by Jack Probyn
‘Luke!’ she screamed as they collided with one another. Jake was harrowed by the sight of the collar bomb still attached to her neck and a lump swelled in his throat as they clattered together, fearing that the slightest jolt would detonate it and decapitate her right in front of him.
‘Get down on the ground now!’ the armed officers continued to shout, gradually encircling the two. Their cries echoed around the area.
Jake’s senses heightened. His body turned taut. Tensions were rising, and it put him on edge. If someone wasn’t careful, Luke or Candice could be at the receiving end of a bullet.
He intervened, tearing through the throng of armed officers. He grappled Luke, clutching the man by the scruff of his collar. In the process, Jake knocked the bag strap from Luke’s shoulder and the money and jewels and other precious items inside landed with a terrible crash.
‘Luke,’ Jake said, shouting into the young man’s ear, holding both of them apart, ‘if you don’t stop right now, you won’t ever get to see her again. Is that what you want?’
Luke didn’t respond.
‘Tell us what we need to know, Luke. Danny… where is he?’
‘Let me speak to her please.’
‘Not until you answer my question.’
‘No. Please.’
Jake sighed, looked at Candice who had her hands cuffed behind her back, and then returned his gaze to Luke.
‘Give me one second. I’ll see what I can do.’
Before leaving Luke behind, Jake gestured for the officer accompanying Pemberton to come over. The man hurried over to him, hooked his arm beneath Candice’s and carried her away. Once there was a large enough distance between the two of them, Jake turned his back on Luke and strode across to Pemberton.
‘What the hell is going on, Jake?’ Pemberton said, pulling him aside, out of earshot from Candice who was beside the police van.
‘Luke won’t tell us where Danny is until he’s spoken to her. Danny never boarded the boat.’
Pemberton glanced back at Luke in the centre of the raised surface. ‘I knew coming here was a mistake. And you think he knows where his brother is?’
‘There’s only one way to find out.’
‘Can they be trusted?’
‘Like I said…’
Pemberton sighed and looked down at the floor. She planted her hands on her hips and placed all her weight on one foot, but as she opened her mouth to continue, Bridger appeared, his breathing slightly exasperated from the short run between his car and the van.
‘How long until the boat leaves?’ Pemberton asked. ‘Just in case Danny is on there and we just don’t know about it.’
Jake checked his watch – 2:42 p.m.
‘We have enough time,’ he replied.
‘You sure?’
He nodded.
‘What do you think, Bridger?’ Pemberton twisted her body to face Candice and Luke before turning back to face the detective sergeant. By now, a sea of police officers had surrounded Luke in almost every direction.
‘I say we do it. But someone needs to stay with him. We can’t just let them stand there, sharing their own little secrets,’ Bridger said.
‘We can’t let anyone get anywhere near the collar device either. It’s too—’
‘I’ll do it,’ Jake said, keeping his eyes trained on Luke. He ignored Pemberton and Bridger’s muted stares.
‘Jake, I can’t allow—’
‘I’ll do it.’ He hoped the confidence in his voice was enough to convince Pemberton that he wasn’t about to budge from his decision.
‘You’re going to need a wire or something,’ Bridger added, slapping Jake on the back. ‘I’ll source you one.’
As Bridger turned on the spot, preparing himself to go, Jake held him back.
‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘I’ll give them a radio.’
‘What?’
‘If they want to talk, they have to play by our rules.’
Saying nothing more, Jake reached for the radio on his hip, gripping it tightly. He steadied his breathing with long, deep breaths, and then he walked, turning down the transmission volume at the top of the device to prevent any feedback and cross-communication over the channels. To his left, he glimpsed the armed officers adjusting their grips on their SIGs, and to his right, he noticed Candice shuffling closer towards Luke. Less than five seconds later, he was standing in front of Luke, with the radio concealed in the sleeve of his left arm.
‘What’s going on?’ Luke asked. The young man looked straight over Jake’s shoulders.
Jake replied, ‘Lift your arms in the air.’
Luke did as he was told.
‘Keep them there until I tell you otherwise,’ Jake replied. As he spoke, he turned his body at an angle and clipped the radio to the back of Luke’s jeans so that it was out of Candice’s line of sight. ‘If you touch this,’ he said, giving a slight tug on Luke’s jeans strap, ‘then you lose your privileges. You’ve got two minutes. That’s all I could manage. And then you tell us everything. Nod if you understand.’
Slowly, tentatively, Luke nodded.
Jake breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped to the side and returned to Pemberton and Bridger, maintaining his body angle so that he faced both Luke and Candice.
Once Jake was by Pemberton’s side, she gave the all-clear, and the officer guarding Candice released his grip on her. As soon as the man’s hands were in the air, Candice bolted. She leapt across the concrete and up the small kerb. In an instant, she was on top of him. Luke lowered his arms and embraced her. They squeezed one another, despite the big block of metal impeding them. For that split moment, it reminded Jake of his relationship with his own mum. Their bond had never been close before his dad died when he was fifteen, but since then, they’d been almost inseparable. He appreciated her more now than he ever had done, and he was paying her back by allowing her to spend as much time as she wanted with Maisie.
After a few seconds, Luke and Candice released one another, and they began talking. Bridger nudged Jake in the shoulder, and he leant closer to them; in the time that he’d been gone, Bridger had managed to source another radio. Together the three of them listened in to their conversation.
‘Where is he?’ Candice asked in a whisper.
‘On the boat,’ Luke said slowly. ‘With Louise. I was going to get on with him but then I realised she was here. They must have bought another set of tickets for the two of them under her name.’
‘That fucking conniving, arsehole… bastard!’ Candice breathed heavily, exasperated.
‘Mum. Mum! It’s going to be all right.’
‘How?’
‘I’ve got the—’
‘I just… I can’t… I can’t believe him…’ Candice hesitated for a moment. ‘My handcuffs,’ she said eventually, ‘they’re unlocked. I’m going to find him and I’m going to fucking kill him.’
The words struck fear into Jake. Danny. Louise. Tickets. Handcuffs. Unlocked. Jake shot a look at Pemberton.
‘Oh fuck,’ she mouthed, her words silent.
‘But wait, Mum,’ Luke began, ‘Mum, I have the—’
But before he was able to finish his sentence, Candice shook her hands free from the cuffs and swung herself behind Luke’s neck, wrapping her arm around his throat. Jake and the rest of the team watched on in horror. He was trained extensively to react to even the minutiae in any given situation, but in that moment, nothing happened. It was as if all the hours he’d spent exercising and doing psychometric tests at home were for nothing. His body was held back by an impenetrable force.
‘Let go of the hostage!’ one of the armed officers shouted. ‘Lift your hands in the air.’
Candice chose not to comply.
‘Candice!’ Pemberton called as she stepped closer to the action. ‘Candice, for heaven’s sake, put your son down. Nobody has to get hurt.’
Candice shook her head. ‘You don’t understand, do you? He left me to die. I’m done playing games with him. He won’t get away with
this.’
‘We can all find Danny together!’
Candice edged backward, moving closer to the other side of the road, closer to the cruise ship, pulling Luke along with her. The armed officers matched her step for step.
‘Stay back!’ she screamed.
‘Please,’ Luke added, ‘do as she says. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.’
‘That’s the last thing we want as well,’ Jake said, finding the courage from somewhere within him to speak up. Next he moved nearer to Pemberton and maintained her pace as soon as he was by her side.
For the next thirty metres, they followed Candice and Luke across a small expanse of grass, until they stopped between two oak trees. Now they were on the other side of the police cordon, and there was nothing between them and the ship two hundred yards down the road. Jake scanned the horizon, searching for anything that could stop them. He found his answer in the form of PS Riggs. The man was speaking fervently with his hand pressed against the side of his head. Jake’s eyes moved to the rest of the armed officers. One of them spoke calmly, his voice inaudible.
Radcliffe.
Jake’s gaze darted back to Candice. The woman snapped her head from side to side, checking the distance between her and the boat, her hair whipping in Luke’s face.
And then she bolted, nudging Luke in the back. The young man stumbled forward but quickly regained himself and sprinted after her.
Pemberton cried after them.
Bridger cried after them.
Jake cried after them.
The armed officers cried after them.
They were fifty yards away, rapidly increasing that distance with every step.
And then a bullet rang out, followed closely by absolute silence.
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| EPISODE 6 |
CHAPTER ONE
BLACK HOPE
Luke Cipriano’s mouth felt dry. He wanted to vomit. He wanted the ground to swallow him up – the patch of grass where his hands were. Anything. Just so long as he didn’t have to live in this horrifying, paralysing, painful moment. The bullet had torn through his stomach and wrapped itself around his organs, crippling him, and as he tried to clamber himself to his feet, the world span in a carousel of green and blue. A few feet away, Candice was standing in front of him, her body twisting and morphing as he dipped in and out of consciousness.
The pain was immense. A sensation unlike any other he’d experienced. At first, it started in the front as the bullet exploded from his stomach, and then it moved to his back, before eventually consuming his whole body. As the blood rapidly drained from his system, he became deaf to all sounds around him. The sound of engines ticking over. Water lapping against the ferry and sea walls. The screams and shouts from the armed officers for them to remain still. The police sirens bleating in the background. The general hubbub of the city way off in the distance. All of it was replaced by the sound of his heart straining as it gradually weakened and struggled to keep him alive.
Before he was able to move any further, Candice leapt down by his side and rolled him onto his back. She supported his head while her eyes danced between his stomach and his face. She babbled and muttered incoherently to herself. Luke tilted his head forwards and inspected the damage the bullet had caused. A flower of crimson had formed on his stomach and was gushing down the sides of his waist, forming a puddle on the grass. He tried to breathe but it was weak. He coughed and spluttered, the pain rising up and down his body like pistons.
At that moment, he should have been feeling scared, afraid. But he didn’t. Instead, he felt calm. He was safe. He was with Candice. Everything was fine. She was going to look after him. She was going to care for him.
‘M-M-Mum,’ he said, blinking away the pain.
Candice squeezed his hand and looked into his eyes solemnly.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, babbling, her voice barely a whisper. ‘I should have… I should have been there… I’m sorry I ever left you.’
Luke’s eyes closed as he danced with death. From somewhere deep within him, he found the strength to open them. There was a job he still needed to do.
‘The key,’ Luke whispered, choking on his own blood between breaths and spitting it onto his collar bone.
Slowly, with as much strength as he could summon, he pointed to his trouser pocket. Without needing to be told twice, Candice rummaged through the contents and retrieved the key, quickly soiling it in his blood. She held it triumphantly in the air.
‘Use it…’ Luke tried. ‘Free… Live…’
He gagged and spluttered as his body convulsed. He didn’t know how long he had left, but he wanted to be able to see her survive. He wanted to be able to watch her remove the collar bomb and use it as a final middle finger aimed towards Danny.
Candice’s hands shook as she held the key. Running her fingers along the base of the metal box of the collar bomb, she found the fourth lock and inserted the key. Luke held his breath as he watched her rotate it. His body froze as the lock snapped into place.
And then there was complete silence. The air around them stopped, and the only thing he could hear was his raspy breathing as he waited for the mechanism on the neck to detach itself.
It didn’t.
Luke and Candice both glanced at the device, willing it to do something, anything. But when nothing happened, Candice screamed. She clawed at it, beat it, yanked it from her neck, punched it until the edges of the solid metal lacerated her skin and she started bleeding. She continued until her knuckles were covered in her own blood.
Luke watched on in horror. It hadn’t worked. Danny had lied to him about the device. He had assured him – he had assured everyone – that the keys would diffuse the bomb. But it had all been a lie. As soon as Danny had put that device around her neck, he had already slammed the final nail into her coffin, while he was readying himself to start his brand-new life with Louise. Tears filled Luke’s eyes and streamed down his face as he lay there on his back. He reached his hand out for Candice to take it. She did. Her hand was moist and covered in blood, but he didn’t care. So long as he got to hold her and be with her in his last few—
The ticking began. At first it was a few beeps: steady, rhythmic. But then within seconds, it intensified.
Beep-beep-beep.
Beepbeep-beepbeep.
Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep.
Luke knew instantly what the noise meant. And so did Candice. But by that point it was too late.
The device detonated. All six blades plunged themselves into Candice’s neck, rupturing and severing her arteries and muscles, breaking her spine and airway. Small jets of blood erupted from the incisions in her throat, raining down on Luke. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed to the floor. She was already dead by the time her head hit the grass.
Just like that, she was gone. It had been over so quickly, so instant.
Gasping, clinging onto what little life he had left, Luke rolled onto his side. They were facing one another. Candice’s eyes were open, distant, yet, to Luke, it seemed like she was still there, like she was staring at him, ready to read him a story as she nurtured him into his permanent sleep. Luke reached out and stroked her face.
As he watched the colour run from her cheeks and the blood trickle across her throat, anger swelled within him. All his life he’d tried to remember who his mother was. How she’d treated them when they were younger. What she’d looked like. How she’d behaved. What she’d done to provide for them. What she’d done with her life. In the few months that he’d been reunited with her, they’d tried to st
itch together their relationship, set the foundations in place and build from there. But Luke was never going to get a chance to finish it. And now his final memory of her was tarnished with this image. Dead at the hands of the device. Covered in her own blood.
And it was all one person’s fault. Danny.
His eldest brother. The one who had helped raise him was the one who had put him in this situation. How could he?
Luke tore his weakening mind from thoughts of Danny and consumed it with the memories that he and Candice had tried to build. As he lay there on the grass, staring into her eyes, a smile grew on the face.
And, before the world went black, he was just happy that he’d been fortunate enough to see her come back into his life.
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