The Three Most Wanted (22 page)

“Jon!” We both hissed it and started forward. Quiet, quiet, quiet…

There… a light. A handheld spotlight. Not as good as François’s. In a clearing? Bane switched off his flashlight and we groped our way forward to the edge of the trees. There were two figures with the light, looking down at something on the ground.

“Should’ve kept a gun, tracker or no,” Bane muttered.

“Come on, sing, my little blind songbird,” came a harsh voice from one of the silhouettes. “Sing a pretty tune…”

A muffled groan.

“That’s not a tune, try again…”

Jon cried out—Bane raced through the darkness like a ghost and slammed into the nearest soldier, carrying him to the ground. I tore after him and arrived just in time to grab the barrel of the second soldier’s rifle as it swung towards the struggling pair. One-handed, the soldier yanked the weapon out of my feeble grip—I kicked the spotlight from his grasp instead. It tumbled across the grass and he spun round in shadowy confusion.

“Don’t move or I swear I’ll put your eye out... Ah,
thank you.”
Bane lurched to his feet, heavy rifle in his hands, and snapped, “Hold it, you.”

The second soldier held it. Even let me take his rifle from his unprotesting hands. I rolled the spotlight over with my foot so it illuminated the clearing properly and pointed the rifle in the right general direction, leaving the safety off to make it look a bit more serious.

“Perhaps you two should’ve kept watch instead of torturing a blind boy?” Bane was shaking with rage. “Now lie on the ground, face down. Keep your hands where I can see them.”

The soldiers exchanged an uneasy look. Obeyed. Bane promptly rammed the muzzle of the rifle into the base of the first soldier’s skull.

“Bane…”

For another second he remained, quivering, his knuckles white, then he reversed his grip on the rifle and brought the butt smashing down on the soldier’s head. Without a sound, the man went limp. The other soldier began to roll over; swiftly Bane struck him, too. Two unconscious soldiers.

Bane flung the rifle away from him as though he didn’t dare have it in his possession for another second. I made the one I held safe, and slung it over my shoulder, picked up the other and did the same. Deposited them both beside Jon.

Bane was already there. “Hey, mate, you awake? Jon?”

I took Jon’s head and cradled it in the bend of my arm. “Check his leg...” I stretched out to grab the spotlight and draw it closer, pointing at Jon’s thigh. Uh oh. Blood glistened everywhere.

“Where’s the t-shirt gone?” Bane started looking around.

“Margo?” whispered Jon.

“You are awake! Are you okay? What did they do?”

“Oh, nothing, mostly just kicked my leg and stuff. Don’t worry about me.”

Knowing Jon, not nice to think what “mostly” and “stuff” consisted of—at least he was conscious and making sense.

“Well, Bane’s going to sort your leg, then we’ll move. Come on, Bane,” I added urgently. “These two weren’t just out for a nighttime stroll.”

“Gah!” Abandoning his search for the missing “bandage,” Bane went to the nearest soldier, rolled him over, and began to search him. He transferred a few things to his own pockets before finally holding something up with a triumphant, “hah”. When he ripped the wrapper off and began to unravel it, I realized it was a proper bandage, complete with a cotton pad.

I sighed in relief and stroked Jon’s hair. “Can I borrow the light for a moment?”

“Yes. Why?”

Picking up the spotlight, I shone it around, careful not to raise it too far from the ground—it would show up a lot more if I pointed it into the distance.

“Just trying to figure out what these two
were
doing out here. If it was a net to catch us, we’d be in sight of the others, but there’s no one there or they’d have shown up by now. So
what
… Oh.” I raised the light a little further, for confirmation. The treeless area ran away from us into the distance in both directions. “It’s a fire break, not a clearing. These soldiers were supposed to spot us crossing it as we fled from the others. We must’ve been further ahead than they realized.”

Putting the light down, I took a magazine from one of the rifles. Ah, quick load, how convenient. I popped the catch to release the rounds, caught them as they dropped out and hurled them into the distant grass. Didn’t want the soldier shooting us in the back if they came round before we were out of sight…

“Yeah, we must
have been.”
Bane tied off the bandage and punched Jon in the arm. A dog barked. Closer. “Come on, let’s
go.”

“For pity’s sake, Bane,” whispered Jon, “you’re not seriously going to take me along, even now?”

“Shut up!” snapped Bane. “Or I’ll clout you on the head too. Won’t make any difference when it comes to carting you around! Come
on
, Margo.”

I flung the magazines in the opposite direction to the bullets, switched off the light and chucked it into the forest, then dumped the rifles beside the soldiers. Until someone showed up with a flashlight, our sleeping friends were going to be pretty ineffective. But they might need more than a light, and the trackers in the rifles would ensure they got a medic a.s.a.p. They were definitely alive—one was snoring—but how healthy, I wouldn’t like to say.

Getting Jon’s arm over my shoulder, I bent my knees and groaning, Bane and I hoisted him up.
We could lift him again
… An irrational wave of optimism swept the demon of despair from my mind.

“You’re mad,” gasped Jon.

“Shut it!” we told him so fiercely that the demon seemed to let go of him too. He shut it, anyway.

Running when we could—downhill—we staggered on. Time seemed suspended. We’d not had anything like enough rest to carry Jon again and twice as fast. Every time we began to feel sure he’d fall to the ground, a bark sounded, closer, always closer, and a fresh surge of adrenalin drove us on…

…I’d lost a chunk of time and forest somewhere. Now we stumbled, shuffled, no more running, even the nearing barking couldn’t speed our steps.
Any ideas, Lord? Angel Margaret?

On. On. On.

“Stop!”
Jon’s voice, hoarse and totally unexpected. He was conscious?

“What?” whispered Bane thickly.

“Do
not
move!”

We’d already stopped, our bodies more than happy to obey even if our brains didn’t understand.

“Why?” I managed.

“Train tracks. High voltage...” Jon’s voice was labored, his head barely raised from his chest. “Just ahead…”

“How on earth…?” started Bane, but dismissed the question. “You smell or hear it, who cares? Margo, can you get your flashlight out if I try and take Jon’s weight?”

“Okay.”

I took my hand from Jon’s back and wriggled it into my pocket, eased the flashlight out. Got my hand cupped around the front and switched it on.

“Oh…”

“…hell,” finished Bane.

There in the shaded light of the flashlight was an electric rail. Bane had already stepped over one of the outer tracks unawares and his foot was just a couple of inches from the live metal. For a few moments we just stared at the insignificant looking obstacle. The tracks ran along a ridge rising from left to right; on the other side of them, the forest fell away again.

“Let’s just step back while we think about this.” I switched off the flashlight and very, very carefully, we did so.

“Never thought I’d see the day when we’d be stumped by a tiny thing like that.” Bane spoke almost under his breath. “But there’s no way we can lift Jon over.”

“Could we go along them?”

Bane turned and looked back down the slope. Lights twinkled in the trees behind us, in a long line. From the closest point came yet another excited bark.

“We’d be caught in minutes, now. We have to get over.”

“Then get over, you bloody stubborn idiots!” wheezed Jon.

I ignored him; more surprisingly, so did Bane.

“Let’s put him down, I need to get something…”

“We’ll never get him up again…” But Bane had already lowered Jon to the ground and from the rustling, was groping in his pocket.

“Here.” Bane produced a little strip of blister pack, three pills long… from a compartment in his pocket knife?

“What on earth is that?”

He popped one out and fed it to Jon, placing a precautionary hand over Jon’s mouth until he swallowed. “Stimulant. Very powerful. If Jon can support even a bit of his weight, we’ll get over okay. I was thinking of breaking these out anyway, but they last less than fifteen minutes so let’s keep the other two just a little longer.”

“Why only three?”

“Had to sell your printer to get these.”

“Oh.”

“Wow.” Jon’s voice sounded stronger. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, shaking his head in bewilderment. “Am I dead? I feel heaps better…”

“So you should, but it’ll wear off fast enough, so let’s go…” said Bane.

Prudently, I switched the flashlight on and shone it on the rail, hooded once again with my hand, before we all staggered to our feet. Jon only needed help to rise. We got a good grip on him and cautiously shuffled forward towards the rail.

Bark-bark.

Our heads all came up at once.

“Where did that come from?” said Bane uneasily.

I waited, ears straining. Thunder rumbled overhead. Please, please let it be a trick of the wind…

Bark. Bark.

Quickly I clicked off the flashlight.

“It’s coming from the other side of the rail.”

***+***

18

SURROUNDED

For a moment we just stood, staring down the slope beyond the rails, hoping Jon would contradict me.

Bark bark.

That was from further along. There… a light gleamed. And another. And another. If we could turn and sprint alongside the tracks we wouldn’t be fast enough. It probably wasn’t two lines, it was probably a circle.

Trapped.

With unspoken agreement, we stepped back again and eased Jon to the ground. Dropping to my knees, I spread my hands to the inky blackness of the sky.

Shouts from behind. Barks from ahead. I didn’t open my eyes.

Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
An almost wordless appeal. I fought free of despair enough to put words together.
Is it time for acceptance? Was the van just a trial run? But we’ve come so far! Lord? Has it all been for nothing? Did we ever really have a chance?

“We’re totally surrounded,” said Jon.

“Thank you for that incredibly perceptive observation,” snarled Bane.

I said before that we’d get to Rome if You willed it. Well, it’s never been as true as it is at this moment. If You want us to get out of this, You’ll have to save us even more than normal. Save us, Lord. Save us, Lord… If it is Your will. Save us!

“Come off it,” said Jon, “biting my head off is really the last thing you want to say to me?”

“Oh, shut up, Margo’s doing some serious praying.”

“Think I’ll join her.”

I breathed slowly, in and out, reminding myself of trust.
Lord, if You’ve got us halfway across the continent just to fail now, I trust Your better judgment, I really do. But it seems more likely to my feeble mind that You want us to make it. So send me an answer, quick!

The wind howled—was that the crack of branches under distant booted feet? They were closing in. Acceptance, then.

Domine, jam nunc quodcumque                    

mortis genus prout Tibi placuerit,
      

cum omnibus suis poenis           
                     

ac doloribus suscipio.       
                               

O Lord, I now, at this moment,

willingly accept whatever kind of death

it may please You to send me,

with all its pains and sorrows.

Amen. But just for the record, Lord, this does really suck.

“Margo…”

Bane. He drew me to my feet and into his arms. His skin was burning and a fine tremor of exhaustion racked his body. “I love you. I love you…” He kissed me frantically, tenderly, his arms gathering me closer as though to protect me from the night. From what was in the night.

Shouts from across the tracks, now. Soldiers calling to one another. Dogs barking. And from behind. Even the wind couldn’t drown them out. How far away? As little as a few hundred meters? They couldn’t see us yet, for the trees, but we could see their lights…

“I love you…”

“I love you too.” I kissed him, my arms wrapping around his hot, bare back, and tasted salt on my lips. He was crying.

“Love you, Margo. Love you forever…” He clutched me to him with only his left arm, now, his right hand slipping into his pocket...

I kissed him, just kissed him, didn’t want to think, couldn’t think about anything else.
I love you, Bane
…

My eyes opened in the vain hope of seeing his face, but the darkness was too great. Save those winking lights, coming closer.

“Love you…” His voice shook...

And
that
light… that great, great light, approaching… approaching so
fast
… so…

My hand flew down Bane’s right arm and closed around his wrist. “Stop!”

Too dark to see what he held—alas, I was a selfish cowardly wretch and I
did
know really, just pretending I didn’t. Pretending to myself. Committing a bad action for a good reason didn’t make it okay—yet I would really let Bane take this on himself?

“Margo! This isn’t the time for high-minded…”

“No.
Look
. Behind you…”

Bane turned. “Where?”

“The light.”

It was a train.

“A train! Are you actually thinking…” His head turned—immediately calculating the gradient of the slope, its length. Steep and long. “In our condition? We’ll fall under the wheels trying.”

I nearly laughed. “Well, that’ll be nice and quick, won’t it? Come on, we haven’t got any choice! We’re getting on. We’re
supposed
to.”

“Supposed…? Oh, I’m not even going there. No choice, I’ll give you that.” His head turned back and forth again, still calculating. We’d done this loads of times in our early teens, with the slow cargo trains that passed through Salperton, but
Jon
...

“Okay,” he said, “I’ll start a little way down the slope, get on first. You help Jon run alongside, I’ll haul him on, you climb straight up after. Think you can do it? You’ll be running alongside the longest.”

“I’m
going
to do it. We’re
all
going to do it.”

In that moment I was quite, quite certain. I had asked Him to send us an answer, and here it was. Unusual for a prayer to be answered quite so literally, but I wasn’t looking a gift train in the mouth.

Bane swapped what he held for something crackly—the remaining two pills. Hesitated for a moment.

“Jon, here, take another.” He pressed one out. “The three of us are about to jump a train.”

I didn’t miss the note of unease in his voice as he stuffed it into Jon’s mouth. “Is it safe?”

“Safer than dismantling.”

“Yeah. S’pose.”

Jon swallowed it uncomplainingly.

“I’ll cut this one in half,” said Bane.

“No, you won’t! You take it! I can’t lift Jon onto the train and if you can’t get Jon on, we’re done for. You take it.”

“I’m not having you left behind.” Bane’s tone was steely. “You’re having a nibble.” He pressed the pill to my teeth. “Open.”

I sighed and obeyed.

He inched it in a little. “Bite.”

I obeyed again. “Yuk.”

But I swallowed the tiny fragment. Felt rather than saw him slip the remainder into his mouth, then... Wow. Strength flooded into my shaking legs, the lead bled from my arms… amazing!

“Come on, quick, it’s coming up fast…” said Bane. “Get behind a tree until the locomotive passes, we don’t want the driver to see us.”

Let’s hope it wasn’t a passenger train.

Jon scrambled to his feet unaided.

“Bring on the train, I could tackle Mount Everest…”

He sounded almost drunk, but he followed as I led him behind the nearest of the trees crowding close to the tracks. Bane headed down slope a little way—paused first to hurl something across the tracks as far as he could. A flashlight or a lighter, at a guess. To make them think we’d gone straight over.

I spoke as loud as I dared over the noise of the train. “Jon, do you understand what we’re doing? Bane will get on the train first, we’ll run alongside, when he grabs you and starts pulling you up, jump on and climb up as best you can, okay? The ladder will probably have wide-spaced rungs, a good foot apart. I’ll climb up behind you.” I lowered my voice. “And if something goes wrong, try not to let Bane jump off again, okay?”

“Huh.” Not exactly agreement, but he’d definitely heard me. ‘Cause if anyone didn’t make it on, it would be me, but there was no other order in which to do it.

“Okay, be ready. I’ll try to give you a count down, then we run. And
don’t
fall.”

Jon grimaced.

“I’ll pick my feet up. I can’t even feel that hole in my leg now.”

“Good.”

The train was approaching rapidly now. In fact… it was closer than I thought...

“It’s going too fast!” called Bane softly, from behind his tree, and immediately added, “We’ve no choice! We have to try. I’ll need to be further away…”

His silhouette flitted away as he moved to hide behind another, more distant tree. The train was so close the light dazzled us. Damn, it
was
going fast. The long climb up the mountain had hardly slowed it down at all!

I stopped looking for Bane after the locomotive passed him—no light, not a passenger train. Flatcars loaded with containers…

“Get ready, Jon. Sprint like you’ve never sprinted before. Three, two, one…”

Whine
… The engine passed us.

“Run…!”

We ran. Awkwardly, with his arm around my shoulders, because whatever he said, his body still knew he had a bad leg, and he needed the support, but we ran, fueled by adrenaline and Bane’s drug. Ran
fast.
I could feel my feet tearing up the gravel—
Lord, don’t let my foot slip now!
—I steered Jon closer to the cars.

Flatcar… flatcar… flatcar…

Bane’s face was suddenly alongside, a white blur against the blackness of the cars... It-was-going-
so
-fast! I shoved Jon over to him; felt his arms flail as he searched for the ladder. Bane must’ve got hold of his arm because suddenly Jon was on the side of the car, pulling rapidly ahead of me. Far too rapidly. Couldn’t reach the car now, let alone once Jon was out of the way.

“Next car… don’t panic…” I gasped, hoping Bane might hear me over the noise of the wheels and wind.

The next car… already coming alongside. Legs burning. Chest burning. Legs going wobbly again… One chance… There was the ladder…

I lunged as blindly as Jon had… a moment of heart stopping panic as my hands travelled unimpeded through the air—I’d missed! Then—
slap!
My hands closed on a rung, and my arms were almost yanked from their sockets. I just managed to drive my legs in one more tremendous step, pushing me forward… leap!

My flailing legs found the bottom step of the ladder, and for a few moments I just hung there, gasping, the rush blowing my hair back from my face.

Made it.
Laudate Dominum. Deo gratias.

The top of the hill was coming up... I didn’t want Bane to jump off to look for me before we reached it... driving my shaking body into action, I climbed the last few rungs to the narrow platform at the end of the flatcar, then ran my hands over the container. No ladder. Blast! I groped around a bit more, frantic to reach Bane… Right, hinges and door latches for footholds, those long straight locking rods for hand holds, and I must do it all in one rush, if I’d a hope of grabbing the top of the container.

I imagined Bane jumping off again, back into that net of soldiers… and launched myself up the steel side, feet scrabbling for the sticking-out bits, fingers clinging to those narrow metal rods. Without Bane’s stimulant, I wouldn’t have made it. As it was, I dragged myself up onto the roof, allowed myself a couple of breaths to rest, then slithered along on my stomach for safety. Heard Bane before I saw him.

“Margo! Margo!”

“Bane, shut up! I’m coming.” I reached the front of the container and looked down at two dark shapes huddled on the platform at the back of the flatcar in front. Phew. I wouldn’t have to climb the next container after all. Not sure I could!

“Oh thank God!” said Bane, as he saw my silhouette.

“That’s unusually polite of you.” Lowering myself from the top of the container until my arms gave way, I dropped, grabbing the locking rods again to stop myself going over the edge. Then, quickly but carefully, I crossed the shifting joint between the two cars. Feeling around when I reached the other side, I realized why Bane hadn’t come to look for me. Jon was unconscious, and Bane didn’t dare leave him on the swaying, rattling platform in case he was flung off. “Is Jon okay?”

“Just passed out. Not surprisingly.”

I felt Jon over quickly to make sure he hadn’t lost any body parts to the wheels. His left leg was totally soaked in blood despite the bandage but his foot was still there. “Well, that’s that.”

“
That’s that?
I’ll say!”

“Why’re you so cross? We’ve escaped, haven’t we?”

“Hasn’t occurred to you yet, has it? How the hell are we going to get
off?”

Oh. Yes, problematic. A lot more dangerous than getting on, at this speed. How to get Jon off… no more pills, we’d have to pretty much pick him up and throw him, which we probably couldn’t do and which he probably wouldn’t survive.

“Well, if we get inside a container we can sneak out while it’s stopped somewhere quiet.”

He took a couple of deep breaths. “True... Okay, can you sit here and stop Jon rolling off and I’ll go and see about getting a container open? This one’s got a flipping code-lock on it.”

“Okay.”

As I shifted position, another crack of thunder boomed overhead and rain began to fall. Slow big drops, rapidly increasing to a downpour. Good. It’d wash away both tracks and scent, and this train was surely going so fast it wouldn’t occur to them we could’ve got on. Why so fast, though?