House of the Dead, page 20
Perhaps you’ll make the right choice.
The right choice had nothing to do with this keyring, she was certain of it. The right choice lay elsewhere, just as it had been when Tony had rescued David Goddard.
She looked around the cavern for something—anything—out of place. All she could see in the stark light cast by the bulbs were rocks and water, and a camera watching her from overhead. There was nothing else here. No sign to indicate where she should look.
The right choice.
How literal had he been? Dani looked to her right, searching the rock wall for a ledge where a key might be hidden. There was nothing there but smooth rock.
She checked Charlie’s right hand, alarmed at how cold and lifeless it felt, despite the fact that her daughter was clearly alive.
There was no key attached to the cold flesh.
Dani slid her fingers into the right pocket of Charlie’s jeans. Her fingers contacted with something metal. She pinched it between her forefinger and thumb and brought it out of the water.
A key.
With fingers that shook from cold and fear, she slid it into the keyhole on the device and turned it.
Click
The chains dropped into the water and Charlie slumped forward. Dani caught her and held her daughter close.
She looked over at Elliot. If she used the key—which was now underwater somewhere, still attached to the mechanism—to unlock his chains, he’d drop into the water and drown. The chains were holding him upright.
There was no way she could carry both Elliot and Charlie through the tunnel.
“I’ll come back for you, Elliot,” she said. “I need to get Charlie to safety.” She didn’t know if he could hear her or not, but if he could, she wanted to reassure him that she hadn’t forgotten about him and would be back.
She had to move fast. It wouldn’t be long before the tunnel became totally submerged.
Dani managed to heave Charlie’s limp body into the tunnel mouth and—aided by the buoyancy of the water—drag her to the first section where the ceiling was so low that swimming underwater was the only option.
“Hold your breath, Charlie,” she whispered, her teeth chattering. She felt so cold, as if the relentless surge of the sea was dragging all the life out of her body.
She gently pushed her daughter’s head underwater and went under herself, pulling Charlie behind her as she scrambled for the next pocket of air.
When she found it, she sucked in a deep breath and checked Charlie. When she didn’t detect any sign that her daughter was breathing, she slapped Charlie’s cold cheeks gently.
“Charlie!”
Charlie groaned and her eyelids fluttered.
Dani felt an overwhelming urge to cry with relief but suppressed it. They weren’t out of danger yet. There were more sections of the tunnel that would be completely submerged, and some of them would be longer than the one they’d just passed through.
“Hold on, Charlie. We’ll make it out of here.”
She swam further along the tunnel. Even this area, where the ceiling was higher, would soon be sealed completely by the rising water. Dani had to hurry. Once she got Charlie out, she had to come back for Elliot.
Reaching the next submerged section, she pushed Charlie underwater and scrambled over the rocks, dragging her daughter behind her.
When she emerged into an air pocket, she was distressed to find the water almost reaching the ceiling. She had barely enough room to take and breath and hold Charlie’s head out of the water for a moment before she had to dive again.
She felt along the ceiling with one hand as she moved forwards, holding Charlie with the other. Her lungs began to ache and still she hadn’t found an air pocket.
Trying to remember the sections of the tunnel where she had been forced to crouch on her way in, and how long they were, she began to panic.
Hadn’t there been a long stretch of low ceiling, where she’d had to crouch for at least a minute? She’d been walking then, wading through the water. Now, she was crawling beneath the surface, with Charlie’s limp body. How long would that minute stretch? Would she be able to hold her breath for that long? Would Charlie?
She tried to move as fast as she could, fighting the current that attempted to drive her back. Charlie’s body felt so heavy, despite the buoyancy provided by the water. Dani’s lungs cried out for air.
When she was sure she wasn’t going to make it, her hand broke the surface of the water. Dani tried to stand, pulling Charlie upright.
She gasped in a lungful of salty air. She could see the cave mouth and the bright sky beyond.
“Charlie, we made it!”
Hooking an arm over her daughter’s chest and pulling her close, Dani swam for the opening in the cliff face. The waves tried to push her back, but she fought them with everything she had, until she was out of the cave and among the rocks on the shore.
She found a large rock with a smooth surface and heaved Charlie onto it. Her daughter lay on her back, her face turned to the sky, her eyes closed.
Dani clambered onto the rock and leaned over Charlie, feeling for a pulse in her daughter’s neck.
She couldn’t feel anything.
“Charlie!”
She straddled Charlie’s unmoving body and pressed the heels of her hands into her daughter’s chest rhythmically.
“Come on,” she whispered, hot tears running down her cheeks, mingling with the cold, salty spray that hit her face as the waves crashed around her.
She heard a buzzing sound somewhere over the sea and turned to see if the drone was there. The sound wasn’t coming from the drone, which was nowhere to be seen. Dani realised it was the sound of distant helicopter rotor blades chopping through the air.
Had Jason made his escape before the others got here? Had he run like the coward he was?
Charlie’s body convulsed and she opened her mouth, spewing water over the rock.
Dani breathed a sigh of relief.
Charlie continued to cough, her body racked with spasms as her lungs expelled the water she’d inhaled.
The helicopter was closer now. Dani could see the blue and yellow paintwork glinting in the sun. A police helicopter.
As she watched, the chopper descended until it hovered no more than ten feet above the waves. Someone jumped out, into the sea, and swam towards her.
The chopper gained height and continued on its way, flying over the cliffs.
The swimmer got closer, and Dani saw that it was Ryan. He wore a red backpack, which he passed to Dani when he got close enough.
“There are blankets in there, and other first aid equipment, if you need it.”
Dani wanted to hug him, to cry on his shoulder and feel his strong arms around her. But she couldn’t. Elliot was still in the cave.
“Elliot’s still in there,” she said, pointing at the cave mouth.
Ryan nodded. “I know. We saw the video.” He breaststroked over to the cave and entered it, disappearing from view.
“Mum,” Charlie said, her teeth chattering. “I’m cold.:”
Dani unzipped the waterproof backpack and took out a red emergency blanket. She sat her daughter up and draped it over her shoulders.
A second helicopter was approaching in the distance. This one was red and white, the colour of the Coastguard.
Dani stood up and waved her arms at it. When it got closer, she saw the rescue basket hanging beneath its body, and the operator leaning out of the open door.
The helicopter hovered above them and the basket began to lower.
Dani grabbed it when it was within reach and guided it to the rock’s surface.
“Get in,” she told her daughter.
Charlie shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere without Elliot.”
“Charlie, get in.”
“I need to see Elliot. I need to know he’s okay.”
“Ryan’s gone to get him.”
“I’m not leaving until I see him.”
Charlie, get in. Now.”
Her daughter sighed and nodded hesitantly before climbing into the basket and lying down.
Dani looked up at the operator and gave him a thumbs up. The basket was reeled in, rising smoothly into the air with Charlie inside.
Dani watched as her daughter was bundled into the helicopter. She closed her eyes and whispered, “Thank you.” She had no idea to whom she was giving thanks. She just felt relieved that Charlie was safe that she had to express her gratitude in some way.
Ryan appeared, coughing and spluttering. He looked at Dani with eyes that told her everything she needed to know before he even spoke. He hadn’t been able to rescue Elliot.
“The tunnel’s totally flooded,” he said. “It’s impossible to get through with SCUBA equipment.”
Dani nodded solemnly. She’d given her thanks too early. And when she got into the Coastguard helicopter, she was going to have to tell Charlie that her boyfriend hadn’t made it.
If the GameMaster had meant to punish her, then he’d done his job perfectly.
Dani would ask herself every day if she should have done something differently in that cave.
“He’s won,” she said to Ryan as the DC climbed onto the rock next to her.
“What do you mean?”
“He wanted to prove that the police can’t save everyone and he’s done that.”
“Dani, he probably expected all three of you to die in there. You did a damn fine job of surviving. And you got your daughter out.”
“It’s not enough,” she said, staring at the flooded cave and shaking her head. “It’s not enough.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
The helicopter carrying Battle and Tony regained altitude after dropping off Ryan and swooped over the cliffs towards the cluster of buildings at the centre of the island.
“We haven’t got any backup,” Battle said to Tony over the headset. “It’s up to us to make sure the bastard doesn’t get away.”
Tony nodded. He had no intention of letting Jason Graves get away with what he’d done. He’d watched the live feed of Dani and her daughter almost drowning, and from what he could see on the tablet’s screen right now—Ryan swimming into the cave with a doubtful look on his face—he wasn’t sure Elliot was going to make it out alive.
He’d also worked out that the timer changing from four hours to one hour hadn’t been Jason’s reaction to them searching the Net for Horseshoe Island at all. The sudden time shift had been planned all along. It had to be, because Jason had timed everything with the tides.
Even in his own game, the GameMaster hadn’t played fair.
“Sir.” The pilot’s voice came over the headsets. “You need to see this.” He was pointing at the island below.
Battle and Tony peered out of the windows. Below them, on a patch of grass near the buildings, a white banner had been staked to the ground so that it pointed up at them.
Painted on the banner in black paint were the words, PEOPLE’S LIVES ARE IN DANGER INSIDE THE HOUSE.
Battle frowned. “What’s he playing at now?”
“Probably buying time to get away,” Tony said. “He knows we can’t ignore it. We have to go inside and check.”
“Get us down to the house,” Battle told the pilot. “But keep an eye on that helicopter. If it goes anywhere, follow it.”
As the DCI spoke, the Bell Ranger lifted up from the helipad into the air.
“He’s making a run for it. Go after him.”
“What about the people in the house?” Tony asked. He wasn’t even sure there were people in the house, but as he’d already said, they had to check.
“Bloody hell!” Battle was in obvious turmoil.
The Bell Ranger turned so that its nose pointed north and then flew in that direction, away from the island.
As it flew over the sea, black smoke began to pour out of the engine.
“He’s in trouble, sir,” the pilot said.
The Bell Ranger spun, enveloped by the smoke, and descended towards the sea.
“Maybe we’ll catch him after all,” Battle said. “He’s not going far.”
Before it reached the waves, the helicopter exploded. It became a bright orange fireball as it plummeted into the sea.
The fiery wreckage hit the water and began to sink, flames licking the air and black smoke rising up into the sky above the point of impact.
“No one could survive that,” Battle said grimly. “Get us down to that house,” he told the pilot.”
The pilot took them down and landed gently on the grass near the house. Tony and Battle got out and rushed to the house, ducking their heads as they passed beneath the spinning rotor blades.
The house was modern, consisting mainly of glass and metal. The huge windows probably offered a panoramic view of the island from inside the house, but they were tinted and didn’t allow Battle or Tony to see inside.
A tall, slim, metal door offered access to the house but was closed.
Battle pulled it open and went inside. Tony followed, all too aware that Jason’s favourite method of killing was to lay traps for the unwary. He only hoped that he and Battle weren’t rushing into one of those traps right now.
The room they stood in was sparsely furnished with nothing more than a white, leather sofa and chair. A huge TV was bolted to the wall over a faux fireplace.
An open doorway revealed a large kitchen with modern, stainless-steel appliances. A flight of stairs led up to the next level.
“I’ll check upstairs,” Battle said. “You take the kitchen.”
Tony entered the kitchen carefully, hearing Battle’s footsteps, heavy on the stairs and the floor above.
The only thing of interest in here—other than the top-end cooker and fridge—was a closed door. Tony approached it and knocked.
“Is there anybody in there?”
No answer. With each passing minute, Tony was more certain of his theory that Jason had sent them in here to buy himself time to get away. Not that it mattered now. The GameMaster had gone down in flames. Literally.
Tony opened the door. Metal stairs led down to a basement. Lights flickered on down there, probably activated by a motion sensor that had detected Tony at the top of the stairs.
He went down to the brightly lit room and whistled in appreciation when he saw the equipment down there. Banks of servers stood against one wall, humming gently. Half a dozen state of the art computers sat on a large, metal, crescent-shaped desk.
Tony walked over to the desk and examined the computers. They were on, their screens bright. Every screen displayed the same thing: a white background with large, black numbers counting down.
0:02.12
A countdown.
With two minutes left.
Tony turned and ran back up the stairs. “Battle!”
The DCI was coming down the stairs at a leisurely pace. “Nothing upstairs. You were right. There’s nobody—“
“We’ve got to get out of here. Now!”
Battle frowned. “What’s up?”
“The computers in the basement are counting down.”
“Bloody hell. Let’s go.”
They ran out of the door and across the grassy area.
Seeing them running from the house, the helicopter pilot started the engines. They whirred into life and the rotor blades began to turn.
“Get us out of here!” Battle shouted as he and Tony clambered into the aircraft.
The pilot nodded and pulled back on the flight yoke, lifting them into the air.
The house exploded. Glass and metal blew outwards as a bright orange fireball engulfed the building. The helicopter, still rising, shook in the blast wave and Tony felt as if his teeth were rattling inside his head.
Black smoke plumed into the sky from a twisted metal skeleton which was all that remained of the house.
“There goes all the bloody evidence,” Battle observed, shaking his head as he looked down at the burning ruins. He sat back in his seat. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. The so-called GameMaster won’t be playing any more games.”
Tony turned his attention from the house to the wreckage of the helicopter in the sea. When the police boats arrived, they would have divers aboard. What was left of the downed helicopter would be retrieved, along with Jason Graves’ body.
The more he thought about it, the more sceptical Tony became that the divers would find anything. Jason had planned everything meticulously. Had he also planned the helicopter crash? Had he been on the chopper when it had left the island, or had he been elsewhere?
“What’s wrong?” Battle said, seeing Tony’s concerned look.
Tony looked at the DCI and grimaced. “You don’t think he’s…escaped, do you?”
“What? Don’t say that, doctor.”
Tony sighed. “I just think…” he tried to find the right words. “He has this entire thing planned out to every last detail and then he falls foul of a fault on his helicopter? It doesn’t ring true.”
“Are you saying you don’t think he was on that helicopter when it blew up?”
“We know he rigged the house to blow, so why not the helicopter as well?”
Battle pondered that for a moment. “Let’s hope the divers find his body, then.”
Tony nodded, gazing at the thread of smoke rising from the crashed helicopter.
Until the GameMaster’s body was found, he was going to doubt that this was all over.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
Two Days Later
Dani stood on the moors, watching the morning sun burn off the fog that had settled over the landscape during the night.
Barney and Jack rambled over the heather together, occasionally breaking into a mad dash and chasing each other until they were exhausted and lay on the ground panting.
The sedative Radcliffe had fed them had worn off after a couple of hours, apparently. While she’d been a captive of the GameMaster, Barney and Jack had been recovering at the vets.
Dani wished she could be as carefree as the dogs. She’d spent the last two days with her nerves at breaking point. Jason Graves’ body had not been found by the dive team. That didn’t mean he hadn’t been in the helicopter when it crashed, they had assured her. His body might have been swept away by the current, or been destroyed by the explosion.
