Split Second (28 page)

At last the driver stopped beside a stretch of woodland. I stared out of the window. This was the same place that we’d come to for the induction weekend. My guts twisted. Did that mean the
English Freedom Army was behind everything that had happened tonight? My head spun as Taylor undid our ankle bindings and ordered us out of the car. Over the past couple of months, I’d let go
of my suspicions about the EFA. Now it looked like I’d been right about them all along.

‘Does the EFA know what you’re doing?’ I demanded.

Taylor didn’t answer. He made me put on a sweatshirt and some boots, then refastened my wrists and led me and Aaron through the trees towards the derelict farmhouse I’d stayed in all
those months ago and which served as one of the EFA’s operations bases. I had no idea what time it was, but it must have been past midnight. I tried to focus on my surroundings, so that I
could find my way back to the road if we managed to escape.

It was a big ‘if’.

Aaron had asked several times what Taylor was planning to do with him. I kept quiet, knowing that once Taylor had refused to answer, there was no point pushing him. The EFA soldier on the door
of the farmhouse saluted as Taylor passed him.

Taylor locked both of us in the room with the diesel cans where I’d searched for Nat all those months ago. Our hands were still bound but Aaron and I could speak freely and, as soon as
Taylor had gone, Aaron bombarded me with questions: Who was Taylor? Why had he been kidnapped? Why was I involved?

I answered as honestly as I could, explaining that the EFA had presented itself as a non-violent organisation set up to combat terrorism.

‘I don’t know why Taylor took you,’ I admitted. ‘But it looks like the EFA were behind it.’

‘I know why they took me,’ Aaron said bitterly. ‘It’s obvious what they’re doing.’

I stared at him. ‘What d’you mean?’

‘They’re going to try and get a ransom off my dad,’ he said. ‘Probably as a way of funding themselves.’

I fell silent. Was that true?

Another hour passed, then two more. I couldn’t see the time but it had to be late. After midnight for sure. Brian and Gail would be desperately worried about me. I wondered what on earth
Jas had told them.

The minutes ticked by. And then Taylor was back. ‘Come with me, Charlie,’ he ordered.

I shot a quick look at Aaron, then followed Taylor along the hall to the kitchen. He opened what I’d thought was a cupboard door to reveal a short flight of steps. Down these to the
basement and some kind of operational centre, empty of people but complete with filing cabinets, desks and banks of computers. My attention was caught by the computer in the corner. The sound was
off but the news screen quite clearly showed smoke rising from rubble at the edge of the Houses of Parliament. Was that the bomb we’d heard about on the radio news earlier?

‘Hello, Charlie.’

I spun around. My mouth fell open as I came face to face with Roman Riley. What was a politician doing here? Taylor stood beside him.

‘It’s good to meet you at last,’ Riley said. He extended his hand. ‘I’m Roman Riley.’

I backed away. ‘What’s going on?’ I demanded.

Riley smiled that warm grin of his I was so familiar with from TV. ‘I’m the EFA Commander. I’m the one who ordered Aaron Latimer’s kidnapping. I’m the one who
insisted you were brought here tonight.’

‘
What?
’ I glanced at Taylor, then back to Riley. ‘I don’t understand.’

Riley smiled again. ‘The chain of command is pretty simple, Charlie. I order Taylor to act. He orders you. And you’ve both performed brilliantly tonight.’ He paused.
‘Taylor, you can go now.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Without looking at me, Taylor left the basement room.

‘I still don’t understand,’ I said.

Riley sighed. ‘I hear you tried to escape earlier,’ he said. ‘So I thought it was time for a full explanation. I’m sorry we didn’t bring you in earlier, but you are
very young. And what we were doing required absolute secrecy.’

‘You mean the kidnapping?’ I asked. ‘I thought the EFA was
against
violence?’

Riley considered this for a moment. ‘It’s about seeing the bigger picture, Charlie,’ he said. ‘We took Aaron so we’d have some leverage over his father.’

‘You mean so you can
blackmail
him? Why?’ I frowned. ‘I thought you . . . I thought your party was a
democratic
party? I thought you did everything inside the
law?’

‘The party does, that’s why I had to set up the English Freedom Army to deal with the country’s more . . . challenging problems.’ Riley sighed. ‘The Mayor of London
is a weak man. He doesn’t always act in the country’s best interests.’

‘And you do?’ I shook my head. ‘This isn’t right. Whichever way you look at it, blackmailing the Mayor by threatening Aaron is going too far. You’re making Aaron
suffer. None of this is his fault.’

Riley raised an eyebrow. ‘Perhaps not,’ he said. ‘But you know from your training, Charlie, that power requires ruthlessness.’ He paused, his eyes alive with cold
intelligence. ‘Don’t you think that sometimes the end justifies the means?’

‘Nothing justifies terrifying and threatening a teenage boy,’ I insisted. I pointed to the computer screen in the corner, still showing footage of the explosion at the Houses of
Parliament. ‘Did you do that too? Was Nat caught up in it? Is he okay?’

Riley sighed. ‘I’m afraid I can’t talk to you about that right now.’

My chest tightened.

‘Was Nat there?’ I persisted. ‘Is he hurt?’

‘Let’s not dwell on collateral damage,’ Riley said quietly.

I dug my fingernails into my palms. What was he saying? That Nat was gone?

‘Where is Nat now?’

Riley said nothing. His silence oozed menace. Then he cleared his throat.

‘I want you to join my inner circle, Charlie,’ he said.

‘What?’ I said, startled. I certainly hadn’t expected that.

‘I know the pain that lives inside you,’ Riley went on, his voice soft. ‘I see you better than you see yourself. You have no fear, you are smart, a good fighter. In fact, I see
a lot of myself in you.’

‘I don’t see how—’

‘Like you I never knew my father. He was, like yours, a soldier who died fighting for his country when I was a baby. And, like you, I lost my mother when I was a teenager.’ He
paused. ‘You’re the real deal, Charlie. Most people need to belong but you, you aren’t afraid to be on the outside . . . you need no-one. That makes you unbelievably powerful and,
if you agree to work with me, I can help you become more powerful still.’

My stomach twisted into knots. There was some truth in what he said. At least, maybe there had been. I had kept myself separate from everyone in my life since Mum died: from Aunt Karen, from
Brian and Gail and Rosa, even from Jas.

But not from Nat. He had got right under my skin, almost as if he was a part of me.

‘I don’t accept your offer,’ I said, drawing myself up. ‘I don’t want to work with you. I don’t think it’s okay to kidnap and blackmail
people.’

Another silence. Riley waited, as if expecting me to say more. But all I wanted now was to leave. Riley didn’t stop me. But as I walked to the door, Taylor appeared, blocking my way, his
gun in his hand. He looked at Riley.

‘Sir?’

‘Charlie needs time to think,’ Riley said smoothly. ‘Put her in The Hole.’

‘No—’ I started, but Taylor had already grabbed my arm and was marching me out of the room. I struggled, but he pressed the gun against my ribs. A few moments later I was
shoved inside a dark room. I fell to the stone floor, landing heavily on my side as the door slammed shut. The ground beneath me was cold and hard, the room pitch black.

I sat for a moment in the darkness. I could see nothing, not even my hand in front of my face. And all I could hear was the sound of my own harsh, shallow breathing.

I was utterly alone.

My head felt thick, like someone had stuffed it full of padding. I was lying on something hard and cold, my body stiff and frozen. I opened my eyes. White plasterboard loomed
up in front of me: a wall. Where was I? I struggled to move and the world seemed to tilt sideways. I lay still for a few moments. What had happened?

Like a wave of cold water the whole thing crashed, shockingly, over me. I remembered the bomb, Taylor’s betrayal . . . and that Roman Riley was behind it all.

Suddenly awake, I sat bolt upright. I was in a tiny room, dark and bare. A streak of moonlight streamed in through the only window which was set in the sloping roof. I scrambled to my feet. The
room spun around me again and I clutched at the wall. I could barely stand upright here, under the slope. I staggered into the middle of the room.

Where the hell was I?

Slowly, easing my stiff muscles into action, I made it to the window across the room. It was dark outside and raining, but I could just see the woods in the distance. It was all horribly
familiar. This was where Charlie and I had come for our first EFA training. Riley or one of his men must have driven me here from London. Which meant I must have been unconscious for hours.

Where was Charlie? Was she okay? And what about George? I staggered over to the door. It was locked. I banged on the wood. Footsteps sounded outside, but no-one came. I tried to cry out, but my
mouth was so dry that all that emerged was a hoarse gasp. I turned back to the window. I pushed at the catch, but it held. I made a fist, intending to break the glass, then realised I would cut
myself if I just punched at the window. I looked around for something to wrap my fist in, to protect my hand. But just then the door opened and Taylor walked in.

We stared at each other. Taylor raised his gun. ‘Out,’ he ordered.

I stumbled to the door. Taylor pushed me outside, onto a small landing. I must be in the attic of the farmhouse.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked, my head clearing properly. ‘Why did you make me take that bomb? Riley ordered it, didn’t he? Where’s George? Is he okay? What
about Charlie?’

‘Quiet.’ Taylor pushed me towards the stairs.

‘I don’t understand.’ An intense fury started to build inside me as I remembered how proud I had once felt of being part of the Army. ‘What happened to “strength
and honour”,
sir
? You said the EFA was non-violent, that we only fought in self-defence, but you gave me a bomb to set off, people died, you . . . you . . .’ I stopped, my
throat choking with the realisation of how close I had come to dying earlier.

And how little this had mattered to Taylor.

‘I didn’t
want
you to die,’ Taylor muttered, his gun still in his hand. ‘I was just following orders. The bomb had to happen. Which meant someone had to be seen
near a known League of Iron house earlier in the evening – that’s why I sent you all over north London before going on the tube to Covent Garden.’ He paused. ‘Then someone
had to take the bomb to . . . to where it needed to be.’

‘You used me . . . and George and Charlie . . . you used
all
of us.’ My guts gave a sickening twist. ‘You used my brother for the Canal Street market bomb too,
didn’t you?’

Taylor cleared his throat, then prodded me down the stairs to the first floor. ‘I already told you a long time ago, Lucas made a noble sacrifice.’

‘Oh, God.’ I felt sick as I remembered the text I’d seen on Lucas’s phone.

Take package – Canal St market, 3pm

Lucas had taken his ‘package’
to
the market after all. Like me, he hadn’t known what he was really doing. Like me, he had been left for dead. How ironic, I thought
bitterly. I truly had followed in my brother’s footsteps, in the worst possible way.

‘Why?’ I asked. ‘
Why
did there have to be a bomb?’

‘It’s part of the Commander’s theory of Chaos to Order,’ Taylor said. ‘You set off bombs, get others to claim them, to scare people.’

‘What does scaring them achieve?’

‘When the public are scared, they look for strong leadership,’ Taylor explained. ‘In a civilised society, only a minority of people will follow an openly violent leader, but if
you keep yourself separate from the violence, then you allow them to feel good about themselves
and
you do what needs to be done: discrediting the extremists and allowing the right people
into power.’

‘Roman Riley being “the right people”, I suppose.’ I threw Taylor a scathing look as we reached the first-floor landing. This was where we had slept during the induction
weekend.

‘Commander Riley has a
lot
of support,’ Taylor said. ‘Huge sections of the police for instance.’

‘Right.’ My mind flashed back to the officer I’d gone up to just after the bombing. No wonder he’d looked guilty. He’d been working for Roman Riley. In fact, I
realised with a jolt, when Taylor had kept emphasising how corrupt the police were he hadn’t been exaggerating the extent of their dishonesty, just lying about who they supported. ‘So
Commander Riley has brainwashed the police into thinking he’s a big deal too.’

Taylor flashed an angry glance at me. ‘He
is
a big deal, Nat. He’s going to save this country.’

I shook my head as we headed down the stairs to the ground floor. For a second I considered making a grab for Taylor’s gun. But that would be stupid. I knew only too well that Taylor was
faster and stronger than I was. ‘What about George and Parveen and . . . and Charlie?’ I asked instead. ‘Are they okay?’

‘Information on George and Parveen is classified, but Charlie is fine.’

‘Are you sure?’ I asked. ‘Is she really all right?’

Taylor snorted. ‘Oh, you don’t need to worry about
Charlie
. She’s here, with the Commander.’

‘
Here?
’ My stomach clenched as we reached the ground floor. I had hoped Charlie was still back in London, safe from harm.

‘Yes. The Commander’s chosen to bring her into his inner circle. Now she’s kidnapped Aaron Latimer for him, she’ll be trained as—’

‘She kidnapped Aaron?’ My mouth fell open. ‘No way. I saw her at his party. She was briefed to get to know him, that’s all. Those were
your
orders.’