Em

Chapter 9: The Bearded Man

EVEN LEAVING WORK ON TIME meant darkness and drizzle. On the way home Em stopped at the unsupermarket and bought another pizza. She also picked up some milk. At the top of her steps she balanced the pizza flat on her left arm — which was also holding the milk — while she fished for the keys in her bag with her free hand. The pizza now blocked her view of her front door and partially covered the stairs. She found her keys and her eyes caught a dark movement on the stairs. Before she could work out what it was, something was pulled over her head and her world went black.

She screamed. An arm grabbed her waist and a heavy hand clamped over her mouth and nose. She couldn't see or breathe — the hand was pushing rough fabric hard against her face. She panicked and thrashed, kicking her feet wildly but they didn't make contact with anything. Another arm scooped up her legs at the knee and she was bundled face down onto a soft surface. The hand came away from her face and she took a breath ready to scream again. She heard a car door slam and a heavy weight pushed down onto her back. Her scream came out, but her face was forced so hard against the soft surface she could barely hear it herself.

She felt an engine roar, and figured she was in the back of a car with someone sitting on her shoulders and head. Her legs were free, and she kicked out again, but the result was that the weight on top of her grew so heavy that she couldn't suck any air into her chest. She went still and stopped kicking. The weight on her back eased. She tried to stay calm, but the urge to fight was pounding in her head. She tried to bring her arms up to push herself off the seat, but again the weight crushed her into submission. She was beat. But she wasn't going down without a fight.

Em had once seen a film in which, after being kidnapped, the victim listened for clues to try and work out where they were. She relaxed and tried to breathe calmly and listen. All she could hear was the rumbling engine noise. Nothing else. No shipping horns, or bumping over a train track, or the sound of aeroplanes at a nearby airport. She guessed that the character in the film had been in an older car without such good soundproofing. She kept listening, but concentrated on keeping calm and breathing.

Within a few minutes her mind started to wander over why anyone would want to kidnap her. Working for GCHQ as an analyst was not a high risk role. But the work she'd been doing over the weekend was linked to terrorists, and now, lo and behold here she was trapped in the back of a car with someone sitting on top of her.

They'd been waiting for her at her flat. They knew where she lived. How could they? Who knew what she was working on? Only other people at GCHQ: Allison, Wai, Jamie, Paul, Stoakley, the director of operations and perhaps the car driver who took her to Cheltenham. There wasn't anyone else who even knew that she was working at GCHQ. She hadn't discussed the work with anyone outside the office, not even her mum. She went back to breathing and listening.

After a period of time that was anywhere between five minutes and about half an hour, the car slowed and stopped. Em had decided that she would try to make a run for it as they moved her from the car. They must still be within London, and it was so densely populated she felt she had a good chance of getting noticed even if she couldn't actually escape.

She heard the door next to her head open, and the weight lifted off her back. She wanted to take the bag off her head, but didn't want to do it while still trapped in the car. Her arms were free, but she was lying across the seats, with no way of quickly getting out. Her skirt had ridden up during the drive and she moved her right arm to pull the hem down. As she did this, a hand grabbed her armpit and pulled her forwards off the seat and out of the car. Her upper body slid into the open air and another hand caught her left arm and she was lifted onto her feet.

She screamed as loudly as she could. Immediately the grip on her left arm tightened and something hard slammed into her left cheekbone. Her vision flashed white, her head snapped hard to the right and her legs gave way. She tried to stand, but couldn't seem to push down with any force against the ground. Her head was spinning, the left side of her face was throbbing and her ears were ringing. She had never been punched in the face before. Ever. It felt like she'd been hit with a baseball bat. She thought she might be sick, but in the end just started sobbing as she was dragged through the darkness.