The Force of Terror

Chapter 32 (Emily) - Into the Nigh

‘She didn’t care! I can’t believe that your mother didn’t care!’

I looked at Laura. As mother’s fame grew, she had gotten more and more distant. Too much to do, I guess, but she had time for everyone else. Up until then, she had managed to at least find the time and interest to listen to my worries. I guess that time was just gone.

‘I don’t know what to say. Maybe we just have to figure this out ourselves.’

‘I hate men.’

I could feel Laura’s warm tears at the back of my neck again. Nothing is quite like crying over the safe shoulder of your best friend. I used to cry with mother and still did with Charlie, but I had the feeling that Laura only ever cried with me.

‘Mother can get anything, but I have been watching her. I know what to do just as well as she. We don’t really need her.’

Robert had given me his personal phone number. ‘Just in the case of emergencies.’ I hadn’t told mother that I had it. She acted strangely when I talked about Robert, she and Charlie both, in fact.

I only had to wait for a moment for Robert to pick up. He was glad that I called, I could tell. Nowadays, he treated me like a lady, and mostly you will get what you ask for. When he made me feel like a lady, I automatically started acting like one. He was mildly surprised when I explained what I needed.

‘For a friend, you say. And you say that Claire didn’t do anything when you told her?’

I could hear the doubt in his voice. He believed me even less after I said that mother had probably just been too distracted when I called her earlier and wouldn’t even remember the whole thing.

‘So, you prefer me not to tell Claire anything about this?’

‘She has enough worries at the moment without us adding to it, don’t you think?’

‘Do you know where she is?’

‘Will you help me or not? You are not the only person I could call.’

He promised that this whole thing would be our little secret, and we quickly got down to business. He asked me a few clarifying questions that I relayed to Laura by writing them on a piece of paper.

‘You truly are your mother’s daughter. Only fresh and more beautiful. Of course, I can get what you need. Can you come to see me tonight at the charity? I’ll make everything ready for you.’

I explained that I was currently inside a gated community, and the guards wouldn’t let me leave this late.

‘That makes everything a little trickier. Which community are you in?’

I told Robert the address.

‘That’s the American one. Good. Here’s what I need you to do…’

I listened to Robert’s explanation and told him I didn’t have any money but would find some way to pay. He told me not to worry about that, just like mother always did when somebody asked her for help.

Robert didn’t want anyone to see him. That’s why I would have to find a way to get outside the perimeter wall. He knew the security arrangements surprisingly well and had a plan, but it was so complicated that he had to repeat it multiple times. I could hear him getting more and more frustrated until he was altogether losing hope of me succeeding.

‘Emily, do you want to help your friend or not?’

Laura tapped me on the shoulder and wrote that she had another idea. I muted the phone. One of the guards had given her the key to the eastern service gate behind the transformer station.

‘How do you think I’ve been meeting with Alex?’

I should have known. How in the earth had Laura managed to get the guard to give her a copy of the key? Or, on second thought, I’m not sure if I really want to know. My world already had too many dark secrets.
I un-muted Robert. ‘I have a better plan. Here’s what I need you to—’

Robert burst out laughing but immediately apologised and said that I was just a too-perfect copy of my mother. I told him to wait at the same parking lot Laura met with Alex. She had assured me that it was very quiet during night-time. Robert said that he would be there in one hour.
          
‘When does the gala at the embassy end?’ I asked Laura.

She told me that when her parents were entertaining delegates, they rarely got back before the Devil’s hour, so we should have all the time we could possibly want.

‘Who did you call?’

‘Oh, just this MI5 agent mother usually works with.’

Laura looked at me incredulously. ‘Emily, I’m serious. This is no time for jokes. It’s someone who works for Harry, isn’t it?’

‘What difference does it make? He said that he could get the drug. Mother works with both Harry’s people and the MI5, and I don’t particularly trust Harry’s people right now. Not enough to meet them alone in a dark parking lot. They are up to something. I can feel it.’

It took a moment before. Laura recovered enough to realise she had left her mouth hanging open.

We went to the kitchen. Laura had become quite the barista and made us two cappuccinos. We sat down, enjoying them. Her artistic skills could have used more practice. The pine tree she tried to draw looked like a leaf stitched together from fluffy blobs.

‘Emily, do you really trust this MI5 guy? You should probably go to the parking lot beforehand to check it out. He might try something funny.’

Laura did have a point. I thought about calling mother, and got as far as taking out my phone, but when I saw that she hadn’t even as much as sent me a single message, I decided that it was time to start doing things on my own. It’s funny how easy it is to make life-altering decisions. What happened that night in that dark parking lot probably influenced my life more than any other singular event before or after. Without it, my life would have taken a completely different course. There is that much truth in the rumours.

‘I don’t want you to get hurt because of me,’ Laura said for the zillionth time.

Her moaning was getting really irritating. I grabbed hold of her, twisted her around to a strangling hold and forced her down on the floor by gently pushing her knees from behind. The demonstration lasted less than five seconds. I wasn’t as good at hand-to-hand combat as I am now, and I’m not natural like mother was, but probably just because it was so unnatural to me then, it really spooked her.
 
Laura was shaking. All blood had drained away from her face. ‘Emily! I had no idea. I’m scared of you now.’

‘Not everyone has bodyguards.’

I looked at the time. It was half-past eleven. Robert would arrive around midnight. Maybe I should check the area before he arrives. Laura had started looking for something from the kitchen and didn’t seem to hear me when I said that we needed to get going.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘I can’t tell you how much this means to me. If you ever need anything, anything at all, Emily, just, just—’

‘Don’t you start crying on me now. We need to go.’

We zigzagged through the compound towards the transformer station. The whole area was monitored by CCTV, but Laura had a lot of practice sneaking around the community after dark. A quarter of an hour later, we were standing in front of the gate. I sent her back to the house in case someone arrived.

I opened the gate and stopped to listen. The transformer hummed faintly behind me, and the frigid wind howled through the dark bushes. I was glad that, unlike mother, I had no problems seeing in the dark. The smell of rotting leaves filled the air. The floodlight behind the transformer station was broken, so I did not have to go far from the security wall for it to become pitch-black.