Jimmy Coates

by Joe Craig

  There was a flash of red. The boy attacking Jimmy was knocked to one side. Viggo, Jimmy realised as soon as he saw the trail of blood through the air lit up by the strobe. Jimmy gasped for breath, forced to watch the rest of the action as if every tiny movement took an eternity. Viggo was on his feet, his last remnant of strength pushing him forward, driving the boy away from Jimmy – towards the balcony railing.

  “No!” Jimmy called out as soon as he had enough breath in his lungs. Something inside him had seen what was going to happen. Perhaps if Viggo had been at full strength he would have had the control to stop, but Jimmy knew that wasn’t possible now. Not with the bullet wounds he’d received and the brute strength he’d used up saving Jimmy.

  Together, the two bodies slammed straight into the balcony railing like warring tanks butting a garden fence. The metal buckled. Viggo rose up, still clutching the mystery attacker. They tipped over, their heels flying upwards, right off the balcony.

  Jimmy rushed forward, reaching out, urging his fingertips to somehow stretch through the air and pull them back. But he was too far away. The strobe light picked them out in midair, freezing them in position as if they were suspended in ice. At the next flash they were halfway down the hall. Jimmy stared down. He was certain that Viggo was staring straight back up at him. Before he could react, it was dark again, and at the next flash the two bodies were sprawled alongside each other in the middle of the dance floor.

  “NO!” came a scream from below. Saffron streaked across the floor, still clutching her own injury. “NO! CHRIS!”

  Mixed with Saffron’s scream, Jimmy could hear those steps across the floor again, racing towards him. But he couldn’t move. Attack me, Jimmy thought. Whoever you are – Mitchell or Mitchell’s ghost. I won’t fight. Not now.

  Below, Saffron crouched over Viggo. Helen Coates went to the other body. Straight away, she pulled off the black mask. The light burst on again to show Jimmy the face.

  “Lenny!” he gasped. The memory of seeing Mitchell’s brother laid out on a slab at NJ7 was burned into his mind. Now this image would join it – Leonard Glenthorne turned into a killer by NJ7 experiments, lying dead nine floors below him, alongside the body of Christopher Viggo.

  It took several seconds before Jimmy realised the sound of the steps chasing him had stopped. He felt his skin prickle. The assassin in him wanted to run, all too aware that his greatest enemy was with him, barely a metre away. Jimmy turned, and saw confirmation of what he suspected.

  In a single strobe flash, Mitchell’s face was opposite his. He too was leaning over the balcony. He too had seen Lenny fall to his death. The two boys stared at each other, wide-eyed, both full of fear and confusion, neither of them knowing what the next step would be.

  Then the world went dark again and the moment was lost. Jimmy felt himself trembling. But no fist came flying out of the shadows. No kick landed in his stomach. And when the next flash of light burst on, Mitchell was gone.

  The only thing that jolted Jimmy out of his black confusion was the chop of a helicopter landing on the roof. The Head, Jimmy heard in his brain. The Capita guards – they’re escaping. His thoughts sounded distant, muffled by a horror that refused to sink in. He knew a part of him was considering going after the Head and the other Capita operatives, but what was the point now? Chris, Jimmy shouted to himself. He was our hope. He was the mission.

  He turned back to look over the balcony. Saffron and Helen were struggling to carry Viggo across the dance floor. But Jimmy knew the truth. He’d felt the man’s life slipping away in his arms. He’d seen all the fight left in Viggo’s heart evaporate. The man had confessed to Jimmy that he’d bought the Capita’s help with the promise of the H Code, that he’d tried to buy power, buy the election. That’s when he died, Jimmy thought, finally noticing that tears were stinging his eyes.

  He wiped his mouth and eyes with the back of his sleeve, then watched Saffron collapse to her knees. Helen tried dragging Viggo a few metres further, but then she too dropped to the floor. The sound of their sobs stabbed into Jimmy’s heart.

  “Leave him!” Jimmy yelled through his tears. A part of him didn’t want to stop looking, while the rest of him never wanted to see anything again. He closed his eyes, but he could only see Viggo’s face falling through the air. Jimmy pulled in a deep breath and let out a cry that rattled every plank of wood in the floor, every brick in the walls. But still the assassin in him wouldn’t stop. Get out, it told him. Mitchell is still here. Police sirens.

  Jimmy knew that Mitchell was no threat to him tonight. The assassin in him wouldn’t understand that. But Jimmy had seen something in Mitchell’s eyes in that split second. They contained the perfect picture of his own sorrow. It felt like everything Mitchell had lost, Jimmy had lost too. They were mirror images of each other, and tonight, Jimmy realised, neither of them wanted to lose any more.

  Then the police sirens connected with Jimmy’s consciousness. The noise of the helicopter was fading, replaced by the whine of the squad cars that would be surrounding the building within minutes. I have to go, Jimmy told himself, trying to gather his strength. We all have to get out of here.

  He flew down the stairs, barely touching the ground. He raced on to the dance floor, but Saffron and Helen still hadn’t moved. They were like statues.

  “We have to go!” Jimmy cried out. “Get everybody out!”

  “NO!” Saffron shouted, through her sobs. “Chris!”

  “Leave him!” Jimmy ordered. “Take that man!”

  Helen and Saffron looked up at him, startled. Jimmy thrust out his arm and pointed to the masked attacker – the one who had shot Saffron and Viggo. The one that Jimmy knew was Neil Muzbeke. He was still unconscious, but alive.

  “Get him out with you!” Jimmy ordered. “Whatever happens, keep that man alive. Get him to the car. Get everybody out through the tunnel and into the car!”

  Once he had made it down into the tunnel, Jimmy could hear Felix’s voice. It was the only thing that kept him moving forward. He carefully pulled Felix’s father with him, while Helen carried the man’s feet. Saffron had gone on ahead of them and had already reached the small bathroom, where Felix and Georgie were waiting.

  “What happened?” Jimmy heard Felix saying. He could also hear the clatter of the medicine cabinet – Saffron was looking for first-aid supplies. Jimmy didn’t listen for any more conversation. He just kept on heading through the tunnel, as if he could leave everything that had happened behind him in a nightmare, a different world, a different part of his brain. He focused on the image of Felix’s face when he would see his father again.

  “Hey, Jimmy!” Felix exclaimed, as soon as Jimmy emerged out of the tunnel. Saffron was sitting on the floor while Felix and Georgie crouched at her arm, surrounded by all kinds of bandages, plasters and lotions. Saffron was telling them how to strap up her injury; the tears on her face were obvious.

  “Did you get…” Felix started. He stopped when he saw the unconscious body that Jimmy and Helen were carefully lifting out of the tunnel, into the bath. “What happened?”

  Jimmy hid his reaction by marching straight across the bathroom and opening the door.

  “We’ve got to go,” he announced. The sirens outside were clearer now, and Jimmy welcomed them. They lent authority to what he’d said and pressed everybody into action. He’d have an extra few seconds before he would have to relive the night’s events. Perhaps if he never spoke about it, it wouldn’t be true. Perhaps any second, Christopher Viggo would emerge from the tunnel behind them and…

  “Jimmy!” whispered Georgie, breaking into his thoughts. “You coming?”

  Everybody else was through the door already and halfway up the corridor. Jimmy’s mother was carrying Neil Muzbeke over her shoulder, with a bit of help from Felix.

  “What happened to Chris?” Felix asked, awkwardly lifting his father’s feet.

  “I’m coming,” Jimmy said, forcing his way past them and out into the street.

/>   “Thanks for the food, Margaret!” Felix called out, closing the front door behind him. “Nice woman,” he added. “Good chilli.”

  LOCO was surrounded by police. The lights from the squad cars flashed, illuminating the pale faces of the crowd, who were all penned in by police tape along the pavement. Helen left Neil Muzbeke with Jimmy and slipped past the chaos to bring the Bentley round, while the others waited in the shadows.

  “What happened to Chris?” Felix asked again, sounding more and more desperate.

  “Not now,” said Jimmy. “Let’s get out of here first.”

  Within seconds they were all in the car, speeding across London. Helen drove, with Saffron in the passenger seat. In the back, there was just enough room for Jimmy, Georgie, Felix, and the unconscious masked man propped up by the door.

  “Seriously,” Felix said, squirming awkwardly in the squash. “Will you tell me where Chris is now? And who is this? I mean, it would make things a lot more comfortable if we could just, like, push him out.”

  Felix tried to make more room for himself, squeezing against Georgie, who ended up so squashed against Jimmy that his face was mashed against the window.

  “Sit still,” Helen insisted from behind the wheel. She twisted the Bentley through the streets. In the passenger seat, Saffron kept her face turned to the window.

  “Take off his balaclava,” said Jimmy, struggling to say anything coherently with the car window in his mouth and the door handle in his ribs.

  “Really?” asked Felix.

  Jimmy pushed his sister back across the seat to give himself more space. “Really,” he said. He searched inside himself for the happiness that he knew was there somewhere. After a few seconds, he could feel it welling up in his throat, but it mixed with his despair and left a strange taste on his tongue. Jimmy took a deep breath, calming himself. This was one moment he’d longed for, but he’d never dared picture it clearly. And now it was happening there was no room for delight. Too much had gone wrong. Too much had been lost.

  Felix gingerly hooked his fingers under the bottom edges of the man’s balaclava and started to peel it off. In less than a second he let out a gasp. The atmosphere in the car seemed to change, lit up by some kind of electric spark. Felix had only revealed the man’s chin, but that was enough.

  “Dad!” he shouted, ripping off the rest of the balaclava. “Dad!” He wrapped his arms round his father, knocking him sideways. At the same time, Georgie let out a shocked laugh that pierced Jimmy’s eardrums.

  “What?!” Helen Coates looked round, astonished. Saffron did the same, wiping tears from her eyes. In a second, the Bentley screeched to a halt at the side of the road.

  “It’s Neil!” Helen shouted. “Did you knock him out?” she asked Jimmy. “Bring him round!”

  Jimmy responded like he was on autopilot. He found himself reaching down, past his sister and Felix, to Neil Muzbeke’s ankles. He was trying to feel some of the enjoyment of the moment, but all his sensations seemed dulled. He let his hands guide him, not knowing what he was feeling for, but confident that his body had the answer.

  “What’s happening?!” Felix’s father gasped, pulling in a lungful of air. He sat bolt upright, his eyes wide, his face a picture of confusion. Then he saw his son. “Felix!” He squeezed the boy so hard Jimmy thought his friend might pop. “Where… what…?”

  “It’s OK,” Jimmy said. “Relax. Tell me everything you remember.”

  It took most of the night to work out all of the details. Jimmy’s mother found an all-night café and hid the Bentley nearby. Jimmy was grateful to feel the hot food sliding into his belly and the tea soothing his parched throat. He was also relieved that his mother and Neil Muzbeke were doing most of the talking. He explained what he knew about the H Code, which was very little, and blurted out a question now and then when he couldn’t force his programming to stop, but for the rest of the time he just listened, letting the information take shape in his head.

  “Do you think it was Dr Higgins?” Felix asked, when they heard Neil say he remembered the face of an old man.

  “Definitely,” said Jimmy. “Last we heard he was in America, and from this it sounds like the US Government has got him working for them.”

  “And the green light?” Neil asked, his deep voice as soothing to Jimmy’s soul as it ever was. “What do you think that was?”

  “A laser,” Jimmy replied, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. He didn’t say anything more. The image of Lenny Glenthorne lying on a slab at NJ7 loomed at him in his head. Jimmy had seen the green laser. Then the image changed, and Jimmy saw Lenny’s face staring up at him from the floor of LOCO, totally white in the flash of the strobe light, beside the body of Christopher Viggo. It was a sight he would never forget.

  Felix and his dad talked rapidly for a long time. Felix asked again and again about his mum, but Neil couldn’t remember much that had happened since he’d been taken by the CIA in New York. Soon Neil was desperate to hear about everything Felix had been doing, and Felix was excellent at telling him. The exploding plane played a particularly large role.

  When the second round of tea arrived at the table, the moment came that Jimmy had started to hope would never come.

  “What about Chris?” Neil asked.

  “Yeah,” Felix chipped in. “Where is he?”

  “After he lost the election…” Neil went on, “where did he go? You told me these people, the Capita, took him, but was he at the rendezvous like you thought he would be? Where is he now?”

  Jimmy looked to his mother, who was staring at the plastic tabletop. She reached out and placed a hand on Saffron’s good arm. She too was just staring downwards.

  “There’s something we have to tell you…” Helen Coates began. Jimmy let his mother’s voice surround him. Hearing the news from her mouth made it that little bit more real for Jimmy. He saw Saffron crying, and his mother too, and that made it more painful, but at least pain was something he could deal with.

  When it came to the part about how Viggo died, Helen simply said that he’d been pushed off the balcony by an NJ7 assassin. Jimmy didn’t add anything. He told himself it was true – which it was, even if it was only half the truth. He didn’t know whether he would ever be able to tell Felix about the bullet from Neil Muzbeke’s rifle that had played its part in ending Viggo’s life. Saffron instinctively checked the bandaging on her arm. She had also been shot by Neil and was lucky that the bullet had only grazed her shoulder. But it looked like she too was preparing to live with the secret.

  Jimmy distantly heard his mother go on, explaining what they had done to try to save Viggo. He couldn’t stop the torrent of his thoughts: I hesitated. I chose to save Saffron. Maybe if I’d gone after the shooter… He watched the faces of everybody else, especially Felix. How could Jimmy explain that his actions had cost Viggo’s life and turned Felix’s father into a killer?

  Felix wiped his eyes and that moment, Jimmy found it easy to cry himself, as if his body had been waiting for a cue.

  Eva was already sitting up in her hospital bed at sunrise. A laptop was open on her knees and that morning’s copy of The Times was on her bedside table, folded over to the Sudoku puzzle. She was typing frantically, frustrated that she could only use one hand. Her left arm was strapped up in a sling.

  “Are you ready for your visitor, Miss Doren?” asked a nurse, popping her head round the door.

  “Of course she is,” said Miss Bennett, charging in before Eva had time to answer. “This girl means the world to me, and look at what she’s sacrificed for her country.”

  The nurse nodded sheepishly and left, while Miss Bennett strode over to the window and closed the blinds.

  “Did they look after you OK, Eva?” she asked. “They told me you were lucky – the knife went through the muscle, but nowhere near the artery. Did they tell you that as well?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Apparently you’ll be fit to come back to work this afternoon, but I’m happy for you to take
some time off, if you’d like it. You’d have to stay here, of course, but…”

  “No, no,” Eva insisted. “That’s OK. I feel fine.”

  Miss Bennett smiled, and for the first time Eva thought she saw some genuine warmth in it. It was Miss Bennett who had personally seen to it that Eva received the finest medical treatment, rushed to a private room at St Thomas’ hospital. Don’t get comfortable, Eva told herself. She’s a snake. She’d kill you just as quickly if she thought she had to…

  “Did they find Olivia Muzbeke?” Eva asked.

  “I’m afraid not,” said Miss Bennett, hesitantly. “Our security resources were… insufficient at the time.”

  “Will we try to…?” Eva didn’t know how to ask the question on her mind, but Miss Bennett seemed to know what to say.

  “There’s no point sending anybody after her, Eva. I’m sorry. You see, in herself she wasn’t a threat. It was only the power of the brainwashing… We have higher security priorities. But I don’t want you to worry about her. She only stabbed you in panic, in her desperation to escape. She has no reason to come after you again. You understand that, don’t you? Promise me you won’t worry about her.”

  “I promise,” replied Eva quickly.

  “That’s good,” Miss Bennett said brightly. “You might find yourself with some kind of medal for this, Eva. I don’t know which one… but don’t worry. I’ll invent one. I don’t know… the Secretarial Services Medal for Bravery in an Office Environment… how’s that? Or something like that…”

  Eva forced herself to laugh.

  “But don’t get carried away,” Miss Bennett added. “Plenty more work to be done now. I’ll need you to go through Dr Higgins’ old papers.”

  A chill struck Eva like a thunder bolt up her spine. Was this a trick? Did Miss Bennett know that Eva had already been searching through Dr Higgins’ old papers, unauthorised, searching for something that would help Jimmy?