Hailstone (17 page)

“Jesus Christ, are you a masochist? The boy just slapped you!” Kat tugged on the back of her shirt to pull her out of sight.

“He never used to be like that!” Magda cupped Kat’s face in her hands, trying to memorise it in case this day went any more wrong and she never got to see her again. “If I can get him to remember what they did, maybe we can get him back. Maybe he can tell us exactly what Preacher’s planning out here, because this street feels like it’s going to turn into a bloodbath any second, but nothing’s happening.”

“How are you going to do it, sweetie?” Stress bled into Adam’s voice. “Extremely experienced people spend weeks, months, reversing people who’ve been brainwashed by cults. I’d say we have about three minutes, once we got him.”

“You’re right, so let’s not waste time. Adam can we get into Pantheon? Will there be anyone in there?”

Adam’s eyes widened for a moment. “Yes we can and no there won’t. How are we going to get him in there though?”

“I’ll get him there. Adam, you make sure we get in. Kat, can you distract his little friends away and follow us in on your own?”

Kat shrugged. “I’ll give it a go.”

“You’re going to give me grey hairs you know.” Adam slipped out of the alley and headed down the road.

Magda took a deep breath and looked at Kat. “Ready?”

Kat nodded. “See you there.”

Magda walked out of the alley. She
pushed her way through the crowd until she found Joseph, shoved him in the chest and took off the way Adam had gone. She resisted looking over her shoulder until she’d covered the first block; there, sure enough, was Joseph bolting after her, along with his two friends. Kat was nowhere in sight.

She picked up her pace, ran around another corner and ducked down an adjoining street that led straight back to where the stage was set up outside Pantheon. She bolted for the doors, but the sight of Adam frantically waving at her from the other side of the street stopped her in her tracks. She changed course, plunged into the crowd to shake Joseph off her trail and ducked into the doorway of the Chinese takeaway where Adam waited. “What are you doing?” she hissed.

“No time to play cultbuster,” he said. He pointed down the street.

Magda stood on her toes to see what he was on about, but all she could see were two cars moving slowly through the crowd. She thought maybe it was more of Joseph’s baseball bat brigade, until she realised one was a police car.

The cars stopped just metres from them, right in front of the stage. Preacher and Zack got out of the first. Half of the crowd erupted in an aggressive cheer. Nobody got out of the police car.

The mild throbbing she’d been putting up with all day turned into a spear of pain the moment Magda laid eyes on Preacher. She clutched her head until it subsided.

“Are you okay?” Adam whispered.

“Fine.” Magda felt in her bag for her pills, remembered they weren’t there and rubbed her head instead. “Sometimes I have a little bit of a stress problem is all.”

“I bet.”

“Where’s Kat?”

“Over there,” Adam said. “I don’t like this one little bit.”

Magda followed his look to the stage. Kat was pinned in the crowd near Preacher’s car; the people around her had taken on the look of a Congregation mob. Suits and collars surged and cheered for Preacher, who raised his hands like he thought he was someone famous and mounted the stage.

“That’s my stage!” Adam hissed.

“He’s taking over the protest,” Magda
said.

They fell silent and watched. The microphone was still up there; people moved around the base of the stage connecting cords up. Zack hung back at the car, keeping the role John had once filled for Preacher. Magda wondered if he’d try to break her phone and make her life hell to boot. She wondered what had happened to John. With any luck he’d fallen into a deep, deep hole.

“Praise be to God, my children,” Preacher said into the microphone. His voice echoed around the street, followed by the feedback whine that had dogged Adam’s speech. Magda made a face in his general direction.

“Come on,” Adam said. “We can at least rejoin the sane people.” He grabbed her hand.

Magda followed him around the edges of the crowd, their back to the shop fronts. She kept a wary eye on both Preacher and Zack, but neither of them saw her; Joseph she seemed to have successfully shaken.

“I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for gathering here,” Preacher intoned over the crowd. “It gladdens my very soul to see so many faces filled with the light of God turning out on the street to fight back the hordes of Satan. Make no mistake, my children, Satan is who we are fighting today. Satan’s grip on the men and women of Hailstone is strong, and he is determined not to let go. Alcohol, drugs and immoral relations have let him in; anyone can see it, walking through the streets today, and just looking at the eyes and the clothes of the people who have gathered against us. Many of you know how close this is to my own heart, with my own daughter in mortal danger of Satan’s influence
. She has been missing now for two days.” He squeezed out a tear.

Magda ducked her head and hid behind Adam. She wanted to put her hands over her ears and block the man’s vile words out, but she needed her hands to push through the dense crowd.

“But the soldiers of God will prevail!” Preacher roared. “Because God is on our side! He wants us to bring light into the darkness that is Hailstone! He wants us to fight Satan! Because you can be sure, my children, if we are forced to fight today, it will not be our brothers and sisters we fight and conquer, it will be Satan himself! All those children out there you see, the drunken, the depraved, the tattooed and pierced, they want to be saved from Satan’s grip on their hearts! So take them into your hearts today! Take them into the safe places the Congregation has set up around the city, so that we can help them let God into their lives!” He paused. “Let none resist you, for you are doing God’s work.”

Magda and Adam flattened themselves against the wall of the laundromat and looked at each other.

“He’s completely barmy!” Adam hissed.

“Barmy doesn’t even begin to cover it.” Magda looked across the crowd at her father. She’d lost sight of Kat completely. Preacher looked the same as he’d ever done. Maybe a little crazier, she wasn’t sure. “What exactly is he proposing?”

“Sounds like convert or die to me.” Adam gripped her arm. A second later Magda realised why; the crowd surged and they were caught up in the movement. The only way to keep from going under was to move with them. The Congregation surrounded them, all yelling and chanting something too garbled to understand. Magda clung to Adam and looked around her. These people just weren’t right. Had they all been given the holy water?

The surge took them to the two cars before she realised what was happening. Magda tried to find a way out, but that
only brought her face to face with Zack.

“Magdalene!” he reached out for her.

The immediate future flashed in front of her eyes. A lot of it involved Preacher’s fist in her face. Pain seared through her head again. She tried desperately to communicate her fear to Zack without words, to find some well of compassion in the man. “Please let us go,” she said.

A strange look crossed his face. He dropped his hands.

Adam tugged on her arm and they pushed their way through the crowd again. That was when she finally spotted Kat. Behind the police car, through shifting groups of people, she saw her arguing loudly with Joseph. One of Joseph’s friends had her arms pinned to her back. The policeman in the car ignored them completely.

“Shit,” Adam said. “Come on Mags, before this gets any worse.”

They shoved their way through the crowd until they reached Joseph. ”Hey!” Magda pushed him, hard. “Leave her alone!”

Joseph rounded on her. Kat used the distraction to wrench herself free from the other boy and retreat to Magda and Adam. “I’m glad to see you guys,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I don’t think so, young lady.”

The pain again. Magda almost doubled over, but Preacher’s hand on her shoulder kept her upright. How the hell had he got over here so fast? Zack. Zack must have followed them and alerted Preacher. She looked around and sure enough, there he was. She ground her teeth. “Let me go, Preacher. I’m not one of yours.”

“I know, my dear, I know.” He sounded sorrowful. “But never fear Magdalene, if you are in there somewhere we’ll rescue you. And your friends, too. This police car will take all three of you to an outreach centre right now.”

Magda exchanged a look of naked fear with Adam and Kat, who for now were unharmed, but hemmed in. The crowd had made a little space around them all.

“You can’t do this!” Kat yelled. “You’re insane! This is illegal!”

“The law is on my side, young woman,” Preacher said, with barely a glance at the police car.

The police officer finally got out. He leaned against the car, folded his arms and said nothing. Magda recognised him from the Congregation.

“Adam!” a voice yelled from the crowd.

“Oh God no,” Adam muttered.

The crowd parted to let Amanda into the circle. She rushed to Adam, threw her arms around him and laid her head on his chest. “Oh Adam, I’m so happy to see you here, I didn’t think you’d really come. You’ve heard the call of Jesus, finally, you’ve come to be saved! I promise you won’t regret it, I’m going to make you so happy once we’re married.”

Adam peeled her off. “I don’t think so, honey.”

“Oh, but I will, you’ll see!” Amanda turned to Preacher, starry-eyed. “Preacher, everything you said has come about. I feel the presence of God, right here, and He’s so happy these three souls are returning to him! Magdalene, isn’t it wonderful you’ve been reunited with your father?”

“Fuck off,” Magdalene spat. Preacher dug his fingers into her shoulder; she winced.

“It’s time for you three to go,” he said. “We have many others to save today.”

“For Christ’s sake, you people!” Adam yelled. “Do you not realise how insane you all are? There is no law that allows you to force us into your religion! This is mob rule and it’s going to get people hurt! Take your goddamn hands off my friend, old man! And as for you!” He rounded on Amanda. “Get one thing into your thick head, little girl. I’m gay! I was born that way and I’ll die that way, so forget about your fucked up little heterosexual fantasy, it’ll never happen!”

“Mags, the camera,” Kat whispered. “Give it to me.”

Magda slipped the camera from her bag, pressed record and handed it to Kat in time to see Amanda’s face crumple.

Amanda turned white and then red. Then, too fast for anyone to realise her intent, she turned to the policeman and snatched his gun from its holster. She dodged when he finally came to life and went after her. The click of the safety being released seemed deafening in the sudden silence of the crowd. Amanda’s arm jerked up like a clockwork doll and again, sound deafened the crowd. A red rose blossomed on Adam’s shirt. He looked down, eyes big in surprise. Then he fell over.

Amanda doubled over and let out a wail. “I’m sorry my love!” she cried. Then she put the gun to her own head and pulled the trigger a split second before the policeman grabbed her.

Magda could hear somebody screaming. The crowd split apart. Only when she’d broken free of Preacher and run to Adam did she realise the screams were her own; she dropped to her knees and tried to cover the wound. Blood ran over her hands. Adam looked at her for just a second before the life passed from his eyes.

Magda screamed again. She could see Amanda’s body in her peripheral vision, see the panic-stricken policeman yelling into his radio, see tears streaming down Kat’s face, but the camera never so much as wavered.

“She sacrificed herself for God,” Preacher said. He raised his voice. “She sacrificed herself for God!”

Magda sprang to her feet and ran at him. “You fucking bastard!” she screamed. She shoved him so hard he fell back. She pursued and pummeled Preacher’s chest with her fists. “This is your fault! You killed him!”

Hands pulled her away from Preacher, who brushed himself down and gave her a cold look. “Satan would never have let him go.”

Magda went cold, still, empty. She stared at the man who could not possibly have been her father, but was. “You really believe that.”

“Amanda was the instrument of God’s hand.”

Magda twisted around to find Zack holding her. She jammed her elbow into the soft flesh of his stomach and stomped on his foot to free herself. The wail of an ambulance approached. So at least the useless policeman had done that much. She backed over to Kat, who put a protective arm around her waist. The crowd milled, shocked, uncertain, waiting for direction from Preacher.

Preacher’s cold look fell on Kat’s arm. “Take your hands off my daughter.”

Magda straightened and matched him look for look. Her voice seemed to come from far away. “You are not my father.” She watched him and suddenly realised he had no idea what to do. And even though whatever he decided, she and Kat were surrounded and outmatched, she found her voice again. “Kat and I are going in the ambulance with Adam. You will allow us at least to see our friend to a safe place.”

“Zack will go with you,” Preacher replied.