Split Second (30 page)

‘This is how I got in,’ Nat said, rushing over to the window. The glass was broken, cold air sweeping in. ‘Aaron’s already out.’

I stared at him, overwhelmed that he’d risked so much to save us. ‘Where is he?’ I asked.

‘In the trees.’

I headed for the window. Voices rang out behind us from the hallway.

‘The boy’s got a knife, sir.’

‘Charlie’s out of The Hole.’

‘Where are they?’ That was Roman Riley. He sounded furious. And only metres away.

I hauled myself onto the ledge, pushing away a large piece of glass.

Out in the hallway, Riley was giving orders. He was sending some of the soldiers upstairs, others into the field outside the farmhouse. I raised my knee to the sill.

‘Stop.’ It was Riley.

I looked around.

Riley stood in the doorway. He had a furious scowl on his face and a Glock pistol in his hand.

‘Come here, Charlie,’ he said.

‘No,’ I said.

‘Please, Charlie,’ Riley said. ‘I don’t want to hurt you. I already explained that I want you to join us.’

‘And I already explained that I don’t want to join
you
,’ I said.

Riley pointed his gun at Nat. ‘If you don’t come with me now, I’ll kill him.’

I gasped. Nat was blinking furiously, his focus on the gun in Riley’s hands.

‘If you kill him,’ I said, trying to keep my voice even, ‘then I will never join you. In fact, I will make it my life’s mission to track you down and kill you, wherever
you go, whatever you do.’

‘Charlie, please.’ Riley gave a wry laugh. ‘Okay, okay, calm down.’ He lowered his arm and placed his gun carefully on the stone floor in front of him. ‘Listen to
me, I haven’t told you everything yet. When you hear the truth, you’ll
want
to stay.’

‘Charlie’s not staying,’ Nat said and I could hear the slight tremble in his voice. ‘You tried to kill me earlier. You’ll do the same to her.’

‘No.’ Riley met his gaze. ‘No, she’s safe . . . she’s going to stay with the EFA, it’s where she belongs.’

‘Don’t listen to him,’ Nat urged. ‘Go. Get out of here.’

I hesitated, half in, half out of the window. Riley made no move to pick up his gun. He wasn’t going to kill me. And he meant it when he said he wanted me to be part of the EFA, though I
didn’t understand why. But Nat wasn’t safe. And he had risked everything to find me. I couldn’t leave him now.

I swung my legs off the window ledge and jumped back down, into the office. I stood next to Nat.

‘If I stay, will you let Nat go?’ I said.

‘No way,’ Nat protested. ‘You’re coming with me. We’re both leaving.’

‘It’s a weakness to care so much about this boy, Charlie,’ Riley said. ‘He will lie to you, just like all the other people you’ve ever trusted.’

‘Shut up,’ I said.

‘It’s the truth,’ Riley insisted. ‘For example, Nat’s known I was the EFA Commander for a long time. Ever since the induction training. He didn’t tell you the
truth about that, did he?’

‘I only kept that secret because I trusted you,’ Nat spat. He turned to me. ‘He made me believe everything about the EFA
needed
to be secret so that it could defend
and protect people when the law couldn’t.’

‘Which it does,’ Riley said smoothly.

‘No,’ Nat insisted. ‘You don’t care about people or the law. You just care about being powerful. That’s why you secretly plant bombs – to make people afraid,
so that you can pretend you’re some big hero, looking after them.’ He paused. ‘You did the bomb tonight and . . . and you did the Canal Street market bombing last year too,
didn’t you?’

I stared at Riley’s face. He was looking intently at Nat. Then he glanced across to me.

‘Yes,’ he said.

A beat passed. I sucked in my breath. ‘You killed my mother,’ I said. ‘You’re actually admitting to
murdering
her.’

Riley sighed. ‘I’m sorry about your mother, Charlie. And about Lucas. Sometimes difficult decisions have to be made . . . and innocent people get hurt.’

‘That’s not good enough,’ I said, my voice shaking with emotion.

‘Charlie, we can talk about all this later.’ Riley took a step towards me. ‘As a show of good faith I will let Nat go, but I need you to stay.’

‘Fine.’ I moved closer to him. If I could just get that gun from the floor . . .

Then what?
A little voice sounded in my head.
Are you really prepared to shoot Riley?

‘It’s a lie. A trap,’ Nat insisted. ‘He’s going to kill us both.’

‘No.’ Riley held my gaze. ‘I told you, Charlie, I value you. I want you to join us. And there’s something else . . . something that makes you special . . . We
didn’t know until a week ago, but it makes all the difference . . .’

I glanced at Nat. His gaze flickered to the gun, then over to the diesel cans on the floor and to the bottles of ammonium nitrate on the shelf above.

‘You should stay with Riley,’ he said. ‘Riley’s got a gun.’

I looked at him. What was he saying? Nat shot me a quick glance.

He wanted me to make a grab for the gun. I could see it in his eyes. I didn’t know what his plan was after that, but he was asking me to trust him.

I turned back to Riley and took a deep breath.

‘Okay,’ I said, raising my hands in a gesture of surrender. I kept my eyes off the gun on the floor but took a step towards it.

‘I’ll stay with you,’ I said. ‘On condition you let Nat go.’

I took another step towards Riley. I was just inches away from the gun now. Riley eyed me warily. I could feel Nat watching and my guts twisted into a knot. I was only going to get one chance to
make this work.

‘So what’s the big secret?’ I asked. ‘What’s this thing that makes me so spec—’ As I spoke, I dropped to the floor. In one swift move, my hand darted
towards the gun. Riley saw what I was doing. He made a grab for the pistol himself.

He was too late. My fingers curled around the cold metal. Quick as a flash I snatched up the gun and jumped backwards, away from Riley’s outstretched arm.

‘Don’t.’ His mouth fell open in horror.

‘Shut up.’ I pointed the gun at his face. My heart thudded in my chest.

This was it. My chance to take revenge for Mum. The man behind the Canal Street market bomb was finally at my mercy. All I had to do was pull the trigger. Behind me I could hear Nat moving
around the room. Unscrewing something. Pouring liquid onto the floor.

‘Nearly there, Charlie,’ he said.

I took a step away from Riley. All I had to do was pull the trigger.

‘The EFA is just one branch of a larger organisation.’ Riley spoke fast, urgently. ‘There are other groups. And their leader,
my
leader, is an ex-soldier like me . . .
someone who has a deep desire to meet you, to keep you safe . . .’

I stared at him. What was he talking about?

‘Give me that, Charlie,’ Nat said, appearing beside me. He took the gun from my hands. ‘Get over to the window.’

I backed across the room, my eyes still on Riley. What was Nat going to do? Was
he
going to shoot Riley?

‘Outside, Charlie,’ Nat urged. ‘Now.’

Still watching Riley, I hooked my leg over the window ledge, then crawled onto the sill. I could hear Riley’s men across the field, shouting instructions to each other. Riley kept his gaze
on me.

‘If you go, you won’t meet him,’ he hissed.

‘Shut up, Riley.’ Nat turned to me. ‘Don’t listen to his lies.’

He was right, wasn’t he? They
were
lies. Riley was just trying to keep me here, to manipulate me again. I jumped down outside, landing on the gravel with a crunch. Straightaway
Nat clambered onto the ledge, still pointing the gun at Riley. A second later he, too, was outside. Riley watched me. He met my gaze and shook his head, like he was telling me I was making a huge
mistake. For a moment, I doubted myself. Maybe he
was
telling the truth after all?

‘Who is it?’ I asked, suddenly full of fear. ‘Who wants to meet me?’

Riley kept his eyes on mine.

‘It’s your father, Charlie,’ he said. ‘He’s still alive.’

I barely heard what Riley said. I focused on the diesel and the ammonium nitrate, now pooling together on the floor in front of the desk. Then I steadied the gun and took
aim.

‘Go,’ I whispered to Charlie. ‘Head for the trees.’

I fired. With a flash, the pool of liquid exploded into fire.

I turned as Riley, on the other side of the fire, roared out in fury. Charlie hadn’t moved. I grabbed her hand.

‘Run!’ I shouted.

For a second I was dragging her after me, then Charlie found her stride and we raced, hand in hand, across the field. Behind us, shouts echoed into the air. I headed for the woods. Shots fired
all around us. We let go of each other’s hands and ran harder, away from the soldiers. Seconds later, we reached the cover of trees. I darted along, weaving in and out of the trees, looking
for Aaron.

But Aaron was nowhere to be seen. I stopped running. Charlie raced up, panting.

‘Where is he?’ she hissed.

‘I don’t know.’ I swore under my breath. Through the trees I could just make out the dark silhouettes of three soldiers, entering the woods only metres away. Across the field,
fire blazed from the farmhouse.

‘Aaron must be hiding from the soldiers. Come on,’ I whispered.

We crept over the fallen leaves trying to make our steps as light as possible.

‘Did you hear what Riley said about my father?’ Charlie whispered. Even in the dark of the woods I could see her face was pale, her eyes full of shock.

‘It was a lie,’ I whispered back. ‘Don’t you think your mum or your uncle would have said something if your dad was really alive? Riley was just trying to manipulate us
again.’ A twig snapped to our left. I stopped walking. ‘Who’s there?’ I hissed.

Silence.

Tensing, I raised the gun.

A figure emerged from behind a tree. It was Aaron, his scared eyes glinting in the moonlight.

‘Let’s go.’ I shoved the gun in my pocket and the three of us raced through the trees towards the road.

I tried to keep my footsteps as soft as possible. Charlie was making barely any sound, but Aaron was heavy-footed, his steps echoing loudly around the wood. We ran on. I tripped. Fell. Forced
myself up. My lungs strained for breath. I gripped Charlie’s hand as she sped along beside me. We had to make it to the road before the soldiers found us.

A shot rang out, loud in the night air. It came from the left. I swerved to the right, dragging Charlie after me. I could hear Aaron’s breath, raw and ragged, as he turned too.

We raced on.

The men chasing us crashed through the trees. They were close. Too close. The trees thinned. The roar of a lorry filled the air. We must be near the road now. I sped up, Charlie on one side,
Aaron on the other. I flew past the last tree. A lorry was thundering along the road towards us. It passed a masked soldier emerging from the wood just thirty metres away.

I reached for Riley’s pistol. It was gone. It must have fallen out of my pocket when I tripped and fell. The lorry was approaching fast.

Down the road, the soldier raised his gun. ‘Hands up,’ he shouted. ‘Or I shoot.’

There was no time to think. The lorry was about to pass us. If I didn’t make it stop, we would all be caught and taken back to Riley.

I flung myself into the road. Arms waving, I yelled at the lorry driver.

‘Stop! Stop!’

The lorry kept coming. It was huge, towering up in front of me. I caught a glimpse of the driver’s face, his mouth open with shock. I closed my eyes as the lorry roared right up to me.

It screeched to a halt just inches away from my outstretched arms. I stood, trembling, for a second.

‘Get in!’ Charlie yelled. She was already dragging Aaron towards the driver’s cab.

I ran around to the far side, scrambling in next to the shocked driver before the man could protest. Aaron and Charlie hurled themselves in on his other side. A shot fired out.

‘Drive!’ I shouted.

The lorry driver – still open-mouthed – roared away at top speed. I struggled with the door, slamming it shut, then peered out of the window. The masked soldier was running after us,
gun poised, ready to shoot again. Then the lorry swerved – far too fast – around a corner and the soldier disappeared.

I sat back, squashed between the door and the driver.

‘What the hell?’ the driver shouted. He was middle-aged, with a lined, weather-beaten face. ‘What is this?’

Charlie and I exchanged a glance. We shouldn’t say anything, not until we knew we were safe.

‘We . . . I was taken—’ Aaron started.

‘Quiet,’ I ordered.

Aaron stopped talking.

I sat back. Where on earth did we go now? The enormity of getting – and staying – away from Riley and Taylor was overwhelming.

‘Whatever it is, I don’t want to get involved,’ the driver said. I glanced at the speedometer. The lorry was still travelling at over sixty miles an hour. We turned onto a main
road. Other cars were passing. The driver slowed slightly. ‘I’m dropping you here.’ He indicated a roundabout up ahead.

I nodded. We needed to get out of the lorry anyway. The EFA soldiers had seen us get inside and were probably already looking for it. We were better off on our own. A few moments later the
driver pulled up. Charlie, Aaron and I got out opposite the roundabout and the lorry zoomed off again.

I pulled the others into the cover of the trees. Two roads led off from the roundabout: one was signposted to the motorway, the other led downhill, to a town called Hilmarton.

‘That driver could have taken us further,’ Aaron said. He was white-faced, his whole body shaking.

‘Better we’re away from anything Riley’s men can trace,’ Charlie said.

She slipped her hand into mine and squeezed. I squeezed back. In spite of everything I felt better, stronger somehow.

Cars roared past us. There was no sign yet of Riley’s men but they couldn’t be far away.

‘We need to go,’ I said. I crept across the trees towards the turning that led to Hilmarton. From the edge of the copse I could see the lights of a small town spread out at the
bottom of a hill.