Animal Kingdom (22 page)

“
They tried it before,” said Victor, “and failed.”

The building shook upon impact and Joe almost fell to his knees. “There’re more of them this time.”

Victor smiled. “Just means more of them to kill.” The Scotsmen hung himself out of the window and let loose another beaker of acid. It doused the animals below and they roared in agony – but carried on attacking.

“
It’s not working,” said Joe, lighting the wick on a firebomb.”

“
Hit them with the fire,” said Victor. “Anything with flesh burns.”

Joe tossed his bomb through the window and watched it plummet toward the ground. It smashed against the flank of one of the elephants, sending it wheeling around in agony as the flames engulfed it.

What happened next demoralised everyone.

The elephant on fire lifted its snout into the air and angled it over its back. A sudden gush of water released from its trunk.

Joe watched the flames disappear. “They’re carrying water in their trunks. They planned for this.”

Victor was grinning madly. “Looks like we have a proper fight on our hands, lads.”

Bill was in full blown panic now, both his hands on top of his head as he chewed ravenously at his lower lip. “You’re fuckin crazy man. What the hell do we do?”

Victor threw another acid beaker and it hit the partially-burned elephant in the face. It staggered back falling to its knees. Smoke hissed from the surface of its skin as globs of grey flesh fell from its face. A moment later the pachyderm fell to the floor dead.

Victor turned to Joe and Bill. “We die fighting.”

“
Screw that,” Bill shouted. “We need to get out of here.”

Victor thrust his knife at Bill, holding Martha just inches from his nose. “No one leaves without Randall’s say so.”

Another impact hit the building. Joe shoved Victor’s arm away from Bill’s face. “Screw Randall! He’s been holding out on us all. He has a phone and knows about a rescue centre nearby.”

Victor didn’t seem impressed. He turned and threw another acid bomb through the window. “Desperate times call for desperate measures, pal. I’m sure he had his reasons.”

Joe shook his head in disbelief. “Don’t you care? We could find help out there, the army even.”

Victor laughed. “I know all about how the army works, pal. I’d rather take my chances here.”

Joe threw his hands up. “Fine. Have fun going down with the ship, but we’re going. Come on Bill.”

Joe started to leave when he realised that Bill was not following, instead staring out of the window with bug eyes. Shirley and Mason were staring too, several feet away. Joe turned to see what they were looking at.

“
Holy shit!”

“
Aye,” said Victor. “Quite a sight ain’t it?”

Coming towards the building was a herd of giraffes. Covering their backs like flies on a sandwich was a legion of monkeys. Joe understood immediately. “They’re going to climb up the giraffes to get in.”

“
Just like using a siege tower to breach a castle wall,” Victor marvelled. “Beautiful.”

Joe grabbed Bill and pulled him away from the window. “We’re getting Grace and Danny and leaving, Bill. Right now!”

Bill snapped out of his daze and allowed himself to be ushered away. “Okay,” he said. “Where
is
Danny?”

Joe stopped in his tracks and examined the room. Danny was gone, his pile of plastic animals the only indicator that he had ever been there. The next thing Joe noticed made him feel sick.

Randall was missing too.

“
That bastard has my son!”

Bill looked confused. “Huh? You don’t know that. Why would he snatch Danny?”

Joe growled. “Because I know what he’s been up to, and like any politician he’ll do whatever it takes to shut me up.” Joe suddenly had a worrying thought. “Grace too.”

“
What are you talking about?”

Joe shook his head and grabbed Bill’s arm again. “Doesn’t matter, but we have to go now.”

Joe sped into the corridor, Bill limping behind. He had a bad feeling.

A really bad feeling.

Joe didn’t knock on the office door this time. He threw himself at the wood. The impact made him see stars as he bounced off and fell to the ground. Bill reached down and helped him up. “I don’t think a door like that is gonna give.”

Joe leapt up and hit the door again and again.

The wood was too thick and Joe slumped against it in defeat. His shoulder was numb, but his heart was where the real agony was. Bill grabbed the door’s handle and turned it. The door swung open and Joe fell through onto the floor inside. The shock confused his brain and he lay there, stunned.

Bill entered the room behind Joe. “Always try the handle first, man.”

The words didn’t reach Joe as they were meant to; they seemed to float into his ears before fading into nothingness. His mind was too chaotic to accept any new information.

The room was empty and Danny and Grace were gone.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“
Sit there!” Randall ordered Grace. He pushed her down on a chair in the warehouse’s small office. Danny struggled against him, but it was useless. The cable ties that bound them together by their wrists were far stronger than the boy’s meagre strength. Randall reached forward and fastened a new set of cable-ties to Grace’s wrist, securing her to a swivel chair. Her blood was all over him, not because of anything he had done, but because of all the thick gashes and tender slices she had made on herself with the scalpel he’d left her overnight.

So
I guess I did kind of do it to her in a way.

Luckily, she had been lying in a pool of her own blood when he’d entered his office earlier and not coming at him with the blade as he had expected. It was easy to get her and the boy down the corridor while everyone else was distracted by the animal attack. His plan was to exit through the warehouse and make it to the next nearest building, or perhaps even find a car. He still wasn’t about to go and seek out the government’s rescue aid, but had at least come to terms with the fact that the visitor’s centre was a lost cause. It would only be a matter of time before the animals breeched it.

Or bring it down all together. Damned elephants!

The only detail he hadn’t worked out yet was how to proceed safely. It was a fairly reasonable guess to think that the coast would be clear, the bulk of the animal army busy attacking the east side of the building. Hopefully, Victor and the others would distract them long enough for Randall to make his escape unobstructed.

“
You can’t do this,” Grace shouted at him. “We don’t want to come with you.”

Randall pulled the cable-ties tighter and she winced as they bit into her flesh. “What’s the matter, sweetheart? I thought you liked pain?”

Grace was weeping. “No I hate it. I fuckin hate it!”

Randall cackled. “Tough shit! You’re going to have to get used to it, and if you don’t shut up I’m gonna pull one of these tight around your throat and watch while you strangle to death. You’re coming with me whether you like it or not, and when it’s just you, me, and the boy you won’t have the option of resisting me. There will be no one to save you.”

Grace didn’t speak.

Good girl. Learning so fast.

Randall stood away from Grace and closed the office door. He yanked Danny in front of him on the metal walkway and stared at him. “And I’m gonna be your new dad. How’d you like that?”

The boy tried to pull away. “You don’t deserve to be anyone’s dad. You’re horrible.”

Randall backhanded the boy which made him cry out, shoved his hand over his mouth and shushed him. Danny bit his palm, and Randall leapt back in pain, yanking the boy with him by the cable ties connecting them. They crumpled to the floor with Danny landing on top. The boy started to beat at Randall with his fists.

“
Get off me, you little brat!” Randall reeled back his free arm and struck the boy across the head. The small body went limp and fell against him. “Damn it, wake up. We have to get moving.”

“
You’re a monster,” Grace spat. “A pathetic monster. You think you’re a big man, but you’re the type of person that hits women and children. When it comes to taking on men, you hide behind Victor.”

“
Shut up, shut up, you bitch!”

But she did not shut up. She laughed at him, the sound cruel and mocking, making him think about all the people he hated, from school all the way through to this god-forsaken zoo. He scowled at Grace. “I’ll kill you, whore.”

“
What the hell is going on here?”

Randall looked up from his place on the floor to see Mason standing in the doorway. The man’s eye’s shone with suspicion behind the lenses of his spectacles. Randall took in a deep breath. He tried to swallow, but found his throat was dry. “Mason? What are you doing here?”

“
I came to grab some more petrol to make bombs. Victor said there was still some left here.”

“
Yes,” said Randall. “Indeed there is. How goes the battle?”

Mason shook his head. “It wouldn’t be going so bad if everyone hadn’t deserted. Victor and I are the only ones left since Joe and the others disappeared.”

Randall raised an eyebrow. “Joe isn’t with Victor? Where did he go?”

“
I don’t know. Perhaps he’s looking for his kidnapped son?”

“
That’s right!” Grace cackled from the office. “He’s going to kick your ass soon as he finds you.”

Randall tried to pull himself free from under Danny’s limp body with no success. “Kidnapped!” he said, laughing despite being short of breath. “Don’t be absurd. I caught these two trying to escape.”

Mason huffed. “Escape? What are you talking about, you fool? No one is a prisoner here. I think you all need to come back to the seminar room. In the slim chance that we survive the current attack, we can discuss exactly why you have abducted Joe’s son and tied up Miss Grace.”

Randall scowled.
Don’t you dictate to me, you pathetic excuse for a man.

“
Have you forgotten what we agreed?” said Randall. “I’ll close this place down. I swear it, my friend. Forget about all the money I promised to invest. I’ll bulldoze this fucking place and turn it into flats.”

Mason was solemn. “I’m afraid this zoo is already closed for business. I think I’ve realised it’s never going to open its doors again, no matter what happens, with or without your money. Thus, our deal is off. I should never have helped put you in charge. You’re a bully. Unstable.”

Randall felt dizzy. This was not part of his plans. “Look,” he said. The pleading in his own voice made him feel nauseous. “I went about this all wrong. Help get this lad off me and we’ll go back and join the others.”

Mason nodded. He stooped forward to lift Danny away, but stopped when he realised there was a cable tie connecting him to Randall. “I can’t get this off his wrist.”

“
Don’t worry,” said Randall with a cat-like smile. “I have a knife.”

He shoved the blade into Mason’s ribs and twisted. It felt good going in between the bones. The warm blood of vindication flowing freely over his hand. Mason sucked in a deep mouthful of air that never came back out again. He flopped forward on top of Randall and Danny. Randall grunted beneath the additional weight. “Will people please stop falling on me!”

It took several minutes for him to get out from under the pile of bodies, and he had to use the gore-soaked knife on the cable tie to get himself loose from a still-unconscious Danny. Finally, he got to his feet and stretched out his limbs, trying to regain some feeling.

Right, time to get back on task.

Just when Randall was beginning to feel back in control of the situation, a snarling voice from behind him said, “What the fuck have you done to my son?”

Chapter Thirty-Four

So much rage flowed through Joe’s veins that he almost took flight when he lunged for Randall. The sight of Danny, unconscious, pulled at every part of his emotions.

And he knew exactly who was responsible.

“
I’m gonna kill you,” he screamed, thrusting his arms like pistons. One blow took Randall by surprise, knocking the man backwards. It was then that Joe saw the knife, and noticed Mason lying face down in a pool of spreading blood.

The bastard stabbed Mason. Did he stab Danny too?

Any fear Joe may have had of Randall’s knife was momentarily forgotten as he rushed forward and kicked at the man. The blow glanced awkwardly off Randall’s ribs, but was enough to send him reeling back farther along the catwalk, his wobbling frame coming to a stop against the safety railing. The knife fell to the floor and he put his empty hands up in front of himself. Surrender. “Joe, please. Stop.”

Joe snarled and stalked after him. “I’m going to kill you.”

Randall backed away, slid along the railing. “Let’s be grown up about this. Your son is fine. He just fainted.”

“
What about Mason? Is
he
just unconscious?”