But there are three more armed men behind me.
Riya is right, I realize. I will get killed. And the girls will be sent outside anyway. And yet—I don’t have it in me to just stand here and watch them all troop out and be obliterated.
I duck low, stepping toward Dev. From the corner of my eye, I see Riya slam the door shut yet again and shout at the girls to stay back. Dev swipes at me with his rifle, catching me under the chin, sending a juddering vibration through my skull and knocking me off-balance. I stumble, but I grasp hold of Dev’s gun as I fall, unbalancing him too. We both hit the ground, hard.
I lie there, stunned, trying to get up before Dev does. In my line of vision, behind Dev, I see Riya turn and grab one of the school blazers off a peg. She shrugs it on. It makes no sense to me, but I can’t fathom it out now. My head is thick from the blow I just took. I fight to stay alert. Riya’s voice floats into my brain. She’s yelling, but not at me—at Jaya.
“Keep the girls inside. . . .”
Grappling with Dev on the floor, I look up as Jaya brushes past me, to the front of the foyer, pushing the girls back inside. The other cops are shouting, directionless. Now the front door opens again, and Riya, in her school blazer, touches the comms unit in her ear.
“I’m going out. Watch for the direction of the ADS,” she says to the sniper team. Then she looks back at me, her gaze intense.
“Keep doing what you do, Jessie. The world needs it.” She turns away.
I scramble up, yelling at her to stop, trying to get my footing, as Dev strikes me again. I don’t even feel the blow, I move straight past it, but I can’t reach Riya before she’s through the door. I make it outside, but only in time to see her standing in the center of the playground. She suffers for a second under the burn of the ADS and lifts her hand to point to the east. Then she drops where she stands.
29
There’s a burst of staccato chatter from our sniper team, words that just scatter through my head as I run toward Riya.
“We got him. We got him,” Caitlin says.
“Confirmed, ADS shooter is down.” Ethan’s voice comes in.
Behind me comes the beat of running footsteps. I glance behind. The girls are being rushed out across the school grounds by the police. Nothing happens to them. I skid down to my knees beside Riya. A low noise of pain, an inhuman sound, comes from her. She convulses, then stops—but still, her chest rises, like she’s gasping for breath. Fluid bubbles into her mouth.
“Somebody help her,” I scream. But in the front playground and driveway, everyone I see is moving away from me and from Riya, the police and girls rushing to evacuate. Sirens whine in the far distance, but no help comes.
“You saved the girls,” I whisper, but I can’t tell if she hears me. There’s no response. I can’t even see her properly through the tears that fill my eyes, but I take hold of her hand, which lies motionless across her body.
“Please, Riya, don’t . . . Please . . .” My words drown in a sobbing gulp that I can’t control. I lean forward to kiss Riya’s forehead, and as I do, I feel her fingers entwine with mine, and her grip tightens. Then her hand drops. And I know she is gone.
In my ear, the sounds of the mission continue, a dull, background soundtrack between here and London. I hear it, but none of it means anything to me. It’s like the world has been dropped into thick, clear liquid, absorbing away any real sound, any true meaning. I reach into my ear and slide out the slim gold comms unit. Then I shift downward, next to Riya, so my head is on her chest. It’s so silent. No breath, no heartbeat, but she’s still warm, her scent is still there, under the layers of fear and sweat. My eyes close and for a precious few moments, the reality around me fades.
It’s only the insistent ringing of Riya’s own phone that rouses me. On autopilot, I reach into her pocket to find it. It’s Sunil.
“Riya?” he says. “Riya? We found him, the bastard . . . he’s dead and the ADS is right here.”
He pauses, waiting for her to reply. My mouth opens to speak but nothing comes out.
“Hey,” says Caitlin, running up from behind me. “I’ve got this. Come on.”
Her arm is around my shoulders as she gently takes the phone out of my hand. I hear Caitlin talk to Sunil. Dazed, I get up, my legs shaky. Hala is right there, her arm grasping hold of me firmly, and then pulling me into a hug that I can’t even feel. I just stand there, cold, chilled right through to my marrow, even though the sun beats down on us, harsh, relentless. As if it’s any ordinary day.
“The girls . . . ?” I say, eventually.
“They’re fine. They’re all okay,” Hala tells me. “We’ll keep them safe till the antiviral is ready.”
I turn away from her to look back at Riya, sprawled on the ground, lifeless. No one else approaches us until a tired Honda groans up the driveway. Sunil’s car coughs to a halt. He is outside in a flash and runs toward her body, shaking his head, not wanting to believe what he can see right there in front of him.
He kneels and checks her vital signs, then he stands up and just looks down at Riya, like a regular detective taking in
