‘Then you must go. You’re the one they’re waiting for.’
‘Me? Why?’
‘Where are the others? You didn’t come alone, did you? Where’s the rest of your team?’
I took a deep breath. I had no idea how much time I had. I wasn’t at all happy with what I’d heard so far, and I guessed I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear either.
‘Stop,’ I said. ‘Just calm down and help me with some info. Where is everyone?’
‘Locked up downstairs in the basement. I’m allowed out to monitor him.’ She nodded to the bed. ‘He kept causing trouble, so they did this to him to keep him quiet. But they won’t let me nurse him properly, and I don’t really know what to do, and I’m afraid he’s going to die, and it will be my fault.’
She was very young. In another time, she would be pretty, with dark eyes and curls, but her eyes were tired, and she was terrified, not least of me. I lowered the gun. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Katie. Katie Carr.’
Oh, Katie. She really was new to this. You never tell people your surname. You don’t want to meet your descendants. And you definitely don’t want your descendants to meet you.
‘You’ve got to help us.’ She started to shake and her voice rose. ‘They’re shooting people. They want our pods. You must help us.’
She’d changed her tune now. She’d forgotten she wanted me to leave. Throwing aside the blanket, she moved to the bed, checking her patient. I found it easier to think of him as ‘the patient’. The sight of him, lying on the bed, unconscious, dirty, and vulnerable was not easy. I moved to the door to watch the corridor.
‘OK, Katie, start at the beginning. Who are ‘they’? When did they arrive? What do they want?’
‘They attacked about two weeks ago, in the night. Chief –’ I made a warning gesture. ‘Our Chief Tec and her crew got the pods away. Somehow. I don’t know where they went. Only a few people know the location of the remote site. Every day they drag someone out and beat them up. Or worse. To make us tell them. But no one knows, so we can’t. They shot our Chief Officers. Except for our Chief Tec and they’re only keeping her alive because they think she’ll tell them and she won’t. No one knows what happened to our Director. You have to help us’
‘Why do they want me?’
‘I don’t think they did, at the beginning. But no one would tell them. Then she said to get Chief Farrell because he’d know the remote site, and if they got him then you’d turn up sooner or later, and they could use you to get to him.’
Bloody hell! I was right! Me coming alone was part of their plan.
‘Katie, how many are there? Do you know?’
‘There seemed a lot at first, but actually, I don’t think there’s that many. Not more than ten or twelve, I think.’
‘So, to sum up. A hostile force occupies St Mary’s; its personnel are imprisoned in the basement; its pods sent away. Chief Farrell is in a coma in Sick Bay and they’re all waiting for me to turn up so they can use me to pressure him to get the pods back.’
She nodded.
‘Well, I’d better not keep them waiting then.’ I gestured to the bed. ‘Can you wake him?’
‘No, I don’t know how to do it.’
‘Where’s the doctor?’
‘In the basement, treating the others. They won’t let him bring them up here for treatment until we tell them.’
And that would be their undoing. If they’d shown a little common decency and compassion and brought the wounded up here, then they’d have caught me as soon as I walked through the door. If I did the next bit right, we really might have a chance.
I was silent so this could be thought over.
‘OK, Katie, I’m going to leave you and have a look around.’
‘No, you can’t go. Not now.’
Poor Katie. She didn’t want to be alone again.
‘Yes, I must go, Katie, but I’ll be back, I promise. Look after yourself and your patient for me, will you? I will come back.’
I opened the door, checked the corridor, waited a few minutes for my night vision to come back and set off again.
They were waiting for me at the end of the long corridor. I felt a bit silly – they’d watched me inch my way along in the dark, taking nearly five minutes to get from one end to the other, and then, just when I thought I’d made it, they switched the lights on.
Nobody shouted, ‘Surprise!’
I blinked a bit, and then had a good look round. ‘Only five of you? I’m disappointed. I thought I’d warrant a lot more.’
No response. They took my guns, vest, and helmet.
‘You do know who I am, don’t you?’ I said, carrying on like some petulant celebrity. I got a rifle butt in the kidneys for my pains. The next hour or so wasn’t going to be pleasant, but all things pass.