No Remorse

by Ian Walkley

  Mac tried not to react. Rosco had obviously told them a lot. But it was the way Khalid had spoken about Tally that made him cold inside. “It’s over,” he said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

  “Actually, it’s only just begun, Mac. You probably haven’t seen the news. I have exploded the first bomb in Saudi. There is no shortage of bomb-makers in Pakistan. Another will be arriving shortly.”

  “We know about Saudi Arabia. About your plans to bring down the regime. We won’t let it happen.”

  “You think? You know, Americans have an interesting position on democracy. It’s apparently a fundamental right, except for countries that supply oil. The Saudi regime will eventually go the same way as the rest. But I want to see it happen in my lifetime. Now I possess the catalyst that will achieve it. Very soon. Americans will actually support me and our Hunnafite government. They will have no choice, as they had none with Mubarak and Gaddafi and the others.”

  “But you offered to sell us that radioactive material. Ziad called me. My government is willing to negotiate.”

  Khalid glanced at his watch. “Perhaps I may have. But that was before I discovered what was in the two containers from Saddam Hussein that my father left me. What is another five hundred million dollars now? That was just a delaying tactic so the Israelis would allow us to reach here safely. But after they attacked us, we realised your Rosco had been telling the truth. Which brings me to the other girl, your friend’s daughter, Sophia. Unfortunately, she is not negotiable. Her liver is needed. It will give Sheik Zodhami perhaps another ten or twenty years, maybe more. Unless one of your drones gets him first.”

  He turned to Ibrahim and they shared a laugh.

  Another man appeared and whispered to Ibrahim.

  “Highness, Sheik Zodhami is arriving in the launch,” Ibrahim said.

  “Ah. I must go and greet our distinguished guest, the next leader of Al Qaeda. Later this afternoon, I will introduce you to the conversion ritual. You’ll have a ringside seat to watch your friend Tally take conversion.”

  Ibrahim gave him a cold smile as he followed Khalid out the door

  ~ * ~

  89

  Alone in his cell, Mac concentrated on listening. Despite the pain in his head from when Masoud had broken his nose, his thinking was clearer now. That was good, because his timing would need to be perfect. He clung to the hope he’d be able to free the others before the interrogation began, before this conversion ritual Khalid had spoken of. Hopefully, they would bring Tally to one of the cells. But where were Sophia and Danni?

  About twenty minutes after Khalid left, there was a whirring, then a metallic thunk, like a heavy electronic lock turning. Soon after, a guard’s head flashed by the observation panel in the door. Tally’s face appeared as the guards escorted her shuffling form past. She glanced in his cell and they locked eyes for just a moment. Mac’s heart lifted at the sight of her. She was alive, almost within reach. Her face was hard to read because of the mass of bruises and the cut lip, but he hoped she had gained strength from seeing him.

  More sounds of a door nearby being unbolted. Voices. A female voice. Loud protests. Laughter. The guards had not passed back again. They were still in the cell with Tally. Mac started to become anxious.

  Muffled yelling. What were they doing to her?

  He couldn’t risk waiting any longer. He felt the angry heat in his face as he turned over and kneeled on the bed. Pushing the stainless steel ring, he forced the mounting rod inwards against its spring-loaded locking mechanism and turned it until it was horizontal. There was a soft click. Keeping the pressure on, he turned the ring back the other way one eighty degrees until it was horizontal again. Eased off the pressure. The mounting rod began to slip out of the wall. He turned the ring vertical and it slipped all the way out. Squeezing under the bunk, he pushed back against the flap. The panel swung on an upper hinge, allowing him through. He clicked the panel back in place and stood up.

  Free!

  Sort of.

  This was Bill’s contingency plan. Mai had said that Bill was worried that Khalid would lock him in one of these cells. Every cell had an escape panel and Bill had cleverly disguised their functionality, even from other workers, during the assembly of the building.

  Mac squeezed along the narrow cavity between the building and the cave wall, feeling his way in the darkness. There was steady dripping above him, and a smell like ozone. He tried to stop his handcuffs clinking against the steel mounting rod and ring.

  According to Mai, Bill had left some other useful items behind. Somewhere.

  Mac’s eyes quickly adjusted to the tiny amount of ambient light as he squeezed along to the next cell and put his ear to the wall. More laughing. Tally’s muffled protests. The guards were still there. Apparently enjoying themselves.

  At waist height, he located the wire that had a small round ball on the end, like a fishing sinker. Slowly he pulled. Click. The panel in Tally’s cell was unlocked.

  He lay down. Keeping the handcuffs tight to stop them clinking, he swung back the flap and peered into the cell. One pair of feet. Slowly, quietly, he slid into the dark space under the bunk.

  Tally was yelling in Arabic, “Stop! Have you no shame? I will tell Khalid what you are doing!”

  One of the guards laughed. “Keep going, brother. Ziad said it does not matter anymore. This one is for everyone’s pleasure.”

  Mac rolled out and brought the metal ring up with both hands, ramming the mounting rod into the man’s crotch. The guard squealed and bent at the knees. Mac leapt to his feet and shoved him against the wall, then thrust the rod up into his face. The mounting rod embedded itself in the guard’s right eye socket and he stopped moving.

  “Mac! Look out!” Tally screamed. She was trying to prevent the other guard moving off the bunk. He was greatly disadvantaged by having his trousers around his ankles. He managed to roll off the bed, then scrambled towards the two submachine guns that were leaning against the toilet. Mac leapt on him and they fought for the weapon. He elbowed the guard twice and the man lost balance and fell backwards, his head smashing against the metal bed frame.

  “Oh, God. Thank—”

  “Later. Give me your hands.”

  “What?”

  He grabbed her hands and held them close to the steel ring. Going through the unlocking process, he slipped the mounting bar out of the wall.

  “There’s a panel under the bed. I’ll pass you the guns.”

  While Tally squeezed out through the panel, he collected the men’s weapons and passed them through. He rolled over the unconscious guard and turned his head around as far as it would go, then he gave it a hard twist until he heard a crack like a tree branch snapping. They couldn’t afford to risk the man raising the alarm.

  “The keys! Get the keys,” Tally said.

  Mac searched the guards’ pockets. Then squeezed through the panel and pushed it closed.

  “Thank God. I thought I’d die in this hellhole!” Tally said, her voice suddenly energised. “Thank you.” She moved against him, gently kissed his cheek, and her handcuffs clinked against his.

  “You’re hurt,” he said, “Let’s get you out of here.” He wouldn’t tell her about Scotty just yet. She’d had to put up with enough. He fumbled with the keys, finally managing to unlock their cuffs. “Stay close. We haven’t much time before they discover us missing and figure out there’s this hidden space.”

  “Is Scotty with you? Rosco’s dead. They tortured him—”

  “I know. Bastards. Scotty’s dead. They killed Mai, too.”

  “Oh, no. Mac, I’m so sorry... Oh, poor little George.”

  Mac could hear the shock and sadness in her voice. He led the way, checking each cell as they went. They were empty. After a few minutes, they reached a dead end.

  “Goddamn. Where could they be keeping them?”

  He squeezed past Tally and began back the other way. Just past where he’d left his cell, he brushed against so
mething dangling from a hook.

  “Ah!”

  A flashlight. He switched it on and shone the beam around. On the ground were three bottles of water and a sealed plastic container with chocolate, a pistol with a spare magazine, and a laminated plan of the entire complex.

  “Fanning was a boy scout,” he said. “Pity he didn’t leave a silencer for the pistol.”

  Tally gave a quiet laugh. “Oh, I thought you were carrying one.”

  He hadn’t given a thought about being dressed in only a surgical gown, but now he realised he felt a draught at the back.

  “Oh. I’m amazed you can still laugh... I’m so sorry, Tally. Christ. I’m such a fucking idiot. I never should have left you and Rosco in Paris. You must have— “

  “Shhh... It’s okay.” She placed her fingers on his lips. “I don’t want to think about it. Not now. Let’s get away from this place. You have every right to be angry with me, too. I wasn’t exactly up front about things.”

  “No, you weren’t. And I don’t think Wisebaum told you the whole story, either. This guy has containers of radioactive stuff that he’s making into bombs to use against Saudi Arabia. Did you know about that?”

  “That’s what this whole thing is about, Mac. Confirming that Khalid has them and where they are, so we can organise a raid to take them out. We can’t allow the Saudi regime to fail. It’s got more than a quarter of the world’s oil reserves. The assurance of our future supply.” Tally paused a moment as she flinched and put her hand to her mouth. She had to be hurting badly.

  “You okay?”

  “Uh huh. Anyway, because Saudi prices its oil in US dollars, we can just print money and buy oil. And right now, that’s critical. Any instability in Saudi Arabia would be disastrous for our economy.”

  “So you guys knew this all along?” He shook his head, staggered at this revelation. “Why not let me in on your secret? I have a top secret clearance.”

  “Need to know. Your connection with Sophia was perfect as a way of pressuring Khalid without him discovering that we knew about the uranium canisters. If he caught you, you wouldn’t be able to tell him anything. And we’d hoped you’d cause Khalid enough trouble to make him panic and shift the canisters, which he did. I’m sorry. It was done for the right reasons. I know that doesn’t... Sorry.”

  He shone the light on her bruised face. “So we were expendable. Scotty died. Maybe if we’d known, we might have planned differently.”

  She lowered her head. “As I said, I’m sorry. Truly I am sorry, Mac. It was wrong not to tell you. I argued with Derek about it, but he insisted. Thought you couldn’t be trusted not to attack Khalid.”

  He exhaled. There was no point going there. “Another thing I don’t get is—how did they come to find you and Rosco?”

  Tally shook her head. “I don’t know. Oh God, poor Rosco.”

  There was nothing more to be done by further recriminations now. They had to find the girls. “He told them everything, I think. Anyway, there’s no time for this. Once Sophia and Danni are out, the game can change. Now you need to study this plan so you remember everything. We need to destroy it in case Khalid gets through to here.”

  As they studied the plan, they gulped down the food Fanning had left. It had handwritten notes that had not been included on the copy of the plan Mai had given him.

  “Look. Two exits!” Tally whispered, pointing at the two passages running parallel to the tunnel. One led to a concealed exit in the cliffs behind the resort, while the other was a ventilation shaft that ended at the waterfalls near the Kimba peninsula road. There was an exit at the base of the falls that he had not found before.

  “The whole crater’s hollow. Mai said Bill had four trusted workers who helped him build the access points and keep them concealed whenever Khalid and Ziad made inspections. Okay, you take the ventilation shaft to the waterfalls. First, find a phone and before you call Wisebaum, call Jog Khoury. He’s here, on a boat called the Rabi. Tell them—”

  Tally grasped his arm and squeezed it. “What if I’m caught by Colonel Boroni? No thanks. I’m sticking with you.”

  He shone the light in her face. She had a determined look and this wasn’t the time to argue. Besides, he might need her. “Okay. Do you think you can shoot this?”

  “Put it this way: if I see Khalid or Ziad, I’ll empty the whole freaking clip. Just point the way.”

  “Good enough.” He tore up the plan and hid the pieces under the pipes running along the floor of the cavity. Then he ran through the operation of the Spectre.

  Tally’s face set in a stoic expression. “I can do it. Let’s go. It’s all or nothing now.”

  ~ * ~

  90

  Sophia was conscious of a male voice speaking accented English as she was wheeled along the corridor, although the injection and tablets had made her drowsy and her pleading was, as usual, ignored. There was a strange, chemical smell, like bathroom cleaner.

  “You are very privileged,” the voice was saying. “Allah has chosen you to help keep a very important man alive. Perhaps someday you will be remembered for that, even if you are an infidel.”

  Sophia didn’t really understand, but she knew she wasn’t an infidel. “Chrisn-yan. Kr-eest-tan,” she said. Christian. But her tongue felt like a squash ball and wouldn’t make the words.

  The gurney stopped and four staff hauled her onto a narrow table with two round bright lights above her. Her body urged her to sleep, but she fought it. Across the other side of the room, lying on a second table, was a tall man with long gray hair and a long beard. He looked a little like a weatherbeaten Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter. His body was covered in a sheet, except for an area on his abdomen where lines had been drawn with a marker pen. They turned her head and undid the twill tapes on her hospital gown. They put up a screen below her neck. She could feel the tingle of a pen marking lines on her lower abdomen.

  “Let us begin. First, we will—”

  A voice she recognised as that of Sheik Khalid came through the speakers. “Please speak Arabic for our guests, Dr. Xi.”

  “Of course,” said the man in blue as he raised his mask. He switched from English to Arabic, and Sophia could no longer understand the words as she drifted off into oblivion.

  ~ * ~

  91

  Mac and Tally emerged from the tunnel at the base of the cliffs, about two hundred metres from the resort outbuildings. They could see Colonel Boroni’s men at the end of the beach, near the jetty. But there were no guards at the back of the resort, and any posted on the roof were probably watching the bay. That would make sense. Intruders would not be expected to come from the direction of the cliffs. Still, he was conscious of the cameras on the ridgeline and on top of the resort building as they crawled through the scrubby bush among the sand dunes, making a wide berth around two fire-ant nests. As they passed through the boatshed, Mac grabbed a lifejacket as a make-do noise suppressor.

  They entered the laundry.

  Two minutes later they left, wearing theatre scrubs and surgical masks as the fire they had lit with dry-cleaning chemicals and bed linen quickly grew. Mac was wearing shoes taken from one of the laundry workers he’d shot. They hurried along the corridor and an alarm sounded. They quickly slipped into the air conditioning plant room. A man working on the equipment looked up at them and hurled himself at a weapon resting against the wall. Mac shot him.

  “They must have discovered us missing!” Tally said, watching the door with her submachine gun ready as the alarm blared its distinctive tone like an air-raid siren.

  He pulled a switch to activate the fire alarm. Now the intruder siren was accompanied by a WHOOP WHOOP of the fire alarm. He prayed the surgeons had not already started the operation.

  Mac unscrewed a section of air conditioning duct between the compressor and the resort building and lit the two smoke flares he’d found in the boatshed. He shoved them inside the duct. “Ready?”

  Tally nodded.

  He took
a breath and opened the door a crack. After a few moments, two guards came running along the corridor. He pulled back and closed the door. They ran past towards the laundry. At that instant, orange smoke began to billow out of the ventilation ducts in the ceiling.

  “Let’s go!”

  They ran along the corridor towards the operating theatres, stopping at each intersection to check the way ahead. Around the next comer he spotted three men running towards them, one carrying a fire extinguisher.

  “It’s the laundry!” one of the men shouted. “Get the fire hose outside!”

  Mac shot them and ran ahead of Tally through the double swing doors into the operating room wing. Tally let out a warning cry. Mac turned in time to see a guard behind him bringing up his weapon. This time he could not avoid a bullet.