Ice Diaries (22 page)

This idea did not appeal to me. I was
itching to get away. “Mike made it here all right. And if we go
now while he’s at my flat he won’t see us. He’ll
start looking once he knows we’re not there. This snow could go
on for days. And it’s less thick than it was.”

“Maybe you’re right. Okay,
we’ll head north slowly and do a big circuit to the east.”

He set off again. I hoped he was right
thinking I was right – I might be wrong. There was no going
back to my flat.

Where we’d left the sled was a
little below snow level, with drifts making a slope down to the
concrete floor. Morgan left Eddie’s trailer outside, and we
stepped between scaffolding poles into the wide empty space, our
boots sounding on the frozen surface and echoing from distant walls.
There was a musty smell of damp cement. It was too dark to see
anything. I stamped my feet, brushed snow from my clothes, took off
my gloves and had reached inside my pocket for my torch when Morgan’s
face was suddenly spotlit. I looked in the direction the light came
from and it moved to shine in my eyes, blue/white and dazzling.

“I’ve been waiting for you,
Morgan. I see you’ve brought Tori along.”

Mike.

Ice Diaries ~ Lexi Revellian

We both switched on our torches. Their
combined light showed Mike sitting sideways on the Polaris’s
seat ten metres away, a picture of confidence and relaxation. The
Glock was not in evidence. He must be keeping it as a little
surprise, not knowing Serena had tipped us off. The bag of Semtex lay
on the floor in front of him, along with some of our stuff out of the
trailer. I kept my torch trained on Mike as Morgan flashed his
around, illuminating shadowy spaces and concrete walls and beams.

While his face was turned from the
light he muttered so only I could hear, “Mac and Hong are
behind us. When he shoots, dive.”

We’d walked into a trap. I was
sweating in the cold air, my heart banged against my ribs, and I had
trouble keeping my torch steady. The click of a lighter made me jump.
Hong was moving around, lighting half a dozen tea lights – mine
from our trailer – and setting them at intervals round the
walls where they gave out a weak golden light, illuminating small
circles of dusty concrete. Mike got to his feet, left hand holding
the torch, right hand in his pocket. I wondered if his finger was on
the trigger. He looked cocky enough.

“Your problem, Morgan – or
I should say, one of your problems, because you’ve got quite a
few right now – is you’re not as smart as you think you
are. Whereas I’m a lot smarter than you think. You thought I’d
be in the corridor outside Tori’s flat waiting for Eddie to
smoke you out, didn’t you? It’s the obvious thing to do.
It’s probably what you’d do in my place. But I worked out
that if I found the Polaris – and I knew it had to be somewhere
not too far away – eventually you’d join me. And here you
are.”

Morgan drawled, “Bit of bad luck
for Eddie, being used as a decoy.”

“That’s about all he was
good for. Eddie was dumb.”

I said, “You should send someone
to get him. He’s injured and lying in the snow.”

He smiled at me, head on one side, as
if I’d said something naïve and rather charming. “I
was afraid that might be the case, but unfortunately I don’t
have the manpower right now to pick him up. Besides, he’s no
longer part of my plans.”

Morgan said, “What are your
plans?”

“I’m taking the Polaris and
everything with it, including the Semtex you stole and, in the
circumstances, your share of the gold – plus some rather flashy
diamond-set jewellery I found in a bag. As you won’t be going
south, and I doubt her flat is habitable any more, I’m offering
to take Tori with me –”

“Not interested.”

“Wait one moment, Tori, I’m
talking to Morgan.” His hand moved inside his pocket making my
heart jolt. “Please would you move six paces to your left?”

“No.” I stayed where I was,
next to Morgan. As soon as I moved he’d shoot him.

“Do it,” Morgan said out of
the corner of his mouth. I hesitated. “It’s okay.”

I stared at his face for more
information. Was he saying that to protect me, or because he had a
plan and I was in his way where I was? He’d told me not to get
in his way. We should have had a code – except we weren’t
expecting to need one. His expression was intent, focused on Mike,
unreadable. Reluctantly I walked six paces to my left and stopped,
watching the two men picked out in the gloom by each other’s
circles of torchlight.

“I’ll tell you what the
deal is,” Mike said. “You can walk away from here on
three conditions. One, you apologize. On your knees. Two, you hand
over the Polaris keys. Three, Tori agrees to come south with me.”

Morgan laughed. “Dream on. She’s
already told you she wouldn’t do that.”

“She might change her mind if
it’s the only way to save your useless life.”

Mike pulled the Glock out of his pocket
with the flourish of a gambler producing a winning ace; his new toy
that made him more powerful than a cage fighter. He held it in his
right hand at shoulder level, arm bent, the square black barrel
pointing at Morgan’s chest. My heart rate redoubled, even as
random thoughts surfaced in my mind. Shouldn’t he be holding
the gun in both hands, arms straight, to minimize the recoil? Serena
said he’d been taught how to fire it. Of course, his torch was
in the other hand. He hadn’t thought this through.

“Now don’t think about
trying to rush me. I haven’t had a lot of practice, but you’re
ten metres away, and I’d have time to fire several shots before
you got anywhere near me, and the nearer you got the harder it would
be to miss.” His eyes moved in my direction. “So Tori,
it’s up to you.”

“No it’s not,” Morgan
said. “I’m not going to apologize, so we needn’t
bother with Tori’s part of your fucking stupid deal.”

Mike had opened his mouth to reply when
footsteps behind me made me look over my shoulder. Somebody else had
arrived, panting like a dog. I couldn’t see who in the dimness,
but his torchlight bobbed from Mike to Morgan.

“Thank goodness I’ve found
someone, can you two come and help?” Archie, so out of breath
he could hardly speak. He sounded beside himself. “Tori’s
flat’s burning and I shouted through her back door and she
didn’t answer and she may be trapped in there overcome by
smoke. I couldn’t get in. Greg’s not home. Eddie’s
hurt and lying out in the snow, back by Tori’s flat. He may die
or get frostbite. I can’t lift him.” His voice went up a
notch. “We need to get back there fast.” He was level
with Morgan now, so I could see him. Sweat trickled down the side of
his face. Hastily he took off his spectacles, wiped the snow and
condensation from the lenses and replaced them on his nose, saying
urgently, “Come on.” Something about Morgan’s
expression made him look closer at Mike. He said in shocked tones,
“Mike, is that a gun? Are you threatening Morgan? What’s
going on?”

Mike said, “Stay out of this,
Archie. Turn round and go home. Now.”

Archie spotted me in the shadows, came
over and clasped my hands. He peered into my face with relief and
anxiety. “Thank God. Are you all right?” I nodded. “Is
Greg here?”

“No.”

He turned to Mike again and spoke with
authority and no trace of fear in his voice. “Put the gun away,
Mike. That’s not the way to go on. Eddie needs you. I know
there’s bad blood between you and Morgan, but I’m sure
you can come to an agreement if you just sit down quietly together
and talk it over, maybe tomorrow when both of you have had a chance
to calm down. I’m willing to act as a mediator if it’ll
help. But right now we have to help Eddie.”

“Didn’t you hear me? I said
get out.”

“I’m afraid I can’t
do that, Mike. Tori, I think you should leave now.”

I remembered the trailer half full of
Molotov cocktails just outside the building, and the lighter I always
carried. There had to be something useful I could do with them.
“Okay,” I said, turning to go.

Mike raised his voice. “Stay
where you are or I’ll shoot Morgan.”

I turned. “You don’t want
to do that,” I said. “Firing a gun for real isn’t
like it is in the movies. Did you know the noise a gunshot makes is
between 140 and 160 decibels? Loud enough for one shot to damage the
microscopic hairs in the inner ear, and like you said, you’d
need to fire several times. It might harm our hearing too if we were
unlucky, but you’re only a couple of feet from the Glock so it
would be much worse for you. Ears are delicate. That’s why
people on shooting ranges always wear ear protection, and soldiers
are issued with ear plugs. Fire that, and you risk tinnitus,
increased sensitivity to noise, and hearing loss in the higher
registers. And it’s likely to be permanent. Non-reversible.”
I remembered what he’d said to Nina at the dinner. “Mozart
would never be quite the same.”

“You made that up. A few shots
wouldn’t hurt me.” But he looked rattled. Serena had said
the previous owner gave him a demo – perhaps he’d already
experienced some of the symptoms I’d described.

I shrugged. “It’s the
truth, but if you want to find out the hard way … Straight
after the shot, you’ll get ringing in your ears and a muffled
sensation. It might gradually wear off over the next year, or it
might not. You’d have to wait and see.”

There was a long pause. He lowered the
gun. “Clear off, the three of you.”

Archie was about to say something, so I
grabbed his arm and pulled. I didn’t want to hang about. Mike
might change his mind. We walked past Mac and Hong, past Eddie’s
trailer (I saw Morgan consider taking it, and decide against) and
into the blizzard. No one followed us. We ploughed as fast as we
could through the snow, sinking up to our ankles, checking over our
shoulders for signs of pursuit. Now we’d got away I was shaking
all over and sweating as if we were in the tropics. I drew the free
icy air deeply into my lungs. Morgan was giving me sidelong glances.
After a few minutes he said,

“I don’t know how you did
that.”

“Nor do I – it was all I
could think of, I’m amazed it worked.”

“Then you didn’t know his
father was hard of hearing? He’d worked with heavy machinery in
his twenties. He was too macho to bother with ear defenders. Mike
used to take the piss when his dad couldn’t hear what people
said. He wouldn’t want to end up like him.”

“I had no idea. You and Serena
both said he was neurotic over his health, that’s all. I
thought it had to be worth a try.”

“You knowing it was a Glock
helped. Now he thinks you’re a gun pro as well as an expert on
the inner ear.”

Archie said, “How did you know
all that about hearing damage?”

“I know a lot of useless facts.”
I grinned. “Occasionally they turn out to be useful after all.”

Ice Diaries ~ Lexi Revellian

For the next few minutes no one said
anything. It was difficult to talk as well as keep up with the pace
set by Morgan. I found I could still worry, though.

Eventually I said, “What are we
going to do without the Polaris and all our stuff? We won’t get
it back, will we?”

“No. It’s no use to him
because I’ve got both keys, so my guess is he’ll take a
small part out of the engine to stop it working and move the trailer.
I reckon we’ll have to cross it off for now.”

I went on worrying. As it became clear
we were not heading for Bézier, Archie stopped, his hand on
Morgan’s arm. “Will you come with me to move Eddie?”

Morgan shook his head. “Sorry.
Right now Eddie’s welfare’s pretty low on my list of
priorities.” He started walking again.

Archie hurried to catch up with him.
“He’ll die if he’s left there much longer.”

I said, “Where are we going?”

“To the chemist to get all the
earplugs they’ve got before Mike does.”

“After that, then?” Archie
looked distressed, and I could see why. I too was unhappy at the
thought of a human being lying helpless in the freezing cold,
succumbing to frostbite and hypothermia, dying alone. I nearly
offered to go with him, but Mike might turn up …

Morgan said, “Okay, after that.
He can tell me where he left his sled.”

Snow had drifted against the door to
the staircase leading to the shops, making it difficult to open. We
set off fast down the stairs which were dark, cold and claustrophobic
as a dungeon. It’s bad enough in daylight. I experienced a
sudden longing to be curled up cosily on my sofa in front of a
roaring stove with a good book, and felt panic that my home was no
longer a haven I could return to, and all our travelling supplies
were now in Mike’s hands, along with the Polaris. I’d
fallen between two stools. If we couldn’t get our sled back, or
get hold of Eddie’s, I was now stuck in London like before.
Only I’d have to start all over again with a new flat,
chiselling a hole through the wall for the stove’s flue,
collecting provisions and cutting up firewood, a daunting prospect.
Perhaps not everything had been burnt, some of it might be
salvageable … I could look when we went to rescue Eddie.

We’d arrived at ground level, and
wove our way between shops and ice tunnels to reach Superdrug, right
at the end. It’s not a huge shop, but there are two long aisles
and we had to flash our torches on every shelf searching for
earplugs. At last we found them on the lowest shelf next to the corn
plasters, only two kinds. We put them in a plastic bag, then checked
the stock room, found three boxes and stashed those too. Since we’d
lost everything except what we carried in our backpacks, I bagged
soap and some toilet rolls while we were there. On the way out I
picked up several packets of earplugs from a display by the till –
Morgan was impressed I’d spotted them. Archie got fidgety in
Argos, as it took us some time to check in the catalogue then find
the items they stocked. They didn’t have ear defenders, only
Zoggs Aqua Plugz. We gathered up the lot, even the Junior ones, and
headed back, me swinging the bag.