by Mark Ayre
Eighteen
Detective Idrissa Ndidi—corrupt cop in the employ of Lucky Draw. An enforcer for that nasty gang, sent to punish those who turned against the crooks. Amongst over tasks. That made even more sense of the kidnapping. Having a cop on side before you carried out a major heist was good. But a corrupt cop who worked for both the police and the crooks you were trying to rob? That was a hole in one.
Abbie mulled it over. Nodded. Then turned back to the gate separating her from the closed school’s grounds.
With one hand, she tapped the metal. The other, she rose and used to signal Gary forward.
"Over."
"What? Why?"
Abbie turned back. The panic on Gary’s face was reminiscent of a rabbit in traffic.
"Well, it's possible the bad guys have set up invisible lasers around this gate that recognise when an unregistered party tries to enter the school and so releases the death drone. The death drone is fast. You wouldn't be able to outrun it, and when it caught you, it would deploy its incineration beam to atomise you."
Abbie looked to Gary, who appeared to be on the verge of tears.
"The beautiful thing is this system would already have been here. Orion and his team would have needed only to reprogram it to target their enemies rather than its natural foe. The paedophile."
Gary stepped back, bumped the roundabout, and almost screamed.
"I want you to jump over the gate first so I can ascertain what model of death drone we're dealing with and thus decide how best to combat it. You'll die, but your sacrifice will be noble and not in vain."
Gary looked as though he might have wet himself.
"I'm obviously kidding," said Abbie and hopped the gate. "Come along."
Taking several steps across the carpark, her gun still by her side, Abbie shaded her eyes with her hand and glanced at the windows of the nearest building.
She couldn't see anyone. Not that this told her anything. If Orion had left men inside any of these blocks, they would have positioned themselves so trespassers would be unable to see them until it was too late.
Besides, if Isabella was here, Abbie didn't believe there would be guards posted anywhere except in the building where Orion was holding the child. His team would be small. If armed police arrived, he would have little interest in starting a firefight he almost certainly could not win.
"The building where you met your mysterious friend. You said it was at the rear of the school?"
Abbie looked back. Gary was still hovering on the gate’s other side. His eyes were flicking back and forth, perhaps searching for the imaginary death drone.
A flash of guilt shot through Abbie. She reminded herself Gary was not a hardened criminal but an insecure teenager, led down a path it was not easy to escape before he was old enough to know any better. Teasing him was unkind.
"You're safe with me," said Abbie. "Come over the gate. If at any point we come against adversaries, you listen to my instructions. If I think you're best served staying at my side, I'll tell you. If I don't, I'll say run, and you bolt fast as you can. Got it?"
Gary raised his hand to his mouth as though to bite his nails but resisted. He was right at the gate but still not over.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “Don’t you want to know more about Ndidi?”
Raising her eyebrows, Abbie said, “Do you know any more about Ndidi? Anything relevant to his daughter’s kidnapping, that is.”
Gary stuttered and stumbled. “Well, no.”
“What I thought,” she said. “Now come along, hop that gate, would you?”
Still he hesitated. “This is a bad idea.”
Shrugging, Abbie said, "Only time will tell."
When Gary still would not cross the school boundary, Abbie returned to him. Reaching over the gate, she encouraged him with a gentle touch and further protective words.
"I know you're scared," she said again. "But you have to remember you've done the right thing. You want to save a little girl, as you should. Whether we find her or not, you can feel pleased that you're a good guy. A great guy. Now, can you answer my question? What's beyond the building at the edge of the property where you met this mysterious man?"
Abbie's compliments had led Gary into embarrassment. His cheeks had flushed, and he had looked even more wretched than before. Her question gave him something on which to focus, and for this, he looked relieved. Thinking about Ben, Abbie wondered if it was truly worth pushing on with her present course of action.
"Beyond the block where we met is a field," Gary said. "Big. At the end of the field is a line of trees. I don't know if you can get off the school grounds that way."
Abbie turned, put her hand to her brow and looked in the direction of the field and this line of trees. Though she couldn't see either, she guessed the cars and the people she had earlier heard could not be far beyond these trees.
"I've no doubt," she said, "that you can get off the school grounds and back to civilisation that way. If the police arrive, they might try to surround the school, but mostly they'll come from the front. That line of trees will be Orion's escape route if things go wrong. If he's here, that is."
"What if he's not?" Gary asked. The question sounded desperate, possibly hopeful, so Abbie patted the teenager on the shoulder.
"I've already told you, you've done the right thing. If we don't find Isabella today, you must not feel guilty. It is the intention that matters. Don't focus on the outcome, but on the fact you did the right thing. Because you did."
She turned, preparing to move through the school, then stopped and turned back.
"Before we go on, remember this: it's never too late to make a change to your life. You're not too far down any road that you can't turn back. If you're driving towards darkness, note, you always have enough petrol to do a U-turn and return to the light. Understand?"
"I think so."
Abbie nodded and thought of Ana. Did Abbie honestly believe what she said? Did Ana have enough petrol to escape the darkness of what she'd done? Or almost done. That evil intention.
Now was very much not the time for that internal discussion.
"Come on," she said to Gary. "Keep about a metre behind. Do exactly as I say, and run like hell if someone shoots me in the head."
This statement probably unnerved Gary, but Abbie didn't look back to check. She only knew it didn't concern him enough to prevent him following as she made her way deeper into the school grounds.
They passed the first building on the left without issue. After that, the duo came to the line of windows on the right. With the courts on Abbie's other side, she tilted towards those windows, searching for the slightest movement while trying to keep an eye on the building at the end.
No one fired. Abbie saw no movement, and they made it unscathed to the building at the end of the walk. Here, they could turn left or right. Abbie looked to Gary, who pointed left.
A few steps on, and they turned right. Straight ahead was a grey building, low and unassuming, with double doors leading into a corridor. Before they reached that, they had to pass a long red-building to their left and a white building on the right. The building on the left appeared to be a canteen; on the right, more classrooms.
Gary pointed to the end. "Once we reach that grey building, we turn. There's another red building immediately to the right. That's the one."
"Excellent," said Abbie. "Are you excited?"
"No."
"Good. A little girl's life is on the line. Excitement would be in poor taste, don't you think?"
Gary didn't answer, which was fair enough. He was the sort of person who tensed up and fell silent when he was nervous or afraid. As Abbie was proving, she was a babbler.
Abbie was not particularly afraid. She was undoubtedly nervous. The closer they grew to the building, the more Abbie considered failure. She hoped to find Isabella in the block ahead, wanting this to be over.
It wouldn't be, though. This was not Abbie's first rodeo. On waki
ng from a prophetic dream, Abbie entered a two-day window of danger. If Abbie saved Isabella from kidnappers today, it only meant more and probably greater crisis was on its way, set to arrive sometime tomorrow.
But at least the child would be at Abbie's side.
That was why calling the police didn't come into consideration. If the cops swooped in and saved Isabella, Abbie wouldn't get near the little girl.
Unfair as it was, Abbie had developed the belief she could trust no one but herself. Maybe this was changing, with Alice, who Abbie had phoned about a lawyer, and Bobby, who shared her bed. But for now, it pretty much remained the case. The police might save Isabella from her kidnappers, but Abbie didn't trust them to keep the girl safe thereafter.
Burdened by the fear of failure but content in her decision to go it alone, Abbie made her way between the cafeteria and classrooms. It was trickier to keep an eye on all the windows with two buildings to watch, but she did her best. Gary stayed a metre behind, as before. If Abbie had spied the smallest movement behind the windows, she would have told him to run.
But she didn't.
As she moved past the end of the classrooms on the right, Abbie twisted, now raising her gun, pointing it to the block next along from the little grey building.
Gary had been right. Between the grey building and the red at its side, Abbie could see an open field. Big. With a line of trees marking its end. They seemed a long way away. Sprinting, Abbie could probably make it from where the field began to those trees in thirty seconds.
In other words, you wouldn't want to flee across the field to escape an armed assailant. Unless you loved getting shot in the back.
The red block itself, within which Gary claimed to have met Smoker, was L-shaped. Abbie was facing the top of the letter. Here, double doors led into a corridor, at the end of which, one would turn away from the field to enter the L's base. Here were a small entrance area and more double doors. The building wasn't large. Maybe six rooms on the field side, five on the other.
Trembling, Gary appeared at Abbie's shoulder. He pointed to the closest double doors.
"Those were the doors he used. Lock's broken, so we can walk straight in. The classroom is the third down on the field side."
Third down. That made sense. Almost equidistant from each exit, plenty of corridor to fire down should enemies attack from either side.
Abbie traced the windows on the building's near side. If Orion was here, and his team was small, this was the place to keep the lookouts. Or possibly in the building opposite. Abbie saw no movement, but this wasn't surprising. Any sentries would be hiding further back in the rooms.
"Come on," Abbie muttered to Gary.
Keeping low, she darted towards the building. Arriving at the near wall, she dropped and pressed her shoulder to the brickwork. Turning, she glanced across the windows of the building opposite.
Nothing.
The double-doors Gary had pointed out were behind Abbie, around the corner. Coming up behind, Gary touched Abbie's shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
"What are we doing," Abbie corrected. "We're a team, remember? Equal partners, except I'm in charge. Super in charge. Don't misbehave."
She looked back at Gary, who appeared bewildered by her latest spout of babble.
"The double doors behind us are unlocked," he said. "That's the doors they use."
"Who are they? You said you only met one guy here."
Gary flushed. Abbie remembered why she had trust issues.
"I only saw one, but they all use this place. They have to, right?"
The explanation was garbled and unconvincing. Internally, Abbie found herself once more cursing Ben, and her need for distraction.
"Whether it's they or he," said Abbie, "if that's the door they always use, then it’s the door we must at all costs avoid. Got it?"
"But the doors at the other end are locked."
Abbie put a hand against Gary's mouth. It was pretty gross, but at least it got him to shut up.
Suspicion was no longer the right word for what she was feeling in response to Gary’s claims, but the question was obvious: if Gary had only been here once, and if he had entered the block through the double doors at Abbie's back, how did he know those at the other end were locked?
"A couple of things you need to remember," Abbie said in a quiet, stern voice. "Firstly, locked doors can't stop me."
Gary's look transformed from bewilderment into amazement. Possibly bewildered amazement.
"Because I can pick them. I'm not like a ghost with the ability to phase through solid matter."
This, Gary found less impressive.
"Secondly, I'm extremely dangerous, particularly to people who lie to me."
Abbie let this hang in the air a moment or two before turning towards the bottom of the L.
"Is there anything you want to tell me before we proceed?"
Silence.
"Remember, I'm not looking at you, so nodding or shaking your head, that's no good to me."
"Oh, right, sorry. I said no. No, I don't have anything to tell you."
Abbie closed her eyes, sighed. She didn't believe the lanky teenager, and now was the perfect time to turn back.
But she couldn't. Ben's words rang in her head, and she was still searching for a distraction. Besides, there was always a chance Abbie was wrong to be suspicious; Gary was both honest and correct: Isabella was here. Even if the child wasn't, Orion or some segment of his team might be. There was still a chance Abbie might learn something of value about Orion's mission or Isabella's location if the child and boss were elsewhere, but Abbie played the situation right.
If there was one thing Abbie had learned about traps, it was that the trapee always had the capacity to turn the tables on the traper. Especially when the trapee in question was Abbie.
No longer worrying about whether Gary was following, Abbie made her way along the L-block's brick wall, towards its base. She remained beneath the block's windows while keeping an eye on the building opposite. All the way along, Abbie expected someone to pop out and start shooting. But she heard no one, and no one appeared.
At last, and unscathed, Abbie reached the L's base, turned, and worked her way to the double doors.
Lowering herself almost to the ground, Abbie poked her head around the last corner and looked through the lower glass pane of the double’s left door.
No lights were on inside. Although the sun was high, the interior was gloomy, shaded. Even so, Abbie could tell the entrance hall was empty. If anyone was inside the block, the closest they could be was right around the long corridor corner.
Rising to a crouch, Abbie positioned herself before the double doors. They were locked, as Gary had claimed. This gave Abbie cause to glance back at the teenager, who flushed.
Turning away, she set about sorting the doors, and fifteen seconds after she'd begun, the lock was no longer a problem. Abbie demonstrated by opening the door.
"Wow," muttered Gary, speaking in the same way he might have if Abbie had walked through the solid surface rather than picking the lock.
"Come on," Abbie said.
Gary expected Abbie to creep into the hall and was therefore surprised when she closed the now unlocked door and carried on around the building's next corner. So surprised that, at first, he didn't think to follow.
By the time Gary got moving, Abbie was poking her head around the back of the block, then turning onto that side.
With Abbie's left shoulder to the brickwork, the field stretched out to her right. Along the wall were eleven windows. Abbie predicted the first of these would offer a view into the small room at the L's base. There would then be two windows for each of the five classrooms on this side of the building. Gary had said they needed classroom three from the double doors at the other end. From Abbie's position, that meant windows six and seven.
Gary appeared around the corner, behind Abbie.
"What are you doing?"
"What are
we doing," Abbie said. "Team, remember?"
This was a lie, but Abbie was not yet ready to let Gary know she did not consider him an ally. Instead, she pointed to the windows. They were the kind you locked using two metal latches and lifted from the bottom to open. You couldn't pick the latches in the same way you could a key lock, but the wooden frames into which the windows were set were ancient. With limited force, Abbie believed she could break the latches or frame and hoist the window open. If they were even locked.
"Got to enter via the route they least expect," she said.
"But... I don't understand. Why unlock the other doors?"
"Options," said Abbie. "Escape routes."
She looked back at Gary. He was biting his lip. Afraid. More and more each second, he wished Abbie hadn't forced him to come along. She could see why.
"Do you think we'll find Isabella here?" she asked.
He stared at her, amazed she might seek his opinion. Not that he had a particularly enlightening one to give.
"I don't know."
"Do you hope so?"
"Of course," he almost sounded more indignant than afraid or guilty. Almost. "More than anything, I want to save—“
Abbie moved with a speed and ferocity that surprised even herself.
One of Abbie's many (and one of her less catchy) mantras was: never be sure.
Still, since before entering the school, Abbie had been as close to sure as it was possible to be that this was a set-up.
It was all too convenient where Gary was concerned. The clandestine meeting, the abundance of information about the relevant block, the near desperation for Abbie to enter via a specific route all indicated something untoward. And that was before you considered whether someone of Gary's cowardly nature would come searching for Abbie to voluntarily offer information that might endanger his life if not under coercion by some pretty scary, dangerous people.
Gary's biggest mistake was to assume these people were more frightening or more deadly than Abbie.
Hearing his rubbish about how keen he was to save Isabella had done it. The anger was like an electric shock. From nowhere, it struck, shooting through Abbie's body and forcing her arm into what almost seemed to be an involuntary motion.
