• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

In the lead was the figure in police armour, wearing a Vickers helmet. She was walking beside the teenage boy, watching that he didn’t stumble.

‘Vincent,’ said Justine, staring up at the boy.

‘Wait,’ said the Doctor, ‘Make sure.’ But Justine was already beyond the stack of logs, out in the open, running for the path. Ace looked at the Doctor and he shrugged. They followed Justine out into the open. The two figures on the slope were near enough to see now, picking their way down the muddy footpath carved into the mountain rock. The teenage boy was definitely Vincent. The woman’s face was concealed behind the mirrored visor of the police helmet. But now she reached up with a gloved hand and thumbed the visor back.

A wisp of blonde hair curled out from the helmet.

Justine was running up the footpath, holding on to the metal handrail that zigzagged up the slope. Now she stopped. The woman in the combat armour was holding a gun, pointing it first at Vincent, then at Justine.

The boy looked thin and tired. He began to speak but the wind carried his words away. He cleared his throat and started again. ‘They know everything. They know we’re here to destroy the project. And they know how we were planning to do it. Stephanie says that if you come any closer she’ll shoot Justine. She knows what will happen if Justine touches me and she won’t let that happen. She’ll shoot me as well if she has to.’

Vincent hesitated then added, ‘Your friend the policewoman is back at the house. I think she’s dead.’ The mountain wind howled past them in the following silence.

Stephanie glanced back up towards the house to confirm that Mulwray and O’Hara had come out. They were coming down the slope, careful not to slip on the fresh mud. Both of them had handguns. Ace thought she recognized the one O’Hara was holding. It was Mancuso’s police sidearm.

The Doctor and Ace stood unmoving behind Justine, at the bottom of the footpath. ‘What do we do?’ said Ace.

‘Don’t do anything now,’ said the Doctor. ‘If we get a chance we have to try to bring Justine and Vincent into contact.’

‘But you heard what she said –’

‘Quiet,’ said the Doctor.

The two men from the house had joined Stephanie and Vincent now. They were all coming down the footpath together. Justine came backing down the steps, moving slowly until she was standing with the Doctor and Ace again. Stephanie followed, removing her police helmet now and letting her long blonde hair loose. She stayed between Justine and Vincent, watching both of them.

‘It’s all right, Stephanie,’ said O’Hara. ‘I’ll look after them. You go and get some security personnel. There’ll be some staff on duty in the tunnel.’

‘I can use the phone in the canteen,’ said Stephanie. She set Mancuso’s helmet on the ground as she gathered her hair and folded the braid, securing it with an elastic band to keep it out of her eyes.

‘No. Go into the tunnel and make personal contact. Choose people you can trust. Don’t tell anyone else.’ O’Hara looked at the small group. The teenage boy sat on the bottom step of the footpath, looking alone and miserable. The Doctor standing beside one of the tall stacks of logs, Ace and Justine beside him. ‘We may have to take radical action.’

‘Right.’ Stephanie finished fastening her hair and set off for the tunnel mouth, jogging across the flat expanse of mud and concrete. The mountain wind stirred debris from around the site and sent fragments cartwheeling after her – styrofoam packing from a computer box, an empty soft‐drink can, some autumn leaves. Mulwray watched her go. His eyes were red‐rimmed in a slack grey face.

‘I understand the general concept,’ said O’Hara, looking at the Doctor. He seemed excited, eager to talk. ‘I understand that you’ve constructed a two‐component weapon to use against us. This girl and this boy. They’re like a bomb made up of an explosive and a detonator.’

‘That’s one way of describing it,’ said the Doctor.

‘But the boy has a unique power. What is it that makes the girl so