Detonate

Chapter 18

Kate wanted to kick Peter so hard that he wouldn’t stand properly for a week.

“Bait?”

“Not real bait,” James added quickly. “We sorta thought that if there were only two uniforms, it’d be a good idea if we could like, escort you in. Get to the heart of the place, you know?”

“Right, so why me?”

“These people wouldn’t understand guards taking any other prisoner there. It’s just an office building or a lab or something. We’ll tell them that we took you there because it was the closest, you being so dangerous and all.”

“You can’t be serious.” Kate crossed her arms, staring them all down. She did not sign up for this.

“Kate, this is the best way. We don’t have to do it if you don’t want to,” Mel replied.

“But you’re going to have to trust us sometime,” added Mason.

Great, thought Kate. Now they’re all ganging up on me.

“Nothing will happen to you, I promise” said Annie.

“You can’t promise me that.” Kate’s voice was scathing. “What do you think is going to happen when I walk in there? Did you even think it through? The Red Lady will be here before we walk out of those doors. Then what?”

“She won’t,” said James. “She’s in Brisbane right now. That’s why we chose this weekend.”

“Brisbane?”

“Yeah, even if she leaves straight away, we’ll be long gone.” Peter added.

Kate paused for a moment to consider the situation.

“Kate,” Mel said, looking into her eyes. “What do you say?”

Kate thought about the anger she had back at the train station. She knew that what the Red Lady was doing, whatever it was, wasn’t right. Someone had to stop her. Kate just wasn’t sure if that someone was her. She was no hero.

But these kids helped her, when there was no-one else. Then they helped Toby, for her. She would do this, only because she owed them. After that, in Kate’s mind, they were square. She still had a week to decide if this life was for her. And if anything went sour, she could always detonate.

“Fine, let’s just get this over with then.”

Peter and James were all dressed and ready to go. The uniforms were a bit big, but luckily it wasn’t too noticeable. Everyone climbed into the back of the guards van while the brothers got in the front. They had barely closed the door before they set off.

The checkpoint was a nerve racking experience, but thanks to Mason, the boys up front were apparently transformed into the decidedly older and fatter guards they had left hidden beside the road. A nod was all it took and they were through.

Pulling up to the front building was an entirely different matter. The construction was newer, and it was a different shape, but the barbed wire fence surrounding it brought back some hard memories for Kate. Her breathing quickened and her palms began to sweat.

“Just get it, scope it out and get out. We’re not sure where they’ll want to put Kate. If you go up, we’ll take the bottom floors and vice versa. In exactly one hour from now,” Mason glanced at his watch, “we’ll set off an alarm. Try to meet near the foyer and I’ll hide us again. Got it?” Everyone nodded.

“If you get in trouble, find a way to set off the alarm early. We’ll come looking for you. If we get split up for any reason and can’t make it to the foyer, meet us back at our van.”