Spook Street / C00
Chapter 0
Summary
On the first working day of the year, Samit Chatterjee patrols Westacres, a shopping centre on London’s western fringe, where the windows are dressed for a spring that has not arrived and the wet floor makes every passage hazardous. Samit is a devout Muslim and one of the centre’s Community Regulation Officers—security guards, in effect—and he keeps to the fountain hub, because every corridor meets there. Three youths come along the eastern corridor with a large black holdall, and when he scans the other avenues he finds more groups converging, so he unclips his radio and transmits. The trio unzip the bag, a ghetto-blaster comes out, and the crowd strips off outer layers to show bright shirts: a flash mob, Samit realises, of the kind he once watched from the sidelines at Liverpool Street. He is briefly caught up in it, raising a hand to his mouth to hide a smile or a chorus. The blast then destroys the hub and everyone near it, and the narrative notes that the gesture shielded his teeth, by which he was later identified.
Beats
- C00S01 · Samit Chatterjee — Samit Chatterjee, a Community Regulation Officer at Westacres, works the first working day of the year at the fountain hub, where all four corridors meet. He spots three youths with a black holdall, then sees group after group converging from every avenue, and radios it in as a case of doubt. The crowd strips to bright shirts as a ghetto-blaster starts and a flash mob dances; Samit, who once watched one from the sidelines at Liverpool Street, raises a hand to his mouth. The bomb then detonates, shredding the hub, and the chapter ends on the blast and the aftermath it leaves behind.
People
- Samit Chatterjee — Westacres Community Regulation Officer on duty at the fountain when the bomb goes off; his hand-to-mouth gesture is how he is later identified.
Places
- Westacres — the shopping centre on London’s western fringe where the flash mob gathers and the bomb detonates.
Lines worth keeping
“This gesture helped shield his teeth, by which he was later identified.” — Narrator, Samit raises a hand to hide his reaction to the flash mob; the gesture is what identifies him afterwards.
“A flash-mob, Samit realised.” — Narrator, Samit works out what the converging crowd and the ghetto-blaster amount to.
“It lasted seconds, but never stopped” — Narrator, The bomb, described as an angry fireball swallowing the music and the dancers.
Threads
- Plants: Samit’s raised hand is noted as shielding his teeth, “by which he was later identified”, pointing forward to the identification of the dead.; The flash mob is described as perfect cover: a crowd, a ghetto-blaster and bright shirts filling the hub before the blast.; No death toll and no bomber are given here; C01 supplies “upwards of forty lives” and Marcus says “forty-two kids”.
- Continuity: It is the first working day of the year, mid-afternoon; the centre is dressed for spring against wet January weather.; Samit is a devout Muslim, has worked at Westacres long enough to have apprehended one shoplifter, and has seen one previous flash mob, at Liverpool Street.; The text does not say where the device was planted or who carried it; C01 has David Cartwright call it a suicide bomber.