Trauma (43 page)

The door moved in a little as someone tried to open
it, but the wedges held without allowing too much strain
to fall on their barricade.

Another attempt was made to open it before Sotillo
realised what had happened and banged on the door.

'What is the point of this, you stupid people?' he
demanded. 'You can't escape!'

Neither Lafferty nor Sarah replied. Both of them
were concentrating on keeping their weight against the
bed-frame.

Sarah inclined her head to look at her watch. Lafferty
didn't ask why, although he did wonder. He couldn't
imagine anything less important in their current circumstances than what time it was. A tremendous crash at the
door put the thought out of his head as Pallister and Mace
took a running charge at it together. The door jerked
open a few inches before the wedges and the weight of
the barricade stopped it.

As Lafferty applied his full weight in an attempt to
close it again, he saw either Pallister's or Mace's hand
come through the gap and try to get some purchase on
the edge of the door. He had a box of pump spares
lying at his feet and, picking up one of the heavier
components, a round, chromium-plated pump-body, he
smashed it across the invading fingers. A yelp of pain was followed by a quick withdrawal of the hand. Lafferty and
Sarah managed to close the door again, but the wedges
had been displaced. Lafferty dropped down on his knees
quickly to push them back into place. He was squeezing
the last one into the crack when a vicious kick to the
door caused it to move back an inch or two and caught
his forefinger in the gap along the bottom. The skin was
torn hack from the base of his nail and it was his turn
to cry out in pain. He got to his feet with his injured
finger in his mouth and kicked the last wedge into place
with his shoe.

'Are you all right?' asked Sarah anxiously.

'I'm OK,' replied Lafferty, briefly taking his finger out
of his mouth to spit out blood.

'Get some tools!' shouted Sotillo outside the door.

There was a lull in the proceedings while either Mace or
Pallister or both went off to find tools; then Sotillo spoke.
'Why don't you stop this foolishness? You know there's no
escape. Why don't you just accept your fate and make it
easy on yourselves? There will be no pain or suffering, I
promise. A simple injection of a neurotoxic chemical
and it will all be over. You won't feel anything.'

Sarah whispered to Lafferty, 'Personally, I don't fancy
a simple injection of a neurotoxic chemical. Do you?'

Lafferty admired Sarah's bravery and wished he could
match it. In the circumstances, all he could manage was
a weak smile.

'But if you persist in this time-wasting nonsense,' con
tinued Sotillo, his voice becoming harsher, 'I might not
be inclined to be so charitable. We could be talking about
new dimensions in pain before
I'm
finished with you!'

Lafferty saw that this time Sarah had visibly paled.
Somehow it seemed to give him courage. 'Chin up!' he
said. 'We'll give them a run for their money.'

Sarah smiled and said, 'You're a very special person,
Ryan. In the circumstances I think I'm allowed to
say that.'

Lafferty gave a slight nod.

'Maybe we should both he honest with each other?'
suggested Sarah tentatively.

Lafferty, leaning against the barrier, held her gaze for a
moment before saying, 'Maybe it would be wrong to leave
certain things unsaid, Sarah. I think you know that I've come to feel a lot for you. More than I should, perhaps,
but I can't deny it and I'm not ashamed of it.
^’

'Good,' said Sarah quietly. 'I'm glad. It's also mutual.'
Lafferty could hear that Mace and Pallister were back outs
ide the room. He and Sarah turned their attention back
to the door and braced themselves. A metal object began
rhythmically battering against the outer skin. Lafferty didn't think it was an axe - it didn't sound heavy enough
- but he could hear the sound of splintering wood.

He watched as the inner surface of the door began to
blister under the onslaught. A hole appeared and started
to get bigger as the long metal spike Pallister was wielding
ripped into the wood. Lafferty reached out to the wall and
turned off the room light so that the opposition would not be able to see in through the hole. He on the other hand,
could see them as the hole got bigger. The jagged opening
was the size of a tennis ball but it was getting bigger by
the second.

When it reached the size of a football, Lafferty picked
up another of the heavy, metal pump-bodies and waited
his chance. He knew that pretty soon one of men outside must try to get an idea of what the barrier looked like. In
the event, it was Pallister. He stopped working with the
spike for a moment and his face suddenly filled the gap
as he tried to see into the room. Lafferty let fly with the
pump-body and it caught Pallister squarely between the
eyes. There was a sickening crack and the man went down
without a sound. Lafferty knew there was a very real
chance that he would never get up again. He had put
all his weight behind the throw.

Sotillo was furious. He shouted at Mace, telling him
to continue with the spike before angrily confirming that
Lafferty and Sarah would know what suffering was all
about before he was through with them.

Lafferty had to fight off a sudden wave of hopelessness
that swept over him. What they were doing was pointless.
They couldn't hold out much longer, and all they had achieved was the probable death of one man and the
incitement of Sotillo to a sadistic rage. But there was no going back. They had to fight on to the hitter end.
He armed himself with more pump spares and continued
to hurl them through the hole in the door, but Mace was keeping well out of the firing line, using the spike from
the side rather than head on. Lafferty was running out of
ammunition. He looked about his feet hut couldn't really
see anything useful in the darkness, and they couldn't
afford to turn the light on. One thing that did catch his attention was one of the power packs they had pushed
against the door earlier. The light coming in through the hole in the door illuminated the words DANGER: HIGH
VOLTAGE along its front. It gave him an idea.

'Sarah!' Lafferty whispered. Take over!' He pushed the
box of spares over to Sarah with his foot and added, 'Make
them count.'

As Sarah let fly with her first missile, Lafferty found
the connecting leads from the power pack and started to
strip the ends off them with his teeth. When he was
satisfied with the length of the bare wire he had created,
he plugged the other ends, those fitted with jack plugs,
into the power pack. He attached one of the bare ends to
the metal bed frame, and then started to feel around the base
of the wall for a plug socket. He found one but it was a good two metres from the door. Would the cable stretch?
He started pulling the power pack towards the socket but
found that the main cable was jammed below the base of
the bed frame. It was half a metre short. Lafferty raised
his eyes towards the ceiling and muttered through gritted
teeth, 'Give me a break!
^’

He tugged and pulled until sweat
broke out on his face but the cable was jammed tight. 'It's
no good!' he gasped, 'I can't budge it.'

'Only two left,' said Sarah anxiously, as she hurled another missile through the hole to clatter harmlessly off
a wall outside. 'Oh God, Ryan, there's not going to be
enough time!'

Lafferty looked up at her but couldn't make out her face in the darkness. Time for what?' he asked.

Sarah paused before replying, 'I didn't tell you, but when I went in to the residency earlier to change my
clothes 1 telephoned Paddy Duncan. I told him where we were going and why. There's a chance he'll phone
the police when he realises I haven't returned. The
longer we hold out, the more chance there is that help
will come.'

'Why didn't you say this earlier?' asked Lafferty.

'After what I said to you about being treated as the little woman I didn't want to admit to being so scared
that I told someone what we were going to do.'

Lafferty shook his head in the darkness but the knowl
edge that they still had a slight chance of survival gave
him new energy. He squatted down at the base of the
bed frame and prepared for a final try at moving it. He
gripped the base of the frame with both hands and pressed
his cheek to it as he started to heave. The veins on his forehead stood out with his effort, but he kept his eyes
closed and concentrated on the image of a car with a blue
light speeding towards them.

The frame moved slightly and he knew that the cable
was free. There was no time to rest. He immediately pulled the power pack into range of the socket and positioned the
plug below it.

'Move back, Sarah!
^’
he hissed.

Sarah moved away from the door and Lafferty carefully
placed the remaining bare wire on the floor in the centre
of the doorway. It would not stay in place. It seemed that
no matter what he did, the wire still preferred to curl up
into the air. As a last desperate resort, he tore off his
shoe and placed it on top of the wire to stop it moving.
Satisfied that everything was now in place, he turned up
the voltage dial to maximum and pushed the plug into
the socket. He held his breath as he threw the switch.
A single red light illuminated to indicate that the wires
were now live.

Lafferty crawled across the floor on his hands and knees
to join Sarah before positioning himself behind the glass waste tank that had been plumbed in to Mary O'Donnell's bay. He tore off the plastic cover and Sarah saw what he
intended to do. She placed herself at one end of the tank
to help, and they waited in silence.

'They've run out of ammunition!' Sotillo shouted at
Mace. 'Get on with it!'

Sarah and Lafferty saw Mace appear in front of the hole
in the door and quickly enlarge the hole so he could now
see the form of the obstructions behind it.

Lafferty took Sarah's hand in the darkness and whis
pered, 'We can do it!' He felt a slight squeeze of her fingers
in reply.

As Mace started to lever the door open, Lafferty braced
himself for the final gamble. Mace switched on the light
in the room and the look of apprehension faded from his
face as he saw Sarah and Lafferty crouching down against
the far wall as if in fearful acceptance of their fate. The
door opened and Sotillo stepped into the opening. He
paused to smile down at them.

Lafferty kept his eyes on the hands of the men in the
doorway. Mace had gripped the bed frame; he was about
to try to make the opening a little wider. Sotillo stepped
forward to help him and Lafferty made his move. 'Now!'
he shouted, and he and Sarah heaved the glass waste
tank over on to its side so that a tide of foul-smelling
liquid swirled over the floor to engulf the feet of the men
standing there. In doing so it completed the electrical
circuit between the bed frame and the bare wire lying on
the floor. Sotillo and Mace were electrocuted, adding a
new, awful burning smell to the already foul atmosphere.