Arrowland (31 page)

During the last session overnight, she'd dismissed the guards keeping an eye on him and got down to business. "Just you and me now," she'd told the soldier. "I know who your boss is; he's just outside."

The man had laughed. "You know nothing." That earned him a punch in the face which broke his nose. He hadn't been laughing then.

"Me and him go back quite a way, did you know that?" Gwen said. "There's not much love lost between us."

"Go to Hell,
hure
!"

"You first, fucker!" She'd kicked him hard in the side where his injuries were and smiled as he'd howled in pain.

They'd gone on like this for about an hour, until Gwen was satisfied she'd get no new information. In the end she'd wound up kicking the chair over, placing her foot on his windpipe and threatening to crush it just to try and get some answers. "
Why
does he want my son?" she'd spat into the German's face. He'd remained silent, either not willing to say or because he didn't know.

Gwen left the room, calling the guards back in and giving them specific orders not to fetch Jeffreys when they saw the state of the prisoner. "We might still be able to use him if push comes to shove, but it won't matter what condition he's in. He's alive, that's good enough."

Was there a part of her that connected Andy's words with her actions? No, she felt them entirely justified. She was protecting her village, protecting her son at all costs.

When she looked into the faces of those villagers, however, she didn't think that they felt the same. Yes, they wanted to keep this place safe, but she wasn't convinced they wouldn't just fling Clive Jr over the wall to save
themselves
. She'd thought about telling them: "I know Tanek. He'll kill you all anyway, then, just for fun. The only thing keeping you alive right now in fact is that he wants my son and daren't risk storming in and harming him." But they wouldn't have listened. She'd need to keep a close eye on them, especially when it all hit the fan. Darryl was still the only one she trusted to keep watch over her child, and she was pleased to see he'd almost fully recovered from giving his blood to the German.

Gwen had been on her way from seeing Andy when she heard her name being called. "Come quickly," came the cry, and when Gwen reached the part of the wall it had originated from, she got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was the section directly overlooking the opening of their tunnel's hidden trap door. The man who'd called her across - Henry Collins, a middle-aged ex-veterinarian who helped look after their livestock - was crouching, holding his rifle and jabbing his finger in the direction of that secret entrance. Gwen climbed the ladder to join him, not liking the stern look on his face.

"What is it?"

"See for yourself," he told her, taking off his glasses and rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand.

Gwen peeked out through the gap, and spotted it instantly. A group of German soldiers at the opening. They'd uncovered the camouflage Karen had replaced and were pointing down at the door. One was running some kind of wire from it.

"They're getting ready to blow it," Gwen said.

Henry nodded. "Bingo. And guess where they're going once they have."

Gwen didn't need to, she already knew. Up the tunnel and into this damned compound. How had they found out about the door in the first place? Must have been Karen, the stupid idiot! Someone must have seen her, even though she'd told her to be careful. Or maybe the Germans had just stumbled on it by accident? Gwen hoped that was the case, because if anyone had seen Karen then it meant she'd either been followed, or killed, or both. In spite of herself, the first thing Gwen found herself thinking was not about Karen's death, but that they shouldn't rely on any help from the castle now.

More important even than that, their enemies were about to step the siege up a notch. If the people of New Hope weren't going to give them what they wanted, their enemies had just discovered a way to come inside and get it for themselves.

Tanek was happy.

For the first time in a long while, he was really, truly happy. And he was
never
happy. It didn't happen. There was always something that came along to balls things up. Not this time. Luck was on their side for a change.

Even before they'd made arrangements to begin the next phase of this campaign, they'd been given an unexpected break. Determined to get to the bottom of how his man was snatched, Tanek had ordered a thorough - but covert - search of the perimeter. It was then that they'd discovered the trap door. It hadn't been concealed properly, and was almost definitely the way they'd snuck in and out. Tanek knew that it could have been used to go and fetch help, which was why he had to move now. They'd forced his hand. But they'd also given him the perfect way to gain entrance.

And while the villagers were dealing with German soldiers coming up through that tunnel into New Hope, Tanek and his team would concentrate on breaking in through the front door, sealing this locality's fate. Once they were inside, they'd see just how fast the woman and her child were given up.

That moment had now come, his men preparing to blow the lid on that secret door. Tanek felt satisfied this was going to end well.

But more than anything else, he was looking forward to seeing De Falaise's woman again.

They still had unfinished business.

Gwen had posted at least three people on the tunnel door in the village grounds. Like Karen before them, they had orders to shoot whatever came through that didn't look like one of theirs . The only person out there was Karen, and no reports of her return had been made, more's the pity. Even if she had come back alone, then she wouldn't be able to get past the Germans to crawl through the tunnel.

"Chances are it'll be unfriendlies," she warned. "Don't give them the chance to fire on you first."

In the meantime, Gwen had gathered the rest of the villagers and handed out weapons to anyone who wasn't yet armed. Whether they'd have enough firepower was another matter, but they'd bloody well try to fight those bastards off. Gwen would, at any rate - she still wasn't sure about some of her fellow villagers. Would they turn their guns on her to hand over Clive Jr? Would she have to shoot the very people she'd been trying to look after all these months? People she'd lived alongside, fought alongside?

She'd find out soon enough, because the word came down from Henry that the hatch door had been breached and men were climbing inside the tunnel. Gwen made sure Darryl was
extremely
well armed - a rifle, a shotgun and two pistols - and told him to stand guard over both her house and Clive Jr, while she waited out in the street. It was the longest wait she'd ever had; even those hours back at the castle when she'd been De Falaise's prisoner hadn't been as bad as this.

Gwen shook her head; even though such thoughts made her angry, made her want to put a bullet in every one of those men invading her home, it also distracted her at a time when she needed to be focused. She gripped her Colt Commando rifle, holding it across her chest like some kind of shield.

Even though they were expecting something to happen, the loud bang still came as a shock. But what happened next, none of them could have predicted. The door to the tunnel on this side was blown clean off its hinges, but what came out of the tunnel wasn't men. At least not at first. Grenades were tossed up, causing the villagers defending it to move back. They began coughing as multi-coloured smoke - some of it yellow, some orange, some blue - got into their lungs.

"No, stay where you are!" shouted Gwen, running towards it. But that was easier said than done when they could hardly breathe.

The next thing they knew, German soldiers were inside. Nobody saw them climb up through the hole, they just appeared wearing gasmasks, striding through the smog, rifles held high and zeroing in on the villagers surrounding the trapdoor. Several shots were fired and men and women fell straight away. One woman, Carol Fawkes, was shot point blank in the face.

Gwen opened fire on the advancing soldiers. They were spreading out, some heading to the nearest cottages and taking up covering positions - or maybe searching them? - others crouching in order to pick off those up on the wall defending the village. Henry was one of the first to buy it, standing and firing on the men but being riddled with bullets from an automatic rifle for his efforts.

Gwen barely batted an eye; she didn't have time. The soldiers were getting closer and closer to her house - to Darryl and to Clive Jr. Hefting the rifle up to her shoulder, Gwen aimed at one of the soldiers and got him directly between the eyes. She'd become so much better with a gun than when she first used one to kill Major Javier, the man who'd slaughtered her beloved Clive.

She turned, shooting another German who was coming up on her left. Then she fired at a group on her right, breathing hard - relishing the feel of the rifle as it pumped out bullet after bullet. A smattering of machine-gun fire forced her to pull back behind the wall of a house, but she immediately bobbed her head back round the corner, firing again.

The screams of villagers filled the air, but some were taking her lead, realising that if they didn't fight, they'd die. Two or three had taken cover behind a notice board. The wood splintered as German troops fired at them, but they ducked and returned that fire, causing the soldiers to try and find shelter now. One didn't make it; shot in the legs as he ran.

Gwen grinned, targeting the fallen man and putting a bullet in his chest to make sure he was out of the picture.

"Fall back!" she heard someone shout, and for a moment Gwen thought it might be the Germans. No such luck, it was another team of villagers, being driven into doorways by an advancing squad of enemy soldiers. They just kept on coming out of that hole. Gwen needed to put a stop to it. She moved up, sliding along the wall of the house she'd been using for protection. Then she ran across, making the most of the thinning smoke cover. She could see the tunnel entrance, and put several bullets in a German using his elbow to climb out. Gunfire raked the ground ahead of her and she dived out of the way, rolling and coming up shooting. She clicked empty and sprinted towards the bench just ahead of her, leaping over and ducking behind it as more bullets followed in her wake.

Ejecting the magazine, she grabbed another from her pocket, slapping it in place. Then she got up and rested on the back of the seat, firing off in the direction those bullets had come from, shouting in triumph when she saw one German soldier fall to the ground.

Just when she thought they might stand a chance, there was an explosion at the front wall.

Jesus
, Gwen thought.
What now?

She wished she hadn't asked when she looked over and saw the gates bowed inwards, then flung wide as Tanek's armoured vehicle smashed through.

"Shit!"

Villagers fired at the jeep, but their bullets just zinged off. One man was caught in the vehicle's path and turned just as it was upon him; he fell under the wheels and was crushed. His head popping like an overripe melon.

More German troops entered behind the armoured car, picking their targets, not wasting a round. How did she ever think they could stand a chance against professional fighters like these?

Then there he was, climbing out of the jeep. He was even bigger than she remembered, but that dour face, that olive skin was the same. He'd only been out a few seconds and he'd already put two crossbow bolts into someone. Tanek was coming for her son, but she was damned if she was going to let that happen.

Gwen came out from behind the bench, heading back in the direction she'd just come from: heading Tanek off at the pass before he could reach-

"Shit!"

The giant was striding across, busting in door after door and killing whoever resisted. He was checking every house for Clive Jr, and he didn't have many to go. A villager she recognised as Sam Coulson came up behind Tanek, rifle raised. Gwen held her breath, watching as Sam was about to pull the trigger, but Tanek had already sensed his presence and was spinning, so quickly Sam didn't have time to fire off his round. The weapon was knocked clean out of his hands and Tanek grabbed him by the throat, lifting Sam into the air as though he weighed nothing. If Gwen had been closer - and if there hadn't been so much noise - she probably would have heard the cracking of the bones in Sam's neck as Tanek squeezed. Sam's eyes bulged, his tongue flopping out as he dropped to the ground, legs giving out beneath him.

Tanek looked around, hardly flinching as bullets ricocheted off the building behind. It was then that he saw her. His eyes narrowed and he pointed, as if to say 'I'm coming for you.' Gwen had to admit, she was scared. Probably the first time she had been since the castle. But not just for herself - for her son. Because she could see now that De Falaise's old second in command was on a mission, and he wasn't about to let
anyone
get in his way. Without looking, he held his crossbow out to the side and shot another villager - a young woman this time - twice. One bolt between her breasts and another in her temple.

So much death. Too much
, thought Gwen. But this wasn't over yet.

She was distracted by the fact that Jeffreys was being dragged out of the doctor's surgery. He was pleading with the soldier who had hold of him.