Ducie by Chris Freeman

  Chapter 34. What goes around comes around

  Rain had begun to fall on the churchyard. And not the fine stuff either. The cold, thick type of rain that made you arch your neck if a drop went down your collar. The yew trees sheltered the path a little, but not entirely. The occasional droplet would find its way through the web of branches, splatting dramatically onto the path below like a projectile launched towards Earth by some sort of intergalactic weather Lord.

  The conversation was awkward. Disjointed and cringe worthy almost. It didn’t feel fluent or natural. But then it wouldn’t, would it? Sharing something she’d sworn not to share like this. But the relief of finally getting it out seemed to change Kate’s whole complexion. Her stern face had been given an injection of personality. The pressure of a secret finally being released seemed to peel back the robotic mask, revealing the face of the young girl that lay beneath. The difference was hope. She knew Adam had put them both at risk with everything he’d done to escape, but she now saw that if he hadn’t, there would never have been this hope. She’d have had nothing, but the depressing certainty that she would keep this secret to herself forever until Joe and Harrison got their orders that the time had arrived to dispose of her. Adam hadn’t just put a cat in amongst the pigeons; he’d released the lions to maul the filthy little bastards! If she could get Adam back to the Institution in time, Joe and Co would have some big changes to make now that somebody else knew the real reason that they were keeping people in that hell hole!

  And with change, there was hope.

  Someone tore a hole in the sky and the resulting crack set free a rumbling cascade of thunder that caused the rain to come heavier now. Still the yew trees offered Kate and Adam relative immunity from the downpour. Cold, but dry at least. Kate hugged her knees in an attempt to make herself less of a target for the bitter elements. Adam went on, oblivious to the mini-apocalypse going on in the sky above.

  - So they tranquilised her?

  -Well, they say she was out cold, so I suppose so, yeah.

  - And they stuffed her in a van?

  -Uh-hu

  Adam’s tone was naturally suspicious, accusing even; but he no longer had reason to question the validity of what he was hearing, the way the old paranoid Adam would have done. This wasn’t him cornering Kate in the Institution, forcing his latest crackpot theory on her any more. She’d come following after him, offering the answers on a plate. She’d come to save his life apparently…. Save his life? He’d temporarily forgotten about that part. Lost in the tales of a sleep-talking-Katey and an Argentinean kidnapping. Stories of the past that he listened to from the safe haven of the here and now. But Kate was here to save his life?

  - Sorry Katey, but fascinating as this trippy little fairytale is, didn’t you say that I’d be dead soon?

  - I said they’ll kill you before the sun goes down if I don’t get you back to that Institution, yes.

  - Oh, excuse me for leaving out the details. I just heard “Yak, yak, yak, yak…. dead soon!”

  - Adam….

  - How the bastarding hell is this kidnap anything to do with me?

  - It’s to do with all of us.

  - Us?

  - The Institution. Everyone there. We’re all a part of this story Adam.

  Something in the calm certainty with which she insisted on his involvement in all this caused some circuit breaker or other inside his brain to trip, sending currents of rage fizzing through his inner wirings. Adam’s his face begin to radiate heat. Pins and needles danced inside his head, as the angry confusion relieved him of his usual senses. How could she paint him as a character in all of this without real explanation? Dancing around the answers, taunting him with pointless snippets and sub-plots.

  - My arse am I a part of this story! I’ll show you what I think of your fucking story.

  He had to let it out somehow. He surveyed his surroundings. Katey. A church. Trees. That pigeon, now long gone. His instinct took the reins and he bolted towards the cemetery gate, Kate in confused pursuit behind him. The rain seemed to sense the commotion, lashing harder as Adam reached the roadside. In reality, the rain sensed nothing, but they were out of the yew trees and exposed to the downpour. Open to fire.

  Adam looked right along the dual carriageway, allowing two, three cars to pass. Further up the road, a double-decker West Midlands Travel bus stopped to pick up a couple of wet stragglers The red, white and blue giant hissed as its air-break system did its work. Interior lights dulled by the steam covered windows suggested a certain cosiness was to be had inside. Kate grabbed Adam by the arm and tried to pull him away from the road as the bus left its stop and began moving down the drenched road towards where Adam stood, perched on the curbside. He pushed Kate away, his own strength surprising him, as she fell back onto the puddle riddled pavement, letting go an undignified groan. He thought about helping her to her feet, but the bus was approaching faster now.

  Kate knew the look that dominated Adam’s eyes. She’d also been that determined to end her own life before. Experienced that level of certainty that not a single event that the world could conjure up would ever change her mind. She was on her way. Away from this hell. Ironic that here she was now, watching the same man who saved her from taking her own life, now about to take his own. And he didn’t need to. He didn’t have to. He didn’t have as much reason to as Kate had when she tried it. She wracked her brain for the one sentence, the one-line summary she would wrap this mess of a story up in that would sell it to Adam and make him come home. She spoke from her seat in the grimy, leaf littered puddle.

  - Don’t do this Adam!

  Adam stared dead ahead. Glancing briefly to his right as the bus approached. Trying to look casual enough not to arouse the suspicion of the driver, nor to give the impression that he wanted the bus to stop for him, but poised and waiting for his moment to step out in front of it.

  - Just come back with me Adam. This’ll all work out.

  The squidge of tyres on wet tarmac now accompanied the low hum of the bus. Close enough to see the driver’s face through the window. An Asian man, perhaps 50 years old. Bald head with greying beard. No moustache. Something to tell his grandchildren perhaps?

  - Get away from the road you selfish prick!

  Adam didn’t flinch.

  - The reason this whole story is to do with me is because I am Daniella Diaz! And Daniella is me! When you stopped me killing myself back at the Institution, you didn’t just save me, you saved Daniella too. If you kill yourself now, you also kill a man on the other side of the world called Lionel Martinez. He is your Daniella, Adam!

  Kate couldn’t see Adam’s face, but as far as she could tell, he continued to stare out onto the road. The humming and the squelching grew louder.

  - Right now, Joe McKenna is making a call to the Prime Minister’s office to arrange for Lionel Martinez to be killed. If he dies, you die! They’re killing Lionel to stop you dead in your tracks Adam. They can’t have any of this shit get out into the world…. The Institution, The tunnels, the conspiracy theories. None of it! And now you’re running around the streets armed with a sack-full of suspicious circumstances and a tendency to exaggerate. They’re panicking Adam!!

  Adam turned to Kate for first the time since reaching the curb. He scanned her eyes, but had no idea what he was looking for in them. He didn’t even know what he thought any more.

  - Come back with me Adam.

  A few smudged faces flashed by as the steamy bus left Kate and Adam a shower of road water as a parting gift. Kate watched the advertisement on the back of the bus get smaller and smaller, as it trundled obliviously into the distance:

  “What goes around, comes around! Get around this Autumn, with bus and train travel from £9.99 per month”