greater or lesser degree, Mac's devoted disciples, his power base, and everybody else's biggest problem.
What lesson Bates took away with him I'll never know, but it was a different man travelling back to school with us from the one who'd set out that morning. He'd appeared broken before, now he seemed to be a shadow.
When we got back to the school I was ferried up to the sanatorium with Green, and Matron swabbed and stitched and bandaged us. Green was allowed to go, he only had a flesh wound, but my injury was sufficiently severe that I was confined to a bed in the San. Matron warned me that as it healed it would hurt much more, and that if I wanted to recover fully then I must at all costs avoid splitting the stitches. I was prescribed bed rest for a week and a wheelchair for a fortnight thereafter.
It was my second day in the San when Mac came to visit.
'I tried to buy you some grapes, but they'd sold out.' He laughed at his own joke, and I cracked a grin. He pulled a chair up next to my bed.
'Listen, Lee, what you did back there – risking your life, getting shot, saving Green, capturing that bastard sniper – that was hardcore shit. I reckon you're probably the hardest person here. Next to me, obviously. And you can really shoot.'
Flattery now?
'The rest of my lads are loyal and all that, but, y'know, they ain't exactly Einsteins. If I'm to run this place…', and just like that he admitted he was planning to do away with Bates, '… then I need a lieutenant, a second-in- command, someone I can trust to watch my back when things get nasty. Someone with initiative. And I reckon that's you, mate.'
Bloody hellfire. Okay, careful, think this through. Mac's not stupid. He knows to keep his enemies closest so maybe he realises I'm a threat and just wants to keep an eye on me. At the same time, I want to keep him close too, precisely because I am a threat. Then again, if I'm his trustworthy right hand man then it should make it easier for me to keep secrets from him, subvert him and bring him down. Easier and far more dangerous.
My head hurt just trying to work out all the wheels within wheels this conversation was setting in motion. But really, I had no choice whatsoever.
'Wow, Mac, I dunno what to say. I mean, I'm only a fifth year and the others are sixth-formers. I don't think they'd like me lording it over them.'
'Let me worry about them. They'll do as I say.'
'Okay, well, wow. Um, yeah, I'm flattered you think I'm the man for the job and I'll try not to let you down.'
'So you'll do it?'
'Yeah, bring it on.' Just the right mix of reticence and gung-ho. I should be on the stage.
Mac held out his hand and I shook it. I waited for the warning, the lean-in and hiss, the 'but if you…' It didn't come. Maybe he was sincere. He smiled.
'That's that then. Now all we need is for you to get better and we can really start sorting this fucking place out.'
'What you got in mind?'
'Oh you'll see, you'll see.'
Yeah, I thought. I'm sure I will.
After being in the thick of things for a few days it was odd to be cocooned in the San while the school went about turning itself into an armed camp, and Mac and his newly acquired groupies started to swagger and strut around Castle like they owned the place. Which, given that they were the only ones allowed to carry guns at all times, they did. They soon started dishing out punishments for supposed transgressions – lines, canings, laps before breakfast. It wouldn't be long before more inventive, sadistic punishments. The bullying was beginning.
Norton visited me regularly and kept me up to date with what was going on, and I was able to pass him my handguns and ammo to be stashed somewhere safe. Through him I learned that a new armoury had been set up in the cellar of Castle, with an armed guard on duty at all times. Bates and Mac carried handguns, but the rest of the senior officers carried rifles.
'Hammond's started giving lessons, if you can believe that,' Norton told me. 'Survivalist stuff, like water purification, how to trap and skin a rabbit, firemaking, that sort of thing. It's like being in the bloody Boy Scouts again. Oh and he's got these DVDs of this awful old telly show about survivors after a plague and he makes us watch it and 'discuss the issues'.' He mock yawned.
'But that's not the best thing,' he went on. 'He's making a memorial. He won't let any of us see it, but knowing him it'll be some daft modern art sculpture. A ball with a hole it or something. Anyway, he's planning a big ceremony to unveil it the day after tomorrow, so we'll get you down in the wheelchair for that.'
'I can hardly contain my excitement,' I said.
I had told Norton all about events at the TA centre and he agreed with me that Mac was becoming a serious problem. If it had only been Mac then we might have used our guns to drive him out, or worse. But now he had a new gang of acolytes it was going to be much harder to unseat him. We would have to be cunning, bide our time, wait for the right moment, recruit other boys who would help us when the time came.
'Wylie is the biggest problem right now,' said Norton. 'He's taken a fancy to Unwin's little sister and he's not taking no for an answer. There've been a few slanging matches, but so far he's not threatened Unwin with his gun, but I reckon it's only a matter of time.' He paused and looked at me worriedly. 'She's 13, Lee.'
'And what's Mac's reaction to this?'
'Seems to think it's funny.'
'Look, do you think you'd be comfortable carrying a gun yourself?'
Norton looked surprised. 'Me? Yeah, I suppose.'
'Good, then find a way of carrying one of the Brownings with you, out of sight, and keep an eye on Unwin and his sister. You may have to intervene if things get nasty. But listen – only if there's no-one else around. If you can get away with doing something then do it, but if you run the risk of getting caught then do nothing.'
I was appalled at what I was saying, but if Norton was shocked by the suggestion he didn't show it. Maybe the desperation of our situation hadn't quite sunk in yet, or maybe he was just a cooler customer than I had realised.
'God knows what Mac'd do to you if he found you threatening one of his officers,' I went on, 'and we have to keep an eye on the big picture here. Mac's our prime target, we can't do anything that jeopardises our plans to take him down.'
'We have plans?'
'Um, no, not yet. But we will have. Wait and see. Big, clever plans. Schemes, maybe even plots.'
'I like a good plot.'
'There you go then.'
As Norton and I cemented our friendship with conspiracy, Matron and I also grew closer. I would sit in the San with her as she did her morning surgeries, and she began teaching me the rudiments of first aid and medicine.
We hadn't only found weapons at the TA HQ. On the trip to collect the remaining ammunition Bates had ordered a full sweep of the facility and had found a well stocked medical centre, the contents of which had been brought back and given to Matron. She was ecstatic that now she had some proper painkillers, antibiotics, dressings and stuff. It wouldn't last long, but it provided temporary relief at least.
So in the afternoons I helped her catalogue the haul and she talked me through each drug and what it did. I carefully noted any drugs that could be used as sedatives or stimulants, just in case.
And as we did this she talked to me about books, films and music. She never mentioned her family or her life outside the school, but then I'd never known her to leave the grounds, even on her days off. Maybe she didn't have a life outside the school.
Somehow we managed to do a lot of laughing.
Mr Hammond had been a popular teacher. He expected the class to rise to their feet when he entered the room, wore a long black gown to teach lessons, and you got the sense that there were times he longed to pull a boy up to the front of the class by their sideburns and give them six of the best like he was allowed to do when he was a younger man. But we respected and liked him because you always knew where you stood with him. The rules of his classroom were clear and simple, he never lost his temper, and never gave out punishments just because he
