Liberation (I Am Margaret Book 3)

by Corinna Turner

  “No go, so far. We were supposed to see them coming. But they were supposed to bully permission to seize us out of the Maltese government. Instead of just blitz-krieging the state.”

  “They’ve what ?”

  “They annexed Malta. And Gozo, of course. Just like that. Dropped on it in the night. The President managed to broadcast a warning to Eduardo but it was too late. We were already surrounded.”

  “And there’s no way out?”

  “Eduardo sent out some of his men to look.” Jon looked grim. “Several of them didn’t even make it back.”

  Something in his voice... a wobble... Oh Lord! Eduardo would send his best men in a situation like this... Alligator, Grass Snake, Snail, Bumblebee...

  “Who?”

  “Al,” said Jon miserably. “They’ve got him. That big deep-voiced chap – Toni, is it? He was killed. Rafael – y’know, Land Rover – we’re not sure, but he didn’t come back.”

  My chest felt choked up and shaking. I fought back tears. Jack. In EuroGov hands. I knew how horribly he would die.

  “Let’s get Bane...” I turned to go back upstairs – Jon snagged my arm.

  “No, let him sleep. Better he not show his face until people have cooled off a bit.”

  “What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Jon sighed and began to head down the stairs.

  “You know what it means, Margo.”

  I raced after him.

  “People think Bane betrayed us? It could’ve been anyone! Quite a lot of people do know we’re here!”

  “In which case the coincidence is unfortunate.”

  “Hyena was captured too,” I couldn’t help pointing out.

  “No, Hyena was killed when the trap was sprung in the lab.”

  Jon had been at Bane’s debriefing...

  “Do you think he betrayed us?”

  Jon grimaced.

  “Betrayed, no. Led them here, yes. By accident. Must’ve been him. Hasn’t he told you how he got away?”

  “Not yet. When he got back... he... I... we were tired...” My face was burning.

  Jon managed a smirk.

  “Tired. Of course.”

  “What’s happening, then?”

  “We’re besieged. The EuroGov can roll over us any time they choose, they’re just pausing for the sake of public relations – see, we gave them time to make a deal. Like they’ll make any deal. The ultimatum’s a joke – surrender before four o’clock or we take you over. No guarantees, so what’s the difference?” He sounded bitter… and defeated.

  I turned back up the stairs.

  “I’m going to wake Bane. He has to know about this.” And I wanted to know why even his best friend was so sure he was responsible for this disaster.

  “Well, I’m off back to the Admin block now I’ve found you. That’s where they’re trying to figure things out.”

  “We’ll come over in a bit, then.”

  “Okay.” He trudged off down the stairs.

  I went back up the stairs rather more quickly. Had to focus on finding out how Bane had escaped – because as soon as I allowed myself to consider what was happening, I’d probably fall apart into a million pieces.

  Bane was in the shower again when I went back into the room. The sun must’ve woken him. I should’ve shut the curtains.

  Be nice to join him in here... Better not get distracted. Though it probably hardly mattered now... But it wasn’t long before he emerged, dressed in clean clothes, rather grim-faced. But he broke into a smile as soon as he saw me. A slightly sheepish one.

  “It was a very short shower last night, I was still a bit grubby. I won’t usually be so extravagant,” he apologised. When I just smiled he came over and gathered me into his arms. “I couldn’t find my wife when I woke up,” he confided. “I felt like calling out the guard.”

  “Sorry.” I leant into the circle of his arms – hadn’t realised how afraid I was until now. “I thought you were going to sleep for hours and hours.” But after a moment I drew away and pulled him over to sit on the bed beside me. “Will you tell me how you got away? Everyone knows except me, it seems.”

  “Oh. Of course.” He shot me a slightly puzzled look – wondering why it couldn’t wait until after breakfast? – but didn’t demur. “Well... You know how the raid went.” His eyes had gone rather shadowed again.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, Hyena and I went to try and get Doms. Juwan had seen them take her past the hatch in his door and she hadn’t been gone for long, so we hoped there might be a chance. And we went really carefully, too, despite the desperate need for speed. We looked, we listened, we checked around corners, you’d have been proud.

  “When we got to the lab the dismantlers and their team were already at work, but even so, we took a really good look through that door, Margo, but honestly, it looked safe. So in we went. Started dropping those dismantlers and minions... then every cupboard door in the bloody place flew open and we were in the sights of about ten nonLees.

  “Well, it was hopeless, but we tried. Hyena went for them with a roar – pretty smart, actually, ‘cause he panicked too many of them into firing and I think he was dead by the time he hit the ground.” Bane’s voice was tight with pain, and so was his brow.

  “I wasn’t so quick witted. Think I hit two, much good that did, then they put me out. I came round strapped to a gurney.” Sweat beaded his brow now and I slipped my arm around him and leant close.

  “I hadn’t been out long and they’d stopped work on Doms to wait for me to come around. Then they started again. They’d got my gurney up in a near-vertical position so I didn’t miss anything.” Bane shuddered. “God, it was horrible. But you know that.”

  I gave him a comforting squeeze.

  “And there was nothing I could do to help her.” His voice was low and tormented. “I know she wasn’t conscious, but... there wasn’t even anything I could do to help myself. I tried not to watch but I just... I couldn’t seem to help it. All I could do was remind myself, over and over – I’d be unconscious too, I wasn’t going to feel anything, just the EuroGov being horrible. And... eventually they’d finished.

  “I thought I’d get taken off then to be interrogated – or tried – or something. But they just wound the gurney back into a horizontal position, and the dismantler injected me with this orange liquid...”

  I gasped.

  “Yeah, I didn’t feel too happy. I realised later it was a tiny syringeful... but anyway, he injected me, and I lost all control of my muscles and I admit, Margo, I was that terrified I thought I was going to piss myself. Well, I did, of course, but that was the drug... I couldn’t believe what was happening. I mean, they hadn’t even asked me to make the Divine denial or anything.”

  A fine tremor seized him just with the memory – I wrapped my other arm around him and held tight in silent comfort. He held me back.

  “Anyway, the dismantler gets a scalpel and starts skinning the top of my arm – then after he’s taken a few strips off and I’m a mess and I can’t think of anything other than stopping the rest of it, the stuff wears off, and right on cue, in comes your old friend Mr Reginald Hill and demands to know where the Holy See is hiding out.

  “So I told him to go to hell. And he just nodded and said, very well, if I wanted it to be like that. And that I was categorised as a Military Operative of the superstitious rebel organisation known as the Underground...”

  “Oh no!” I gasped. That was the EuroGov description for Swiss guards, VSS and Vatican Police.

  “...And I would be sentenced accordingly. And the bastard went straight on and sentenced me to... the full whack. And turned to leave.

  “I admit, I snapped for a bit, I said come back, I’d make the Divine denial...” He shot me an apologetic look. “I’d rather not, but I wasn’t going to die like that when I’m not sure about all that. But he didn’t care two hoots about the Divine denial. Just made to leave again.”

  Bane was silent for a
moment, anger and embarrassment on his face. “I can see now how they played with me. Upturned all my expectations, didn’t give me a moment to adjust. Got me panicking. But an idea popped into my head. A good one. So I said, stop, let me go, and I’ll lead you to the Holy See. And he thought about it, and then he came back and said, go on.

  “So I told him, I couldn’t tell them where because I didn’t know. I just got picked up from a harbour and once I was in the Mediterranean I didn’t know where the boat went. But they could follow me and find out. And he seemed to buy it. I mean, I doubt he did. I didn’t believe he did at the time. But he pretended to. Guess he knew I meant to try and escape but wasn’t prepared to risk them failing to wring the information out to me in a more straightforward manner.

  “So he struck the deal. I’d be released, they’d tail me to the island – they already knew it was an island. That arranged, they put me out again. Clever. I came round on a road near Nice with my fake ID card back in my pocket and no idea where, or who, my tails were. Knew it wouldn’t just be tails, though. There’d be a tracker in me somewhere.

  “So I got on a train for Rome. By the time I’d walked around the city a little, I’d a reasonably good idea who most of the tails were. So I made sure to outdistance them long enough to drop a note through a certain door. It just said I was being followed by some inconvenient Internal Affairs agents.”

  He eyed me guiltily, but I just hugged him tighter.

  “Well, you know the sort of people who live in a certain house in Rome. I roamed the city for some time, and before long all my tails had mysteriously disappeared.” His eyes searched my face again. “I’m sorry. I was desperate. I had to be utterly sure they were all gone or I could never have come back here.”

  No doubt the EuroGov were still fishing their agents out of the Tiber. But I couldn’t feel angry with Bane. He’d kept his hands as clean as he could.

  “It’s okay. Go on.”

  “So, when I was sure I was clean, I dug into that skinned patch with a knife and fished around until I found the tracker. Which was fun.” He grimaced eloquently. “Knew they’d have hidden it there. And I checked everywhere else as well, just in case, but I couldn’t find a sore spot anywhere, so there wasn’t another one in me.

  “Then I changed every stitch I was wearing – yeah, I nicked the new stuff, but don’t get too excited, I know which shop, we can send them some money – ‘cause that was probably all stuffed with trackers too, and finally I borrowed a car and started driving south along the back roads. And then I snuck onto the ferry for Malta to avoid scanning my ID and finally caught a ride with the Gozo post man. And here I am.”

  I bit my lip. Easy to see why everyone thought a pretend bargain to lead the EuroGov here might accidentally have ended up as the real thing. But how? Bane had been really thorough in his precautions.

  “Did you avoid the satellite?”

  “You show me a satellite that could keep track of me in Rome once I’d got shot of those trackers. I went all over the city centre before getting the car from a multi-storey car park. So no way did they see me get in. There were cameras at the ferry terminals but I’d a hat pulled down low and I covered my face by pretending to sneeze or cough whenever I couldn’t avoid looking at one.”

  Missed one camera? Someone recognised him and reported him, and they’d figured out Malta by themselves? But he could’ve been going to any of the Greek Island Free States...

  “Margo, what’s wrong? You’re so pale... Please, don’t worry. I was really, really careful. There’s no way I’d have come back here if I wasn’t sure it was safe. I’d have gone to Africa first or something.”

  He was so certain. He’d tried so hard. How to tell him? My belly was fluttering icily. My distraction was at an end and the EuroGov were here...

  “Margo?” He held me at arm’s length to search my face. “What’s wrong ? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. I’m not a ghost, okay, if that’s what’s bothering you...” He smiled, teasing for a return smile, but my lips felt numb.

  I took his hand, drew him to his feet and led him to the window.

  “What do you see out there?”

  “Hell! Destroyer! What’s that doing there?”

  “What do you think? Look closer...”

  Bane’s breath caught – he stepped back suddenly, drawing me away from the window.

  “Hell. Hell. How did they find us?” A frown crossed his face – remembering the lack of breakfast... “Margo? You don’t think I’d actually...?” He looked horrified.

  I hugged him yet again.

  “No. I don’t think you made a real deal with them. But they are here. And apparently a lot of people reckon they managed to follow you.”

  “They can’t have done!” A hint of desperation in his certainty. “They can’t ! Come on, let’s go and see how we can get out...”

  “They’ve annexed the whole State of Malta,” I told him, as we hurried along the corridor.

  “Oh, damn. That’s unexpected.”

  “Yeah. And looks likely to scotch any attempt to flee.” My voice shook.

  He stopped suddenly and drew me close.

  “I promised once I’d do whatever it took to protect you from them – and that stands. Now more than ever.”

  “Bane,” I pulled back so I could look him firmly in the eye. “We’re all in the same boat, here. Why should I get it easy? Are you going to knife every person in the Citadel?”

  He looked away.

  “Anyway,” I added, “I can’t let you do it. Don’t think I was ever really going to. If we’ll be knocking at heaven’s door soon enough – well, I’m not taking any chance of them not letting you in.”

  Bane frowned, uncertainty about all that butting heads with certainty about the agony that awaited... both of us?

  “Oh Bane, I’m so sorry! I never meant... I never thought...” Never thought you’d have to endure this.

  “Margo, Margo...” He drew me close and rested his cheek on my hair. “I’ve made my own choices, haven’t I?”

  After a moment he towed me on down the passage.

  “Come on. There must be some way...”

  We looked into the debriefing room – no sign of Jon or Eduardo or Pope Cornelius. A few people gave Bane dirty looks; there were several uncharitable mutters of ‘fool’ and ‘idiot’ – horribly sure I heard someone hiss, ‘traitor!’ We hurried down to the basement to Eduardo’s office, pretending not to have heard, but Bane’s face gave the lie to that.

  Eduardo’s office was packed. The three people we were looking for, plus Pope Cornelius’s scaled-down council, the rest of the planning committee – i.e. Sister Krayj and Kyle – Sister Eunice and a number of other important people.

  They all fell silent when we entered, staring at Bane, expressions ranging from pity to anger. Bane waded through them to reach Eduardo.

  “It can’t have been me! How could it have been me?”

  Eduardo grimaced, though he seemed to be at the sympathetic end of the range.

  “I fear it was you, Bane. Though I haven’t the slightest doubt it was inadvertent. And I imagine you missed a tracker, that’s how.”

  “I changed every stitch, shoes, everything! I left everything !” He was waving his arms around; he really was upset.

  Eduardo’s eyes suddenly narrowed and he moved like a pouncing cat, catching Bane’s left hand.

  “Everything?” He tried to draw the wedding ring from Bane’s finger.

  “Leave that...” snapped Bane, then broke off – went white. “Oh God! Not everything. Not... I didn’t even think of leaving...”

  “Of leaving this.” Eduardo drew the ring from Bane’s suddenly unresisting finger and peered at it. “I reckon it’s in here. Reginald bloody Hill’s too well up on our customs.”

  “Well.” He dropped the ring back into Bane’s hand. “Not much point worrying about it now, the damage is done. If we actually come up with a plan to flee, we’ll have to sort that out first,
but you may as well keep it for now.”

  Bane stared at the ring, so precious, so horribly tainted. After a moment he slid it back onto his finger as though in a daze.

  “Oh, my God... what have I done?”

  He’d gone so dead white I actually guided him to a chair – he sank into it uncomplainingly.

  “Does anyone have any ideas at all ?” Pope Cornelius asked.

  There was a depressing silence. Then someone suggested sneaking out and taking over the tank, and someone else asked acidly how they planned to free the whole of Gozo with one tank, let along dispose of the warship...

  Bane was still whispering, “What have I done?” under his breath, over and over. I perched on the chair arm, slipped my arm around him and rubbed his back in comfort.

  “Bane, shss. It’s not your fault...”

  “It is... If I’d not been such an impatient fool. If I’d had the sense to take off to Africa instead of coming back here...”

  “You might not have made it, it’s a long way... and you still wouldn’t have taken off the ring, would you? You did your very best...”

  “No. If I’d not been such a bloody coward! I should’ve just lain there and taken it. Like you’d have done...”

  “Not if I’d had such a good idea!”

  “That’s all I had to do... lie there and take it. Now every person here’s going to die because I’m a stupid coward!”

  “You’re not!”

  He didn’t seem to hear me. The depth of his guilt was agonising. I suppose ‘I didn’t mean to’ is always poor consolation.

  “Should I get on my blog?” I interrupted another idea-less silence.

  Eduardo rolled his eyes slightly.

  “Well, it won’t do any harm. But if you can write us out of this one...” He snorted faintly and shook his head.

  “They haven’t kept this off the news, surely?”

  Eduardo pointed to a television in the corner. The sound was off, but it showed live footage of our besieged gate.

  Bane stared at the screen.

  “There’re camera crews out there...” he murmured, apparently to himself.

  “So what is the plan?” Sister Krayj sounded rather frustrated.