danny said.
    “Snow is difficult,” the man said. “Causes expanding, and we all know what expanding leads to.…”
    “Yes, of course,” Danny said. “Expanding leads to … leads to …”
    “Leaks!” the little man said. “The roof man’s mortal enemy! Leaks and drips.”
    “Shocking,” Danny said as the man lowered his gun. “And the attacker …”
    “Gone,” the man said shortly. “Must have had a key to one of the roof doors. That’s the only way you can get up and down.” There was a clattering, clanking noise from behind him. They turned to see Gabriel. TheMessenger had tried to take off and the wind had blown him into one of the clusters of antennae, where he had become completely entangled. The little man lifted his blunderbuss to his shoulder. Danny dived forward and knocked the barrel off target just as the roof man fired. The shot went harmlessly upward.
    “What are you doing?” Danny cried.
    “Look at my good aerial!” the roof man cried. “I haven’t seen such a mess since the great storms of ’thirty-nine. Pesky birds!”
    “It’s not a bird, it’s a Messenger!” Danny exclaimed as the roof man tried to reload.
    “I don’t care what it is, get it out of my aerials,” the man grunted. With a supreme effort Gabriel wriggled free of the aerials and dropped to the rooftop in a tangle of wings and limbs. The roof man lowered his gun and clambered up among the antennae, straightening and redirecting them with care.
    “Come on, Gabriel,” Danny said, “we’d better get out of here. Sorry about your aerials, Mr. Roof Man.”
    “Come up here with nothing to do but make trouble,” muttered the man. “Why can’t they stay on the ground?”
    “You didn’t happen to see what the attacker looked like, by any chance?” Danny asked as he clambered onto Gabriel’s back.
    “Small and fast-moving was all I seen,” the roof man said. “Too busy watching out for his darts to get a right look. Well rid of the likes of that off the roof.”
    Still grumbling, he did not look round as Gabriel half launched himself, half stumbled from the roof, thenglided unsteadily toward the ground, lost for a moment in a flurry blown from a ledge. Danny could see the three Messengers and his friends below. Daisy was sitting up, supported by Gertie, but Dixie knelt beside Vandra, who lay pale and still on the ground.
    T he roof man moved to the edge and looked down at the small group. The cross-old-workman persona had vanished. The face that looked down was now cold and cunning, the eyes glittering with malice. He scratched at the ginger beard and part of it came away. He took one of the darts from his pocket. The physick had saved the Messenger from his poison,