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Martin looked up.
“We can’t turn it off; it’s wired directly into the high-voltage cable in the floor.”
Mary slumped.
“But I think we can do this, Mary. I think we can re-purpose the device quickly enough to stop these planes and give us breathing space until our experts can get here tomorrow. What do you think?”
Mary appreciated being asked for her opinion and also realised there wasn’t any time to waste thinking about it.
“Let’s just get it done.”
Martin held up a small metal box. “I found this toolkit; let’s get the device open.”
He compared the tools inside with what was obviously the inspection hatch on the top of the black metal tube.
Using one of the screwdrivers, Martin undid the hatch screws.
The drone sounded closer.
The coil’s glow throbbed faster.
With Mary helping, they manipulated the hatch, so it opened completely, exposing an array of electronics, flashing components and numerical displays.
Mary made a jump. “We have to get this done before it starts beeping, otherwise it’ll have sent its signal, and we’ll be too late.”
Nodding, Martin consulted the diagram, then put his hand inside the machine.
Aghhh!!! “My hand, my hand!” Martin pulled his hand out, pouring with blood.
Mary quickly looked around for some cloth to staunch the flow. Finding nothing, she took off one of her long socks.
“This’ll have to do for now,” she said, wrapping the slightly damp sock around the deep cut in his hand. “Come on. Move, I’ll do it.”
“There’s supposed to be a button with that sign on it. Can you see it?”
“Yup.”
“Press that. That’s it.”
“OK.”
She still felt a vibration in everything she touched.
“You see that screw there next to the display? Screw it in as far as you can.”
“The other way!”
“That’s it. Now, see the little buttons on the left-hand display. Press the one with the ‘Up’ arrow until the number gets to 50.”
“That’s it. Now, you see the tiny red wire under the display? You have to cut that.”
“What with?”
“These snips,” he said, handing her a tiny pair of red-handled snips with his good hand.
“Oh!”
The snips disappeared into the machine.
The coil’s glow was throbbing faster as the drone sound came closer.
“I’ve got nail clippers in my bag.”
Using her nail clippers, hands shaking, Mary cut the red wire but cut another wire too.
“This is doing my head in” screamed Mary. “I don’t think it’s going to work.”
Mary bent to the floor. Martin leaned down to console her, but instead of crying or giving up, she stood back up with a large rock in both hands.
“We’re out of time.”
And started smashing everything she could inside the big black humming tube.
It was still humming.
She hit it again and again.
“I’ve never been so angry in my whole life, will you just fuckin’ stop, you fuckin’ bastarding thing.”
Her blows started to go in time with her words.
YOU.
ARE.
NOT.
GOING.
TO.
KILL.
ANY.
MORE.
OF.
US!
At the ‘us’, the humming stopped.
“What have I done?” She cried, terrified now.
They stared at the coil. A metallic, acrid, burnt smell seemed to cling to the back of their throats. The silence felt fragile, almost expectant.
“Have we done enough?” said Mary.
“I think we should destroy as much as we can until the bombers are gone, just in case.”
Martin did his best with his injured hand, but Mary did most of the destruction, sweat pouring down her face.
The innards were unrecognisable.
There was no beep.
They both collapsed onto the floor, huffing and puffing, completely out of breath.
Then there was only the drone.
They looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing.
“What a night! We won’t forget this for a while.”
Mary sobbed, “I only hope it was all worth it.”
Martin was out of breath, too. He talked in short, sharp sentences.
“It’s alright.”
“There’s nothing we can do now.”
“We can learn a lot about these devices.”
“There could be more of them.”
“I’m sure we have people who can work out how to use them.”
Mary still didn’t say anything about her Gremlin brother.
“Come on, Martin,” said Mary, blowing her nose and wiping her eyes. ”Let’s go back to Annie’s and get something to eat. It’ll be almost breakfast time.” She grinned. “I’m absolutely starving.”
Outside, the cool, fresh sea air slowly brought them back to reality. Listening, they could still hear the drone of the bombers high in the sky, but it soon faded into the background noise of chirping birds and barking dogs.
Diverted?
Aborted?
Destroyed?
Enjoying these stories? Try the book.
After they had eaten, Elsie’s husband insisted on giving them a lift back to Rosehaven.”
Martin fell asleep as soon as the van door shut, but all Mary could do was sit there in the earthy-smelling silence, wringing her hands and worrying. She was exhausted.
“If you want to sleep, just listen to the rain on the van… I find that helps.”
Mary watched the rain gather on the glass, tracing paths that disappeared before she could follow them.
What had she done? Had she made things worse?
She started praying for sleep to stop the turmoil.
How could national security depend on secrets she and Martin had found so easily? Can these people really keep us safe, or is it up to us to do it?
As she stared blank-eyed at the familiar landscape passing by, she worried the nation’s leaders were just doing their job, but that job could decide whether hundreds and hundreds of men, women and children lived or died.
She thought about how tired she was and how she might have to go to work the next day. If she made a mistake, the baking would burn, or they wouldn’t make any money that day.
If these leaders made a mistake, maybe because they had had a sleepless night, they would still have their jobs. It could be life or death for ordinary people, though.
*****
“I’m absolutely knackered,” Mary muttered as she and Martin got out of the van. “You slept like a log.”
“What’s wrong? Why didn’t you get any sleep? Was I snoring?”
“Too much stuff running around in my head, Martin.”
It was funny; she thought. She felt as if they’d known each other forever now, even though they’d met less than 24 hours ago.
A thin young man blocked their path into the committee room.
“Don’t try to stop us, son. You tell that fuckin’ committee that we need to see them RIGHT NOW!” Martin growled, back to his snarky self.
“I don’t care if they’re on the bog, or having their breakfast, if we don’t see them right this minute, there’ll be hell to pay!” he shouted as the slightly scared young man scurried away.
He returned a few minutes later.
“They’ll see you now.”
“You do the talking, Martin, I’m too frazzled.”
Grinning, Martin nodded and related their night’s adventure to the committee. He was careful not to miss anything out and always looked to Mary for confirmation whenever he wasn’t sure about a point.
“Finally, I want to emphasise that the actions of Mary here last night saved many lives, and I recommend that she should be decorated for bravery.”
Mary blushed, feeling a warm, fuzzy sensation about Martin.
“Oh, I’m not sure if we could do that. Only the factions may decorate members of the public. We don’t have the wherewithal at the moment here at Unity Accord,” said Chairman Peterson.
Mary’s feelings changed, and so the arguing began over how to recognise Mary’s bravery, even though the new alliance had only been formed less than 24 hours before.
But this time it didn’t go on for long.
The door opened, and a straight-backed, very well-turned-out young woman came in and spoke quietly to the Unity Accord leader.
Everyone watched until she left.
The leader stood up.
“It has just been reported that the resistance has just taken most of the sleeper cells into custody, although there are one or two individuals still at large, including Gary Nightingale.”
“Good to know, but I just want to go home and have a bath and get some sleep.” Mary yawned.
After the meeting was over, Martin took her back to her house just to make sure she was OK.
“Martin, let’s try to meet up sometime and try to be friends, yeah?”
“That’d be good,” he said. “Now get some sleep.”
“Oh, Martin,” Mary said, her eyes half shut.
“Yeah?”
“What really happened when you went back into the pub in Mooredge?”
“Nothing that mattered, really. You were ahead of my game, then.”
“Mmm…”
Water running hot.
Don’t stay too long.
And bed….
Mary slept but couldn’t settle. Too many things running around her head again.
Smash it, smash it, harder!
Martin being nice.
She might as well be at work if there were work to go to. Maybe nobody wanted to know her anymore.
Maybe everyone thought she’d ruined their chances of safety. Word travels fast in these parts.
She turned the corner into the bakery’s street and suddenly couldn’t move for people.
“Eh?” she yawned. “Why’s it so busy at this time of day?”
“Here she is!” A cry went up.
And suddenly she was being hoisted up and carried on a couple of men’s shoulders towards the bakery. The street was crammed with people all chanting:
“Mary! Mary! Mary!”
She could feel herself blushing and knew from experience her face would be bright red.
She could even see her brother standing with his colleagues X and Z across the road. Code names were important to these guys. She’d thought they were stupid until Y got killed. She would tell them about Martin and the device later.
Everyone was clapping and cheering.
Smiling and laughing, she thought, “God almighty, our bread must be fantastic! It smells wonderful!”
Above the crowd, there was a noise.
A child pointed up to the sky.
Everyone looked, eyes wide, mouths open.
Silence fell.
She was put back down on her feet.
The constant drone was almost overhead.
But which way were the planes going?
She scanned the surrounding faces. All ordinary people, some familiar, some not.
“It doesn’t matter,” she thought. “If it’s here or somewhere else, ordinary people are going to die.” She followed the smell of bread to the shop and opened the door.
Page 4
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