Jack turned to the shorter of the security operatives. ‘Get me Westminster on a secure line now.’
Libby’s eyes moved from Passenger to Passenger, each of them responding to what was happening to them in contrasting ways. Suddenly, as a fifth screen appeared, her jaw dropped and she struggled to catch her breath.
Chapter 12
CLAIRE ARDEN
The voices of the other trapped Passengers offered Claire a tiny shred of comfort that it wasn’t just her being held against her will. But when the sound from her stereo was switched off as quickly as it had begun, her solitude returned. Anxiety tasted like acid repeating on her so she swallowed hard to hold it back rather than risk having it consume her.
Ben will know what to do, she thought,Ben always knows what to do. She stopped in her tracks – she had momentarily forgotten that she couldn’t call him.
Claire ran through her options. She couldn’t contact the police or her girlfriends for help – that would require too much explaining. It left only one person.Andy.He’s the only one.
She hadn’t seen her estranged brother in person for three Christmases but they had stayed in touch through vague, sporadic voice notes. However, she couldn’t be sure where he was staying since the parole board had granted him an early release. She could only hope that he wasn’t living too far away. If he answered his phone and she told him the whole truth about what had happened earlier that morning, she was sure he wouldn’t judge her. But knowing him as well as only family could, she had no doubt that he would expect to be financially compensated in return for his assistance and his silence.
‘Roxanne,’ she said aloud, the name Ben had christened the car’s operating system. He named it after an ex-girlfriend whom Claire had met once and taken an instant dislike to. Ben had thought it funny. ‘I need you to telephone Andy …’ but she didn’t get the opportunity to say anything else.
‘Communication system offline,’ Roxanne replied. Claire made several attempts to repeat the command but with no success.
The realisation hit her hard – there was no way out of that car. She was completely alone. As if to remind her of his presence, she felt her baby kicking inside her again. Claire corrected herself: she wasn’t on her own, she was with her son. And for his sake, she had to survive this ordeal. She would need to protect him like she had never protected anyone else before, even Ben. She could not give up on him.
When her baby wriggled and kicked again, Claire hoped the stress of what was happening that morning was not hurting him. All she could do was put into practice the breathing techniques she had learned in herLamaze classes. She recalled how both her and Ben had giggled their way through the lessons and how the colour had drained from his face when he was forced to watch a childbirth video. Now, she began with a deep, slow cleansing breath before continuing with gentle, shallow ones. After a few moments, it appeared to work and her baby settled again.
‘We are going to be okay,’ she whispered to him, her hands gently massaging the football-sized shape of her stomach. ‘Just stay calm and we’ll find a way out of this. We have managed to get this far, we’re not giving up now.’
Claire gave a furtive glance towards the rear of the car and the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. ‘Mummy’s going to do whatever it takes, no matter what.’
Chapter 13
‘It can’t be!’ Libby whispered, staring at an image on the screen and scarcely able to believe her eyes. She tilted her head as she gave him an unrelenting stare and tried to regain control of her breathlessness. She ignored the other Passengers and confusion in the inquest room to concentrate on just one face.
The person you’ve spent six months searching for is trapped inside a driverless car.
The rational side of Libby’s brain took charge and questioned whether it was really the man she’d met in the bar six months earlier. Was her mind playing tricks on her? Or was it someone paying him a very close resemblance? She couldn’t be sure.
Slowly, she took in his appearance. The resemblance was uncanny. He was slimmer than she remembered him. His cheekbones were more pronounced and his eyes drained of the sparkle she so clearly recalled. But she was sure that if she were in his position, the shine would have left her eyes too.
The only way she could be sure she was staring at the right man was if she heard him speak. His lips were moving but no sound was being emitted from the speakers in the room. Libby considered sharing her news with the other jurors, but the confidence she had conjured up moments earlier to argue with Jack had vanished asquickly as it had arrived and had taken her voice with it. For now, she would hold her tongue.
Libby looked away from the screen, momentarily distracted by the operative responsible for beaming video footage onto the largest of the walls. He frantically swiped the screen of his tablet in all directions before reaching for the stenographer’s device and repeating the action. ‘Nothing’s happening,’ he said. ‘I don’t understand it; I no longer have any control over what’s being shown.’
‘Then who has?’ his colleague asked. He shrugged.
Meanwhile one of the security men handed Jack a telephone. He strode towards the doorway and hovered under the architrave out of earshot as all eyes fell upon him, awaiting a logical explanation for what was being broadcast. It was clear from Jack’s slowly reddening face and expanding veins on either side of his thick neck that he was losing his patience.
‘Well, find someone whocantell me!’ he barked and hung up.
‘Jack?’ asked the only other male juror. ‘What’s happening?’
Jack took a moment to gather his thoughts. ‘This has yet to be confirmed, but there’s a possibility a handful of vehicles may have been …temporarilycompromised.’
‘What do you mean by compromised?’ asked the religious rep.
‘Are you saying they’ve been hacked?’ her male colleague chipped in.
Jack said nothing and Libby felt her stomach tighten into a fist-sized ball.
‘I am not saying thatiswhat has happened; I am saying that it is apossibilitysomething along those lines may have occurred. I am awaiting further information from my colleagues in the Home Office and the Ministry of Transport.’
