Sure Fire

by Jack Higgins

  “Well, yes.”

  Halford took a step towards them and raised his stick – pointing it at Rich. “Two things,” he announced. “First, I wasn’t threatening her; I mean her no harm at all. And I’m sorry if it seemed otherwise.”

  “And the second thing?” Rich said defiantly.

  “The second thing is…” Halford paused to look again at the wreckage around him. “You’re John Chance’s son all right. Sit down and tell me what the hell’s going on here. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

  As he was speaking, another man had walked into the pool room. He picked his way through the broken glass and bent metal from the huge windows to join them.

  “I’m not as agile as I used to be,” Halford said, slapping the top of his bad leg with his free hand. “Not since this. That’s why I was invalided out of the army.” He glanced at the newcomer, before going on: “But I was lucky to be alive. Got your dad to thank for that. He dragged me out of a fire-fight in Afghanistan, long before we were supposed to be there. Carried me seven miles through enemy territory to get me to a safe evacuation point. I’m lucky it was just the leg.”

  “And who is this?” Jade asked, nodding at the man who had just arrived and who was now sitting in one of the plastic chairs listening with interest to the conversation.

  “My name is Smith,” he said. There was a trace of an Irish accent in his voice. “I’m a friend of Mr Halford’s and I think I may be able to help you.”

  “Yes,” Halford said. “It’s lucky that Mr Smith arrived here just before you did.” He looked at Jade, his expression solemn. “Remember what I told you just now,” he said. “Mr Smith is the man I was telling you about. Who can help.”

  Jade frowned, not sure what Halford meant – he hadn’t said anything about a friend who could help. He’d been telling her to get out of here – up until Rich crashed the party. Literally.

  From his chair nearby, Mr Smith smiled back at Jade. He was a short man, with narrow angular features. Perhaps he too had been a soldier, wounded in action, because Jade could see a scar on his cheek – a circular shape with lines splaying out from it, like a pale spider.

  17

  “Let me get that drink I promised you,” Halford said.

  Jade didn’t remember him offering a drink, but then she had been rather distracted by Rich’s arrival. And now he came to mention it, she was thirsty.

  “Can I get you anything?” Halford was asking Rich. “Or you, Mr Smith?”

  While Halford disappeared into the house, Mr Smith asked Jade and Rich to tell him their story. He listened attentively as they went through the events of the last couple of days. It was weird sitting beside a swimming pool with a Range Rover crashed into it, looking out over a farmyard through a hole torn in the wall…

  Halford was soon back. Smith had declined a drink, but Rich like Jade had taken up the offer of lemonade. “Drink it up quick,” he said. “Before the ice melts.”

  As soon as she took the drink, Jade could see there was something wrong. She glanced up at Halford. It looked like a fly or a bit of dirt was in her glass. But now she could see that Rich was looking curiously into his own glass. His eyes met Jade’s as he looked up, widened as if he was trying to tell her something.

  So Jade said nothing and looked back at her lemonade. The black shape she had thought was something floating in the liquid was actually writing – black felt tip marker writing on the side of one of the ice cubes. It was smudging as the ice melted, and she was looking at it through the ice, so it was back to front and inside out. She prodded at the ice cube with her finger, turning it over. She licked her finger as if she was merely playing with the ice.

  “So that’s about it really,” Rich was saying. He sounded suddenly cautious.

  Looking at the melting ice, Jade could guess why. Written across it, but rapidly vanishing now, in small block capital letters, Halford had written: DANGER – GET OUT.

  “And you say you know nothing about this fuel sample your father is supposed to have taken?” Smith asked.

  “Nothing at all,” Jade said. She set down her drink on the floor by her chair and stood up, grabbing her rucksack. “Actually, I’m bursting for the loo. Feel like I haven’t been for days.”

  “Me too, now you mention it,” Rich said, also standing. “Can you show us where it is?” he asked Halford.

  Halford’s mouth twitched into the vaguest hint of a smile. “Of course. Just through here. I’ll show you.”

  But Mr Smith was on his feet. “I don’t think so,” he said. “Nobody leaves.”

  “Or what?” Rich said.

  By way of reply, the man pointed to the lemonade that Rich had just put down on a low plastic table close to where he had been sitting. A moment later, the glass exploded.

  “Or that’ll be your head,” Smith said.

  Jade felt suddenly as cold as the ice in her own drink. Rich had gone pale. Halford looked angry more than frightened. His knuckles were white as he gripped the handle of his walking stick.

  “Who are you?” Jade gasped.

  “His name is Stabb,” Halford said. “I’m sorry, he arrived just before you did. I tried to warn you. There’s a woman with a sniper rifle out there keeping watch on us.” He pointed to a small raised area with trees and scrub on it close to the farmyard outside. Then he regarded the remains of Rich’s glass. “Looks like she knows her stuff.”

  “Magda is very good,” Stabb said. “But then, you already know that, don’t you,” he told Rich and Jade.

  “And what happens now?” Rich asked. “We already told you, we don’t know anything about this fuel sample.”

  “So you did. But your father – he knows. And now we have you, we can persuade him to tell us all about it.” He smiled. “We’re going on a little journey. In a plane. It’s waiting at an airfield just a few miles from here. How exciting for you.”

  “Not sure I like the sound of that,” Jade told him. “What about you, Rich?”

  Rich shook his head.

  “I only need one of you alive to put pressure on Chance,” Stabb said. “So be careful.”

  But Jade wasn’t listening. She was watching Halford as the man moved slowly and quietly across to one of the chairs beside the pool. He now had Stabb between himself and the direction the shot had come from – where he had pointed when he told them Magda was out there with a gun. Jade wasn’t sure what – if anything – Halford was planning to do. But she tensed, bracing herself for anything.

  She did not have long to wait. Halford leaned heavily on the back of the plastic chair, as if taking the weight off his bad leg. Then in a blur of rapid movement, he grabbed the back of the chair and flung it straight at Stabb.

  The small man had not been expecting it, and the chair caught his legs, knocking them from under him. At the same moment, Halford dived to one side and yelled: “Get out – get out now! Run!”

  Jade didn’t need telling again. Rich was also prepared and was right beside her as she ran. They headed for the door into the main house rather than the broken window – that would put them right in Magda’s sights. Glancing back, Jade saw Stabb struggling to his feet, pulling a pistol from the small of his back, charging after them.

  She slammed the door shut, but there was no bolt or key. Rich was already racing down the narrow corridor the other side. He reached the end and turned to the right – away from the front door. Jade ran after him. He was right, the front door would be in plain view of Magda’s gun. But could they find another way out?

  Through a living room, a kitchen – the back door right ahead.

  Rich ripped open the back door and charged through. Jade was close behind him. A gunshot – splinters of wood flew from the door frame and scraped past Jade’s face, stinging. Then she was outside, still running.

  She almost cannoned into Rich as he skidded to a halt in front of her.

  And in front of him, rifle aimed right at them, was Magda. Her long black hair was blowing round her face i
n the breeze. Through it, Jade could see the woman’s cruel smile.

  The two of them were bundled into the back of a car. Magda sat in the front passenger seat. She had exchanged her rifle for a pistol and aimed it at them the whole time while they waited for Stabb to return from Halford’s house.

  He seemed to be a long time, but eventually he returned and got in the driver’s seat. He started the engine.

  “All dealt with?” Magda asked.

  “Good enough for now,” Stabb said, though he didn’t sound happy.

  “You killed him?” Jade accused.

  “I didn’t find him,” Stabb said. “I would have killed him if I had. But he knows the house and the area. It’s not worth spending for ever looking just for the satisfaction of putting a bullet in an ex-Brit soldier with a gammy leg.” He turned the car in a wide arc and headed down the track away from the farm. “But you’re an easy target, so just keep quiet. Like I told you, I don’t need you both. Either one will do.”

  “And you don’t have to be in perfect health,” Magda added. “Remember that.”

  Jade fumbled for Rich’s hand. They sat in silence for the rest of the short journey.

  The airfield was indeed only a few miles away. It was barely more than a big field, with a hut at one end and a single concrete runway. There were several light aircraft arranged round the edge of the field. A larger, newer and more impressive executive jet was waiting on the runway. Jade could hear the engines already running as they drove right up to it.

  “Just leaving the car here?” Rich asked as they were told to get out.

  “Why not?” Magda said. “It isn’t ours.”

  “It’ll be taken care of,” Stabb said. He turned to speak to the uniformed steward who was coming down the steps from the plane’s door. “You’re ready to go – that’s very impressive.”

  “The man from the control hut came over to tell us you were on your way,” the steward said in accented English. “I assumed you called ahead.”

  Stabb shook his head. “No.”

  “They must have seen the car as we approached,” Magda said. “We are ready to leave?”

  The steward nodded. “All ready.”

  Jade and Rich were sent up the steps and into the plane at gunpoint. Once inside, the steward produced several lengths of stout cord. “Hands together, please,” he said. Rich and Jade put their hands out in front of them.

  “Keep your wrists apart if you can,” Rich whispered as the steward selected one of the cords. “And tense your muscles as much as possible.”

  Jade tried. But the cords bit into her wrists as the steward pulled them tight. As soon as he had tied their wrists, he led them to seats at the front of the plane. There was plenty of legroom before the bulkhead in front of them – and also plenty of room for the steward to kneel down and tie their ankles together. When he was done, he tossed Jade’s rucksack on to the spare seat beside her. She guessed he’d already been through the contents – probably taken her phone.

  “Never did get to the loo,” Jade said. “Can’t even cross my legs now.”

  “Wonder where we’re going,” Rich said. But they both had a pretty good idea of the destination.

  The sound of the engines deepened and the plane hurtled down the runway.

  Once they were in the air, Stabb came to see them. “You can save yourselves a lot of unpleasantness, you know,” he said. “You and your dad.”

  “Really?” Rich said. “How’s that then?” He was feeling queasy and it wasn’t that he got airsick. He was worried about what might happen to him, and even more anxious about what might happen to Jade.

  “Just tell me where it is,” Stabb said.

  “This fuel sample?” Jade said. “We don’t know. We told you, we don’t know.”

  “Why’s it so important anyway?” Rich demanded. “What is it? If you told us, maybe we could work out where Dad might have hidden it.”

  Stabb nodded. “Maybe. It is the only surviving sample of a very special fuel developed in Vishinsky’s London laboratory. Well,” he said, “the fuel itself is not important. It’s what is in it that matters.”

  “And why do you need it?” Jade wanted to know.

  “Because we don’t have the formula. We need the sample to reverse-engineer so we can manufacture the substance in bulk.” He leaned forward and stared first at Jade, then at Rich. “So, where is it?”

  “I don’t know,” Jade said.

  “But we’ll think about it,” Rich added hurriedly. “See if we can work out where Dad might have put it.”

  “You do that,” Stabb said. “You’ve got until we land. That’s about another three hours.”

  “Three hours,” Jade said when Stabb was gone. “That’s ages.”

  “Good,” Rich replied. “Because that’s how long we have to get these ropes off. I’ve been trying, but he tied me up too tight. You have to compress your muscles now and try to wriggle your hand out. Push your thumb into the middle of your palm so your hand is smaller.”

  Jade was trying. “Where did you learn escapology then, Houdini?”

  “Read how to do it in a book.”

  “Very helpful.”

  “If you can get free it will be.”

  “Why me?” Jade hissed.

  “Because he won’t have tied you up so tight,” Rich told her. He grinned. “Because you’re a girl, so he wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

  “More likely my muscles are better trained than yours and my wrists are slimmer,” she told him.

  “You wish.”

  An hour later, Jade could barely feel her hands, and her wrists were red raw from rubbing against the cords. Rich was in no better shape, but he thought Jade looked like she was making progress – she could slide one of her hands almost halfway out of the loop of cord now. “You’re doing well,” he told her quietly. “You’re getting there.”

  “Thanks.” She smiled at him. “Neat trick with the Range Rover by the way.”

  “Just fancied a drive. That’s all.”

  “Didn’t know you could drive,” Jade said.

  “Neither did I,” Rich told her.

  It took Jade over another hour, but finally she got her hand free.

  “Well done,” Rich said. “That’s great. Get your legs free, then you can try to untie me.”

  “I’ll untie you first,” Jade said.

  But Rich shook his head. “No, we’re starting to descend, can’t you tell?”

  “So?”

  “So it won’t help if we just have our hands free. Get your legs sorted, so you can make a run for it if you get the chance. Then untie me.”

  “OK.”

  Jade set to work on her legs, leaning down and pretending to be slumped forward asleep while reaching down to fumble with the knots at her ankles. Rich looked out of the window, trying to take in as much detail as possible.

  The plane was emerging from the low cloud as it came down. Below he could see an airfield. It looked like a military base, with low barracks buildings and soldiers drilling to the side of the runways. There was a barbed wire perimeter, with a single main gate guarded by soldiers.

  As the pilot lined the plane up with the runway, Rich could see a large black limousine waiting at the other end, along with several camouflage-green lorries and jeeps. And a large tank, its gun aimed back along the runway.

  “Done it!” Jade whispered, sitting back up.

  “Look,” Rich said, nodding at the window. Jade leaned across to see.

  “Make sure your seatbelts are fastened,” Stabb said, appearing in the aisle beside them. He sat down on the other side of the aisle. “Impressive display, don’t you think? Quite a welcome.”

  “Yes,” Rich said. He felt numb. Maybe Jade had managed to get free, but they were about to land in the middle of an army base. “Vishinksy must be a powerful guy.”

  Stabb fastened his seatbelt. “Money can buy anything,” he said. “Even the help of the local armed forces. Welcome to Krejikista
n.”

  Rich looked at Jade. He tried to smile, to offer some encouragement. But he couldn’t do it. “Sorry,” he mouthed.

  “It’s OK,” she murmured back. But they both knew that it wasn’t.

  They had given Chance a thin mattress that lay on the hard concrete floor. The room was small and plain and square, with a bucket in the corner. No windows and only one door.

  He had been in similar situations over the years. Each time he wondered if he would ever leave the room they had shut him in. Chance knew that a large part of the trick of surviving was staying optimistic – never giving up. The more alert and upbeat you were, the better your chances of making the most of any opportunity to escape.

  And now there was one thing that kept him going above all.

  Alone in a cell in the middle of Krejikistan, Chance was taking courage from the fact that his children were safely in London, thousands of miles away.

  18

  The plane was slowing as it taxied the last hundred metres along the runway to the waiting convoy of vehicles. Out of the window, Jade could see a set of steps on wheels standing ready at one side of the runway just in front of the black limousine.

  Under cover of leaning to see out of the window, and while Stabb, Magda and everyone else was waiting for the plane to stop, Jade tried to untie Rich’s hands. But the knots were too tight and her numb fingers were making no headway.

  “Leave me,” Rich whispered.

  “No way.”

  “Just escape while you can. At least with one of us free there’s some hope.” He tried to sound upbeat, but Jade could barely force a smile.

  “I can’t just leave you!” she insisted. Her fair hair fell forward hiding her pained expression.

  “You can. You must. Please, it’s the only hope for both of us. Once this plane stops, we haven’t a hope.”

  Jade’s mouth dropped open. “You want me to get out before it stops?!”

  “You’ll be OK. I’ve—”

  “I know,” she interrupted, “you’ve read about it in a book or somewhere. Great. Thanks. You’re crazy, you know that, right?”