Part 19 (2/2)

Brew in hand, I went into the mailroom. I checked the telltale and pulled out the folder. I wanted to show her Lilian's picture.

I sat near the sink with my back against the wall and checked my watch. After 02.00. f.u.c.k, I hadn't even been here six hours and I was already in rag order.

I put my mug down and rested my head against my knees. The next thing I knew, I was woken by the sound of her coming out of the shower. I looked up. The towel was wrapped under her armpits. She caught sight of the sleeping bag and all the gear and very nearly smiled. Or maybe I was just kidding myself.

'Drink?' I pointed at the kettle and made a brew sign with my right hand.

She looked down at my mug, which was still half full. I took a sip. It had gone cold. I must have been out of it for at least half an hour. She raised a non-eyebrow.

'Yeah, I'll have one.'

She brushed past me as she leant down to collect my mug. She smelt of shampoo. Her knees cracked, and she still had chicken skin because of the cold.

I stood up and stretched while she got busy with the kettle. I wiped the dribble off my chin stubble and pointed at the gear. 'That is for you. Dry clothes.' I went through the motions of putting on jeans. 'Blow up the airbed.' I made a trumpet out of my hands and puffed through it. 'For you to sleep ... All right?'

She pa.s.sed me a steaming mug. The tea was black, with half a kilo of sugar. I fished out Slobo's Facebook picture and pointed.

'This girl. Her name is Lilian. Was she in the building? Have you seen her?'

I couldn't read her expression at all.

'Have you seen her? Lilian. Her - name - is - Lilian ...'

She nodded.

'You have have seen her? Today?' seen her? Today?'

All of sudden she was scared. I didn't blame her. It must have taken her back to the last place she ever wanted to be.

'You sure? Lilian - with you?'

She examined the picture more closely. Her brow furrowed, and she nodded again.

I dug about in Brad's goodie box for the packet of cheap biros. On the back of the picture, I sketched the internal layout of the silo complex, based on what I'd seen and Anna had told me. I traced a line into the main entrance and then right, into the first room. 'Lilian - is she in there? In there with you?'

She took her time before giving me another nod. I don't think she needed to think. It was more that she didn't know what the f.u.c.k was going to happen to her next.

'The guards? The bad guys?'

I treated her to my cartoon gorilla impression, complete with the hands-under-the-armpits thing. It didn't even get a flicker of a smile.

'The guards, there are four?' I held up my fingers. 'Four?'

She didn't answer. She burst into tears.

'It's OK. No one will hurt you now. It's OK ...'

I went back to my wall, slid down it and took short sips of brew. I didn't want to crowd her. She calmed herself down, got dressed and started blowing up the airbed.

She avoided eye contact. I didn't know for sure what she was thinking, but I could guess.

I finished my brew and went back into the mailroom for the BlackBerry. I sparked it up as I returned to the loading bay. I didn't yet know whether the girl could speak, but I knew that she could hear.

The ringing tone went on for longer than before.

'I've found her.'

'Excellent.'

'I don't have much darkness left but I'll get back there now and try to lift her anyway.'

Tresillian did his usual party trick. 'No, you will not, Mr Stone.'

Not even a 'well done' this time.

'But it has to be tonight.'

There was an uneasy silence at the other end of the line.

'We have a ... complication ... Once you have lifted the girl I want the building and anyone inside it destroyed. No one who has had contact with Lilian must get away.'

'Destroyed?'

'I want an explosion. I want a spectacular. I want to see it on News at News at f.u.c.king f.u.c.king Ten Ten. Do I make myself clear?'

'You want me to blow up a building in a major European city?'

'Is there an echo on this line?'

I fantasized for a moment about blowing up the silo with Tresillian inside it. 'No, there is not.'

'Very good.'

'But first I need you to attend to another matter. It appears we have a little compet.i.tion. Stand by, Mr Stone. But don't move a muscle. Your contact will explain.'

The line went dead.

By the time I got back upstairs, the girl was tucked up in the sleeping bag with her hands wrapped around her mug. She looked me in the eye, and I finally got the slightest of smiles.

I sat back down against the wall and rested my head on my knees once more.

16

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