‘Don’t even try and play that card with me,’ Jack scoffed. ‘I’d be saying exactly the same thing if she were white and European. As for her family, she has more than double our national average of children. How old are they?’
‘We don’t know.’
‘So they could be all adults?’
‘She’s thirty-eight, so no.’
‘It’s likely her family are relying on her financially,’ Muriel continued.
‘You mean relying on us taxpayers financially.’
‘When was the last time you paid any tax?’ asked Matthew. ‘I assume your money is squirreled away in offshore accounts. Well, it was until the Hacker shared it with the world.’
Jack ignored him and continued to argue with Muriel. ‘Would you really be choosing Mrs Khartri if the cameras weren’t upon us?’
‘Of course!’
‘Because I don’t think that you would. If you’re being truly honest with our audience then you have only chosen her because you can foresee the drubbing you’d receive by the Asian community you also represent if you didn’t. You have already let down our African viewers by backing the death of Bilquis. If you are seen to allow Mrs Khartri, a second person of colour, to drive to her death without putting up a fight, then the fragility of your already wafer-thin, irrelevant organisation will crumble to the ground which, I might add, is where it belongs. I suggest that you are the racist in the room, not I.’
‘Not only are you a bigot but you’re a bloody idiot too,’ Muriel hit back, her nostrils flared and her jaw tensed.
‘Matthew?’ asked the Hacker.
‘I choose Heidi for the same reason as Muriel picked Shabana. I don’t want to be the one who leaves two children orphaned. I would prefer not to have that on my conscience.’
‘Oh, sonowyou choose to have a conscience?’ said Jack. ‘In your time on this jury you’ve chosen to toe the line and do as you’re told but once the cameras are on you and you have to answer to the world, you suddenly decide that you care? All of you, you’re hilarious.’
‘And you, Fiona?’ asked the Hacker.
‘Sofia Bradbury.’
‘What?’ Jack saved his loudest laugh for Fiona. ‘Of all people, you are choosing to save the life of anactress?’
‘I don’t have to justify myself to you,’ Fiona replied.
‘What’s happening to Shabana’s car?’ asked Libby suddenly.
The focus of everyone’s attention was drawn to a screen and Shabana’s car coming to a halt. The unease in Shabana’s eyes was immediate. She kept turning her head to the windscreen and the window behind her. There were moving shadows everywhere.
‘Something’s frightening her,’ Libby continued.
Suddenly Shabana’s face was replaced by live footage from outside the car, looking in at her through the front windscreen. People swarmed her vehicle like wasps around a nest. The sound returned and the jurors heard her name being chanted, hands banging on the windows and people grabbing at the door handles, trying to yank them open. The camera switched to a live Snapchat channel as traffic came to a standstill and more people deserted their vehicles to take selfies with the woman trapped in her car. Children were being held aloft by their parents to help them get better views of Shabana and history in the making. Soon the mob was at least fifteen-people deep.
Shabana’s face was contorted by fear but her screams couldn’t be heard above the cheering and excitement as each new person appeared.
‘They think they’re helping her,’ said Fiona. ‘They think they can get her out.’
‘Why aren’t the police stopping this?’ a panicked Libby asked.
‘Some users who are monitoring their communication channels claim teams have been deployed to disperse them,’ said Cadman. ‘They should be arriving there any second now.’
Libby held her breath until three marked police vans appeared, sirens and lights blazing. Masked officers in riot gear poured from the side doors, pushing their way through the throng towards Shabana’s car, using their shields and batons. In an instant, their heavy-handed approach faced resistance. And as they grew closer to their target, the crowd turned on them. It became an angry mob with fists flying and rocks and debris being hurled at the police.
A yellow cloud of gas appeared from nowhere, making it harder for the cameras to see what was happening, but the jurors heard screaming coming from adults and children running blindly in different directions.
‘I have a terrible feeling about this,’ said Matthew. ‘Remember what the Hacker said would happen if any of the vehicles were interfered with …’
He didn’t have the opportunity to finish. Shabana’s car exploded into a fireball, taking out her and scores of people and officers.
