Page 60 of Captive Hearts
‘That the capital?’ he whispered.
‘It is.’
‘Cool.’
‘Right,’ said DI Conway. ‘Cairo.’ There was a pause followed by some mumbling. ‘OK, I’ve got the pilot on the other line, and she’s informed me that there will have to be a refuelling stop. Her plane won’t quite make it that far on one tank of fuel.’
‘What? Where’s this refuelling gonna happen?’ Pete demanded.
‘She recommends Malta. It’s about halfway.’
Pete chewed his lip and muted the phone. ‘What do you think?’ he asked Ashley. Gina was astounded. After the way he’d treated her, he still thought she’d look out for him, the conceited fuck. ‘Is that even true about the fuel or are they bullshitting me?’
‘I think that’s most likely true,’ Ashley said.
‘Most likelytrue?’ Pete repeated.
‘I had an uncle who had his pilot’s license, and he told me he couldn’t take the plane all that far,’ Gina said from behind the camera.
‘Was this the copper?’ Pete asked with slight incredulity.
‘Nope, different uncle. On my dad’s side,’ Gina told him, keeping the camera firmly off Ashley. They couldn’t afford for him to see this later and catch Ashley’s face looking dubious. As well it should, given the number of uncles Gina had been forced to invent today. ‘He said he couldn’t get any further than, er, yeah, I think I remember him saying something about Malta.’
She watched Pete’s expression carefully, not sure if her lie was gonna work. But unlike Gina’s fake uncle, it looked like it might just fly. ‘Well, I guess if that’s what we have to do, then that’s what we have to do.’ He turned to Ashley. ‘But you let ‘em know that if we land in Malta and I 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.
