‘I know a lot of people,’ he replied.
‘I think I’m familiar to you. I need your help. I need you to tell me who I am.’
He ignored her question. ‘I’m not going to survive this, am I?’ he asked. ‘You’re not going to let me see my boy again.’
‘I have no choice, Bruno.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘I’ve been using that as an excuse for my behaviour for a while … blaming other people for doingthings I thought they’d pushed me to do. But the truth is, you and I are here because of what we’ve done, not them. If you’re going to kill me, you should own it. Because what you’re about to do to me is all on you.’
An increasingly embittered Emilia ran her hands through her hair and rubbed at her eyes. ‘I don’t have time for your self-help sermon. I really need you to tell me what you know about me.’
‘Or what? I’m a dead man?’ He let out a sharp laugh. ‘I think that ship has already sailed, hasn’t it?’
The clock was ticking. Bianca and Adrian had given her ten minutes to get the truth from him before they took matters into their own hands and for a purpose that had yet to be explained to her. Her only bargaining tool was Bruno’s son Louie. Once Bruno had been identified, background research discovered his Achilles heel – a boy with autism who resided in a care facility in Exeter. Emilia immediately made plans to use Louie to flush him out.
‘Out of interest, how did you find me?’ he asked.
‘By identifying faces caught on CCTV entering a building in London – where you were trained, I assume – and who then went off grid. When we found your son, I put myself in your shoes and thought it was unlikely you’d be able to leave him alone completely. The least intrusive way was to use internal cameras which is when we found the network’s data flow had been compromised, by you, I presume. Getting you back here was easy.’
‘And how do you feel about hurting a child with special needs to do that?’
Now it was Emilia’s turn not to answer the question. ‘I have no memory whatsoever of who I am,’ she replied instead. ‘All I know is that I have a husband and two daughters who I’m trying to get back to, in the same way you’ve come back for Louie. You hold the key to helping me find myself.’
‘I will if you let me see my son first.’
Emilia sighed. ‘I don’t have the time or the power to make that happen.’
‘Then I’m going to do your children a huge favour by telling you nothing and keeping them safe from you.’
Emilia’s voice cracked. ‘You can’t do that. It’s not fair.’
‘Was it fair when you killed the other Minder?’
‘I haven’t killed anyone – that was Bianca and her people in the Hacking Collective.’
Bruno shook his head and laughed. ‘I’ll hand it to you, you’re a great actress!’
‘What do you mean?’
But Bruno was too preoccupied by laughing to respond.
‘Stop it,’ she said, tears of frustration forming.
The sight of her wiping them away appeared to amuse him further and his laughter grew louder.
‘I said, stop it!’ she repeated, this time banging her fists against the car seat to emphasise her demand. ‘Stop laughing at me!’ But by now Bruno’s laughter was escalating, louder and louder until the noise grew deafening. It wasn’t the only sound to reverberate: it was gradually accompanied by whispers enveloping the exterior of the vehicle. But Emilia couldn’t identify a single sputtered word.
Through the windscreen she spotted a small group of people huddled in a garden further along the road. She counted four of them and her body tensed. ‘Leave me alone!’ she screamed at them. ‘Leave me the hell alone!’
She threw her hands over her ears to make the cacophony stop, but it failed to suppress them for long. The piercing whispers and Bruno’s laughter culminated in an explosion of sound that was now coming from the inside too and made her head ready to burst.
And then it happened. A new Emilia came to life without warning, conscience or forethought.
Chapter 64
BRUNO, EXETER
Bruno caught sight of his reflection in the metal object swiping down upon him, and heard the crunch as it penetrated his skull.
