some stunt. Why can’t you just leave people alone?’
‘We need warm clothes,’ Ben repeated grimly. ‘Fuckin’ get back in.’
Natalia touched David’s hand briefly. ‘I’ll go in with him. Stay here, don’t move. Take this.’ She handed him her gun. ‘You know how to use it?’
‘I was in the army.’
‘Good.’ She touched his arm softly, then followed Ben and the old man through the gate.
David stood in the fog. He was starting to shiver from cold; none of them had coats. He looked down the alley. It was quiet now but the streets would soon be full of policemen. A cordon, how could they get out of that? They would be captured, or shot like Geoff. He gripped the cyanide pill in his pocket. He thought, at least Sarah’s safe.
He remembered the moment when the banging sounded at the front door. David had been lying naked on the mattress. Natalia was sprawled across him, a happy, slightly teasing expression on her face as she played with the hairs on his chest, making them into little bunches of curls. But she jumped up, immediately alert, at the first crash from the front door. She said, ‘Get dressed!’, her voice fierce, already throwing on her clothes. David had learned in the army to dress in moments. A second, splintering crash told him the door had been broken in. As he pulled on his trousers he felt the cyanide capsule. She had given him a smile, fleeting, of infinite regret.
Ben and Natalia returned, slipping back through the gate. Natalia was wearing an old-fashioned fur coat that reached almost to her ankles, and Ben had on the heavy coat and muffler the old man had been wearing. He passed a blue raincoat to David. As he put it on David asked, ‘What have you done with him?’
‘Left him tied up on his bed. The dog’s wi’ him.’ He shook his head. ‘Stupidest bloody mutt I ever saw. He says a neighbour’s coming to do some shopping for him tomorrow. She’ll find him. If the police don’t first.’
‘Good at tying people up, aren’t you?’ David couldn’t help saying.
‘Just as well for you I am, pal. And for chrissake, keep your voice down.’
Natalia walked slowly to the end of the alley, the others following. David said, ‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance of finding Frank in this.’
‘No,’ Natalia agreed. ‘We must find somewhere to hide. At least we have coats now, and they’ll be looking for people without them. Don’t worry, there is a contingency plan.’
They spent over an hour feeling their way through the dark, deserted streets, not talking above a whisper, walking slowly to avoid bumping into things and to make as little sound as possible. They didn’t hear any more police cars. Twice they ducked into alleys or behind garden fences at the sound of footsteps, once they saw the weak lances of torch beams. They stood huddled by a wall until they faded away. Natalia whispered, ‘They’ll need hundreds to search the streets properly in this fog.’
‘Remember one of them was talking about a roadblock,’ Ben said. ‘That’s what I’d do, cordon the area off. Let’s keep movin’, we might be able to get out before they can set it up.’
They came out into a wider street and walked slowly along, pressed against the walls. Then the brick gave way to spiked iron railings, bushes behind and the dim shapes of trees. There was a gate with a sign on it. Natalia bent down close to read it.
‘What about the roadblock?’ David asked. ‘They’d never get someone here in time, in this.’
‘There’s a plan for something like this.’
‘What? Shooting their way through?’
‘Maybe not.’ She gripped his hand. ‘I can’t tell you. In case we get caught first. Wait and you’ll see.’
‘Come on,’ Ben said. He took off his coat and laid it over the spiked railings. David did the same and he and Ben managed to climb over. Natalia walked away up the street, invisible almost at once. Inside the park, David saw the hazy light from the telephone box dim, saw a shape in there. His heart lurched; she was exposed, any police coming close could see her. It seemed an age before she came out again, disappearing at once into the murk. She reappeared at the side of the railings and they helped her over.
‘I got through,’ she said, a triumphant note in her voice. ‘They’re coming.’
The three disappeared into the dripping vegetation of the park. They followed the inner side of the railings right round; it was small, an open lawned area in the middle. Then, at the far end, they saw flashing lights in the road, torch beams, the shapes of men walking to and fro. Peering through the railings, they made out a police car parked sideways to block the entrance of the road, its interior lights on. More cars were parked behind.
‘We almost walked into that,’ Ben whispered.
Natalia said, ‘It’s all right. We have to wait now. They’ll come.’
‘How are they going to get through that?’ David asked despairingly. He thought again of the cyanide pills. They could die here, together, he and Natalia and Ben. He felt a rush of fear.
‘Trust me,’ Natalia whispered.
They fell silent, straining to see and hear as much as they could of what was happening ahead. They heard a hiss of static, then a man’s voice, talking loudly. ‘It’s going to have to be a bloody powerful light to do anything at all in this damn stuff! Is it on a lorry?’ Other figures passed to and fro, bulky shapes revealed briefly by the car with the lit interior.
Natalia said, ‘Move a little further into the trees, away from the railings.’
They eased their way through the bushes, holding branches aside for each other to avoid making a noise. They came to a spot surrounded by trees but with a view of the roadblock. Ben said, ‘If they shine a searchlight on the park, will they be able to see us?’
‘I don’t know,’ David replied. ‘Like he said, it would have to be a pretty powerful beam.’ He looked at Natalia. ‘Should we go back to the street?’
‘No, we have to stay here. This is where I told our people we would be.’
They were quiet for a minute. Then David whispered, ‘They killed Geoff, didn’t they?’
Natalia said quietly, ‘I think so.’
‘He was the best friend I ever had.’
She touched his arm. There was a rustle behind them. David whirled round, but it was only a grey squirrel, sitting on a branch looking at them. It made a chittering noise and disappeared.
‘Something’s happening out there,’ Natalia whispered urgently.
They turned back to where the police were. They heard a sound, a jangling bell but much louder than a police car, approaching very quickly. ‘The lorry with the searchlight,’ David said. ‘Jesus, why is it moving so fast?’ His hand went to the pill in his pocket. Was this it?
‘No,’ Natalia whispered. ‘That’s our people.’
The sound grew louder. There was something familiar in the tone. Then a huge shape, red behind powerful headlights, loomed out of the fog, travelling at a dangerous, reckless speed along the side of the park, towards the roadblock. It passed the spot where they were standing and came to a screeching halt just in front of the police car blocking the road. David saw to his amazement that it was a fire engine, huge, solidly and squarely built, the turntable ladder on top. The bell stopped and the light in the cab came on, illuminating the figures of several men in tall helmets who stepped down to the street. Staring through the railings David saw three policemen approach the firemen. He whispered to Natalia, ‘The Fire Brigade? Those are our people?’
Ben turned to him with a grin. ‘Always been the most left-wing union in Britain, the firemen. Good Socialists. Let’s just say this is no’ a real call.’
The firemen and policemen were talking urgently now. David couldn’t hear at first but then their voices rose, one of the policemen shouting, ‘This whole area’s cordoned off. Nobody in or out.’
‘But the police at Priory Street let us through the other end. We’re on our way to a big fire—’
‘They shouldn’t have! Orders are to seal these streets off!’
‘Listen, it’s a hospital fire! There’s people trapped, they can’t get out! And we’ve got to get another mile through this. D’you want to be responsible for kids and old folk getting burned to death? Do you?’
David saw another figure slip down from the back of the fire engine, quiet and stealthy. He walked across the pavement, slipping along the park railings, and Ben shook a bush to attract his attention. A man in fireman’s uniform stood before them, a pale young face under a helmet that looked too big for him.
‘Quick,’ the young man whispered. ‘Get over the fence. Climb on the back of the engine.’
