“To get a Jiu-Jitsu black belt you have to teach.”
“How did you get into it?”
“I went to a crap school where I got picked on. I used to bunk off most of the time. Then I came across a free Jitsu class for kids, and thought if I joined I could beat them all up.”
“Did you?”
“Just one of them. Kyle Jackson. I got excluded for that. Worth it, though. When I went back they left me alone.”
I wanted to ask why his parents hadn’t helped, but didn’t like to. I suddenly felt curious about his past. “But you kept it up.”
“I’d got into it by then. I liked the discipline – it was the only place I did what I was told. When I got older I did some Muay Thai, because Jitsu’s purely defensive, and that got me into MMA. Try that last move again.”
We’d just about finished when a figure at the window indistinct in the falling snow made me jump. It was only Archie. Before he even stepped over the threshold he said, “Are you all right, Tori? Greg’s been round and he told me Mike made you both stand outside without a jacket.” He sounded shocked. “I came straight over.”
“I’m fine. It was scary at the time, though. I was pleased when Morgan turned up.”
Morgan nodded at Archie, put his sweater back on and went and fed wood into the stove.
“Thank goodness he was here.” Archie lowered his hood, took off his spectacles and cleaned the snow off them, peering anxiously at me. “Nina didn’t believe Greg, she said there must be some misunderstanding, Mike wouldn’t do such a thing.”
“I know he didn’t seem like that last night. But when he’s not turning on the charm, he’s a psychopath.”
“He can’t treat people the way he treated you. It’s appalling. As a practising Christian, he must see he’s wrong.”
Over by the stove, Morgan snorted. “He told you he was a Christian? First I’ve heard of it. He’s about as Christian as Genghis Khan.”
“Dear me.” Archie’s mouth straightened into a firm line. “I’m on my way to speak to him. I wanted to call here first in case there’d been some mix-up.”
I had to make him see this was a really bad idea. “Ooh, I wouldn’t do that, Archie. It wouldn’t do any good, and he might get nasty with you.”
The stove lid clanged down. Morgan came towards us. “He doesn’t like being told he’s wrong. He’d chew you up and spit you out. Or rather, get Mac to.”
“Nonetheless, someone needs to tell him.”
I said, “He’s probably going today. Morgan thinks he will. No one got hurt. Honestly, I’d leave it.”
Archie lined his glasses up at me, concerned. “If you say so, Tori.” His expression was dubious.
At that moment there was a roar of engines and we got up to look. The noise got louder, then all six snowmobiles flashed past the window in a spray of snow.
“There, you’ve missed him now anyway. Have a cup of tea instead.”
“I’d love a cup of tea.” He put his jacket by the stove. “I don’t like you being so near him. What a blessing Morgan’s here to protect you. Oh, Greg asked me to tell you he wouldn’t call in today. I think he was afraid of bumping into Mike.”
I made tea and Archie sat with us and drank it, talking about the situation. Reading between the lines, Nina had thought Archie’s visit unnecessary. She had totally fallen under Mike’s spell and wouldn’t hear a word against him, dismissing what Greg had told her, saying he must have got it wrong. Before he left, Archie said to me, “Do take care. If there’s anything I can do, just ask.”
He plodded off through the soft fresh snow, turning to wave. Waving back I said, “He’s such a nice man. Brave, too, being prepared to tell Mike off.”
“So the vicar fancies you.”
I turned to stare at him. “What do you mean? No he doesn’t. People can be brave and kind without fancying you.”
Morgan shrugged.
I said, “He’s a married man with principles. And a lot older than me.”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
I went and chose a book to read and settled on the sofa. Morgan stood at the windows with his binoculars. The snow had almost stopped. Suddenly he said, “They’re going to search the Gherkin.”
I got up and joined him at the window and took a look. The snowmobiles were lined up outside the window with the missing glass and I could see people moving about. They must have followed his trail from the night before.
“Did you leave the gold there?”
“Yes. He’ll have a job finding it, though.”
“Why? Where did you hide it?”
“I split it into seven lots, plastic bags sellotaped into tight packages, and hid it in different places all over the Gherkin. He’s probably looking in spaces big enough to hide a backpack.”
“It’s an enormous building.”
“Yup.” He smiled a wicked smile. “They’ve got no chance. They’ll be really pissed off by evening.”
Morgan spent most of the day at the window. While he was sitting there, he wrote out a list of where to find six of the bags of gold and the ACE. An hour before sunset, we heard the snowmobiles return. Ten minutes later Big Mac appeared outside my balcony on a black and red Polaris pulling a trailer – a proper one, not a car roof box. Morgan let him in, and he silently handed over keys and a plastic bag. He barely glanced at me. Morgan peered inside the bag and put it on the counter, went outside and started the engine, turned it off, came back and sat down.
“Okay.”
After an expectant pause, Mac said, “Mike wants the location of the ACE and the gold.”
“He won’t go now it’s getting dark. He can have it tomorrow as he’s leaving.”
“He’ll no be happy.”
“Tough shit. I told him the deal. Call for it when you’re ready to go.”
Mac left. He didn’t look happy either. When he’d gone, Morgan said, “That’s capitulation.”
“So why make him wait?”
“Because I can.”
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea to rub his nose in it.”
“I doubt it makes any difference.” He smiled. “If you want a practical reason, I don’t want him sabotaging the Polaris before he goes. It’s a pity I can’t bring it inside.” He looked fondly at the machine. “It’s nice to have it back.”
“Why did you take the ACE, then, instead?”
“Because it was Mike’s.”
The evening passed slowly. Given the hostility between the two men I felt on edge, waiting for something to happen, and Morgan had a watchful air. I suggested playing cards, but he didn’t want to, so I read. He paced about or sat by the windows. We went to bed early. I slept well, so I don’t know if he did.
The following morning we’d got up and had breakfast when we heard the whine and judder of engines. Five snowmobiles stopped a hundred yards away. Four of them towed trailers and one had two passengers. Big Mac detached himself from the group and walked across the snow to my balcony, climbed over the railing and came in.
“We’re headed south,” he said.
Morgan handed him the sheet of paper. Mac read it slowly, his frown deepening. He got to the end and looked up. “The ACE isnae working? And you buried it so we’ll have to dig it out?” He shook his head. “Mike’ll no be happy about this.”
“You keep saying that, like I give a fuck.”
Mac gave him a dark look before he left. “Maybe you should.”
We sat side by side watching them for a bit through our binoculars. The sun shone so we had a clear view. It seemed to take an age. The sleds parked at the Gherkin, then four people walked round the building out of sight, presumably to disinter the ACE. How would Eddie be managing with his smashed nose? It must be painful, but at least he’d had BJ who would know what to do about it. The other two, whom I guessed to be Mike and Serena, went inside through the broken window on the trail of the gold. You’d think with all that glass
we’d have been able to see them now and again, but the building was too vast and shiny and far away.
“Where did you hide it?”
“I put most of the packages in office drawers in the middle of big areas full of desks.” He replied absently, fiddling with his focusing wheel. “I wrote details of how many paces north etcetera. He’s only got to follow my instructions. One’s right at the top in a microwave behind the bar, twenty-eight storeys up – that’ll give him some exercise, if he didn’t get enough yesterday. Amazing view from up there. Another’s below the reception desk at ground level in the dark with the rats. Serena’ll like that.” There was satisfaction in his voice.
“Don’t you have any sympathy for them? After all, you were with them for a year, most of them. I’d have expected you to be more friendly.”
“Mike believed in divide and rule. He didn’t want us to get on too well. He used to say, ‘You have to earn your place on my team. That sled is yours as long as I say it is, it’s not yours by right. Underperform and I’ll leave you behind.’ Each sled’s got two keys, and Mike keeps all the spares on his keyring. When he invited BJ to join us, everyone was waiting to see who’d be dumped. He took his time telling us, he wanted to keep us unsure, competing with each other. That doesn’t make you feel friendly.”
Morgan put his binoculars down. “They’ll be a while.” He pulled his sweater over his head. “Come on. While we’re waiting I’ll carry on turning you into a lean mean fighting machine.”
It was nearly lunchtime before Mike’s lot left. Whenever we took a breather we checked up on what they were doing, so we saw when they brought the ACE round the building and worked on the engine. At last the whole group mounted the sleds and disappeared in a flurry of snow, heading away from us towards the south. I’d thought Mike might call at Nina’s to say goodbye; the fact that he didn’t bother made me hope he had no intention of coming back.
Morgan put down his binoculars. “I’ll leave tomorrow morning. You’ve got till tonight to decide to come with me.”
“Whether to come with you.”
“That’s what I said.”
After lunch Morgan took me behind him on the Polaris to collect the last package of gold and his belongings. The passenger seat had a backrest and handles at the side, so I didn’t have to cling on to him. I loved whizzing across the snow after a year of trudging through the damn stuff. Morgan picked up on my excitement. He dropped off the trailer at the Gherkin and we went down to Tower Bridge and east to the unbroken expanse of snow that shows where the Thames lies frozen. To the west I could see the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye.
“No worries here about catching on buried buildings,” he shouted over his shoulder, accelerating. At top speed he turned and curvetted over mounds of snow, carving deep lines over the virgin surface, kicking up a spray just to show off and make me gasp. It was huge fun. I made him promise to take Greg for a ride before he left.
Back at the Gherkin he led me to an executive’s office on the third floor above the snowline, and lifted a large dead plant out of its container. Beneath was a sellotaped black Primark bag full of gold. Next we went up to where he had left his things. As soon as we opened the door from the lobby I knew something was wrong from the smell. Morgan’s face darkened. We rounded the corner into the coffee-making area where he had camped out. The vile stench of burnt plastic was overwhelming. Someone had piled Morgan’s possessions into a big heap, tipped petrol over everything and set it alight. Above, black goo dripped from the blackened ceiling tiles, and a sticky film darkened the glass and every surface. The flames’ heat had cracked the windows and buckled the steel counter. At the centre of the burnt-out pile you could make out the remains of the trailer, the generator and tins of food.
I said, “That’s just unpleasant. A waste of resources.”
Morgan stood looking at the mess for a moment, his eyes stony. But he only said, “Predictable. It’s a drag, I’ll have to collect everything all over again.”
“I’ll give you a hand.”
Morgan crossed to a conference room on the far side of that floor. Inside was a long wood-veneered table surrounded by chairs. He ducked beneath the table. There was the sound of tape ripping, and he emerged with a plastic bag full of something.
“More gold?” But it couldn’t be, they collected the other bags …
“Semtex.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Mike’s when I was looking for the spare part. I took the lot. I made up blocks of plasticene to the right size and used the same wrappers, so he won’t know till he goes to use it. Then he’ll notice it’s a bit brightly-coloured for Semtex.”
He’d have got the plasticene from Argos. I’d helped Gemma make animals with it once or twice. “Lucky for them you didn’t leave it with the rest of your stuff.”
He shook his head. “Semtex doesn’t explode if you burn it, just makes poisonous fumes. You need a blasting cap to detonate it.”
We descended flights of glass and steel stairs once more. So now Mike had got his gold again, but lost his Semtex. There was a lot in the bag. Morgan hadn’t needed all of it; he’d wanted to wind up Mike. He’d been unable to resist; had learned nothing from the gold episode. I saw with sudden clarity that neither of those two men was ever going to back down or walk away. They hadn’t got it in them. I remembered the proverb, before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. I doubted burning Morgan’s belongings had made Mike feel he’d got his own back; merely torching a few possessions wasn’t enough. I could only hope they’d never meet again. Surely once they were both out of London the chances of encountering each other would be slim. On the way down Morgan hid the gold back where it had come from, being careful not to leave tell-tale traces of compost on the floor or the edge of the plant container. He said it was better not to keep it at my place.
“What did you have, that he burned, I mean?”
“Trailer, generator, tent, sleeping bag, clothes, stores and general supplies. The problem’s the generator, it’s a bitch losing it. I was lucky finding that one, I’ll never find another. The other stuff’s straightforward.” He glanced at me as we went down the stairs side by side. “It gives you more time to pack and say goodbye to everyone.”
“I haven’t decided if I’m coming.”
“You’ve decided. You’re just not admitting it yet.”
Ice Diaries ~ Lexi Revellian
CHAPTER 16
Decisions
I got Morgan to drop me off at Claire’s. I told him I’d join him later at the Old Street shops. Paul let me in then went back to installing a stove in the bedroom, aided by Gemma. In the living room, Claire sat on her sofa cradling Toby, her dreamy, contented expression making me think of a Madonna and Child painting. It seemed a shame to interrupt her. I plumped myself down.
“Have a coffee.”
“No thanks, I’m not stopping. Claire, I need your advice. Morgan’s going south on his snowmobile, and he wants me to go with him. Leave here and get to where there isn’t any snow. D’you think I should?”
Claire’s gaze left Toby’s face to focus on me. “What do you think? That’s the main thing.”
“I don’t know him well enough to make a decision. I don’t even know his first name.”
“You could always ask. Mike didn’t seem to think much of him, going by what he said at Nina’s. Even before he said all that about stealing his gold and the sled and fighting Eddie.”
“He was lying, I think. And Morgan’s given him back the gold.” I told Claire what had happened after the dinner party.
She listened, concerned. “I’d never have guessed he was like that. He was so charming. Gemma said he was the nicest man she’d ever met.”
“But because Mike’s horrible doesn’t mean Morgan’s not. They could be as bad as each other. They were together a long time before they fell out.”
“True.”
“And I’ve only known him a week. The real proble
m is I have to make up my mind in the next day or two. I’m settled here, all set up in the flat with stacks of wood and food and friends. The journey might be dangerous. Anything could happen. And I don’t want to leave you lot, you’re sort of my family now, and there’s Greg … and am I crazy to even think of going with a strange man somewhere unknown?”
“What’s your gut feeling about him?”
This was difficult because of the attraction I felt, which got in the way of objective assessment – my body kept interrupting my mind. I didn’t want to admit this to Claire. “That he’s okay … ish … but I could be wrong. He hasn’t said much about his past, and what he has said is alarming, and he’s kind of surly and defensive some of the time. And quite violent, hitting Eddie like that. Unforgiving, too.” I expected Claire to be put off by this, was possibly counting on her telling me to exercise caution; so what she said next surprised me.
“Talk to him. But Tori, unless you don’t trust him, or you think he’ll hit you, go. I’ll miss you dreadfully, but it’s an opportunity that may never come again. We’ll look after Greg. If I had the chance to get out of here with Paul and the children I would. My dream is helicopters appearing out of nowhere to take us to safety. I worry about our future. Supposing the snow keeps rising? How will the children manage? And if they do, there’s nobody their age for them to fall in love with.” Tears were in her eyes. “If I were you, I’d go in a heartbeat.”
I didn’t linger. I was desperate to get to Morgan, irrationally afraid if I delayed it would be too late and he might vanish. I walked fast then ran through the snow towards him.
He hadn’t lit the tea lights on the stairs, but I had my torch. I hurried through the dank darkness possessed by a sense of urgency. He wasn’t in the Co-op. I went next door to Argos, beyond the counter and through the swing doors. My heart jumped at the sight of a dim light and movement in the aisles. As I got closer I could see he was sorting through tents. Still panting from the run through the snow, I shone my torch on his face.
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