Bring Him Back

23

There were six of them in there, aged between about seven to early teens, all barefoot and wearing plain white garments resembling pyjamas. Three girls, three boys. Their hair was cropped. They looked like prisoners — which, Ben realized, was exactly what they were. The youngest was the little boy lying curled on one of the bottom bunks with his eyes closed. He was either in a dead sleep, or else he’d been drugged. The eldest was a Japanese girl of fourteen or less, who was sitting on a wooden chair watching Ben. There was no trace of fear in her eyes. One by one except for the sleeping boy, the children all turned to gaze at him.

They weren’t alone. Two medical personnel in white coats, one male in his late thirties and one female about ten years younger, were in the cell with them. Neither adult had noticed Ben’s presence. The man held a ring of keys. The woman was clutching the handle of a wheelchair: Ben sensed that they’d just brought the little boy back to the cell. That was why he’d been drugged.

‘What were you doing with him?’ Ben demanded.

The two doctors wheeled around in alarm at the sound of his voice. ‘Wha—?’ the man began, then fell silent as he saw the gun in Ben’s hands.

Ben kicked against the cage door. ‘Open it,’ he said savagely. ‘Open it, or I’ll shoot you through the bars.’

The man hesitated, but not long. He hurried to the door, unlocked it, and it creaked open. He retreated anxiously as Ben strode inside the cell.

For a few seconds, nobody spoke. Ben looked at the doctors in furious disgust. He ran his eye over the barefoot children, and at the little boy lying half-comatose on the bed. He thought of what he’d seen in the lab. Then glared back at the man and woman in the white coats, and his finger twitched against the M4’s trigger.

‘I ought to gun you down where you stand,’ he said to them.

The woman just went on gaping at him in terror. The man fell to his knees. ‘Do not shoot,’ he pleaded in a German accent.

‘Where’s Carl Hunter?’ Ben demanded. ‘Isolation room four. Is he there? Answer me!’

‘He’s there,’ the Japanese girl said quietly.

Ben turned to her. She was gazing at him with the same calm, unfrightened expression. ‘Are you sure?’ he asked her. ‘You’ve seen him there?’

‘I’ve never seen him,’ she replied. ‘But I know he’s there. We all do.’

Ben could see she was being completely earnest. He nodded, then turned back to the cringing doctors. They were too pathetic to kill. ‘Out,’ he commanded them, jerking his thumb in the direction of the door. ‘Go, move it. Before I change my mind.’

The man and the woman stared at one another, then bolted past Ben and scrambled out of the cell. He watched as they went running off down the dark passage.

‘I’m Ben,’ he said to the children. ‘I’m here to get you out. Carl as well.’

The Japanese girl nodded sagely, as if she’d known that too. A younger girl managed a weak smile. A boy a few years younger than Carl began to sob.

‘What’s your name?’ Ben asked the Japanese girl.

‘Satoko,’ she replied. She pointed at the younger girl, who was still smiling at Ben. ‘That’s Nicole. She doesn’t speak English. That’s Sylvie. That’s Luca. That’s Peter. And that’s Franck,’ he finished, pointing at the sleeping boy on the bunk.

Ben gazed at their faces, and his heart went out to them. How had they ended up here? How had Linden Global’s agent network found them? Each child’s story would have to be told, but not today.

‘Listen, Satoko,’ he said, ‘we have to get out of here quickly. Bad men might try to stop us. Things might happen. You’re the oldest, so I need you to be really brave, and I need your help to look after the younger children. Can you do that?’

She nodded again, then shot an anxious glance at Franck. ‘He won’t wake up. They gave him the medicine.’

‘Does it wear off soon?’ Ben asked.

‘An hour, sometimes less,’ she said. ‘But it gives you a headache.’

‘You’ll never have to take it again,’ Ben promised her. ‘None of you.’ He went over to the bunk and picked up the drugged boy, thinking that maybe he should have shot those doctors after all.

The boy murmured in his sleep as Ben slung him carefully over his shoulder. ‘Come on,’ he said to the group. ‘We’re leaving this place.’

Back in the main part of the building, alarms were shrilling and the sprinkler system had activated. But from the spread of smoke, the stifling heat and the strong stench of burning that filled the air, it was clear that the fire was raging out of control and Ben worried that the sprinklers would be overwhelmed. As he carried Franck and led the rest of the children through the waterlogged corridors, the walls shook violently to an explosion, then another. The place was full of chemicals and surgical supplies, gas and oxygen tanks and God knew what other volatile materials. How long before the whole place went up in flames?

‘It’s all right, children,’ he said. ‘Stay close to me.’

Every step of the way, he expected to meet more guards and was ready to shoot first lest a stray bullet come anywhere near the kids. But they saw nobody. Ben glanced left, glanced right, memorising the layout of the building as best he could for when he’d have to come back for Carl.

And there it was, the blessed sight he’d been praying for: an exit. Ben kicked open the doors and a rush of fresh air cooled the sweat on his brow. Dusk was falling, the first stars beginning to twinkle over the dark forest. The compound was deserted. All that stood between them and the trees was the perimeter fence. ‘Come on,’ he urged the children.

They ran from the main building, reached the next and skirted along the wall. From its corner, it was only a short dash across the concrete to the fence. Ben’s heart was thudding ferociously. Almost there.

Eighty yards along the length of the wire fence, they came to a padlocked gate. ‘Stand behind me,’ he told the children. Holding the carbine one-handed and well away from Franck’s little ears, he aimed at the lock and fired. The deafening shot echoed off the buildings. One round from a high-velocity 5.56mm rifle was enough to mangle the padlock. Ben tossed the twisted metal away, unbolted the gate and it swung open. He glanced back, half-expecting to see the place’s remaining guards come swarming out in pursuit, drawn by the noise of the gunshot. All he saw was the smoke pouring from the windows of the main building, rising up in a column into the darkening sky.

They ran for the trees. In the deep shadow of the pines, Ben gently took Franck down from his shoulder and laid him on the ground. He gathered the rest of the children together in a small circle. ‘Satoko, all of you, listen to me carefully. This is nearly over. But I have to go back for Carl.’ He took off his watch and gave it to Satoko, showing her the luminous dial. ‘Satoko, remember what I said. You’re in charge. If I’m not back here in fifteen minutes, I want you to take the children somewhere safe. You’ll have to carry Franck. Can you manage that?’

Satoko nodded.

‘Good. There’ll be a farm, or a house, somewhere not too far away. Get there and call the police, all right? ’ He stood. ‘I’m going now. Fifteen minutes.’

‘Be careful, Ben,’ Satoko said.