“Never thought about it,” said Bane. “But they’d want to be able to stop them, wouldn’t they? If one of those trains hit something hard enough, there’d be a whopping crater.”
“Exactly. Well, they have a flashing sequence of red and green lights. Only changed once a year because the drivers have to recognise it instantly in an emergency. And this document…”
“It’s got the sequence on!” Several people spoke at once.
“That’s right. Not due to change for another two months. And the code wasn’t supposed to be on that train, so the EuroGov don’t know it’s compromised. Now, none of us will bother messing around with it – so much simpler to polish off half the guards in a derailment and the stuff ’s packed well enough it doesn’t usually go off just from being rolled over a few times. But it might be exactly what you lot need.”
Everyone started talking at once. Bane was just calling for quiet again when there was a knock at the door and a Vatican policeman looked in.
“The visitors are requested to report to Security,” he announced in Latin.
Eduardo obviously couldn’t bear it any longer.
“What did he say?” asked Carla in Esperanto. “Is it a security alert?”
“You two are the security alert,” said Bane, glancing around the table as the policeman withdrew.
Jon looked half-asleep where he sat, and after that awful night, I was no better. Kyle and Father Mark looked perky enough, but Bane said, “Look, I think we’d better call it a night. In here, after breakfast tomorrow?”
Murmuring agreement, everyone got up to leave.
“A whole train, huh?” I whispered to Bane, when we found ourselves snuggled up together on the window seat of my room. Alone... Well, this loving snuggling wasn’t actually unchaste – at the moment. Oh, if my hormones would level out, we could plan the wedding! Not that we wanted anything over the top, the way Registration parties often were, but something a little more than simply grabbing the nearest priest and heading into the cathedral – tempting though that was.
Though… we were probably going to be too busy hijacking trains for a bit, weren’t we? Bother-bother.
“That seems to be the target,” agreed Bane.
“Well, if the entire cargo’s made up of nonLethals, you should be able to arm your ten teams.”
“Could arm a hundred. But we won’t be able to organise more than about ten, I reckon. But it won’t be a bad thing to get the Underground thoroughly equipped with weapons it can use.”
“Reckon Eduardo agrees.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“I notice it’s all ‘us’ and ‘our’ when you talk about the Underground, these days,” I teased gently.
“Well, I reckon this is the side I want to fight for,” he said seriously. “Even if I’m not quite one of you.”
My arms tightened around him and I pressed my cheek to his chest.
“Makes me so happy to hear you say that.”
He kissed the top of my head and didn’t try to reply. After a moment I spoke my secret fear into his chest.
“I just hope we can pull this off without any of us getting shot.”
Because Carla was wrong, I did know how much harder it was to do this… ethically.
Bane went rigid.
“You’re not coming, Margo!”
I put my fists on his chest and pushed myself up, staring into his moonlit face.
“Yes, I am.” My voice shook slightly, but my resolution didn’t. Been thinking about this the whole time he was away. Well… since I’d managed to lay the nightmare to rest, anyway.
“It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s no more dangerous for me than for you.”
“Yes, it is! If they catch me, I’ll just get standard dismantled. If they catch you, they’ll… y’know.”
Happily he hadn’t said the words, because if he said those words to me very often, I probably would change my mind. But I didn’t want to. Lord, lend me Your strength...
“Look, Bane, why d’you think I came here? I came here to fight them. This is the best way to do that. And I’m a good shot. You need good shots.”
“I’m quite sure Eduardo can find me some good shots! He’s only got the Swiss guard, the Vatican Police and the VSS to draw on!”
“Bane…” I twisted my fingers in his shirt and rested my forehead against his chest. ‘Cause this was difficult, really difficult and I was terrified, but also quite certain. “Bane, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life too afraid to be any use to anyone, okay? When I left the Freedom II, I didn’t quite realise at the time, but I made that decision. Not to let that happen.”
“You won’t be no use to anyone if you stay here! After publishing that book, the simple fact you’re still free and alive is an enormous blow to the EuroGov. The fact that the papers will soon figure out you’re still kicking around in the EuroBloc, or next thing to it, is an enormous blow to the EuroGov. You don’t have to go over there to prove anything.”
“You proposing I should rest on my laurels for the rest of my life? Still alive, nah-nah-na-nah-na? That’s going to get old pretty quickly, Bane.”
“Then write something else!”
“Actions speak louder than words. How can I call on other people to resist the EuroGov if I’m too scared to do anything myself?”
“You’ve already done…”
“No…” I put a finger to his lips and
leant close. “None of the greatest events of history ever happened because people did a bit and thought that was enough. Seriously, should I sit around and pat myself on the back for resisting the EuroGov for six months of my life and call it a day? Or should I go out and try to make a world in which you and I can raise children without being afraid one day they’ll be taken from us and murdered?”
Bane’s hand came to rest on my stomach, tenderly.
“Oh God, Margo, why do you have to be so good?” he whispered, his lips almost touching mine. “And… so right. I can’t stop you doing this, but I wish I could.”
He gathered me in his arms and rocked me and hugged me – I think the couple of tears he dropped on my scalp were tears of pure fear.
Mine certainly were.
Everyone settled around the table in the morning with mugs of coffee in hand. I sipped mine with more appreciation than need. I’d had a very good night’s sleep, despite the grave conversation preceding it.
Carla yawned ‘til her jaw almost cracked, then looked at me. “I take it loverboy’s in charge?”
“Like you’d take orders from me. This is Bane’s thing, anyway.”
“Just so we all know the chain of command.” She showed her teeth in a mock smile.
“Let’s start,” said Bane hastily. “So, we’re all agreed we’re going to proceed on the assumption we’ll be using the EuroGov’s own emergency stop signal?”
A chorus of agreement.
“Right. We’ll have to fake the signal or get the real lights to operate, we can look at that in more detail later. So we get this train stopped. How many guards and defences do we have to deal with?”
“Look, just let me talk,” said Carla impatiently. “There’ll be two guards at the back, two at the front, and four in the locomotive, including the driver. All armed with rifles, nothing else to speak of. The guards on the outside will be easy to deal with, if you’ve any nonLees at all – assuming you can shoot straight. Obviously they’ll shoot you if they see you, so strike the instant the train’s stopped; should be pretty safe. Impossible to do this with no risk at all.”
“I know.” Bane’s eyes flicked unconsciously to me. “And yes, we have a few nonLees.”
“Fine, no need to worry about those guards, then. The four in the locomotive are the problem. They’ll stop when they see the signal, but they’ll immediately get on the phone to base and it will only be minutes, at most, before they’re told EuroTrac know nothing about an emergency signal. At which point they’ll slam the throttle wide open and
get the hell out of there. So to avoid that, I suggest you blow the track in front and behind as soon as they’re stopped. Happy with that?”
Bane glanced around the table.
“That’s fine. We’re happy to blow up inanimate objects, as the EuroGov have reason to know.”
“You only threatened to blow up the Vatican. No one knew if you were really serious.”
“The EuroGov obviously thought so,” remarked Jon.
Carla made a dismissive gesture.
“Anyway, you’ll have to be really, really fast getting what you want, because the EuroArmy will have a helicopter en route within minutes.”
Bane glanced at Father Mark.
“D’you think Eduardo’s got anything to jam phone signals?”
“Wouldn’t be surprised. That would take a lot of pressure off. Hard to see how we can actually empty an entire train, otherwise. It’s a lot of risk just to grab a few boxes.”
“You see why it’s easier if you kill them all. Dead men don’t tell tales until you’re well away.” All the same, Carla looked green with envy at the suggestion of a signalJammer.
“Anyway…” said Bane, meaningfully.
“Fine. Anyway, back to the matter of the guards in the locomotive. The thing’s entirely enclosed, so the problem’s getting the door open to get to them.”
“Do we need to get to them?” I remarked.
“What?”
“Well, can they do anything to us if they’re in there? Couldn’t we find some way to stop them getting out, rather than try and get ourselves shot getting in.”
Carla stared at me for a moment.
“The windows don’t open,” said Francesco thoughtfully.
“No, they don’t, do they. Signorina Silver-tongue may have hit it. Not getting to guards just isn’t usually something we consider.”
“I hate to be negative…” said Jon.
“What are you doing in here, anyway?” Carla interrupted him. “You’re not going to be hijacking any train.”
Jon closed his eyes for a moment, then went on as though she hadn’t spoken.
“…What do we do if they don’t stop?”
“Simple. You rig the track to blow as far ahead of the signal as visibility allows. They don’t stop, blow it and they have to stop.”
“So why do we need the signal thing at all?”
“Because those trains travel very fast and finding a spot in the forest where there’s enough visibility for them to actually stop in time would be very difficult. Especially a spot that fulfils all your other requirements – access for vehicles, well away from civilisation and army bases and so on. Being near signals will further limit your choices, so it’s certain to result in a gentle sort of derailment.”
“Then we’ll decide about that when we can judge how gentle the derailment would really be,” said Bane.
Everyone nodded agreement.
“So now we’ve a rough idea how to do it,” Bane went on, “where are we going to do it?”
“I suggest the Milan region,” said Francesco. “If you want to take full advantage of your advisors.”
“Surely it’s going to depend mostly on where trains full of nonLees are actually to be found?”
“Si, but there’s a factory partway between Milan and Bologna. Most of the nonLees bound for the rest of Europe go over the Alps via Milan.”
“That sounds promising, then. Y’know, I bet the guards on trains carrying nonLees are careless as. Have you guys ever bothered them?”
“Nah. We may have taken pot shots at the guards now and then just for the hell of it. But we’ve never made them the subject of a full scale raid. Why’d we want to?”
“Good. They may be a lot slower to realise what’s going on. Anyway, Carla, you said you brought some useful stuff?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Carla opened the tough zip up folder in front of her and began to put things on the table. “Here, copy of the notification about the emergency signal. Plans of the commonest types of munitions trains. Resistance pamphlet on blowing tracks, though I reckon you don’t
need that.” She looked pointedly at Father Mark.
“Good,” said Bane again. “Let’s get stuck in, then.”
***+***
5
THE TRAIN
Clouds hung heavy with rain overhead and the night was dark. With the trees looming around and the train tracks failing to gleam in front, there was a slight feeling of déjà-vu.
Everything was different, though. I held a fully charged nonLee and wore the bulletproof vest Bane and Eduardo had forced me into – it felt much like wearing an ancient corset. ‘Why me?’ I’d protested, since there weren’t any more, but they’d ignored me. Nasty feeling it might be the Holy Father’s spare, or something.
Silent and resigned, Jon had stayed in the Citadel. Carla and Francesco were with him – safer for the train guards if not for Jon. Avoided known Resistance members being caught with us if this all went pear-shaped, more importantly.
Pear-shaped. My hands were shaking. I wrapped them more tightly around the butt of the nonLee. The plan was sound. Father Mark thought so. Carla thought so. Francesco thought so. Eduardo thought so. And Bane thought so. I thought so too.
All along the hundred metres of track before the signals lay our team, two by two, over half of them unarmed – Eduardo could only spare ten nonLees. Those lying where the front and rear carriages should stop had the guns, but the others all had their jobs.
My mouth was going dry. My hands still shook. Bane lay there beside me in the blackness. Despite agreeing in principle, he’d refused point blank to allow me to come unless my hormones had settled down. But I’d managed four days now without bursting into tears or throwing myself at Carla’s throat, so here I was.
A dark shape suddenly sprang up from where it’d been using a non-electric rail as a pillow and ran up the opposite slope, lay down and was magically absorbed by the deep shadows.
“Little Lion can hear a moth,” came Father Mark’s voice on my earpiece.
The train was coming.
“Postmen, the package is in the post,” murmured Bane into his little radio mic. “Postmen, last check. Cuckoo,” he finished, saying his code name to confirm his own readiness.
“Brown Bird,” I said. “Command, check.” Not that I was command, that was Bane.
“Trout,” the Swiss Guard several metres to my left said through my earpiece, and his partner immediately followed with, “Salmon. Fish, check.”
“Hippo.”
“Alligator. Aquatics, check.” That was Jack...
“Gecko.” And that was Kyle...
“Grass snake. Reptiles, check.”
“Pussycat.”
“Gerbil. Pets, check.”
“Fox One.”
“Fox Two. Foxes, check”
“Hyena.”
“Little Lion. Meat Eaters, check.” Father Mark, of course.
“Giraffe.”
“Elephant. African, check.”
“Snail.” Jacques...
“Bumblebee. Bugs, check.”
“Dove.”
“Pigeon. Birds, check.”
“All postmen…” A cough from the thing in my ear. Probably Pussycat, aka Sister Krayj. “All post persons ready,” murmured Bane dryly, though he’d been merciless in drilling the quips off the airwaves – all the commands were phrased humorously instead. “Postal service, final check.”
The drivers – Stamp, Letter, Envelope, Frank, Airmail and Boyracer – all signed in. The trucks were waiting only a very short distance into the forest.
“Postal service ready,” confirmed Bane. “Pay attention, everyone, this is it. Sorting office, ready?”
“Red, check.”
“Green, check.”
The train was audible now, over the sound of the wind in the trees.
“Okay, Red and Green, get sorting.”
With perfect coordination the signal glowing green above us in the darkness d
isappeared and a flashing red and green one materialised, just a fraction to its left.
The train was approaching; any moment now it would come around that bend and see that fake signal. We’d decided against Carla’s idea of a ‘gentle’ derailment, so if they didn’t stop, it was over.
A moment ago I’d been shivering with cold from lying here so long, now my hands were slippery with sweat. I clicked off the safety catch and drew slow, deep breaths to keep my concentration. Lord, don’t let me miss...
There… Light blazed as the train came into sight. I squeezed my eyes mostly shut. Nearer, nearer… oh, Lord, no, it wasn’t stopping…
Screech. Ear-splittingly, the brakes engaged. Thank God – they’d just been too half asleep to immediately notice something so extraordinary as a stop signal – or beating their brains to recall if the complicated sequence of red and green flashes was correct…
Slowing, the train closed the remaining distance. Yes, stopping in about the right place... I raised the nonLee a fraction and waited. The nose of the locomotive passed me, the first carriage was juddering to a halt in front of us, but I could scarcely make out the guards in the even pitchier darkness left by the passage of the headlight.
“Fish and Foxes, now,” breathed Bane.
Click. Lights – appropriately dim out of consideration for our dark-adapted vision – flooded the train. There! Two guards, almost immediately in front of me, just throwing their hands up to their eyes.
I took one long, deliberate second to aim at the one on the left and squeezed the trigger. Just once… The guard dropped, the other followed. If any of us had missed, only Bane and Father Mark – Little Lion – would’ve fired a second time.
The locomotive’s engine roared – they’d seen the lights…
“Bugs and Reptiles,” snapped Bane.
Flash. Bang.
A flash of slightly greenish flame from just ahead of the train’s nose and the sound of a second explosion from the rear…
Screech.
The brakes locked, and the train shuddered to a halt again. Probably better not to think about how the guards in the locomotive must be feeling right now… Too late.
Liberation (I Am Margaret Book 3) Page 5