12 Minutes (#2 in Military series)

Chapter 25

"I- will not say- anything!" The man choked, his face growing a different shade of colour. 

"Oh yes you will," Marc promised as he shoved past Carlos and pushed the horrible excuse of a man towards a door in the corner which he knew led into a smaller ante-room from when they cleared it earlier. 

Carlos, Twitch and Jules did nothing as they looked to each other for a cue on how to proceed. Marcus Langdale did not lose his cool very often but when he did it was something you did not want to get in the middle of. 

"Langdale, stop!" Ridgeway shouted after him in a voice dripping with authority which momentarily gave Jules goosebumps as it sparked a memory of when he would shout at her in that voice, or at least she thought he had. It was hard to tell true memories from fictional ones. 

"Don't worry," Marc called behind him as he pushed the man into the wall face-first whilst he wrenched open the door with his other hand and pushed the man inside before turning to look back at Ridgeway, "I won't kill him." 

"Langdale-" Ridgeway took a step towards him but Carlos and Twitch stepped together to block his path. Ridgeway watched over their shoulders as Marc slammed the door shut and in the silence they heard a lock click behind the door. 

Ridgeway looked at Carlos and Twitch before he turned his head slowly and regarded Jules. Without breaking eye contact with Ridgeway Jules walked over to the side of the room, leaned against the edge of a metal desk and rested the two rifles across her lap in defiance. 

Ridgeway's cheeks puffed in anger as his eyes blazed with resentment at the insubordination happening in front of him. "For your sake," Ridgeway pointed a grubby finger in Jules's direction, "you better'd hope that he doesn't kill him." 

Jules shared looks with Carlos and Twitch but remained silent as they turned to look at the door and all she could think was that she had never seen that crazed look in Marc's eyes before. She did not know whether to be reassured, that he truly cared, or scared. She guessed only time would tell but if the terrorist's words were right then they did not have long to waste. 

* * * 

The light was fading fast, casting long shadows across the room as it did so. They stretched from the gap in the wall and across the floor as they were reaching for something. As Julia followed them with her gaze she paused when she saw the blood stain on the ground, coagulating with the granules of sand and dust that covered the floor. As she stared at it, her eyes growing unfocused, the silent air was broken by yet another tortured scream coming from next door. 

The children behind her looked up and whimpered in surprise towards where the sound had come from but they soon turned back to their own little group, whilst Ridgeway shot her another look from across the room. He did not say anything but he did not mean to. Jules knew that he was holding her responsible for everything Marc did in that room and if he killed Ridgeway's prisoner then he would be coming after Jules's head for it. But right then she did not care as another, less high pitched, scream drifted through the cracked walls towards them directly followed by a dull thump. Jules's mind was running at full speed as she tried to imagine what Marc was doing to him in there. Her eyes looked back at the blood on the ground from where she had shot the man and she wondered if he was bleeding in there too. 

Not sure how long they had been waiting - it could have been ten minutes or an hour -Jules began to hear mutterings from across the room. Looking up from under her lashes she saw Ridgeway's tactical team talking quietly and quickly amongst themselves. 

Carlos spotted it too. "What was that?"

The four black-clad soldiers looked across at him. 

"Come on now, don't be shy," Carlos took a step towards them and waved them forward, his rifle hanging low by his hip, "Share what you had to say with the rest of the class," Carlos made a sweeping motion with his arm. Julia had a flashback of secondary school when she and Catherine Patterson were called to the front of the room after chatting in class.