Six new opponents stood their ground, each brandishing firearms. The odds of surviving this were infinitesimally small. She came to an abrupt, breathless halt. Whatever was coming next would be completely out of her control.
‘Get inside, Emilia,’ came a voice. An interior light illuminated the vehicle, revealing Bianca’s presence.
‘You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?’ Emilia panted.
‘If your death had been part of the plan, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You’d be lying dead in the grounds of the hospital.’
Emilia turned to look again at her aggressors and had little choice but to comply. Inside, Bianca took a metallic hipflask from inside the armrest and offered it to Emilia as the car sped away.
‘It has a light synthetic mood enhancer inside that’ll help to relax you. You’re in shock.’
‘I don’t need to be sedated.’
‘Every vital sign your smart watch is recording tells me differently. You have an elevated heart rate, high blood pressure, you’re sweating and your breathing is rapid.’
‘What do you expect?’ Emilia tore the watch from her wrist and threw it into the footwell. ‘Why did you kill Ted? He was going to tell me who I was.’
‘Hell was more likely to have frozen over before Edward Karczewski ever admitted that he knew your truths.’
Emilia faltered – she had never referred to him by his full name before, only the shortened form of Ted. But when Bianca said it, it sounded familiar, as if she had heard it in its entirety many times before.
‘And by erasing him,’ Bianca continued, ‘we are sending a message to the others – that we are coming for every last one of them. Those who know your true identity are buried deeply, Emilia, and Ted’s death will flush them out. Our deal still stands. We want to help you find the four who remain in the hope that one of them gives you the truth. Somewhere inside you, you know how to find and expose them.’
‘How when I don’t even know who the hell I am?’ she asked, exasperated.
‘We are confident that you will find a way.’
‘And why would I want to? How do you expect me to live with myself knowing that I’d be luring them to their deaths too? Because that’s what going to happen, isn’t it? You’re going to murder them too. Why?’
‘They call these four people the Minders and they’re protecting something that doesn’t belong to them.’
‘What is it?’
‘Information of a sensitive nature that is of no use to you, or us even, but which the world will be a better place without.’
‘According to who?’
‘According to those of us who know what’s best for this country.’
‘You’re not working for our or any other government, are you?’
The corners of Bianca’s lips rose. ‘No, Emilia, we most definitely are not.’
Emilia took a sharp intake of breath as the penny dropped. ‘I know who you are! I read about you while I was in hospital. You’re terrorists! You’re the Hacking Collective!’
‘As I have explained before, who we are is of no consequence to you. You help us to find the four and you are free to try and get the truth from them about who you are. And once you are finished, then it becomes our turn. Aslong as they give us what we want, they’ll be allowed to live.’
‘I don’t want any part of this.’
Bianca shrugged. ‘As I told you when we first met at the pub, you are free to leave at any time.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Just like that.’ Emilia searched for the door-release button. ‘I’m sorry it hasn’t worked out,’ Bianca added. ‘I wish you the best of luck out there. It is a pity, though. Watch.’
Bianca’s eyes moved to the windscreen, and Emilia’s followed. With the flick of a button, it became a television screen with the words ‘live feed’ appearing in the top-left corner. Footage was being broadcast of a steep slope and a grassy playing field in the distance.
‘Zoom in and split screen,’ Bianca ordered and the camera focused on a group of young people dressed in brightly coloured football strips and two girls in particular. Their appearances were identical – they had same strawberry-blonde hair scraped back into ponytails and the same determined expressions. Their only differences were their coloured boots.
