در تونل

Chapter six

In the Tunnel

Alan put down his coffee when the call came. He picked up the phone with shaking hands. A voice said, ‘Alan?’

‘Anna,’ Alan whispered. The policewoman went out of the door and spoke in a low voice on her radio.

‘Do you remember what I said yesterday, Alan?’

‘Yes,’ Alan said. ‘Please don’t hurt Jane. Please. I haven’t said a word to anyone. I promise you, Anna.’

‘Good. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever, Alan. Do you understand? Not if you want her to stay alive.’

‘Yes, I understand, Anna. But I must speak to Jane. I must hear her voice, Anna. How do I know you haven’t killed her already?’ Alan’s voice was shaking.

Anna laughed, gently, cruelly. ‘We’ll send you something, Alan. In a day or two. If you’re good.’

‘Anna, please.’

But the phone went dead.

Alan put the phone down slowly, and suddenly the room was full of voices.

‘We’ve got it! A phone box in South Kensington Station, by the ticket office.’

‘Calling all cars in Kensington, calling all cars in Kensington. A woman has just made a phone call from.’

The policewoman put her hand on Alan’s arm. ‘They’ll be there in two minutes,’ she said gently. ‘They’ll-‘

‘Take me there!’ Alan said. ‘Please!’

The policewoman looked at Alan, then at the wheelchair, then back at Alan’s white face. ‘All right. We’ve got a big van outside. We can get the wheelchair in that.’

As Jane came down the stairs, she realized two things: she was covered in blood, and Anna wasn’t there.

The house was very quiet, and all the rooms were empty. But I can’t go out all covered in blood, she thought. People will think I’ve killed someone.

I have. But I had to, he was going to kill me. And he’s a terrorist. He killed five people, he and Anna. I must get out before Anna comes back.

She found a man’s coat, put it on, and went out into the street. I should call a policeman, she thought. But she could only see ordinary men, women and children. She saw an underground station and walked towards it.

She went into the station, found some money in the coat pocket, and bought a ticket. I must find my father, she thought, and tell him that everything’s all right. Then she looked behind her and saw a woman coming out of a telephone box.

Oh my God, she thought, it’s Anna!

Jane walked quickly away from the ticket office, down the escalator towards the platform and the trains. Halfway down the escalator she looked back up behind her.

Anna had seen her! Anna was following her down the escalator!

Quickly, Jane ran down to the bottom and onto one of the platforms. There was a train there, with its doors still open. She ran towards them, but as she ran, the doors closed and the train moved away into the tunnel. Anna was now coming onto the platform behind her. Anna’s hand was inside her coat and Jane was sure she had a gun.

Why didn’t I bring Kev’s gun? Jane thought. But it was empty and I hate guns and it’s no use thinking about that now. What do I do now?

As the police van screamed through the London traffic, the policewoman listened in to her radio and passed the information to Alan.

‘Inspector Lee is on his way,’ she said. ‘There are six cars at the station already and they’re watching all the entrances. Ah! Two detectives have seen a woman with red-brown hair going down the escalator.’

‘But the trains,’ Alan said. ‘She’ll catch a train.’

‘They’ll stop the trains as soon as they can. But there are hundreds of people in the station. The detectives could lose the woman in the crowds.’

‘Please God,’ whispered Alan. ‘Let them catch her.’

As Anna came towards her, Jane ran towards the end of the platform, then looked behind her and saw Anna running after her, her hand still inside her coat. Quickly, Jane turned and ran towards another escalator, but there was a crowd of people there. She looked again and saw Anna twenty metres behind. She turned round a corner, back onto another platform which was empty - no people, no train. Anna will find me here in a second and shoot me, she thought. What now?

She jumped off the platform onto the railway line, and ran into the tunnel.

It was very dark in the tunnel. She knew that one of the lines was electric. If I touch it, I’ll die, she thought. The trains come every six minutes, and if a train hits me, I’ll die too. And there are only thirty centimetres between the sides of the train and the tunnel walls.

But there are holes in the tunnel walls every hundred metres, for workmen. I’ll find one of those, wait for the next train and then go on to the next hole. It’s probably only a kilometre to the next station. And perhaps Anna won’t be sure which way I’ve gone.

She ran on into the darkness. Once she fell, and her hands nearly touched the electric line. When she got up, there was a terrible noise, like a train coming. But it was a train in another tunnel, not this one. She ran on, with one hand on the wall, looking for the hole.

Three minutes, four. then she found it! A hole just big enough for one person. She got in and stood very still, waiting. She heard the terrible noise again, this time from the station behind her. Then it stopped. The train will stop in that station for one minute, she thought. Then it will come past.

She laughed aloud in the darkness. Anna is still looking for me back on the platform. How angry she must be!

A hand touched her arm. She screamed, ‘What? Oh God, no!’ The hand grabbed her arm, and pulled her out of the hole, into the dark tunnel.

‘Get out there!’

Two hands pushed her and Jane fell between the lines. She got to her knees, carefully, afraid of the electric line. Then the terrible noise started. The ground shook beneath her feet and a white light came towards her, faster and faster. In the light Jane saw Anna standing in the hole, with a gun in her hand. She jumped towards the hole but the train was coming faster, much too fast, and there was only room in the hole for one person, a woman with a gun.

When Alan arrived at the station, there were police cars everywhere, and crowds of people watching them. The police-woman helped him out of the van and he pushed his wheelchair through the crowd, shouting angrily, ‘What’s happening? Where is she?’

At the top of the escalator a policeman said, ‘I’m sorry, sir.

You can’t go down. There’s been a terrible accident.’

Then some ambulance men arrived. ‘Where is it?’ they asked.

‘Down in the tunnel. Two women - a train’s hit them,’ the policeman said. The ambulance men hurried down.

‘What’s happening?’ Alan shouted. ‘Which women? There’s a murderer down there, a terrorist! And my daughter - I’ve got to find my daughter!’

He began to climb out of his wheelchair, but the policeman pushed him back. ‘I’m sorry, sir.’

Then the policewoman hurried up and explained. They helped Alan’s wheelchair onto the escalator and went down. At the bottom Alan saw an empty train, and a lot of police at the end of the platform. The ambulance men talked to the police, and then went into the tunnel. Alan wheeled his chair slowly along the platform.

Then two of the ambulance men came out of the tunnel. There was a young woman between them. She walked slowly, she was very dirty, and there was blood on the side of her face. But Alan knew who she was.

‘Janie,’ he said, ‘‘Janie! Are you all right?’

Jane looked along the platform and saw him. ‘Dad? Why are you here?’ She walked towards him shakily.

‘I came to find you,’ Alan said. ‘Oh God, Janie, what happened? Did Anna try to kill you?’

Jane touched the blood on her face. ‘Yes. She tried to shoot me but she missed. Then I threw her in front of a train I killed the other one, too.’ She smiled, a strange, shaky smile. ‘You said there was no justice in this life, didn’t you, Dad? Well, those two terrorists murdered five people, and took away your leg and. and now they’re dead! So there is some justice, Dad, isn’t there?’ Then her eyes were filled with tears, and she sat down, suddenly, on a platform seat.

‘That woman hated you, Dad,’ she whispered shakily, ‘really hated you.

Alan wheeled his chair close to her and held her hands in his. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘Anna hated everyone, not just me. But she doesn’t matter now, Janie. You’re alive! That’s all that matters to me. That’s all that matters in the world.’