Kyle seized her arm, wrenched open the door to a wooden shed, and pushed her inside.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Nina once Kyle had let go of her arm.
‘We need a distraction so I can get into the house,’ said Kyle, and pulled the door shut.
With no windows to give away their position, he switched on the flashlight and left it on the workbench, its bulb flickering as the battery life began to drain from it. He hurried over to the far side of the large shed and started to run his hands over the steel drums stored along one side of the building. He patted his pocket and cursed.
‘What are you looking for?’ asked Nina as she approached.
‘Anything that’s highly flammable,’ he said, and then pointed to the other side of the shed. ‘Take a look over there – we need something with alcohol in it, or any other flammable liquid. And if you see a box of matches or a cigarette lighter, put it somewhere safe. The one I took from John must’ve fallen out when we were on the bike.’
Nina put the gun on the workbench and began to search the shelves alongside, pulling down plastic tubs of liquid and reading the warning labels on the sides before discarding the ones they couldn’t use.
‘Okay, what have you got?’
She glanced up as Kyle appeared next to her. ‘Not much.’ She gestured to the small collection of bottles set to one side.
He began to pick up the bottles and then looked over his shoulder at the drums he’d rolled to one side, away from the others.
‘What are you thinking?’
‘I need something to act as a fuse,’ he said. ‘Those drums have diesel in them. Enough to create the distraction I need, but without a fuse, they’re useless.’
‘Where are you going to put them?’
‘Inside the door. We need a fuse so we can get far enough away from the explosion.’ He rubbed his hand over his chin. ‘And the ground’s wet outside, so we can’t pour anything onto the floor and expect to light it.’
‘What about this?’ Nina held up a large bottle of liquid soap.
‘No good – like I said, you can’t put it on the ground.’ He turned away.
‘It might work if you rub it along the walls of the building, look.’ She squirted some of the liquid onto her fingers and held up her hand to Kyle. The soap stuck, without dripping onto the floor. ‘The roof has eaves. It’ll protect the soap from being washed off by the rain.’
He frowned, staring at her fingers, before his lips twitched. ‘What’s the alcohol content in that stuff?’
He reached over and grabbed the bottle, squinting in the poor light.
‘It’s a lot,’ said Nina. ‘It’s the industrial stuff they use to get grease off their fingers when they’ve been working on the machinery.’
She grabbed a cloth and wiped her hands.
‘Is there any more of this?’
Nina stepped back and raised her chin until she could see the top shelf. ‘Yes – up there.’
‘Okay. We need to mix it with something, though, to give it a boost.’
Kyle reached up, grabbed the second bottle of soap, and then began to search through the other bottles Nina had collected. ‘Nothing here.’
He jogged over to the opposite side of the shed, away from the drums, where a collection of hessian bags had been stacked against the wall. He ran his hands over the printed text on the outside of a half-full bag, then picked it up and returned to the workbench, a grin on his face.
‘Fertiliser?’ Nina’s eyes widened.
‘Well, we wanted a distraction, right?’ He hefted the bag onto the workbench. ‘Ammonia nitrate will work a treat. Find something we can use as a mixing bowl,’ he said. ‘You’re going to have to help me.’
‘Isn’t this dangerous?’
His eyes shone through the gloom. ‘Yes.’
‘You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?’
He shrugged. ‘I need to stop them.’
‘We could die.’
‘Yes, we could.’ He placed his hands on her shoulders. ‘But I can’t do this without you,’ he said. ‘So, will you help me?’
‘Yes,’ she said, her voice shaking. She cleared her throat. ‘Yes,’ she said more clearly. ‘Of course I will.’
Kyle grinned. ‘Good.’ He gave her shoulders a final squeeze and then held up the bowl. ‘Let’s cook,’ he said, before pointing to the workbench. ‘Add the soap first.’
Nina tipped the liquid into the container. ‘How much?’
‘All of it – both bottles.’
She squeezed the contents of the second bottle into the container while Kyle unwrapped the top of the hessian bag. She paused to watch as he put his hand inside and then withdrew it. A pale pink powder covered his palm.
‘Is it dry?’
‘Yes.’ He pushed her gently to one side, before adding two handfuls of the powder to the soap. ‘Okay, now I’ll mix this together.’
‘Is it safe?’
‘At the moment. I don’t want too much air getting into the mix, that’s all.’
She watched, her heartbeat drumming in her ears as she watched him stir the fertiliser into the bowl with the soap.
He used a stick to mix the two elements together, then slowly poured in the diesel and stirred until the mixture thickened.
Nina moved away, seeking a distraction from the thought that they were about to be blown into oblivion if Kyle got the measurements wrong, and began to search the shelves for anything else they might need.
She busied herself pushing through the detritus strewn across the dusty shelving units, discarding small boxes of nails and assorted bolts. She recalled how Ross’s father always kept his workshop tidy, berating the kids when they didn’t put tools back in the right place or left things lying around. A smile flickered across her lips at the memory.
Finally, she heard Kyle drop the stick onto the workbench.
‘We’re ready.’
Nina held up the small box in her hand. ‘Found something else for you too.’
‘Matches?’ He grinned. ‘That’s great – for a while there I thought we were going to have to do it the old-fashioned way with two sticks.’
‘How do you know this?’
‘What?’
‘Making home-made bombs.’
‘I usually try to stop them,’ he said. ‘I guess I’ve just remembered some of the stuff I’ve seen.’
‘What will this do?’
Kyle leaned against the bench, cradling his shoulder. ‘The fertiliser makes the soap thicker, so it’ll stick to the wall better, as well as accelerating the diesel in the liquid. We’ll leave a trail of it from those fuel drums, then out the shed and along the side of the walls. Once we know we can get away without being seen, we light the fuse and run for cover.’
‘And then?’
‘Then I get into the house while they’re running to see what all the noise is about.’
Nina swallowed. ‘What if it doesn’t work? What if someone sees you?’
‘I’ll worry about that if it happens.’ He moved closer and peered into the makeshift bowl. ‘That’ll do. We need to do this now. It’s very unstable like this.’
He picked up the container before leading the way towards the exit. Nina hung back as he opened the shed door, checking their escape route.
‘Okay, come on,’ he whispered. ‘Hang onto the back of my shirt, and don’t let go.’
Nina’s hand shook as she wove her fingers into the pale blue cotton that poked out from under Kyle’s jacket.
He moved quickly, giving Nina a fraction of a moment to shut the door behind them before he edged slowly along the wall of the building, smearing the sticky liquid on the surface as they progressed.
Reaching the back of the shed, Kyle dropped the bowl to the floor and held a match to the sticky substance. It flared, then caught and began to burn its way around the building.
Kyle grabbed Nina’s hand and pulled her towards the treeline.
‘Move!’
&nbs
p; She slid to a halt behind a thick tree trunk, her breathing laboured, adrenalin kicking in, and peered round Kyle’s shoulder, waiting for the explosion.
And waited.
‘What’s wrong?’ she hissed. ‘Why didn’t it work?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe I missed a bit in the dark. Maybe the soap didn’t stick as well as we thought it would.’
‘What do we do now?’
She stared up at him, trying not to panic, seeking his assurance that he had another plan, another way they could get into the house and rescue Ross’s family.
His jaw was set, his eyes refusing to meet hers, his gaze centred on the building behind her.
‘Kyle?’ She nudged him. ‘I said, what are we going to do now?’
His eyes opened wide, and he pushed her between the shoulder blades – hard.
‘Get down!’
32
Nina cried out as the shockwave tore past them, fractured timber and debris blasting through the treeline.
Kyle pushed her to the ground and lay prone over her, sheltering her face against his chest, his uninjured arm protecting the back of her head.
She screwed up her eyes as the heat rushed by them, Kyle’s weight pressing her into the water-logged undergrowth.
As the initial blast abated, Kyle raised his head and shifted his body into a crouch.
Nina rolled over and joined him, pulling pieces of vegetation from her wet hair.
Beyond the treeline, the shed had disintegrated, spewing its contents across the paddock towards the new outbuildings.
Flames licked at the night sky, despite the fine drizzle that still fell across the valley. Men were running towards the ruin, shouting and pointing.
‘I think they know we’re here now,’ said Nina, as flames licked at the remnants of the outbuilding.
‘Move!’ hissed Kyle, and grabbed her arm, shading his eyes with his other hand.
He pulled her away from the inferno that engulfed the remnants of the wooden outbuilding and into the shadows behind the house.
While the flames still burned and Hudson’s men ran to see what the commotion was about, they could take advantage of both the distraction and the fact the men’s night vision would be severely impaired.
They ducked behind an old tractor, moments before two men ran past, the first shouting over his shoulder.
Nina turned her head at movement in the house to see a man standing in the front doorway, his hands on his hips as he surveyed the chaotic scene.
‘Look,’ she said, tapping Kyle’s forearm.
He twisted to see where she pointed.
‘Hudson,’ he spat. He held out his hand. ‘Come on. We need to move now if this is going to work.’
Nina peered at the figure on the porch as he stalked down the staircase towards his panicked men shouting orders; then she concentrated on where she was running as Kyle led her in a sweeping arc through the trees.
When the back door of the property came into view, he stopped.
‘Here, give me your gun.’
Nina frowned and handed over the weapon. ‘Why?’
Kyle jerked his chin towards the house. ‘I want to take a look inside. I don’t plan to get caught, but if I do, I want all the firepower I can get my hands on.’
He slipped the extra weapon into the waistband of his jeans.
‘Kyle? What do you want me to do?’
A manic grin crossed his face as he looked down at her. ‘Be good. Stay out of trouble.’
Nina stared at him, open-mouthed, as he jogged towards the house, cracked open the door, and slipped inside.
‘Typical,’ she muttered, crossing her arms and leaning against the knotted trunk to wait.
***
Kyle pushed the door shut and then stood in the large kitchen, blinking until his vision adjusted to the bright lights that swamped him.
Opposite, a large table contained the detritus of a meal consumed in a hurry, and he relished the thought of the panic that Hudson and his men must have felt when they realised their careful months of planning were in danger of falling apart at the last minute.
Three months of living in a cooped-up environment with such twisted individuals had taken a harder toll on Kyle than he was prepared to admit to himself or anyone else.
He thought of Ross and Nina and the simple lives they lived in comparison and swore he’d put it right, that somehow he’d succeed, even if it meant he wouldn’t survive.
He removed his boots and hid them inside a cupboard under the sink, not wanting to leave a trail of wet and muddy footprints through the house to signal his return to Hudson or his men, and padded in his bare feet across the tiled floor towards the passageway.
He kept his gun raised, the familiar weight in his two-handed grip small comfort against the mammoth task he faced.
He checked the front door, saw no-one approaching, and sprinted across the passageway to the living area.
A bare room, it held a pungent aroma of stale cigarette smoke and male sweat.
He trod carefully. Two of Hudson’s thugs were occasional heroin users, and the last thing he wanted was to survive the next few hours only to die from an infection caused by standing on someone else’s needle.
Satisfied the downstairs area was deserted, Kyle crept up the staircase, his back to the wall, working on the theory Hudson had locked Ross’s father and brother in one of the bedrooms on the next floor.
Unlike the Flanagan property, the staircase was bare, the carpet pulled up years ago before it had rotted away.
Kyle held his breath every time one of his feet took his weight, hoping he remembered which stair treads were loose and liable to creak.
Reaching the top step without incident, he swept his gun left and right along the passageway and then moved.
A quick check of the rooms bore no results, and exasperated, Kyle began to hurry back along the passageway.
He jerked his head up at a sudden noise and cursed, a moment before a man launched himself through an open hatchway to the attic and landed across his shoulders, knocking him to the floor.
Kyle swore as he tumbled onto his injured shoulder, dropping his gun in the process.
He rolled, kicking his assailant as he tried to move out of his way in the narrow space, and reached for the second weapon at his waistband.
‘Don’t.’
He raised his eyes and cursed. ‘Larry. Nice of you to drop in.’
‘Kyle.’ A smile crossed the man’s face, and he waggled the gun. ‘Get up. Hudson’s going to be pleased to see you.’
Kyle chuckled and put his hands on his head before standing. ‘I don’t think he will be.’
Larry leaned forward and tugged the second gun from Kyle’s belt. ‘Let’s go and find out, shall we?’
33
‘Don’t move, or we’ll shoot.’
Nina froze and then slowly raised her hands in the air.
She closed her eyes, her heart sinking. She realised she’d been so intent on watching the house, waiting for Kyle to return, that she’d failed to watch her own back. She cursed her stupidity.
‘How many of you are there?’
‘T-two.’
‘Turn around.’
Nina opened her eyes and shuffled until she was facing the sound of the voice. She lowered her head, squinting against the bright flashlight beam that shone in her face.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Nina O’Brien.’
The light remained in her face as a second dark shape moved forward and grabbed her arm.
‘Stand still.’
Nina’s heart pounded, her pulse in her ears and throat as the man moved his hands over her body, checking for weapons. She fought down the urge to vomit as his fingers lingered too long and stepped back out of his reach.
He lurched forward and grabbed her roughly by her hair, tipping her face up to his.
‘You were told to stay still.’
Nina gagged, the man’s bad breath overp
owering her senses.
His eyes were wide, staring, and she wondered how high on drugs her two assailants might be. He stank, as if he hadn’t washed in days, his face covered in pustules and a days-old beard.
‘Leave her,’ said the first man, stepping forward. ‘We need to find who she’s with.’
The second man tightened his hold on Nina’s hair and leaned closer to her.
She whimpered, feeling his hardness against her, and squirmed in his grip.
‘Where’s your friend?’ he said. ‘Point.’
Nina remained silent, then cried out as the man shook her, and she bit her lip.
She tasted blood on her tongue, the coppery taste swirling in her mouth. Shaking, she raised her hand and pointed towards the house.
‘He went that way,’ she whispered, appalled that she couldn’t do anything to warn Kyle he was in danger.
The first man stepped forward. ‘Bring her with us, Peter. She might be useful.’
‘I’m sure she will be.’ Her captor leaned closer. ‘Very useful.’
His grip loosened on her hair, and Nina hissed between her teeth as she straightened, her back muscles burning.
She rubbed her neck to ease the pain before the man wrapped his fingers round her arm and began to follow his colleague.
‘Don’t try anything, bitch,’ he murmured. ‘Don’t you be thinking about calling out to your friend.’
Nina slipped in the mud under her feet as he dragged her forward.
‘Hurry,’ he said, pulling her along.
They caught up with the second man, Peter deferring to his lead.
Nina stumbled over the paddock between the two men, her shoulders slumped, her whole body exhausted.
She chided herself for not being more alert, for not expecting Hudson to have men searching the perimeter for the arsonists that had razed his outbuilding to the ground.
As the first man pushed open the back door, his body stiffened, and she followed his gaze to the exit from the kitchen, where Jock Hudson stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at her.
‘Where did you find her?’
‘Perimeter. Opposite the back door, sir.’
The second of the men stepped forward. ‘We were thinking, sir – she could probably tell us where Kyle is hiding.’
Two FBI thrillers: Before Nightfall and Mistake Creek Page 37