Bodyguard: Target (16 page)

‘Check … one … two
… three.
It’s only raining on you, only raining
,’ sang
Ash into his microphone.

‘That’s good, Ash,’
responded the sound engineer over the monitors. ‘Now your guitar.’

A tattooed roadie, his face swamped by a
caveman-like beard, ran on stage with Ash’s signature Fender.

‘Thanks, Geoff,’
acknowledged the sound engineer as the roadie checked the leads were all plugged
in.

Slinging the leather guitar strap over
one shoulder, Ash let rip along the fretboard. A gut-shredding riff blasted out from
two stacks of speakers towering either
side of the stage. The sound engineer tweaked
the levels, then gave a thumbs up.

‘OK, let’s go through the
“Indestructible” routine one more time,’ announced the
tour’s choreographer.

A group of dancers joined Ash on stage.
The drummer thumped out the distinctive beat that started the song and the dancers
launched into a tightly synced routine.

‘
In-des-tructible!
’
belted out Ash as he simultaneously busted moves with the dancers.

‘Isn’t
he amazing?’ came a sigh.

Charley, who’d been watching the
rehearsal from the stage’s wings, turned to see a slightly plump girl gazing
in awe at Ash. Though her brown eyes were over-mascaraed, her round face was pretty
in a girl-next-door kind of way and she’d clearly made an effort with her
appearance. Her auburn hair was brushed into a fine sheen, she wore a flattering
summer dress and her hands were manicured with dark red false nails.

She smiled at Charley, revealing a set
of braces that slightly spoiled the effect. ‘Hi, I’m Jessie! I
don’t think we’ve met.’

Charley returned her smile.
‘Jessie? You run Ash’s fan club here, don’t you?’

The girl beamed.
‘Why, yes! How
did you know?’

Charley didn’t want to reveal that
she recognized the girl’s face from a file in the operations folder that
listed all the key people associated with Ash Wild. Nor that she knew Jessie was
seventeen years old, lived alone with her mother in Columbus, Ohio, and that she had
a cat called Ash … Charley pointed to the lanyard hanging around the
girl’s neck instead. ‘Your guest pass told me.’

Jessie glanced down at herself, then
back at Charley. ‘Of course. So who are you?’ she asked, squinting to
read Charley’s pass.

‘I’m Charley.’

With an admiring look at her athletic
physique, blonde hair and sky-blue eyes, Jessie said, ‘You’re very
beautiful. Are you Ash’s …?’

Charley shook her
head. ‘No, I’m
a PR trainee.’

Jessie smiled with what looked like
relief, then her gaze returned to the performers on stage. ‘I’ve been
following Ash since day one. I was like the first American to truly recognize his
talent – set up his fan website here, spread the word, did everything I could
to build up his following. And now look at him. His first US tour! I can’t
believe he’s really
here.’

The song came to an end and the
choreographer dismissed the dancers. Swigging from a bottle of water, Ash strolled
over to where the two girls stood chatting.

‘I see you’ve met my
number-one fan,’ said Ash, wrapping an arm round Jessie’s shoulders and
giving her a hug. ‘This girl made me in America!’

Jessie blushed at the praise. ‘Not
at all. It was your
songs … your voice … your talent …’

‘Yeah, but without fans like you
I’m nothing,’ admitted Ash. He turned to Charley. ‘That’s
why Jessie’s joining us for the tour – the least I can do after all
she’s done for me.’

Ash perched on a guitar amp. ‘So,
Jessie, let’s do that interview you wanted for the website.’

Jessie looked startled. ‘What,
now?’

‘Why not?’ he
said.
‘It’ll get more crazy later on.’

Jessie fumbled for her smartphone and a
list of questions from her bag. Ash smiled for the camera and Jessie began
recording. Charley could tell the girl was nervous as her hands were shaking while
she held the camera.

‘Let me do the recording,’
offered Charley.

‘Thanks,’ said Jessie, passing over her smartphone. ‘So, Ash,
you’re finally here in the USA. How’s it feel?’

‘It’s
wild
,’
he replied with a smile. ‘I never thought I’d be playing my first gig in
the States at Madison Square Garden. It’s a real kick.’

Jessie glanced at her question sheet.
‘Have you managed to visit any of New York yet?’

‘Not much. It’s all go when
on tour, but I did get up the Empire State Building. Awesome
view! I saw all the way
to the Statue of Liberty.’

‘So, what are your first
impressions of us Americans? Like, when you got off the plane and saw everyone
there, what did you think?’

Ash ran a hand through his hair.
‘I was blown away. I couldn’t believe there were so many waiting for me.
I only wish I could have got to meet them all.’

‘Would you say your American
fans
are any different from your fans back home?’

‘Well … if the fans at the
press conference were anything to go by, they sure know how to scream! My ears are
still ringing.’

Jessie checked her prompt sheet.
‘Now you’re so famous, if you want to see a movie with a friend, can you
go out and do that?’

‘It’s a lot harder than it
used to be,’ admitted Ash. ‘But
I suppose I could, as long as I have my
security with me.’ He shot a wink in Charley’s direction.

‘And who would you invite as your
date?’ asked Jessie.

Ash pursed his lips
and tapped a finger to his chin. ‘Well, I’m single so I’m open to
suggestions!’

Jessie stared wide-eyed at him and for a
moment Charley thought that she was about to volunteer herself. But the
girl buried
her nose back in her list of questions, asking a few more before ending with,
‘So … do you ever get stage nerves?’

‘Not at all,’ replied Ash,
his eyes gleaming. ‘It’s like I was born to perform.’

Ash danced and sang his way along the
fretboard of the guitar-shaped stage. As he shimmied further and further out over
the arena’s sell-out crowd, the screams of the fans intensified and Charley
wondered if any of them could even hear Ash singing. Big T had given her earplugs as
well as a comms unit for the concert, but she could barely make out the security
chatter above the noise of the band and the fans’ insane shrieking.

Reaching the end of the headstock, Ash
pirouetted on the spot, then sprinted back down the oversized fretboard. As he hit
the main stage,
he slid on his knees, snatched up his guitar and launched into a
searing solo. His high-octane performance whipped the crowd into an even greater
frenzy.

Witnessing Ash live in concert for the
first time, Charley began to understand the mania surrounding this rock star
she’d been assigned to protect. Ash lived up to his boast: he was a born
performer – a rare superstar
with the elusive ‘X Factor’ that
legends like Prince, Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake had all possessed. No
wonder Ash
attracted so much attention … both the good
and the bad kind.

Leaping back to his feet, Ash strode
towards Charley’s side of the stage. She stood in the wings with Jessie and
the rest of the tour guests, all of them watching awestruck as Ash brought
the song
to its climax. His voice soared into the chorus: ‘
You light up my life.
You light up my heart. You light up the moon and the stars and the dark
…
’

As he sang this line, he locked eyes
with her.

‘He’s singing to you!’
cried Jessie excitedly.

Charley felt an inexplicable thrill race
through her body. Then instantly quashed it, firmly reminding herself
that she
wasn’t supposed to be watching Ash perform. Her duty was to keep an eye out
for threats – not easy when captivated by his stunning showmanship.

Charley broke away from his gaze to
refocus on the crowd. Scanning the front rows for potential ‘nutters’,
as Big T had put it, she thought the screaming fans
all
looked a little
crazy. Of course, she’d experienced her
own crushes on pop idols and movie
stars in her time. But, seeing it from the performer’s perspective, only now
did she appreciate just how hysterical teenage girls could get. Some were crying
with joy, their mascara running in black streaks down their faces. Others were
frozen in open-mouthed shrieks, like multiple copies of Edvard Munch’s
The
Scream
. Many were jumping up
and down as if electrified, while the
remainder simply stared in simpering devotion.

With a crowd so demented, Charley was
glad for the security guards posted at regular intervals round the arena.
Given half a chance, the over-enthusiastic hormone-fuelled
fans would likely mob the stage and smother their idol to death.

Beyond the first few rows, the crowd
turned into a
sea of diminishing faces in the dark. There was no hope of Charley
spotting a threat out there. That was the responsibility of the other members of the
security team.

Before the concert, Big T had taken
Charley on a tour of the arena as part of his security sweep. ‘Large venues
with lots of people should always come with a health warning,’ he had
explained as they’d walked
the corridors and service tunnels of the building.
‘Any hint of a fire or an emergency and big crowds can turn dangerous very
quickly. That’s why you should always familiarize yourself with a venue. Know
where your exits are. The best evacuation routes. And the designated locations for
transporting the VIP. Some venues are like rabbit warrens and, trust me, you
don’t want to
get lost in a crisis.’

Charley had followed his lead, observing
as the veteran bodyguard spot-checked emergency exits, identified potential security
weak points and allocated postings for his team of guards. So she knew that the
crowd was covered throughout the rest of the venue as best it could be. Backstage
was even more secure since an official photo pass was required to
gain access. Big T
had made it Charley’s responsibility, along with another bodyguard stationed
in the opposite wing, to stop anyone who mounted the stage from reaching Ash.

The fans cheered, whooped and clapped as
the song ‘You
Light Up My Life’ came to an end. The
backing band immediately struck up the next number –
‘Indestructible’ – and Ash leapt into the choreographed
routine
with several dancers. The beat was infectious and Charley couldn’t help
glancing at Ash’s impressive moves. That’s when she noticed a red bead
of light in the middle of his chest.

A moment later it was gone. Had she
imagined it?

Ash danced across the stage, whirling
round with one of the girls. Then, as he stopped on the beat, the red dot appeared
again.
Charley didn’t remember seeing the light during the rehearsal earlier
that afternoon and she was certain it wasn’t part of the show. To her, the
small red dot looked like the laser sighting of a rifle.

Caught in the haze hanging over the
stage, Charley followed the beam’s path up into the darkness. The laser
didn’t originate from the lighting rig. It came from one of the private
corporate boxes, a box she knew from their security sweep was closed for
refurbishment.

Charley stepped away from the other
guests and thumbed her comms unit. ‘Charley to Big T, code red. I think
someone has a gun.’

There was a crackle in her earpiece.
‘Big …
crzzzr
… say aga …
crzzzr
.’

Charley repeated her warning, but
interference was breaking up the signal.
She tried shouting to one of the security
guards near the stage, but the noise of the concert drowned out her voice. And the
bodyguard in the opposite wing was too distracted by one of the pretty dancers to
notice her madly waving for his attention.

As Ash danced, the
laser beam tracked him across the stage. It leapt and spun, working hard to stay on
target. The music stopped
and Ash froze in a dramatic pose, one fist raised to the
sky.

‘
In-des-tructible!
’
he cried.

The red dot came to rest in the middle
of his chest once more. Ash was oblivious to the threat as he basked in his
fans’ applause.

No more encores
, thought
Charley, recalling the ominous death threat.

With perhaps milliseconds before the
shooter pulled the trigger,
she dashed on to the stage.