Red Notice

50

Delphine had done exactly as Tom had instructed when the explosions started. She’d crouched behind her bags and stayed where she was as the pressure wave rocked the carriage. Her ears felt as if they were bursting.

The pinstriped businessman had been less prudent. Panicked, he had dived out of his seat, run towards the nearest detonation site and leaped into the darkness. Hyperventilating with fear, not knowing which way to run, he hadn’t seen the heavily armed men emerge from the smoke. He hadn’t had time to take a single step before he’d felt something pushed into the side of his head, just below the earlobe.

His killers stepped back from the side of the train and fired a burst at one of the windows. The suppressed weapons continued to make no sound, so the blizzard of incoming safety glass was the first sign of further attack. Safe behind her makeshift barricade, Delphine remained untouched, although the faces of two or three others were cut. But she wasn’t unharmed. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she curled up like a small child and wept. It wasn’t long before she realized she was weeping for Tom.

As the insurgents stormed the carriage, Delphine wriggled further down in her seat, dragging her bags on top of her. But she was spotted at once. A man mountain with wild hair and a glistening beard seized her arm, dragged her out from behind her protective barricade, and herded her towards the rest of the panic-stricken crowd of survivors.

She saw Grace, tears streaming down her face, clutching her children and trying to quieten their terrified cries. Delphine worked her way towards them through the heaving mob. ‘It’ll be all right,’ she whispered, squeezing her arm. ‘It’s OK, children. Just stay quiet and keep still. The bad men will go soon.’