Huntress

by Amanda Radley

  Stuart chuckled. “You know, when we get to Aberdeen, I have a feeling I’m going to be saying, ‘Gosh, I wish Amy and Kerry were still here’.”

  Amy laughed. “I warned you about that.”

  27

  Waiting

  Claudia rubbed her eyes. She rolled her shoulders to try to release some of the tension in them. She’d headed towards a lay-by and was waiting for further information. Waiting was the worst part of the job; so much time was spent in the car—waiting. At least eighty percent of her time was spent anticipating information, the remaining twenty consisted of racing after her prey. The feeling of a large hourglass over her head never went away. At a moment’s notice, she could be tasked with tearing off in any direction, but for the moment, and for the last few hours, she had sat in the car waiting for a scrap of information.

  People always assumed the life of a professional hunter was glamorous; little did they know that huge amounts of time were spent in solitude, often in a car. Claudia knew every single centimetre of the inside of her car. Within a day of owning it, she knew what every lever, knob, and button did. Before working in intelligence, she wouldn’t have known how to turn her rear fog lights on. The stitching on the steering wheel was slightly frayed at the bottom where she had pulled on a minuscule thread a day after receiving the vehicle. She looked at the thread, dying to pull on it some more. With a sigh, she turned her head towards the window and looked out at the traffic that passed by. It wasn’t a particularly busy road, but it was slightly more interesting than the inside of the car.

  She hated relying on other people. Back when she worked for MI5, it was waiting for a team of analysts to find something, check it, report it to a higher level, double-check it, verify it, have it sent to the commanding officer, and then, finally, receive it herself. By the time she got information it was usually out of date. Nowadays she had to wait for Mark, which was far quicker and much more efficient, but still mind-numbingly tedious.

  Amy and Kerry had managed to evade her at every opportunity. The analysts and profilers were stumped. Every time they had a lead on a direction, they ended up being wrong. The girls didn’t fit with any profiling. Nothing about them seemed to make sense. It seemed as if they were always ten steps ahead, and no one knew where they were going or what their end goal was.

  It physically hurt to have been so close to catching them. She knew that for the sake of five minutes, she could have arrested them. She should have been happy; it was the closest she had been to them and it was enough to spook them. The more spooked they were, the more pressure they felt. And with pressure came mistakes. No matter how well trained.

  The car dashboard lit up with an incoming call from Mark. She sat up a little straighter and mashed the answer button on the steering wheel.

  “Mark?”

  “Get to the M80, northbound,” he instructed.

  Within seconds, she was speeding out of the lay-by and up the road. “What have you got?”

  “I’ve been through reams and reams of footage. Knowing they like hitchhiking and service stations, I had a look at the local service stations where they were last seen. It took me a while, but I found them. I have a visual of them getting into a Mercedes Compass Motorhome number plate P726 JIQ. I plugged that into the ANPR, and they are currently on the M80 heading north. You’re about an hour and a half behind them, if you hurry.”

  28

  Gotcha

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?” Stuart asked as he fussed with the petrol pump. He looked clueless at why the screen was blank and the card slot was blocked.

  “Not at all, we’re disastrously low on road trip sweets,” Kerry said. She leaned forward and pressed the button to start the pump. The machine whirred into action.

  Stuart looked slightly embarrassed and shoved his bank card into the machine. He put his hand in his pocket and handed Kerry a ten pound note. “Can you get her a drink, nothing too sugary, and then some sweets. Maybe some real food, too, like a sandwich?”

  Kerry took the money. “No problem, so you want me to get her a couple of bottles of wine and about twenty bags of crisps?”

  Alice giggled. Kerry held out her hand, and Alice grabbed hold of it.

  Stuart smiled. “Yeah, but no beer,” he joked.

  “Of course not, we’re more refined,” Kerry said.

  “I’m going to use the bathroom,” Amy called out from the front of the motorhome.

  “Okay, Alice and I are getting some snacks,” Kerry shouted back.

  “Ooh, get me a Twix.”

  Kerry rolled her eyes. “She’d eat nothing but Twix if she was allowed,” she told Alice. They started to walk towards the services. “And then she’d basically be a Twix. Two giant chocolate legs, wrapped in gold foil.”

  Alice laughed. “And with biscuit instead of bones!”

  “And caramel instead of blood!”

  Alice made a face, and Kerry chuckled. Alice was a darling girl, clearly devastated by the loss of her mother and her home life. But she was bright and kind, and Kerry was enjoying talking to her.

  Some of the stress was beginning to lift after watching YouTube videos of Alice’s favourite bands and talking about the latest talent contests on television. It had only been an hour, maybe two, and Kerry felt better.

  Kerry held Alice’s hand tightly as they crossed the car park. Being responsible for the young girl was the first time in a long time that she had to look after someone other than herself. He problems seemed less important now she was effectively the guardian of Alice.

  They entered a shop, and Kerry looked at the sandwiches.

  “I thought we were getting sweets?” Alice asked.

  “Oh, we are, but we need to get some real food. Because then the sweets are so much tastier, like a dessert,” Kerry told her. “Besides, if you just eat sweets you’ll feel sick, and your dad won’t be very happy either.”

  “Okay,” Alice agreed.

  They picked out a sandwich for her, a drink, and two bags of sweets. Kerry offered Alice the money to pay the checkout staff, but Alice squirmed behind her, unwilling to let go of her hand. Kerry smiled and told her it was fine, then turned towards the checkout and paid for the items. The assistant placed them in a plastic carrier bag and handed it to Alice before giving Kerry her change.

  “Kerry Wyatt.”

  Kerry felt cold fear shoot down her back. The woman’s voice was calm and professional, and right behind her. Kerry gripped Alice’s hand a little tighter, hoping that she wouldn’t be the reason for any further stress or horror in the girl’s young life.

  She slowly turned around. A woman in a suit, with long, dark hair swept into a ponytail, stood with her hands clasped in front of her. She was looking kindly at Alice with a small smile on her face. Kerry felt relief. She’d always imagined that the moment she was caught would include screaming and shouting, weapons being waved about, and it ending with her being pushed face first into the floor. This was almost serene.

  “My name is Claudia McAllister. I need to speak with you.” Her hazel eyes bore into Kerry; the message was clear that they were going to do this with as minimal fuss as possible. “Where is Amy?”

  “Probably back at the motorhome,” Kerry answered honestly. Fear was giving way to relief. Relief that it was over, and it wasn’t nearly as awful as she’d thought it would be. “We’re travelling with Alice and her dad. He is filling up with petrol.”

  “We should probably head there,” Claudia said. She smiled down at Alice. “Do you have some sweets for the road trip?”

  “Yes.” Alice thrust her hand into the carrier bag and produced the two bags. “One for dessert, and one for later, in case we hit traffic.”

  “Always good to plan ahead,” Claudia said. She stood to one side and gestured for them to exit the shop. Kerry walked Alice towards the motorhome.

  Claudia walked beside them. Her hands were in the pockets of her long, black trench coat, and she looked around as they walked. “They
are lovely shoes,” Claudia indicated Alice’s pink Barbie trainers.

  “My daddy got them for me.” Alice smiled widely, very happy with the compliment and not at all fazed by Claudia’s sudden appearance.

  Kerry had to admit that the woman obviously knew how to handle the situation. While her heart was beating like a drum in her chest, she could also feel the weight lifting off of her shoulders. Claudia felt safe, put-together, and competent. And there was only one of her. No black SUVs with men and semi-automatic machine guns. Just one woman, who seemed keen to put a young girl’s mind at rest.

  “Who are you?” Alice asked.

  “I’m a friend of Amy’s,” Claudia replied. She was all smiles and disarming pleasantries.

  They got to the motorhome, and Stuart was sitting in the driver’s seat reading a magazine as he waited for everyone to return.

  “Where’s Amy?” Kerry asked.

  He lowered his magazine and looked from Kerry to Claudia with a frown. “Dunno, she’s still not come back.”

  “Where did she go?” Claudia asked.

  “Who are you?” Stuart put his magazine down and stepped out of the motorhome. He held out his hand towards Alice, sensing that something was wrong.

  “She went to the bathroom,” Kerry answered.

  Claudia blew out a breath and looked around the car park. “Get your things,” she told Kerry. She turned towards Stuart. “I’m a private investigator working with the government. Miss Wyatt and Miss Hewitt are helping me with an investigation. I need your name and contact details.”

  Kerry leaned into the back of the camper van and pulled out her rucksack while Stuart relayed his information to Claudia. He was obviously confused, but Claudia’s manner gave him no room to query what was happening.

  “Thank you.” Claudia handed her business card to him. “I’ll be giving Kerry a lift from here. If you hear from Amy, please call me immediately.”

  Claudia took hold of Kerry’s elbow. “Let’s go.”

  Kerry pulled back slightly and gestured her head towards Alice. Claudia looked at her curiously for a moment before realisation set in. She nodded and let go of Kerry’s elbow.

  “Hey, it’s been real fun, but I have to go and help Claudia with some things. Sorry I can’t come with you the rest of the way.”

  Alice looked sad but slowly nodded. “It’s okay. Maybe I’ll see you around?”

  “I hope so, I’d really like that.” Kerry gave Alice a quick one-armed hug and then turned towards Claudia. Claudia gestured towards the services with her arm, indicating that they both start moving. Once they were out of earshot, Claudia spoke, “Can you communicate with Amy? Can you tell her to give herself up?”

  “No, we don’t have a way to talk to each other. We had walkie-talkies, but I left one—”

  “I’m aware.” Claudia unclipped the missing walkie-talkie from her belt and held it out to Kerry. “Tell her it’s over, and she needs to give herself up.”

  Kerry took the device. “I’ll try, but Amy doesn’t really listen to me.”

  “We’ll walk while you convince her, she might still be around here.” Claudia walked into the services, her eyes scanning every part of the room.

  “We’re innocent, you know, we haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “I’ve heard that a few times before.”

  “I mean it, we were set up,” Kerry implored.

  Claudia stopped dead. She took Kerry’s arm and thrust the walkie-talkie closer towards her mouth. “I need you to get your friend to give herself up, now.”

  Kerry let out a breath and pressed the button down. “Amy? You there?”

  Claudia got her mobile phone out of her pocket and dialled a number. She held the phone to her ear while she continued to look around the bustling service station.

  “Amy, come on, please talk to me.” In her heart, Kerry didn’t want Amy to answer. While Claudia seemed to be a better option than the black ops guys they had seen before, she was still the enemy, and Kerry had no idea where her loyalties lay. Part of her wanted Amy to stick to the plan, to get away and decode the USB data.

  “This is Claudia McAllister, I need a local pick-up for Kerry Wyatt,” Claudia spoke into her phone.

  “Amy?” Kerry tried again even though her heart wasn’t in it. All she wanted now was for Claudia to give up, give Amy a chance to get away before more agents descended, and all hell broke loose. She feared that Amy had no idea what was happening. She worried that she was actually buying a Twix somewhere and would any moment now plod around the corner with her mouth full of chocolate.

  “I’m still looking for Amy, she can’t have gone far. I suspect she’s aware that her friend has been apprehended and is making her own getaway, but there’s not much I can do about it until I can hand off this asset.”

  Asset. That’s all she was now. An asset. A way to get information, information that would probably fall into the wrong hands.

  “I need them here sooner than that, I’m losing valuable time.” Claudia looked at Kerry and raised her eyebrow, gesturing towards the walkie-talkie.

  “Amy?” Kerry tried again. “She might not even have it on,” she told Claudia.

  “Tell them to call me the second they arrive.” Claudia hung up the call and started to make another. “Where would she go? Do you have a plan? A pick-up? Who are you working with?”

  Kerry chuckled. “Working with? No one.”

  Claudia pressed the phone to her ear. “Is it Green Falcon? ISIS? Al-Qaeda?” She turned her attention back to her phone call. “Mark, I need CCTV of Bonnybridge Services now. I have Kerry Wyatt in custody, but Amy has slipped away.”

  “Al-Qaeda? Are you out of your mind? I’m an accounts clerk from Wakeham, not Jihadi Jane.”

  Claudia turned the mouthpiece of the phone away from her mouth. “We have intelligence that says otherwise.”

  “Then it’s wrong,” Kerry argued. “I don’t know where you guys get your intel from, but come on. You must have looked into us both, do we seem like terrorists to you? Really?”

  Claudia looked at her silently for a moment. She turned the phone back towards her mouth. “Call me the second you have anything.” She hung up the call.

  “Terrorists know how to appear ordinary. That’s how they are so difficult to uncover,” Claudia pointed out.

  Kerry stared at her. She was serious. This woman seriously thought she was a terrorist. “How can you possibly think that Amy and I are terrorists? We have bumbled our way up and down the country. We’ve gotten lost, we’ve been at the mercy of anyone who would help us, we’re hungry, scared, cold, and alone.”

  “You conned your way into people’s homes in order to seek refuge, you exchanged clothes with homeless people in order to disguise your appearance—”

  “Whoa, whoa, wait a minute.” Kerry held her hand up. “We didn’t con our way into anyone’s homes. We have been invited in. We have left money in the places we’ve stayed. We’ve helped people. Amy gave her coat to a stranger because it was a cold night, not to change her appearance.”

  “Where is the USB stick?” Claudia asked.

  “Amy has it.”

  “You will be searched when you get to the local station,” Claudia explained.

  “And they won’t find the USB, because I don’t have it.” Kerry folded her arms.

  Claudia shook her head. She looked around, probably scanning the services again for any sign of Amy. Kerry wanted to keep her talking to distract her, but she somehow felt that Claudia wasn’t the sort of person who got distracted.

  “You will be questioned,” Claudia told her. “Your helpfulness during your questioning will directly relate to the sentence you will end up serving.”

  “Sentence?” Kerry gasped.

  “The more help you are now, the less time you will serve.” Claudia twisted her phone in her hand, the only indication of her stress. Her voice was slow, clear, and methodical. “We will find Amy, with or without your help. But your actions
from hereon will dictate your future. I suggest you think long and hard about what you say.”

  “I am not a terrorist. I don’t know any terrorists. I don’t support them. I know nothing. I am just an accounts assistant, I watch X Factor and go to the pub occasionally with my mates from work, I read cheesy romance novels, I once forgot to tax my car for a couple of days, and I put fifty quid into a charity box as some kind of retribution for my crime. I am not a criminal.”

  Claudia regarded her silently.

  Kerry swallowed. The last time she felt this nervous was when she had been falsely accused of stealing money from her mum’s purse when she was eight. She’d been completely innocent, but still the fear of being found guilty ate at her and caused tremors to start throughout her body. This was bigger than the wrath of her mum. This was bigger than anything. Claudia had a poker face, and Kerry had no idea if she was getting through to her or not.

  “Amy is innocent,” she repeated. “If she’s running, it’s because she’s scared. She found the USB stick under a table at work. A guy came in looking for it, she didn’t trust him, and then he produced a knife and threatened to kill her if she didn’t give it to him. As a good citizen and a decent human being, she wasn’t about to give it up to him in case it had something important on it. He threatened us, he told us that he would set us up and convince your lot that we were terrorists. We ran because we didn’t know if he was telling the truth or not, seems he was!”

  “Where would she go?” Claudia asked.

  Kerry sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know. Amy’s... kinda unpredictable. Normally, I’d say she’d charm her way into a lift with someone. But we were in the car park so she wouldn’t take that risk.” Kerry held out the walkie-talkie. “You ask her, she’s not talking to me.”

  Claudia took the device. She looked around the concourse again. “Where were you heading?”