THE RED MIST TRILOGY: The Box Set

by R T Green

He reached out, took both my hands in his. ‘And she knows you did. Hard though it was for her to see what she did, it’s a fact she can’t ignore when the hurt subsides and she thinks more clearly.’

  ‘And how long is that going to be, Coop? Do any of us even have that long?’

  He shook his head, in a despairing kind of way. ‘Fuck knows, kid. All I can say is hang in there.’ He squeezed my hands tighter, pierced a stare into my eyes. ‘And don’t do anything stupid just ‘cos you think you’s lost everything.’

  ‘What… what do you mean by that?’

  ‘I didn’t just step off the Windrush, Maddie. I’ve seen that look in your eyes before, and couldn’t do anything about it then. This time I’m stepping up and pulling rank.’

  ‘Still don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘Sure you do. And we ain’t leaving this table until you tell me what’s in that crazy head of yours.’

  Seems I can’t get away with anything these days. Physical or any other wise. Back in the day I’d slip in and out of people’s lives without them even noticing me. What the hell happened?

  ‘You telepathic now?

  He laughed. ‘Nah… just tuned in, one moron to another, yeah?’

  There was no choice. This big-hearted, crafty guy had got me sussed. And he’d got my back too, most of the times when I didn’t really care about it.

  ‘Ok, but you’re not going to like it.’

  ‘That’s a given. But lay it on the table anyway.’

  ‘You once told me you’d thought I was a cold heartless worm. And as usual you were right. But that was then, this is now. And now I want to be a worm again… on the end of Tiri’s hook.’

  Chapter 151

  ‘You want me to put you out there as bait?’

  ‘Told you you wouldn’t like it.’

  ‘The fuck I don’t. Not a cat in hell’s, kid.’

  ‘I’ll do it anyway. It’ll just have more chance of success if you’ve got my back.’

  ‘You threatening me?’

  He looked really angry, and for a moment it unnerved me. Then I told myself he was doing it for the good of me, and somehow that gave me a strange kind of strength. I leant forward, held his stare.

  ‘Why is Tiri here, Coop?’

  ‘To oversee her nasty little henchmen in their even nastier project.’

  ‘And to claim her star prize?’

  ‘That’s irrelevant. I ain’t going to hand it to her on a plate.’

  ‘You think I am?’

  ‘You know what happens to worms on hooks.’

  ‘Yeah, they catch the big fish. So you going to hear me out?’

  He sighed, sat back. ‘Sure. It won’t make no difference though.’

  I ignored that. ‘When Jane said they’d moved the pick-up point just last night, I knew it was the best chance for someone planted in their new area to get caught. They’ve only just started there, so it’s likely they’ll be around for a while before moving on. So if I become a hooker, I could well find myself in their lair, and then we’ll know where they are.’

  ‘You ain’t thought this through, kid. You think Tiri won’t have made sure they know exactly what you look like?’

  ‘A blonde wig will help with that.’

  ‘Fuck. Me and my bright ideas. But… look at all that long black hair of yours. You’d never hide all that, and then the game will be up.’

  ‘So I’ll chop it all off.’

  ‘Seriously?’

  I faltered. I liked my hair. ‘Yeah, I will. Would that make you believe how serious I am?’

  ‘Go on.’

  He was listening. He’d probably still say no, but it was a start. ‘Give me one of those trackers, like you put in the hem of Zana’s cloak. If I’m picked up, give me a few hours to make sure I’m in their hideout, then you can steam in with all guns blazing. And if we’re lucky with the timing Tiri might be there, so you’ll get her too.’

  He shook his head. ‘They’ll be wary by now of undercover plants. Any device on you will be found.’

  ‘Then I’ll swallow it.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Will it still transmit inside me?’

  ‘Sure, but…’

  ‘But?’

  ‘Oh fuck.’

  ‘You’re saying fuck a lot again, Coop.’

  ‘Sure I am. Cos it’s fucking insane.’

  I mimicked his style. ‘Sure it is. But it’s good too, huh?’

  He threw his hands in the air. ‘Yeah, it’s good. For someone else. Any trained undercover agent could do it, so I ain’t risking you.’

  I could feel an odd kind of anger building. It was my plan, my job to see it through. That wasn’t the reason for the anger. I hadn’t told him the other part of the plan, and I wasn’t going to. The somewhat more personal part, which no one else could do, had to stay a secret.

  ‘So you’re happy to send some poor woman into that shit, who knows nothing about Calandurans, nothing about Tiri’s methods, and will most likely not come out alive?’

  He was silent for a second. ‘Ok, I admit it’s not ideal. But you’s been through enough, and I couldn’t bear you losing your life after all this…’

  ‘But I’m the only one who won’t lose her life, aren’t I Coop?’

  ‘Not following you.’

  ‘Yes you are. You know as well as I do the only person on this planet who won’t get killed is me. Tiri isn’t going to destroy the one thing she wants more than anything.’

  He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Then he shook his head in a resigned kind of way. ‘Fuck you and your smart-ass brain, Maddie.’

  ‘So are we going to go tell the others? And don’t call me Maddie!’

  Chapter 152

  Miles looked at me wide-eyed. Duncan Scott was shaking his head a lot, but not saying anything. To be fair, he didn’t really get the chance.

  ‘No! I won’t allow it.’

  Zana freaked out, slammed her fist onto the table, and seared green streaks of flame into me.

  Maybe I exaggerate about the flame, but that’s what it felt like.

  Miles went to her, put gentle hands onto her shoulders. She shook them away, strode over to me like a volcano from which there was no escape. The words were spat out, and stabbed me right through the heart.

  ‘I risked everything in Tobago to save you… get you away from her. Now you’re just going to walk right back, like my sacrifice meant nothing?’

  She had a point. Yet another smack-you-in-the-face, wrecking-ball kind of point. I hadn’t thought about my plan from that point of view. I faltered, couldn’t look her in the eyes.

  ‘I… someone has to save those girls, end this hell.’

  She glared at me like she hated me. ‘Then get someone else to do it.’

  She spun round, walked away. Don’t walk away from me, Zana. I could feel the anger and frustration trying to control me. ‘Hey… you know just as well as the rest of us I’m the only one who can do this.’

  She’d reached the door to the smaller meeting room, turned back to face me. ‘Do I? So what makes you so special, Madeline?’

  She knew exactly what. And it was the last thing I wanted to say right then, but there was no choice. ‘I’m the only one Tiri would never kill.’

  She shook her head, in a sneering, you’re-pathetic kind of way. ‘It’s not you getting killed that bothers me.’

  The door slammed behind her, so hard it was a miracle the glass panel didn’t shatter, and put yet more broken glass on the conference room floor.

  Scott nodded to Coop, who nodded back and disappeared through the still-complete door to go try and tame the lioness. Then Scott spoke to Miles. ‘What’s your opinion of Madeline’s plan?’

  He blew out his cheeks. ‘It’s risky. But she’s right… she is the only one who is guaranteed not to lose her life. Zana has a very good point, but quite frankly I’m all out of ideas. And if someone doesn’t do something quickly, London is going to descend into ana
rchy.’

  He looked at me. ‘If the boss signs this off, we need to plan it carefully. No high-noon at the OK corral, please? And we see what we can find in the James Bond room that might help.’

  I grinned, despite the situation. ‘The James Bond room?’

  ‘It got that name a couple of decades ago. It’s the lab where we build certain… gadgets.’

  ‘Do I get an Aston Martin with an ejector seat?’

  He shook his head. ‘It’s also the place where we separate fiction from reality!’

  I turned to Scott, my stomach in bits. If he says yes, then it’s another wedge driven between Zana and me. And it might just be the one to finally split us in two.

  ‘Sir… what’s the verdict?’

  He lifted his hands from his sides, let them flop wearily back again. ‘In all honesty Madeline, in any other situation I wouldn’t sanction this in a million years. But given that we are in a unique set of circumstances, and the fact I have no better ideas, I must reluctantly give you the go-ahead.’

  Coop walked slowly over to Zana. She stood motionless at the window, staring out at nothing. He could see her whole body shaking.

  He stood by her side, slipped a hand into hers. ‘You made a good point in there, and Maddie knew it.’

  She wouldn’t look at him. ‘But it won’t stop her, will it?’

  ‘When you fired that weed-killer bomb into your ship at Dawson’s Hill, and killed thousands of your own people, she could have stopped you. But she didn’t.’

  ‘That’s different.’

  ‘Yeah, it is. In one way. But if you look at it from her point of view, she made a judgment call to let you do something she knew would hurt for the rest of your life, because it was for the greater good. And my guess is she was banking on the love between you two helping get you through the pain and the guilt that would for sure have followed.’

  He felt her fingers tense around his. ‘I don’t know what you are saying.’

  ‘Sure you do. You made a valid point a few minutes ago, but so did Maddie. I know it hurts like hell Zana, but she is the only one who Tiri won’t kill if things go wrong.’

  She turned to look at him, her face creased with pain and anguish. Then she fell against him and he held her tight, memories flooding back of the same look in Madeline’s eyes on that life-changing night six weeks ago.

  He’d dropped her outside Zana’s apartment, watched her walk away thinking it was the last time he’d ever see her. She’d been ordered to kill the alien girl she loved, and the look in her eyes as she’d said goodbye to him was imprinted on his memory forever.

  And now he’d seen it again, in the eyes of the girl Madeline couldn’t kill.

  Chapter 153

  Zana walked back into the conference room with Coop. I could see she was in bits, even though she refused to look at me.

  Scott narrowed his eyes at Coop. ‘Are we all in agreement?’ he asked cautiously.

  ‘Yes, sir. Reluctantly.’

  Scott sighed. ‘That goes without saying. Very well, there’s no time to lose. Madeline, we’ll get you in… um, position at nine this evening. That gives us ten hours to get you, and everything else prepared.’ He picked up the phone. ‘We have a stylist, who specializes in changing people’s appearance. I’ll call her now.’

  A sudden pang of fear shot through me. As I said, I liked my hair. ‘Sir, I don’t want my hair just hacked off.’

  He smiled. ‘Don’t worry, she’s a trained hairdresser.’ He spoke briefly to someone on the other end of the line, put the phone down. ‘One hour. That’s enough time for Miles to take you to the James Bond room, see what will help the cause. Coop, go get your van ready. You’ve not seen it for a while… oh, that’s been repaired too, after you crumpled both ends of it. At least Madeline only shortened one end of her vehicle.’

  ‘Sorry sir,’ Coop grinned.

  Duncan Scott was firing on all cylinders, his eyes alive now my plan had actually given him something positive to do. ‘Zana, you’re good with technology… go help Coop set everything up. That van has to be sitting somewhere close to Madeline tonight. I’m not having her out there alone.’

  Zana finally looked up. ‘I wish to be in the van also.’

  ‘Zana…’ Coop didn’t look too keen on that, but she wasn’t going to be denied. He got the streaks of green flame treatment.

  ‘I wish to be in the van.’

  He visibly gulped, but then remembered their conversation in the side room. ‘Sure. Least I can do.’

  Oh boy. The room seemed to be a blur of activity, and it kind of overwhelmed me. I’d only had the seed of the idea three hours ago, hadn’t even thought it through.

  Now everyone else was thinking it through for me, and it was feeling like I’d been swept away by a relentless tsunami. But that was ok.

  Maybe if I’d had the time to actually think it through, I would have wimped out.

  Too late now.

  I felt my hand grabbed. Miles dragged me towards the door before I had the chance to blink. ‘Come on, you. Let’s go see what sneaky little tricks we can furnish you with.’

  We walked through passageways, took two elevators, then more passageways. We’d left DIAL’s patch way behind, and were in the heart of the Secret Intelligent Service’s domain, somewhere I’d never been allowed to go before.

  Miles clicked his pass into a reader, and led me into a big room right out of Hollywood’s finest era. The James Bond room was aptly named.

  A guy carrying a small tablet walked up to us. A balding man in his fifties, he wore thick black-rimmed spectacles and a white lab coat, unbuttoned to reveal a blue-checked shirt and a tie that did anything but match.

  I couldn’t help myself. ‘Hello, Q,’ I said with a smile.

  He threw me a look of total distain. ‘Oh dear.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Do you have the faintest idea how many upstart agents have called me that?’

  Oops. Not the best of starts. But then Miles explained who I was, knowing my identity would never leave the room.

  His face changed. ‘Oh, I see. You’re Madeline.’ He held out a hand, actually smiled. It seems my reputation had preceded me. ‘So good to meet you. And… thank you for saving us all.’

  Wow. Eat your heart out, James.

  Miles explained the situation, and asked Q… sorry, Tom for his input. I could see the cogs churning. ‘Hmm… bad doo this. Those sneaky little bastards will be aware we might try something. Have to be even sneakier than them. Come with me.’

  He led us to a long stainless-steel bench. ‘If everything goes as you wish, you won’t need anything other than this…’ He held out a small tracking device.

  Small maybe, but still huge in terms of what I had to do with it.

  ‘That’s a horse pill!’ I gasped.

  He nodded sympathetically. ‘Sorry, my dear. It’s the smallest we have that will transmit through… you. Just take plenty of water, and think of England when you swallow it.’

  Gee, thanks Q.

  He moved along the bench, threw me a sympathetic look again. ‘If things go wrong however, you need to have something available that might facilitate escape. You’ll almost certainly be locked in somewhere, so… chewing gum!’

  ‘You want me to chew my way out?’

  He grinned. ‘We can only give you things they’d be expecting a lady of the night to have in her bag. And hope they’ll let you keep it with you. However, given the rather insidious task they have planned for you, I doubt they’ll strip you of everything. It will be advantageous for the girls to have at least a semblance of normality to facilitate… um…

  ‘Bearing alien children… you can say it, Tom.’

  ‘Yes… of course. However, that is chewing gum, but it is permeated with a C4 derivative. Low power, but enough to blow a lock if needed.’

  ‘How do I activate it?’

  ‘You chew it, my dear.’

  ‘Seriously? I chew explosives?’

>   ‘Indeed. For five seconds, then place it where necessary. Three seconds later it will detonate.’

  Seriously? He didn’t give me time to dwell on unimportant things like timing, handed me a book. I looked at the title, The Hand of Time. That’s ironic, given that if I didn’t get my hand away from the chewing gum in time, I wouldn’t have a hand at all.

  I really should have thought this through, while I had the chance.

  Tom was happily explaining what the book did, oblivious to the images flashing in front of my eyes of a one-handed life. ‘Slamming the book shut hard will release a mild cyanide gas after three seconds. But only use it if you are sure you can get away quickly. If you breathe it you’ll be out for the count for several hours.’

  He reached across the bench again. ‘The only other thing they might let you keep is this.’ He handed me a bottle of nail varnish, fixed a stare into me. ‘I’m really hoping this won’t be necessary, because if you have to use it, it will mean you’ve been in captivity far longer than we hope, and the tracker inside you has… um, gone, through natural events. This is last resort Madeline, and sadly not much help. But like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs, if you can deposit drops of it, they will send out a weak signal, so anyone with a reader within one hundred metres will see them.’

  I swallowed hard. ‘Yeah, that’s a last resort.’

  ‘Best we can do with stuff that hopefully won’t be taken off you,’ he said sadly.

  I gave him a hug, thanked him. I would have loved to poke around that room for hours, but that was time I didn’t have.

  I had an appointment with my hairdresser.

  Chapter 154

  Morbid thoughts of what might happen to me or my hand was one thing. But the thumping heart and nauseous dread in my gut as I walked into the small room was something else.

  I was about to lose my beautiful hair.

  All of it.

  I consoled myself with the fact hair would grow back, a hand wouldn’t, but it didn’t seem to help the nausea much. Sharon the re-stylist seemed nice, smiled to me warmly. The room looked like any other salon, except there were a few things there you wouldn’t find on any high street.