Flare (28 page)

Half a dozen men and women came out of the house to greet us as we got out of the car, including a woman in police uniform with three pips on her shoulders and a huge man with an equally massive beard and a green wax jacket.

We introduced ourselves and were introduced in turn to the small group, but only the names of Lindsay, the Chief Inspector, and Max, the farmer whose land we were on, stuck.

“Where have you come from?”  Lindsay asked as we were shown into the kitchen and sat at a table where several other people were already eating.
  The large room was crowded but there were still seats to spare as two men in grubby white aprons managed half a dozen pans on a stove almost identical to Harriet’s.

“I came from Brighton originally”, I said
, “but we’ve been all over”.

Lindsay nodded.  “We’ve had quite a few people through, going north and south, where are you headed?”

“Manchester, I’ve got a daughter up there”.

She nodded, but I caught the quick glance she threw at Max, who shrugged.

“May as well tell’em”, he said in a thick accent, “got a right to know”.

“Tell us what?”  I said, suddenly worried.

Lindsay sighed and sat at the table, an old man scooting his chair over to give her room.

“Manchester was badly hit by the fires”, she said slowly, “and we’re worried about radiation as well”.

“Radiation?”

She nodded.  “There was an explosion at Heysham power station.  No one knows how bad it is but we have to assume the worst”.

My heart thudded in my chest as the news sank in.

“How far is that from Manchester?”

“Sixty or seventy miles, but without computers there’s no way of predicting the fallout pattern because we can’t see what the weather is doing.  For all we know the radiation has gone west, but it’s equally possible that all the land between here and the power plant is already irradiated.  I’m really sorry, but even if you do find your daughter alive and well, it still may be too late”.

Chapter
45

The smell of the room, sweat, frying meat, coffee, suddenly made me want to vomit as the walls closed in.

“A nuclear explosion?”  I asked, the bottom dropping out my world.

Emily took my hand while Lindsay shook her head.

“No, not a nuclear explosion.  A conventional explosion that affected nuclear material.  Have you ever heard of a dirty bomb?”

I nodded, unable to speak for fear of bursting into tears.

“Well”, she continued gently, as if speaking to a frightened child, “it’s the same principle.  It was only a small fire at first, but something caught and then most of the plant went up.  The explosion would have pumped radioactive material into the atmosphere, and from then it’s a lottery as to where it goes.  Your daughter might be fine”.

“But she might not”.  Emily spoke for me, gripping my hand in hers as if I might run away.

Lindsay shrugged.  “I’m really sorry, we just don’t know.  It’s one of the reasons we decided to set up here.  There’s a long series of valleys, a natural wind tunnel if you like, that brings north-westerlies straight into the town from the bay at Heysham.  Even though we’re only a few miles south here, it’s about a hundred times safer”.

“You seem to know an awful lot about this”, Emily said.

“I was on the crisis planning team for any emergencies involving the plant.  Everyone above the rank of inspector within a hundred miles has got a handy little ‘what to do’ card.  I was one of the people who wrote it”.

One of the aproned men approached with two plates of food but Emily waved him away.

“We still have to go up there”, she said firmly, her tone brooking no argument.  “We haven’t come this far just to give up now”.

Lindsay nodded as if she’d expected nothing less.

“Well I won’t try and stop you from going; in fact I have a few things that might help.  The first of which is a plate of food.  You both look half-starved and you’ll be no good to anyone if you drop from hunger”.

As if on cue, the man reappeared with the plates and put them in front of us, then returned with two mugs of tea.

Emily squeezed my hand hard and I looked up at her.  The sympathy in her eyes almost made me cry.

“Malc”, she said quietly, leaning so close that our noses almost touched, “we will find Melody, ok?  And I’m sure she’ll be fine.  There’s been no strong winds and no rain for days, so there’s a very good chance that it’s only the area within a few miles of the power plant that’s been affected.  Please, I know you’re worried, but I need you to keep it together if we’re going to find her”.

I nodded slowly and straightened, still feeling on the verge of tears but knowing she was right.

Removing my hand from hers, I picked up my fork and stabbed a mushroom, then placed it in my mouth and chewed as if it didn’t taste of dust and hopelessness.

I could see that Emily was unconvinced, but she turned to her own meal and began to eat as Lindsay excused herself and left the kitchen.

“It’s nice to find some people that don’t want to rob or enslave us”, Emily said around a mouthful of egg.  “Makes a change”.

I nodded and continued to eat mechanically, trying valiantly to quieten my panicked thoughts.  It was all I could do not to bolt out of the kitchen and jump in the Lnadrover, but some tiny, logical part of my brain knew that they were right and the time it took to eat a meal wouldn’t make any difference either way.

Emily lifted her mug and took
a swig, then let out a contented sigh.

“Oh my god, I’d forgotten how much I love tea.  Coffee is all w
ell and good, but I’ve missed this”.

I watched her as we ate, my mind unable to tear itself away from thoughts of radiation and the horrific problems it could cause.  I’d spent several weeks
investigating Fukushima in Japan and the still-unquantified damage that the explosion there had caused, and I knew that even a small dose of the kind of radiation that power plant accidents pumped out could be deadly.

I was saved from the effort of making conversation by the return of Lindsay.  She sat across from us and placed two small boxes on the table, rectangular in shape and made from yellow plastic with a clip on the back and a small round hole on the front.  The whole thing was about the size of my hand.

“PRD’s”, she said, “portable radiation detectors.  That little hole on the front will turn from yellow to black if you hit serious radiation.  There’s supposed to be an audible alarm as well, but there’s no test button so we don’t know if that bit is working or not.  You’ll just have to keep an eye on each other, and if it does go black get the hell out of wherever you are, fast”.

I nodded my thanks, her kind gesture going a little way towards dispersing the fog that was blanketing my mind.

“Any other advice?”  Emily asked, taking one of the detectors and clipping it to the front of her uniform.

“Yes, once you leave here, don’t drink any groundwater.  We’re lucky in that the water here comes from the south, but about half a mile north you reach a dip in the land and everything you drink from then on will have the risk of being contaminated.  We’ll give you as much bottled water as we can, but we don’t have much to spare”.

“Why are you doing this?”  I asked bluntly.

“Why wouldn’t we?”  Lindsay countered.

I shrugged.  “Our experiences with other people recently haven’t exactly been friendly.  Everyone we meet seems to have their own agenda, whether it be stealing everything we’ve got or trying to enslave us.  It’s just odd, is all”.

Lindsay stared at me for a long time as if trying to decide whether or not to be offended. 

“There aren’t so many people left”, she said finally, “that we can afford
not
to help, wouldn’t you agree?”

I nodded slowly, thinking how much easier and quicker our journey would have been had everyone felt the same way.

“You’re right, my apologies.  I’m just not used to getting help for nothing in return”.

Lindsay reached over and tapped the detector still on the table with a bitten fingernail.

“Then consider these a loan instead of a gift, and the information you’ll bring back with them as payment, if that makes you feel better”.

I forced a laugh from somewhere.

“Do you know”, I said as I picked it up and clipped it onto my belt, “I think it might”.

Chapter
46

“Maybe another twenty minutes”, Emily said, pointing at a sign by the side of the motorway.  “You’ll need to direct me once we reach the city”.

We’d taken leave of the farm with a new backpack, enough food to see us through twenty four hours and a couple of torches, all they could spare for us.

I glanced at the bag by my feet and wondered again at the kindness of total strangers, so unexpected after everything we’d gone through.

“Let’s not even bother with the city”, I replied, “Angie never needed an excuse to avail herself of her parents’ hospitality, and their place is about half an hour closer”.

“I’ll still need directions”.

“It’s the turning after next, then just follow the signs for Woodford Aerodrome”.

She nodded and returned her attention to the road while I kept glancing down at the detector on my belt.  Even though I knew it was my imagination, I swear I could feel
the hovering threat of radiation prickling my skin, wondering if even now I was receiving a lethal dose that my detector was too damaged to pick up.

“Will you stop that?  You’re making me nervous”.  Emily waved a hand towards my belt.  “It’ll tell you if there’s a problem, and checking it every few seconds won’t do more than give you neck-ache”.

“But what if it doesn’t work?” 

“The detection system is gas and paper, what’s not to work?  The only electronic bit is the alarm, so as long as you keep an
occasional
eye on it, you’ll be fine”.

“Ok, sorry.  Radiation scares the shit out of me, though”.

“You’d be a moron if it didn’t, but if we’re committed to this then what choice have we got?”

“Not much”.

“Then why worry?”

“Because I’d never forgive myself if you died because of me”.  I realised the words were true even as I said them.  I’d only known Emily for a handful of days, but already she was closer to
me than anyone bar Melody.  Time and again she had put herself in danger on my behalf, although for the life of me I couldn’t see why, and now she was driving into an area that for all we knew was irradiated enough to kill us both, and all because of me.

“Emily, why are you doing this?”

She glanced over and I could see a slight flush to her cheeks.

“Doing what?”

“All this.  Keeping me out of trouble, helping me to find Melody, driving towards a nuclear bloody disaster for someone you barely know”.

She opened and closed her mouth a few times as if about to speak, but seemed unable to find the right words.  I waited patiently, watching her hands tighten on the steering wheel until her knuckles were white.
“I, uh, ah shit, I’m no good at this”, she said finally, then abruptly stopped the car and turned to face me.  “Do you really have no idea why?”

I shrugged helplessly.  “If I did I wouldn’t have asked”.

She rolled her eyes towards the heavens. 

“God give me strength”, she muttered.  “Look, you’re a really nice guy, ok?”

I nodded, feeling like a seventeen year old being given the brush-off.

“A
really
nice guy”, she continued.  “In fact you’re the first man in years who hasn’t tried to impress me with how strong he is, or how masculine, or how many tours of Afghanistan he’s done.  Do you know how refreshing it is to spend time with a man who can hold a conversation
and
doesn’t try to get me into bed after thirty seconds?”

“Probably about as refreshing as it is for me to spend time with someone who can answer the phone without having to do her nails first”.

“Your ex?”

I nodded.  “You have no idea”.

She put the vehicle into gear and pulled away again, then turned up a slip road and took us onto a roundabout that I recognised as only being a few miles away from Woodford.  I could feel my hands trembling with anticipation, both from seeing Melody again and the conversation we were having.

“What I’m trying to say”, Emily kept her eyes firmly fixed on the road, “is that I like you a lot, and if circumstances had been different then I think we’d already have, uh, well…”