Arrival (8 page)

I spun around. Four men in black uniforms were coming toward us, torches in hand.

Officer Calvin and his security staff.

Chapter 11

S
UNDAY
, M
AY
10
95
DAYS

Crazy Bill's eyes went wide.

‘Run for it?' I hissed.

‘Too late,' said Peter. ‘They've already seen us.'

My eyes flashed down to Calvin's right hand, which was hovering over the gun holstered to his side. How much had he heard?

Suddenly, Crazy Bill was pacing again. He started muttering under his breath, words coming out in a rush like he was hurrying to say it all before it was too late. It was so incoherent that I could only pick up bits of it.

‘Fury – met in the house – both go to law –'

‘What?' said Peter. ‘Mate, what are you talking about?'

But then Calvin cut into the middle of our circle, putting himself between us and Crazy Bill. ‘Step away from him please, children,' he ordered, as the other three men fanned out around Bill.

Crazy Bill took a step forward.
‘I will prosecute
you!'
he shouted, spattering spit across Calvin's face.

The Chief stood his ground, fingers brushing the grip of his pistol.

‘He tricked us, chief!' said Peter quickly.

‘Crazy Bill –' ‘
Now
please, children,' said Calvin, shooting a quick glance back over his shoulder. ‘Out of the way. He could be dangerous.'

My eyes darted between Officer Calvin and Crazy Bill. I backed away, not wanting to mess with either of them. Jordan and Peter did the same, but we all stopped moving as soon as Calvin turned his back.

‘Come, I'll take no denial!'
Crazy Bill was babbling.
‘We must have the trial –'
‘Now, now,' said Calvin, hand slowly closing around his gun, ‘no-one's talking about a trial. We just need you to come away from these children and –'
‘– really, this morning I've nothing to do!'
Bill shouted him down.

‘Reeve,' Calvin said urgently, waving a hand in our direction, ‘get them out of here.'

‘Yes, sir,' said one of the guards, immediately moving towards us, while the other two circled around behind Crazy Bill.

‘Such a trial, dear sir, with no jury or judge –'
‘C'mon,' said Reeve, putting a hand on my shoulder. ‘Time to go.'

‘– wasting our breath!'

‘Who
is
that guy?' I asked, still not taking my eyes away from Crazy Bill as the guard ushered us away.

‘He's just a street crazy,' said Reeve. ‘Usually doesn't give us any trouble, but if he's luring kids out here at night –'

‘I'll be judge!'
Crazy Bill shouted at the top of his lungs.
‘I'll be jury!'

‘Those your bikes over there?' Reeve asked, ignoring Bill and shining his torch over at the terminal.

‘Huh? Oh. Yeah,' I said, glancing back over my shoulder as we headed towards the grey building. The guards behind Crazy Bill had both drawn their weapons. Bill turned to look at one of them. He froze on the spot. But there was no fear in his eyes, just a kind of crazed determination.

‘I'll try the whole cause!'
he raved.

‘That's enough,' said Calvin firmly, training his own weapon on Crazy Bill. ‘If you cannot control yourself, I will be forced to –'

‘I'll try the whole cause and condemn you to
DEATH
!'

‘See?' Reeve told us. ‘Complete head-case. But we'll bring him back to the station and make sure he gets –'

There was a shout behind us, followed by a loud ‘OOF!' as someone got tackled to the ground. Looking back, I could just make out two people wrestling on the tarmac.

‘Nothing to worry about,' Reeve said anxiously, hurrying us along. ‘All under control.'

BLAM
!

One of the other security guards had opened fire. Crazy Bill let out a growl, hurt, or maybe just angry.

‘Get down!' Reeve ordered, spinning around.

The three of us dropped to the ground, but there was no cover anywhere. Nothing to hide behind. Just flat tarmac all the way out to the bush. All it would take was for one stray bullet to come whizzing our way and –
BLAM
!
BLAM
!

If you've never heard gunfire up close, you've got no idea how terrifying it is. I imagined every one of those bullets ripping a hole straight through me.

I raised my head slightly, trying to catch sight of what was going on through the officers' torch beams, but they were moving around so much that it was almost impossible to make anything out. I heard more shouts and the sound of footsteps on gravel, and then Crazy Bill howled like an animal.

‘Chief!' someone shouted. ‘Quick, grab his –'

A panicked scream cut across the airstrip, and one of the torches went clattering to the ground. The screaming quickly got louder and I saw something big and solid-looking shooting through the air, headed straight for us. I dived out of the way just in time to avoid being flattened by the flying mass as it hit the ground. There was a sickening crunch and the screaming stopped.

Jordan gasped. Peter made a gagging noise. I rolled over on the tarmac and felt a massive shudder rip through my body. A single, bulging, bloodshot eye was staring back at me, inches from my face.

It was one of the guards. He'd hit the ground face-first and his arms were splayed out at his sides, bending at angles that arms are definitely not supposed to bend at. I fought back a scream, scrambled away from him and jumped to my feet. The eye kept staring for a few seconds, then rolled back up into its socket.

‘Weary!' Reeve shouted, shoving me aside and bending down to check the man's pulse. ‘Are you –?'

BLAM
!

Dropping to the ground again, I heard footsteps thundering closer. Someone running towards us. There was a thud and another crunch of gravel and the runner was knocked down onto the tarmac.

BLAM
!
BLAM
!
BLAM
!

The gunshots were closer this time, more frantic.

‘Put it away!' Calvin ordered. ‘You're only making him –' His voice turned into a scream and I saw another dark shape go flying across the tarmac.

I turned away, shuddering, as Calvin thudded to the ground.

Officer Reeve stood up again, looking pale in the torchlight. He froze, probably trying to decide whether to stay with us or go back.

There was another volley of gunshots.

Jordan's eyes flashed to Reeve. ‘Should we –?'

‘No,' he said. ‘Go. Get out of here, fast as you can. Go
straight home.

' ‘Definitely,' Peter said, sounding like he was about to be sick.

Officer Reeve tossed me his torch and then ran back to join the fray.

We ran the rest of the way to the terminal building, grabbed our bikes, and pedalled away down the dirt track into the bush.

Chapter 12

M
ONDAY
, M
AY
11
94
DAYS

There was no sign of Crazy Bill anywhere in town the next day.

Not that I was expecting to see him. If he'd escaped the guards, he'd probably be hiding out somewhere, lying low. Or else he'd been shot or arrested, in which case he definitely wouldn't be roaming the streets any time soon.

I'd fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow last night, but it didn't last long. My dreams were a mess of shouts and gunshots and flashes of Crazy Bill's twisted face, and I kept jolting awake, half-expecting to find that poor security officer's crumpled body still lying next to me, his huge unblinking eye drilling a hole in my head.

It was almost a relief when my alarm finally got me up for school.

I saw Jordan on the way there. She was walking out of the office complex as I rode past, through a glass sliding door marked Phoenix Medical Centre. She waved to me on her way down the steps and I stopped to wait for her.

‘Everything okay?' I asked as she came over.

‘Huh?' She followed my eyes back to the medical centre. ‘Oh, right. Yeah, everything's fine. Mum just went in for an appointment. Nothing serious.'

‘Oh, okay. Good.'

‘I got up early to come in with her,' Jordan continued, bending down to unlock her bike from a rack out the front of the building. ‘You know, as a peace offering after last night. She wasn't too happy when I came home after dark without a good reason.'

‘But it was only eight-thirty!' I said, raising an eyebrow. ‘Besides, it's not like you could have called her and told her where you were.'

‘Yeah, but missing dinner without a good reason is basically a criminal offence in my family,' said Jordan, standing up again. ‘What about you? How was your mum about it?'

‘She doesn't even know I was gone,' I said as we wheeled our bikes back out into the street. ‘I beat her home by twenty minutes.'

‘Lucky,' said Jordan.

‘I guess so,' I shrugged. But as far as family problems went, I thought having a mum who wanted me home in time for dinner was probably not so terrible.

We walked down the street in silence for a while. I was still lost in the insanity of the night before, and I figured Jordan was probably feeling the same. She had this steely look in her eyes, like she was trying to push it all down so she didn't have to think about it. I felt like I should say something to her. Ask her how she was feeling, or reassure her that everything would be okay, or … I don't know. Something. But I couldn't find the words for any of it.

In the end, she was the one to break the silence.

‘At least the security people haven't contacted our parents,' she said.

‘Yeah,' I said. ‘Not yet, anyway.'

Jordan looked thoughtful. ‘I don't think they will. Whatever Calvin is planning, the other guy in the recording told him to keep it quiet. I don't think he'll want to draw any unnecessary attention to what happened out there last night.'

‘Yeah, guess not.'

‘Assuming any of them even made it back from the airport,' Jordan added quietly.

My mind flashed back to Crazy Bill's sudden psychopathic outburst, to that dark shape curving through the air towards me, to that horrible screaming that got louder and louder and then suddenly
stopped
.

‘You saw it, right?' I said, after a minute.

‘Saw what?'

‘That security guard last night. The one who, you know, crashed into the ground next to us. He was – I mean, it
looked
like…' ‘It looked like Crazy Bill chucked him through the air,' Jordan supplied.

‘But that can't be what actually happened, right?' I said, trying to stay rational. ‘No-one has that kind of –'

‘Look!' said Jordan suddenly, pointing across the street.

It took me a minute to figure out who she was looking at. Officer Reeve was walking up the steps to the security centre, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans instead of his normal security gear. He looked pretty messed up, but at least he was still standing.

‘Do you reckon we should go over?' I asked.

But Jordan was already running to catch up with Reeve before he got inside. ‘Officer Reeve!' she called, ditching her bike on the grass outside the building.

Reeve stopped and turned around. One of his arms was bound up in plaster and the other one was covered in some nasty-looking grazes. He had bruising all across his face and about twenty stitches holding his cheek together. Seeing him in daylight, I realised he wasn't all that much older than we were – he only looked about twenty-five.

‘Oh, g'day,' he said to us, coming back down the stairs. ‘You kids get home all right last night?'

‘Yeah,' said Jordan. ‘Thanks.'

Reeve smiled, and then winced at the pain in his face.

‘You okay?' I asked, trying not to cringe.

‘Seem to be,' said Reeve. ‘Looks worse than it feels. Doc Montag's given me a few days off, though, to be on the safe side. Just coming in to deliver a statement and then I'm heading home.'

‘And the others?' Jordan pressed. ‘Are they…?'

Officer Reeve's smile disappeared. ‘They copped it worse than I did,' he said grimly. ‘From what I've heard, they reckon the chief should be back on his feet before long, but the others…' Reeve gazed back over the road at the medical centre and let out a sigh. ‘Officer Weary didn't make it.'

I gaped at him, horrified. Obviously it hadn't looked good for the security guard, but realising that I'd just seen someone
die
right in front of me… I shuddered.

Reeve nodded sadly. Then, like he was forcing himself to stay positive, he straightened up and said, ‘They're still working on Lazzaro, though. If anyone can sort him out, Doc Montag can.'

I glanced sideways at Jordan and she raised an eyebrow.

‘What about Crazy Bill?' I asked carefully. ‘Did you catch him?'

‘Oh,' said Reeve, not quite making eye contact. ‘We're, uh, not really at liberty to discuss that at the moment. We're still in the middle of our investigation and…' he trailed off again, looking down at his watch. Then, suddenly cheerful, he added, ‘Anyway, I'd better let you two get going. Wouldn't want you to be late for school. You kids stay out of trouble, all right?'

‘Uh, right,' I said. ‘See you.'

Officer Reeve gave us another wincing smile and made his way back up the stairs.

‘Crazy Bill got away,' said Peter knowingly, when we told him about running into Reeve. ‘He definitely got away.'

We were sitting in our science class threading beads onto bits of string. In theory, we were supposed to be modelling polypeptide synthesis. But in reality, most people were just making necklaces or chucking the beads at each other when Ms Benson wasn't looking.