CHERUB: Maximum Security (28 page)

There was no air in Lauren’s lungs to scream. She tried to pull some in, but the pillow driving into her face made it impossible, like trying to suck wet concrete through a drinking straw. She knew the numbers from when she’d learned to scuba dive: five minutes to suffocate, but only three for the lack of oxygen to cause permanent brain damage.

Where was James?

Lauren wondered if her brother was already dead, as she realised her right arm was free to move. She felt a glimmer of hope as she fumbled blindly over the top of the bedside cabinet, hunting for some kind of weapon. She recalled the Biro with the
Star Plaza
logo on it as soon as she touched it. She gripped it tight and flipped off the lid with her thumb. It wasn’t much, but it was all she had.

Lauren’s concentration drifted for a second: the first sign of losing consciousness. She bit her tongue to help focus her mind and blindly thrust with the pen. It hit Eugene in the shoulder, causing only mild discomfort and a blue trail down the sleeve of his shirt. Irritated by the prospect of having to wash out a stain, Eugene shifted his weight as he tried to grab the pen with his free hand.

The pressure moved off Lauren’s thighs as Eugene leaned forward. She used all her strength to thrust her knees up into the man’s behind. Eugene’s grip on the pillow loosened as he jerked upwards, enabling Lauren to twist her head to one side and haul in a lungful of air. Eugene immediately shifted his entire bodyweight back on to Lauren, inflicting extra pain by digging his kneecap into her belly.

Lauren refused to let the excruciating pain deter her desperate escape attempt. She glanced a shaft of light between the sheet and pillow, then spotted one of Eugene’s fingertips, as he attempted to straighten her head and reposition the pillow over her face.

‘Quite the little fighter, ain’t you,’ Eugene said, clearly not regarding the ten-year-old’s struggle as anything more than a minor setback.

Lauren wriggled her head forward a few centimetres. When she felt the base of Eugene’s fingernail pressing against her lips, she bit down hard. The knee slipped off her stomach as the bite sent the old man into a spasm.

Temporarily abandoning his murder attempt to concentrate on his finger, Eugene snatched the pillow away. With the finger still clamped between her teeth, Lauren inhaled through her nose and, now she could see what she was doing, aimed the pointed end of the Biro into the soft tissue at the side of Eugene’s throat. The pen sounded like a sink plunger, as the metal point speared his wrinkled flesh.

Lauren let the finger out of her mouth as Eugene slumped across the bed, wailing in agony. Lauren pulled her legs from under him and knocked him cold with a two-footed Karate kick to the side of the head.

Shaking with fear and clutching her painful stomach, Lauren rolled off the bed and lifted the corner of the mattress to retrieve the Glock handgun she’d seen James stash there the night before. She flipped the safety off and quickly checked the bathroom and the floor beside the other bed, terrified she was about to discover her brother’s suffocated body.

She held the gun two-handed as she crept into the connecting room, again checking between the beds. The bathroom gave Lauren a shock: Eugene had carefully set out knives and polythene sheeting to dispose of her body.

Lauren was still no closer to knowing what had happened to James. Maybe Eugene had knocked him out while he was sleeping and dragged him off to be suffocated in another room, or maybe he’d been invited downstairs for an early breakfast with Bill and Curtis.
You might as well let Lauren sleep in if she’s tired. Eugene will look after her
…

With Eugene unconscious and James’ fate a mystery, Lauren knew she had no option but to call Marvin. As she picked up the receiver, she heard someone enter the next room.

Realising she had surprise on her side, Lauren crept towards the connecting door, but managed to stub her bare toe on the leg of a table. Her tiny gasp was enough to send the figure in the next room diving into the shadows behind one of the beds before she’d got a proper look at him.

‘I’ve got a gun,’ Lauren shouted as she leaned into the doorway, squeezing the trigger to fire a warning shot.

Lauren didn’t realise the Glock was capable of repeat fire, or that she’d inadvertently flipped it to automatic when she took off the safety. She felt like there was a high-pressure hose in her hands, as the recoil from half a dozen bullets shoved her backwards. The shots plunged into the wall, smashed the mirrored front of a wardrobe and knocked clumps of plaster out of the ceiling. Lauren ended up sprawled backwards over one of the beds.

A stunned shout came out through the dust clouds and broken glass in the next room. ‘It’s
me
,’ James coughed, as he stood up with his hands in the air.

‘Where the
hell
did you disappear to without bothering to wake me up? I nearly got killed.’

James stepped through the dust and snatched the gun from his sister. ‘Mental gun, eh?’ he said. ‘It’s what the SAS use. You’re supposed to stand with one leg behind the other so it doesn’t push you backwards.’

‘So where’s Curtis?’

‘On his way to the—’

Before James finished speaking, the locks in both room doors clicked simultaneously. James spun around, ready to spray more bullets.

‘FBI,’ Warren shouted, aiming a gun into the room.

‘All safe,’ James and Lauren shouted back frantically.

John and Theo had rushed into the other room and ended up staring at James through the connecting door.

‘We heard the gunfire. What happened?’ John asked.

‘The unconscious guy with the Biro sticking out of his neck just tried to smother me,’ Lauren explained matter-offactly.

‘That doesn’t make sense,’ James said. ‘What about the Canadian passports we saw last night?’

‘Look for yourself if you don’t believe me,’ Lauren said, pointing indignantly towards the bathroom. ‘I don’t go round sticking people with Biros for the fun of it you know.’

James, John, Warren and Theo peeked at the equipment laid out in the bathroom. James felt queasy when he imagined what had nearly happened.

‘Wasn’t Jane Oxford supposed to be loyal to people who help her out?’ James asked bitterly.

‘We clearly overestimated the extent of that loyalty,’ Theo said. ‘But the passports are a classic Jane Oxford ruse. She always makes three or four different plans and only tells people which one she’s going to use at the very last moment. It’s possible that Bill was given the passports and believes that you two were going to be sent to Canada, while Eugene was under instructions to kill you.’

‘It’s a clever tactic,’ Warren added. ‘We’ve had it a few times where we’ve broken down one of Oxford’s operations and made arrests, only to find that there’s a mass of evidence pointing in different directions. When it gets to court, the defence lawyers use the contradictions to pull you apart:
if Jane Oxford intended to kill James and Lauren Rose, why did she spend ten thousand dollars buying them false identities, booking airline tickets and arranging for them to stay with Mr and Mrs La-de-da in Toronto
. And so on.’

‘But why would she try to kill us?’ Lauren asked. ‘We never did anything to hurt
her
.’

‘I suppose she thought you might have talked if you were ever recaptured,’ Theo said. ‘You knew about Etienne and the Little family. She clearly wanted you dead the second Curtis wasn’t around to see it happen.’

‘Heartless bitch,’ James said, shaking his head. ‘We helped her own son escape and her only thanks was to try and kill us.’

‘It figures though,’ Warren said. ‘Oxford hasn’t evaded the law for twenty years by being sentimental.’

‘We can speculate all we like once this is over,’ John said tersely. ‘Right now, I suggest we put our heads together and concentrate on working out where we go from here.’

‘I think we’d better call an ambulance for Eugene first,’ Theo said. ‘Things are starting to look a little gooey over there.’

‘Apart from that, all we can do is make sure we don’t lose track of Curtis,’ Warren said. ‘We’ve got agents on standby at Dallas airport and in Brazil. Hopefully Jane will show her face wherever Curtis ends up. Trouble is, she’ll run a mile if she finds out that everything here just went pear-shaped.’

Theo’s cellphone rang. He grabbed it out of his jacket and had a brief conversation with Marvin.

‘You’re not going to believe this,’ Theo groaned. ‘Bill got a phone call while he was on the airport bus. When they arrived, Marvin got off and hung back to follow Bill and Curtis, but Bill told the bus driver he’d left something back at the hotel and they’re staying on for the ride back.’

‘Is Marvin still with them?’ John asked.

Theo shook his head. ‘It would have been too suspicious if he’d re-boarded the bus. Curtis and Bill should be back at reception any minute now.’

The shuttle bus only took fifteen minutes to ride between the hotel and the airport.

‘So here’s what happened,’ John said, thinking as he spoke. ‘Eugene tried to kill James and Lauren, but got his comeuppance. Once they realised Jane Oxford wanted them dead, James and Lauren grabbed the money and valuables and left the hotel in a big hurry.’

Warren pointed at Eugene, who was still unconscious on the bed. ‘What about him? He needs an ambulance.’

John shrugged. ‘He was about to kill the kids, so forgive me if I haven’t got a lot of sympathy for him.’

Theo leaned over the bed and inspected Eugene’s injury. ‘It’s behind the windpipe and he’s not losing much blood. With the Biro still bunging up the hole, I believe he’ll be good for a few hours, at least.’

‘OK, let’s grab the valuables and clear out of here sharpish,’ John said.

Theo pocketed Eugene’s wallet, while Lauren grabbed the briefcase with the money and passports. They were almost out of the door when the phone rang.

John made a split-second decision. ‘James, you answer that.’

‘Hello,’ James said, as he frantically grasped the receiver and stumbled on to the bed.

‘Eugene? Is that you?’ Bill asked.

‘It’s James.’

‘Oh,’ Bill said, sounding exceptionally surprised. ‘I didn’t expect you to still be around. Is Eugene there?’

‘He’s been locked in the toilet for ages,’ James said, trying to sound cool. ‘I don’t know what he’s playing around at in there.’

John gave James a smile and thumbs-up for his quick thinking.

Bill sounded angry. ‘You tell Eugene to get his sorry old ass moving. Tell him I’ve checked Curtis in for his flight, but I’m on my way back here to find a certain car and I’ll meet him at the motor lodge this evening.’

‘OK, I’ll pass that on,’ James said. ‘Thanks very much for helping us out, by the way.’

Bill sounded stunned. ‘Um … that’s OK, James, it was a pleasure.’

The call went dead.

‘What did he say?’ John asked.

‘Something about being on his way to find a car, but he said he’d dropped Curtis off at the airport.’

John shrugged. ‘I guess he said that for your benefit.’

‘It’s classic Jane Oxford, again,’ Theo said. ‘She has Bill set up with a passport and an airline ticket. Then she pulls the plan at the last minute and sends him off on a car journey.’

‘But why wait until he gets to the airport, then send him back here?’ Lauren asked. ‘Wouldn’t it have been better to send him to pick up the car somewhere else?’

‘I guess Bill was running early,’ Theo said. ‘Jane probably thought he was still here.’

‘Judging by that phonecall, Bill and Curtis won’t be coming back to this room, which makes our lives easier,’ John said. ‘We’ve got to get downstairs and make sure we don’t lose them when they get off the airport shuttle and try to find this car.’

‘Someone will have to stay here and deal with Eugene,’ Theo said. ‘We can’t leave him for the poor maid to find.’

‘OK, Theo,’ John said. ‘You stay here and deal with that, but don’t call for an ambulance until after you see us leave. Warren and I will go down to the car park, see what car Bill and Curtis get into and chase after them.’

‘What about me and Lauren?’ James asked.

John thought for a second before digging out his car keys. ‘You can navigate and operate the radios. It’s a black Chrysler, parked in row F. Get in, start the engine so that the car’s ready to pull away as soon as I get there, then belt yourself into the passenger seat.’

Warren dangled his keys in front of Lauren. ‘Blue Volvo, parked next to John’s. Make sure you keep down if you see Bill or Curtis.’

James and Lauren raced five floors down the back stairs, out through the fire doors and into the car park. They found row F and were climbing into the cars as the Airport Shuttle stopped in front of the lobby. A rumble of static burst out of the police radio in the dashboard, as James started the engine and climbed over to the passenger seat.

Curtis and Bill both disappeared inside the lobby. James looked across at Lauren in the next car and shrugged, hoping that they weren’t changing plans again.

Warren’s voice erupted from the loudspeaker. ‘I’m in the lobby and I think we’re OK. They’ve both gone into the bathroom. Curtis looks a little green around the gills.’