by Andy McNab
I checked my watch. That had taken just over ten minutes. I needed to be inside that basement in twenty. Warren had delicate work to do. Crack a tile and we were fucked.
‘Okay, listen in,’ I shouted, through the mask, so there were no mistakes. ‘Warren’s in first with his kit. While he’s doing that, we get all this gear into the void. Phase three, let’s crack on, let’s go.’
Warren nodded, but not as enthusiastically as Gemma did, while Tony folded the dust-laden tarpaulins.
Warren switched on his head-torch before crawling through the bore-hole as I grabbed his bags. Not so much a crawl, more a reach through and over the 300-millimetre cut, then a collapse onto the ground the other side.
The moment he was in the void, I passed through his disc cutter. Next went a battery-powered LED floodlight.
I looked across at Tony and Gemma to give them muffled instructions through the mask. ‘You two jump into the void and we’ll pass the kit.’ I needed to keep things moving and, besides, there would be less dust in there to attack Tony’s lungs. He wasn’t looking too good, and we still had a long way to go.
As they pushed through to the other side, Charlotte finished folding the dust-filled tarpaulins, throwing in the empty L&P bottles, and scooping as much dust off the ground as she could. She then passed them through the cut for the other two to stack out of Warren’s way.
We were all going for it – and at speed, working as a team. It felt good. All now depended on Warren getting a grip and doing his stuff.
The core drill and rig were the last to be passed through. As they disappeared into the void, there was a high-pitched growl from one of the disc cutters as Warren gave it a quick test. I could soon hear the difference in pitch our side of the bung as the disc cutter went in – not into a block, but into the mortar. One by one, the blocks would soon be taken out.
I checked the time. Fifteen minutes until Casper would expect the holoport to be set up. That was if the car hadn’t been run into a ditch and the pair of them were slumped in their seats, with heads full of holes.
The Samsung vibrated again. I checked, and it wasn’t Casper or the Js.
Charlotte stared at me through dust-covered goggles, wiping them to make sure I knew she was looking at me.
I took the call and jammed the mobile to my ear.
‘That you, James?’
57
Parmesh was as calm and upbeat as ever. ‘How are you doing there, James? How is it going?’
I pulled down my mask. ‘Good. Skye with you?’
‘They are on their way.’
‘Okay, we’re at the basement wall. We’ll get through as quickly as we can and call when we’re in.’
Charlotte peered at me through her dust-covered goggles, anxious to know who was on the other end.
‘James. Mr Egbers had to kill a man to break Skye free. He is fighting his way here, bringing her for you.’
Casper fighting to protect his wife? It would have been brutal.
Parmesh took the pause as shock. ‘It is sad, James. I have to take responsibility.’
Charlotte could see little of my face but she knew something was wrong.
‘It is tragic. But please do not let it distract you. Just please get into Sanctuary. Do not worry about leaving any evidence now. You need to hurry. I do not know how long we have left before Castro’s men will come. They now know Mr Egbers is involved, and they know where to find him. It is just a matter of time. As soon as Skye arrives, we need to get her on the holoport. Time, James – we are running short of it at this end.’
I felt strangely calm as he talked. Maybe it was his own tranquillity. Maybe it was coming from inside me.
‘We’ll be ready.’
‘James, no matter what happens to us here, you must get the ledger. When you do, you will understand. And that is why Charlotte and you must continue the crusade if I do not make it. The ledger will give you the power to do so, you will see.’
‘Charlotte? Me? We’re just—’
‘No, you are more than “just”. You are family. You are my family. Charlotte is my sister.’
I turned away from her. I didn’t want her to see my eyes. ‘Say that again?’
Charlotte moved so that she could look at me face-on once more.
‘I have been searching for her from the moment my parents died. I remember her – but my parents had told me she was dead. They did not want to give me any anguish – but I always knew she was alive, out there somewhere. And I have always been searching for her. Sri Lanka, Europe, the US, everywhere, trying to find her. So when Mr Egbers discovered more about you, he naturally looked into Charlotte’s history. Where she came from was right, the age was right, so we did what we normally do with possibles: we checked her DNA, like he had done dozens of times, and finally after all these years I have found her.’
And now the pause from me was genuine. It was shock.
‘You are both important, James. You two are family. You are the only ones I want to carry forwards with the ledger.’
I was still on pause. I kept my eyes on Charlotte and she stared back at me, shoulders shrugging, hands held out to her sides. Who is it?
‘Do you know the original name?’
‘Yes. Shoba. Now we have two in the family.’
I looked at her. I knew more about her life now than she did. But there was still something that I could never understand.
‘Why me? Why me for the job?’
He laughed, which seemed strange, considering the circumstances, but then again, this was Parmesh.
‘James, family are people I can trust. I needed someone who would not take advantage once they had the ledger. Read, copy, even steal it for themselves. I can trust you, am I right?’
‘Totally.’
‘James, you must look after my family at all costs and carry on the crusade with Charlotte.’ He almost begged. ‘Promise me, James, promise me. You will continue to build.’
There was no doubt about it. ‘Yes.’
I could hear his relief. ‘Thank you. Now, please, get into Sanctuary as fast as you can.’
His Samsung cut and Charlotte was in my face straight away.
‘What’s happened? Who was it?’
‘Parmesh. Casper has killed someone to escape with Skye.’
She held her gloves to her dust-mask. I could see the shock in her eyes.
‘They’re heading to Parmesh now, to the holoport. We need to smash into the basement. Don’t worry about the mess, we’ve just got to get in now. We can’t waste any time – Castro’s people could be kicking in Parmesh’s door any minute now.’
‘People killed. Oh, my God!’ She turned away, heading towards the bung. The others would have to know. ‘No. Wait. Something else.’ She turned back to me. ‘Just say we have to move quickly. No reason. Just tell Warren to go for it. See you in there.’
She turned for the bung and I messaged the Js. You still got one up there?
Yes. All clear. I’ll let you know if not.
Just keep one up at all times.
As I bent down and put my head through the hole, the cutter’s buzz stopped. Charlotte was telling Warren to just go for it. By the time I put my hands through to balance myself and push into the void, Warren was already on to me. ‘What’s happening? Why the change? What’s wrong?’
I got myself onto my knees. ‘All’s good, mate. They just don’t care about the mess any more. We now just crash in and get out. They want to do it faster, which is good for us, yeah?’
‘Are the police coming? It’s all going wrong, isn’t it?’
He rubbed his spare hand up and down his legs as his nerves were getting shredded. ‘It’s all fucked up, isn’t it?’
The floodlight shone up from the floor at 45 degrees, and fought Warren’s head-torch. It threw dozens of shadows in this small void, which probably wasn’t helping Warren and his mindset.
‘Oh, no! Oh, God!’ He pulled off his goggles and his mask and threw them ag
ainst the block-wall. He fought for air, hyperventilating.
‘Warren, the quicker we get this done, mate, the quicker we can get out. It’s okay. You just need to get on – and now.’
He turned and screamed at the top of his voice. ‘You said it would work! You said!’ He had to stop. He couldn’t gulp air and shout. His face had what looked like rivers of tears running down the dust on his cheeks. ‘I’m getting out. I’ve got to go. I’ve got to get out.’
He made for the hole, but I blocked him, arms up to embrace him, rather than restrain him. ‘It’s okay. Deep breaths, mate, deep breaths. Not long now. Look, I’ll cut, you just sit, relax. Not long now, okay?’
Tony stepped forward and threw an arm round him. ‘It’s okay, boy. Come and have a seat with me, I’ve still got some fizzy lemon. Lovely stuff. Come on. Let’s have a rest while James cracks on.’
Warren broke down and cried, but Tony embraced and coaxed him into the corner of the void where the tarpaulins were stacked. They sat down on them with a loud rustle of plastic.
Tony carried on soothing. ‘Here you go, boy. It’s all good.’
There was a carbonated hiss as he unscrewed the top of another bottle of L&P.
Goggled and masked, I picked up the disc cutter and got it up to full speed. I continued to cut where Warren had started, following the mortar between the first two blocks, and then pushed it on one of the sides with my boot so it would pivot out and I could pull. With luck, the rest of them would come out a lot quicker.
I didn’t have to think about what I was doing: I was on auto-pilot. The only thing on my mind was Charlotte and, well, shit. I had nearly cocked up: I had nearly told her. But this was the wrong time. Right now, I needed all her focus on the job. I needed to pick a time when she could process it and, also, the right time for Parmesh – if he survived.
I cut through more bonding to loosen the next couple of blocks, then kicked them with my boot. They pushed through and I could clearly see the stud-wall the other side of a 200-millimetre gap. I pushed my arms through the hole and banged against the wall. There was nothing solid behind.
I fired up the disc cutter again and cut into the bonding on the third block as Tony almost cuddled Warren while dispensing words of comfort and swigs of L&P.
Sweat was starting to soak my clothing, a combination of the physical work and the sheer enormity of what was happening, both here and seven thousand miles away in Atherton.
58
My aim was to take out four blocks but in my frenzy I cut out five. The sixth fell out of its mortar of its own accord.
I rammed in and the disc cutter’s tone pitched up and down as it hit first the stud-wall, then the ceramic tiling.
Having achieved one horizontal cut and one vertical to make an upside-down L, I tried to kick it out to speed things up, but it held.
I thrust the cutter in again and sliced another vertical to make a three-sided square. My hands were getting pins and needles as I gripped the cutter and the disc vibrated, biting into the tiles.
This time I lay on my back, right up against the block-wall, and slammed the soles of my boots into the stud.
As I kicked, I got everybody ready for the next phase. ‘Get the holoport!’
My boots whacked lumps off the stud-wall to reveal the darkness of the room on the other side.
‘Gemma, I need Warren’s torch.’
Moments later the black hole was big enough to pass through, and as soon as Gemma handed me the torch I threw off the goggles and the mask. I didn’t bother putting the torch on my head, just held it as I crawled through the jagged gap and used the beam to scan for a light switch. It was on the opposite wall, set to the left of a steel door.
The torch beam jerked around the darkness as I ran. I hit the switch and instantly the room was lit from office-like frosted panels above. It revealed a very plain room, grey-tiled on all four sides, maybe ten by five metres, a big space. It was empty. Nothing. Just the tiles on the wall and the polished greyness of the concrete floor.
I checked my Samsung. Three bars now. I put it on full ring volume: I didn’t want to miss anything coming from Atherton or the Js.
The steel door had two turnkeys, one a third up, the second a third down. I worked them and opened it into darkness the other side. There was enough light to see a wooden staircase leading up to the ground floor, solid concrete either side of it.
Gemma’s head appeared out of the hole in the wall. ‘Stand by.’
She pushed the tripods through first, then the small aluminium boxes that protected the cameras, associated leads and transformers. I positioned them in the centre of the room. What was it that Skye would see here on these grey-tiled walls that we couldn’t? What more had she found out?
Gemma pulled herself through into the room and stayed on her knees as she swivelled and leant almost back into the hole. ‘Mate, come on, it’ll be okay.’
She helped Warren through while I set about rigging up the tripods. I was sweating from all the bursts of energy it had taken to get me into the room, and powered by adrenalin. All that mattered was getting the holoport up and working.
‘Tony, I need you in here. We have to get the cameras up quick.’
Gemma had sat Warren in the corner to the right of the hole and was squatting in front of him, calming him down.
‘Mate, there’s no drama. Soon be over and you’ll be loaded – just think about that, yeah? You want a drink?’
Tony was next through, and looked about the space as he got himself back onto his feet. ‘Where does she want this rigged?’
‘Haven’t a clue. Let’s just do the whole room. Each corner, get the cameras covering the whole area.’
We set up the cameras on the tripods and got them at the right angle and height. I left Tony to get the leads into the power points.
I called Parmesh.
He was calm, but urgent. ‘She is here – Skye is here. Be quick, James. Please. We have not got long.’
In the background, I could hear Casper and Jon shouting to each other.
‘Clear.’
‘Move it, move it! Check the gardens!’
Hard, sharp tones, far from Parmesh’s level of composure.
Then Parmesh came back. ‘Castro’s people are here, James. There are cars outside the house. They are waiting for their back-up. We must win the race. So, please, be quick.’
Skye filled the airwaves. ‘Oh, my God – Mr Mani?’
I cut through that. ‘Not long now. Nearly there. You ready your end?’
‘Yes – we have the lenses on, James. We are ready.’
‘Okay, wait. Any minute now.’ I closed down the phone, and connected the two holoports via the Samsung.
‘Okay, everybody listen in, against the wall! We need to keep the space clear for the holoport. We are now connected with Atherton. I’ll be the only one able to see them in the centre space – you must keep it clear – but you’re going to hear them over the speakers. Okay, stand by, everyone, no noise.’
I avoided Charlotte’s gaze as she tried to gauge the drama level of the call. Gemma and Warren were taking off their protection. Charlotte finally gave up on trying to interrogate me by stare, and followed suit. I kicked away the camera boxes to clear the centre of the room, but left the one containing the goggles. Pulling down my hood, I ripped off the coveralls and placed the goggles on my face. I waited as Tony finished the last of the connections and moments later Parmesh and Skye were standing in the centre of the room a metre away from me.
The speakers exploded with shouts from Jon and Casper.
‘It’s clear!’
‘Okay, on me, let’s go! Move, move, move!’
I didn’t check the team’s reaction to the noise. It just didn’t matter.
Skye was in jeans and a red sweatshirt. She was a little younger than Casper, with short, dyed-blonde hair and overlarge thick-rimmed glasses. Parmesh was in jeans and a blue sweater. The clothing that stood out on both of them, and I w
as glad the team couldn’t see it, was the black body armour that made them look like plain-clothes police about to go in on a raid.
Parmesh had an arm round Skye to comfort her. Her head rested on his shoulder. ‘It is okay, Skye. James is here.’
She turned and saw me. There was no time for anything but solid facts. ‘Skye. This is the room, yes?’
She checked, she nodded.
‘Where do we look?’
She was hyperventilating almost as hard as Warren. Parmesh comforted her again as she desperately looked around the room, but he couldn’t stop staring at Charlotte in the corner, as she listened to the speakers, watched me talking to invisible people.
‘The door. It’s through the door.’
She pointed. Her hand wavered, not convinced by her own instruction.
‘There’s just a staircase the other side, Skye. It leads upstairs. Do we need to go up to the house? We got the wrong room?’
I’d messed up. I had created doubt.
‘Oh, God. I just … A door, through the door.’
There was a loud shout in the background. Casper wanted help. ‘I’ve got more at the rear! Jon – you need to back me!’
Jon shouted something back that I couldn’t make out.
This got Skye even more scared, along with the team in the room around me. Only being able to hear and not see, their faces were a mixture of confusion and fright. Tony went over to Warren, who had his knees up as he sat in the corner, his forehead on them. He covered his ears, wanting it all to go away.
Skye turned from the door and her head shot round the basement in bewilderment. ‘This is wrong! Oh, shit, it’s all wrong! They talked about “through the door” – through the fucking door in the fucking basement! There’s no fucking door!’
I held my arms out straight and hovered them up and down in front of her in an effort to calm her down.
‘Skye, please, look at me. What exactly did they say?’
Casper burst into the camera zone, his hair flat against his head with sweat. He wore the same body armour, carried an M4 assault rifle, and had a Glock strapped to his leg. ‘We’ve got them in the grounds.’
