Every Second Counts

by Sophie McKenzie

  ‘I’ve told you I can’t talk about this now,’ he was saying, his voice loud and tense. ‘I have to speak at a rally in less than an hour.’

  ‘You need to keep your sights on the big picture.’ That was Charlie’s father, Uchi. ‘And Charlie is part of the big picture. I won’t let you hurt her.’

  ‘It’s going to happen, old man,’ Riley said curtly. ‘Get your head around it. She’s got to go.’

  Got to go?

  ‘Now!’ Lucas urged. He set off through the front door, immediately behind Parveen.

  I didn’t follow. I had to know what Riley was planning to do to Charlie. She was right here, at Riley’s mercy. I’d left her behind once before, I wasn’t going to do it again. I sped, silently, across the room and peered through the crack in the door.

  Riley and Uchi were alone in a formal dining room, on either side of a polished wooden table.

  ‘I am seeing the big picture,’ Riley was insisting. ‘We’ve already got reports that half the boat party are affected, the early signs. Everything else has gone completely to plan, but Charlie hasn’t worked out. As I predicted she wouldn’t. You have to accept it.’

  ‘I can still convince her,’ Uchi said stubbornly.

  ‘No,’ Riley said, his voice suddenly low and venomous. ‘Time’s up. Charlie’s going to die,’ he said. ‘Tonight.’

  I gulped. Across the room, the front door was still open a fraction. Lucas and Parveen must have made it out to the road. No one had seen us. My eyes fell again on Taylor’s jacket hanging from the coat stand. His phone was peeking out from the pocket.

  As soon as I saw it, I knew what I had to do.

  Charlie

  Spider led me through the kitchen and into the garden. The sun was no longer shining on this side of the house and the air felt chilly on my face.

  ‘We’ll have a few minutes before the next patrol interrupts us,’ he said.

  ‘What for? Do you know where the antidote is?’ I whispered. ‘Do you know where I can get some?’

  ‘Let’s talk over here.’ Spider took my wrist and led me over to the fishpond.

  I stared into the dark water. I was suddenly certain that he didn’t know anything about the antidote. He just wanted to get me on my own. I was going to have to find some other way to help Nat.

  ‘Charlie?’

  I looked up. Spider was standing close to me. Too close. His dark, curly hair fell over his forehead as he gazed down at me. I wanted to step back, but the only thing behind me was the fishpond.

  ‘I’m so sorry Uchi went to my dad and told him that I’d warned you,’ Spider said, letting go of my wrist and pushing his hair absently out of his face. ‘I thought Uchi wanted to help you, not bring you back here.’

  ‘Never mind that,’ I said. ‘You said you knew something about the antidote?’

  Spider nodded. ‘Before I tell you, I want you to know that I feel really torn. I mean, I totally get where my dad’s coming from with all the ruthless, need-to-take-risks stuff he’s always talking about, but—’

  ‘Taylor took away the antidote I’d found,’ I interrupted, looking him steadily in the eye. I didn’t need to hear all this garbage. ‘If Nat and his family don’t get some in the next few hours . . .’

  ‘I know.’ Spider groaned. ‘I know and I’m sorry, okay?’

  I nodded. The wind was whipping up, the hint of rain in the air.

  ‘Okay, so this is what I’m thinking,’ Spider went on in a low voice. ‘If we can get some antidote to Nat, then he can take it and pass the rest to his family.’

  ‘Yes,’ I said, my heartbeat quickening. ‘Do you know where?’

  ‘I do,’ Spider said, pulling me towards him again. ‘But first there’s something I need to ask you.’

  Nat

  I snatched the phone out of Taylor’s pocket and raced back across the hall.

  ‘You know sometimes this is the way it goes,’ Riley was saying.

  I peered down, fighting to clear the blurred edges of my vision. The phone was on. I squinted at the screen, searching for the camera app.

  Uchi shook his head. ‘I won’t accept that. Charlie is different.’

  I raised the phone, positioning the lens to take in both Riley and Uchi across the room. They were so intent on each other neither saw me – but anyone coming into the hall would have spotted me instantly.

  ‘For God’s sake, you stubborn old idiot,’ Riley said. ‘I can’t discuss this any more. I have to go in two minutes. Taylor’s finding someone to drive me to the rally. I’m running late as it is. This is not the priority.’

  I pressed the record button on the phone.

  ‘I won’t let you hurt Charlie,’ Uchi said stubbornly. ‘She’s my child.’

  ‘Oh, so being ruthless only applies to other people’s families?’ Riley said, his voice rising. ‘Listen to me. Charlie is going to die. Just like her mother died. It’s all set.’ He checked his watch. ‘Two hours from now, she’ll be gone.’

  What the hell did that mean? How was Charlie going to be killed? What was Riley planning?

  ‘I won’t let you do it,’ Uchi said.

  ‘Is that right?’ Riley snarled, raising his right arm. He was holding a gun.

  Charlie

  Spider was so close I could feel his heart beating through his top.

  ‘I want you to come with me down to Mum’s,’ he said. ‘Will you, please?’

  I stared at him. How on earth could he think I would go anywhere with him?

  ‘It’s the only way I can see you’ll be safe until the election’s out of the way,’ he said urgently. ‘Dad will agree if I ask. I know he’s angry now, but it gets us both out of the way and he has to put you somewhere. You can’t stay here. And Uchi won’t let him hurt you. It’s a good solution, you just have to agree, please?’

  ‘What about the antidote?’ I asked, playing for time. ‘Tell me where it is first, and how on earth you think we’re going to manage to get it to Nat?’

  ‘Nat’s upstairs, locked in with his brother. The key is in the door. I’ve seen it. If I distract Taylor, maybe you could let him out.

  My heart leaped. So Nat was here and alive. I nodded, a plan already forming in my head. Spider shoved his hands into his pockets, then drew out four small plastic vials of antidote. My eyes widened.

  ‘I took these from the box you found,’ he said. He held them out to me. ‘One vial contains enough antidote for one person.’

  I shoved the vials into my pockets, the blood thundering in my ears. Now I could save Nat. There was no time to lose.

  ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I have to go.’

  ‘Wait.’ Spider’s hand caught my arm. ‘What about coming with me to Mum’s?’

  I sucked in my breath. I itched to lie to Spider, to pretend that I liked him so that he would help me rescue Nat, but the words stuck in my throat. There had already been too much lying, too much deception.

  ‘I’m going with Nat,’ I said, trying to keep my voice steady. ‘I belong with Nat.’

  Spider’s eyes filled with pain.

  And then, before either of us could say or do anything else, a muffled shot echoed towards us from inside the house.

  Nat

  The shot fired. For a moment, time seemed to stand still. And then Uchi crumpled to the floor. Riley stood, his arm outstretched, the gun – its long silencer over the barrel – still in his hand.

  I blinked. It had happened so suddenly.

  Just seconds ago Uchi had seen the gun and gasped: ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘I’ve come to the conclusion,’ Riley had spat, ‘that you have definitely outlived your usefulness, old man.’ And before Uchi had time to move, Riley had fired.

  I watched, frozen to the spot. Riley stared at Uchi’s body, unaware of me standing here outside the door. And then Taylor yelled from upstairs:

  ‘What the hell was that?’

  I jumped into action. My thumb pressed the screen, closing the app. Taylor thunder
ed down the stairs as I raced across the hall. Gripping the phone, I reached the front door.

  A fist grabbed me. Shoved me. I clattered into the coat stand. It toppled over. I fell on top of it, coats and jackets surrounding me. The phone went flying out of my hand. Taylor loomed over me.

  ‘No!’ I roared. With a swift punch, I lifted the coat stand and whacked it across Taylor’s head. He reeled back, then fell to his knees. Lucas appeared at the front door.

  ‘What the hell are you doing?’ He grabbed me. Hauled me outside.

  ‘Wait,’ I said. I didn’t have the phone.

  But Lucas was dragging me to the gates, where Parveen was hiding. Together they pushed me up, over the bars, then held me up between them – a hand on either arm – as we raced along the road.

  ‘Stop!’ I cried out, but they were too strong.

  We didn’t stop running until we reached the tube station. Lucas dived in, bundling me over the barrier. The ticket guard shouted after us, but his voice vanished as we sped down the steps and on to the platform. A train was just closing its doors. Lucas dragged me on board. The three of us stood, panting, as the train roared off.

  At last Lucas let go of my arm and I sank into a seat. Lucas swore, then hugged Parveen.

  ‘Yes!’ he cried.

  ‘We did it!’ Parveen’s eyes shone.

  I looked down, at the grubby floor between my feet. All I could think was that I’d just seen Riley murder Charlie’s father in cold blood and make it clear he was about to murder Charlie herself. I had held the proof in my hands.

  And now it was gone.

  Charlie

  Spider and I rushed through the kitchen and out into the hallway as Riley walked out of the dining room.

  He saw us and, for a second, he faltered. I peered past him. Inside, Uchi lay on the floor, a pool of blood gathering around his head.

  He was dead. I stared, numb with shock.

  Riley shut the door behind him with a click.

  ‘Get out of my sight,’ he ordered.

  I didn’t move, couldn’t move. Beside me Spider was open-mouthed. Across the hall, Taylor was staggering to his feet clutching his head. The front door was open, the coat stand was on its side and all the coats scattered across the floor.

  ‘What happened?’ Riley barked.

  ‘The boys and Parveen got away,’ Taylor said, his voice hoarse.

  My stomach flipped over. Nat had escaped. Riley let out a groan of irritation, then he shook himself. ‘It doesn’t matter, Nat will be dead soon. The others don’t count.’

  A shiver ran down my spine. If Riley was really that unconcerned, then Nat must have very little time left. I stared at the closed door in front of me. My father was on the other side of it. He was gone. I couldn’t take it in.

  ‘Where the hell is my car?’ Riley snapped.

  ‘They’re bringing it round now, sir,’ Taylor said, picking up his phone and his jacket from the ground, then righting the coat stand.

  Had Nat or one of the others hit him in order to escape? If it had been Nat, then maybe he wasn’t quite so ill as I’d feared.

  Taylor put on his jacket, tucked the phone in the pocket and winced. He rubbed the back of his head. Riley glanced at the dining room, where Uchi’s body still lay behind the closed door. ‘We can clear that up later. Put a guard on the door, get Martina to take Spider to Cornwall,’ he ordered. ‘Then meet me at the rally.’

  ‘You killed Uchi,’ I said. ‘You killed him. In cold blood.’

  Riley ignored me. ‘I have to go,’ he said.

  Taylor straightened up. His face was pale. ‘What about Charlie?’ he asked.

  I held my breath, waiting for Riley to give Taylor the order to murder me. But instead, Riley strode to the hall mirror. He smoothed back his hair and straightened his tie. Then he sighed out his breath and turned to the front door.

  ‘Let her go,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing she can do now anyway.’

  And he walked out, without a backward glance at either me or Spider.

  Nat

  Half an hour later we jogged across Hyde Park to the rally. As we neared the stage, the crowd erupted in cheers. I was aware that all three of us were infected with the Qilota virus and liable to pass it on to anyone we came near, but we had to get to Riley. There was no other option.

  ‘Riley’s just coming on stage to speak,’ Parveen said.

  ‘Look at how relaxed he is,’ Lucas marvelled. ‘He just murdered someone. Look.’

  ‘I know,’ Parveen said bitterly.

  ‘Me too,’ I added. But the truth was I couldn’t see Riley right now. I could barely make out the stage or either of the huge screens positioned on either side of it that showed what was happening in detail. Everything on it was a collection of blurs. Over the past few minutes my vision had grown much worse, but I was worried that if I confided just how bad it was to Lucas and Parveen, they would insist on leaving me behind. And retrieving Taylor’s phone was too important for me not to be involved.

  Saving Charlie – and bringing down Riley – depended on it.

  I wasn’t sure, of course, if Taylor had realised I’d made a recording but I had switched off the phone before I had dropped it and, thanks to the coat stand toppling over, it was surely possible that Taylor would simply think the mobile had fallen out of his jacket pocket in the general chaos.

  It hadn’t been hard to persuade Lucas and Parveen to come here. We knew we were putting ourselves – and everyone around us – at risk to get so close to Riley and his men, but this felt like our last chance.

  I followed Lucas and Parveen around the side of the stage. Guards were posted at every entrance. From the stage, Riley’s voice boomed through the late-afternoon air.

  ‘Friends,’ he said. ‘An illicit weapons programme, inadequate safety procedures, a careless disregard for the rule of law. The government has shown that it is riddled with corruption and plainly unfit to govern. We are currently working on sourcing sufficient stocks of the only antidote to the virus, which we are confident should be available by the end of tomorrow.’

  Beside me, Lucas and Parveen glanced at each other. This news meant, surely, they would be saved and so, hopefully, would Mum and Dad. But the end of tomorrow would be too late for Jas and me.

  ‘. . . ensuring that election day may be overshadowed by scandal,’ Riley went on, ‘but that tragedy has been averted.’

  ‘I can’t believe Riley’s getting away with this,’ Lucas muttered.

  ‘He’s not going to,’ I said. My vision, thankfully, was starting to clear but I knew it was only a matter of time before it clouded again.

  ‘I will be issuing an update later this evening.’ Riley went on. He sounded tired, but heroic.

  I groaned inwardly. If we didn’t make this work, on top of everything else he was certain to win the election at the end of the week. He had played everything to perfection.

  Charlie

  I got out of the taxi and ran along the pavement to Nat’s house, the four vials of antidote safely shoved deep in my pockets.

  Would Nat be here? I knew that Jas and her parents were inside, so surely it was only a matter of time before Nat turned up too. I wouldn’t have got here so quickly if it hadn’t been for Spider. As soon as Riley had left for the rally, I had turned to him.

  ‘Do you have any money?’ I had asked.

  Spider had stared at me, his forehead screwed up in a frown. ‘I don’t get it. Dad’s letting you go. Something’s wrong.’

  ‘No. Everything’s right, for the first time in a long time. If I’m free, I can get this antidote to Jas and Nat and the rest of their family.’

  ‘But it doesn’t make sense. Dad knows you’re against him. He knows you’ve seen that he killed Uchi. Why is he letting you leave?’

  ‘Because he knows no one will believe anything I say. I’m still wanted for kidnapping and terrorism, remember.’ I turned on my heel. If Spider wasn’t going to help me get away, there was nothing le
ft to talk about.

  He ran up behind me, fishing in the pockets of his skinny jeans. ‘Here,’ he said, thrusting a bundle of notes at me. ‘Take this and – and look after yourself.’

  I stopped and gave him a quick hug. ‘Thanks, Spider.’

  His cheeks had pinked but, before he could speak again, I had rushed out of the house, running hard to find a taxi.

  And now here I was at Nat’s house. I pressed the doorbell. It felt completely surreal being back here. Although less than two months had passed since I’d been living a relatively normal life in this part of London, it felt like I’d been away from everything I knew for years, that the girl I was back then had been a different person.

  I rang the doorbell again. A few moments later Nat’s dad opened the door. I was shocked by how old he looked. Last time I’d seen him he’d seemed grey and tired. But now exhaustion was riven in every line of his face.

  ‘Charlie?’ His eyes widened. ‘Are you alright?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘How’s Jas?’

  To my horror, his face crumpled. ‘She doesn’t have long,’ he said, clearly trying not to cry. ‘We’re desperately worried about the boys too, of course, but Jas is close now. Really close.’

  ‘Show me,’ I said, reaching for the vials in my pocket.

  I raced up the stairs after him, my heart pounding. Was I too late?

  Nat

  I steadied myself against the wall. My vision had, thankfully, cleared but I still felt weaker than I’d ever done in my life.

  Beside me, Lucas peered through the gap in the curtains. We had snuck past one guard – thanks to Parveen causing a distraction – and were now close to the stage, where Riley was speaking.

  ‘Taylor’s right there,’ Lucas hissed in my ear. ‘I’ll take him, you go for the phone.’

  I nodded, steeling myself. If my plan was going to work, the next few minutes were crucial.