Tube Riders, The (7 page)

Chapter Seven

Confrontation

‘Hurry!’ Dreggo shouted, waving an arm towards the entrance to St. Cannerwells Underground station. Spread out across the park like a net ready to close, the Cross Jumpers responded, slinking between the trees and along the cracked tarmac paths, closing on the small brick building at the top of the hill. Her scouts had seen the Tube Riders go inside a couple of hours ago. They had looked around for other entrances but found none. All the Cross Jumpers had arrived, and they had begun to close on the entrance when one of the Tube Riders had emerged at exactly the wrong time.

With her keen eyesight she had spotted him from the other side of the park, stepping out from the station entrance, immediately tensing, his sixth sense alerting him to danger. He had frozen just a second before feigning cool and calmly looking around, noticing several closing Cross Jumpers. He was good, she had to admit, the way he sauntered back inside as though he’d just stepped out for a cigarette and then changed his mind. Brought up on the hardest streets, she had no doubt, but too late. The Tube Riders were still trapped inside.

Moving through her trees to the left was Maul, a big sledgehammer held in both hands. It was his weapon of choice when it came to smashing up people who messed with him, the reason for his name. He glanced at her often, she noticed, and while she found it irritating, she appreciated the gesture. He was looking out for her, as usual, when out of all of them she was the one who needed it least. Muscular and mean though he was, Dreggo could make short work of him or any of the others. In fact, she didn’t need their help at all, but she had to involve them in this if she wanted to maintain her control of the gang.

‘When you get inside, spread out across the platform,’ she growled to several Cross Jumpers as she reached the entrance. ‘Make sure they have no escape routes. If they go into the tunnels, that’s fine. They’ll be mine then.’

Maul grinned inanely as he passed her. Others looked less excited about the prospect of a fight, but they were too scared to argue. They stuck together in twos and threes, and she hoped they would give each other strength.

Billy Lees went last. He gave her a long, cold look as he passed, longer than she felt was respectful. He had led the Cross Jumpers for more than three years before she showed up, and he didn’t look happy about being back in the ranks. Her jaw tensed as she followed him inside.

#

Switch, doubled over, hands on his knees, was trying to get his breath back.

‘I went outside to go get some drinks,’ he said. ‘But as I got to the top of the stairs I saw them coming. Lots of them. Armed with clubs and shit.’

‘Who?’

‘I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you?’

Simon glanced at Paul and Marta. ‘Are you sure they were coming in here?’

‘Of course I’m fucking sure. They were headed straight for the station entrance.’

‘How many?’ Marta asked.

‘I saw at least ten but there could have been more. They had knives, clubs, lengths of pipe, the usual street fight bullshit.’

‘You could see their weapons?’

Switch shook his head. ‘Didn’t need to. I could see from the way they were walking what the fuckers were concealing.’

Jess’s lip trembled. ‘What do we do now?’

Switch rounded on her. ‘Did they follow you here? Spies from Daddy?’

‘No!’

Simon put up a hand. ‘Switch, give it up.’

‘Or what, Simon?’

‘Just shut up!’ Marta shouted. ‘We’ve got bigger problems to worry about. I think we all know who they are and how they got here.’

Simon shook his head. ‘How would Dan know how to find them?’

‘I don’t know, luck? Now shut up before they hear us, while there’s still time to find somewhere to hide–’

‘Too late,’ Paul said quietly. ‘They’re here.’

As they peered out from behind the pillars, Marta saw the group descend the far stairs and spread themselves out. With the other exit long ago bulldozed and concreted over, there was no way out.

‘We’ve got to go into the tunnels,’ Simon said.

Marta turned to look at him. ‘And go where?’

‘I don’t know, keep going until we reach the next station?’

‘It’s about three miles. We’d get chased down.’

‘Or run down by the next express,’ Paul added.

Simon glanced at Jess. The girl was looking down at her waist, fiddling with what looked like a money belt tied around her stomach. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

‘You know, if we get in trouble, it’s evidence–’

‘You’ve got a digital camera?’ Switch said, incredulous, pushing Simon out of the way. ‘You were planning to get us on the fucking TV?’

Jess looked upset. ‘I just wanted, you know, a memento of the occasion.’

‘Dumb bitch,’ Switch muttered, turning away.

‘Hey!’ Simon said, stepping towards him, but Marta silenced them both with a sharp: ‘Now is
not
the time! They’re coming closer!’

She glanced around the side of the pillar again and counted maybe fifteen people, spread out across the platform.

She turned to Switch. ‘How long until the next train comes?’

‘Huh, what?’

‘The next train!’

He frowned. ‘The last one was ... about four minutes, give or take.’

‘Okay, that’s enough. I have a plan. Jess, do you think you can ride?’

‘What,
now?
I don’t know.’

Simon put a hand on Marta’s shoulder. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Jess can’t ride, she hasn’t practiced enough. And anyway, when we dismount–’

‘There’s no dismount. Not this time.’

The others looked at her. ‘You’re joking, right?’ Paul said, frowning.

‘It’s the only way. If Jess doesn’t think she can ride, maybe she can hide here and they won’t find her. If Dan told them about us, he’ll have told them four. They won’t know about her.’

‘I’m not staying here!’

‘She’s not staying here.’

‘That’s settled then. Paul, give her Dan’s old clawboard.’

Paul stepped forward. ‘We were going to have a little ceremony and stuff, but there isn’t time.’ He held out a clawboard. ‘Here.’

Jess took the board and turned it over in her hands. The wood was dark with varnish but otherwise had no design. It looked like a piece of skirting board that someone had fashioned into a crude Medieval weapon for a kid to play with. The wood was scratched and scored, but the single metal hook was smooth from dozens of rides.

‘It’s amazing,’ she said. ‘Was it someone else’s?’

‘Yeah, but we weren’t going to say that.’

Before Jess could reply or the others could say anything else, Marta left them. With her clawboard held in one hand she walked out in plain view of the approaching Cross Jumpers. Switch hurried to catch up, while the others followed more nervously.

‘What do you want?’ Marta shouted.

A girl, probably younger than her, stepped forward out of the group. Marta raised an eyebrow. A girl? They had just assumed this Dreggo was a guy. The girl’s angular features were attractive, if a little thin. Her eyes, though, were hard and unforgiving. Marta grimaced. The new leader of the Cross Jumpers didn’t look about to negotiate.

‘So, this is it, where the mighty Tube Riders hide.’

Marta’s heart was pounding, but she had to stand up for the others. Switch would start a suicidal battle they had no hope of winning, while Paul and Simon would probably run and be cut down. Perhaps she could offer a one on one with the girl ... perhaps make a deal ... her mind raced with ideas but none of them stood out, and she knew she would have to trust her intuition, something she often hated to do.

‘What do you want? You have no business here.’

‘I’m afraid we do,’ the girl said. ‘As of now, the Tube Riders are disbanded. I have an ultimatum for you. Throw your …
catching boards
… on to the tracks and walk away from the trains and this station for good. Do it and we’ll leave.’

Marta felt anger welling up inside her. Her brother had begun this, and his legacy lived in every ride she took. She wasn’t about to get forced away from something she loved by some bitch. She held the clawboard tight in both hands. Her board, unlike some of the others, had twin hooks, which she filed daily. They were sharp enough to tear Dreggo’s face clean off.

‘No,’ she shouted. ‘This isn’t about the trains, or what we do, is it, Dreggo? There are plenty of abandoned stations in this city for both of us. You know that’s no reason for us to fight. This is about
you
.’ She held her clawboard across her chest, the hooks facing out. ‘You want to fight, then come on. You and me. Leave the others out of this.’

A man who looked like he spent half his life in a gym stepped forward, hefting a sledgehammer in his hands like it was a plastic straw. ‘Want us to do them now, Dreggo?’

The girl raised a hand and flapped it at him dismissively. ‘Maul, back off.’ Dreggo looked back at Marta and spread her hands. ‘It’s very simple. Give up this silly game, and you can live.’

Marta glanced back towards the others. Paul, Simon and Jess still hung back behind her. Switch took a few steps towards Marta’s right flank as Maul inched forward. Marta pretended not to notice.

‘Why is it so important to you?’ she asked.

Dreggo tried to smile disarmingly, but it was forced, fake. ‘It’s not. There isn’t room for both our gangs anymore.’ She waved a hand behind her. ‘Look! Our numbers have grown far beyond yours. We want other places to practice.’

‘You stay in your stations, we stay here. That way no one gets hurt.’ Marta hoped it wasn’t obvious she was stalling for time. Behind her she heard the low rumble of a train back in the tunnel.
A few more seconds…

‘So it’s a no, is it?’ Dreggo’s smile had vanished.

‘You and me,’ Marta said, trying to sound a whole lot braver than she felt. ‘Come on, Dreggo. What are you, chickenshit?’

Dreggo’s eyes blazed. ‘I’d cut you open, you Tube Rider slut, but this is about more than the two of us.’

‘I don’t think it is,’ Marta said. ‘I think it’s about you wanting something you have no right to because what you have sucks more cocks than you do.’

Dreggo tensed, then gave a little shake of the head as if to say
you’re making a big mistake.
She lifted an arm and waved the other Cross Jumpers forward. Marta noticed that while the few nearest them looked frenzied, wild, caught up in their own bloodlust, a greater number hung back, reluctant. Just from their body language she could tell they had no taste for the coming violence. Perhaps if they could break through the Cross Jumpers’ front line they could get away … but the odds were still overwhelmingly against them.

Marta glanced behind her. The train noise was still growing, but it was still too far back, probably just exiting the previous station. They had no choice: they would have to fight.

‘Hold them off until the train comes,’ she muttered to the others. ‘Ride the first chance you get.’

She let go of the clawboard with one hand long enough to reach under her shirt, looking for her own weapon, a small can of pepper spray. Her father had given it to her some years ago, before he died. Last summer, after a group of punks had jumped her not far from here, a friend had made some modifications to it. She wasn’t sure exactly what was in it now, but he’d assured her the burn would be a lot more permanent than simple pepper water.

To her right, Maul closed on Switch. Switch’s good eye shone; he was ready to go down fighting. He looked almost excited. The others were hanging back. Simon would fight to protect Jess, but Marta had never seen Paul lift a hand in anger and wondered if he would now. Perhaps he would just run.

If she could just take out Dreggo, maybe she could end all this–

Dreggo leapt at Marta with impossible, unnatural speed. Marta didn’t even have time to gasp. One hand was still caught inside her shirt. Pushed to the floor, she swung the clawboard up with her other hand, trying to knock Dreggo off her. The wooden edge connected hard with the side of the girl’s face and one hook scratched a line of red along Dreggo’s cheek, but Dreggo shrugged off the blow as though it was nothing. Strong hands closed around Marta’s neck. As Marta tried to roll her off, she saw Switch dart at Maul. Maul swung the sledgehammer, but Switch was too fast, ducking like a flyweight boxer and flashing the knife across the big man’s throat. Maul wobbled for a second, and then clutched at his neck as blood sprayed across the platform.

Switch was already moving away as Maul crashed to the ground like a falling tree, blood gushing from his throat. Switch tossed the knife from hand to hand as others closed in. ‘Come on!’ he screamed. ‘Come on you Cross Jumper fucks! Let’s have some!’

Marta tried to kick Dreggo’s legs, but Dreggo was no longer looking at her. Her face had turned towards Maul, filled with a look of sudden, unexpected horror. She pushed away from Marta as though their fight was already done. ‘Maul!’ she screamed, crawling towards the other man through a puddle of his blood.