Hurst by Robin Crumby (the reading list book TXT) 📖

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Nearly an hour later, the three men shuffled out, shoulders slumped, their body language dejected. The youth relocked the door and resumed his lethargy outside the cell. Jack and Nathan walked a discrete distance away from both the cell and the guard before discussing what they had learned. Jack felt exhausted as if being in the same room, in the presence of this man, this monster, had drained him of every ounce of energy.

“How do we know he’s not lying? He could have invented this whole story,” suggested Nathan.

“No, I’d say he’s telling the truth all right.” Jack nodded. “The question is why he’s telling us in the first place?” he added, stroking his chin with his free hand. “Zed and Riley saw at first hand that they were experimenting on people up at the hospital. It stands to reason that a small percentage of the population would have natural immunity to the virus. Who knows, perhaps with sufficient time and resources, they could find a way to enhance those natural defences or even inoculate against the virus. Maybe Adele is one of those lucky few, but why would he tell us that? What could he hope to gain by telling us the truth?”

Tommy shook his head, frustrated by Jack’s response. “You don’t know him like we know him. You weren’t here. Didn’t you hear what he did?” He leaned forward, imploring Jack to listen. “He deserves to die for what he did here. He executed our people. Innocent, unarmed men and women. He ordered his thugs to shoot them in cold blood. Don’t be taken in by his lies. He’d say and do anything to get himself out of here and that’s why we can’t trust him. He’s telling us what we want to hear. Don’t you see that?”

Jack stroked his wiry beard, flecked with grey hairs that caught the light. He closed his eyes, collecting his thoughts. Was he being naive in taking the prisoner’s words at face value? He thought he detected conflict, almost as if the man wanted them to know the truth.

“Listen,” added Tommy. “Let’s agree that he’s trying to manipulate us. To what end, we don’t yet know.”

Jack patted Tommy on the back to reassure him. “Don’t worry, the truth will reveal itself in the fullness of time. It always does.”

Tommy and Scottie nodded silently, still puzzling over their earlier interrogation of the prisoner. Jack was replaying the conversation in his head. Something didn’t stack up, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Somewhere within that stream of disinformation were hidden truths, he was sure of it. King must have known they would share what they learned with the Americans. He would figure it out in the end. He normally did. Tommy was a hot head, but he would learn. Patience, it had to be said, was not one of Tommy’s strong points.

“Nathan, you go talk to the girl and see what you can find out about these tests they were running. Ask her about this other girl he talked about, Stella. Even if there’s a chance they have immunity, we need to get the girls to a secure location. This could accelerate the search for a cure. The allies are setting up a centre for research on the island, near Newport, led by Professor Nichols. This could be a breakthrough.”

“You need to tell me more about the Americans and their plans. Right now, I have fragments only. I need to know the full picture,” implored Nathan.

“First, I want a one-on-one chat with this Damian King. If it’s just the two of us he might let his guard down, open up a bit more.”

“Be careful, Jack. Don’t underestimate him. He’ll be plying you for information, just as much as you he, trying to influence you,” warned Scottie.

“He’ll find I’m more than a match for him,” laughed Jack. “Although, why doesn’t Tommy wait outside, just in case,” he conceded.

Jack retraced his steps to the improvised cell, waiting for the guard to unlock the door. Once inside, he crouched down on his knees opposite the prisoner, setting the lantern between them on the floor. The prisoner seemed to ignore him, staring up into the darkness, his eyes locked on a spider in the corner, quietly spinning a silvery web that glistened in the half-light.

After a prolonged silence, King finally turned his head towards Jack as if noticing him for the first time. His eyes were devoid of life, like dead pools. His face was expressionless, an impenetrable mask. Jack’s eyes narrowed, steeling himself to the task at hand, trying hard to maintain a calm exterior and air of authority, as he pondered his next move. He imagined himself as a chess-master facing his greatest adversary, exploring cause and effect, waiting for his opponent to make a mistake.

“Something you forgot to ask, Jack? I think I’ve told you everything I want to tell you, for now.”

“Why don’t we cut the crap and start again, leader to leader, so to speak? But I warn you, no more games. Until you start telling us what we want to hear, well, as far as I’m concerned, we can leave you in here until you’re ready to talk, however long that takes. No one’s going to come and bust you out.” Jack paused, waiting for his adversary to take stock and reflect on who held the balance of power. “Why don’t you start by telling me why you really attacked the castle? And why your men saw fit to leave you behind? Everyone seem to think you’re some kind of Trojan horse, but it sounds more like you got careless. You’d served your purpose and they discarded you like a broken pencil.”

The man in black smiled, shifting his body weight and adopting the same kneeling position as Jack, mirroring his body language. Leaning forward, the lantern lit his face from below. His features seemed suddenly contorted in the pale light, his eye sockets empty, almost ghoulish, his smile demonic.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he opened brightly. “I always saw myself living in a castle one day. An Englishman’s home is his castle, isn’t that what people used to say? But after seeing this old dump, I’ve changed my mind.” He paused, staring unblinking at Jack. “If you really need me to spell it out. There’s no big secret. That Bok of yours, Will, told me all about this place and I figured, why not? Eliminate a rival on our doorstep, claim the castle for myself, live happily ever after. Perhaps you haven’t noticed, Jack, but it’s dog-eat-dog out there.”

“Whatever goes on out there is none of our business. We’re peace-loving folk here; we’re not looking for a fight.”

“Nevertheless, sooner or later someone was going to come along and take this place away from you. It was just a matter of time.”

“We’re hardly defenceless, as I think you found out for yourself last night.”

“You can’t live in your little bubble forever.”

“Bubble? Live and let live, I say. We’re doing what we can to get by. Providing we catch enough fish and grow enough vegetables to feed the hungry, then we’re happy to stay clear of the madness. It may not seem like much to a power-hungry megalomaniac like yourself, but to us this is home. The life and security people craved. This is survival.”

“It’s all a bit ‘Kum-ba-yah’, isn’t it, Jack? Sitting round a campfire, singing songs, saying prayers, slowly dying a little bit every day. Then what? Out there people are doing more than just surviving. They’re getting organised, reconnecting with other groups, rebuilding. What are you doing? You have your heads in the sand. Sooner or later you’re going to have to choose a side. Alliances are forming and you can’t stay neutral forever. You’re not a colony; you’re a castle. A pile of bricks and stone, nothing more,” goaded the prisoner, trying to rile Jack.

Jack parried with a dismissive wave, trying his best to remain calm, adopting his best poker face but marshalling his rising sense of anger. “What makes you think we haven’t chosen sides already? You think we’re isolated and alone here? We’re not. When you attack Hurst, you attack a whole network of Solent forts and small communities pulling together. We don’t stand alone, we’re an interconnected alliance growing and expanding. Just because we’ve chosen a life of neutrality and non-aggression doesn’t mean that we won’t stand up for our way of life when challenged.”

“You don’t have the balls,” he snorted.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. We’ll hunt down the men who did this like the vermin they are. Wherever they’re hiding, we’ll find them. We have powerful friends who protect us and watch over us. There’s a new order coming to sweep away people like you.”

“Oh, I know all about the Americans and Camp Wight. Don’t tell me that’s your big secret? You really think you were the only ones invited to the meeting at Osborne House? Some of us chose not to go. Ever considered that?”

Jack was blinking furiously, trying to keep his emotions under control, while his mind raced to play catch-up. He took a moment to compose himself, genuinely lost for words. “Whatever you think you know, you only know the half of it. Things are moving quickly,” he said, before pausing abruptly. “Oh, but forgive me, perhaps you don’t know, all cooped up in here, cut off from everything that’s happened over the last few hours.”

“Capturing me changes nothing.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. You’d do well to realise that you and I are but pawns in a much larger game. There’s nothing you can do to stop our plans. The wheels are already in motion. Unless, that is, you have a whole army at your command?”

“Oh, I have something much better than an army, or a navy for that matter. I have a virus. A pandemic virus. Left unchecked, it’s capable of wiping out human life on this planet as we know it. Phase one of that process is already complete. Whoever controls the cure pulls the strings, holds the fate of all those who remain alive. Just think of the power bestowed upon whoever can be first to manufacture and distribute a vaccine? Wealth and influence beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.”

“And yet, despite all that power, you risked your own life to get the girls back.” Jack laughed scornfully. “You’re bluffing. Without the girls, you have nothing.”

The prisoner sneered back at him, mocking Jack’s attempts to provoke him. “Losing the girls was an inconvenience, a trifle, nothing more. A minor setback to our plans. The girls are of little importance. And you should know that without their daily injections, they’ll die like all the rest and then you will have nothing. But I will still have months’ worth of research. We already know so much about the virus. We have samples of their blood, more than enough to continue our experiments. The girls mean nothing now. You can have them. They’re yours.”

Jack was beginning to panic. He was running out of moves. He’d played his cards, and found his adversary always seemed to hold the upper hand, or at least was better at bluffing than him. He was taunting Jack that he knew everything he knew and more, but how? He had to be in league with someone else who had been at the Osborne House dinner. In his mind, he replayed the mental image of the drone footage, of Briggs standing next to Victor from the Maersk Charlotte.