“No. I think I’m all right. It was honour enough to take you and your men, sir.”
“Don’t say I didn’t make the offer.”
He turned and joined the others on the riverbank.
The captain pushed off the side with the aid of a long stick and didn’t speak up until he was half a dozen lengths away. “I’m going to tell Geronimo everything I know about you! Where I dropped you off, where you’re heading. Everything! What do you think about that?”
Katie rolled her eyes. Would this fool never learn?
Bill took aim with his rifle and pulled the trigger so fast Katie thought it was only to scare the captain into silence. A fraction of a second later, the captain spun around and hit the deck. He pressed a hand to his temple, streaming with blood.
“You shot me!” he said.
Bill performed a bow. “You’re welcome.”
The captain got to his feet, his boat crawling further away. “That’s the thanks I get for helping strangers?”
Bill aimed again. “I can even-up that injury for you if you like.”
The captain hid behind the cabin and didn’t come out again until the boat drifted around the corner.
Katie knew what thoughts would run through the detestable little man’s mind when he was confronted with Geronimo’s question of: “Where did you take them?”
He would lie. And as for what he knew about where they were going, they’d been careful to ensure they never let him overhear anything concrete.
They were back to travelling on foot, much closer to their destination than they had been just a day ago.
“We’re going to stop off at each of your homes,” Bill said. “So you can see your families and decide whether or not you – and they – want to join us at our lodge. We won’t wait for long, so act fast.”
That, at least, was something they were well used to doing by now.
60
They split into two groups so they could complete the process faster. Once they were done, they would meet up at Katie and Camden’s house.
Katie was part of the second group, along with Darryl and the twins. Ella would have joined them too. Her absence left a conspicuous hole and made Katie feel sad. She’d have much preferred Aaron to go with them but Bill made sure to keep him at his side at all times.
Keep your friends close…
Darryl gave Katie a warm smile that she ensured not to reflect back at him. She didn’t want to encourage the poor boy. Instead of facing him directly and saying she wasn’t interested, she decided to ignore his advances and hope he would eventually catch on that she wasn’t interested.
“My house is this way.” Darryl led them through the quiet Nottingham streets.
He enjoyed giving them a running tour of his memories on those streets and alleys. Although no one gave a hint of wanting to know more, he kept on talking anyway. A nervous talker.
They came to the better part of town – far more upscale than the part Katie’s family lived on – with its nice picket fences and lined trees outside each household. It painted a sad picture now, the fact that no one could build houses like this any longer. A perfect suburban lifestyle that no longer existed.
Darryl led them to one of the houses that, to Katie’s eyes, looked identical to the others. The closer he drew to it, the quieter he became. He couldn’t even bring himself to step on the empty driveway.
“No cars,” Ronnie said. “Where did they go?”
“Um, nowhere. All they did was work.”
“Don’t worry,” Katie said. “I’ll go inside.”
“No, it’s okay. I can do it.” But Darryl made no suggestion he’d take a step forward.
“We had a deal, remember?” Katie said.
Darryl couldn’t take his eyes off the house and simply nodded.
The twins flipped a coin as to who would go inside with her.
“Yes!” Ronnie said.
“You’re glad you lost the coin toss?” Tanya said.
“No. I’m glad I won the bet.”
“I was betting on which side would face upwards. That’s the person who gets to choose whether or not they go inside.”
“No. Because whoever chooses is always going to opt to stay outside.”
“Not necessarily.”
Katie rolled her eyes and walked up the driveway. She got to the front door before Tanya hustled up behind her.
“Just because I’m going in doesn’t mean I lost,” she said.
“Sure,” Ronnie said. “You’re doing it out of the kindness of your heart.”
Tanya gave her brother the finger.
Katie checked the door and found it unlocked. She pressed the handle and opened the door.
“Let me go in first,” Tanya said.
“Give me a weapon and I’ll do it.”
“You’ve got a knife.”
“A gun would be better.”
“I’m sure it would. And when the time comes, I’ll give you one. Not before.”
Katie hated being treated like a child. She knew the real reason she wouldn’t give her a pistol was because of her grandfather and his stupid rules. He didn’t think they knew how to shoot, so that meant everyone had to hold the same opinion.
Tanya entered and immediately came to a stop. “Woah.” She spun around. “Maybe you shouldn’t come in here–”
But it was too late. Katie had crossed the threshold and saw what Tanya was referring to.
She turned away and wrapped a hand over her mouth.
Blood. Lots of blood. And horrific, mutilated bodies. Just a single snapshot, but it was enough.
“What happened here?” Katie said, not turning around.
Tanya edged forward. “I don’t know. A murder, most likely.”
“How many…” Katie heaved but nothing came up. “How many bodies?”
“Two by the look of it.”
“His parents?”
Tanya looked at each of the photo frames arranged around the room until she found some pictures that matched the bodies hacked to pieces on the floor.
“I think so,” she said. “It’s hard to tell.”
That made Katie feel even sicker. “I’m going upstairs. You check the other rooms down here.”
“Will do.” Tanya was unable to take her eyes off the bodies. “Yell if you need help.”
Katie couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. The buzzing flies and unbearable stench of rotting corpses were far worse than any movie she’d seen. Or the dead carcasses my dad made me handle.
She breathed a sigh of relief when the stench left her nose. She could still smell it. The memory of it was burned into her brain. She would never forget that scene so long as she lived.
She prodded each door open, screwing up her face in anticipation of seeing more blood splattered over the furnishings and up the wall. She had to stop once to gather herself or risk losing her lunch. She finally came to what had to be Darryl’s room with all the nerdy posters on the walls of Warhammer and Lord of the Rings. Great movies, but who had posters of them on their bedroom wall?
She grabbed the sheet off the bed and stuffed a bunch of his possessions into it. Enough for him not to want to come back for a while. She concentrated on the books, comics, magazines, the bizarre little things that looked like toys, and a handful of clothes. She wrapped everything up in the sheet and brought it downstairs.
Tanya came out with a couple of tins of soup. “This is all that’s left in the kitchen. The rest was taken.”
“You think a gang of vigilantes did this?”
“That’s what my money would be on. Someone with serious anger issues.”
Katie looked upon the mutilated bodies again. Her stomach still heaved but it wasn’t as bad as the initial shock. “We can’t tell him about this.”
“We can tell him they’re dead, otherwise he’ll always be wondering if they’re still alive out there somewhere. The idea they might still be alive is worse than knowing the truth.”
“I don’t kno
w. Remember, this is Darryl we’re talking about. If it were you or me, we’d want to know the truth… Maybe not all the gory truth, but the facts. I don’t think Darryl is ready for that yet.”
Tanya didn’t look convinced. “If you think it’s best. I’ll leave you to tell him when the time comes.”
Katie nodded and they continued out the front door.
Darryl still hadn’t taken a step on the driveway and waited for her to extend the collection of items from his room.
“They weren’t there,” she said. “The cupboards are mostly empty.”
Just enough truth to let his imagination paint in the rest.
“I wonder where they went.” Darryl frowned with thought. “My uncle’s house, maybe. He doesn’t have a farm but lots of land. They could work together to turn that into somewhere to live, maybe.”
Katie smiled. “I’m sure that’ll be it.”
“It’s far away though. I’m not sure I could make it all the way there on my own.”
Tanya locked eyes on her. Katie didn’t have the heart to tell him the truth. “Let’s get ourselves set up at the lodge and then we can go find them.”
But they would never go look for them. She would tell him the truth long before that happened.
“Thanks,” Darryl said. “But there’s a bunch of comics you missed. The best ones are on my desk. I’ll go inside and get them–”
“No!” The word came out a little stronger than she expected. “Your bedroom was empty except for these comics. Maybe your parents took them.”
“Oh.”
Katie watched his expression closely. She wanted to know how much she gave away with her outburst.
“I hadn’t thought of that. That’s nice of them – to think about me like that.”
“Yes. They’re caring people.”
“They are. Well, my mum is. My dad, not so much. He’s always at work. Anyway, thanks for doing that for me. I appreciate it.”
“Let’s get to my house. Then we can wait for the others to turn up.”
As Darryl showed Tanya his collection of comics and magazines, Ronnie sidled up to Katie. “I guess the bodies were badly mutilated?”
Katie was taken aback. She checked Darryl couldn’t hear them before lowering her voice. “How did you know?”
“You’ve got blood on your boots. Make sure to wipe them off before he sees.”
Spots of blood decorated the side rim like a nightmarish polka dot design. Ronnie put a hand on Darryl’s shoulder and turned him away so Katie could wipe her feet on a nearby grass verge.
The twins were a lot smarter than they looked – which was a good thing, as by appearance alone they might have an IQ in the single digits.
61
Laurie stepped over the remnants of the battle.
Puddles of blood and a soldier – one of theirs – held his entrails in his hands and screamed as he passed. The man was already dead, his brain just hadn’t clocked it yet. Laurie did him a favour and put a bullet in his head to lay him to rest. Then he continued his slow trudge through the carnage to the overturned quad bikes beside a blazing fire. He could smell the acrid stink across the battlefield.
They killed most of the terrorists. His men were now chasing down the few who slipped into the surrounding woodland. They got the drop on them the same way the terrorists did during their previous encounter.
He came to a small figure lying in the dirt. At first, he thought it was a child and his blood turned cold. Then he saw the man’s misshapen arms and legs and realised his error.
The man’s oversized head was propped up against a quad bike wheel, in much the same position Burgess had been just hours earlier. He lay in a puddle of mud churned up by his blood and pressed a hand to his neck where he was losing the majority of his lifeforce. His eyes fluttered open when he heard Laurie approach.
“Congratulations on your successful ambush.” The man extended a hand caked in blood. Laurie checked the other hand for weapons before reaching down to take it. “Owain’s the name. Ham radio’s the game.”
“Lieutenant Laurie.”
“Nice to meet you, Lieutenant. You were chasing…” Owain grunted and gasped for oxygen. “Chasing the wrong people this… this whole time.”
“Not this time.”
“No, not this time.” The man didn’t look particularly upset at dying. “It’s about time you got it right.”
“We would have a lot sooner if we had the right leadership.”
A blast of gunfire in a nearby field.
“You’re wasting your time looking for my other men,” Owain said. “They don’t know anything.”
“We’ll find them anyway. Just in case. I’m cautious by nature.”
“A man after my own heart.” He looked up at Laurie and it was the first time the lieutenant saw fear in his eyes. “Will they be tortured?”
Laurie looked the little man over. He was genuinely concerned for their wellbeing. “It’s out of my hands.”
“It might very well be someone else’s decision but it’s not out of your hands. You’re here and they’re not.”
“I can’t let them go.”
“I’m not asking you to let them go.” He looked into Laurie’s face with meaning.
“You’re asking me to kill them? Your own men?”
“Better than the alternative. Especially since they have nothing they can tell you. I was very careful to keep all the details to myself.”
Laurie snorted. “I’ve heard that one before.”
“But never from me.” Owain wavered slightly. “I seem to be losing quite a lot of blood.”
“That’ll have something to do with the hole in your neck, I suspect.”
“Or I’m on my period.”
Laurie snorted.
“You didn’t know all dwarves have periods? That’s why we’re so small. We constantly lose blood all the time.” Owain sighed. “I never thought I would die like this. I suppose no one ever thinks they’re going to die. Even the people who already are.”
“I could hurry the process along if you like?” Laurie tugged the blade from its sheath.
“No. That would defeat the point.”
Laurie shoved the blade back in its pocket and wondered how long he would have to wait for the little man to die. He was losing a lot of blood for such a little person.
“I sense you’re a good man,” Owain said. “Am I wrong?”
It was hard for Laurie to answer that considering the position they found themselves in. “Most of the time.”
“I’ll tell you everything I know. I won’t tell you the identities of the other ham operators as they’ll continue the good fight but I can tell you a lot more than my men can.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“No, you won’t. Unless you don’t want to know what I have to tell you. I wasn’t lying earlier when I said they don’t know anything.”
“You expect me to trust the word of a terrorist?”
“I’m only a terrorist in your eyes. In my men’s eyes, I’m a hero. Let me do one last thing for them before I die.”
Laurie pursed his lips. “What do you want?”
“It’s what you want I’m most interested in. I’ll tell you everything I know except for the aforementioned details. If you think I’m not telling you everything else, you can do with my men as you wish.”
“And if I think you’re telling the truth?”
“You’ll either let my men go or kill them before you get to your HQ.”
Laurie considered telling the dwarf what he wanted to hear, listen to what he had to say, and then breaking his word anyway. The thought alone left a bad taste in his mouth.
“How do you know I’ll keep my word?” Laurie said.
“Because I’ll be waiting in hell for you if you don’t.”
Laurie couldn’t help but smile. “You’re a much better leader than the one we had for most of this stinking mission.”
“Don’t you mean half a man
? Maybe less now with all this blood I’ve lost.”
“I’ll give you my word so long as you give me all the information I need.”
“Do you have… have some bandages to piece me back together a little?” Owain said. “I don’t expect to live through this but I’ll need to survive the next few hours if you’re going to know everything about what’s going on here.”
Was this a rouse for him to try and escape? Laurie wondered. He doubted that. The man was at death’s door. He was certain to die with the medieval medical methods they had at their disposal, so what was there to lose?
62
They didn’t meet another living soul all the way to Katie’s house on the other side of town. After what she’d seen in Darryl’s front room, she found her footsteps slowing the closer they got to her house. She feared something similar might be awaiting discovery on her living room floor.
No. That’s not possible.
Her mother was strong. She wouldn’t let it happen. But no matter how strong a person was, they could always be overpowered. Especially when they were alone.
She worried about her mother and where she might be. Did she and Steve get their message from Owain in time? Did they leave the north Wales mountain range? Were they waiting at the lodge already?
That last brought a smile to her face. To think her mum might be behind that creaky old door, inside cooking one of her signature meals. Or even here, at home. It made Katie’s heart bounce in her chest. She could be seconds away from her mother’s awesome warm hugs.
Abandoned vehicles lined the streets. With a larger population than that where Darryl lived, it was perhaps no surprise the place was a little more rundown. Smashed windows wore red lipstick and a lump of what looked like sausages – but clearly weren’t – sat piled in the middle of the street. A feast for the flies.
“I wish I could say the place usually looks better than this,” Katie said. “It’s always been a bit rough around here.”
Their house was a two-storey terrace with a small front yard and a slightly bigger one around back. It was nothing compared to Darryl’s house. Still, it was her family home and for that reason alone it held a special place in her heart.
Cut Off (Book 2): Cut Throat Page 20
