Scott Andrews - Children's Crusade

"You really should have told that Iraqi not to be such a smartass," he says by way of explanation.

Oh no. Tariq.

He nods in response to the look on my face, and he taps the spot between his eyes.

I fly at him, fists swinging, teeth bared, but he bats me away as if I were a kitten. I tumble to the floor, my foot burning with agony.

"You know, Kate, I think I made a mistake with you. I thought perhaps we could be friends. I see now that I was naive."

I spit in his face.

He wipes it away with a sneer. "Your friends are no use to me. The kids I can use. But the adults…" he shrugs. "I think it's time to end this."

He reaches out and grabs my arm, pulling me to my feet. "Follow me," he says and walks out of the rom. I hobble after him. I have to buy some time for Jack.

"What are you going to do?" I shout after him.

"A ten gun salute, I think," he says over his shoulder.

He hurries down the staircase to the front door. I limp in pursuit.

"Why kill them? They're no threat to you now." I know that sounds lame, but even if he pauses for a second to argue with me, it'll be a second gained. He sweeps out the front door, passing a guard from whom he grabs a fresh sidearm.

I trail after him, beginning to beg. He ignores me. He turns a corner and I hear him declaim: "lovely day for a shooting!"

I follow him outside into the stark white dawn. I see Lee, Green and a Ranger lined up against the fence, a group of armed soldiers opposite them. Oh god, it's a firing squad. My knees momentarily go weak with fear.

"Cooper, please," I say, choking back tears. "I'm begging you, don't do this."

He slaps me, Lee protests and a soldier opens fire. For a sickening moment I think he's shot Lee, but it was just a warning shot.

I'm crying now, pleading with Cooper, barely even conscious of what I'm saying. I step forward and come on to him. I'm sick at myself as I stroke his chest, all the time driven by the voice at the back of my head saying 'just play for time, just play for time'.

Cooper shouts an order then shoots one of his men, and the next thing I know I'm being dragged across to the fence and stood up next to Lee. I reach out and grab his hand.

I lean towards him and whisper: "be ready to run" but my voice is drowned out by Big Ben's insistent chime.

The men line up. Cooper joins them. They raise their guns as the clock counts down the final seconds of our lives.

Where the fuck is Jack?

I turn to Lee and we embrace.

Dear God, I may actually die here.

He whispers something to me, but I can't make it out.

Then my senses explode in fire.

As the final chime pealed I heard a deafening burst of machine gun fire. I braced for the impact, but there was none.

My ears rang as the shooting got louder. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Put the woman down and fucking run!" yelled Wilkes above the cacophony.

I opened my eyes, totally confused. Jane was already pulling away, dragging me along the edge of the fence to a stone alcove in the far wall where we could shelter.

I tried to make sense of what was happening. Cooper and his men were ranged along the far edge of the fence, backs to the river, engaged in a fierce firefight with a group of young women who were shooting at them from the covered stone walkway down which we'd been marched minutes earlier.

I glanced ahead and saw a figure beckoning us to a doorway. I thought my mind must be playing tricks on me, because it looked like Jack. Jane pulled me sideways as a stream of bullets whipped past us cutting a straight line in the old stonework. We scurried through the doorway and behind a stone wall, under cover. Green was already there, gun in hand, raining fire on the pinned down firing squad. Wilkes hurried in after us.

Jack shoved a gun in my hand and smiled at me.

"What the fuck is going on?" I shouted above the din.

"I landed in the dinghy," he shouted back. "I had the bag. Jane got me back in. Voila." He indicated the groups of armed women and beamed.

It takes a minute for the penny to drop. Somehow Jack has pulled it off and completed our mission — he's got the kitbag of guns to the women held captive in the Lords and turned them loose.

Jane turned, popped her head above the parapet and sent a burst of fire towards the bad guys. Then she ducked back under cover leaned over to me and kissed me long and deep.

We only broke apart when there was a huge explosion from behind us. I peered over into the yard to see the last of Cooper's men pouring through a gap in the wall. They must have blown it open with a handful of grenades so they'd have somewhere to retreat. The snow-covered grass was littered with corpses and red with blood.

I turned to the group that ranged along the walkway.

"Jane, do you know where the kids are being held?"

She shook her head. "One of the committee rooms is all I know."

"We need to find them as fast as we can," I said. "There aren't enough of us to win this, and we're too concentrated. Can you lead us there?" Jane shook her head.

"I know where they are," shouted one of the women Jack had released from the Lords. I waved her over to me. She was gaunt and thin, pretty but tiny and undernourished. She had fire in her eyes, though, and she held the gun firmly and with confidence.

"And you are?"

"Jools," she said. "I heard some noise from one of the rooms we passed on our way here. I reckon the kids are in there."

"Get them out, get them armed," I said.

She nodded and smiled a grim smile that promised horrible death to anyone who got in her way. I decided I liked her.

"Come on girls," she yelled, and she took off at a run. The women streamed after her, free and armed and hungry for vengeance.

Jane pulled herself upright and hobbled into the snow to check the bodies. As she did so I turned to Wilkes and Green.

"Wilkes," I said, "you should find Ferguson, okay? I don't know where they took him, and he's likely to be in a bad way, but they may decide to just finish him off, and we could use him." I noticed he didn't have a gun, so I took one from Jack and handed it to him. He looked at it suspiciously, then nodded to the weapon.

"Fine," he said. "Just don't tell the boss about this, right?"

"Promise," I said, remembering Hood's feelings about firearms.

He took off after the women into the Palace complex.

"You two, with me," I said, then I followed Jane into the snow. Green and Jack followed behind.

"Is Cooper here?" I asked.

Jane shook her head.

"Okay," I said. "We're going after them, through that hole in the wall. Green and I will take point, Jack you follow close behind and take care of Jane."

"I don't need taking care of, Lee," she said, momentarily indignant.

I stepped forward and kissed her nose. "Don't be daft. You've got a fucking hole in your foot."

I raised my gun to my shoulder and moved to one side of the hole in the wall. Green came up close behind me.

"You ready for this, mate?" I said, still unaccustomed to seeing him with a gun in his hand.

"Fuck yes," he said resolutely, which was good enough for me.

I lifted my hand and counted down from three then slipped sideways through the wall into the House of Commons Library tower, gun high, ready for anything.

Caroline heard the shooting and the explosions and became frantic. The attack was going ahead after all. They were supposed to be part of it, trapping the bad guys between two pincers and bottling them in. If there was only one wave of attackers, the soldiers would be able to dig in, fight back or escape. There'd be no-one to outflank them.

She began banging on the committee room door and yelling: "We're in here!"

A boy grabbed her shoulder from behind. "What are you doing? Are you trying to get us all killed?"