Chapter 110
AT THREE-THIRTY THAT afternoon, echoing through the fourteen-inch gap between the restaurant ceiling and the roof of the Orbit, I hear hydraulic gears being braked and halted, and feel the slow rotation of the observation deck stop. Closing my eyes and calming my breathing, I prepare for what lies ahead. My fate. My destiny. My just and final due.
At ten minutes to four I squeeze the tube of special skin cream onto the turban cloth and use it to turn my skin near-black. A maintenance crew enters and cleans the room below me. I can hear their mops sluicing the floor for several minutes, followed by half an hour of silence that is interrupted only by the soft sounds of the movement it takes to stain my head, neck and hands.
At twelve minutes past four, the first sniffer dog team enters the gents’, and I have the sudden terrible thought that the monsters might have been clever enough to bring an article of my clothing to prime their beasts. But the patrol is in and out in under a minute, fooled no doubt by the smell of the patchouli oil.
They return at five and again at six. When they leave after the third time, I know that my hour is at hand. Cautiously, I grope around under a strip of insulation, finding a loaded ammunition clip put there seven months ago. Pocketing the clip, I lower myself into the stall and then strip off my remaining clothes, leaving me two-tone, black and white, and a terror to behold in the mirror.
Naked now except for my wristwatch, I rip a length of the turban fabric and wrap the two ends around my hands, leaving an eighteen-inch section dangling slack. Taking a position tight to the wall next to the gents’ door, I settle down to wait.
At six forty-five, I hear footsteps and men’s voices. The door opens and comes right up against my face before it swings back the other way to reveal the back of a tall, athletic black monster in a tracksuit and carrying a large duffel bag.
He is big. I assume he’s skilled. But he is no match for a superior being.
The slack turban fabric flicks over his head and settles below his chin. Before he can even react, I’ve got my knee in his back and I’m throttling the life out of him. Seconds later, still feeling the quivering and soft nasal whining of his death, I drag the monster’s body to the farthest stall, and then move to his duffel bag, glancing at my watch. Thirty minutes until showtime.
It takes me less than half that to don the parade uniform of the Queen’s guardsman and set the black bearskin hat on my head, feeling its familiar weight settle above my eyebrows and tight to my ears. After a minor adjustment, I’ve got the leather chinstrap taut and snug against my jaw. Last, I pick up his automatic rifle, knowing very well that it’s empty. I don’t care. The ammo clip is full.
Then I return to the middle stall and wait. At a quarter past seven, I hear the door open and a voice growl, ‘Supple, we’re up.’
‘On it in two,’ I reply, disguising my voice with a cough. ‘Go to the hatch.’
‘See you topside,’ he says.
I hope not, I think before I hear the door close behind him.
Out of the stall now, I go to the door, tracking the sweep second hand of my watch. At exactly ninety seconds, I take a deep breath and step out through the door and into the hallway, carrying the duffel bag.
At a quick pace, eyes gazing straight ahead, my face expressionless, I walk through the restaurant to the glass doors on the right-hand side of the dining room. Two SAS men are already unlocking the doors. As they swing them open, exposing me to the heat, I set my dufflel bag to one side next to another identical one, and charge past them onto the observation platform and towards a narrow doorway that is open and guarded by yet another SAS man.
I’ve timed it perfectly. The guard hisses, ‘Cutting it bloody close, mate.’
‘Shaving it close is what the Queen’s Guard do, mate,’ I say, ducking past him and into a tight stairwell with a narrow steel staircase that rises to a retracting hatch door and open air.
I can see the early-evening sky and clouds racing above me. Hearing distant trumpets calling, I climb towards my fate, so close now that I can feel it like a muscle burn and taste it like sweet sweat on my lips.