Page 68 of Captive Hearts
Twenty-Seven
‘Sam, you’re closest. Get the door open,’ Pete instructed.
Gina listened as the door was clunked open. ‘You’re gonna have to step back a bit if I’m gonna get it open wide,’ Sam said.
‘You heard him. Shuffle left!’ Pete demanded. Everyone shuffled awkwardly back away from the plane. Gina could now see the police line more clearly for being a bit closer to it. A bunch of officers hiding behind gun sights. Kara Malone, way off to the left, watching through her shield. She could see a camera lens watching too, Kara’s op. Gina had been in that person’s position not that long ago. Watching the news happen. And look at where she was now. In the story. What a day.
‘Sam, you got space now, don’t ya? Get the fucking door open, knobhead!’ Pete instructed.
Gina heard the door swing open.
‘Get back,’ Pete said, and they shuffled back up against the plane. Pete’s breath was suddenly in Gina’s ear. ‘Ready for your close up?’
‘How do you want me to move around to the door?’ Gina asked.
‘I don’t know, figure it out. If this goes wrong now, I’m putting it onyou.’
Gina felt fear shoot down her spine as she tried to figure out precisely how to explain to everyone what she needed them to do. Because they had to do it in tight formation. Her mouth opened, and nothing came out.
But then Ashley leaned in. ‘It’s alright. I got it.’ She raised her voice to the rest of the group and said, ‘OK, everyone. Remember when you were a kid, and you’d do,Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush?’
Everyone assured her they did. Except Leanne, who mumbled, ‘Fucking what?’
‘That’s what we need to do now while Leanne shuts the fuck up for once. The whole circle needs to revolve right, get Gina and me to the door. Got it?’
‘You?’ Gina asked, suspiciously.
‘Yeah, we got it,’ Sam said.
‘Leanne? You on board?’ Ashley asked. ‘Because if one of us does this wrong, we’re gonna be in trouble.’
‘I think I can manage it,’ Leanne said snarkily.
‘OK, ready? Count of three. One, two, three, go!’
Gina began to move around the circle, singing the rhyme in her head, not because she needed to, but because her mind was grabbing onto any small thing that would keep her calm.
But the kid’s game was a good technique, and all too soon she found herself facing an open cockpit, a four-seater. The door opened into a gap between the front and back row, and she could see the pilot sitting in the front, silently leaning round in her seat to watch what was happening with amused curiosity. She seemed rather unfazed by all this, as though she were swinging by fast-food restaurants and picking up gunmen for international flights of freedom every day of the week. ‘Taxi for Pete?’ she said.
‘I’m here. And my knees are fucking killing me,’ Pete called from the circle, still crouched deep.
The pilot gawked at Gina. ‘So… is he getting in or what?’
‘Pete? You getting in?’ Gina asked.
‘Don’t rush me. I gotta crawl through your legs,’ Pete said. Gina felt him shoving her knees apart and scuttling through, placing himself between her and the lip of the plane. Gina glanced down, and there he was, looking up at her. Then he began to inch up until he was right in front of her, eyeball to eyeball.
Gina thought that if the police sniper was going to do their thing, this would be the moment. They were standingveryclose to each other though. How easy it would be to miss Pete by a few centimetres and… Gina closed her eyes, just in case.
Nothing happened.
Gina opened her eyes to see that Pete had poked the gun up between them in the small gap. ‘Come on, get in with me.’
Gina nodded. But before they moved, she found herself turning to get a view of Ashley. Not for any reason, not this time. She wasn’t trying to tell her anything except maybe goodbye. But when she locked eyes with Ashley, she saw something she didn’t want to see. Ashley looked pent up, full of… something.
Oh no. It was a plan.
She felt a hand on the scruff of her t-shirt, and she turned around, pulled forward as Pete slipped backwards into the plane, flopping to the floor. A second later, she was lying right on top of him, in the footwell. His gun was trapped between them. At least, she hoped that’s what it was.
