aimed her machine gun at Sasha’s chest. He was wearing body armour, but from this kind of range there was no guarantee it would save him.
James wasn’t in the mood for any more trouble and threw down his gun, but Sasha kept moving towards her.
‘You shoot me and you’ll be under investigation for months,’ Sasha grinned, as he dropped the carrier bag of money. ‘There’s still more than a hundred grand in there. If I left it here for you, nobody would ever know.’
‘Final warning,’ the officer shouted.
By this time Sasha was less than three metres from the female officer. James glanced back and saw another cop and an airport security guard running between the cars towards them.
‘One more step,’ the officer said, but she realised that Sasha had no intention of stopping and pulled the trigger.
‘Christ,’ Sasha said, sounding oddly composed as the bullet knocked him backwards. Although his body armour had been punctured it had taken most of the force out of the shot and the metal case had lodged itself between two ribs.
‘Well isn’t it your lucky day,’ the officer said, as she stood over Sasha with the gun aimed at his face.
47. STATION
The police ended up arresting thirty-six Slasher Boys and eighteen Runts. Fourteen more youths and two police officers had been hospitalised and whilst five had gunshot wounds, serious stab wounds or burns, only one person had died.
While Sasha was taken to hospital under police guard, James found himself stripped to his boxers and locked in a police cell. The surrounding cells were packed with Runts and Slasher Boys, banging on the walls and screaming threats at each another.
Every so often the cops would come and take someone for questioning. With two officers in the hospital and more sent home injured, the ones who remained on duty didn’t stand for nonsense. Anyone who mouthed off got a slap or a baton in the guts and prisoners who stood by the flaps in their doors claiming to be hungry or thirsty were told either to shut up or to drink water out of the toilet.
‘We cleaned ’em just last year,’ a female officer cackled. ‘So lap it up, boys!’
Baiting the cops was the one thing that united the rival gangs. Her words inspired a defiant chorus of get your tits out, which only ended when the loudest Runt’s cell was opened by three officers with riot shields. James heard his screams as they pinned him back against the wall and let the female officer demonstrate inappropriate use of an extendable baton.
After more than ten hours without food and nothing but a teensy carton of orange squash to drink, James jumped up when his cell door came open.
‘Your mum must be shagging the Chief Constable,’ the officer said sarcastically, as he threw a stiff paper overall and a set of flip-flops at James. ‘You’re getting bailed.’
‘What about my clothes?’
‘All personal effects have been taken for forensic examination. As you can imagine there’s a bit of a backlog today; so I wouldn’t bank on seeing any of ’em this side of Christmas.’
James pulled the overall up his limbs and fastened the zipper along the front. The flip-flops slapped against his heels as the officer led him down a hallway to the Charge Sergeant’s office.
‘Sign here and here,’ the officer said, as he slammed a clipboard down on his desk.
James was knackered and came precariously close to writing James Adams instead of James Beckett; not that anyone would ever have noticed.
‘Don’t come back,’ the officer who’d taken him from the cells said, as he shoved James towards a door.
James had no phone, money or even proper outdoor clothes so he was a bit worried until he spotted Chloe at the end of the corridor.
‘You OK?’ she smiled, as she handed him a bottle of water and a large fruit and nut bar.
‘You beauty,’ James grinned, as he tore the bar open and crammed six chunks into his mouth. ‘I’m totally starving.’
‘Come on,’ Chloe said, as James ripped the top off the water and downed half of it in one go. ‘I’ve got Maureen and the others out back in the car park.’
‘Where are we going?’ James asked quietly, as they walked up a flight of steps. ‘Campus?’
‘Straight away,’ Chloe nodded. ‘Bruce knocked out Riggsy to preserve evidence. We’ve doped him up so that he won’t remember much when he comes around, but there’s few Mad Dogs wandering the streets and I’d rather you boys didn’t bump into them.’
Chloe had