I Am Margaret (40 page)

People complained. People cried. People sulked. Jon, Rebecca, Jane and I explained, reasoned and comforted—well, Jon, Rebecca and I comforted—until we’d talked them all around and everyone settled down to go through their chests and consider which small items to take.

When that was done I fell back on desperate prayer, or trying to pray, or crying to the Lord in terror and begging for strength. I was pale and jumpy and couldn’t help it.

“How good is this plan, Margo?” demanded Jane on Thursday, eyeing me closely.

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the plan, Jane,” I replied calmly. “I have something else on my mind.”

“I’ll say. You’re as twitchy as a rat.”

“Why, thank you, Jane. You’re as flattering as ever.”

She was right, though. On Thursday night I didn’t sleep at all. I lay, cuddled in the circle of Jon’s arm for once, in turn hugging air gun, flashlight and red handkerchief to me. Bane and a hard-faced group would be easing through the trees now... After midnight passed it was a relief—suddenly there was hope—but a far greater torment—the chances of discovery were rising by the hour.

Jon didn’t sleep until five o’clock, but I lay wakeful until Sally stuck her head in with a still rather subdued, “Good morning, girls and boy.”

Lord, protect Sally and Watkins and the decent guards today, please?

Friday passed as slowly as drops of lead oozing downhill. I dressed in the clothes I’d chosen for the escape, jeans and a tough linen tunic, and tried to act normally, tried to be calm and confident, but by midday I fled to the washroom. My nerves were infecting the others and if I didn’t have a few minutes to get it out of my system I was going to make everyone hysterical.

Sitting on a closed toilet, curled around the air gun digging into my stomach, I cried hard for a good ten minutes before stopping quite suddenly from sheer nervous exhaustion. But it’d bled off the worst of it and I went almost immediately to the basins to wash my face.

The tramp of several pairs of feet made me freeze, shutting the taps off quickly. I snatched out the air gun, feeble weapon that it was, and tiptoed up to the door, listening hard.

Doctor Richard’s drawl and the Menace’s growl. Had they come for me? Oh…
damn!

I couldn’t go out into the passage, I could do nothing there. So I would have to wait here. Force them to come in for me, out of the camera’s eye. And try to hold them up by myself, without the numerical support, however unarmed, of the other girls. Damn.
I shouldn’t have come in here!

Backing to the end of the room, I clicked off the air gun’s safety and held it out of sight behind my back.
Come on, then, all is not lost yet…

Seconds drew silently on into minutes and still the door didn’t open. What was taking so long? The duty guards knew I was in here.

Finally I heard the footsteps again and stiffened, my heart managing to beat even faster still. I gripped the gun so tightly my fingers ached. I had to pull this off, alone or not…

But the footprints were receding. I heard the clink-clatter of the passage’s barred gate being opened, then closed. Seized with sudden, terrible foreboding, I rushed the length of the room and eased the door open a crack. Peeped out, just in time to see the dismantlers’ white coats disappearing through the door at the opposite end of the passage. Behind them followed Brandon and Dwight, marching a tall figure with braids between them.

As they reached the door Jane looked back down the corridor. Her eyes met mine, full of appeal, but her pinched eyes and lips said all too clearly that she knew there was nothing I could do.

The door closed behind them with a very final click.

***+***

26

ESCAPE

I almost had to go back into the cubicle for another ten minutes: the blow was so terrible. Still eleven hours until zero hour! Far too long. Unless we started the plan early. But there was nothing in the plan about going to the Lab to rescue someone…

And the daytime plan was so much riskier. Less cover for the diversion-providers—and the inescapable need to put the camera room out of commission. Which involved going to the guard block, not the Lab block. How could we possibly go to both simultaneously? We didn’t have enough shooters—nor would we have enough guns. But to do both consecutively—we wouldn’t be at the towers in time…

Mind churning, I pressed the buzzer to get the guard to let me back into the dorm. I had to speak to Jon.
Lord, what do I do? Risk the seventy sheep to save the one? Or save the seventy?

In the dorm, everyone was upset, though Jane had clearly made less of a scene than Polly. Some of the crocodile pairs were holding, others had broken up. Harriet flung herself on me, but I ruthlessly turned her over to Caroline, hurrying to Jon.

“Jon?” I demanded.

He grimaced.

“You want to know if I think you should start the escape now and try to save Jane.”

“Yes.”

“
I…” He bit his lip. “I’m really not sure we
can
, you know. You must see that? We haven’t got the manpower—girl power—to pull off anything extra. Especially not if we have to deal with the camera room as well. The plan we’ve got has a really good chance of working. But
only
if we don’t mess around with it…”

“
But if they’d come to take
me
, we’d be starting now!” I exclaimed, agonized. “Just because it’s Jane, we’re going to play safe?”

“
This isn’t about playing safe!” snapped Jon, for once losing his temper. “If they come for you, we just start the
same
plan early. This calls for a complete departure from the plan! A complete departure that may get seventy people killed! Do the math, Margo!”

“
I can’t
do
math!” I hissed. “That’s why they put me in here!”

Jon’s lips tightened, but before he could reply there came a chattering roar from outside that brought us both to our feet.

“
What the
…?”

“Helicopter!” I gasped.

There was a general stampede towards the window.

“I think it’s going to land here!” cried Caroline, peering out.

My blood turned to ice in my veins.

“
What are the markings?” I choked out, my voice rising sharply. The EuroArmy were the largest owner of helicopters but… “
Whose is it?”

“I don’t know,” said Caroline. “Euro-something. Hey, let Margo see it…”

I waded to the front just in time to see the machine bank and disappear over the top of our block. The circle of little blue stars with a huge yellow star in the center was clearly visible—as was the crest surrounding it. I spun around with a choked gasp, gripped with an almost irresistible impulse to run, though there was nowhere to run to. Jon was behind me. His hands found my shoulders and ran down my arms to close around my wrists.

“Breathe, Margo. Whose helicopter is it?”

“
EuroGov.
EuroGov.
” I was shaking like a leaf.

He folded me to him, rubbing my back with slow, deliberate movements of his hand.

“Breathe, Margo. We know why they’re here; it’s not a surprise, is it.”

“Huh?” Rebecca looked baffled.

“And we’ve got a plan, remember? A very good plan. So let’s get ready, shall we?”

I took hold of myself and eased away from him.
Don’t panic in front of the troops, Margo. Best if they trust you know what you’re doing.
The chattering of the helicopter was getting louder and suddenly the whole dorm was vibrating, shaking, people looking around in panic...

“No need to worry, it’s just the helicopter landing on our roof.” Somehow I managed to speak—shout—lightly. “Looks like the helipad is on our block. That was an amazing machine, wasn’t it?”

“I saw it really close up!”

“I saw right underneath it!”

“I could see the little people sitting in it,” yelled Harriet.

“Loud,” shouted Sarah, shaking her head, hands pressed over her ears.

But the shaking was dying down and the noise with it. When things were quiet enough for me to speak normally,

I interrupted the discussion about the amazing machine.

“Okay, everyone. You remember I said we’d probably be leaving at eleven tonight, but we might be leaving sooner? Well, we’re going to be leaving sooner. Some time quite soon, some guards are going to come in here and we’re going to make them give us their guns. Now, you remember we talked about this before. I’ll do the talking. The most important thing is to get those guns and not to let any of the guards leave the dorm. If anyone doesn’t understand, now is the time to say so.”

Nobody spoke up and I was pretty sure I’d drilled everyone well enough, so I let them all go to their bunks to put on any final layers and make last minute adjustments to their pocketfuls. Slipping my coat on, I touched the pocket that held my bookReader, my little photo wallet, my letters, my sewing kit and my purse. I checked the other pocket even more carefully, stuffed to capacity with white pillow case, flashlight, red handkerchief, air gun pellets—much good they’d do—flare gun and cartridges.

Then I sat on the edge of Jon’s bunk with the air gun in my lap and waited, concentrating on answering last minute queries from all comers.

“They’ll have to get the bigwigs unloaded and take them to the best room in the place,” said Jon, slowly and calmly, sitting beside me. Talking to take up time and distract me, and I was glad of it. “Then I imagine they’ll offer them refreshments and only then will they broach the business of why they’re here.”

“And send the guards to get me.”

“And send the guards to get you.”

“
I hope they send at least three.” I was talking too fast but I couldn’t help it. “Three guns would be best. In case there
is
only one guard in the camera room. But four guards at once might be too much to handle. ‘Cause I think we could probably still take them, but it’ll be a real pain if anyone gets shot and has to be carried out…”

“We’ll manage,” said Jon, very firm and very calm. His rare anger had disappeared. He must be almost as stressed as I was.

Everyone milled and chattered, mostly holding hands with their buddy. The longer I waited, the more the fear was overwhelmed by growing impatience. If there was any chance at all for Jane, we had to get started. But Jon was right. I couldn’t jeopardize the escape.

And finally we heard the click of the stairwell door and the tramp of feet. Too many feet to be the hourly check. I got up and moved to a spot three quarters of the way down the dorm, so that anyone who wanted to speak to me would have to advance well into the room. I put my hands—and the gun—casually behind my back, and waited.

The Menace strode into the dorm, practically trembling with a mixture of rage, triumph and anticipation. Sally and Watkins followed her in—Sally did evening to morning shifts and Watkins was off duty today, so all the duty guards must be running around after the exalted visitors.

My heart sank—the two guards I least wanted to shoot. But… if they were unconscious on the dorm floor, they couldn’t be ordered up to the battlements, could they? The Lord might just be watching out for them, after all.

“
So,” Captain Wallis actually spoke instead of barking, but her tone sent a shiver down my spine. “Margaret Verrall.
Margaret Verrall
. What
shall
we do with you?”

The others all looked at me blankly. They’d no idea the half of what was going on. Sally’s eyes were wide.

“Margaret, why did you do it?”

“Silence,” snapped the Menace. “Margaret Verrall, we have some very important visitors. They require your presence. I would suggest you make your goodbyes, since

I think the chances of you being brought back are very slender indeed.”

“
I agree. I have no intention of being
brought back
.

I have no intention of going
anywhere
with
you
three.” Swiftly, I covered them with the air gun, adopting a proper shooting pose, my feet well apart, both hands steadying the butt, so they could see I knew what I was doing. “Keep your hands where I can see them, please.”

All three of them stared at me in disbelief. No, at the thing in my hands. No time to stop, I must carry this through before they had a chance to think too hard. I walked forward towards them, slowly, my voice dropping to a menacing snarl.