I Am Margaret (41 page)

“
Take out your weapon,
Captain
, and hand it to me, nice and slowly…”

“How dare you…!”

“
How dare I,
Captain?”
My voice snapped with rage, no acting required, merely the loosing of my darkest thoughts and desires. “How dare
I?
I wonder
you
dare speak to me like that,
you!
Who rejoiced in the death of one of my oldest, dearest friends, who have gloated over the deaths of hundreds, who would delight in watching the deaths of
me
and
mine!

“
Understand this,
Captain
, I loathe and detest you more than any person on this earth and if you don’t hand me your gun right now I will shoot you, and I will shoot you again, and I will keep pulling this trigger until there is no more charge and then we will see who dares speak to whom!”

The Captain stepped back a half step, her face whitening. Yes, she was a coward. I’d counted on it. She seized her gun with a shaking hand and drew it—carefully—taking the barrel with her other hand and beginning to hold it out to me, butt first.

But Watkins—more courage and more brains, it would be him—went for his gun. For a split second I waited, waited for the nonLee to be free of his holster, then I aimed and fired. The pellet struck the gun, spinning it from his hand. He swore in shock and spun around, but seeing six girls diving for it, came at me instead, understanding clear on his face.

The warden hadn’t seen what happened and wasn’t so quick to understand. Shoving the air gun into my left hand, I snatched the half-proffered pistol from her and raised it to point straight at Watkins, snapping off the safety. He lurched to a halt and spread his hands:
I surrender
.

“Well, I’ve always said they shouldn’t make replicas,” he panted.

“You’re lucky, Watkins,” I said in return. “I might’ve broken your finger.”

“What?” stammered the warden, in a poor attempt at her usual bluster. “What is going on!”

“We’ve been held up with a toy gun, Captain, near enough,” he informed her tonelessly.

“Rebecca, get Sally’s gun, would you?” I muttered.

Sally was pale and shaking, her eyes wide. No surprise if she didn’t deal with this well, just at the moment. Watkins touched her shoulder, careful not to move his hands out of my sight.

“Sit down, lass.” Taking his own advice, he creaked down onto the floor, stretching out his legs comfortably.

“Wh… what?” stammered Sally.

“Less far to fall,” said Watkins calmly. “Come, sit down. I’m quite sure they’re going to send us sleepy-bye in a minute.”

Sally crouched hesitantly beside Watkins, beginning to cry.

“Sally, it’s all right,” I said, softening my voice with difficulty. “We’re not Resistance, okay? We’re not going to hurt you. You’re going to get a nice little nap, that’s all.” Best not mention the splitting headache she had to look forward to.

“See, they’re not going to hurt us, Sally,” Watkins comforted her. “We know Margaret, don’t we? She’s a nice girl…”

Sally looked at him as he spoke, so I raised the nonLee and shot her. Watkins caught her as she toppled and since laying her down put him very near the ground, I shot him too. Which just left the Menace, sweating and fuming all at once.

“You can’t do this,” she whined.

“Oh, shut up,” I said. And pulled the trigger again. No one moved to catch her and her head bounced as it hit the linoleum floor. Well, I had a gun in each hand, that was my excuse. Aiming carefully, I put another charge into each unconscious figure. So that was three guards out of the picture for some hours.

Everyone was staring. Jon came up to me, so I took a deep, steadying breath and said as lightly as I could, “Good thing she believed I was serious, huh?”

Jon looked amused.

“You were rather scary, you know.”

Oh. I plastered a big smile on my face as I turned to my staring companions.
See, it’s just Margaret, the same as ever…

“Okay, everyone, looks like the escape is on. Um, could you give that to Jon, Harriet? And Rebecca, give that gun to Caroline for now, but you’re number two backup, all right?”

Rebecca looked aghast.

“What happened to the barn doors being in no danger?”

“You shouldn’t have to do a thing and if you do they’re going to be a lot closer than the door was. You’ll be fine.” Well, didn’t I sound confident! Rebecca went on looking dubious, but the near-panic left her face.

“Could some of you get Watkins’ uniform off and give it to Jon? Caroline, you’ll need Sally’s uniform, I think.” She was taller and skinnier than me. But that left me with the Menace’s. Oh joy.

Once the unfortunate—fortunate?—guards were stripped to their underwear we heaved Watkins and Sally into two of the lower bunks and tucked them up with blankets. The Menace was even heavier than Watkins, or such was the excuse everyone gave, so a blanket was chucked over her where she lay and everyone tried not to step on her. Some harder than others.

With a pillow stuffed down my front I was able to button up the Menace’s trousers without them falling off.

I transferred the items necessary for the escape to the pockets of the uniform jacket, then, folding our own clothes, the three of us packed them into the one bag we’d be taking.

“Right.” I went to the window, opened it and looked out. As far as I could tell none of the guards in the towers were looking, and there was no one else in sight. I put my arm out, handkerchief in hand, and began to wave it. On only the third swing back and forth, a glint came from a point on the forestline, three times. I drew my arm back in, shut the window and checked my watch.

“Okay, everyone. Jon, Caroline and I are going to walk out of here and straight to the camera room. We’ll deal with that and come straight back. When we return, everyone must be ready to go down to the gym, okay? Rebecca, we’ll bring you a uniform back with us.”

Rebecca nodded without any further argument.

“Right…”

KABOOM

There was the most immense explosion immediately above us. The whole building shook, an upper bunk collapsed and chunks of ceiling came down all around. Screaming filled the dorm as people ran wildly to the door, climbed into lower bunk recesses or flung themselves down on the ground with their arms over their heads. I grabbed Jon at his off balance lurch and we clung to each other until the room stopped shaking.

“It’s all right!” I bellowed, as soon as my ears had stopped ringing. “We’re safe, it’s okay, someone just bazookered the helicopter…”

“No one’s aiming at us,” Jon joined in, “Calm down, calm down…”

As Rebecca, Jon and I all yelled reassurances, the screaming died down and people immediately began to relocate their buddies.
Good
. The crack crack of gunfire—the audible Lethal kind—began outside.

“I suppose they considered that a worthy target, however limited their stocks,” I muttered to Jon. “Told Bane he wouldn’t be able to control them. I just hope the pilot wasn’t in there.”

Grim-faced, Jon said nothing. No way for us to know.

“
Let’s go,” I said.
Lord, let the door not be buckled…

“Remember, Caroline,” added Jon, “Neither of us will fire unless Margo misses; we don’t want to hit them too many times, do we?”

Caroline shook her head vigorously and Jon must’ve heard her hair brushing her collar because he handed Rebecca his cane and followed me to the door, his hand touching lightly against my sleeve for guidance. Caroline fell in on the other side, trying to look sober and only managing a look of subdued excitement.

I swiped the card and the door opened fine. Letting out the breath I’d been holding, I tugged the peaked officer’s cap lower over my face and led the way down the corridor, trying to imitate the Menace’s bullish stride.

The camera room was at the top of the guard block so we only had to cross the stairwell. It would’ve been good to stop and listen before venturing across, but real guards didn’t sneak around. The door of what was presumably the duty guardroom was open, the room empty, so they must’ve rushed up to the roof.

The next door was helpfully labeled CAMERA ROOM so I swiped the Menace’s card and walked in, Jon and Caroline at my heels.

Three guards. One more than I’d anticipated. The one on the right had obviously been watching our approach on his bank of monitors, for he spun his swivel chair around.

“Captain, should any of us go to the roof as w…” He trailed off, frowning. He’d realized I wasn’t the Captain, but hadn’t yet identified me.

Raising the pistol, I didn’t give him the chance. I got the second one before he’d even turned around and the third one as he did so.

“Okay?” asked Jon.

“All down. Can you start on the uniform, Caroline? The guy in the middle looks the best size. Wait…” I carefully put a second charge into each one, then looked at the three banks of monitors. “Go ahead. Okay, how do we disable these things, Jon? You said it was simple.”

Jon grinned.

“Fire a few charges into them. Trust me, it’ll scramble the whole system.”

“Oh. Simple. Deal with that humming thing, would you?”

I fired once into each bank of monitors and Jon fired three times into the humming, twinkling tower of computer equipment. The lights went out and the humming stopped. The monitors had gone black.

“Good.” Collecting up all three pistols, I hurried to help Caroline with the trousers while Jon stood by the door, listening.

“This is so weird,” muttered Caroline, as we struggled with the things. “S’like undressing the world’s largest doll, only he’s all floppy. I don’t like it…”

“I suggest you don’t become a nurse, then,” I couldn’t help laughing.

“
I’m a Borderline,” said Caroline, in a flat drone that suggested frequent repetition in the past, “it’s best if I don’t think about things like that.” She was quiet for a long moment. “But… we’re
escaping
, aren’t we?”

“That’s right,” said Jon, ear still pressed to the door hinges. “Soon as we’re safely outside the walls you can start thinking about what you want to be.”

“Where are we going? Oops…!” The trousers had come off at last.

“
It’s all organized but we haven’t got time to talk about it now,” I said, briskly folding the trousers and adding them to the neat pile Caroline had just picked up. Well, it was all organized, I just didn’t actually know where we
were
going, after the clearing at Rayle’s Pass. “Right, all clear, Jon?”

“Think so. Can’t hear anyone.”

Nice and boldly, we strode out. But I paused to fire into the card reader by the door. Keep everyone guessing a bit longer if they couldn’t get in.

“
We should’ve brought a blanket for that fellow,” I remarked, as we headed back along the corridor. “It’s not that warm today.” This gave Jon what could only be described as a fit of the giggles, for some reason. “
What?”

“Nothing,” he sniggered. “Nothing at all.”

“Hmm.” But we’d reached the stairwell again and crossed it silently. My watch showed it’d taken almost exactly ten minutes—most of that spent wrestling the uniform off the guard.

Our arrival was greeted with cries of delight and clapping.

“Quick, Rebecca, into this… Wow, good thinking…” Rebecca, in her underwear, had simply let a blanket fall and grabbed the trousers. Mel stood nearby holding the bag, in which Rebecca’s clothes were clearly already packed. “Very organized! And you’re all in a crocodile already, great. As soon as Rebecca’s dressed, we’ll be off.”

I walked once up and down the line, checking the pairs. There’d had to be a little reorganization so the original buddies of those impersonating guards had suitable partners, and final last minute changes due to Jane’s loss had put Harriet with Sarah and Bethan with Annie.

“Are you okay, Sarah?”

Sarah stared at me solemnly and pointed accusingly at my uniform.

“
It’s okay, Sarah, I’m not
really
a guard. It’s just a game. A
let’s pretend
game. I won’t be a guard for much longer, I promise. Now, stick with Harriet, okay?”

Sarah nodded, still staring unhappily at my clothes.

“I’m letting the others out,” I said, leaving the dorm again. Hooking the barred gate back, I swiped the card at the Old Year’s door and hooked that back as well. Emily was waiting, wide eyed and breathless with nerves, but with a crocodile of seven neat pairs arranged behind her.

“Here…” I gave her one of the spare guns—she’d agreed to free the boys. “That’ll deal with any guards you meet, but I think they’re all outside. Use it to keep the boys at a distance, though.”