Acts of Kindness

by Heather Barnett

  Isadora kept her head forward, chin dropped, eyes on the ground watching where she trod as she laboured up the slope. Oscar and Lauren could be seen to turn their heads to look at her as they passed. Catherine couldn’t tell if words had been exchanged but suddenly Oscar stumbled and seemed to be trying to turn and grab Isadora. Lauren held on to him, one arm around his shoulder. He struggled.

  ‘Keep walking!’ yelled Catherine, cupping her hands around her mouth to help the sound carry.

  Lauren pulled his head down and spoke into his ear. His shoulders drooped and he allowed himself to be led onwards towards the barn.

  Catherine’s attention switched from Oscar back to Isadora. She looked terribly thin. Catherine felt the cold metal hard against her palm as she gripped the bar harder. How dare Bella and Ben do this to Isadora! How dare they betray OAK in the process! She took deep breaths, trying to keep calm. She felt the reassuring presence of Finn close beside her.

  ‘She looks… broken down,’ he murmured.

  ‘She’s exhausted!’ Catherine snapped, not able to bear even Finn passing comment on Isadora. ‘She’s been pushed to the limit with anxiety about OAK and not eating properly, I expect.’

  ‘She’s got the USB,’ Finn said.

  They both looked at the little black stick, now visible but held ever lower minute by minute as the strain took its toll on Isadora’s muscles.

  Catherine glanced back at Oscar and Lauren. They were almost three-quarters of the way across the field. Isadora was making slower progress, head still down, taking care not to stumble. She glanced up for a moment and Catherine gasped, releasing her grip on the gate.

  ‘Stop!’ she screamed, her panicked tones reverberating around the landscape.

  Immediately, they heard another voice, hidden somewhere in the group of trees and shrubs to their left call out, ‘Down!’

  In the distance, Lauren dropped to her knees, pulling Oscar down with her until they were both flat on their fronts. Isadora lowered herself to the ground with some difficulty. The row of cupuli tensed, awaiting an order, but Finn had spun round towards the voice and now stood rooted to the spot.

  At first, Catherine couldn’t take in what was happening or who these newcomers were, had some of the cupuli turned on her? But as the group advanced towards them and she scanned their faces, she recognised Ben Eliott, and by his side, a field cupule called James. Spreading out behind them to cover the full line of cupuli with their weapons were six or seven others, some of whom she didn’t recognise and others whose faces were familiar. All of this flashed through her head in the fraction of a second as she cast around for an escape.

  ‘Lower your weapons,’ James warned the cupuli. ‘Now!’

  He was approaching Catherine but his eyes were on Finn and the gun in Finn’s hand. She took advantage of his attention being elsewhere to dart out of reach. Finn put out a protective arm as James launched himself towards her, giving her a vital opportunity to take off, sprinting towards the parked vehicles. Before she could reach them, panting as the adrenalin pumped through her body, a shot rang out and she heard Ben’s voice.

  ‘Stop! It’s over, Catherine. Give it up.’

  Glancing over her shoulder she saw that Finn had lowered his gun and the cupuli had their hands in the air, their weapons at their feet. Ben’s gun was pointing skywards but as she turned, he brought the muzzle down to point towards her.

  ‘It’s over,’ he repeated, more quietly. A woman with blonde hair who Catherine recognised from the US office jogged across and took her by the elbow to lead her back over to the others. Catherine shook her off.

  ‘Don’t touch me!’ she snapped. For the space of a couple of breaths, she stood where she was, taking in the scene as her heart pounded in her chest. She looked at Finn, desperate to see resistance in his eyes, a signal that he had a plan to get them out of this – but all she saw was humiliation before he dropped his gaze to the floor. One of Ben’s team was walking along the row of cupuli, gathering up weapons.

  Ben motioned her over with his gun. ‘Come on, Catherine. This is pointless.’

  The blonde woman reached out again and in one last act of defiance, Catherine elbowed her in the stomach, leaving the poor woman doubled over and gasping as Catherine stalked away towards Ben, head held high.

  Ben waited to see her safely under guard before opening the gate and running over to the Chanel-suited figure who was now on her feet. She brushed the dirt from her skirt and patted her hair back into place, then turned a triumphant smile on Ben.

  ‘That was one of my finest performances. I wish the critics had been here to see it.’

  She dropped into a low curtsey, Ben gripping her elbow to keep her from toppling over. As she levered herself back up with his help, he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

  ‘Gladys,’ he said, ‘you deserve an Oscar.’

  ‘I’ve got one,’ she twinkled back at him. ‘And now I’d very much like to see him.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  ‘You shouldn’t have done it, Mum!’ Oscar was furious. ‘It was too risky!’

  ‘Tut, dear! All’s well that ends well.’ Gladys patted his arm.

  They were sitting across from Bella at one of the tables in the bunker, Oscar’s angry tone belied by the arm cradling his mother’s shoulders. She was wrapped in a thick pink shawl and trembling through her repeated protestations that she was fine and they needn’t worry about her. Around them, Lauren, Theresa and the others variously sat, stood or – in Ben’s case – paced up and down. Teddy and Maggie had taken themselves off to the area behind the glass partition and were resting on camp beds.

  ‘When I saw you…’ Oscar’s face blanched at the memory and he shook his head. ‘When I realised you were out there on that field walking towards those lunatics with guns—’

  ‘You nearly gave the game away,’ his mother finished for him, stroking his cheek. ‘I know. Luckily your friend here is made of sterner stuff.’

  Lauren waved the compliment away. ‘It wasn’t my mum out there! Plus, I knew Ben wouldn’t have sent you if he wasn’t certain you would be safe.’

  Ben paused in his pacing and looked over. ‘As certain as I could be, but it was still very brave of Gladys. Very brave.’ The pacing resumed, interspersed with glances at the monitors, one of which showed the group of captured cupuli sitting around in a cell, looking despondent. On another screen could be seen a different room in which Finn, Isadora and Catherine conferred in a huddled knot.

  ‘How on earth did you get involved in all this, Mum?’ Oscar asked, rearranging the shawl that had slipped from her shoulder.

  ‘I’m sorry, Oscar,’ Bella said from across the table where she was watching them with her chin in her hand. ‘That was me. And I feel very guilty about it.’

  ‘Nonsense!’ cried Gladys, reaching out across the table and forcing Bella to take her hand. ‘You did the right thing. In fact, I wouldn’t have forgiven you if you hadn’t called me, my lovely girl.’

  ‘We were stumped,’ Bella explained to Oscar. ‘We needed a way to get you two out of OAK but we knew Catherine would never give you up without getting Isadora back. And then I remembered – Theresa used to be a make-up artist. She fixed my face on Le Chêne on karaoke night when I was looking a bit worse for wear.’

  ‘A bit!’ Theresa was heard to mutter under her breath.

  ‘My first thought was she could disguise me as Isadora but almost as soon as I thought of it, I realised how ridiculous it was. No one would fall for it. There was no one else here who would be any more convincing. And then I remembered I knew someone almost the same build as Isadora and with the same colour hair… it was a massive risk but there was a chance we could make it work. I called Gladys, told her you were in trouble and she was here in a flash.’

  ‘I couldn’t sleep anyway, darling.’ Gladys said in an aside to Oscar. ‘I was wide awake, wondering what had happened and why I hadn’t heard from you. Having the chance to do something
to help – well, I leapt at it. And of course, when I learnt I wouldn’t be a bit player in the dramatis personae, but the star! I couldn’t resist, my boy.’

  ‘Theresa was able to style Gladys’s hair and do her make-up so she would pass as Isadora at a distance,’ Bella explained. ‘We knew it wouldn’t hold up when she got closer, but by keeping her head down as she was crossing the field, she made it further than we expected, didn’t you, Gladys?’

  Before she could answer, Theresa cut in. ‘Gladys was faultless, but we never doubted she would be. To my mind, the critical moment when something could have gone wrong was when we did the swap. Isadora had told Catherine on the phone that she had the USB. When we hung up Isadora was expecting us to lead her out to the field. When I told her to start undressing, she was confused at first and then, my god, she was mad with rage. It took four of us to get her out of those clothes so Gladys could put them on. And we had very little time to do it.’

  Gladys grimaced at the memory. ‘She was very cross. Even when I gave her my precious mink and gown in return.’

  As one, they all turned to look at the monitor where Isadora could be seen, clad in a floor-length evening gown, fur coat and silver sandals.

  ‘But now, my dears,’ Gladys said, consulting an elegant gold watch on her fragile wrist, ‘it’s about the time I have my morning cup of tea. I wonder if such a thing as tea is to be found down here?’

  Three or four people sprang up, but Bella was quickest. ‘I’ll do it! Who else wants one?’

  Most people did apart from Ben who dismissed the suggestion with a shake of his head. He now stood right in front of the monitors watching the little group of Isadora et al intently.

  ‘James should be back soon with our bargaining chip,’ he murmured. ‘Plenty of time after that for cups of tea.’

  In the kitchenette, Bella filled two battered kettles with water and took a handful of dusty mugs down from the shelf. She heard a footstep and turned to find Oscar in the doorway.

  ‘Can I help?’ he asked.

  ‘Sure. Tea’s over there.’

  He nodded but made no move to get it, instead covering his face with both hands and taking a great breath in. She stopped what she was doing and went across to him, leading him into the room and pushing the door to behind them.

  ‘Are you okay?’ She kept hold of his sleeve and after a moment or two he lowered his hands and the look on his face made her well up.

  ‘I’m sorry, Bella.’ He couldn’t meet her eye. ‘I told Catherine everything. They’d found us at your house – Lauren and me – and marched us into OAK. Catherine and Finn were there and Catherine… I’ve never seen her like that. It was like she was a whole other person. So cold and detached. She said she was going to shoot me in the leg if I didn’t tell her everything I knew. She counted to three and…’

  His voice trailed off and Bella hugged him, hard.

  ‘Of course you bloody told her! She was going to shoot you, for God’s sake. You’re a human being, Oscar, not a character in a film.’

  He muttered something so quietly she couldn’t hear.

  ‘What’s that?’ she asked.

  ‘Ben wouldn’t have told her,’ he repeated.

  ‘We don’t know what Ben would have done. He wasn’t the one being threatened with a gun.’

  ‘I just,’ he pushed her away, moved over to the other side of the room and leaned back against the worktop, ‘I just feel like shit, you know. I told her everything – that you’d been at your house, that you had the USB, stuff you’d told me about the barns. Even though I knew it meant they’d probably catch you. I hate the fact I did that. I hate myself. I feel like I don’t know who I am at all. Even my eighty-year-old mother is a braver person than me. She risked her life for me!’

  ‘Oscar!’ She wanted to go over and hug him but his face plainly said that he wasn’t ready to be comforted. ‘Don’t beat yourself up about it! You did what any normal person would do when faced with a madwoman with a gun. And we’re all okay, everyone’s fine – you, me, your mum. There’s no point in all this guilt.’

  He heaved a great sigh, his shoulders rising and falling, then he looked directly at her for the first time.

  ‘I didn’t come in here for sympathy. I came to say I’m sorry I let you down.’ He saw she was opening her mouth to protest and held up a hand. ‘I did let you down, no matter what you say. And you’re one of the last people on earth I’d ever want to do that to.’ He turned with an air of finality towards the kettles and mugs. ‘And now I really, really want a cup of tea.’

  Together they busied themselves with teabags and milk in silence, until he exclaimed, ‘How the hell did you get out of your house? It was like a magic trick.’

  ‘There’s a way through to Angela’s house next door from the loft. I was there when they searched the house and I saw you being dragged to the car afterwards.’

  ‘Ah yes.’ Oscar’s hand went to his temple and patted it gingerly. ‘One of those bastards didn’t appreciate me telling him to go and look for you up his own arse.’

  Bella laughed. ‘And you say you’re not brave!’

  Back at the table, cradling a cup of tea in both hands, Bella called over to Ben.

  ‘What’s the next move, Ben? We have to call the police now, right?’

  Ben threw one last glance at the monitors, then crossed the room and drew up a chair beside her.

  ‘Yes, we need to involve the police. But in such a way that OAK is protected.’

  Theresa joined them at the table. ‘Ben, don’t you think it’s about time we told these people what’s been going on? It would make things a whole lot more straightforward.’

  Ben glanced at his watch and then nodded. ‘You’re right. Let’s kill two birds with one stone and let these guys in on it,’ he added, getting up and unlocking one of the doors that led off the main room, swinging it open to reveal the group of cupuli. Those who’d been sitting on the floor got up as quickly as they could, hampered by their bound wrists. Ben invited them out with a jerk of his head and they filed into the main room, aggression and defiance in every look. Several of Theresa’s US staff stood by, tense, as the cupuli installed themselves at a table in response to an instruction from Ben.

  ‘What is all this bullshit?’ called out a stocky cupule with contrasting grey hair and black eyebrows. ‘You can’t keep us here forever!’

  ‘We’re not going to,’ Ben said. ‘But before we let you go, I want you to hear what’s been going on at OAK and why things need to change.’

  For a moment he was silent, gazing down at his clasped hands on the scuffed tabletop.

  ‘Like OAK itself,’ he said, ‘this whole mess started with the best of intentions. It started because Isadora loves OAK like nothing else in the world. She made Teddy Thatcher hack into AC’s client accounts and steal their money because it would help OAK. She sent her brother to Le Chêne to kill or kidnap Teddy because it would help OAK. And if I’ve calculated correctly, she’s going to solve this whole mess for us…’ he gave a weary smile, ‘because it will help OAK.’

  The atmosphere had turned menacing over at the table of cupuli. Mutterings rippled around the table and dark looks were exchanged. The guy with the eyebrows, who seemed to be the most senior, slammed his bound hands down on the table.

  ‘We’re not going to sit here and listen to these lies about Isadora! Fuck you,’ he yelled, jumping up and sending his chair flying backwards into the wall. The others followed suit and a couple of Theresa’s agents grabbed their guns.

  Ben was about to respond when a timid voice spoke up. Teddy had shambled around the end of the glass partition.

  ‘It’s all true, lads. The Librarian attacked me on Le Chêne. Look,’ he approached the table and showed them a vivid pink welt on his neck. ‘That’s where he cut me. I was hiding from Isadora so she wouldn’t make me steal any more money. Ben and James took me out there to keep me safe. And Theresa and some of these nice people,’ he gestured to the age
nts who still had their guns trained on the cupuli, ‘looked after me and helped smuggle me onto the plane home. I wish it wasn’t true. I’d never have believed it of Isadora if I hadn’t seen it all with my own eyes.’

  All the fight seemed to have gone out of the cupuli leader at the unexpected appearance of Teddy Thatcher.

  Ben signalled to the others to lower their guns.

  ‘As soon as I found Teddy on Le Chêne,’ Ben said, going over to stand beside him and putting an arm around his shoulder, ‘I knew the game was up. I had to act fast. I didn’t know if Teddy had said anything to The Librarian before passing out. If he had, Isadora would be hunting down anyone who’d helped in Teddy’s escape from OAK. Plus, Bella here had seen Teddy injured and I didn’t know who she would tell. I got a message to James to kidnap Isadora because although I didn’t have a clear idea what our next move would be, the one thing I was sure about was she shouldn’t be running OAK.’

  ‘No,’ agreed Maggie, who’d emerged from her camp bed to stand on the other side of Teddy. ‘She’s a very nasty woman.’ Taking Teddy’s arm, she led him to a chair and pushed him down onto it, standing by his side like a guard dog spoiling for a fight.

  Ben took another look at his watch. ‘We don’t have long and I want to finish what I’ve got to say. Please,’ he indicated the chairs that the cupuli had vacated, ‘will you sit down?’

  They looked to their leader who took his seat, his face grey.

  ‘Isadora’s drive to expand OAK has tipped over into mania,’ Ben continued, when everyone was settled again. ‘I shared my concerns with James and Lauren a few months ago and for a while – until I found out about the hacking – we monitored things, trying to decide what to do.’ He turned to Bella. ‘There was a file called “Expansions” on the memory stick that Teddy left with Maggie, remember? Teddy had found some data on a drive that had been encrypted and he was curious as to what it was. He accessed the file and discovered the spreadsheet you’ve seen. What that spreadsheet revealed was the world doesn’t need OAK. In fact, the world is a worse place because OAK exists.’