see so much as a flashing blue light on the horizon, I can still put one in the back of the head of that pilot, alright?’
Well, so much for goodwill to the pilot.
Ashley unmuted the call and relayed Pete’s words with a somewhat less nasty version of his threat. ‘I understand,’ the detective said. ‘So that’s all set, then. She’ll land at midnight, and we’ll begin the process of handing off the hostages safely while you get aboard.’
Pete nodded. Ashley said, ‘He agrees.’
‘And I still want Kara Malone to be around, right?’ Pete added.
‘Yes, that’s agree-’
Pete cancelled the call. ‘Right. Get that footage off. Everyone needs to know what she’s promised.’ He had a thought. ‘But cut out the bit where I said about shooting the pilot.’
Gina nodded and set to work. One hour until midnight. She looked over at the remaining hostages, sat edgily around the table, trying to pretend they hadn’t soaked up every syllable spoken at the booth. They knew what Gina and Ashley knew. That it was only one hour until they were either free or…
‘I’m starving. Why the fuck did I get rid of the cooks?’ Pete said, jumping up and going behind the bar to scrounge up a snack. Gina and Ashley stayed in the booth. ‘What do you think’s going to happen?’ Gina asked, as she was getting the last piece of footage ready to send.
‘I really don’t have the first bloody clue,’ Ashley told Gina.
‘Well, at least it’s over soon,’ Gina said.
‘Yeah. There’s that,’ Ashley said hopelessly.
‘What will we do if… I mean, should we have a plan if things… go wrong?’ Gina asked quietly.
‘Like what?’ Ashley asked.
‘I was kind of hoping you might have something in mind. I mean, you’re the brains of this operation,’ Gina shrugged.
‘Yeah, big old brains that nearly ended up on the bloody floor,’ Ashley said with a shuddering sigh.
Gina realised she’d been doing it again. Pushing. When Ashley had just been through something quite awful. ‘No, I wouldn’t have let… That wasn’t going to happen. He was just throwing his weight about because you challenged him. Like you keep telling me, he’s like a kid. He felt embarrassed, so he acted out.’
‘I know that’s true… It’s just. Fuck. That gun, right to my head…. He’s pointed it at me before, but it felt different this time.’
Gina heard the pain in Ashley’s voice. She was obviously traumatised. It made Gina want to go over to where Pete was standing, take his gun from him, and smash him in the face with it.
But she had to keep calm. That was what was required now. Cool heads. Because Pete’s head would be far from cool as the clock ticked down to the big deadline. As she peeked over at him, wrestling with a bag of peanuts that was not bending to his will, she knew he’d be at his worst at midnight. So she had to be her best, be strong. If she could just stop wanting to break his face.
Twenty-Four
Pete was jumping from channel to channel. All of the news stations were playing the last conversation with the detective, though they were all at a different point, so as he flicked from one channel to the next, Pete was saying, ‘Asian countries,’ to, ‘Funny haircut,’ to ‘Egypt. That’s where I’ll go.’ to, ‘I don’t like sushi.’ Pete was rapt. ‘Bloody hell. I’m mega-famous now,’ Pete said wondrously.
For about a week, Ashley thought. No matter what happens, you’ll soon be forgotten. As you should be.
‘Do you think Kara’s seen it? What am I saying, of course she has,’ Pete said, shaking his head. ‘But… Do you think… Do you think she thinks I’m like, funny?’
‘Funny?’ Ashley repeated. ‘Were you trying to be funny?’
Pete frowned. ‘No, but… watching it back, I think it seems like I am now.’
Ashley would have loved to say, ‘If by funny you mean completely stupid, you’re bang on, Pete.’ But of course, what she said was, ‘Yeah. I’m sure she thinks you’re very funny and charming.’
Pete’s face lit up. ‘Yeah? Charming?’
‘Totally.’
Pete turned his smug, happy face back to the screen and kept flicking back and forth, enjoying seeing himself on all the channels.
Nearby, Gina was sat with her camera on her knee. It was switched off, but Gina was running a hand over it, practically caressing it. Ashley wished she had a comforting thing to stroke. Other than Gina in that cupboard.
Ashley admonished herself for the sexy thought before she realised that the events in