I still dont understand where this is leading, Roberta.
Let me explain a little more, okay? In the late nineteenth century Tesla invented a small hand-held device called the electro-mechanical oscillator. Based on the same kind of principles, he used it to show that even a subtle vibration, at just the right frequency, could unleash a whole lot of power. I mean enormous, and almost instantaneously. Enough to, say, bring down a building. A house, even a skyscraper.
Sounds more like a bomb to me.
No explosives involved, she replied, shaking her head. No noise or smoke, nothing chemical, just some basic mechanical moving parts powered by steam.
Steam? What kind of bollocks contraption is that?
A very simple one. Basically a miniature piston engine, with a small on-board boiler heated by internal combustion. In those days, steam was the only power source that could produce enough energy to operate the mechanicals. The whole thing was supposed to have been about six, seven inches long. You could carry it in your pocket.
And use it to bring down a building.
She nodded. Sure.
But it cant split the Earth.
Oh no, youd need a bigger version to do that kind of damage.
I would have hoped youd do me more credit than to expect me to believe such utter bloody nonsense, he said. I mean, come on.
It really existed, Ben, Roberta insisted. According to Teslas findings its theoretical potential was limitless.
Ben was losing patience. Theoretical, as in, its never actually been done or proved. This is what your friend was into? And you think this is why someone killed her? To do with some pie-in-the-sky notion that you can vibrate a building to pieces with some daft Heath Robinson device? He waved his hand dismissively. Listen, I spent years in the army learning how to blow stuff up. Nobody can do it as efficiently as we did. Millions are spent developing high-tech explosives and training people like me how to use them without getting themselves blasted to smithereens. And a lot of people have been killed or maimed in the process of gathering that expertise. Dont you think that if there were an easier way, Special Forces units wouldve latched onto it by now? Vibrations and steam, he added with contempt. Splitting the Earth. Next thing youll be telling me about science fiction death rays.
She blinked. You knew about the Tesla death ray?
Ben could see she was being earnest. Now this is really getting crazy.
Check out the evidence, she protested. This is historic fact.
Now Ben had run out of patience entirely. Yeah, and historic is the key word here. Its hardly the stuff that conspiracies are made of.
You got one right here, she said fiercely. You just cant see it.
Whats there to see? he said.
My friends body lying in the morgue, for a start.
Ben couldnt argue with that. Okay. Im sorry.
Youre sorry, but you think Im full of shit.
He threw up his hands in frustration. I dont know, Roberta. You come to me saying youre in trouble, then you start talking about all this stuff, which, frankly, sounds to me like a load of what do you Americans call it? Hooey. Just like all that alchemical stuff you were fixated on before.
It is not hooey, she said firmly.
I can see you sincerely believe that. But what am I supposed to make of it? What can I do?
She leaned close to him and replied, Help me.
What makes you think I even could?
Youre Ben Hope. What more is there to say? She paused, looking entreatingly into his face. You helped me once. It wasnt so long ago. Wont you help me again?
He didnt reply.
There was a long silence. The young mother had taken her child away from the swings and was holding his hand as they made their way along the tree-shaded footpath into the distance. The park was empty now, apart from just the two of them sitting on the bench.
I shouldnt have come here, Roberta said bitterly. Im wasting my time.
Im getting married in three days, Roberta, Ben said.
Yeah. Married. Thanks for reminding me. She shook her head sadly. Jesus, I remember it all so well, everything that happened between us. It seems like yesterday. Then that day you came to Canada to find me I thought
Do we have to go over this? he said. I came to make sure you were all right. And to say goodbye.
I really cared for you. You know that, dont you? We had something together.
It wouldnt have worked, Roberta. A guy like me I dont know. I was restless then. I just wasnt ready to settle in one place.
Or with one woman, she said. But apparently, you are now.
I told you. Im different now.
Or maybe you just found the right woman now. She let out a long sigh, then tried to smile. Thats fine, Ben. Im happy for you. I mean it. I can see now that I shouldnt have troubled you. Youve made a new life for yourself. Who the hell am I to turn up like this out of no place and disturb it?
You know who you are to me, he said.
Was, she snorted. I guess thats ancient history too, huh? She started plucking at her handbag for her car keys. Lets go. Ill drive you back to your domestic bliss. Then Ill be gone, and I swear Ill never bother you again.
Hey. He reached out a hand.
She flinched away from his touch. Dont worry about me. I dont need your help anyway. Her eyes had filled with tears again. She wiped them angrily away. Shit, whered I put the goddamned keys?
Bens throat felt tight and he was confused with so many emotions. You look tired, Roberta. Why dont you stay a night or two at the vicarage? Jude would welcome having a house guest.
She let out a mirthless laugh. I suppose youd want me to come to the wedding, too? Act as maid of honour or something? No thanks. Finding the keys, she stood up from the bench abruptly.
Ben opened his mouth to say something, but the words were still on his lips when the splinters flew with a sharp crack from the backrest of the bench and something smacked hard off the wall behind them.
For a short fraction of a second that seemed like a full minute, he stared at the small bullet hole that had appeared right where Roberta had been sitting just a moment earlier and only a few inches away from him.
Half a second was all the time he had to react before a volley of silenced gunfire erupted from across the park.
Chapter Six
In the same instant that splinters and pieces of tree bark exploded all around them, Ben jack-knifed violently over the back of the bench, grabbing Robertas arm and hauling her roughly down to the ground with him.
The gunfire paused for a heartbeat as whoever was shooting at them adjusted their aim. Then another volley of bullets churned up the ground and spat dirt around the base of the bench. A round screamed off the cast-iron leg Ben was pressed hard up against and he felt the hot copper-jacketed lead pass through his hair, millimetres from his skull.
Roberta was curled up in a ball on the ground, crying out in terror. Ben scrambled over to her to cover her body with his. With his face pressed down in the dirt he caught a momentary glimpse of movement among the bushes across the park. Even as he tried desperately to shield Roberta, some detached reptilian part of his mind was busy calculating the enemys position and strength.
Range: eighty yards. More than one shooter. Nine-millimetre subsonic ammunition, fully-automatic weapons fitted with sound moderators. This wasnt local kids larking about with airguns. Conclusion: time to get the hell away from here before they both got shot to pieces.
In seconds, the bench was riddled with holes and offering less and less cover with every passing moment as bullets ripped through the weather-beaten wood and drilled into the ground, ploughed into the trees and threw up spatters of earth left and right. A howling ricochet off something hard and a shower of brick dust suddenly reminded Ben of the low wall behind the bench. In a momentary lull in the shooting as both gunmen reloaded their expended magazines, he sprang up, dragged Roberta bodily to her feet and half-threw, half-pulled her over the wall.
It was a four-foot drop down to the sloping grassy bank on the other side. The two of them hit the soft earth and went tumbling down the slope to the flat ground of the field adjoining the parkland.
Ben was first on his feet. Are you hit? he asked urgently as Roberta stood uncertainly. Are you bleeding? The shooting had stopped, and for the moment they were out of range of the gunmen. That wouldnt be the case for long.
I dont think so, Roberta answered. Her voice sounded faraway and dazed. Ben quickly inspected her for blood. Hed seen men mortally wounded who hadnt even known about it for several minutes after getting shot. But Robertas only injury seemed to be the small cut to her brow where a flying splinter had broken the skin. Youre okay. Stay there, he said, clambered back up the grassy bank and peeped over the wall.
Hed been right about a pair of shooters. He could see them now. The two men had emerged from the cover of the bushes. One was younger, taller, dark-haired, the other older and squatter. They looked fit and strong, and were running across the deserted park towards them with an air of absolute purpose. They were making no attempt to conceal the weapons in their hands. Few men in a vicars garb would have been able to make the identification, but Ben instantly knew the stubby black outlines of the Beretta MX4 Storm submachine gun. Hed had half a dozen of their civilian semi-automatic cousins locked up in the armoury at Le Val. The military version was a pure weapon of war. Totally illegal in most countries of the world. Extremely hard to obtain. The choice of professionals.
Who were these men? Ben didnt have much time to consider the answer, or to yell at Roberta What the hell have you got yourself mixed up in?. The shooters were halfway across the park already, running fast. Ben slithered back down the bank and rejoined Roberta.
She still appeared stunned from the suddenness and violence of the attack. Theyre coming, he said. Lets move.
Where to? she gasped, looking around her wide-eyed. Once they left the shelter of the wall, thered be nothing around them but open field. The nearest cover was the half-built housing estate a hundred and fifty or more yards away, shimmering like a mirage in the heat haze.
Ben had already decided that was the only place they could run to. He could only pray that the gate he could see in the eight-foot wire mesh fence surrounding the building site wasnt locked. He took her hand tightly in his, and they set off at a sprint towards the distant buildings. The grass was long and lush, and tugged at their ankles as they ran. Roberta stumbled over a rut and went down on one knee. As Ben helped her back to her feet he saw the two men clamber over the wall, spot them across the field and give chase. Move! he rasped, yanking her arm.
The chatter of sound-suppressed machine-gun fire sounded from behind. Dirt and shredded grass flew up in Ben and Robertas wake.
One thing Ben knew for sure the gunmen werent interested in catching them alive. They were shooting to kill.
He let go of Robertas hand and shouted Zigzag! She glanced at him in stunned terror for an instant, then understood and began to imitate him as he tore through the long grass in a crazily erratic weave, like a hare trying to evade a chasing lurcher. A desperate strategy. It made them a harder target to hit at this range, but it also gave them further to run than their pursuers.
The wire fence was coming up fast. Signs on posts read DANGER: KEEP OUT and HARD HAT ZONE. Beyond the wire were bare-block buildings, construction skips, cement mixers, enormous mounds of sand, portacabins for the building crews. Bens jaw clenched tighter as he saw the heavy chain and padlock looped around the mesh gates. He glanced behind him. In a few seconds the shooters would be close enough to take them down easily.
Climb! he yelled at Roberta. Without hesitation she hooked her fingers into the wire meshwork and started clambering up the fence. As she reached the top she swung her leg over, scrabbled frantically halfway down and then let go and hit the ground with a soft grunt. Ben was right behind her. He felt dreadfully exposed with his back to the shooters, hanging from the fence like a target on a board.
He heard the muffled bark of shots. A bullet struck sparks off the steel fencepost inches from his right hand as he climbed. He launched himself over the top of the wire and hit the ground the way hed learned in parachute training, rolling to absorb the impact and leaping straight back to his feet in an instant run.
The buildings were clustered close together, some almost completed and clad in scaffolding, others still in the early stages of construction with bare-block walls just a few feet high. Roberta was already making for the nearest, a shell of a house with no roof and empty holes for doors and windows. She was limping.
More shots. A puff of dust off the wall to Robertas left as she staggered inside the building, clutching her leg. Ben was ready to feel a bullet in his back as he sprinted after her, but it didnt come. He skidded through the doorway.
Roberta was pressed up against the wall, breathing hard, looking at him in alarm. I told you, she gasped. Now do you believe me? So much for the Paris cops and their bullshit. Serial killer my ass.
Whats wrong with your leg? he asked, noticing the way she was holding it.
Twisted my ankle jumping from the fence. Its fine, I can move it, she added with a wince of pain.
Ben quickly crouched down and tugged the left leg of her jeans up a few inches. He could see nothing bad, no swelling, no discolouration. Youll live. If you dont get shot.
Hell of a thing to say at a time like this, she replied anxiously. What do we do, Ben?
His mind was sharp, working fast and smoothly. Trained responses under stress were so deeply conditioned in him that even with adrenaline levels running through his veins that would reduce most men to a panicking jelly, everything appeared in slow motion. He stepped lightly across to the nearest window and peered cautiously out through the glassless hole.
The shooters had reached the fence. As Ben watched, they each aimed their weapons at the padlock on the gate and let off a flurry of gunfire that sounded like a lump hammer clanging against an anvil at impossible speed. The wrecked padlock dropped away, the chain parted and jangled loose. The men kicked the gates open with a metallic clatter and strode into the building site.