thought Bella, Eduardo’s going to have the devil’s own job stopping them accepting.
The loudspeaker crackled.
Chrissie woke up. ‘What’s that?’ she said listlessly.
‘It’s Lazlo,’ said Bella.
He was talking in Spanish again.
‘Tell me what he’s saying.’
Chrissie wriggled into a sitting position and listened.
‘He says he’s got something of particular interest for both Ricardo and Carlos. Ricardo first. He wants them to listen carefully.’
Suddenly there was a woman’s voice, pleading, sobbing, beseeching, choking with emotion. Intensified a hundred times by the loudspeaker, it sounded terrible.
Ricardo gave a groan and sat down with his hands over his ears.
‘What’s she saying?’ Bella hissed to Chrissie.
‘It’s his mother,’ said Chrissie. ‘She’s pleading with him to give himself up and let us go free. She says she’s an old woman, and if he gets killed her life will be meaningless and, as she’ll never be able to afford to come to England, she’ll never see him again. Now she’s asking him to think of his sister, who’s about the same age as us. Now she’s saying that Juan has been arrested, and what are five years in prison, which he’ll get if he gives himself up, compared to death when he hasn’t even said his confession.’
She finished speaking and started to cry.
Ricardo got to his feet. ‘Stop it! Stop it!’ he screamed. ‘I can’t stand it.’
‘Pull yourself together,’ said Eduardo icily. ‘Can’t you see she’s been forced into doing it.’
‘Not my mother,’ hissed Ricardo. ‘Never! She would never let herself be forced into anything.’
The loudspeaker began again. This time it was Carlos’s wife. A quieter, more impassioned plea, asking Carlos to save himself because she and the children loved him, and they wanted him back. Again she told him to remember that Bella and Chrissie were only young girls who hadn’t done anyone any harm.
Carlos reacted in a far less hysterical way than Ricardo, but Bella could tell from his still body and clenched fists that he was very much affected.
Nothing for Eduardo, she thought. Probably no-one loved him enough to plead with him to save his life. And what about the mute Pablo, standing motionless beside the door?
There was silence. Then a voice speaking Spanish. Not Lazlo’s this time.
‘We repeat, come out at once, and throw your guns out. Let the hostages out and come out yourselves, with your hands over your head, and you will not be harmed.’
‘Don’t take any notice of those lousy tapes,’ said Eduardo. ‘They’re all rigged.’
He sounded calm but the knuckles were white where he clutched his gun.
‘I’ve had enough,’ said Ricardo. ‘If they’ve got my mother, they’re quite capable of doing things to her. I’m packing it in.’
‘So am I,’ said Carlos.
Bella felt a surge of hope that died almost immediately.
‘No you’re not,’ said Eduardo, his voice suddenly full of ice. ‘We came here to do a job, and we’re going to do it. Later Juan will protect us.’
‘Not if you’re dead, he can’t,’ said Bella.
‘Shut up, you bitch,’ snarled Eduardo.
He waved his gun at Ricardo. ‘Tie their legs up again,’ he said.
Ricardo’s hands were shaking so much it took him a long time to tie the knots.
‘Now blindfold them.’
‘No,’ said Carlos, starting to argue.
‘Go on — blindfold them,’ said Eduardo.
And Bella knew it was the voice of the executioner.
Cold fear paralysed her; her throat was completely dry; she wanted to scream for help, to tell them not to kill her, but as the soft scarf was tied over her eyes, she was incapable of speech.
Someone turned her to face the wall.
She heard Eduardo order Pablo to cover the front door with the sub-machine gun, and Ricardo and Carlos to guard the two windows.
‘They’re going to kill us, aren’t they?’ whispered Chrissie beside her.
‘I’m not sure,’ said Bella.
‘Will it hurt very much?’
‘I don’t think so. They say when the wound’s mortal, it hurts very little.’
Ricardo was arguing again.
‘Shut up,’ said Eduardo. ‘I’m going to do this. I’ll take the complete blame.’
There was a long pause.
No, prayed Bella. Please God, no. She had a sudden vision of Lazlo, of his face softened, holding out his arms to her. Then it seemed to merge with her father with his laughing tawny eyes gathering her up in his arms and holding her, shrieking with delight, above his head. Then she remembered her first night in
‘Chrissie,’ she screamed. ‘You’ve killed her, bastards, bastards.’
She tensed herself waiting for another volley of shooting, but it never came. Suddenly the blindfold was removed from her eyes. She looked down at Chrissie lying at her feet, expecting her to be full of holes, and realized with sudden, incredulous joy, that she was still breathing.
Hardly daring to turn her head, she suddenly saw a trickle of blood coming down the floorboards towards her feet. It slowly impinged on her half-crazed mind that it was Eduardo lying dead, riddled with bullets.
And now Pablo was talking for the first time, in a young, hoarse voice, telling Ricardo to throw all the guns out of the window.
Cautiously Ricardo opened the window, ducking to avoid a spurt of machine-gun fire from the ground, and then threw two guns out. The firing started for a second, then died away. Ricardo picked up the remaining guns and threw them out.
Bella managed to bring Chrissie round, while Carlos was untying her ropes.
‘What happened?’ she gasped.
‘You fainted,’ said Bella. ‘Pablo shot Eduardo. They’re just throwing their guns out.’
Hope sparked in Chrissie’s dull, bloodshot eyes.
But Pablo still held the machine gun. The next moment he shoved it into Bella’s back, making a gesture towards the stairs with his head.
‘Out you go,’ he said.
She had to support Chrissie down the stairs; she seemed very frail; she must have lost pounds. Pablo came to the door with them, still clutching his gun.
Bella turned to them, ‘It’s a trick,’ she said. ‘You’ll shoot me in the back.’
Pablo shook his head.
‘Why did you shoot Eduardo?’
‘To prevent him shooting you,’ said Pablo. ‘He had to, you see. He couldn’t give in like the rest of us. It was a matter of honour. He’s Juan’s youngest brother.’
Then he opened the door and threw his smoking gun on to the grass.
‘Thank you,’ said Bella. ‘I’ll tell them you saved our lives.’
He gave a crooked smile, stood back, and with a curious mock salute, ushered her out on to the grass.
For a minute she was dazzled by the brilliant sunlight, and then the world came back to her in sharp focus. Fifty yards of parched grass stretched out before her. To her left the guns lay in a pile like spillikins. Beyond the grass, the trees and the sandbags began.
It was deadly quiet. There was no-one in sight. A dog barked on the left.
