I didn’t bother to turn to look behind me, I simply took the jerry can of fuel I had prepared, lit the rag, and threw it. As it sailed through the air, I started down after it. Not too fast, I didn’t want to be too close when it hit the floor below and exploded.
With a boom that was like a concussion grenade going off, the plastic jerrycan hit the ground far below and a fireball filled the air. I heard screams of terror and some of pain and the shock that goes with it but had to hunker down and hug the stairs as a burning ball of flame shot back up at me.
I intended to cause shock and awe, and to capitalise on that I had to move now and move fast. Basic was right on my heels, a sledgehammer in each hand as we both ran down the concrete steps as fast as we could. A sled would have worked better but might have been going too fast to control once we hit the unforgiving floor below.
Screaming like a banshee I came into the bottom tunnel to find fake monks in their daft dresses running away. Some were half undressed, the robes discarded having caught fire. There was nothing in the tunnel to burn but the smell of charred cloth and hair hung in the air.
We were in.
Jane. All the Fuel I Would Need. Saturday, December 24th 1627hrs
To say I felt sick wouldn’t even come close. When the Sandman stopped speaking, there was silence for more than a minute before the sound of an explosion made me think Tempest had borrowed a tank from somewhere.
Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past him.
The ripping noise of a chainsaw filled the air. There were shouts, Big Ben’s voice easy to pick out, so too Basic’s.
There were shouts from people I didn’t recognise – the Sandman’s acolytes no doubt.
I had no idea how many they had to face or how far they had to go to get to me. How vast was the building I was in?
‘Get them,’ growled a voice I didn’t know. The malice in it did nothing to belie the owner’s intentions. They were sent there to kill and sounded joyful at the prospect.
‘Now!’ shouted Tempest. ‘Go now!’ His voice was easy to pick out from the other cries filling the air. However, his shout was followed by a cry of pain and my breath caught in my throat.
I could only hear them over the speaker. They were trying to get to me, but they had to be on another floor high above me, or at least so far away that the sounds of their struggle couldn’t reach me through the walls.
‘Tempest is down,’ shrieked Amanda, trying to stay calm but failing.
A sob escaped me.
‘Where are they?’ yelled one of the acolytes.
An answer came back. ‘I can’t see! There’s too much smoke.’
A grunt of pain followed by a blood-curdling wail from Basic made me curl into a ball on the bed. My friends were all dying in their bid to save me. If I could have been more vigilant, I would have seen the Sandman coming for me. I should have been watching. Or I should have tried harder to work out who he was. If I had solved the case already, none of this would be happening.
‘Where’s Tempest?’ shouted Big Ben. ‘We need to retreat!’
Amanda’s words ripped right through my heart. ‘He’s dead, Ben. We’re cut off!’
Big Ben’s enraged war cry filled the airwaves and was abruptly silenced.
Only the sound of Amanda’s terrified crying remained.
‘I think that will do,’ said the Sandman, cutting the feed so I didn’t have to listen to them find Amanda.
I still had the knife, and I had a belly filled with lava that was ready to erupt. I might only get one chance to kill him, but if the opportunity came, he had given me all the fuel I would ever need to gladly exchange my life for his.
For what he had done, he needed to die.
Jane. Behind Every Great Man. Saturday, December 24th 1638hrs
They came for me less than a minute later. I sat up on the bed as the door opened, keeping the knife tucked inside my hands so it couldn’t be seen. It didn’t take much effort to look terrified and defeated – I was both.
The first man had horrible teeth. He smiled at me, showing off how many were broken, missing or crooked.
‘Evening, gorgeous,’ he slurred, sounding a little drunk. From his sleeve he pulled a knife. Not a little thing like the one I had tucked out of sight, but a footlong blade that could gut me in a second.
Involuntarily, I sucked in a petrified breath, but he sunk to his knees to cut through the bonds around my ankles.
‘Try kicking anyone and I’ll kill you slowly,’ he promised, rasping into my face with breath that stank of cheap whisky.
He backed away, two other men coming around him to grab my arms and lead me from the cell.
Walking toward what I felt certain was the end of my life, I knew I expected my legs to feel weak or just refuse to work. Somehow though, having accepted I was going to die shortly, I felt something akin to serenity. My only hope was for the chance to kill the man behind it all. I couldn’t save Jan, who was being bundled along the corridor ahead of me, thrashing and struggling against his captors. Or Karen, who I could hear begging and whimpering as she was hauled from her cell.
The acolytes holding Jan paused to administer a few punches, hard blows to his gut and kidneys that persuaded him to stop
