The Hunted Child Page 7

  ‘Good. This is how it works, so make sure you don’t step out of line because if you do, we are armed. You’ll start to bid. The representatives of Mr. Collins state theirs first, then we’ll come to you, Mr. Waters. Back and forward until somebody cannot raise the money, and I hope you brought the money with you.’

  Kirsten wondered how the Waters family would raise money. Were they rich? Not according to her, but they did have large family connections. She remembered something about that. Maybe there was someone in the background, but they’d also have to get the cash in quick.

  ‘I have the means to transfer it,’ said Waters.

  ‘Well, that’ll be an extra 10% on top,’ said one of the brothers. ‘But let’s not get over-excited yet. You haven’t won the auction.’

  With that, he turned to his brother. He pulled a girl out from behind one of the stones, and then dragged her forward. He stayed equidistant from the Waters family and from Collins’s representatives. Kirsten watched. She clocked two representatives from Collins and then there was Mr. Waters and his son. Something didn’t sit right with her.

  There was no way Collins’s people would do this. Let the Tavares brothers stand there without guns? Why not just come in and shoot people if Collins was that desperate? There’d be a backup plan in all of this.

  Kirsten started to scan around the stones. Carefully she began to circumvent the monument keeping on the slope so she couldn’t be seen. She suddenly froze as across from her view she could see someone behind one of the stones.

  ‘Shall we start?’ asked one of the Tavares brothers. ‘Starting with you, Mr. Collins’s representatives.’

  ‘I’ll give you twenty thousand for—’

  The Tavares brother spat on the ground and grabbed the girl by the hair. ‘Twenty thousand? I’ll jump in a car and take her down the police station, let her squawk.’

  ‘We’ll give you fifty,’ said Mr. Waters.

  ‘Gentlemen, unless we’re talking half a million, we’re getting in a car.’

  ‘Half a million you have,’ said Collins’s representative.

  ‘Seven hundred and fifty thousand,’ said Mr. Waters. ‘I’ll double it if you need to.’

  ‘Two million,’ said Collins’s representative.

  ‘Do we really have that sort of money?’ asked the Tavares brother.

  ‘There’s a lot riding in this one,’ said the representative of Collins. ‘Is it a deal or not?’

  ‘I will get you more,’ said Mr. Waters. ‘I will get you a lot more.’

  ‘It’s not here. Is it? Sorry, she’s a lovely kid, but there you go,’ With that, Tavares shoved Innocence Waters towards Collins’s representatives. ‘Let’s go do business, gentlemen. I need my money now.’

  Two million was a steep amount for Collins, even with the stakes that were at play. Kirsten’s hand moved to her gun. She saw the figure, who was hiding behind one of the stones, step out with his gun raised. From her prone position, Kirsten raised her own gun and fired. There was a dull quiet thud and she hit her target, the man spinning, but not before a shot came her way that reverberated around the stones. Kirsten was unsure where they had gone, as everyone started to scream and run.

  Kirsten could see the two men from Collins suddenly run forward, trying to grab Innocence, but one of the Tavares brothers stepped in front and landed a punch on one of them. Mr. Waters moved forward. The other Tavares brother pulled his gun out, pointing it at the man. Kirsten knew she couldn’t take the risk. One of the Tavares brothers fell to the ground as the other turned to fire back at her. A second shot from Kirsten caught him in the shoulder and he fell to the ground as well.

  Collins’s representatives went to make a grab for the girl, but Kirsten tagged one of them and the other started to run towards her. He made his way for cover, hiding behind one of the stones. As he came out the other side, Kirsten could see him pointing something at her. Innocence, unlike her father, seemed to have her head together and ran for her brother. The father was screaming, but Kirsten had no time to watch. As she heard a shot ring out just above her, she rolled to her right, getting behind another of the stones, knowing that the man still had a gun pointed at her.

  She saw the Waters family running out of the stone circle and the man turned towards them. Kirsten fired, causing him to hide again. She needed to give them covering fire. Collins’s representatives wouldn’t care if the girl was dead, the family too. They just needed their silence. Kirsten couldn’t see the man from behind the stone so she stepped out looking left and right, desperate to know where he was.

  The family were just reaching the top of the path that led down to the visitor centre car park and Kirsten knew she had to protect them. Taking a risk, she stepped over to behind one of the rocks and saw the man with a gun pointed at the Waters family. She fired at him. Kirsten missed, but she’d caused him to duck back, missing a shot at the family. Seeing them start to run down the path, he then began to run that way himself, his gun pointed towards Kirsten firing a couple of shots that direction.

  She crouched down tight before spinning out from behind the rock to see the man making his way towards the top of the path. With one shot, she caught him in the shoulder, but he managed to keep going. A second shot, she believed, hit him somewhere around the back and he fell to the ground. Kirsten quickly made her way over some of the prone bodies on the ground, hearing the pain and agony from some of the figures.

  She saw guns and kicked them clear before finding the last man she had shot and tossed his weapon aside as well. As she looked down at the car park, she saw the Waters’s car come to life, the headlights on. Kirsten ran hard down the path and cut off to the side on a quicker route to the car park. She had to run through bramble and long grass, and despite taking a tumble, she managed to roll back up, hurdle a fence, and enter the car park.

  Just as the car was pulling away, she ran to the gate at the entrance, waving her arms desperately as the car sped towards her. She even pulled her gun and pointed it at them, although she had no intentions of firing. But the car kept coming closer and closer with no sign of slowing down. Kirsten threw herself to one side and the car disappeared off. Holstering her gun, she ran hard up the road as the rain came down. She grabbed her phone as she ran, dialling in for Anna Hunt.

  ‘Richard here. Anna is indisposed. What is it?’

  ‘Richard, it’s Kirsten. I’m on the run. The family have the girl. The family have her. I’ve got potentially a couple dead up at the Callanish Stones who I’ve shot, but there’s live weapons although I’ve kicked them clear. Police need to be aware as they turn up because no doubt the phone calls will be going in. I’m on the trail. I could do with the police out here stopping cars as well. I don’t think the family’s that clever. The other problem is if there’s anybody else out here, Collins had men up here for a meet. I doubt they’re going to work alone. I’m just getting into my car to pursue the Waters family. I’ll try and get to them first.’

  ‘What direction are they going?’ asked Richard.

  ‘We’ve just come from Callanish. They’re heading out to the main road. Who the hell knows where they’ll go after that? If I can get hold of the family, I’ll go to ground with them. I’m not risking bringing them in via police so we’ll need to sort something.’

  ‘I’ll keep Anna advised,’ said Richard. ‘We’ll try and prep up some people as well. I think she’s going to be busy for the next while.’

  ‘Busy?’ spat Kirsten, running out of breath as she reached her car. She slid into the driver’s seat, started the car, dropped the hand brake with one hand, and then using the same hand, spun the wheel and set off after the Waters’s family car.

  ‘What is she busy doing?’

  ‘Gone up to the top level. She’ll be briefing ministers and then possibly prime minister. She’s indisposed. I wouldn’t bother ringing her. Just call me.’

  ‘Don’t you take up her calls anyway, if this is the case?’

  ‘Yes, but maybe
it’s best to keep this one off the radar.’

  Kirsten had no idea what Richard was on about, but she agreed, closed the call, and put two hands on the wheel. The rain was still pouring down and she put the wipers on, looking out for the rear lights of the car ahead.

  They had a couple of minutes start on her, and she saw the car make a right turn. There was only two ways to go. Coming out of Callanish, there’d be the road back towards Cameron Terrace, the road that would eventually head back towards Stornoway. The other road out to the right headed towards Uig and Reef Beach. If they took that path, it was a dead end, unlike the option for Stornoway, which also meant you could drive to Harris. They made a turn towards Uig and Reef, heading out to roads that, eventually, ended nowhere.

  Who knew how long the police would take to get on scene. Kirsten knew she had to overpower the family, bring them in under her watch, keep a low profile, and then allow the service to get them off the island. She arrived at the turnoff towards Uig and stopped the car. She looked up at the road back towards Cameron Terrace and could see nothing. As she looked out to her right, into the distance of a black landscape with only vague shadows indicating hills, Kirsten could see a set of red lights and the occasional beam of light ahead of them. The Waters’s car was turning round, edging round lochs and making its way out towards Uig.

  Kirsten spun her wheel, put her foot down to allow the car to go as fast as it could, and made her way after them.

  Chapter 10

  Kirsten found it disconcerting driving along roads with no headlights, but she was keen not to give the car ahead any chance of knowing that she was after them. She wanted to get up close before she would pull up beside them. Indeed, she might even wait until they had stopped. As she sat back in the car seat, she assessed what had happened, and realised that they were now in a much better place than they had been. The girl at least was with her father and her brother. Although they were now tearing around the island, she was at last safe or at least as safe as she could be at the moment with a price on her head.

  There were momentary thoughts about the men she had shot back at the Callanish Stones, and she tried to push them aside—thoughts about whether or not the men were still alive. There was enough to do, and she had to concentrate on the road ahead, but where was the end game here? Where could she go? She had contacted Richard and he would no doubt be looking into things, but currently, there was no way out.

  She would follow this car down a road that she had to come back on, unless they got a boat off the island, or maybe they’d fly a helicopter in. It would all be very dramatic. The trouble with a helicopter is you could trace it. Nowadays, in the world of transponders, everything could be seen. Even if they weren’t switched on, a radar picture would let you roughly know where the helicopter had landed.

  Kirsten saw the car ahead coming to a halt as she rounded the bend, and she slowed down, stopping about a hundred yards from them. From what she could see inside the car, there was a bit of commotion, possibly debate about whether they now turned off for Bernera, a small island just off the edge of Lewis with a bridge attached to it, or whether they continued down towards Uig. In her mind, Uig was the better option. At least there were some circular roads there, places you had more than one option to get out from, but she doubted Mr. Waters and his son would be thinking like that. There’d be a sense of relief as well as panic in them, the joy of seeing their daughter, and yet possibly shared terror at what had just happened.

  Kirsten hadn’t seen any of them get injured, but who was to say. She watched the debate continue, and then the boy got out of the car and walked across the road to look at a signpost.

  Kirsten took her opportunity, started the car and drove it quickly up beside the Waters’ car, positioning it so close that the driver’s door could not open. Having trapped the father, Kirsten stepped out of the car and met Ollie, the older son coming towards her. He swung a fist, but Kirsten casually stepped to one side, grabbed his wrist, and drove him towards his own car. She manhandled him round to the far side towards the open passenger door and shoved him inside before pulling her gun and pointing it at Mr. Waters.

  ‘My name is Kirsten Stewart. I’m with the special services. I’m here to get you out of this. I haven’t got time, so sit down, shut up. There’ll be people coming after us, so we need to get going from here, okay? Firstly, Innocence is going to get into my car. You, then, Mr. Waters, are going to take this car and drive it about a hundred metres up the road to Bernera. You’ll then leave it there. Come back to this car. I will then take over the driving. We’re looking at a get-out plan to get you clear of here, because if we don’t, the three of you will be dead. You’ve had a lucky escape, so far. If I hadn’t managed to trace you, you probably would all be dead along with those two clients that kidnapped your daughter, so no chat, just do as I’ve said.’

  ‘Yes, you were with us at the house but how do I know you’re not from Collins?’ asked Mr. Waters.

  ‘Apart from saving your life at your own house? Well, I haven’t fired the gun. All he wants is you dead, especially your daughter. A non-breathing witness doesn’t work in the courts, so shut up, get on with what I’ve said. Innocence with me.’

  Kirsten opened the rear door and pointed her gun inside. Innocence stepped out, and Kirsten took her to the back seat of her own car. She watched Mr. Waters switch his lights on, drive up the Bernera road before parking up, switching everything off, and then running back with his son towards Kirsten’s car.

  ‘Ollie, get in the front with me. Mr. Waters in the back.’

  ‘But where are we going?’ he asked.

  ‘We’re going this way, because if I turn around, we’re going to meet somebody coming the other way. We’ll possibly head to the beach. Don’t worry; it’s quite lovely around there.’

  Kirsten drove off, leaving her lights switched off, which caused Mr. Walter some consternation.

  ‘You never should have left a safe house. I would have got her. Now I’ve got three of you to look after.’ Kirsten said this in a matter of fact way, but Mr. Waters took it as a scolding.

  ‘That’s my daughter. That’s my daughter right there. We’re family. We don’t leave people behind. She’s in trouble, we go and help.’

  ‘It’s all very laudable,’ said Kirsten, ‘but at the end of the day, this is too much heat for you to handle.’ With that, silence broke out within the car.

  Kirsten continued down the road before coming off at a turnoff giving an option for Reef Beach or the road which continued straight ahead to Uig. Kirsten stopped the car for a moment, thinking.

  ‘You said they’d be after us. What are you doing? Why are we waiting here? We need to go somewhere,’ said Mr. Waters.

  ‘We need to go to the right place more than anything,’ said Kirsten. ‘Somewhere we can stay well clear.’ Something clicked in her mind as she drove on down the road towards Uig. It weaved in and out along a valley with rocks up on either side. When they cleared it, they came out to a long swinging road, and Kirsten could see the shop and petrol station that serviced this side of the island, but she took a right instead, driving past the community centre and out towards a collection of remotely-located houses named Aird Uig.

  Before she could reach the rather difficult road down to there, Kirsten made a right turn off the road, onto a little track that ended in a gate. She jumped out, opened the gate, drove the car through, closed the gate again, and then proceeded uphill in the dark, straining to watch the path that went up there. It took her ten minutes before she arrived at a very small carpark beside a large building. Looking up, she could see a couple of red lights in the sky.

  ‘Where’s this?’ asked Mr. Waters.

  ‘Forsnaval aerial site. We might be able to force our way in. It’s not exactly pretty weather up here and they’ll struggle to see the car from the road. I doubt they’ll have a chance to look up here. I’ve also got height so I can use my phone. If need be, there should be a phone inside that bui
lding. Everyone out, we’re going to take shelter inside because I think this weather’s getting worse.’

  As she stepped out of the car, Kirsten realised how correct she was. The rain was now pelting down. She hurriedly rounded up her three survivors, marched them up the steep steps that circled round to the building stuck on the side of the hill. There was a metal door with a padlock on it, but Kirsten took a small cutting tool and was able to break the padlock in no time. Opening up the door, she ushered everyone inside before closing the metal door again, and then switching on the lights inside.

  ‘What are you doing?’ asked Mr. Waters.

  ‘There’s no windows here, they won’t see anything on. If you need the toilet, there’ll be one here.’

  Kirsten could hear the low hum of the electrical equipment that operated the large aerial that sat on the hill above them. She went through a couple of glass doors and looked into a switch room before making her way up some steps, where she found a very small kitchen. Opening a cupboard, she located some coffee, a couple of dirty mugs, and a tap with which she filled a kettle. She switched it on.

  ‘I want all of you to take a drink, sit down, and try and stay calm. We could be on the move soon, so whatever you need to do, do it now.’

  With that, Kirsten was the first one into the toilet. When she’d exited, she heard the kettle ping and went through to make herself a cup of coffee. She saw Mr. Waters entering the toilet. A few seconds later, she heard him hurl. Blimey, the poor guy must be as scared as a man going to the gallows, thought Kirsten. He’s got a death sentence hanging over his daughter and possibly the rest of his family, and through no fault of their own.

  She tried not to sympathise, to simply just block away any thought of what that family was going through. She had a job to do, and she needed to do it well. Taking her coffee down to the switch room, she found a phone inside and dialled a number for Anna Hunt.