‘Stop!’ a woman shouted.
The strip lights in the common room blazed. I blinked, momentarily blinded, letting off the pressure on the trigger. When my eyes cleared I was aiming down the fixed sights of a Browning Hi-Power, right at Marie.
Other faces appeared around the frame. Hurley and Alice. Behind them cowered Dash. I lowered the gun, let go of Greenbow’s arm. He clasped his hands over his face, trying to stem the flow of blood from his crushed nose. Whimpering, he crawled to the wall.
‘You bloody maniac,’ he said thickly. Blood leaked from between his fingers, spilling to the floor.
I remembered the dressing-down he’d given me earlier and fought to prevent a smile. ‘You came at me with a gun, what did you expect?’
I held out the Browning. He snatched it with a bloody hand, pointing it at me, arm shaking.
‘Captain, what are you doing?’ Marie asked.
‘Why were you trying to catch us off guard?’ he asked.
‘I didn’t know what I was walking into,’ I said.
‘Captain, put the gun down,’ said Dash.
‘What have you been doing out there?’ Greenbow’s eyes narrowed, still peering over the pistol, one hand on his nose.
‘Thanks for noticing. Nearly broke my ankle on that bloody hillside. I could have done with a hand pulling my foot out of that rabbit hole.’
Greenbow eyed me suspiciously.
‘Seriously, you didn’t hear me?’
‘Couldn’t hear a thing over the storm,’ said Hurley sheepishly.
Greenbow didn’t move.
‘Why would I give you the gun back if I wanted to kill you?’
He looked round the others and made up his mind, shoving the sticky pistol back into the holster. ‘Hurley, didn’t you realise Tyler was missing?’
He shook his head. ‘I was checking the sheds, remember?’
Greenbow glared at Hurley. ‘Come with me. The rest of you stay here.’
They strode away down the corridor.
Marie rushed from the doorway, grabbing me. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I could do with a drink.’
‘We thought you were a gonner,’ said Dash. ‘Thought maybe Demeter had got you.’
I uncoupled myself from Marie, looking round her. The furniture in the common room had been piled by the door.
‘Planning a last stand against the Russians?’
‘Taking no chances,’ said Dash, shrugging. ‘Thought it’d be easier to defend one room if he came back.’
I walked over to the sideboard, picked up a half-empty bottle of vodka, took a swig. It burned, I coughed, vodka splashed down my shirt. My throat was still raw from the gas in the incinerator.
‘If he ever really left at all,’ I muttered under my breath, taking another swig, managing to keep it all in.
Chapter Thirty-five
Through the heavy insulation, the rain still hammered away steadily, as if a mob of angry villagers were outside hurling handfuls of pebbles against the fibreglass walls. We could feel it as well as hear it as the storm intensified.
The door opened. Everyone jumped, my hand went to my holster, but it was Hurley returning, flopping into an armchair. Greenbow followed a few seconds later, red toilet paper sticking from his nostrils, darkness spreading across his cheeks. He’d be cultivating a nasty pair of black eyes by tomorrow.
‘How’s the nose?’ I asked.
His eyes would have shot daggers, were they not still streaming. He sat down in a chair by the door, cradling his pistol and his arm.
‘So what do we think?’ Hurley asked. ‘Any theories?’
I inhaled deeply, looking round the group. Clearly it was all they’d been talking about, but as the latest addition to the discussion they were seeking my input.
‘I get why Demeter smashed the radio after killing Gambetta – to slow us down. I can’t see why he killed Ingrid, unless it was so he could destroy the radio there too. Best guess is so he could make a clean getaway from the island. And if Gambetta is to be believed, after killing him that getaway headed straight for the cliffs to meet those divers and hitch a ride back to Russia.’
When said aloud it almost sounded feasible.
‘I thought Demeter killed Gambetta and then went to Camp Vollum and killed Ingrid,’ said Marie. ‘Wouldn’t that make more sense, if he was being extracted from that side of the island?’
‘Ingrid was shot long before Gambetta.’
Dash shuffled to the edge of the chair. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘Two reasons. Firstly – we were all here when Demeter shot Gambetta. Just after radio checkpoint, 7:15. I was in the room straight after – the blood was still pumping out of his brain, for God’s sake. Time of death is nailed on.’
‘Get to the point,’ growled Greenbow, adjusting the toilet roll in his nose to catch a fresh dribble of blood.
‘We were, what, ten minutes behind Demeter?’
‘I reckon, but I still don’t see the significance.’ Hurley was leaning in now as well.
‘Ingrid’s body was still warm – it takes hours for a body to cool – but the blood on the floor was cold and congealed – it had been pooled for longer than ten minutes.’
‘You’re well informed for a technician,’ Greenbow said.
‘Common sense, Captain. Ingrid checked in with the ship on the radio at seven, but her blood was cold when we got there about seven thirty-five. She must have been killed just after her check-in.’ Too late I realised I’d divulged information I’d gleaned from Colonel Holderness on the radio, information a technician couldn’t have known, but fortunately they didn’t pick up on it immediately. I pressed on before they did. ‘It means she was killed first, with Demeter making his way back to X-Base immediately after to kill Gambetta. It’s significant, because it probably means there’s a different motive than just killing Gambetta.’
‘Which is what?’ asked Hurley.
‘Maybe we have it backwards. I think Demeter killed them in order to destroy the radios. Maybe they tried to stop him.’
‘It’s a bit thin,’ said Dash. ‘He had a gun; I’d have stood back and let him get on with it.’
‘Hmm.’ Greenbow studied me carefully, brows furrowing as the cogs behind them whirled.
‘You said you thought Ingrid was killed before Gambetta for two reasons?’ said Dash.
‘This reason is much simpler.’ It was time to share information; I needed help. ‘Demeter didn’t escape out the window.’
If a storm wasn’t raging you could have heard a pin drop. I was content with the open mouths. It seemed like ages until someone spoke; in the end it was Hurley.
‘Bullshit. You were in the room seconds after he shot Gambetta.’
‘True.’
‘You said he escaped out of the window!’ said Marie.
‘Did I?’
‘He couldn’t have got past us in the corridor,’ said Alice.
‘I didn’t say I knew how he got out of the room, I just know it wasn’t through the window – so there’s no way he could have got to Ingrid immediately after.’
Greenbow snorted, then winced and touched his nose. ‘Nonsense. Demeter was already wearing his suit and gas mask – he knew exactly what he was doing. One of the missing keys was still in the lock, for goodness’ sake. He shot Gambetta and jumped outside.’
‘I think that was his plan, that’s why he was suited up and ready, but I’m telling you for a fact he didn’t.’
I left the room without waiting for the others. I’d walked through several huts before I even looked behind. They were following in a line, and I was struck how our numbers had dwindled.
Alice and Marie clutching each other, Greenbow clutching his pistol, Dash clutching a bag of crisps. Hurley with his fists ready at his sides. Discounting Demeter, there were seven of us left, and that included Clay sleeping it off. I led the way past the bedroom huts to the end of the corridor, the door to the radio room, and stood aside.
> No one wanted to enter. Alice and Marie looked as pale as Greenbow. Finally Dash pushed forward. He put his crisps on the windowsill then opened the door.
The smell hit me again. Not a rotten smell – Gambetta hadn’t been dead long – but the tangy, metallic taste of blood, copper and iron weighing down the air. Stifling, almost unbreathable. It made my teeth ache, my insides itch and my ears ring.
‘Jeez, what a mess,’ Dash said, lifting a hand to his mouth. He stepped in gingerly, avoiding the slick floor, eyes shifting nervously between the body and the door. I followed. Greenbow positioned himself on the threshold, pale as before.
Something had changed. I studied the floor. The blood around Gambetta’s arm was smudged – his fingers now pointed at the window rather than the shelves. And hadn’t he been wearing a watch?
Someone had been in here, must have been whilst we were up at the other camp. Alice, Dash, Marie, or Clay.
‘John, you with us?’
Dash was staring at me. I shook my head. ‘Sorry, miles away.’
‘I was just replaying it,’ he said. ‘Demeter entered the room. We heard ’em both arguing. He smashes the radio, opens the window to get away. Gambetta tries to stop him. Bang. Bullet through the head, Demeter’s out the window, au revoir, Gambetta, do svidaniya, Demeter.’
‘A solid theory,’ I said, walking to the window and stopping abruptly to point at it. ‘Where’s the key?’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Hurley, stepping into the room.
‘Captain, you said yourself, there was a key in the lock. Did you take it back?’ I scanned the floor even though I knew it couldn’t have fallen, that it must have been removed on purpose.
He walked across the room to inspect the lock. ‘I did not,’ he said simply, pulling out his own keys. ‘I always have a key on me.’
I took them, inserted the key. Greenbow stepped back. ‘Don’t open it, Tyler.’
I turned the key.
‘Don’t do it!’ Dash shouted.
‘There’s no risk,’ I said.
Greenbow fumbled with his holster and pulled his Browning. ‘Get away from the window.’
‘Captain, put the gun down!’ screamed Dash.
The room exploded in chaos, everyone shouting at everyone else at the same time; Greenbow shouting at me to get away from the window, Hurley and Alice shouting at him to put the gun down, Marie and Dash imploring me to listen to the captain. I had to shout twice as loud to be heard.
‘I SCREWED THE FUCKING WINDOW SHUT!’
I yanked the handle. It slammed with a thunk, there was a collective gasp then a moment of silence, cut short by a crash of thunder and a blast of arctic wind. The window had barely opened a centimetre. I gave it another pull, then pushed it shut again.
‘I screwed all the windows shut earlier,’ I said at a more civil volume. ‘Sorry, Dash, you can invoice me.’
‘What the… why would you do that?’ he asked.
‘Long story, but I had a feeling someone was bypassing the HADU.’
‘Outrageous!’ said Greenbow, thankfully sliding his pistol back into its holster.
‘Bollocks,’ I said, pointing at the corpse. ‘I found him having a fag outside this morning. Who’s to know what else was going on?’
The room descended into chaos again, this time strings of expletives, followed by whats and whys. Dash started up about compensation and repairs but was interrupted by Greenbow.
‘How dare you take matters into your own hands!’
Hurley stepped back out into the corridor, blew out his cheeks, whistled. ‘Well that puts the fox in the henhouse, now don’t it?’
‘You see the problem?’
‘So Demeter enters the room, shoots Gambetta, and then…’ Dash tailed off, a frown creasing his face.
Greenbow’s anger lost out to confusion. ‘What are you thinking, Chaudhary?’ he asked.
‘Well, if he never left the room…’
Greenbow looked exasperated. ‘We all saw him enter…’
‘We heard them both arguing!’ said Hurley.
‘And we were all outside when he shot Gambetta,’ Greenbow continued. ‘Then we were in the room in – what was it, Alice, ten seconds?’
‘Less than that,’ said Hurley. ‘But not so’s makes any difference, because he couldn’t have got past us either way.’
‘There must be a way,’ I said. ‘Sleight of hand and all that. This isn’t haphazard, this confusion; I think he planned it. Misdirection. We’re looking over here while he’s over there. Come on, Dash, what are you thinking?’
‘I know how he disappeared,’ he said, eyes dropping to the floor.
Chapter Thirty-six
‘Why the hell didn’t you tell us about this before?’ I asked.
‘It wasn’t relevant,’ said Dash. ‘We thought he’d gone out the window.’
I dropped to my hands and knees. The floor was marked, scratches along one edge of the panel.
The base was heavily insulated, all electrical, heating, and ventilation conduits running internally. Essentially each hut was a protective cocoon, everything on the inside. Made total sense; if any systems failed they could be repaired from inside the base, no need to step foot outside into what could be a minus-sixty-degrees-centigrade gale. Temperatures here on Gruinard were balmy in comparison, but the danger outside was just as real – so the theory was still sound.
As every hut was a separate self-contained unit, each had its own utility compartment, accessed from a small trapdoor near the door. I hadn’t seen it when I’d first entered the room, hidden as it was around the side of the filing cabinet. Even now it was difficult to see, the edges fitted so perfectly.
Kneeling on the floor, shaking my head, I looked at Greenbow. ‘Pass me the gun.’
This time there were no complaints; he’d no desire to stick his head down there. He handed it over, retreating to the doorway. Hurley pushed through and crouched next to me. Dash passed him the screwdriver from the shelf. I positioned myself at the front of the trapdoor, aiming Greenbow’s Browning squarely at the hatch. It rattled and I gripped it harder, forcing my hand still.
‘You okay?’ asked Hurley.
He must have mistaken it for fear. ‘Just hurry up, I wanna keep my head on my shoulders.’
Hurley coaxed the screwdriver into the thin gap, levering upwards, arm outstretched, expecting the worst. I kicked the flap fully open, aiming the pistol into the blackness. No Demeter. Dash passed me a torch. Holding it alongside the pistol, I flicked it on. A plywood hollow under the hut dropped a couple of feet to a dusty floor. The beam illuminated scuffs in the dust.
I didn’t fancy sticking my head in, but reasoned if Demeter was still hiding down there he was in total darkness. I lowered my hand down and shone the torch around. To my relief there was no gunshot, and my hand was still attached when I pulled my arm out. With a glance at Hurley I put my head in the hole.
The crawl space extended under the whole hut. The light reflected off plastic pipes clipped to the underside of the floor, which, as Dash had explained, carried air, heat, electrical wires, all sorts of technical gubbins. It reminded me of that bit in Alien, and unfortunately that’s exactly what went through my head as I slowly turned through 360 degrees. I completed the turn, swearing loudly, nearly dropping the torch. Dash cried out.
There, in a corner, huddled in a foetal position, was Demeter.
I caught my breath, holding the beam steady. ‘Demeter, don’t move.’
He obliged. I realised that, as he hadn’t been moving before, I had not advanced the situation. I could hear the others whispering above.
‘Okay, come out. Don’t try anything, I’ve got a gun on you.’
Cheesy; like something from a gangster flick. It didn’t do the trick, Demeter still ignored me. I could just make out the breather of a gas mask poking from the red hood, a modern-day plague doctor huddled in the shadows.
I slid in head first, ending up on my belly, reaching out
with the gun to prod him.
The red collapsed. I shrank back. The gas mask rocked over on the floor. Empty.
I prodded a bit more and something else fell out of the crumpled suit. I pulled it towards me. A small blob of melted plastic, a charred metal USB connector stuck out on one side. The missing data stick from the CCTV system? I prodded a few more times before remembering this suit might have been outside and thus be covered anthrax spores. I dropped the melted USB stick.
‘John, you okay?’ Dash called.
I looked back at the hatch. He and Hurley peeped over the rim, Greenbow’s face a respectable distance behind.
‘Part of the mystery solved. Found Demeter’s gear.’
‘Is he down there?’
‘You’d know if he was.’
‘Fair point.’
‘I’m coming out.’
I rolled onto my back, sliding towards the opening, careful to stop my jumper riding up and revealing my holster. The others moved away from the trapdoor. I had a sudden claustrophobic moment as I remembered the incinerator lid slamming down, and shuffled quicker. Fortunately I reached the hatch without incident, and was about to climb up when my torch reflected off something out of place. A plastic tube, just like the ones Alice had given me to collect the samples, wedged up under the pipes next to the hatch. It looked like it contained mud, but there was no identification sticker.
‘John, you okay?’ asked Dash again.
‘Give me a second.’
I pulled it out and something else dropped down. A sandwich bag, wrapped tightly round a tiny quantity of brown dust. Tea. This was what was left of the sample I’d given Ingrid to test, presumably swiped from her lab.
I quickly stuffed both into my pocket, then climbed out of the hole.
Chapter Thirty-seven
‘So we know the full story now, don’t we?’ Alice said.
We were gathered in the corridor outside the radio room, door closed.
‘Let’s not get overexcited,’ I said.
Anthrax Island Page 14