‘No man born can harm me. Hecate promised me I’ll be chief commissioner until Bertha comes to get me. You can say a lot about Hecate, but he keeps his word. Relax. Tourtell will give in.’ Macbeth looked at Kasi, who sat quietly with his back to the pole, staring into the distance. ‘What can you see, Seyton?’
‘People have gathered up by Bertha. They look like police officers and civilians. A few automatic weapons, some rifles and handguns. Shouldn’t be much of a problem if they attack with those.’
‘Can you see any grey coats?’
‘Grey coats? No.’
‘And your sector, Olafson?’
‘None here either, sir.’
But Macbeth knew that they were there. Watching over him.
‘Have you heard of Tithonos, Seyton?’
‘Nope. Who’s he?’
‘A Greek. Lady told me about him. I looked him up. Eos was this goddess of the dawn and she stole a young lover, a pretty ordinary guy called Tithonos. Made sure the boss himself, Zeus, gave the guy eternal life, like her. The guy didn’t ask for it, he just had it forced on him. But the goddess had forgotten to ask for eternal youth for the guy. Do you understand?’
‘Maybe, but I don’t understand where you’re going with this, sir.’
‘Everything disappears, everyone else dies, but there’s Tithonos rotting away in his old age and loneliness. He hasn’t been given anything, the opposite in fact — he’s in prison, his eternal life is a bloody curse.’
Macbeth got up so quickly he felt giddy. This was just gloom and a hangover from the dope talking. He had a town lying at his feet, and soon it would be irrevocably his, only his, and he could have his every slightest wish fulfilled. Then all he would need to think about were desires and pleasures. Desires and pleasures.
Duff ran a finger over the crack in the base in front of Bertha’s nose. Heard Malcolm’s voice: ‘Sorry, let me through!’
He looked up and saw Malcolm forcing his way through the crowd up to the top of the steps.
‘Did you hear that too?’ he asked, out of breath.
‘Yes,’ Caithness said. ‘I thought the roof was going to come down. Felt like an underground test explosion.’
‘Or an earthquake,’ Duff said, pointing to the crack.
‘Looks like a bigger turnout than I’d planned,’ Malcolm said, scanning the people who had gathered at the foot of the steps behind the barricade of police cars and a big red fire engine. ‘Are all these people firemen and police officers?’
‘No,’ said a man coming up the steps. Malcolm examined his black uniform.
‘Naval captain?’
‘Pilot,’ said the little man. ‘Fred Ziegler.’
‘What’s a pilot doing here?’
‘I heard Kite on the radio last night, rang around and heard rumours about what was going to happen here. Tell me what I can do.’
‘Have you got a weapon?’
‘No.’
‘Can you shoot?’
‘I was in the marines for ten years.’
‘Good. Go to the man in the police uniform down there and he’ll give you a rifle.’
‘Thank you.’ The pilot put three fingers to his white cap and left.
‘What does Tourtell say?’ Duff asked.
‘Capitol has been informed about the hostage,’ Malcolm said. ‘But they can’t help us until an arrest warrant has been issued this afternoon.’
‘Jesus, there are people’s lives at risk here.’
‘One life. That doesn’t qualify for federal intervention unless our chief commissioner requests it.’
‘Bloody politics! And where’s Tourtell now?’ Duff stared to the east. At the edge of the mountain the pale blue sky was getting redder and redder.
‘He went to the radio studio,’ Caithness said.
‘He’s going to declare a state of emergency,’ Malcolm said. ‘We have to attack Macbeth now while we can still act under the mayor’s orders. As soon as a state of emergency’s declared we’ll be lawless revolutionaries and none of these people will be with us.’ He nodded towards the crowd.
‘Macbeth has barricaded himself in,’ Caithness said. ‘People’s lives will be lost.’
‘Yes.’ Malcolm put the megaphone to his mouth. ‘My good men and women! Take up your positions!’
The crowd ran to the barricade at the foot of the steps. Rested their weapons on car roofs, took cover behind the SWAT armoured car and the fire engine and aimed at the Inverness.
Malcolm pointed the megaphone in the same direction. ‘Macbeth! This is Deputy Chief Commissioner Malcolm speaking. You know, and we know, you’re in a hopeless situation. All you can achieve is to defer the inevitable. So release the hostage and give yourself up. I’ll give you one, I repeat, one minute.’
‘What did he say?’ Seyton shouted.
‘He’s giving me a minute,’ Macbeth said. ‘Can you see him?’
‘Yes, he’s standing at the top of the steps.’
‘Olafson, take your rifle and shut Malcolm up.’
‘Do you mean—’
‘Yes, I mean exactly that.’
‘All hail Macbeth!’ Seyton laughed.
‘Listen,’ Macbeth said.
Duff alternated between looking at the mountain, his watch and the men around him. His elbows and shoulders twitched with nerves. They were shifting position because of his knees and calves, which had started to shake. Apart from the six SWAT volunteers and some of the other policemen, the crowd was made up of people with ordinary jobs in accounting offices and fire stations, who had never fired a shot in anger. Or been shot at. And yet they had come here. They were willing, despite their inadequacy, to sacrifice everything. He counted down the final three seconds.
Nothing happened.
Duff exchanged glances with Malcolm and shrugged.
Malcolm sighed and lifted the megaphone to his mouth.
Duff hardly heard the bang.
Malcolm staggered back, and the megaphone fell to the ground with a clang.
Duff and Fleance reacted at once, throwing themselves over Malcolm and covering him as he fell to the ground. Duff felt for blood and a pulse.
‘I’m fine,’ Malcolm groaned. ‘I’m fine. Up you get. He hit the megaphone. That was all.’
‘When you said shut him up, I thought you meant permanently,’ Seyton shouted. ‘Now they’ll think we’re weak, sir.’
‘Wrong,’ Macbeth said. ‘Now they know we mean business, but we’re sane. If we’d killed Malcolm we’d have given them an excuse to attack us with the fury of righteousness. Now they’ll still hesitate.’
‘I think they’re going to attack anyway,’ Olafson said. ‘Look, there’s our armoured car. It’s coming towards us.’
‘Well, that’s different. A chief commissioner is allowed to defend himself. Seyton?’
‘Yes?’
‘Let the Gatling girls speak.’
Duff peeped from behind Bertha and followed the lumpen armoured car — known as a Sonderwagen — as it made its way across the square towards the Inverness. Thick, heavy diesel smoke drifted up from the vehicle’s exhaust. German engineering, steel plates and bulletproof glass. Ricardo’s plan followed usual tactics. The six SWAT volunteers would drive up to the entrance in the Sonderwagen, dismount to fire tear-gas canisters through the windows, then break down the doors and storm the building wearing gas masks. The critical point was when they emerged from the armoured car to fire the tear gas. This would take only seconds, but in those seconds they needed covering fire from the others.
Malcolm’s walkie-talkie crackled, and they heard Ricardo’s voice.
‘Covering fire in three... two... one...’
‘Fire!’ Malcolm roared.
It sounded like a drum roll as the weapons fired from the barricade. From an all-too-small drum, Duff thought. And the sound was drowned by a rising howl from the other side.