Decimation: The Girl Who Survived

by Burke, Richard T.

  A second or two before it reached her, Rose stepped directly into the path of the incoming train.

  Chapter 54

  Friday 14th January 2033

  Karen Atkins glanced up as the technician entered her office. It was the same guy who had captured Jason Baxter on the station camera. “I take it you’ve got something,” she said.

  The man smiled. “Well, um, not much really. The first problem was how to get hold of Jason Baxter’s number. Luckily he had registered his mobile so that wasn’t too hard.”

  Kat tapped her fingers on the desk. “Okay. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have something to tell me. I don’t want to hear how clever you are, just give me the facts.”

  “Patience is a virtue,” the man said. “So I called in a favour and managed to get the phone company to release his records despite not having a warrant.”

  “If you’ve broken the law, keep it to yourself. Just cut to the chase.”

  “You told me he claimed to have received a call on the Saturday morning, the eighth of January, right?”

  Kat nodded. “Go on.”

  “Well the phone company have no record of that, so, in a nutshell, he was lying.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. There’s something going on here that we don’t know about. Did you check the rest of his phone records?”

  “Yeah. There are some outgoing calls to numbers he’s called several times before, but I’m pretty sure they must belong to his friends. He’s also received a few incoming calls from his mother’s office. I hear she’s a real piece of work.”

  “You could say that,” said Kat, grinning. “I guess you don’t get to be head of a big company like that without a certain amount of attitude. So nothing on the calls, then?”

  “Well, there was one that may be of interest. A single call to a mobile he hasn’t called before, unregistered of course, at seventeen sixteen yesterday afternoon. It’s probably nothing.”

  “Hmm. That would have been just before our meeting. The other number was unregistered you say? It might be worth putting a trace on it.”

  The technician grimaced. “I’d need a warrant for that, and given that we shouldn’t have his call records in the first place, that’s going to be difficult.”

  “Alright, let’s leave it for now. We know the boy lied to us. We know he met with Floyd, but we don’t know who told him to go there. The reason he gave for the meeting with Floyd is pure fiction. A girl surviving childbirth? He’s got be having a laugh. On top of all that, the drone pictures don’t show him carrying any supplies. Basically, everything he told us is untrue.

  “However, we do have him trespassing in the old post office. I think the time for playing games is over. I’m going to threaten to charge him with breaking and entering. We’ll probably have to settle for a caution, but we might learn something while we’re talking to him. I wouldn’t mind seeing the look on that arrogant cow’s face when we inform her that her precious son is facing charges.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” the man said. “Anything else I can help you with?”

  Kat frowned and remained silent for a second. “You know when the girl was raped at the Baxter house?”

  “You mean the one in the wheelchair?”

  “Yeah. Did we take DNA from everybody who was there?”

  “I’d need to check. As I recall, we treated all the kids who were drugged as victims rather than suspects. Once a match was found with Floyd, we didn’t bother to take any more samples.”

  “So no DNA was taken from the Baxter boy?” asked Kat.

  “I can’t be sure, but I don’t think so. I can check into it. Why? What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking there’s more to this than meets the eye. What if the pair of them were already in collusion at that stage?”

  “Anything’s possible, but Floyd only got out of prison a few weeks before the party, so I don’t see what the relationship could be.”

  “It’s just a hunch,” said Kat. “Can you confirm we don’t have the boy’s DNA? Assuming that’s the case, I’ll see if we can’t get a sample when he comes in.”

  “Good luck with that. I can’t see his mother’s lawyers agreeing to it without a fight.”

  Chapter 55

  Friday 14th January 2033

  Jason glanced at his watch. Five thirty-four in the afternoon. He pushed open the outer door of his mother’s office and was relieved to see that it was empty. He padded across the thick carpet and put his ear to the door leading to her inner sanctum. She might well be working, but no sounds came from within. He knocked tentatively and waited for a reply with bated breath. Silence. He gripped the handle and twisted, then stuck his head through the gap. The lights were off. Good. He eased his way into the room and flicked on the light switch. It didn’t bear thinking about what would happen if his mother caught him here, but if she came back unexpectedly, it would look far worse if he was skulking about in the dark.

  His heart raced as he approached her desk and studied the wiring that led from the desktop through a hole to the system box below. There were two wires. One was the mains cable and the other the data cable. He removed the rucksack from his back and retrieved the padded envelope. From inside, he pulled out a unit the size of a matchbox, encased in bubble wrap. He peeled off the protective covering and examined the object. On each of the two long sides of the black plastic box were connectors, one male and one female. The gold pins glinted in the glare of the bright ceiling light. The device gave off an unpleasant, oily, industrial odour.

  He felt around inside the envelope again. His fingers closed around a single folded piece of paper. The same pungent scent rose as he unfolded the sheet. The instructions were already familiar, but he read them again anyway. It all seemed simple enough. He moved the chair and wriggled underneath. The processing unit was a matt-black slab of plastic with buttons on the front and an array of connection points at the back. He tracked the chunky cable that linked to the monitor and detached the connector. He pressed it into the mating half of the small black box and made sure that it was secure then pushed the remaining connector into the system box. A small green light illuminated on the side of the unit.

  The device sat between the monitor and the processing unit. It would take a well-trained eye to spot it was there. Jason once again contemplated the wisdom of his actions. From what he understood, the gadget intercepted all signals that went to or from the monitor. That included not only what was displayed, but also the screen sensors and the iris recognition camera. Once the signals had been recorded, they could be played back to allow somebody to log in and use the machine remotely. It was designed to remain dormant during the day, simply monitoring and capturing data. At night, when the office was empty, the wireless link would be activated to retrieve the stored information and if required, to take control.

  In effect, Jason was giving Floyd full access to his mother’s computer. During their phone conversation the previous day, Floyd had argued that this was necessary so that he could determine the scope of the systems being used to secure the girl. It only required his mother to log in once, and Floyd would have the same level of access. The man had been vague about his plan to release Antimone, stating only that he needed to explore the system first. Not for the first time, Jason wondered whether Floyd intended to hold up his side of the bargain. Only time would tell.

  He worried that if his mother discovered what he had done, it would cause irreparable damage to their relationship. That was a gamble he was prepared to take. He could have gone to the police, but there was definitely no way back from there. Even if he did so, there was the risk that his mother would hide Antimone away before they conducted their search and deny that she had ever survived. After all, Jason had no proof other than what he had seen with his own eyes. If the rescue attempt failed, informing the police was always a backup.

  Jason stuffed the envelope and the paper back into his rucksack and returned the chair to its original position. He
surveyed the room to make sure he had left no trace of his presence and headed to the door. Turning off the light, he pulled it shut behind him and crossed the floor of the outer office. He emerged into the corridor just as his mother approached from the lift.

  She strode towards him with a frown on her face. “Hello, Jason. What are you doing here?”

  “I came to see you, but you weren’t in your office.”

  “If you’d called me, we could’ve arranged a time to meet.”

  “Oh, it wasn’t that important.”

  “So what did you want to talk about?”

  “Um, I just wanted to apologise again for going to see Floyd behind your back. I know it was stupid, and I could have been hurt.”

  “Yes,” said Rosalind, pursing her lips. “Just remember he’s a convicted murderer. I suppose there’s no harm done, but if he contacts you again, please let me know. Anyway, I’ve got some important things to finish off. We can talk more later.”

  “No problem. I’ll see you at home. You are coming home tonight, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I should be back in an hour or two.”

  “Okay,” Jason said, “I’ll get myself a takeaway.”

  Rosalind took a pace towards her office then turned back to face him. “Oh by the way, what were you doing at the railway station?”

  “The railway station?”

  “Yes, somebody mentioned that they saw you there this morning. Not planning another trip to Bedford I hope.”

  “Um, no. I was supposed to meet a girl there – at the station, not Bedford. We were going to walk to school together, but she didn’t show. She got the day wrong.”

  “Oh, a girlfriend?”

  “Maybe, it’s too early to say.”

  “Good,” said Rosalind. “I’m glad you’re moving on.”

  Chapter 56

  Saturday 15th January 2033

  The sound of a scraping chair brought Antimone to wakefulness. She opened one eye then closed it again immediately, groaning at the bright light that seared her retina. Her head pounded with a pain that threatened to turn her brain to mush. She attempted to lift a hand to scratch her scalp, but something prevented it from moving. She tried again, but found she could only shift it a centimetre or two. Her eyes angled downwards. She immediately spotted the reason for her inability to move. A white plastic strap was wrapped around each wrist and attached to the bed frame. Antimone struggled for a moment before realising the futility of her actions.

  “There’s no point trying to get out of those.” A woman’s voice came from behind and to her left. “They’re designed to hold far stronger than you.”

  Antimone craned her neck and gained an obstructed view of a nurse in a blue uniform through the bars of the headboard. The woman looked up from what appeared to be an electronic book reader.

  “You caused quite a stir last night, young lady, going all superhero like that. You should have seen the shiner on that nurse, Emma what’s her name – oh, I suppose you did. As far as I’m concerned the silly cow got what was coming to her. She’s a right lazy slacker, that one. Probably won’t see her again for several weeks now, going off on sick leave and all that. Anyway–”

  “How’s the guard?” Antimone said, realising that she wouldn’t get a word in edgeways without interrupting.

  “Oh, a lot of blood, but no serious damage. He’ll be off work for a week or two as well I should imagine.”

  “Good. Not that he’ll be off work, but that there was no serious damage,” she added hurriedly.

  “I’m impressed by your ingenuity, young lady, but don’t think about trying anything like that on with me.” The woman’s tone hardened. “There’s a guard outside the door and another one patrolling the corridor. There’s also another nurse in the monitor room keeping an eye on things. I only have to raise my voice and another half dozen guards will be down here in a flash. You never had a chance, you know. You can’t make the lift move unless it scans your iris and finds you on the system.”

  “What’s your name?” Antimone asked, knowing that the woman needed little encouragement to talk.

  “You can call me Evie,” the woman replied. “I’m going to be here for the next seven or eight hours. Plenty of overtime. I’ll be able to afford a really good holiday this summer, I might even be tempted to go skiing if there was anywhere with snow in Europe anymore. I hear America’s still okay, but it’s a long way to go.”

  “I need to go to the loo.”

  “Right,” Evie said. She rose to her feet and ambled across the room.

  Now that Antimone could see her properly, she deduced that the woman was in her late thirties or early forties. Her brown hair was cut short and framed a face that looked like a five-year-old had assembled it. All the angles were wrong and everything was slightly out of proportion.

  The nurse banged on the door with the flat of her hand. “Hey, Tony, open up. She needs to go to the toilet.”

  The lock beeped. A man’s face peered through the glass window before he swung the door open and entered the room. His right hand rested on a half-metre long black stick tied to his belt. He wore a neatly pressed brown uniform and stood with his legs slightly apart, his eyes focused on the girl.

  Evie loosened the straps on Antimone’s wrists and helped her into the wheelchair. She escorted her to the small bathroom but made no attempt to leave.

  “Can I have some privacy, please?” Antimone asked.

  “Sorry, my dear. My instructions are to keep an eye on you at all times. After that stunt you pulled yesterday, they’re not taking any chances.”

  Antimone shrugged and manoeuvred herself onto the toilet seat.

  “It must be hard not being able to use your legs. I heard they’ve got this new treatment that can cure a fractured spine. People stuck in a wheelchair like yourself were walking around like a normal human being after a couple of weeks.”

  “I am a normal human being,” Antimone said, frowning. “Now if you insist on watching, could I at least pee in silence?”

  The nurse folded her arms. “I’m only making conversation,”

  When Antimone had finished, she rinsed her face at the sink then brushed her teeth.

  “Back to bed for you, young lady,” Evie said.

  “Can’t I stay in the wheelchair?”

  “Dr Perrin said you were to be restrained all day. If you cooperate and behave, then they might let you sit in the chair, so you better start being nice to me.”

  Antimone groaned. “Can I see my son then?”

  “The same applies. Not today. You need to earn the time.”

  “So you’re just going to leave me tied down all day with nothing to do?”

  “You should have thought of that before hurting those people.”

  “Do you think it’s right to hold me prisoner down here?” Antimone asked, scratching at one of the remaining scabs on her arm.

  “I’m not paid to think about that sort of stuff. My only responsibility is to keep an eye on you. Now, back to the bed.”

  Once Antimone’s wrists had been secured, the guard left the room and closed the door behind him. A deep despair descended upon her. Everything had gone so well at first, but the plan had been fatally flawed. Now her captors were prepared, and her chances of escape were even lower.

  One thing was for sure, cure or no cure, if she got another chance, she would make it count.

  Chapter 57

  Saturday 15th January 2033

  “Don’t answer that.” The lawyer leant forwards. “Mrs Atkins–”

  “It’s Ms Atkins actually,” Kat interrupted. “Look, we’ve got the boy entering the compound and breaking into the building. On top of that, he’s clearly seen leaving with a known felon.”

  “What you’ve got is a fuzzy picture taken from several hundred feet up of somebody who seems to be wearing similar clothes to my client.” The man sat back in his chair with a smug grin. “And if associating with a felon was a crime, my profession would vanish
overnight.”

  “One can only hope,” Kat retorted.

  “So at best you have circumstantial evidence in a case that’s not even slightly in the public interest. You’re not seriously telling me that you intend to prosecute, are you?”

  “We haven’t yet decided. If Jason were to cooperate and tell us how Mr Floyd got in contact with him, we might be prepared to be lenient.”

  The lawyer drummed his fingers on the table. “My client has already told you that he received a call on his mobile from Mr Floyd.”

  “We both know that’s not true.”

  “And how would you know that, Mrs Atkins? I don’t recall seeing an order to check my client’s phone records. I hope you’re not playing fast and loose with the law. It sounds like you might have need of my services yourself. I’d be happy to do a special deal.”

  Kat snorted. “If you were the last lawyer in the world, I’d still choose somebody else.”

  “Are we finished yet?” Rosalind asked. “Much as I enjoy listening to this banter, I’ve got a lot of work to do. My lawyer also charges by the minute, so that little exchange has probably cost me several hundred pounds.”

  “Well,” Kat said, “if you’re not going to provide any more information, Jason, I have no option but to put this case forward for prosecution.”

  A worried frown creased Jason’s forehead. “What does that mean?”

  “Let me deal with this,” the lawyer said. “There’s absolutely no chance that this would be taken to court. However, to save my client several months of stress, we might be prepared to accept a youth caution.”

  “Is that like a conviction?” Jason asked.

  “No.” The man turned sideways to address Jason. “You would have to admit the offence. It would be recorded on the Police National Computer, but it’s not a conviction or a criminal record or anything like that.”

  “So what would it mean, then?”

  “Like I said, there would be a record. It might make it harder in the future to get a job working with children, for example, but at your age, I don’t think it would have much impact.”