He bound towards the crew’s desk and said, ‘Are there cameras on board? Can I see what’s happening?’
‘Sure.’
A steward set up the monitor and Troy watched the usual chaos as passengers found their seats and pushed hand luggage into overhead lockers. One of the cabin crew was helping Melanie’s mother into her seat on the left-hand side of the aeroplane. In a few minutes, though, everyone was in place and ready for take-off.
There was no sign of Lexi in the lounge or on the aircraft.
The plane broke free of its passenger-loading bridge and slowly reversed away from the terminal. Then it spun round to face the other way and began the long taxi to the runway.
‘What’s happening?’ Troy muttered to himself, wiping the sweat from his brow. ‘I’m sure she …’
He watched on screen as two stewards walked down each aisle to check that all the travellers had buckled their safety belts properly across their laps. Near the camera that Troy was monitoring, Sergio Treize and his hostage were sitting next to each other on the right-hand side of the fuselage, well away from Melanie’s mother. Melanie was on the inside and Sergio occupied the aisle seat. The remnants of a smile were still on his face.
But then Troy saw the crew member who was coming up behind him to inspect his seat belt. Troy gulped as he recognized Lexi in the airline’s uniform. Immediately, he realized what she had planned. She’d decided to tackle him once he’d put his hostage to one side and fastened himself into a seat. She must have calculated that she’d have enough of an advantage because he’d be locked into a cramped space and taken by surprise.
At that moment, though, Troy remembered Terabyte reporting that Sharon Angie had bought books on martial arts. He wished he could warn Lexi that Sergio Treize could be an expert fighter. Yet there was no time and no way of whispering in her ear. He could only gaze at a screen and pray.
Lexi stepped forward and her clenched fist came out of the blue.
SCENE 31
Even as the plane taxied away from the terminal, Sergio Treize was alert. His seat belt wasn’t buckled. He had laid it across his lap so it looked fastened, but he was prepared for any attempt to arrest him. When he saw Lexi’s fist, he lurched instinctively to the side. His lightning-fast reaction saved him from the full force of her punch. Athletically, he sprang into the aisle and faced her.
Lexi knew already that he was a formidable opponent. She had recognized the immobilizing punch that he’d used on Melanie’s mother. Inhaling, she adopted her favourite sidewise high stance.
With superior height and reach, Sergio unleashed a brutal strike aimed at her jaw.
Lexi put up a knife-hand block and used her momentum to chop at the side of his neck. She knew the hit would have been painful but it wouldn’t disable him.
He twisted and directed a kick at her upper right leg. She slid her foot across the limited floor space to dodge the blow and, with practised timing, slipped her right hand under his heel and thrust it upwards. She hoped to make him fall flat on his back, but Sergio was cunning and slippery. He lurched backwards but nimbly kept on his feet.
Steadying himself, he smiled and said, ‘You’re good.’ Immediately, he launched a straight punch to her solar plexus.
Lexi stepped to the left and her thigh crashed into the side of a seat. Impeded, she couldn’t deflect the blow with the outside of her right arm. For a moment, she thought that the strike hadn’t injured her. But she soon realized that she was struggling to breathe. She did her best not to show her discomfort, though. She didn’t want to encourage him.
She parried his next blow but a knife-hand strike came crashing into her upper right arm. Straightaway, she felt the damage to her muscle.
With a twitch of his head, Sergio sneered. ‘But not good enough.’
He allowed her to land a punch on his body to show that she had lost much of the power in her right arm.
Lexi glanced beyond him and knew what she had to do. She could take him if only she could drive him backwards again. She relaxed her posture, feigning an attitude of defeat, because this time she did want to encourage him. He came at her with a low kick. She parried it and, surprising him, moved inside his defences, pummelling him with short stabs. They were never going to overwhelm him. They didn’t have to. Her attack simply needed to be uncomfortable and annoying.
It worked because he shuffled his legs, moving away from her flurry of blows.
And that’s when he fell over Melanie who had curled up into a tight ball on the floor of the aisle.
His head cracked against the foot of one of the seats. Lexi jumped over Melanie and, to make sure, delivered a knock-out punch to his right temple. It shut down his brain in an instant.
Straightaway, Lexi turned to Melanie and asked, ‘Are you all right?’
The girl nodded.
‘Thanks, Melanie. Nice move. I remember it from school. Always good to use on a bully.’
‘Nasty man.’
Lexi took Melanie’s hand and, as the passengers clapped and cheered, took her to her still groggy mother. ‘There was a mix-up in seat numbers,’ Lexi said with a grin. ‘I think Melanie should be next to you.’ Then she shouted to everyone, ‘Sorry, folks. We’re going back to the terminal. You’ve got one too many passengers on board.’
SCENE 32
Security staff had boarded the aeroplane and taken Sergio Treize to the airport holding cell. At Lexi’s request, his clothing and a sample of DNA were taken while he was out cold. It was an hour before he regained consciousness and another hour before a doctor gave Troy and Lexi the go-ahead to interview him.
Troy was ragged and exhausted but eager to talk to the man with so many different names. ‘You don’t look like a Sharon,’ he began.
Wearing a prison uniform, Sergio ignored the comment. Instead, he stared at Lexi. Almost snarling, he said, ‘You’ll be hurting.’
‘Yes, but I can walk out of here after we’ve had a chat. You’re not going anywhere.’
‘What tripped me up?’
‘Never underestimate little girls. Resourceful creatures. And vindictive if you get on their wrong side.’ Lexi looked down at his shoes and said, ‘Nice trainers. I checked out the tread while you were sleeping it off.’
Troy took over. ‘The same prints turned up at three graves next to Langhorn Reservoir.’
Sergio laughed. ‘Well done. You’ve just proved that I go fishing there sometimes.’
‘And they were at Olga Wylie’s place.’
‘Who’s Olga Wylie?’
Troy smiled. ‘She’s the person you and Ely Eight killed with a heart mix-up. Ely’s admitted it — and told us about you. Olga’s also the woman you burgled. You left a sapphire from your ring in her study.’
‘A stone that could have been from my ring turns up at a burgled house? It could have come from any bit of jewellery in the same range. How does that prove I’ve committed murder? You don’t have any real evidence. Nothing.’ Sergio hesitated and added, ‘Just the ramblings of a crazy old surgeon who lost his last job because he was unreliable and forgetful. Not an ideal witness.’
‘If you hadn’t burnt down Ely’s house, we’d have sown it up by now,’ Troy replied with an unconcerned shrug. ‘So, we’re going to have to give it a bit more welly.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘My partner’s got a way with words,’ Lexi explained. ‘I think he means we’ve got to try harder.’
‘No problem,’ Troy said to Sergio. ‘I’ll get you moved to a police cell and in twenty-four hours we’ll speak again. That’s all we’ll need to knock you off your perch.’