Before the Storm

by Sean McMullen

‘We have to call the … the …’ Emily’s voice trailed away hopelessly.

  ‘Police?’ asked Muriel, who then twisted out of Emily’s grip.

  ‘Whatever can we do?’ cried Emily.

  ‘Daniel said you are some sort of leader,’ said Muriel, pointing in the direction of the door. ‘Well he’s a prisoner now. What are you going to do? Don’t just stand there, lead!’

  Just then the three police re-emerged from the door. Emily suddenly pulled herself together.

  ‘Muriel, wait here, watch the policemen, but don’t draw attention to yourself. I’ll get help.’

  Without another word Emily dashed away into the crowd. The stream of people entering the Exhibition Buildings had slowed to a trickle, and her parents were nowhere to be seen. Now Emily could not enter, even if she wanted to. After what had happened to Daniel, she knew there was no point in trying to raise the alarm about the bombs. Deciding that her only chance was to find BC, Emily began a desperate circumnavigation of the Exhibition Buildings, dodging bands, vendors and even a maypole. She saw plenty of her friends from school – then caught sight of BC.

  ‘Liore!’ shrieked Emily, and BC turned and strode towards her at once.

  ‘There are new decorations high on the walls, near the ceiling,’ began BC as they met.

  ‘I know. Daniel and I learned of them too, but when he tried to tell some policemen, they seized him and locked him away. They called to the crowd that it was a schoolboy prank, and, and he’s been holding hands with Muriel Baker!’

  ‘Muriel Baker?’ asked BC. ‘Is she a conspirator?’

  ‘No, she’s my classmate, and she’s a year older than Daniel, and she’s an artist!’

  ‘Please, no more, let me think,’ said BC, her eyes now wide. ‘The police, of course. The conspirators are not Germans!’

  ‘I … what? But …’

  ‘Later. Show me the door. Oh, and do you have the pistol?’

  ‘Yes, but –’

  ‘Keep it out of sight, but if you need to use it, flick the safety catch up, and squeeze the trigger, not the trigger guard. Remember to aim it. That’s very important.’

  They had to hurry right around to the other side of the Exhibition Buildings to reach the door. When they arrived, the three policemen were still there. Emily took BC to Muriel.

  ‘Liore, this is Muriel, and she’s, she’s a friend of Daniel’s. Muriel, this is Miss Liore.’

  Muriel stared at BC, opened her mouth, and managed to say ’Miss?’ before words failed her.

  ‘What have the policemen done since I left?’ asked Emily.

  ‘Nothing, they’ve just been standing near the door,’ answered Muriel, finally wrenching her gaze away from BC.

  ‘Wait here,’ said BC, who then walked straight for the policemen.

  ‘BC, no, they will take you prisoner too!’ pleaded Emily, starting after her.

  ‘He’s really a girl?’ asked Muriel, following them with her head on one side. ‘He’d be a stunning boy.’

  ‘Miss Liore certainly knows how to stun people,’ said Emily grimly.

  ‘Gentlemen, I believe that you are trying to keep the bombs in the roof a secret,’ declared BC cheerily to the police.

  There was a brief, confused flurry as the police tried to restrain BC. Emily saw her right elbow strike a jaw, smash back into a nose, then her fist slam into a stomach. BC lifted her third victim onto her shoulder.

  ‘Schoolboy prank,’ Emily called cheerily to the astounded onlookers as she searched the coat pockets of the two other policemen, removing their papers.

  ‘Are you absolutely positive he’s a girl?’ asked Muriel as she and Emily hurried through the door behind BC. ‘I mean, I don’t know any girls who could do that.’

  ‘Do you know any boys who could do that?’ asked Emily.

  They found themselves in a kind of servants’ entrance. Having jammed the door’s lock from inside, BC gave her entire attention to the policeman in her custody. First she removed his gun. He was making a titanic effort to draw breath after her punch to his stomach. BC twisted his arm behind his back, placed her knee against his spine, then twisted his wrist and gently pressed a point near his elbow. The man’s mouth dropped open in a grimace of pain so intense that he could not even bring himself to scream.

  ‘My old karate teacher told me that girls do not like to damage people when they fight, yet they are quite happy to inflict extreme pain,’ BC explained calmly to the man. ‘Actually, I was his best student, and I am truly overjoyed to inflict the most intense and extreme pain imaginable upon traitors to the British Empire.’

  BC pressed another point on the man’s arm. He began to shudder uncontrollably.

  ‘Actually, if one inflicts pain like this for long enough, the victim dies. As you may have noticed, the victim can no longer breathe because of the shock.’

  BC now eased the pressure a little, and the man actually managed to close his mouth.

  ‘Firstly, you are going to tell us where the boy that you seized some minutes ago has been hidden.’

  The policeman attempted to struggle. This was a very serious mistake. BC twisted his arm a little further, and pressed a finger against his wrist. A patch of steaming water began to spread out from the area of his trousers. BC eased the pressure a little.

  ‘Second door, right,’ the man wheezed. ‘Behind … stack … of cases.’

  BC released the man, then took from her coat a thing that Emily recognised as part of her death beam weapon.

  ‘This is the converter of my plasma rifle. Without the rest it cannot be fired at maximum power.’ She stared meaningfully at her prisoner. ‘But it can still stop anything smaller than an elephant.’

  She fired down into the flagstone floor. There was a brief squeak-like sound, followed by a sharp blast. A hole big enough to hold a large orange appeared in the bluestone. The policeman stared at it, all but paralysed with terror.

  ‘Now, if I have to fire this thing at you, it will be at your stomach,’ said BC with exaggerated gravity. ‘You will take a long time to die, and it will be in extreme agony. Will you do as I say?’

  Muriel fainted, but Emily caught her and eased her to the floor. The man nodded.

  ‘Then move! Second door, right.’

  Daniel was where the man had said, bound and gagged but otherwise unharmed. BC ordered the man to untie him.

  8

  THIEF

  As soon as Daniel caught sight of the haggard, terrified look on the policeman’s face, he knew that BC would not be far behind. BC appeared, and ordered Daniel to be untied.

  ‘The decorations …’ Daniel began as the gag came off his mouth.

  ‘We know, Daniel, good work,’ said BC.

  ‘That policeman,’ began Daniel again.

  ‘He is not a policeman, he just wears the uniform,’ said BC. ‘Now then, I would advise you and Muriel to look the other way and cover your ears.’

  BC seized the policeman and slammed him to the ground again.

  ‘Daniel, you are still looking,’ called BC. ‘Some people just don’t care about losing their breakfast, do they, Constable? Now then, I know that you are part of an imperialist supremacist group, dedicated to keeping Australia as a collection of colonies in an empire run directly and centrally by Britain. Yes, I worked all that out for myself. The weakness about rewritten history is that it all looks so neat, tidy, and one-sided. German agents? Not likely. You idiots wanted a war to unite the British Empire, but you will get a war that loses Britain! What is your organisation’s name?’

  ‘The … Sons of Britannia.’

  There was a soft snap from the man’s arm, followed by a wheeze of pain. Daniel’s stomach lurched.

  ‘Now that was very, very silly of you. I already know the answer, you see? There is a nice man out in the bushes of the garden who has already helped me with some of my enquiries. Actually he is a rather nasty man, but no matter. I broke both of his elbows and one of his knees before he decided that �
�’

  ‘Lionhearts, the League of British Lionhearts,’ wheezed the man.

  ‘See how easy it is? Now then, some more questions, and bear in mind that I already know some of the answers.’

  ‘Anything, only …’

  ‘Stop, yes, I may stop soon. I find the idea of touching you offensive in the extreme, but one has to endure many hardships in the cause of patriotism. How are the bombs in the roof to be set off?’

  ‘Fuses … will be lit.’

  ‘Come now, you can do better than that. Short fuses would not give your men time to escape, and long fuses would generate so much smoke that they would be noticed.’

  ‘It’s true! Those lighting hands … not our men … just hired help. They think it’s just fireworks, they don’t know. Half-minute fuses.’

  With truly astounding speed, BC bound the man’s hands behind his back, pulled him to his feet, looped a length of cord around a pipe that ran down the wall, and tied him to the pipe.

  ‘Last question,’ asked BC. ‘When are those bombs due to be set off?’

  ‘Another quarter-hour.’

  BC gagged him.

  ‘DanS2, Emily-DBC, to me!’ she said as she made for the door. ‘We can still save the day.’

  BC had her hand on the door’s latch as it burst open, knocking her down and sending her weapon from the future clattering away across the floor. The intruder charged through the door. BC lashed a leg out and tripped him, and he fired blindly but only managed to hit his fellow conspirator, who was tied to the pipe. There was a loud snap as the gunman’s head hit the wall. Daniel caught sight of a third man, who was aiming a gun at BC.

  ‘Emmy, fire!’ shouted Daniel as he flung himself over the fallen BC.

  Two gunshots sounded almost simultaneously, a sharp pop, and a much louder blast. Something tugged at Daniel’s upper arm, and he felt a sting. There was the sound of something hitting the floor.

  ‘DanS2, status?’ demanded BC, rolling Daniel off.

  ‘My arm,’ began Daniel.

  ‘Graze, non-lethal, grab hold, apply pressure. Emily-DBC, eyes, shut! DanS2, escort her outside.’

  Daniel discovered Muriel in the corridor, sitting on the floor and shaking her head to clear it. He propped Emily against the wall and tried to lift Muriel, while still clutching his bleeding arm.

  ‘Fainted, I fainted,’ said Muriel. ‘What happened?’

  ‘I shot someone,’ Emily whispered.

  ‘I got shot,’ said Daniel.

  ‘You shot my Daniel, you stupid cow?’ cried Muriel.

  ‘I killed a man,’ said Emily, ignoring her.

  ‘Not me,’ mumbled Daniel.

  ‘You need a bandage,’ said Muriel as she began to rip a strip of cloth from her petticoat.

  The thought of being bandaged by a strip of Muriel’s petticoat was somehow so erotic that it made Daniel’s head spin. Dropping to his knees, he eased his coat off. There was a deep, ominous humming from within the stores room.

  ‘Am I allowed to know what is going on yet?’ asked Muriel as she began to bandage Daniel’s arm.

  ‘Some really bad people have put bombs in the roof, and they plan to blow up the Exhibition Buildings when parliament’s opening,’ said Daniel. ‘We’re trying to stop them.’

  The issues raised by those two sentences were far more than Muriel could assimilate at short notice, so she seemed to grasp for a sensible conclusion instead.

  ‘I … but we are inside the Exhibition Buildings, and parliament is about to open.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And you have not stopped them yet?’

  ‘Not yet, no …’

  ‘Should we not get outside?’

  Just then BC came out of the room, holding her plasma weapon. She pulled the door shut behind her.

  ‘What happened?’ asked Daniel.

  ‘One was shot by the fool who smashed in the door, and the one who did the shooting stumbled into the wall and broke his neck. The third …’

  ‘Would it help if I said it was an accident?’ asked Emily guiltily.

  ‘Miss Emily, next time you want to distract someone with a gunshot, fire into the ceiling.’

  ‘I thought policemen might have armoured coats, like your uniform.’

  ‘Only in a hundred years from now.’

  Muriel tied off Daniel’s bandage.

  ‘Will the third chap be all right?’ asked Daniel.

  ‘Not without a heart. I put my weapon on thermal disruption and turned it on the bodies. There is only ash and steam in there now.’

  BC then bent something in the latch of the outer door and locked it again.

  ‘You, Muriel Baker,’ said BC, taking out one of the dead men’s guns. ‘If you stand with Daniel, then you are under my command. Take this pistol. If anyone forces that outer door, shoot them.’

  ‘Shoot them?’ asked Muriel, shrinking away from her against Daniel. ‘I could never kill anyone.’

  ‘Then aim for the stomach,’ advised BC.

  ‘That means they stay alive,’ said Daniel.

  ‘Sometimes,’ said BC. ‘Stand here, guard the door.’

  ‘You mean I have to stay inside?’ asked Muriel, taking the gun from BC by the barrel.

  ‘Hold it by the handle,’ said Daniel, reversing the gun for her.

  ‘The trigger’s the thing inside the loop,’ added Emily.

  ‘Quickly, up those steps, they lead to an access platform,’ said BC.

  ‘Daniel, I’m only staying inside because I love you!’ Muriel called after them.

  ‘I killed a man,’ whispered Emily as they ran, her eyes still wide with shock.

  ‘You may have to do it again,’ said BC, handing the plasma gun to her. ‘Look after this.’

  ‘She loves me!’ panted Daniel, as much to annoy Emily as to affirm his first romance.

  The access platform was already occupied by five nattily dressed men, who were innocent bystanders in the wrong place at the wrong time. BC’s foot swept the feet out from under the first man so fast that he fell and struck the back of his head. He was still falling when the tip of her boot struck the second man in the jaw, instantly dropping him into unconsciousness. At this stage she seemed to leap into the air, spin in a flat circle, and land the heel of her boot against the third man’s temple. By now the fourth man had made the mind-numbingly stupid mistake of trying to seize BC. She promptly smashed her forehead down on the bridge of his nose. The fifth man tried to flee.

  ‘I would not try to leave,’ warned Emily, pointing both of her guns at the man.

  ‘That shiny one really, really hurts,’ added Daniel.

  As the man hesitated, BC stepped up behind him, spun him about, and struck his chin with her elbow. With efficient, disciplined fingers, BC attached a small telescope to her gun, then scanned the upper walls.

  ‘Those bomb packets are all over the place,’ she exclaimed softly. ‘And smoke. There is smoke!’

  ‘The fuses are already lit!’ hissed Daniel.

  ‘It’s too late!’ exclaimed BC. ‘Back, hurry!’

  ‘My parents!’ exclaimed Daniel.

  ‘Nothing can save them. Run!’

  They dashed back down the stairs, and bolted along the corridor to where Muriel was still waiting.

  ‘… twenty-five, twenty-six, won’t make it,’ cried BC, ’twenty-eight, twenty-nine … Down. Lie flat!’

  The four of them flung themselves on the flagstones. They waited, flat on the floor. Daniel grasped for Muriel’s hand.

  ‘Thirty-five, thirty-six,’ counted BC.

  ‘Muriel, I love you too,’ said Daniel.

  ‘For goodness sake,’ muttered Emily between clenched teeth.

  ‘Forty-one, forty-two,’ said BC, then she stopped counting and looked up.

  ‘Did he not say half-minute fuses?’ asked Daniel.

  ‘He did indeed,’ said BC, getting to her feet and striding back up the corridor. The others followed, including Muriel.

  D
aniel saw that BC had her coat unbuttoned, and was holding her hand over a spreading red patch at her stomach. Back at the platform, they found that one of the five men had just returned to his senses. BC trained her gun between his eyes.

  ‘It would be an awfully good idea to stay quiet and lie still,’ said Emily, hurrying up with her own pistol.

  BC struck the man unconscious again, then scanned the packages high on the walls with her telescopic sights.

  ‘The fuses have burned down and gone out,’ she observed. ‘The bombs have not gone off.’

  For some moments they stood in silence. Somewhere in the distance, they could hear the Duke of Cornwall and York declaring the parliament to be open.

  ‘Oh, Daniel, how romantic,’ squealed Muriel. ‘Thank you for getting me in here to actually see it happen.’

  ‘They never reached this part of the ceremony!’ said BC above the noise of the cheering that followed. ‘History has changed. We should leave, quickly and quietly.’

  Before they went outside again, Muriel ripped more of her petticoat off and bound the cloth over BC’s bandages. BC re-buttoned her coat. Out in the grounds again, they watched the dignitaries and guests that had come so near to death streaming out to continue the day’s celebrations. Bands were playing and people were still cheering.

  ‘Over there, those four worried-looking men near the door,’ said BC. ‘Do you think they are wondering where their friends dressed as policemen have gone?’

  ‘I’d rather not ask,’ said Daniel. ‘Two of them look a bit like the Germans, with their disguises off.’

  ‘Try to remember their faces,’ said BC.

  ‘I killed a man,’ said Emily.

  ‘Emily!’ hissed BC softly. ‘Take hold of your nerve. All warriors feel guilt after a battle. It is only natural. You are still breathing, but those who stood against you are dead. You wonder why you survived and they did not, and you feel guilty about it. I feel it too, but put it out of your mind for now. And you, Daniel, you have faced death three times in the past quarter-hour, and now shock and terror are catching up with you. I can see it in your eyes, and in the way your hands are starting to shake. We need to leave here so that I can counsel you.’

  ‘Counsel us?’ he asked.