Turns out, I didn’t have long to wait. We reached the gathering place at the main marquee within a few minutes.
‘He’s in there,’ Keon said, skidding to a halt. ‘I’ll look after this baby for you.’
I got off, reached forward, turned off the ignition and pocketed the keys.
‘You’re no fun,’ he said.
‘Fuel’s precious,’ I replied. ‘It better be here when I get back, or Reece will have something to say.’
‘It’ll be here. I looked after your truck before, didn’t I? Kept it in one piece.’
I nodded and left him, pushing back the tent flap and stepping inside.
There was no way I could’ve come back here with Luc. Reece would never have agreed to see us, not after what happened last time. But I wished he was by my side right now. It would’ve made everything so much easier.
The marquee was packed with people. The air smoky and dense, slightly warmer than outside, thank God.
Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed me as I picked my way past families and groups huddled together for what little warmth could be found. Reece was sitting in his usual spot, surrounded by his cronies. To pull this off, I would have to be brave. I would have to lie and I would have to act my ass off.
One of Reece’s friends nudged him and pointed in my direction. Reece looked up and gave a triumphant smirk as I smiled across at him. He leant down and said something to his friend who laughed. I took a breath and walked up to him.
‘Riley,’ he said, taking my gloved hand. ‘Jesus, girl, you’re freezing. Come and sit by the burner with me.’ He twined my hand in his and led me over to the centre of the marquee. People made way for us as we walked and two men vacated a couple of floor cushions about ten feet from the huge stove with its blissful warmth.
Reece let go of my hand and sat down on one of the cushions. He patted the other and I sat facing him. He leant forward and peeled off each of my sodden gloves, placing them closer to the burner. Then he took my frozen hands in his and started rubbing the skin, blowing on my fingers to warm them up. I didn’t like the feel of his calloused hands over mine, but I let him continue.
‘I’m glad you came back to see me,’ he said. ‘I’ve been looking forward to spending time with you.’
‘Me too,’ I said, forcing myself to look up at him. He was certainly good looking, with his dark eyes and stubbled jaw, but there was something too wild and unpredictable about him, despite the warm and genuine smile he showed me now.
‘Reece, I need your help,’ I said.
He carried on squeezing my fingers, rubbing each one individually till they tingled and burned.
‘The perimeter,’ I said. ‘It’s under attack. We’re under attack.’
‘So you didn’t come to see me,’ he said, letting go of my hands. His smile melted away.
‘We’re in trouble, Reece. And you were the first person I thought of.’
‘What about that lad you were with before? Can’t he help you?’
‘Who, Luc?’ I said. ‘He’s just a boy. He can’t do anything.’ Those traitorous words made me burn with shame, but I had to tell Reece what he wanted to hear or he’d never help us.
‘Grey’s men,’ Reece said without emotion. ‘They came?’
I nodded, willing myself not to cry. ‘They’re going to destroy our home. I really need your help.’
‘Why me?’
‘You’ve got skills. Numbers. You can make the difference, Reece.’ I took hold of his hands again. ‘You could save my home.’
‘What can we do with a few knives and rifles?’ he said. ‘We can’t go up against an army like that. We’re tough, but we’re not idiots.’
‘I can arm you,’ I said.
‘Go on . . .’
‘I’ve got proper weapons you can use. State-of-the-art. But I need you to come now, before it’s too late.’
‘Wait a minute, Riley. I appreciate the firewood, I really do. But you’re asking me to risk my people’s lives for yours. Why should I do that?’
‘You can keep the weapons afterwards. And I’ll give you ammo and supplies to last you through the rest of the winter.’
He looked thoughtful at this. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I’m not convinced. I’ll need some time to think about it.’
‘Reece, there is no time. If we don’t get going now, it’s game over.’ I thought back to the Lost Wall – the one Lou had shown me with the sketches of missing children. I stood up and reached down for Reece’s hand. ‘Can I show you something?’ I asked.
He nodded and let me haul him to his feet. I led him around to the back of the marquee where the Lost Wall was situated.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked gruffly. ‘Why are we here?’
‘Which ones are your sisters?’ I asked, pointing at the wall.
‘What? How do you . . . That’s nothing to do with you.’ His face turned ugly and I knew I’d have to speak fast.
‘I’m sorry to talk about them, but Lou told me they went missing.’
‘Blabbermouth bitch,’ he said. ‘She should never have . . .’
‘Thing is,’ I continued. ‘I’m pretty sure I know where they are.’
Reece stepped forward and took me by the throat. ‘What the hell are you talking about? What are you really doing here? Start talking before I squeeze so hard you’ll never talk again.’
‘Grey!’ I croaked. ‘Grey’s been stealing children! Help us defeat him and we can get them back. I swear! I swear it’s true.’
He let go and I sank to the ground, clutching at my neck and swallowing hard. My hands shook and I tried to get my breath back, gasping and choking.
He crouched down and leant in close, his breath on my face. ‘No one talks about my sisters,’ he said. ‘No one. Especially not a stuck-up perimeter girl like you.’ He straightened up. ‘Follow me.’
I scrambled to my feet and followed. Reece gave a sharp whistle and a boy came running over.
‘Gather the council,’ he said. ‘Now.’
Chapter Thirty Five
The mass of warriors surged forward through the newly blasted gates in the fence, trying to get beyond the wall, but it was impossible as bullets rained down on their heads and they were picked off like fish in a barrel. Not one of them retreated. Those who survived kept on pushing forward, trying to get through. Jamie could hardly bear to watch. And the bodies were piling up, impeding the warriors behind. If The Voice of the Father hadn’t have selected him for his special task, then he too would have been one of those men out there in the thick of the violence.
And then Jamie saw something weird.
Once the warriors reached the wall, they were being driven back by more than just bullets. There was something else there. Creatures! Their men were being set upon by creatures. Tens of them, pouring out from gaps in the exploded brickwork. Jamie leant forward and squinted.
‘Are those . . . dogs?’ Matthew asked.
‘I think so. Yes.’
‘If that’s the best they’ve got, we’ll be inside the walls within the hour.’
But Jamie watched in fascinated horror as the creatures leapt onto their warriors, tearing into them and bringing them down onto the blood-stained snow. These wild dogs were an effective weapon. Distracting and vicious. The soldiers at the front were forced to drop their machine guns and use blades instead, hacking at the mutts with swords and knives. It was terrible to watch. Jamie looked down at his lap. His looming task seemed simple by comparison: to carry out an execution. That’s if they made it that far.
* * *
The mood was tense as we sat around the table at the back of the marquee – Reece, his four councillors and me. My voice was still croaky, but I managed to talk. Reece was in a foul mood and although he had listened to my tale of Grey’s children, I could tell he hadn’t enjoyed hearing it. I thought he might stride around the table any minute and snap my neck. I guess I was the messenger and he wanted to shoot me.
I put forward
my request for help. I told them that it was Grey who’d been abducting children over the years. About Liss and FJ and how she had escaped and he had become one of them. I explained about Grey being dead and how FJ had taken over. I said that now would be the perfect time to strike. That if we could get rid of FJ, the whole regime would be vulnerable.
‘If we kill FJ, Grey’s soldiers will be miles from home with no leader,’ I said. ‘We could go to Salisbury and find the missing children.’
‘How do we know you’re not spinning us a yarn?’ one of the older men asked.
‘Look at me,’ I replied. ‘I’m here, alone. At your mercy. Why would I offer you a van-load of weapons and ammunition if I was trying to trick you?’
‘How many of those warriors are down there?’ another man asked.
I swallowed. I couldn’t lie, but if I told them about the thousands of men blotting out the horizon, they would never agree to help. ‘A lot,’ I said. ‘More than a thousand.’
Silence settled around the table for a while.
The man leant across and whispered something in Reece’s ear. Reece nodded and turned to me. ‘Wait outside,’ he said.
I nodded and stood up shakily, but before I left the room I gave a last plea. ‘If you agree to this,’ I said. ‘You’ll get your lost children, you’ll get supplies for the winter and you’ll never have to worry about Grey’s army again.’ Then I left the makeshift room and waited outside by the Lost Wall.
One of Reece’s men stood guard at the entrance to the council room, but I ignored him and concentrated my gaze on the sketches of the missing people. Examining the faces of all the children. Yes, I wanted Reece to help save my family and my home, but I also wanted those children to be reunited with their parents. Grey’s ethos was wrong. It needed to be exposed and stopped.
Heated voices filtered through the thin partition wall in the marquee. I caught odd snatches of words, but I couldn’t make out which way the conversation was going. All I knew was time was ticking and the longer I waited here, the less chance there was of saving the perimeter.
‘You.’
I looked up to see the scowling face of the gypsy on guard.
‘Back inside,’ he said.
I walked past him to hear my fate, standing at the foot of the table with five pairs of eyes on me.
‘Where are the weapons?’ Reece asked.
‘In a lock-up in the compound,’ I replied.
‘And you’ll give us supplies, enough for everyone here, to last through the winter?’
‘You have my word,’ I replied.
‘What if you get killed out there?’ he asked. ‘Who else knows about this ‘deal’?’
‘Luc,’ I said.
‘He knows you’re here?’ Reece said. ‘I don’t believe that.’
‘I . . . left him a note.’ My cheeks reddened at the memory.
At this, Reece laughed. ‘I’d love to have been there when he read it.’
I had the grace to look down at my boots.
‘Come on then,’ he said. ‘Show us to this secret weapons stash.’
‘Do I have your word that you’ll help me?’ I said. ‘I mean, I could give you the weapons and you could just say . . .’
‘We may not have much here, in the way of comfort and supplies,’ he interrupted. ‘But we do have our honour. My men are hungry and not as strong as they should be, but our word is our bond. Cross us and you’ll regret it, but you can always rely on our word.’
I would have to accept what he said. What other choice did I have?
Collecting the motorcycle from Keon on the way out of the Gathering Place, I ignored Reece’s scowl, wishing the bike looked a little less shiny and a little more beaten up. No wonder these people resented the perimeter. We appeared to have it all.
Not any more.
While Reece and two of his men came with me to the compound, he left the councillors to round up the rest of the gypsies to prepare for the battle ahead. I pulled in the clutch handle and wheeled the bike behind the three men, stumbling in their wake. Although the bike was relatively small, it was still unwieldy, and the pathways weren’t exactly smooth. The men made no attempt to talk to me and didn’t once turn around to check I was following. I didn’t blame Reece for his attitude. He thought I had come here to see him, but I hadn’t. I’d come to give him some unwelcome news and a difficult decision.
We came to an area screened by dirty swathes of material and I followed Reece and his companions through. He held back the sheet for me as I pushed the bike through; his first acknowledgment of me since we’d left the marquee. And now we were standing at the compound wall, by the wide ditch which ran around its base. A gypsy sat in front of the ditch on an upturned metal drum. He stood up as we approached.
Lying across the ditch, a wide wooden board ran up to a metal door set into the wall. It was the door through which Lou had first brought me to The Walls back when the riots had sent us fleeing from the compound. That day seemed like months ago. So much had happened since then. The guard crossed the ditch and unbolted and unlocked the metal door in the wall. Reece took the bike from me and wheeled it across the ditch. Then he lifted it through the doorway and into the small yard.
Once we were all through, the guard shut the gate and I heard the bolts slide back across. Reece pushed my motorcycle up to the back door and rapped hard on the wood. A few long seconds later, a shuffle of feet and a rattle of keys, and the door opened.
The old man, Arthur, stood there in his dressing gown and slippers. His face lit up at the sight of Reece.
‘Reece, my boy, come in, come in.’
‘Good to see you, Artie. We’re in a bit of a rush today. But I’ll come over next week and let you thrash me at cards. How’s that sound?’
‘Sounds about right. You young ‘uns are always in a rush.’ He chortled. His cantankerous manner had totally disappeared from when Lou and I had been here.
‘Can I bring the bike through?’ Reece asked. ‘One of my guys will clean up the floor later.’
‘Bring it through, my boy. Nice machine. Used to have a Triumph Tiger when I was younger.’
‘You’re a diamond, Artie,’ Reece said, manoeuvring the bike over the threshold and into the house. ‘How about I take you for a burn on this thing when the weather’s better.’
Arthur’s eyes widened to the size of horse chestnuts, making him look like an owl. ‘You’re on,’ he said.
Reluctantly, Arthur opened his front door, allowing us out into the quiet alleyway beyond. Reece shook his hand and the old man gave him a nod before closing the door once more.
Reece turned to me. ‘Where’s this lock-up?’ he asked, his pleasant manner evaporating once more.
‘38 Lowther Road,’ I said, hoping I’d remembered the address correctly.
‘I know the road. It’s not far away.’ He got onto the bike and nodded at me to get on behind. His friends stood to the side. ‘Catch us up,’ he said to them, before pulling away down the alley.
Reece and I turned into Charminster’s main road, which was quieter than I’d ever seen it. People were staying home where it was safer and warmer. Then Reece took a right down a relatively nice street with large detached houses. Maybe the snow made it prettier than usual.
’Number 38?’ he called over his shoulder.
‘Yeah,’ I replied. I counted along the even numbers. 32, 34 and then the house numbers jumped straight to 42. ‘Go back,’ I called out. ‘It’s got to be somewhere here.’
Reece turned the bike around. Between houses 34 and 42 was an alleyway. We rode down it. At the end were three garages with corrugated metal doors. The middle one was number 38. We got off the bike and I took the bunch of keys from the ignition, examining them for one which looked like it would fit the small keyhole in front of me. I got it right first time. The key turned and I heaved up the door. It rolled upward with a clatter. Immediately behind it, a sturdier set of doors. Again, I found the key and opened them up. Behind them la
y a surprise.
The doors opened up to a massive space which spanned the width of all three garages and stretched back three times as far as I had expected. Inside, I saw not one, but three black vans in a row.
‘Let’s get in and close the doors,’ Reece said. ‘Don’t want anyone walking past and seeing this lot. I reached behind into my rucksack and fumbled for my torch while Reece closed the doors behind us. Clicking on the beam, I realised there were two more vans parked behind the first two, making five vehicles in total. All fully armoured with bullet proof windscreens. I walked around to the rear of one, located the key and opened up the back.
Luc had been right.
Shining the torch inside the vehicle, I saw it was kitted out, floor to ceiling, with shelves containing military grade weapons. Reece and I stared wide-eyed at each other. If there had been any doubt in his mind about the truth of my story, these vans wiped it away. I turned and shone the beam around the rest of the lock-up. The walls were lined with metal crates. Stamped on the outside of one of them were the words:
200 cartridges
7.62 MM NATO M80
Cartons M13
It was a crate of ammunition. And there were a lot of crates in here – all containing different types of ammo.
Reece tapped the wall with his knuckles. ‘This place is lead-lined,’ he said.
I opened up the other vans. Two more were kitted out inside, exactly the same as the first. The two at the back were stocked with ammunition, emergency medical supplies and dried food. Reece ripped open one of the boxes and took out some kind of shrink-wrapped food bar. He tore off the wrapper with his teeth and spat the plastic out onto the floor before sniffing the bar and taking a bite. He chewed, swallowed and took another bite.
‘Rank,’ he said. ‘Like eating boot leather dipped in earwax.’
‘Pass me one,’ I said. ‘I’m starving.’ He tossed a bar in my direction and I peeled off the wrapping and nibbled at the corner. It wasn’t half as bad as he’d made out.
A loud rapping on the door made me jump. Reece opened the lock-up and let his guys in. I doled out the keys and took one of the vans with the hardware. Reece helped me load the motorcycle into the back of my vehicle and I found some rope to secure it to one of the shelving units.
The Perimeter Page 25
