Another attempt was made to open it before Sotillo realised what had happened and banged on the door.
“What is the point of this, you stupid people?” he demanded. “You can’t escape!”
Neither Lafferty nor Sarah replied. Both of them were concentrating on keeping their weight against the bed-frame.
Sarah inclined her head to look at her watch. Lafferty didn’t ask why, although he did wonder. He couldn’t imagine anything less important in their current circumstances than what time it was. A tremendous crash at the door put the thought out of his head as Pallister and Mace took a running charge at it together. The door jerked open a few inches before the wedges and the weight of the barricade stopped it.
As Lafferty applied his full weight in an attempt to close it again, he saw either Pallister’s or Mace’s hand come through the gap and try to get some purchase on the edge of the door. He had a box of pump spares lying at his feet and, picking up one of the heavier components, a round, chromium-plated pump-body, he smashed it across the invading fingers. A yelp of pain was followed by a quick withdrawal of the hand. Lafferty and Sarah managed to close the door again, but the wedges had been displaced. Lafferty dropped down on his knees quickly to push them back into place. He was squeezing the last one into the crack when a vicious kick to the door caused it to move back an inch or two and caught his forefinger in the gap along the bottom. The skin was torn back from the base of his nail and it was his turn to cry out in pain. He got to his feet with his injured finger in his mouth and kicked the last wedge into place with his shoe.
“Are you all right?” asked Sarah anxiously.
“I’m OK,” replied Lafferty, briefly taking his finger out of his mouth to spit out blood.
“Get some tools!” shouted Sotillo outside the door.
There was a lull in the proceedings while either Mace or Pallister or both went off to find tools; then Sotillo spoke. “Why don’t you stop this foolishness? You know there’s no escape. Why don’t you just accept your fate and make it easy on yourselves? There will be no pain or suffering, I promise. A simple injection of a neurotoxic chemical and it will all be over. You won’t feel anything.”
Sarah whispered to Lafferty, “Personally, I don’t fancy a simple injection of a neurotoxic chemical. Do you?”
Lafferty admired Sarah’s bravery and wished he could match it. In the circumstances, all he could manage was a weak smile.
“But if you persist in this time-wasting nonsense,” continued Sotillo, his voice becoming harsher, “I might not be inclined to be so charitable. We could be talking about new dimensions in pain before I’m finished with you!”
Lafferty saw that this time Sarah had visibly paled. Somehow it seemed to give him courage. “Chin up!” he said. “We’ll give them a run for their money.”
Sarah smiled and said, “You’re a very special person, Ryan. In the circumstances I think I’m allowed to say that.”
Lafferty gave a slight nod.
“Maybe we should both he honest with each other?” suggested Sarah tentatively.
Lafferty, leaning against the barrier, held her gaze for a moment before saying, “Maybe it would be wrong to leave certain things unsaid, Sarah. I think you know that I’ve come to feel a lot for you. More than I should, perhaps, but I can’t deny it and I’m not ashamed of it.”
“Good,” said Sarah quietly. “I’m glad. It’s also mutual.” Lafferty could hear that Mace and Pallister were back outside the room. He and Sarah turned their attention back to the door and braced themselves. A metal object began rhythmically battering against the outer skin. Lafferty didn’t think it was an axe — it didn’t sound heavy enough — but he could hear the sound of splintering wood.
He watched as the inner surface of the door began to blister under the onslaught. A hole appeared and started to get bigger as the long metal spike Pallister was wielding ripped into the wood. Lafferty reached out to the wall and turned off the room light so that the opposition would not be able to see in through the hole. He, on the other hand, could see them as the hole got bigger. The jagged opening was the size of a tennis ball but it was getting bigger by the second.
When it reached the size of a football, Lafferty picked up another of the heavy, metal pump-bodies and waited his chance. He knew that pretty soon one of men outside must try to get an idea of what the barrier looked like. In the event, it was Pallister. He stopped working with the spike for a moment and his face suddenly filled the gap as he tried to see into the room. Lafferty let fly with the pump-body and it caught Pallister squarely between the eyes. There was a sickening crack and the man went down without a sound. Lafferty knew there was a very real chance that he would never get up again. He had put all his weight behind the throw.
Sotillo was furious. He shouted at Mace, telling him to continue with the spike before angrily confirming that Lafferty and Sarah would know what suffering was all about before he was through with them.
Lafferty had to fight off a sudden wave of hopelessness that swept over him. What they were doing was pointless. They couldn’t hold out much longer, and all they had achieved was the probable death of one man and the incitement of Sotillo to a sadistic rage. But there was no going back. They had to fight on to the bitter end. He armed himself with more pump spares and continued to hurl them through the hole in the door, but Mace was keeping well out of the firing line, using the spike from the side rather than head on. Lafferty was running out of ammunition. He looked about his feet but couldn’t really see anything useful in the darkness, and they couldn’t afford to turn the light on. One thing that did catch his attention was one of the power packs they had pushed against the door earlier. The light coming in through the hole in the door illuminated the words DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE along its front. It gave him an idea.
“Sarah!” Lafferty whispered. “Take over!” He pushed the box of spares over to Sarah with his foot and added, “Make them count.”
As Sarah let fly with her first missile, Lafferty found the connecting leads from the power pack and started to strip the ends off them with his teeth. When he was satisfied with the length of the bare wire he had created, he plugged the other ends, those fitted with jack plugs, into the power pack. He attached one of the bare ends to the metal bed frame, and then started to feel around the base of the wall for a plug socket. He found one but it was a good two metres from the door. Would the cable stretch? He started pulling the power pack towards the socket but found that the main cable was jammed below the base of the bed frame. It was half a metre short. Lafferty raised his eyes towards the ceiling and muttered through gritted teeth, “Give me a break!”
He tugged and pulled until sweat broke out on his face but the cable was jammed tight. “It’s no good!” he gasped, “I can’t budge it.”
“Only two left,” said Sarah anxiously, as she hurled another missile through the hole to clatter harmlessly off a wall outside. “Oh God, Ryan! There’s not going to be enough time!”
Lafferty looked up at her but couldn’t make out her face in the darkness. “Time for what?” he asked.
Sarah paused before replying, “I didn’t tell you, but when I went in to the residency earlier to change my clothes I telephoned Paddy Duncan. I told him where we were going and why. There’s a chance he’ll phone the police when he realises I haven’t returned. The longer we hold out, the more chance there is that help will come.”
“Why didn’t you say this earlier?” asked Lafferty.
“After what I said to you about being treated as the little woman I didn’t want to admit to being so scared that I told someone what we were going to do.”