Mind Blind

by Lari Don

  It wasn’t a strong kick. I landed on my feet. But it moved me far enough out of the way for him to leap up.

  We were both on our feet again. I’d blown the best chance I was likely to have.

  He laughed. “Good boy. Don’t make it too easy.”

  I didn’t answer. No breath. Nothing to say.

  Lucy Shaw, 31st October

  I heard them thumping and gasping, and I was sitting up with my mask off and the urn in my arms before I remembered what was going on.

  Bain and Daniel were still fighting.

  Bain wasn’t dead yet. I wasn’t dead yet. That was good news.

  But there wasn’t any other good news. Mostly I could see Bain backing away from Daniel.

  I watched them kicking, jumping, punching and spinning, and I reckoned that half of Daniel’s shots were smacking against Bain, and only one in five of Bain’s were getting near Daniel.

  They were slowing, their dancing circles getting looser. I could hear Bain’s creaking breaths and Daniel’s low laughs.

  I tried to get up. I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t want to go near Daniel again. Maybe I would run away, maybe I would even chuck the ashes in the river, so I didn’t have to carry the urn.

  But I couldn’t get up. My legs were too shaky and my left ankle was flaring up with pain.

  I heard Daniel’s voice. “Hello Lucy. Are you back with us?” And he turned to face me…

  CHAPTER 34

  Ciaran Bain, 31st October

  I sensed Lucy wake up. I hoped Daniel was enjoying himself too much to care about her. But he guessed tormenting her would weaken me, so he started to chat to her, from behind that screaming mask.

  “How disappointing for you, Lucy. I can sense your lack of confidence in this pathetic idiot. He’s not going to save you. He can’t even save himself.

  “She knows you can’t win, Bain. She’s expecting to watch you die, then watch me walk towards her. What will I do then, Lucy? You’ll find out soon, but Bain won’t be alive to know, so I’ll tell you both.”

  I found a tiny bit of energy and flung a spinning kick at his belly, but he stepped back so it missed by a hair and kept chatting to Lucy, as if my attacks weren’t worth noticing.

  “I will look in your eyes, and enjoy your fear and pain as I twist and dislocate every joint in your body. Starting with your fingers and wrists, then your toes, ankles and knees. I might leave your neck until after my dad has questioned you. Then I’ll watch you die, just like I watched your big sister die. But first Bain…”

  He smashed both hands together in a crashing blow that was meant to crack my temples. I fell back from it and made a weak attempt to kick his knee. I missed. Again.

  Lucy Shaw, 31st October

  I couldn’t just lie here waiting for that animal to savage me.

  I tried to stand, but my left ankle was in agony, so I slid back down. I tried to think, past the bruises on my body and the growing terror in my head, what I could do to save myself. As I shifted position to take the weight off my ankle, I felt something in my pocket under the ripped cloak.

  Phones. I had two phones in my pocket. Mine, with Roy’s number in it. And Borthwick’s, with lots of MI5 numbers on it.

  Ciaran Bain, 31st October

  I knew Lucy was coming up with a plan. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to save both of us, or just herself, but I was beyond caring.

  Daniel knew she was up to something too. “Don’t even think about it, girl!” He took a step towards her.

  But now I had a short-term plan of my own. Keep Daniel away from Lucy, while she tried to spoil his victory.

  I used the last of my energy to stay between him and her. He landed even more punches, on ribs that were already cracked, but he didn’t get past me.

  Lucy Shaw, 31st October

  Bain was almost on top of me, and he didn’t look like he had much fight left in him. But he gave a yell of defiance, and drove Daniel back in a blur of punches and kicks.

  As they circled in the centre of the bridge, I tried to stand again. My right leg was working now, but I still couldn’t put any weight on my left ankle.

  If I couldn’t run, the phones were my only chance.

  I could call Roy. He was as big as Daniel and could probably pull his cousin off Bain. But would he come alone or with the rest of the family? That was a huge risk to take. For me, and for Bain too.

  I could call MI5. Text my location to every number in this phone’s contacts. Then the spooks would drive up and save me. But would they save Bain? Would it be a kind of safety he’d accept? Probably not.

  Neither of these were perfect solutions. So, I could just stay here, watch Daniel kill Bain in front of me, then watch Daniel walk towards me.

  No, I wasn’t going to let it end like that. I had to make a decision.

  I had always planned to discover what Ciaran Bain had done to my sister and why, then call for someone to help me and to punish him. So this was always how it was going to end.

  I picked up the silver phone I’d stolen from Bain in the statue, after he’d stolen it from the man he murdered.

  And I switched it on.

  Ciaran Bain, 31st October

  I saw her holding a phone. Not the cheap one she’d put Roy’s number in. It was the spook’s phone that I thought I’d dropped on the run through the park. Lucy must have lifted it from me when I was unconscious, and kept it as insurance against me betraying her or failing her. Fair enough.

  But this was too soon. I didn’t want MI5 to know where we’d been and what we’d done until we were well away. If she brought them here now, they could get the flash drive, and could even grab me, grab Daniel, trace our family through us…

  But if she left it much longer, Daniel would already have beaten me and be tearing her apart.

  I wondered if I could still salvage something from this.

  “Lucy, empty the urn!” I yelled. Daniel jabbed at my face but I swung out of the way. “The urn, Lucy. Look up…” but before I could explain, Daniel jabbed again, his stiff fingers caught me in the throat and destroyed the rest of the sentence.

  I pointed up at the cameras, but Lucy ignored me, and I couldn’t get any more words out until I could breathe again.

  Lucy Shaw, 31st October

  He was waving at lampposts and demanding that I tip the urn into the water.

  But the flash drive was too powerful and too useful to destroy.

  So I whispered, “No, Bain, not my nana’s ashes.” But really I meant, No Bain, not the flash drive that will save my life. Not even if it would save him.

  And I pressed ‘send’:

  Lomond’s family at Leith docks now

  Ciaran Bain, 31st October

  She did something decisive with the phone.

  So it was too late. It had probably been too late the minute she switched Borthwick’s phone on.

  I gasped, “Daniel, MI5 might be here any minute. We have to get out of here…”

  “Spooks? Really? They won’t get here first…” I knew what he meant. Suddenly I could sense it too.

  My family had detected the fight. They had sensed our anger and aggression, my fear and pain.

  My family were heading this way.

  Now I was getting more witnesses than I could handle. And I was trapped here. From the waves of pain every time she tried to stand, I knew Lucy was trapped here too.

  Then I sensed Lucy’s spike of hope.

  She believed her cavalry was on the way.

  Lucy Shaw, 31st October

  I opened the text which had just arrived on Borthwick’s phone:

  Are you Lomond descendant? We can keep recent deaths out of court if you come and work with us

  I choked back a few rude words. How dare they offer to cover up my sister’s death? But I hoped MI5 would protect me if I was still alive when they got here. I didn’t answer the text, because I thought a mystery would get them here faster.

  Bain looked almost as wobbly on his fee
t as I was, and Daniel was now managing to land almost every kick and punch.

  But I managed to stand up, at last, holding onto the bridge with one hand and the urn with the other.

  Ciaran Bain, 31st October

  If I was right about who Lucy had summoned, then my slowly approaching family were in danger.

  I could sense the family getting closer, creeping up in the shadows on the east side of the bridge. Mum’s growing panic, Malcolm’s proud satisfaction, Roy’s depressed certainty of loss and the rest of the family’s nervousness. None of them could risk coming too close.

  Then Daniel’s heel hit hard and sudden, against my hip. I fell backwards, but managed to stay upright.

  Now I could sense the spooks too, approaching cautiously from the west, still at a distance.

  “Daniel, we need to leave. MI5 are on their way, and if they grab either of us or any of the family watching us right now, then they won’t need the codenames.”

  Daniel laughed. “I don’t care about the spooks or the Shaw report. This is the best chance I’ve ever had to get rid of you. Dad’s not going to stop me this time.”

  He was right. I could sense caution from both sides of the bridge. No one was going to move into clear sight. No one was going to step in and save me. Not even Lucy, who was finally on her feet again behind me.

  I tried a kick to Daniel’s thigh, but I couldn’t raise my own leg high enough. I wasn’t going to be able to stay on my feet much longer, let alone fight.

  Daniel took the risk I couldn’t take, because he was still strong and I was weak. He spun round, leapt up and kicked high, hitting me on the shoulder. I didn’t react fast enough to grab at his leg. I didn’t have the balance or strength to resist the power of the kick. I flew backwards and landed on the ground.

  And he jumped on me, pinning me down.

  I was on the ground. I couldn’t get up. I had lost the fight. But Daniel wasn’t finished.

  He leant down and stared through the tiny eyeholes in his mask, looking into my eyes.

  He knelt on my right hand so I couldn’t move it, then he pulled the glove off my left hand, flung it in the water and wrapped his fingers round my wrist.

  “Let’s do this man to man, mind to mind. I want to enjoy this.”

  He thought about what he was going to do. How he would strangle me. And how, before he choked me to death, he would break my nose, break my teeth and crush my chest.

  I tried to be brave and defiant, but that’s pointless when your enemy can read how hard you’re trying to be brave and defiant.

  I tried to block my thoughts. I dragged a dark fabric of privacy up behind my eyes, around my mind. But I was in too much pain to create a strong screen and the fabric ripped under Daniel’s sharp eyes.

  It’s easier to control your words than your thoughts, so I started talking. “You’ve never killed before, have you?”

  “Not yet. You’ll be my first. What a privilege. I’ll always remember you, Bain. Sniffling and struggling and begging.”

  “I’ve not begged yet.”

  “You will.”

  He punched my chest. When he had hit me while I was standing, there was air behind me to fall into, to absorb some of the blow. But now I was lying on the bridge, my body took the full force. The pain was so overpowering, I was sure his fist had gone right through my ribcage.

  I sensed his pleasure and knew his thoughts. Hit again in the same place or hit my face next?

  I sensed Lucy, determined to move, to escape, despite the pain in her injured leg.

  I sensed the spooks, still slightly confused, wondering if they had found the wrong kids, because a fight probably wasn’t what they’d expected.

  I sensed Malcolm, calm and analytical, looking for an advantage from this situation. He could sense MI5 too, that’s why the family were staying in the shadows.

  I sensed my mum’s panic and desperation, her frantic attempts to fight free of the uncles holding her back. I sensed Paul and Hugh’s determination to keep her quiet and out of sight.

  I sensed Roy, frustrated and angry and already mourning me, and the circle of cousins stopping him running over to help me.

  And I sensed my own death. Right above me.

  “If you’ve never killed, how do you know you’ll like it?”

  “You don’t like it, do you? You cry. You suck your thumb. You wet the bed. You run to Mummy. The family doesn’t have room for weaklings like you.”

  He punched again. Same place, same thunderous crash, same unbelievable pain.

  I sensed the spooks edging closer, clarifying their options, perhaps planning to surround the docks and arrest everyone, then work out what was going on later.

  Malcolm sensed it too. He made decisions, gave orders, and some of the family moved away.

  No one was paying any attention to us. No one was going to notice my death.

  Daniel aimed his fist at me again.

  Lucy Shaw, 31st October

  I was steady on my feet now, so if I held onto the railing, I could probably hobble away. But Bain couldn’t get away. He was trapped under Daniel, who was landing hammerblow punches on his chest.

  It was clear from Bain’s attempts to talk Daniel out of killing him that their family, and probably MI5 too, were close by. Why weren’t his family stopping Daniel?

  Even if they didn’t care about Bain as a son, a cousin or a nephew, surely the family realised that he was far better at mindreading than them. That he had skills and talents they didn’t. That he was way beyond fairground freakery. Surely they must realise his value, his abilities, his power?

  But perhaps they didn’t know. Perhaps Bain hadn’t quite realised himself.

  Perhaps that could save him.

  “Use Viv!” I yelled. “Take him to Viv. Use Viv as a weapon!”

  Ciaran Bain, 31st October

  Use Viv as a weapon? What did she mean? I didn’t have the strength to wield a weapon.

  Daniel was staring into my eyes, he had his hand round my wrist, and we were reading each other more closely than we ever had.

  I knew he planned to take as much time as the spooks and Malcolm would give him, to cause me as much pain as possible. And he would relish every jolt of agony, every pang of despair, every shiver of fear.

  I really was crap, and I was dying in such a crap way…

  “Hey Bain, this is how it feels to die. Are you enjoying it?”

  “You have no idea what it’s like to die.”

  Then I realised what Lucy meant. How I could use Vivien as a weapon.

  All I had left was how crap I was, how weak I was, how sensitive I was.

  I whispered to Daniel, “If you want to feel death, if you want to be a murderer, this is what it’s really like…”

  I dived deep into Vivien’s death and felt her panic. I kicked Borthwick again and felt his sudden stop.

  As I thought about their deaths, Daniel laughed, because he really didn’t care. He was pleased they were dead.

  Then I thought about how I felt when they died. I embraced my guilt and my regret and my horror, and I stretched out to feel the absolute freezing black nothingness of death. I found Vivien’s terror, still there like a scar in my head, and Borthwick’s surprise.

  Then before they overwhelmed me, I took the blackness of their deaths and the wretchedness of my feelings, my pathetic weakness, my shakes and sweats and screams and moans, and I forced them out. Out of my mind, along my arm, into my wrist, through my skin, into Daniel’s grasping hand, and into his mind.

  He screamed…

  CHAPTER 35

  Lucy Shaw, 31st October

  I heard a scream. I wondered if I’d heard Bain die.

  Then Daniel toppled over. Bain crawled out from under his cousin, stood up and lurched towards me.

  “Lucy, I can’t argue or explain…” He coughed. “We don’t have time. Give me the urn.”

  I clutched the urn to my chest. “But the flash drive is my only chance to be safe!”<
br />
  He held out his hands. “Trust me. Please.”

  And I did trust him. I gave him the urn.

  I watched as he scrambled onto a low girder, untwisted the lid and shouted loud enough to be heard in the shadows by everyone watching and waiting. “The only copy of Dr Ivy Shaw’s page of codenames is on a flash drive in this urn. Once it’s gone, there will be no link between Lomond and anyone alive today.”

  He held the urn high above his head, he tipped it up and, in the lights of the docks, a stream of black curved down to the smooth surface of the river. A line of silver, like a fish, dived out of the mouth of the urn, through the darkness, and dropped with a tiny splash into the water.

  The flash drive was gone.

  Bain jumped back down, groaning as he hit the boards of the bridge.

  I heard a muted cheer from the family. Or it might just have been Roy.

  Bain stood beside me, bent over with pain, and mumbled, “Get out of here, Lucy, quickly.”

  “But won’t your family come after me? Now that I can identify you and Daniel, and all the rest?”

  He straightened up. “No, it would be too risky to come after you again. Now MI5 know for sure Lomond’s family exists and that we have attacked your family, the spooks will keep a very close eye on you all.”

  I shook my head. “But you got past the spooks before. The mindblind are no match for mindreaders, are they? I thought you were going to use the flash drive to bargain for my life, but you just threw it away. Now you’re throwing me away too.”

  Bain pushed his mask up onto his forehead. I could see his face dimly, but it was hidden from the cameras high above. “Lucy, just go, now. You will be safe, I promise.”