The Gated Trilogy

by Matt Drabble

  “Welcome to a truly unique evening,” he said, making a conscious effort to add a little strength and gravitas to his voice. “With the general election only days away, it is your chance to get to meet the two candidates who have been campaigning for your vote.”

  The studio audience clapped wildly like he was introducing some pop star onto the stage and all of a sudden he was sure that this really wasn’t what he’d had in mind. The faces in front of him beamed like excited school children and they could barely sit still in their seats.

  “Please welcome to the stage Christian Tolanson and the Prime Minister, Jonathan Knowles.”

  He had to shout the prime minister’s name as the audience burst into wild applause as soon as he mentioned Tolanson.

  The two politicians headed out from backstage and both strode out confidently. Both men paused to shake hands warmly before waving to the audience and then making their ways to their respective podiums.

  He would never admit it in a million years but Reginald Cooper was a staunch Nationalist supporter and, as such, he’d been shocked to get the hosting position. As soon as he’d heard about the debate, he’d wanted the job but he’d known that the Progressives would have put up strong objections to him; it had been with no little shock that he’d been nominated by Knowles’ people and then gotten the job.

  He had to admit, however, that even with his own political leanings he found Tolanson to make a strong impression as he walked out. Knowles had always excelled at public speaking but now the prime minister seemed almost diminished on the gaudy stage. Cooper looked over at the two men and wondered if he’d underestimated Tolanson; maybe Knowles might have, too.

  ----------

  Sutherland had to wait for his vision to slowly clear. The blow to his head had been hard and unexpected which made it hurt all the more.

  He sat up groggily and on instinct he reached into his jacket for his gun.

  “Looking for this?” a man demanded angrily.

  Sutherland looked up to see Steve Marine standing over him. His friend’s face was full of anger and also a little disappointment.

  “Give it back,” he said woozily.

  “Are you nuts? What the bloody hell are you doing here, Jez? And with a gun, no less!”

  “You don’t understand,” Sutherland said, trying to stand on shaky legs.

  “You’re damn right I don’t!” Steve exclaimed incredulously. “You’re goddamn right I don’t understand. What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind?”

  Sutherland managed to stand and swayed back and forth for a few seconds until he regained some semblance of control over his body.

  “There’s some bad shit happening tonight, Steve” he croaked. “Some real bad shit and you need to leave; you need to think of your girls and get a million miles away from me and this place.”

  “Bullshit!” Steve spat back. “You need help, Jez; you need professional help.”

  “What I need is my gun.”

  Steve looked at him hard with a crazed look in his eyes like Sutherland was speaking a foreign language.

  “Look, Steve, I need you to trust me here,” he tried again, glancing down at his watch, terrified to see how late it had already gotten. “I need you to trust me like you’ve never trusted anyone before because if I can’t stop what’s going to happen here tonight then I can’t stomach to see you fall, okay? I know what you and the girls went through when cancer took Lucy. For the sake of them, Steve, just go home - go home and lock your doors.”

  Steve ran his hand through his hair in exasperation. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on but I can’t let you do… whatever it is that you have planned, okay?”

  Sutherland had taken the time that Steve was speaking to close the gap. He reached his friend quickly and dropped him with a hard punch to the gut which hurt him almost as much as it hurt Steve but he was out of time.

  Steve’s breath exploded from his body as he doubled over. Sutherland snatched the gun quickly from his friend and steeled himself as he brought the weapon down hard across his friend’s temple. There was a sickening moment when he thought that he’d hit him too hard as Steve collapsed in a heap. But when he checked the pulse, he found it strong and steady.

  He grabbed Steve’s ankles and dragged him out of sight behind the station’s dumpsters. With any luck, Steve would wake with a headache but he would wake up safely. A thought suddenly occurred to him and he quickly searched Steve’s jacket for his ID card. Once he found it he ran towards the rear doors, opened the doors and stepped into the darkness praying that he wasn’t too late.

  ----------

  Donovan crept up to the campaign headquarters and found that the noise inside was enough to mask his approach.

  He reached a large window and cautiously looked inside. There was a large group of people, all of who were intently focussed on the huge TV screen at the head of the room. Although there were lots of chairs set up, practically everyone was standing. Tolanson’s face loomed large on the screen and the crowd exploded into fits of almost hysterical applause whenever the politician finished speaking.

  Even outside of the window he could feel waves of radicalism radiating outwards and it scared him badly. He’d seen up close what Tolanson was capable of and so, obviously, had these people. If Tolanson could have this effect on a handful of people in close proximity, he shuddered to think of the influence that the politician could wield over a government.

  He moved towards the back of the building. He checked his watch one last time and then touched his chest pocket where his daughter’s face sat against his heart. Lastly, he took the gun from his jacket and stepped into the darkened hallway.

  ----------

  Avery looked out at the stage from the wings with her heart in her mouth. Knowles was ignoring every word of advice that she’d given Craven, and the prime minister was getting smoked out there. Tolanson was more focussed than she’d ever seen him before. He was exuding confidence and batting down every jab that Knowles threw and countering with better.

  She looked out into the studio audience and could see their faces glowing with every point scored and rebuttal that Tolanson made. In her gut she was starting to feel that they’d made a terrible mistake, that Tolanson was nowhere near the spent force that they’d all assumed.

  The audience was too large for her to find Lomax sitting in the crowd and she desperately needed a little reassurance right now.

  Suddenly, a horrible thought occurred to her: what if Lomax had more in common with Tolanson than he let on? What if Lomax had been influencing them to follow his orders like Tolanson was doing? Hell, what if it was Lomax who was the monster and Tolanson was innocent? Sutherland and Donovan had gone armed to two locations at Lomax’s behest; what if they were listening to the wrong man?

  The thoughts all raced through her mind at sickening speed, to the point where she was suddenly unsure about everything and everyone. Looking out at Tolanson she only saw the man that she had agreed to follow, a leader that she had served and was now on the cusp of betraying.

  ----------

  Lomax watched the debate as it unfolded with no real surprise. Knowles had no idea what he was up against and the prime minister was desperately trying hard not to wipe away the constant sweat from his forehead as he took one shot after another.

  While - unbeknownst to him - Avery was having her doubts, he was pleased to see Tolanson performing so well because he knew that the man must be stretching his resources to the very limit up there. He just prayed that Sutherland and Donovan came through and cut off Tolanson’s fuel before he used it and reached out down through the cameras and into every watching home.

  ----------

  “I really don’t accept that premise,” Knowles said, shaking his head.

  “I wouldn’t expect you to, Prime Minister, but I’m afraid that the facts are indisputable and care little for opinions,” Tolanson countered to rapturous applause. “The simple fact is that under your w
atch this government has stood by and watched our borders stormed by illegal immigrants in record numbers.”

  The audience at home applauded wildly again and he could feel their desperation to love him.

  “We are an island and our borders should be easy to defend, Prime Minister, and yet you have failed spectacularly time and time again to keep us safe.”

  “Now I really must take exception at that suggestion!” Knowles blustered, looking towards the moderator for help but Reginald Cooper was lost in his world and only watched on passively.

  “We live in a scary world, Prime Minister,” he went on in a deathly serious tone. “And our people are scared; we want to feel safe and we want to feel protected. There are times when we require a patient and understanding embrace and there are times when we need an iron fist.”

  “Now you’re just trying to scare people,” Knowles fought back.

  “The people don’t need any help from me to face the realities of the world we live in, Prime Minister. We don’t all live in ivory towers; we aren’t all protected by our wealth and status. Tell me, Sir, how many immigrants are being settled in your district? How is your little village being affected? Or your wife’s or your friends’?”

  “I really don’t see what that has do with anything!”

  “No, I don’t suppose you would, Sir. I don’t suppose you’ve given much thought to how your policies affect the vast majority of people in this country. I really don’t expect that you’ve given the rest of us much thought at all!”

  Knowles started to retort but Cooper cut him off quickly, much to the prime minister’s shock.

  “I believe that it’s time for a break,” the moderator announced and the microphones on stage went dead, leaving Knowles flapping and floundering.

  Tolanson smiled politely and waved graciously to the now standing audience.

  He walked off the stage back to his dressing room and just managed to close the door before he slumped against the dressing table almost toppling it over. He had never felt so drained before in his long, long life and he was dangerously close to collapse. He didn’t even have the strength to reach out and check on his followers right now; he could only hope that they would serve him like his devotees always had.

  The debate would soon reconvene and he had little energy left but at least the end was now finally in sight. Soon they would deliver his boost; the sacrifices would be enough to carry him over the finish line. Blood would be spilled tonight in his name, enough to make those who’d once favoured him take notice again.

  ----------

  Sutherland crept through the bowels of the police station undetected as he knew that any sighting of him would end with him in cuffs due to the warrant out in his name.

  He was still human enough to have doubts tickling around the corners of his mind about his actions, but he wasn’t a hothead and was only here to save lives, not take them.

  At night the station was practically deserted compared to the day and he was able to move quickly without being seen. From personal experience, when he’d been on Chambers’ shit list and stuck working nights, he knew that most of the station bound staff would congregate in the canteen. He headed that way now.

  The back stairs were empty and he used the dark to hide his face as he ascended. He paused by the door that led out into the canteen and watched carefully. As predicted, several staff were milling about inside.

  This particular station didn’t answer emergency calls at night and so most of the staff were administrative in nature. As a result, he was relatively confident in his ability to control those who might be under Tolanson’s influence.

  The door at the far end suddenly burst open and he was shocked to see Chambers enter. The superintendent was flanked on either side by two of the armed response unit officers and his heart sank. None of the three should have been on duty and the two burly officers both had weapons slung over their shoulders.

  The distance was around 40 feet or so between the door he was hiding behind and Chambers, and he knew that once the action started he would be too late.

  The staff inside the canteen were between them and the last thing he wanted to do was to start a gun battle that would leave the very people he was trying to save dead. Besides, he wasn’t entirely sure that Chambers was here for any nefarious reason. That hopeful thought died as soon as Chambers opened his dress uniform and took out a service revolver. Sutherland gritted his teeth and whispered a silent prayer as he burst through the door and fired his own gun twice into the ceiling.

  ----------

  Avery found Craven during the interval. Her opposite number held up his hands in mock surrender as she approached him and dragged him into a side room away from listening ears.

  “I know, I know,” he said awkwardly.

  “What the hell, Craven? I thought that you understood?”

  “Hey, I passed on the message but he didn’t want to listen.” Craven shrugged. “None of them did.”

  “What about now, huh? Now that your boy is getting creamed on live TV? Does he feel like listening now?”

  “Jesus, kid, what do you want from me? Your boy’s winning out there; at this rate, he’s going to be sitting in the big chair and you’ll be by his side at the top table!”

  Avery stared hard at the man. She knew that while she was relatively new to the game he had been around long enough to write most of the rules. His eyes sparkled with mistrust and she couldn’t blame him; she also couldn’t tell him the truth either.

  “Look,” she finally said. “He’s… he’s just wrong, okay?”

  “Wrong for what?”

  “For everything.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?” he asked suspiciously.

  “A hell of lot,” she replied honestly. “So don’t ask me to. You just need to know that he’s wrong for this, Parker, and you have to help me stop him.”

  Craven stared at her hard for the longest time. He eyed her up and down and she could see that he was trying to make some sense out of what she was saying but he was coming up short.

  “I don’t know what your game is, kid,” he finally sighed. “I know every angle in this business but for the life of me I just can’t see yours. You took a nobody and ran him to the finish line, only now you want to pull him up short. You should be dancing with delight but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as scared as you look right now. Whatever he’s got going on in private it must be bad, but if you wanted to sink him, why not just leak it? Why not torpedo him before now?”

  “Because it’s too late, damn it. Parker, everything feels like it’s too late and if you don’t help me now it will be.”

  There was another long pause before he finally replied.

  “Okay, okay. I’ll do it. I don’t know what your motives really are but my guy’s getting buried out there and anything you’ve got planned can’t make things any worse so I guess I’m going to have to trust you.”

  “Just hurry,” she begged. “Please hurry.”

  CHAPTER 31

  BACK FROM COMMERCIALS

  Donovan used the cover of the loud applause from inside the building, as Tolanson reappeared again on the TV for the second half of the debate, to slip through the door unnoticed.

  He crept along the hallway past several dark offices as he made his way towards the gathering. All heads were turned away from him as he paused in the corridor not quite sure what to do next.

  Lomax had told him that a few of these people would kill the others in some kind of freaky cult murder suicide pact. But looking into the room, he could only see young excitable Tolanson supporters.

  Something clattered to the side of him and he turned quickly to see a woman emerging from a kitchen area carrying a large cake on a tray with a large cutting knife.

  The woman was fairly young and homely looking. Her round face was hidden behind large thick glasses which magnified her eyes to the point of looking slightly crazy.

  “Who are you?” she asked, fr
ightened.

  For a terrifying moment, Donovan found his mouth devoid of words as the young woman stared at him in fright. Thankfully, the gun in his hand was temporarily hidden behind his back and the woman hadn’t seen it.

  “Just another supporter,” he said as casually as he could muster under the circumstances. “ I just wanted…”

  “You just wanted to be close to him.” She finished what she assumed his thought was.

  “Sure,” he responded quickly.

  “Well then, you can carry this for me,” she said, passing him the huge congratulatory cake.

  He just managed to slip the gun into his back pocket before he took the cake which took both hands to hold.

  The young woman took the knife from the tray and motioned with it for him to head through and join the others.

  “I’m Donovan,” he said awkwardly.

  “Nice to meet you, Donovan,” she replied from behind as he walked through the doors. “I’m Mallory and welcome to the future.”

  Heads in the room all turned towards him as he entered and suddenly a woman screamed as she looked over his shoulder. He felt the danger and tried to turn but holding the cake encumbered him and made him slow.

  The knife caught him high but he managed to move just enough so that it caught him in the shoulder rather than the intended target of his chest. He felt the cake’s slick icing smear down his shirt and it was soon mingled with his own blood.

  He fell backwards as the young woman’s face contorted into sheer maniacal horror.

  She stalked him as he spun to the side just in time to see a young man emerge behind one of his fellow volunteers and slit the young woman’s throat.

  The room suddenly exploded into shouts and screams as silver blades lashed out in the crowd, cutting and slashing at will.

  Donovan staggered to his left as one arm hung uselessly at his side and Mallory charged at him with the knife above her head and murder in her eyes.