by Jem Tugwell
Was Lance right all along? Were they in the wrong place?
Chapter 66
‘Shit, there are drones everywhere,’ Tatsuko muttered.
She had seen one as she came south along the river on Victoria Embankment. She had skipped west along Derby Gate and onto Parliament Street, but another drone twitched about at the end of the road.
She turned west again, along King Charles Street all the way to the end of the road and the edge of St James’s Park.
‘Thank you,’ she said. No drone on Horse Guards Road, but when Tatsuko got to the corner of Great George Street, she could see another one hovering in the distance. Blocking her route.
How long does the battery in a drone last? she asked herself. No idea, but they were busy things with all the darting and twitching. All the cameras and propellers – they would run the power usage up and the battery down. She walked backwards up Birdcage Walk until she was past the small building and the gates, and could lean against a tree on the edge of the park. She could see the drone, but it didn’t see her. Its attention was focused on the motion in front of it.
Pulling her rucksack off, she scrambled her hand around for the last fragment of food. She’d save her last two mouthfuls of water for the end.
She put both hands in her rucksack to hide what she was doing and peered in. Her game controller’s display said: ‘Game position – first’. She smiled, whoever was still in the game was behind her.
Pulling at a finger, the controller’s display changed: ‘Distance to finish – 0.2 miles’.
She could run that in less than a minute if she went ‘all in’ and left nothing in the tank.
When the battery on the drone went, she would seize the moment and run. Tatsuko knew she could dodge and weave past the people and any police, skip across the green of Parliament Square and get to the finish point. It wouldn’t matter if they arrested her then.
She would have won.
***
After about half an hour, Tatsuko’s pulse ratcheted up. She was sure the drone’s twitches were a tiny bit slower.
She watched the drone with the intensity of a bird of prey following a mouse, turning the tables on the drone. Waiting for her chance.
‘Yes,’ she muttered when the movements were visibly slower and smoother. She took the last two mouthfuls of the water and put the bottle in the rucksack, which she dropped next to the tree. She didn’t need it, and anything that might slow her down she could lose.
She started walking towards the drone, tentative steps at first. The drone was going, turning away and flying off. She increased her speed. It was her chance, the route to the finish was open.
Time to go.
Her mother’s voice told her, Run, lazy girl and pushed her on.
An angry buzz of propellers filled the road behind her. She looked up as a dark shape flashed above her. A replacement drone had caught her motion. Why hadn’t she thought of that?
A voice barked from the drone, ‘Police! Tatsuko, stop.’
There was no point stopping, not this close. If she turned and tried to run away, the drone would track her. No escape. Game over. Literally.
Better to give it everything. One last charge.
Tatsuko ran harder, accelerating, taking to the middle of the road to avoid the people on the path.
The drone chased after her, inches from her head, like an angry wasp.
Chapter 67
Ava looked at her display as it flicked from person to person. No sign of Lilou or Tatsuko. The status bar at the bottom of the screen showed only one bar left on the drone’s battery.
No problem, she thought. Lance had commandeered nearly every drone and the backups were all on charge in Green Park to the west.
Ava clicked a message to request a replacement and got an instant confirmation. As her new drone crossed over the top of St James’s Park, she added it to her display.
When it reached the end of Great George Street its display locked onto a figure running alongside the road. Ava glanced at the display to check the iMe signal of the runner. ‘Scanning’ the display said and then flashed red. Not a false alarm this time.
Ava couldn’t see the runner’s face, but the hair under the baseball cap looked like Tatsuko’s. Then, as the drone caught up with the runner, she twisted her face to look at the drone.
It was her.
Ava pressed a button on the display to enable her voice to be projected from the drone. ‘Police! Tatsuko, stop,’ she shouted.
The runner paused for a fraction and then accelerated. The image from the drone’s camera zoomed in on Tatsuko’s head as the drone caught up with her and buzzed her.
Tatsuko kept running and Ava hit the alert button. The inside of the van reverberated with the sound of a klaxon-like alarm.
‘Bloody ’ell,’ one the other officers shouted, clamping his hands on his ears.
Ava rolled her eyes, it wasn’t loud enough to make that much fuss, but she grabbed on a dial and spun it to lower the volume.
The alert would have flash-messaged the team. She knew Lance would be watching the same footage now and she stared at the screen, but the drone was too close to Tatsuko to get a good view of what was happening. Ava jumped up and banged open the door to the van.
‘Orders are to stay inside,’ the officer who had complained about the volume said.
Ava landed outside the van, poised and in perfect balance. ‘Do that then,’ she said without turning, and swung her left arm to slam the door shut.
She stepped from behind the van to see two Uniforms standing side by side on Great George Street facing the oncoming runner. The drone was millimetres behind her.
‘Shit,’ Ava said. She had played enough sport to see it, even if the Uniforms didn’t.
Tatsuko’s run curved away from the Uniforms and they followed her, but it opened up a gap on the inside.
Running back away from the Uniforms towards Parliament Square Garden to provide a defensive cover, Ava jumped up the two small steps and stood on the grass.
Two more Uniforms ran up the left of Great George Street, looking like they had seen the hole.
Tatsuko was nearly at the first two Uniforms when she cut hard to her right. The Uniforms were moving too fast to react. They couldn’t adjust to stop her, and one of them flailed a desperate hand at Tatsuko as she flashed past.
Ava jogged away from Tatsuko and towards the centre of the grass, all the time tracking Tatsuko with her eyes, calculating Tatsuko’s most likely approach.
Tatsuko reached the other Uniforms. There was no room to repeat her sidestep move, but she jumped forwards, sending her feet ahead of her, her legs sliding along the road. She timed it to perfection and slid through the gap between the legs of the two Uniforms.
In one seamless move, she was back onto her feet and past the Uniforms who rubber-necked backwards at the disappearing Tatsuko.
Tatsuko shot past the van Ava had been in and over the road. Heading across the grass towards Parliament.
Towards Ava.
Ava rolled her head in a brisk circle to stretch out her neck and rolled her shoulders. ‘Come to Ava,’ she said as Tatsuko barrelled towards her.
Tatsuko didn’t pause, clearly thinking that her height and weight advantage over Ava plus the momentum would burst straight through her.
Ava bent her knees a little, one foot in front of the other and opened her arms, ready to accept her prize.
She saw Tatsuko’s eyes flare in surprise, but she didn’t falter. Instead, she dipped her shoulder and charged.
Ava waited and then lunged forward. Low and hard.
Tatsuko slammed into her with the hard slap of impact and the sound of two sets of lungs having the air knocked out of them. She didn’t fight Tatsuko’s weight and momentum. Instead, as they hit, she absorbed the impact, rolling lower and twisting so that Tatsuko’s upper body came past her. Ava’s arms circled and closed around Tatsuko’s hips, dropping lower as her momentum continued. Closin
g and dropping until they passed Tatsuko’s knees.
Ava locked her arms tight.
Tatsuko tried for her next forward pace but her leg was caught by Ava and didn’t move far enough. Now the momentum was against Tatsuko as she overbalanced. Arms windmilling but nothing could defeat gravity and physics.
Tatsuko smacked face-first into the ground and slid to a stop on the grass.
Ava heard cheers and feet running towards her, but she held on tight.
Chapter 68
Serge ignored the Seine rolling by outside his window and watched his computer.
The dot on the screen showed Tatsuko’s run towards the finish point. She was three hundred metres from the finish, then two hundred and fifty. She must be sprinting to go that fast. The dot drifted left before cutting hard back to the right. It slowed near the corner of Parliament Square and then accelerated.
The dot travelled fast across Parliament Square Garden then stopped abruptly in the centre, as if Tatsuko had run into a brick wall.
He watched, but the dot didn’t move.
‘Merde,’ he said, and flicked to another window that showed trending social media posts. The top tag was #TinyCopTakedown.
Serge clicked on the tag and then on a video that came up.
The footage was taken from the edge of the Parliament Square Garden and tracked Tatsuko running hard and straight at a small, blonde woman. It was a complete mismatch. Tatsuko had height, weight and speed on her side. The little woman didn’t stand a chance, but as the video rolled forward, Serge let out a whistle as the little woman took the hit and spun, sliding down Tatsuko’s body before grabbing her legs. He let out an involuntary wince as he watched her face hit the grass.
He clicked off the video when he saw the crowds of Uniforms and passers-by running to get a better view.
‘C’est la vie,’ Serge said. ‘Close, but not a winner.’ She hadn’t got to the steps of Parliament, but Parliament Square was close enough.
As he had done when Sully’s game controller was in the military building, Serge went back to his Game Control window. He clicked on the dot where Tatsuko still lay. He selected the ‘Lock Controller’ option.
Serge moved the mouse and clicked on the menu. He chose the ‘Retire player’ option, then selected the reason as ‘Player arrested’.
A message box popped up asking him if he was sure.
He was sure.
He pressed ‘Yes’.
Chapter 69
Ava caught her breath and started to release her grip, but as soon as she did, Tatsuko began wriggling and trying to break free.
‘Stop,’ Ava called, but Tatsuko kept struggling, trying to get away.
Ava held on tight but pulled her knees up under her. ‘Here goes,’ she thought, and released her grip at the same time she pushed forward with her feet and spread her arms. Ava shot forward and landed on Tatsuko’s back before she had a chance to get more than a couple of inches off the ground.
Ava grabbed at Tatsuko’s arms and yanked hard. First the left and then the right pinning them palm up on her back. She placed her knee in the small of Tatsuko’s back to keep her down and fished one-handed in a pocket. She pulled out a large cable tie that she looped around Tatsuko’s wrists and pulled tight.
The cable ties zipping shrill stopped when it bit into the flesh of Tatsuko’s right wrist and her unyielding left.
Ava wriggled her body so that her knees were on either side of Tatsuko and she sat on her back. She held on to Tatsuko’s hand as she blew a stray strand of hair away from her face.
Heavy feet and jagged breathing reached Ava’s side. ‘Need any help?’ came a voice.
Ava looked up at one of the Uniforms who had let Tatsuko get past so easily.
‘Not from you.’
She smiled at the ring of faces around her.
‘Awesome take-down, dude,’ someone said, and her smile widened.
Ava froze when she felt something warm on the top of her leg. Tatsuko’s game controller was flashing red and was getting hotter.
‘Fuck,’ she said.
‘Run!’ she screamed. ‘Run now.’
They frowned but stayed put.
She started at the Uniform. ‘Get these people away from here. NOW.’
The Uniforms turned and started to shoo the people.
Too slow.
‘Bomb,’ Ava shouted, and the crowd scattered, desperate to get away. Not caring if they knocked someone else flying in the process.
‘What bomb?’ Tatsuko said.
Dreading what the display would say, Ava looked down at Tatsuko’s game controller.
She gasped when she read the display: ‘0:09’.
No time to get help.
She pulled and tugged at the controller, but it wouldn’t move.
She jumped off Tatsuko and looked at the backs of the fleeing crowd.
Tatsuko seized her opportunity and clambered to her feet. Awkward with her hands tied behind her back, she started running towards the Parliament building. Towards the crowds.
Ava looked towards her van and safety, and then back towards the running Tatsuko. Her life versus all those in the crowd.
She sprinted after Tatsuko. She caught her easily and landed on her back.
Tatsuko face-planted into the grass for the second time.
‘Run,’ Ava screamed at the crowds and this time they did as she told them, but they were still close.
‘I’m not a lazy girl,’ Tatsuko said as she struggled to get up.
Ava pushed down, covering Tatsuko’s hands with her body and closing her eyes. So many things she would never do or see.
‘Love you, Mum. Love you, Dad,’ she said.
Chapter 70
The woman in the farm van hadn’t tried to climb down to see where Lilou was hiding in the bushes. Long, long minutes dragged by before Lilou heard footsteps and a car moving.
She released a long breath and forced the muscles in her shoulders and neck to relax. Reaching along her leg, the first gentle touches found some swelling. Not good, but as she pressed harder the pain didn’t explode. It hurt but was bearable.
She explored her foot, fearing one of the many bones was broken. She knew them well, especially from the beginning of her parkour. So many falls, so many twists, and even a broken metatarsal bone. The doctor had shrugged when he saw the X-ray and said, ‘Rest.’ She had rested, bored and fidgety until the swelling dropped enough to get her foot in her shoe.
Then it was about ignoring the pain. Determination and time got her through.
Now her foot didn’t feel that bad, probably only a twisted ankle, but no way was she going to take her shoe off in case it wouldn’t go back on.
She pushed herself up, wobbling on the slippery ground as she took all her weight on her right foot. She touched her left foot onto the ground, as gently as a feather landing. She shifted a little weight onto her left side, then a little more.
Pain and discomfort, sure. But she was still in the game.
In the shelter of the bushes, she checked her game controller. ‘Game position – second’.
‘How?’ she said, as deep lines rippled across her forehead. She had overtaken someone while hiding in a bush.
They must have been caught. She hoped it was Sully.
***
Over the hours of walking, her ankle had eased. The trick was to keep moving. Every stop stiffened it up, and then she had to push through the pain to get it moving again.
She was in Cardiff now, less than a mile to go. The few pedestrians she saw all seemed agitated, fingers waving frantically in front of their faces. Lilou stopped and looked in a shop window as a man walked past her. ‘You seen the video? That cop sacrificed herself.’
Lilou’s sense of isolation deepened. All she had was this controller and it had no news or connectivity that she could use. She walked on, but her feet seemed heavier. How was she in second place when she was walking so slowly? The elation she expected at being so close to th
e finish was missing. She was frowning, not smiling.
Her frown deepened when she stopped in a small alleyway and checked her game controller. ‘Game position – first’.
There’s no way should I be winning, she thought. Unless she was the last survivor in the game.
She walked on and turned into Pierhead Street. As the road swung around a gentle curve, it straightened and Lilou’s view opened up. She could see straight along the road to the red tower of the Pierhead building itself.
She spun and looked into another shop as a young woman came out of the shop dragging a toddler by the hand. ‘Come on, we need to get home and safe.’
Safe? Lilou thought.
Then all thought disappeared. Lilou was mesmerised by a small square of a display wall inside the shop.
The screen showed a figure running across some grass. Grand buildings in the background.
Tatsuko running.
At least this video might explain why she was now winning.
Lilou read the caption at the bottom of the screen: ‘Terror attack outside Parliament’. She wasn’t sure if the caption was a breaking story or somehow about Tatsuko.
Lilou’s eyes flicked up. Her competitor ran on, straight at a small woman. Tatsuko tried to run through her but crashed to the floor. That seemed to be all the excitement in the video, but then all the heat drained out of Lilou, like water flowing from down rapids.
As the video continued, the people around Tatsuko scattered and ran. Panicked eyes and screams. The small woman caught Tatsuko again and held her down.
Lilou’s knees caved and buckled at the flash of white and the crack of the explosion.
She was still struggling to process what her eyes were telling her when the image changed, and the caption read ‘Attack linked to Stormont’.
Lilou’s hand clamped over her mouth. Sobs followed as she watched Femi sink to his knees and his controller exploded.
She forced herself up and stumbled along the road like an early morning drunk.