Breaking Point (Drew Ashley 1) (23 page)

With Kale on the other hand, there was a possibility, and I'd liked him long before Harvey even landed on UK soil.

Chapter 14

At five o' clock on Monday, just as I was preparing to leave for home, I received an email from Harvey, asking me to come to his office. I replied that I'd be up in a minute and shut down my computer. I hoped it'd be quick because I needed to pick up my mum and she didn't like to be kept waiting.

My heart thumped all the way to his office. I hadn't been into the director's suite since my first day. I noticed, when I got there, that all the directors' offices had been fitted with glass panes so you could see them all working away. Harvey's door was open.

"Shut the door behind you," Harvey said, not looking up from his computer screen.

I shut the door and sat down.

Harvey turned away from the computer. My heartbeat accelerated when he fixed his dark eyes on me.

"You submitted an application for the journalist role," he said, all business. "Do you know what that job entails?"

"Yes. I know I don't have the experience, but I spoke to Rosie about it, and I decided to give it a shot."

"Do you know you'll probably have to go to Rwibya?"

"Yes. I would welcome the opportunity to go to Rwibya."

Harvey's brow wrinkled with a frown. "They're killing western journalists. You know about the two American journalists that died, right?"

"I do."

"So why do you want to go?"

"Because Rosie has assured me that there are security measures in place to protect News24 journalists."

"There are," Harvey admitted. "But it's still risky. I want you to consider this carefully."

"I already have."

Harvey shrugged. "Okay. That's all."

I couldn't believe he'd delayed me just to try to scare me out of a job! I went for my interview on Wednesday, and Rosie gave me the job. I was over the moon, but I was too distracted by the fact that I was defending my thesis on Thursday to really savour the success.

On Thursday morning, I dragged myself to work after a night of virtually no sleep, wishing I'd had the foresight to take the day off.

When I got to my department, Harvey was sitting in my seat, wearing a ridiculous American flag tie. "Missing home?" I asked pleasantly, although I felt like saying, 'Get your butt out of my chair!'

Harvey grinned. "It's the fourth of July."

"And?"

Harvey shook his head reproachfully. "Your international awareness is shocking, Drew. I can't believe we just made you one of our journalists."

My colleagues laughed.

"It's Independence Day," Harvey said getting out of my chair. "The day we Yanks gained our freedom from ya'll Brits."

Rosie sashayed over holding a wrapped present. "Here you go, Harvey. Happy Independence Day."

"Thank you, Rosie," Harvey drawled, rewarding her with a wink.

Rosie's cheeks pinked ever so slightly. It made me wonder. So Rosie was a normal woman after all, not a robot who only knew her job at News24.

Harvey left us and Rosie turned to me. "Are you nervous about defending your thesis?"

"I'm so nervous; I'm on the verge of a breakdown."

"What time do you have to be there?" Rosie asked.

"Four o' clock."

"You'll be fine." Rosie turned to her computer. "I've sent you an email. It's urgent."

"Okay."

I didn't know how I survived the morning, much less how I managed to do any work, because I kept having visions, literally, of me standing before my lecturers and going blank when they asked me a question. After going to the toilet for the first two visions, I stayed at my desk and just acted normal because they were pretty short visions, more like quick images flashing before me. I didn't want to attract attention by going to the toilet a third time.

Nobody seemed to notice that anything was going on. In fact, I even managed to type an email during one vision.

Rosie ordered me home at lunch time, saying my nerves were driving her crazy. I left thankfully. I was going to just drive straight to Oxford and spend the afternoon in the library. I needed to go over my thesis again and do some last-minute preparation.

I ran into Harvey in the reception on my way. His arms were full of presents. "What are they for?" I asked.

"Independence Day," he replied. "Help me with my car door."

Harvey's car was at the front of the car park. I opened the boot for him then headed for my car, or my mum's I should say, which was somewhere near the back of the car park. I removed my keys from my bag and unlocked it, noticing that the driver's window was down slightly. I frowned. It had been raining a little as I drove to work that morning. I definitely hadn't rolled the window down.

I opened the door and there was a deafening bang and a sudden flash of fire. I heard the sound of breaking glass, and smelled metal burning, as the impact of the explosion threw me to the ground. I tried to scream, through the hazy blanket that covered my mind.

My last thought before I slipped away was:
Jesus, help me!

***

I woke up in an ambulance. Rosie was with me. "My thesis!"

"Forget about your thesis, love. You need a doctor."

I sat up. "What time is it?"

"Twelve twenty."

I must only have been out of it for a few minutes. "My car exploded."

"We know," Rosie said. "We've called the police. They're investigating as we speak."

"The police? Wasn't it just a mechanical fault or something?"

"Cars don't just explode, Drew. If they did, people wouldn't buy them. The police want to question you tomorrow if you're up to it."

I couldn't believe it. Who would want to hurt me? I'd worked for News24 for barely a month. Had I already made an enemy?

When I got to hospital, the doctor that checked me over said I looked fine but that I should come back if I developed a headache, or experienced any problems with my vision. A scratch on my arm was cleaned and then I was released. I asked Rosie to take me to the train station. I was going to defend my thesis today even if I did a bad job of it.

Of all days for your car to explode in your face! I decided I was going to shut out any analysis of the incident until I had my thesis interview out of the way. Right now, my mind could only handle one thing.

I didn't have time to go to the library when I got to Oxford, so I just went straight to my lecturers office. I was surprised to see Alix outside the room when I got there. "Hey, Alix."

He frowned. "What happened to you?"

"I had an…accident?"

"You look like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards."

"Thanks. What are you doing here?"

"Jazz told me you're defending your thesis, and I thought I'd come and wish you luck."

"How sweet." I noticed a toilet sign down the corridor. "Just going to freshen up."

I dashed into the toilet and looked in the mirror. My face was smudged with black debris, my hair was scraggly and tangled, my bottom lip was swollen, and I had a gash across one side of my temple. I washed my face with the handwash. I gritted my teeth as it stung the cut on my head.

As I patted my face dry with a paper towel, it dawned on me afresh that my car had exploded. My head started to swim and I felt dizzy.

I must have been in the toilet a long time because Alix knocked on the door, then came in.

I gripped the sink as I felt my knees buckle. "This is a ladies' toilet, Alix."

Alix's hazel eyes searched my face. "I'll leave if anyone comes in. What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

I could tell Alix didn't believe me. "Okay, well you look a bit better now. Well cleaner, at least. Your hands are still dirty, though." Alix switched on the tap and took my left hand. He massaged some soap into it then held it under the tap until it was clean. Then he did the same for my right hand.

I let him. I had no strength to fight.

"Wanna brush your hair?" he asked when he finished with my hands.

I brushed my hair then Alix and I walked back to my lecturer's office. I sat down on a lone chair that had been placed outside the door.

"You'll be fine," Alix said, leaning against the wall. "Whatever's going on, just blank it out while you do this."

I removed the copy of my thesis that I'd printed out, and started turning the pages, scanning what I'd written. None of it made sense. By ten minutes to the time, I was panicking. Alix tried to tell me that I just needed to relax, but that was easy for him to say. I couldn't relax. What if my visions came true and I failed the assessment? Or what if I had a vision right while I was there in the room?

When my lecturer called me in, I felt like bolting. I prayed fervently while I followed him into the office, half wishing I'd filled in a Personal Mitigating Circumstances form online.

I greeted the other lecturer in the room, trying to project a pleasant, calm front.
You can do this, Drew.

"So," my lecturer said, leafing through a spiral bound book that I recognized as my thesis. "What you've put together here is quite fascinating. What made you choose gender and leadership styles as your topic?"

That was a question I could answer. "There are many stereotypes about women in leadership, and about successful women as a whole. I wanted to assess the validity of the concept that the most successful women are the ones that possess qualities that are traditionally viewed as masculine."

I went on about my inspiration for a good few minutes, before my lecturer was able to get a word in. I smiled inwardly, maybe I'd inherited the ability to talk nonstop from my mum, and not discovered it until now. It would be a useful ability in this circumstance, because the more I talked, the less chance the lecturers would have to quiz me and trip me up.

Three-quarters of an hour later, they announced that I'd successfully defended my thesis. I let out a whoop and skipped out of the office into Alix's arms.

"I take it you passed?" he asked, laughing.

"Yeah, and it was a piece of cake. I didn't even need to think."

"Well, you're an intelligent woman, Drew. I knew you'd do it. Well done."

I called my mum as we left the university building. She was ecstatic. I decided to leave the info about her car being no more for later. Next, I called my dad. By the time I'd walked the fifteen minutes to the train station I'd also talked to Kale, Jazz, and Destiny.

My train was at the platform when Alix and I got there. I hopped on happily and turned to wave at Alix. "Thanks for walking me over."

Alix grinned. "It was my privilege, Dr Ashley."

Chapter 15

My mum insisted on going to the police station with me on Friday morning. After I recounted what had happened, the police officers told me what they knew so far. The car door had been wired with a bomb. If the bomb had been fitted right I'd be dead. The fact that it had been poorly installed led them to one of two conclusions, either it was done by an amateur who didn't know what they were doing, or whoever did it had not intended to kill me.

When I got to work, my colleagues were all really shocked about the whole thing. I assured everyone that I was fine.

"On a lighter note," I declared, after I told my department—and everyone from other departments who were eavesdropping——about what happened. "I got my PhD."

They all cheered. I took a bow and sat down at my desk.

"I'll make a cuppa," Rosie suggested.

I handed my mug over. "Coffee, milk, no sugar."

Rosie went round collecting mugs then disappeared into the little kitchenette. When she returned, she winked at Eva who produced a bunch of flowers from under her desk. Jon produced a wrapped gift from under his.

"The team decided to get you something," Rosie said.

"What if I hadn't passed?" I asked.

"We called your mum, and she confirmed that you did."

"So you already knew before I said?"

Rosie grinned. "Yeah."

"You all deserve an Oscar, then, for acting so surprised."

Just then, the main door to our floor opened and Harvey sauntered in. He was holding the most extravagant bouquet I'd ever seen, and that was saying something because Travis always used to order me crazily expensive and extravagant flowers.

All eyes were on him as he walked across the open plan office. Other directors came down every now and then, but no one really seemed to care. But there was something about Harvey that just commanded attention.

He stopped at my desk. "Dr Drew Ashley. Congratulations."

He seemed oblivious to the fact that pretty much the whole floor was watching him.

"Thanks."

Harvey held out the flowers.

"Wow, these are beautiful," I said, accepting them. "And heavy."

"How did you defend your thesis after what happened?" Harvey's eyes were full of concern. He needed to stop it before everyone started whispering about us.