Reckoning Point, стр. 74
He didn’t reply. I turned on the tap, heard the familiar noise as the gas leaked out through the tear in the pipe. With that done, I walked over to Mark and crouched down next to him.
“Mark, are you nearly ready to leave?”
He turned his face towards me, slowly, as though it pained him to move. I felt almost sorry for him, he was in a bad way. I think he felt very bad for what he had done to the Irish brothers when he’d lost his temper. He said something, but all that came out was a hiss of air. It sounded like the gas taps, and as he breathed out I smelt something terrible.
I pulled back a little. Rocked on my heels.
What if Mark didn’t leave the apartment? What if he refused to get up out of his chair?
And a terrible, wicked thought popped into my head; would that be such a bad thing?
I gasped out loud, but Mark didn’t seem to notice, so I allowed the thought to form fully.
If Mark stayed here when the apartment blew up, then he would turn to dust just like my friends. And I really could go home to mother. I wouldn’t have to be scared of him anymore if he didn’t exist.
Wicked.
I was wicked.
But I had to light the fuse, the time was ticking, a fact that my watch confirmed for me. I stood up, walked over to the wire that the Colonel had strung up.
“I’m lighting it now, Mark,” I called, and immediately felt better, because I’d given him a warning.
I flicked open the lid of the lighter, held it up to the fuse, put my thumb on the wheel that would ignite the flame.
I took a deep breath, and then–
“Leak! Gas leak!” I could hear footsteps pounding along the walkway outside the door, fists thumping at doors and windows.
I rested my thumb, waited.
Sure enough, the knocking came at the window of the apartment I stood in, a fleeting shadow, and then whoever was out there tried the door handle.
I hadn’t locked the door.
It opened.
A man I recognised as one of the brother’s neighbours looked in. Luuk, his name was. He was young, he liked the brother’s, indeed he had been at many of their parties. In a way he reminded me of Smith, he was tall, muscled, blonde. Nice to look at, and he’d always treated me kindly, just like the brothers.
Luuk came into the room, and then staggered backwards as though he had been hit. I wondered why, then remembered the smell. I must have got used to it myself.
Luuk bought his arm up and covered his nose. He looked at Mark, still in his chair, and then at me.
“Roland, what the fuck?” Luuk waved his free arm. “Never mind, there’s a gas leak, we need to clear the apart–”
He stopped talking abruptly, looked at Mark, looked at Miles, David and Vinnie. Looked at the bags that were covering their heads and crudely tied around their necks. I saw what he was seeing, the stumps where Vinnie’s arms should be (where were his arms now? I wondered), and Luuk fell back against the wall.
Finally he looked at me, and the lighter I held, and the clay and the wires and the gas and he had it all figured out.
The lighter shook in my hand.
“Roland,” he said, mournfully, and it was like he was disappointed in me, even though I’d done nothing except what I was told. “Oh, Roland.”
And his tone started me off, and I began to cry.
He was beside me now, his arms around me, treating me kindly like he always did. And he took the lighter from me and put it in his pocket as he led me towards the door, and I tried to protest because that lighter had belonged to Miles, and it was all I had left of my friend, and I really, really wanted to keep it. But Luuk was big and strong, and he walked me outside where the air was fresh and crisp and cold and clean, and as I walked out of the apartment I put my arms around Luuk and laid my head on his chest, and I cried like my heart was breaking.
64
ELIAN, ALEX, LEV, THE DOCTOR and ERIK
UNDERGROUND
14.7.15 Night time
There is no light in the tunnels, but Elian finds she can stretch out both arms and touch the sides of the walls. If she stands on her toes she can feel the roof grazing the top of her head, and just these points of contact help her as she runs along. At some points the ceiling slopes alarmingly, and she has to bend her knees, lean forward, and run with her face looking at the floor. It feels like her progress is stupidly slow, and she tries to think how far away the pier is.
As the crow flies it is a walk-able distance, a pleasant walk on land, but these tunnels seem to bend, and though it might eventually come out near the pier, they could be twisting and turning underground, adding miles onto her journey.
And the doctor could be gaining ground on her, right now, and that thought makes her run harder than ever.
He’s older, she’s not sure how old because his age could be anywhere between fifty and eighty, and she is younger, and fitter, of that she has no doubt, but thinking of him, seeing what he had done to Roland, he obviously has some strength that enabled him to cart three dead weight bodies down into his basement.
She flies again, not even noticing when the rough walls catch the skin on the palm