Chapter 29
JUDE HARRISON
‘No!’ yelled Jude at the sight of Shabana’s car becoming engulfed by flames.
He slapped himself on each side of his head with the palms of his hands again and again as if it might knock the images out or wake him up from a nightmare.
Squirming in his seat, he couldn’t take his eyes away from the aftermath of the bomb blast. As the yellow gas dissolved, it was replaced by a thicker, darker fog as the car burned. His perspective alternated between whichever camera was capturing the clearest and most powerful images. Over the next few minutes, Jude witnessed the angst and confusion as the bloodied and the injured were carried away from the scene; he watched dazed survivors stepping over bodies, some virtually unrecognisable as human, others in tattered clothing and missing limbs.
Next came news channel helicopter coverage, putting the scale of the blast into perspective. He viewed cars in close proximity to Shabana’s ignited one, while people ran to extinguish the flames from a burning child’s clothes. He could take no more. He pressed a button to turn his chair 180 degrees to face the rear seats, then grabbed a disused fast food carton and tried to vomitinto it. Several times he retched but there was little inside him to come up.
A bead of sweat trickled from Jude’s hairline down his forehead, pooling in an eyebrow. He wiped it away. It was as hot as hell inside his car and his nerves were making him more anxious. With no working air conditioning, or the ability to wind down the windows, there was no way for him to cool down.
Moments earlier, he had felt a sense of pride watching Libby spar with the Hacker. Of all the people in the room, she was the only one brave enough to tackle him and try to make him accept that he didn’t need to resort to murder to make his point. He was even more attracted to her now than the moment he first saw her singing karaoke in the crowded pub.
The night they’d met was the first time Jude had felt something so intense for a person since Stephenie. His mind rolled back to when he was fifteen. He’d been in the same classes as her since Year Five but it wasn’t until Year Eleven that he’d truly noticed her; no longer through a child’s eyes but through those of a young man. And when he’d eventually plucked up the courage to ask her to go to the cinema with him, he’d felt like he might burst into tears when she’d agreed. She was his first kiss and when he closed his eyes, he could remember with clarity how she’d tasted of strawberry lip gloss. He had never got over his first love or forgiven Stephenie or his brother for finding love with one another.
And now there was Libby. From the moment that she had reciprocated his smile, he’d been caught off guard by how intensely a simple gesture could rock his foundations. It was as if the world had stopped turning for everyone but them. For so long, Jude’s repertoire of emotions had barely stretched beyond sadness and resentment. He hadn’t considered there could be any room in his heart for love.
Even the thought of her now gave him inappropriate thoughts and he felt himself becoming aroused. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat to readjust himself, hoping the viewers wouldn’t notice. He focused back on Shabana’s burning car and felt his desire quickly evaporate.
He replayed his and Libby’s first conversation and recalled it was more about what wasn’t being said than what was. The furtive glances, the warmth he’d felt as his cheeks had blushed, the confidence she’d given him to be himself, the hope, the desire and their potential all coming together to create an intense emotion that only Stephenie had evoked in him before. If he were to list his requirements for a perfect match, they would result in Libby. He hadn’t expected to fall head over heels for someone he’d only just met. But it had happened, regardless.
Even at the time, Jude had known that it was unfair and wrong. He shouldn’t allow himself to fall for Libby because that wasn’t in his plan. And when Libby had to accompany her injured friend to the hospital, as much as it pained him, it was for the best. By leaving just moments after her, it meant that if she returned, he could never break her heart. And that’s just what would have happened had their encounter extended beyond that one night. But before he left, he made sure to take something of hers with him.
Jude rummaged around inside his rucksack for his toiletries, rinsed out his mouth with mouthwash and spat it into an empty beer bottle. Suddenly from outside his window he noted the sign for Bistford, a location he recalled from his time working for his father’s car automotive business. On its completion, it had been branded ‘Britain’s first urban Smart Town’. It comprised of a purpose-built network of roads for autonomous cars, vans and lorries. The streets were narrower than regular onesbecause AI’s anti-lane departure technology ensured there were fewer margins for error than traditional roads.
There were less parking spaces in the town centre because they weren’t required – after being driven to work, many Passengers sent their cars home until they were needed later. That freed up space for more pocket parks and areas of greenery. Bistford was paving the way for every other town, city and village to prepare for a country where cars were no longer under human control.
Jude had visited the town many times testing out the software his family business designed and programmed. It was only now, as he reflected on his own contribution towards towns like this, that he understood his culpability in today’s hijack. The vehicles he had helped develop for the masses were being used against them all.
He felt the makings of a tension headache creeping up his neck and across the back of his head. In the door’s side pocket, he found a box of paracetamol. He popped two from the blister pack and swallowed them dry. ‘Up to seven hours of pain relief’, the wording on the cover promised. The Hacker said only one of them would survive that morning. Suddenly, seven hours felt like no time at all.
Chapter 30
CLAIRE ARDEN
Claire suddenly became aware that she was clutching her bump so tightly that she let go, afraid she might be hurting her baby.
The route her car was taking involved motorways rather than smaller roads so she couldn’t be brought to a halt by an over-zealous public. She wouldn’t want anyone to be injured because of her. A shadow above her caught her eye. She squinted through the glass panoramic roof at an object in the sky. It was something dark and hovered way above her. She assumed it to be one of thedrones she’d heard the jury argue about. Claire hoped that it maintained its distance so that nobody else spotted it and realised it was following a Passenger. Her privacy windows meant that no passing vehicles could ever know she was inside. Earlier, it was a hindrance. But for now, at least, it might be keeping her from the same fate as Shabana.
When the jury was tasked with voting later that morning, she prayed that she would gain their sympathy. She knew they might not be actually supporting her and it would be the life growing inside her winning them over. It didn’t matter as long as he was safe.
You have to make them want to save you, Claire told herself.Do whatever it takes to keep your baby alive.
As her pregnancy had advanced, barely a couple of hours would pass before she’d feel the urge to urinate. And the longer the car journey continued, the more Claire knew she couldn’t hold it in any longer. She looked around the vehicle’s interior but there were no containers to pass water into. Besides, the world was watching and would she really want the indignation of them seeing her do that? There was no choice but to just wet herself. So she moved to the other front passenger seat and did just that. It brought her only fleeting moment of relief that morning.
She had potentially seventy minutes left until the Hacker killed her. Feeling her baby move sharply again, she feared Tate was absorbing her stress, so she forced herself to think of something positive.
Claire longed to hear Ben’s voice so she removed her phone from her pocket and located a folder containing videos they’d made of one another. The one she chose she had recorded earlier in the year. Standing in their kitchen, she relived the moment he came through the front door and dropped his backpack by the sofa. He looked puzzled as to why she was pointing her camera phone at him.
‘Is that thing on?’ he asked and the picture shook a little as Claire replied with a nod. ‘Why? And why is there a glass of Champagne and a bag on the table? Shit, have I missed our anniversary? Wait, no, that’s November. What are you up to?’
‘Open it,’ she giggled and he made his way towards her.
Ben’s brow crinkled and he pulled on the strings to open a small, blue bag. He removed from it a light-blue teddy bear, with a five-centimetre square screen in its belly.
‘Squeeze its paw,’ Claire invited. Ben obliged and nothing happened. ‘The other one, and watch the screen.’
