by Chris Ryan
He stopped stock-still.
There was no sign of T7 in the locker room. But it wasn’t deserted. The Chinese girl stood to one side of the door. Her arms were crossed. One eyebrow was raised. Her expression was hard.
‘What were you doing in there?’ she said.
17
Lightning Fast
‘The usual,’ Max replied.
He didn’t want to get into a conversation with this girl, so he headed straight for the door.
She moved quicker than Max had ever seen anybody move. Her right arm blocked the doorway. With her left arm, she grabbed him by the shoulder. Her grip was strong.
‘You’re fast,’ Max breathed.
‘Lightning fast,’ the girl said. ‘And expert in four martial arts. I can break your arm in two seconds and both your legs in three. You’re not leaving this room until we’ve finished talking.’
‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ Max said. ‘I need to get back out there. They’ll wonder what I’m doing in here. I don’t want to make them angry.’ The razor blade in his back pocket suddenly felt ten times larger and heavier.
‘You’re not from this school,’ the girl said.
Max tried not to show any emotion. ‘Course I am,’ he said. ‘Why else would I be here?’
She stepped forward. ’You are not. Nor are the people up on the stage. I have a photographic memory.’
‘You’re quite the superwoman,’ Max muttered.
‘I’ve been here for a week and I recognise everybody. You are not from this school. You arrived after the siege started.’
Max said nothing.
The Chinese girl looked over her shoulder at the closed door. Then back at Max. Her hard exterior seemed to soften. She released her grip on him. ‘We don’t have much time,’ she said, very quietly. ‘You must disable those devices quickly.’
Max narrowed his eyes at her. ‘What do you mean?’ he said.
– Watch out. She might be trying to trick you.
The girl rolled her eyes. ‘Look, it’s obvious, isn’t it? You five arrived long after the siege began. You must have been sent in by someone on the outside. Your friends are either being watched or they’re …’ She let that sentence trail away. Max wondered if she was thinking about Jack. ‘You’re the only one with a chance of doing anything. I saw you looking at the cables and the explosive devices when I distracted the terrorists by talking to the crying boy. So you must be thinking of disabling them.’
– Don’t admit anything. Let her keep talking.
‘You have to do it quickly,’ the Chinese girl said. ‘I heard two of them talking before you arrived. They’re not going to let the siege go on much longer. They’re waiting for a rescue team to come so they can kill some soldiers as well as us. But if it doesn’t arrive by two o’clock, they’re going to detonate the devices anyway.’
Max looked at his watch. It was half past one. He looked back at the girl. ‘Are you telling me you speak Chechen, on top of everything else?’
‘Russian,’ she replied immediately. ‘They were talking in Russian and I do speak that. And English, Mandarin and Arabic.’
‘How come?’
‘Does it matter? Languages are my thing.’
‘Is there anything you can’t do?’
‘Yes. Cook.’ She didn’t even look like she was joking.
‘What’s your name?’ he asked.
‘Lili. Listen, there are other things you need to know. You noticed the people with guns taped to their arms?’
Max didn’t want to give anything away. ‘Go on,’ he said.
‘There are eight of them. Seven of them are teachers. But one of them is a terrorist.’
‘Which one?’
‘I don’t know.’ She shook her head desperately. ‘I’ve been trying to work it out, but they’re all dressed the same. The teachers’ guns are empty, but his one is loaded.’ She fixed Max with a sincere look. ‘You have to believe me. It’s the terrorists I was deceiving. I’m telling you the truth.’
There was a moment of silence. Then Max heard Abby’s voice in his ear.
– She’s lying. You saw her in here. She’s totally lying.
Max remained expressionless. The next voice he heard was Angel’s.
– You’re going to have to make this call, Max. You’re the one talking to her. Only you can decide. Is she lying or telling the truth? Go with your gut instinct.
He stared at Lili. She was a different person to the one he’d seen in the hall. She seemed smaller. Less aggressive. And frightened.
‘There’s another thing,’ Lili said. ‘Those vests some of them are wearing – they have a special kind of detonator. I heard them calling it a kill switch. I think it means that once they press the switch with their thumb, the vest is primed. As soon as the switch is released, the vest detonates. So, as soon as the switch has been pressed …’
‘… if the target gets shot, the vest explodes.’ Max finished the sentence for her.
‘Right,’ Lili said. She looked even more frightened now. Nobody could fake that kind of fear. Max knew, because he felt it too.
‘She’s telling the truth,’ Max said quietly.
Lili looked confused. ‘Who are you talking to?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ He took a deep breath, then went for it. ‘I need to cut one of the cables circling the room. Can you help me by distracting the terrorists?’
Lili looked thoughtful. ‘I can do better than that,’ she said after a moment. ‘But we have to move fast.’
‘Right,’ Max said. He managed a smile. ‘Lightning fast.’
Lili nodded seriously. She looked as though she was about to explain her plan. Just then, however, the door opened. T7 appeared. He looked from Lili to Max and back again. Her features morphed. The other Lili – hard-faced, aggressive and a bit scary – reappeared. ‘Get back in there,’ she said, her voice loud enough to be heard back in the hall. ‘Now!’
Max bowed his head and did as he was told. As he entered the hall followed by Lili and T7, Lili pushed officiously past him. She strode across the hall towards T1, who was still on the stage. Max watched as she had a hushed conversation with him. So did everyone else in the hall. Lili pointed at Jack, who was still unconscious on the ground in front of the stage. T1 nodded. Lili walked off the stage and stood beside Jack. She scanned everyone in the room. Max was still standing up, and she pointed at him. ‘You!’ she called out across the hall. ‘Come here.’
The room fell silent. Max felt all eyes on him as he picked his way across the hall. When he reached Lili, he looked down at Jack. Max was shocked. Jack’s face was pale, bruised and smeared with blood. His right arm looked broken, bent at a strange angle at the elbow. Max looked for the faint rising and falling of his chest. He couldn’t see it. He glanced up at the others on the stage. They were watching intently. Abby’s mistrust of Lili was plain to read on her face.
‘The sight of this idiot is upsetting the small children,’ Lili said. ‘You must help me move him.’ She walked round to Jack’s feet. ‘I will take this end, you take the head end. We will move him to the back of the room.’
Max didn’t understand what she was doing, but did as he was told. Not knowing if he was dealing with a corpse or a live body, he lifted Jack beneath the shoulders, taking care not to move his broken arm any more than was necessary. Jack was heavier than he looked. It took him and Lili a couple of attempts to get him off the ground. The kids nearby shuffled across the floor to open up a path towards the back of the dining hall. Lili avoided Max’s gaze as they carried Jack to the back of the hall. After a moment, the general low hubbub returned. ‘Put him right against the back wall,’ Lili said, loud enough for only Max to hear. ‘We can place him so that he covers the cable. That way, they won’t see that you’ve cut it.’
Max had to hand it to her: it was a good idea. At the back of the hall, they laid Jack on the ground so there was only a tiny gap between him and the back wall. Lili stood directly
in front of Max, who was still crouching down over Jack. Max understood why: it gave him a moment of camouflage to pull the razor from his back pocket without anybody else seeing.
He pulled out the razor and concealed it in his palm. He could sense Lili walking away from him. He continued to lean over Jack, as if tending to him. He put one finger on his neck and pressed lightly against the jugular, feeling for a pulse. It was weak, but it was there. Relief flooded over him. Jack was alive. Barely, maybe, but alive. With his other hand he reached behind the unconscious recruit. He grabbed the two cables, one black and one red. He felt the nape of his neck tingling, as though somebody was watching him. But he knew that was just his anxiety. This was his best chance to cut the cable.
He let the red cable fall and rested the sharp edge of the razor blade against the black cable. He half expected his hands to be trembling, but they were not. All he could do was hope Angel had given him the right information and this was indeed the cable he needed to cut.
‘Now or never,’ he muttered to himself.
He sliced the cable in two.
Nothing happened.
That was good. He didn’t know for sure that he had disabled the IEDs, but at least he hadn’t detonated them. He placed the two ends of the severed cable behind Jack. He made a show of checking Jack’s pulse again. He hoped the unconscious recruit was going to be okay. But he also hoped he didn’t wake up too soon and try to move.
‘We’ll get you out of here, mate,’ he breathed. ‘I promise …’
– What’s happening?
‘It’s cut,’ Max breathed. He turned round. He remained on the floor, hugging his knees as he surveyed what was going on in the room. Lili had resumed her officious patrol. It was plain that the younger children were frightened of her and the way that she was apparently siding with the terrorists. They seemed to shrink away whenever she came close. The older kids looked contemptuous of her, but they didn’t say or do anything to make her notice them. The other recruits were still kneeling on the stage. Abby had a distant but steely look on her face, like she was preparing herself for something. Sami was staring up at the far wall. Max assumed he was looking at the clock as it ticked its way towards 14:00. It was Lukas who caught Max’s eye. There was something in that brief look. It was an expression of support, confidence and respect. Was there an apology there too? Max wasn’t sure, but it meant a lot to him anyway, even though he didn’t dare acknowledge it. T11 was patrolling close to him.
Most alarming, though, was the behaviour of the terrorists. T1 had stepped down from the stage. He shouted something in a foreign language. The seven other targets joined him and stood in a ring. A nervous hush fell on the hall as they discussed something in low voices. It took no longer than thirty seconds. They each made a strange gesture, something between a handshake and a fist bump.
Max checked his watch. It was 13:45.
Fifteen minutes until 14:00.
He felt his blood go cold. ‘They’re getting ready,’ he said quietly. He was able to speak because the terrorists were focused entirely on themselves for a moment.
– Wait. Hector’s voice was emotionless.
Max didn’t get a chance to reply. His attention was on Lili. She was standing at the front of the hall, staring officiously over the heads of the hostages. Was she trying to avoid catching his eye? Max wondered.
T1 stood behind her. ‘You,’ he said harshly, ‘get down.’
Lili turned. ‘What do you mean?’ she said. ‘I’ve been helping you. You said you would release me first.’
‘Nobody gets released,’ said T1. ‘Get down.’ He raised his fist as if to strike her. Lili fell to the ground. Lukas, Abby and Sami watched her in horror. Just like Max, they surely knew what this meant. If the terrorists were silencing Lili, their supposed helper, it meant they were definitely approaching their endgame.
‘We have to do something …’ he breathed.
– Wait.
‘We can’t wait! It’s about to happen! They got into a kind of huddle, like they were giving each other confidence to do something big. They’ve forced Lili onto the ground …’
– Keep cool, Max. You’re no use to anybody if you’re panicking.
Max inhaled deeply in an attempt to slow down his racing pulse. ‘They … they look like they’re getting into position … I think they’re going to detonate their suicide vests. I think Lili was right. She said they were going to do it at 14:00. if there was no rescue attempt by then. We’ve only got fifteen minutes.’
And when there was no reply, he spoke as forcefully as he dared. ‘Can you hear me? How am I supposed to keep cool when we’ve only got fifteen minutes before this whole place blows and we go with it?’
18
State Your Name
The targets turned.
They looked around the room.
Then they started to spread out.
Four of them moved up onto the stage, where they stood behind the recruits, spaced out. The remaining four lined up alongside the blind-covered windows. They positioned themselves in between the teachers, facing inwards with their backs to the window. Max had lost track of who was who. All he knew was that T1 was on the stage and T7 by the south window. T1 had something in his hands: a black box with a flick switch. Max realised what it must be: a remote detonator for the IEDs. His mouth turned dry as he worried once more whether he’d cut the right cable.
‘They’re putting themselves into position!’ he said, louder than he intended. One of the decoys looked over at him. So did a few nearby kids. Max rested his head against his knees, as if in desperation.
Hector’s voice finally burst once more over the comms.
– That’s what we want them to do, Max. Are some of them standing by the windows?
‘Yes,’ Max hissed.
– That’s because they want the explosion to be spectacular, when it happens, for the press cameras. Blowing out the windows is the best way to do that. Now listen carefully. We have SAS personnel moving onto target. There is a four-man unit currently in hiding underneath the stage.
‘What?’ Max breathed, lowering his head so he couldn’t be seen talking. ‘How did they get there? I didn’t hear them.’
– Of course you didn’t hear them. They’re the SAS. They gained access via the sewer system. We also have two sniper teams on the perimeter of the school and on the roof of Block Red. They have rifles trained on the two long windows of the hall.
‘But they can’t see through them. The blinds are down …’
– That’s where you come in. Remember, we can see shadows through the blinds. Are you able to see all the targets?
He looked around the hall again. There were four targets at the back of the stage. Two along one wall, two along the other, mixed up with the decoy teachers. ‘Er … I think so.’
– The north wall, to the left of the stage as you look at it, is wall A. The south wall is wall B. The west wall leading to the kitchen is wall C. State the positions of the targets in reference to the stage and walls A, B and C. And make it accurate, Max. We don’t want to put bullets in the wrong people.
Max swallowed hard. He kept his head low so that nobody could see him moving his mouth. But his eyes picked out the targets one by one.
‘There are four targets at the back of the stage,’ he whispered, ‘and two each along wall A and wall B. There are no targets on wall C.’
– That’s good. I want you to concentrate on the targets along wall A. We can detect the shadows of six figures. They look like adults. From what you’ve told us, that’s four decoys and two actual targets. Cough once if we’ve got that wrong, otherwise keep quiet.
Max kept quiet.
– Counting from the stage end to the back of the hall, I want you to give each figure a number from one to six. Cough when I say the number that corresponds to the two real targets. One. Two.
Max coughed.
– Three. Four. Five.
He coughed again.
&nb
sp; – Six. My information is that the real targets are figures two and five, moving from the stage backwards. Cough if that is correct.
He coughed again. The kid sitting nearby with the ginger hair gave him a strange look. ‘Asthma,’ Max told him quietly, and the kid looked away.
There was a moment of silence. Max felt that the panic in the hall had increased. It was clear everyone knew something was about to happen. The hum of voices had grown a little louder. T1 shouted from the back of the stage: ‘Quiet!’ It had no immediate effect. T1 engaged his weapon and stepped to the front of the stage. He put his weapon against the back of Sami’s head. ‘QUIET!’ he roared. Sami closed his eyes. The hall fell silent. The gunman kept his weapon to the back of the Sami’s skull for a full twenty seconds, before returning to his position at the back of the stage.
Max checked his watch. 13:51. Nine minutes to go. ‘We need to do something,’ he breathed. When Hector spoke again over the comms, it was with a renewed sense of urgency.
– We’re going to turn our attention to wall B. Same drill, from the stage backwards. One.
Cough.
– Two. Three. Four.
Cough.
– Five. Six. My information is that the two targets along wall B are in positions one and four. Cough if that’s correct.
Max coughed again.
– If any of the targets move from their current positions, you need to tell me.
A pause. More kids were crying. Panic was rising again. But the targets remained in position. Max glanced at T7. Of all the targets, he was closest to Max. He seemed to be muttering something to himself. And while the other targets seemed pumped up, T7’s shoulders were slumped. His body was somehow different. For a moment, Max doubted that he truly had the courage to go through with this.
And talking of courage …
Max checked his watch. 13:56. They had four minutes. He could feel his blood pumping in his veins. When he heard Hector’s voice again, he started so violently that a couple of the nearby kids gave him a sharp look, despite their own obvious fear.
