Ken Follett - Whiteout

"I think you should drive more carefully," said Mother.

KIT was fighting down panic. His brilliant plan had collapsed in ruins. Now there was no way the robbery would go undetected until the staff returned to work after the holiday. At most, it might remain a secret until six o'clock this morning, when the next shift of security guards arrived. But if Toni Gallo were still on her way here, the time left was even shorter.

If his plan had worked, there would have been no violence. Even now, he thought with helpless frustration, it had not been strictly necessary. The guard Susan could have been captured and tied up without injury. Unfortunately, Daisy could not resist an opportunity for brutality. Kit hoped desperately that the other guards could be rounded up without further nauseating scenes of bloodshed.

Now, as they ran to the control room, both Nigel and Daisy drew guns.

Kit was horrified. "We agreed no weapons!" he protested.

"Good thing we ignored you," Nigel replied.

They came to the door. Kit stared aghast at the guns. They were small automatic pistols with fat grips. "This makes it armed robbery, you realize that."

"Only if we're caught." Nigel turned the handle and kicked the door open.

Daisy burst into the room, yelling at the top of her voice: "On the floor! Now! Both of you!"

There was only a moments hesitation, while the two security guards went from shock and bewilderment to fear; then they threw themselves down.

Kit felt powerless. He had intended to enter the room first and say, Please stay calm and do as you're told, then you won't get hurt. But he had lost control. There was nothing he could do now but string along and try to make sure nothing else went wrong.

Elton appeared in the doorway of the equipment room. He took in the scene in an instant.

Daisy screamed at the guards: "Face down, hånds behind your backs, eyes closed! Quick, quick, or I'll shoot you in the balls!"

They did as she said but, even so, she kicked Don in the face with a heavy boot. He cried out and flinched away, but remained prone.

Kit placed himself in front of Daisy. "Enough!" he shouted.

Elton shook his head in amazement. "She's loony fucking tunes."

The gleeful malevolence on Daisy's face frightened Kit, but he forced himself to stare at her. He had too much at stake to let her ruin every-thing. "Listen to me!" he shouted. "You're not in the lab yet, and you won't ever get there at this rate. If you want to be empty-handed when we meet the client at ten, just carry on the way you are." She turned away from his pointing finger, but he went after her. "No more brutality!"

Nigel backed him. "Ease up, Daisy," he said. "Do as he says. See if you can tie these two up without kicking their heads in."

Kit said, "We'll put them in the same place as the girl."

Daisy tied their hånds with electrical cable; then she and Nigel herded them out at gunpoint. Elton stayed behind, watching the monitors, keeping an eye on Steve in reception. Kit followed the prisoners to BSL4 and opened the door. They put Don and Stu on the floor next to Susan and tied their feet. Don was bleeding from a nasty cut on his forehead. Susan scemed conscious but groggy.

"One left," said Kit as they stepped outside. "Steve, in the Great Hall. And no unnecessary violence!"

Daisy gave a grunt of disgust.

Nigel said, "Kit, try not to say any more in front of the guards about the client and our ten o'clock rendezvous. If you tell them too much, we may have to kill them."

Kit realized, aghast, what he had done. He felt like a fool.

His phone rang.

"That might be Toni," he said. "Let me check." He ran back to the equipment room. His laptop screen said, "Toni calling Kremlin." He transferred the call to the phone on the desk at reception and listened in.

"Hi, Steve, this is Toni. Any news?"

"The repair crew are still here."

"Everything all right otherwise?"

With the phone to his ear, Kit stepped into the control room and stood behind Elton to watch Steve on the monitor. "Yeah, I think so. Susan Mackintosh should have finished her patrol by now, but maybe she went to the ladies' room."

Kit cursed.

Toni said anxiously, "How late is she?"

On the monitor, in black-and-white, Steve checked his wristwatch. "Five minutes."

"Give her another five minutes, then go and look for her."

"Okay. Where are you?"

"Not far away, but I've had an accident. A car full of drunks clipped the rear end of the Porsche."

Kit thought, I wish they'd killed you.

Steve said, "Are you okay?"

"Fine, but my car's damaged. Fortunately, another car was following me, and he's giving me a lift."

And who the hell was that? "Shit," Kit said aloud. "Her and some fellow."

"When will you be here?"

"Twenty minutes, maybe thirty."

Kit's knees went weak. He staggered and sat in one of the guards' chairs. Twenty minutes-thirty at the most! It took twenty minutes to get suited up for BSL4!

Toni said goodbyc and hung up the phone.

Kit ran across the control room and out into the corridor. "She'll be here in twenty or thirty minutes," he said. "And there's someone with her, I don't know who. We have to move fast."

They ran along the corridor. Daisy, going first, burst into the Great Hall and yelled: "On the floor-now!"

Kit and Nigel ran in after her and stopped abruptly. The room was empty. "Shit," said Kit.

Steve had been at the desk twenty seconds ago. He could not have gone far. Kit looked around the half-dark room, at the chairs for waiting visitors, the coffee table with science magazines, the rack of leaflets about Oxenford Medical's work, the display case with models of complex molecules. He stared up into the dimly lit skeleton of the hammer-beam roof, as if Steve might be hiding among the timber ribs.

Nigel and Daisy ran along radiating corridors, opening doors.

Kit's eye was caught by two stick figures, male and female, on a door: the toilets. He ran across the hall. There was a short corridor leading to separate men's and ladies' rooms. Kit went into the men's room.

It appeared empty. "Mr. Tremlett?" He pushed open all the cubicle doors. No one was there.

As he stepped out, he saw Steve returning to the reception desk. The guard must have been in the ladies' room-searching for Susan, Kit realized.

Steve turned around, hearing Kit. "Looking for me?"

"Yes." Kit realized he could not apprehend Steve without help. Kit was younger, and athletic, but Steve was a fit man in his thirties, and might not give up without a fight. "Something I need to ask you," Kit said, playing for time. He made his accent more Scots than was natural, ro make sure Steve did not find his voice familiar.

Steve lifted the flap and entered the oval of the desk. "And what would that be?"

"Just a minute." Kit turned away and shouted after Nigel and Daisy. "Hey! Back in here!"

Steve looked troubled. "What's going on? You lot aren't supposed to be wandering around the building."

"I'll explain in a minute."

Steve looked hard at him and frowned. "Have you been here before?"

Kit swallowed. "No, never."

"There's something familiar about you."

Kit's mouth went dry and he found it hard to speak. "I work with the emergency team." Where were the others?

"I dont like this." Steve picked up the phone on the desk.

Where were Nigel and Daisy? Kit shouted again: "Get back in here, you two!"

Steve dialed, and the mobile in Kit's pocket rang. Steve heard it. He frowned, thinking, then a look of shocked understanding came over his face. "You messed with the phones!"

Kit said, "Stay calm, and you won't get hurt." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized his mistake: he had confirmed Steve's suspicions.