Chapters (37)
‘We found the stairwell to Floor C. The security door is humans only, and the keycard we stole has been cancelled already.’
Kate wiped her face, leaned against the nearest wall and let out a moan. She knew what was coming.
‘If you find a human, kill them and take their keycard. Ewan and I didn’t find anybody on the way here.’
10:26 p.m.
Shannon had not been frightened at first. Not until Lorraine had burst into tears. Her cries had been loud enough to hear halfway down the street, but she didn’t seem to care. The attic’s tiny size amplified the volume as the sounds echoed off the walls.
‘Do you want me to be in charge of the phone?’ Shannon asked.
‘Not a chance,’ Lorraine replied.
Shannon knew better than to argue. Perhaps Lorraine blamed herself for McCormick’s capture. And, in all likelihood, his eventual death once Dad was finished with him.
Shannon had vivid memories of Daniel Amopoulos’ torture, which she had kept to herself. Nobody in Spitfire’s Rise needed to know that her father had made her watch. Or how it had ended for Daniel, and what probably lay in store for McCormick too.
Unless, of course, his bomb helped the others rescue him.
‘Lorraine,’ she said, ‘I don’t know what’s happening in four minutes, but if you’re not up to talking then I have to be. Tell me everything I need to know—’
‘Maybe it’ll mean we win the battle, but not the war. Or maybe we won’t win either. But once it goes off, everything changes.’
Lorraine lay her head in her cupped hands, and rested her elbows on the table to support its weight.
‘I told you about Joey Shetland tonight,’ she said, ‘and my twenty years of trying to make the world less ugly.’
‘It was brave of you to tell me. Come to think of it, your whole life’s been an act of bravery.’
Lorraine ignored the compliment.
‘Nursing taught me that sometimes, ugliness can’t be avoided. And combat has taught me that sometimes you have to cause ugliness to make the world better.’
Shannon took a moment to remember Keith Tylor, Grant’s number two assassin, who she had stabbed to death the night she first met the Underdogs. That had been ugly enough, and it had made the world better. But she wasn’t sure it was the type of ugliness Lorraine meant.
‘McCormick’s bomb will make the world ugly?’ asked Shannon.
Lorraine nodded, but offered no details.
‘In a few minutes’ time,’ Shannon continued, ‘you’ll be explaining the whole thing to Ewan. If it’ll make it easier, you can practice with me right now.’
Lorraine gave Shannon a vicious eye, but turned her seat in her direction. Apparently she thought it was a good idea.
‘Lorraine,’ asked Shannon, ‘where did McCormick plant the bomb?’