There’s a large hole in the fence, big enough to crawl through. You wouldn’t even need to crawl.
“What are you doing?”
“Breaking in. We can still do this.” James replies. His voice is calm.
“What? But this wasn’t the plan.”
“Plans change Billy.” Oscar says. His voice is almost menacing. He turns away from me and starts packing the tools he’s used back into his bag.
“Is that an angle grinder?” I spy what he’s holding, a battery-operated power tool. Heavy and bulky. “Why did you bring that?”
“Billy,” James ignores my question, and he sounds different suddenly to how he’s been all evening. Now he sounds like he did when we were at his apartment, planning this. I realize there’s two James’ the one I first met, who’s arrogant and aloof, and another one, who’s charming and friendly – the one who wants you to do things for him.
“We can still do this, without the drone. Just go in and film as much as you can with the infrared camera. It’ll still work from ground level. It might even be better.”
I want to say no. To tell him to go to hell, but I tell myself to remember why I’m here. What we’re actually trying to do, even if I suddenly don’t much like my co-conspirators.
“What about the security guards?”
“There aren’t any.” James replies.
“What about the signs?” My voice is indignant.
“They’re just signs. We’ve done this before Billy. It’s easy. That’s why we’re here so late when it’s cold. If there are any security guards – which is unlikely – they’ll be tucked up somewhere nice and warm. Probably watching porn.”
I look at the hole. There’s a flat area on the other side, and in the distance, the dark shapes of buildings. It does look deserted, but I still don’t want to go in there. I turn to James and Oscar, and they’ve both staring at me. Both bigger than me too. I don’t really have a choice. This plan, it’s not going to work, that’s obvious now. To me at least.
“This is stupid,” I say.
“Why?”
“It’s not going to work. There probably isn’t even a leak to find.”
“There might be. And we’ve come all this way.” James stares back at me.
“Without the drone, we’ll never find it.”
“We’ve come this far. I’m paying for this Billy. The ferry, the rental car. We’re doing it for you. I don’t want to leave without even trying.”
I stare back at him, feeling how I’m angry now. Then I turn away, and hold the camera up at the fence, pointing it towards the distant buildings. But they’re too far away. I pull it back down again.
“Come on Billy. You gotta take this shit seriously. Think why you’re here. You wanna do something good in the world? Huh? You’ve come this far. Don’t let yourself down now.”
I don’t believe him. I don’t believe he cares about this, but I don’t have much choice. So I’ll go in. I’ll get some footage, to show them both this is a waste of time. Was always a waste of time.
I get down on my hands and knees, and I crawl through the fence. Then I start walking towards the dark buildings in front of me.
Chapter Forty-Six
It all goes crazy. It all goes madly, horribly wrong. I don’t even know what. I don’t even know what to say.
I can’t even hear. I don’t know if you’re talking to me now. I don’t know if you can hear me. My ears are screaming at me. It’s like when you’re doing scuba and you dive too deep without equalizing. Only you can’t swallow to make it go away. I might even be deaf.
There’s been an explosion. I know that much. Not from the noise – there wasn’t any – but from the light, and the pressure wave. They came, not at the same time, but a split second apart – like the way you can measure how far away a storm is by timing the difference between the lightning and the thunderclap. I can’t say how close it was this way though. But I was close.
I saw a man. Twice. The first time he had no flashlight, and I flattened myself against the wall I was by. I was terrified. But I don’t think he saw me. The second time he was on the other side of me. He had his light on this time. And that’s when the blast happened. Right where he was. Right on top of him.
I pick myself up, I’ve fallen over in the snow, like I’m making a snow angel – I’m not, it’s just I can’t even stand, I’m so disorientated. I can’t hear – the crump when I take a footstep is gone. I don’t know what to do. What the hell exploded? Are James and Oscar OK? I’ve got to get out of here. Before someone comes, to see what the explosion was. I don’t know what to do. What the hell happened to the man I saw? Is he… is he dead?
I turn, to see if he’s maybe there, lying in the snow like I was, only actually injured. If so maybe I can help? But what if this is just the first explosion? I don’t know what’s happened! Maybe the whole site is going to blow up? And I shouldn’t be here. I’ve broken in. And there’s security guards. They’ll come to check what’s happened. And they’ll have first aid supplies. I’ve got nothing. I make a decision. A coward’s decision. I turn again, and I run for the hole in the fence.
I expect to see James and Oscar there. It’s like I can visualize them, helping pull me through the small gap in the fence, so when they’re not there I can’t make sense of it. Their bags are
