Successio (28 page)

XXXVI

A tiny movement behind me.

‘Bruna,’ Livius whispered, crouching down. The barrel of his sniper rifle stuck out above his shoulder like he was some bandit in a Balkan movie. He winked at Allegra. She stared back, wide-eyed.

‘Livius, you and Paula go to the kiosk,’ I whispered. ‘Flav and I will go for the side of the entrance steps. When the diversion appears, move to the base of the rising cliff, left of the first cave as before.’ I glanced at my watch. ‘You have seven minutes.’

He turned and murmured into his mic and Paula appeared seconds later. He studied the far cliff with his binoculars for about half a minute, nodded at Paula and the two of them loped off. My arms triangulated in support, I zoomed my own scope to max and watched the caves while they deployed but saw nothing through the green light world.

‘Bruna, Livius. In position.’

‘Livius, Bruna. Noted. Cover us. Out.’

I smiled at Allegra. ‘We have to go and do stuff. I need you to stay here and wait. You can move a little, but don’t stand up. You may hear gunshots or other noises, but stay here. I or one of the others will come back and fetch you when it’s over.’ I searched her face, but she seemed calm enough. ‘Can you do this?’

She nodded. I wrapped a cam survival blanket from my backpack around her and left her munching on a super-cal chocolate fruit bar.

My heart left by the buttress, I turned and crept after Flav.

*

Four and one half minutes later, the noise of a car engine broke the silence. As it grew louder, we readied ourselves. A compact, but sporty convertible, silver in the moonlight, came into view and parked up on the other side of the entrance steps where Flav and I were hunkered down.

A tall man pulled himself out of the driver’s side, stood in the shelter of the open door and looked around casually, his hand and forearm resting on the soft roof. Seeming satisfied with what he saw, he stepped back and slammed the door. His shoes crunched on the gravel as he walked around the vehicle, leaned back against the other side and crossed his arms.

Beside me, Flavius took a sharp intake of breath. He’d recognised Conrad’s features in the orange light from the floodlights. Before I could say anything, my earpiece pinged.

‘Bruna, Livius. In position at the base of the caves. Nothing yet.’

‘Maintain position and observe.’

Conrad looked at his watch in a very deliberate manner then started to walk around in a random pattern as if to relieve the boredom of waiting for the person he was meeting to turn up. We didn’t know if Nicola was there or if she’d take the bait of Conrad. But she had to know we’d come for her when she’d abducted Stella.

I was getting a crick in my neck looking through the binoculars pointing up at the caves when I saw a tiny disturbance in the entrance to the middle cave. A thin line was let down the right edge. Spaced about a foot apart along the length were large loops for hand and footholds.

Conrad jerked upright when he saw two figures descending the rope. With my binocs, I saw Stella, clinging on to the line as it swung around, struggling to find loops for her feet. She missed one and slipped down the cliff face.

Juno.

I covered my mouth with my hand to stop myself crying out. Then she grabbed on to the next one with her flailing arm. I thought she was going to plunge all the way down. Nicola followed, her hands and feet finding the loops without any problem like it was a stroll through the park.

I swallowed hard then whispered into my mic, ‘Livius, Bruna. Track target at twenty metres.’

At the base of the cliff, I saw Stella, hands stretched out towards Nicola, as if begging for something. Nicola’s hand came up and struck Stella’s face. Stella fell and disappeared from sight. Conrad ran forward but froze when a short volley of shots rang out. Nicola had a micro-bullpup rifle in her hand and had fired over his head.

‘Bruna, TAC-1. We heard live fire. Report status.’

Pelonia.

‘TAC-1, Bruna. All well. Stand by until further notice. Out.’ I didn’t want Pelonia’s scarabs rushing in with their flat feet all over the site.

Nicola reached down and hauled Stella to her feet. She gave her a strong shove in the direction of the castle. Stella’s figure wavered as she stumbled through the wild shrubs and brambles eventually reaching the grass area in front of the castle ruins. Her arms and legs were covered in scratches; unlike Nicola’s sturdy jeans and blouson, Stella’s thin dress and sandals might as well not have existed. She was trembling violently.

Around ten metres from Conrad, Nicola grabbed Stella’s arm and jerked it hard. ‘That’s far enough.’

Through my binocs I saw her eyes dart around, pause for a second at the steps Flav and I were concealed behind, and then fix on Conrad.

‘Well, isn’t this nice,’ she said. ‘Quite the family reunion.’

‘Let her go, Nicola,’ said Conrad. ‘Your quarrel is with me, not any of the children.’

‘She’s not a child. Mind you, she’s as dopey as a child, a bit thick. Must get it from her mother’s side.’

Conrad’s figure became very still but he didn’t say anything. I’d seen this reaction hundreds of times – he was concentrating his strength ready to launch himself.

‘Come on, then,
Father
,’ she said, beckoning him with the bullpup. ‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Sacrifice yourself nobly and all that. You lot make me sick, with all that service and honour crap. This is the twenty-first century. Get real.’

‘Then why did you come back if you hate us so much?’

‘Your dear wife was starting to really piss me off. After you, she’s up the top of my list. You are such a bunch of losers, pussy-whipped every one of you.’

‘Yet you took advantage of the system when you came to live with us. In every way. You destroyed me, personally and professionally, and nearly killed two of my other daughters. Why, Nicola?’

‘You deserved it, deserting my mother without a penny after screwing her like some town tart for a few weeks. You deserted her when you found I was on the way.’

He moved his lips, but nothing came out. I could only see the side of his face, but the shock on it was obvious. Stella stared at him like he was Cerberus from Hades.

That was it. I was done with listening. I stood up, took two long strides away from Flav who looked at me like I was crazy, and stepped forward.

‘You have that so wrong, Nicola.’

I kept to the right extreme of her vision, trying to divert her attention away from Stella on her left. She couldn’t watch all of us at once. She swung her weapon towards me.

‘Your mother tells it differently,’ I said. ‘She refused to write and let your father know about you. She didn’t think it was fair to burden him, she told me. Sounds pretty noble and honourable and a sacrifice on her part.’

Nicola stared at me. The mirror of Conrad’s face. I realised she didn’t know about Janice’s decision.

‘And she didn’t exist on benefits,’ I continued. ‘She’s a trained teacher and doing well in her profession. No thanks to you, though.’

Crap, I shouldn’t have said that.

‘Shut your mouth,’ she shrieked, grabbed Stella and jammed her weapon against Stella’s head. Stella screamed.

Conrad threw me a death look.

‘Okay, Nicola, try and calm down’, he said. ‘We don’t want anybody getting hurt. Let Stella go and we’ll talk about it.’

‘Is that the best you can do?’ She made a pantomime of thinking, putting her head to one side for a few moments. ‘No, I don’t think so.’ Nicola’s eyes flowed with antagonism. She shook Stella, causing her to whimper and dragged her over to the far side of the ruins, towards the cliff edge in the shadow of the curtain wall. Stella tripped over a large block fallen from the crumbling wall and fell, her shoulders and head landing over the edge. She stared down the hundred metres to the palace garden where she’d played as a kid. And screamed.

‘What are you doing?’ Conrad shouted at her. He started towards the two girls.

Keeping her eyes and weapon on us, Nicola bent and yanked Stella to her feet in one fluid movement. She swung the bullpup up to Stella’s temple. ‘Stay exactly where you are unless you want me to blow her head off.’

I’d managed to get a little nearer, but didn’t want to get in Livius’s sight line. I had to leave him a clear shot. If it came to it. Neither Conrad nor I could get to Nicola before she could kill Stella – we were just too far away. Stella was too terrified to do anything. She hung in Nicola’s grip like some rag doll. And she was coming unstitched. Her eyes were all over the place, she sobbed and her whole body trembled.

‘Livius, Bruna.’ I mumbled into my mouth mic. ‘Can you make the shot? To take her out?’

A pause.

‘Affirmative.’

‘Standby.’

Thank Juno, Conrad was too far away to hear me. But when it came to it, Stella was the one to save.

‘Bruna, Paula,’ the voice in my earpiece whispered. ‘I’m circling round cliff base to vegetation perimeter. ETA three minutes.’

If Paula could get to the edge of the brushwood, she’d be only three metres from Stella. Snatchable distance. But Nicola was getting more agitated. She had to wonder what we were doing.

‘Okay, Nicola. You have us where you want us,’ I said and sighed. ‘What now?’

She said nothing as if she’d run out of ideas.

‘You’ve given your life to your revenge over these past months. Now you’ve got it, what are you going to do?’

Conrad sent me a warning look, but I signalled him that I had it under control.

‘Oh no, I’m not there yet,’ she said and gave me a tight smile that pushed a chill through my veins. ‘I’m going to start with my dear father. His daughter can watch me execute him.’ She gave Stella a shake. ‘Ever seen a head explode, little sister? Pink bits and blood spraying everywhere.’

Stella stared back at her, hiccupped, fell to her knees and threw up.

‘He’ll do as I say because he thinks there might be some slight chance I might think his death is enough and stop there.’ She stared straight at Conrad. ‘Your gamble.’

He took a step forward, like a robot. Nicola placed her weapon on Stella’s neck and her finger extended to curl around the trigger.

He froze.

‘Not yet.’ She looked at me. ‘I can’t see a red dot, but you’ve no doubt got a marksman somewhere with his sight on me. Believe me, my reactions are good. She’d be dead within the same second.’ She tilted her head up at me. ‘Stand your sniper down and let’s all listen while you do it.’

XXXVII

A second after I’d stood Livius down, a fist-sized chunk of Brancadorum granite flew down from the curtain wall in a fast, strong trajectory. It landed square in Nicola’s chest. She grunted and stumbled backwards. She swung her arm up and loosed off a series of rounds. Stella, left unguarded for a few seconds, dragged herself away from her tormentor. She placed one foot flat on the ground to lever herself upright, but Nicola recovered quickly and kicked her in the ribs. Stella collapsed in a heap.

‘Five seconds to show yourself,’ Nicola shouted at the wall and took a step forward.

Allegra stepped out from the broken curtain wall. My heart shrivelled. No.

‘You can’t kill us all,’ she called. ‘Even if you take one, the others will get you.’

‘Oh, it’s the little princess, the apple of her mother’s eye. You’d be a good one to start with.’ She raised the bullpup, settled her fingers on the pistol grip and tensed her index finger. Conrad launched himself at her. I barrelled forward. But the distance was too great. Nicola rolled away, escaping the tackle, and as she scrambled up, she fired a single shot at Conrad.

He grunted, clasped his arm and staggered back at the force, and fell.

‘Back! Get back.’ She waved the weapon in my face.

Nicola had nearly a full clip. We had no option but to obey her. I pulled Conrad back to the curtain wall and propped him up against it. I checked his arm out. It looked like a flesh wound, thank Mars, but messy. I tied it up tight with a field bandage which I took out very slowly and very obviously from my sleeve pocket.

Nicola raised her chin up at Allegra. ‘You get down here. Now.’

Allegra stood where she was.

Move, Allegra, for pity’s sake, do what she says, I prayed silently.

‘Too scared, little girl?’ Nicola said. ‘Well, I’ll have to use you as a shooting gallery target.’ And raised her weapon, pointing straight at Allegra’s heart.

If I moved, Allegra might die or be permanently disabled. If I didn’t, Allegra would definitely die.

In the end, it wasn’t my call.

Hunkered down by Conrad, my eye was caught by a movement behind Nicola. Stella was scrambling toward her.

‘Make some noise,’ I hissed at Conrad, ‘to cover Stella.’ His eyes flickered over to her, he blinked and started groaning loudly.

Nicola looked over at Conrad. ‘Oh, for God’s sake, shut the fuck up.’

Stella was there and bringing her hands up from her sides. With an almost feral look on her face, she grasped Nicola’s ankle with both hands and tugged. The bullpup let off a volley into the air and dropped from Nicola’s hand as she crashed to the ground. Allegra disappeared.

I launched myself at Nicola, but she leaped up and grabbed Stella. She was dragging her to the cliff edge. Stella was hanging on to Nicola for grim death, making no effort to escape.

Nicola heaved Stella over the edge, but Stella pulled Nicola over with her. My hand touched Stella’s as I tried to grab her as they went over, but I lost her.

*

Paula kneeled over the edge, peering down and searched with her binoculars as I got into my harness.

‘There’s some kind of heat signature down there, but I can’t say what. It could be either or both of them.’

‘Okay, go for white light.’

Flav was by my side, letting out webbing and rope that he’d run and anchored to an oak tree. I checked the rope was well attached to the anchor straps, looped it through the belayer, twisted the lock on the carabiner. Checking through his scope, Flav threw the rope to the side of where the girls had fallen. My hand by my hip, I nodded to him, and walked backwards over the cliff edge.

Searchlights came from either side, but I didn’t need them to see Stella’s frightened eyes staring up at me. She was clinging to a spur of rock, but her hands were slipping. She was kicking her feet in her panic.

‘Keep still, Stella, I’m coming to get you.’ But I saw she was beyond it. I let the line out as fast as I could, pushing with my feet to bounce off the rock face. I reached Stella and grabbed her wrist just as her other hand lost its grip on the rock. She grasped at another rock but there was nothing to hold on to. The sweat on her hand and wrist was oozing between my fingers, loosening my hold every second that passed.

‘It’s okay, Stella, I’m here. You’re going to be fine. Now, concentrate and stretch up with your other hand and grab hold of my sleeve.’ She couldn’t do it, but it gave her mind something to do. I reckoned I had only a few more seconds before she became too exhausted to hold on and fell into the dark below. If I tried to manoeuvre down, I could lose her instantly.

But then I heard the rasp and clinking of another set of ropes. Paula. She jumped to below Stella and put her shoulder under Stella’s rear. Within seconds, Paula had fastened a leather belt around Stella’s waist, then strapped two more around her thighs. Holding her between us, we got her back up to the top. Conrad pulled Stella into the safety of his good arm where she sobbed all over him.

Still roped, I stood on the cliff edge and looked down. The strong white beams highlighted a splayed four-limbed shape impaled on the barrier roof.

‘Stern, Bruna,’ I spoke into my mic, my voice as dead as my feelings. ‘Turn out the troops to check for what’s left of Nicola Sandbrook. They’ll need a body bag. And gloves.’

*

‘Bruna!’ Livius shouted.

I whirled around. At his side, back straight and arms relaxed like she was on a geography field trip and listening intently to what the teacher was saying, walked Allegra. She looked up, waved and grinned at me. I fumbled at the steel loops, fighting to detach myself from the anchor as fast as I could.

I grabbed her to me, but after a moment, she patted me on the back and pulled away.

‘Is it finished? How’s Stella? You did save her, didn’t you?’

Her voice was even, she scanned the area with calm eyes, assessing where everybody was and what they were doing. She waved in Stella’s direction but her sister was too far gone to notice. I stared at Allegra. She was showing no sign of reaction – no trembling, no darting eyes, no stumbling – just calm. Maybe it would come later. I glanced at Livius. He merely raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

Allegra went over to her sister, hunkered down and took her hand. She stayed there talking to her until the transport arrived.

Livius stood by me, but kept his eyes on Allegra.

‘If I didn’t know you’d be pissed at me, I’d say she’d inherited the right genes on both sides. I’d cry with pride if I had a daughter like her.’

‘I already do, Livius.’