Robyn looked horrified and we had to explain what had happened at Corrie’s. Eventually, though, she finished her story. She’d cut Lee’s trousers off while he lay there making rude jokes, but he was cold and pale and she thought he was in shock. She’d stopped the bleeding with a pressure bandage, wrapped him up warmly, then somehow found the courage to go back to City and Country Insurance and wait there nearly an hour, for Mr Clement. When he arrived, with a couple of bags of food, she bullied him into coming to look at Lee.
‘He wasn’t keen,’ she admitted, ‘but in the end he was good. He went into his surgery and came back with all kinds of bits and pieces, including painkiller injections. He gave Lee a needle, then inspected the wound. He said it was clean, and the bullet had gone right through, and if we kept it clean he’d probably be OK, but it’d take a while to heal. He stitched it up, then he taught me how to give injections, and on condition I didn’t bother him again he left some stuff with me – painkillers and disinfectant and a syringe and needles. I’ve given him two injections today. It was cool fun.’
‘Robyn!’ I nearly passed out myself, in amazement. ‘You faint when people even mention injections!’
‘Yes, I know,’ she said, with her head on one side as though she were a botanist studying herself. ‘It’s funny, isn’t it?’
‘What’s he like now?’ Homer asked. ‘Can he walk?’
‘Not too much. Mr Clement said he’s got to rest it till the stitches come out, in a week minimum. He showed me how to take them out.’
I just rolled my eyes. Robyn taking out stitches! There was no point even commenting.
‘Was there any sign of Lee’s family?’
‘No. And the place was a mess. Windows broken, tables and chairs smashed. And the flat upstairs had been ransacked. It’s hard to know whether there’d been a fight, or whether the soldiers did it for fun.’
‘How’s Lee reacting to all this?’
‘He couldn’t get upstairs, because of his leg, so I had to describe it to him. Then he’d think of something else that he wanted to know about, and I’d have to run up the stairs to look for it. I went up and down those stairs a lot of times. He was pretty upset though, about everything: his family, the flat, the restaurant, his leg. But he was a bit better tonight. Getting some colour in his face. That was about three hours ago. I’ve been sitting here a long time, waiting for you guys. I was getting slightly worried.’
‘You were meant to wait on the hill behind the house,’ I said.
‘No I wasn’t! It was here! That’s what we said!’
‘No! It was the hill!’
‘Listen, we agreed we’d ...’
It was crazy. We were having an argument. Homer said, in a tired voice, ‘Belt up. We’ll just have to make better arrangements next time. Anyway Ellie, when we were talking about it before, you couldn’t remember whether it was the house or the hill.’
There was a pause. Then Homer continued. ‘We’re going to have to get him out. They’ll find him pretty quickly there. The more settled these people get, the more they’ll organise themselves, and the more they’ll start getting tighter control of everything. They might be tolerating guys like Mr Clement for now, but he won’t last long. These people showed at Corrie’s how serious they are.’
We sat there, in silent agreement, three minds working on one topic: how to get Lee away from Barker Street despite his wounded leg.
‘One of the biggest problems is that Barker Street seems to crawl with soldiers, compared to the rest of town, anyway,’ Homer added.
‘We need a vehicle,’ Robyn said helpfully.
‘Well whoopiedoo,’ I said, unhelpfully.
‘What about a silent vehicle?’ said Homer. ‘It’d be hard to drive a car in there without us all getting shot up.’
‘Let’s brainstorm,’ Robyn said.
‘Great,’ I said. ‘I’ll get the textas and butcher’s paper.’
‘Ellie!’ Robyn said.
‘Strike two,’ Homer said to me. ‘Three strikes and you’re out.’
I don’t know what was wrong with me. Just tired I guess. And I tend to get a bit sarcastic when I’m tired.
‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I’ll get serious. What was the last nomination? Silent vehicles. OK. Golf carts. Shopping trollies. Wheelbarrows.’
I was quite impressed with myself, and the others were definitely impressed.
‘Ellie!’ Robyn said again, but in quite a different tone to the last time.
‘Prams. Pushers,’ said Homer.
The ideas started flying.
‘Furniture on wheels.’
‘Pedicabs.’
‘Horse-drawn vehicles.’
‘Toboggans. Skis. Sleighs. Forklift trucks.’
‘Those things, what are they called, on wheels, that people served afternoon tea from in the old days.’
‘Yeah, I know what you mean.’
‘Billy carts.’
‘Beds on wheels. Hospital beds.’
‘Stretchers.’
‘Wheelchairs.’
Like with the cap of the petrol tank on the ride-on mower we’d been ignoring the obvious all this time. Homer and I looked at Robyn. ‘Could he ride in a wheelchair?’
She considered. ‘I guess so. I think it’d hurt him, but if we could elevate his leg and make certain we didn’t bump it ... And,’ she added with eyes gleaming, ‘I could give him another shot.’
‘Robyn! You’re dangerous!’
‘What else was possible, from the things we said?’
‘A wheelbarrow’s possible, but again it’d have to hurt him. From our point of view it’s easier than a lot of things. A stretcher would be good for Lee, but we’re all pretty tired. I don’t know how far we could carry him.’
‘A forklift would be the most fun. I think they’re easy to drive. And the bullets would just bounce off it.’
Something in Homer’s last sentence flicked a switch in my brain.
‘Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way.’
‘Yes?’
‘Well, we’re thinking of little quiet sneaky things. We could go to the other extreme. Rock up in something so indestructible that we didn’t give a damn who saw or heard us.’
Robyn sat up. ‘Such as?’
‘I don’t know, a bulldozer.’
‘Oh!’ Robyn said. ‘One of those trucks with the shovel in front. We could use the shovel as a shield.’
Suddenly the three of us got very excited.
‘All right,’ said Homer. ‘Let’s look at this carefully. Problem one, driver. Ellie?’
‘Yes, I think so. We’ve got the old Dodge at home, for taking hay round the paddocks and stuff. Driving that’s just like driving a big car. It’s got a two-speed diff but that’s cool. I couldn’t say for certain until I saw it, but it should be OK.’
‘Problem two then. Where would we get it?’
Robyn interrupted. I’d forgotten she hadn’t seen Homer in action at Corrie’s.
‘Homer, are you on something?’
‘Sorry?’
‘You keep going like this, you’ll lose your reputation. Aren’t you meant to be just a wild and crazy guy?’
He laughed, but then went straight back to being serious. Robyn made a face at me and I winked back. ‘So, problem two?’
‘Well, the Council Depot’s the obvious place. It’s what, three blocks from the restaurant. It’s probably been broken open, but we should take bolt cutters in case. The keys to the vehicles would be in an office there somewhere, again assuming they haven’t been looted.’
‘All right. Sounds logical. Problem three. Suppose we pick Lee up. We can’t drive to Ellie’s in the truck, obviously. And Lee can’t use a bike. How do we get him to Ellie’s?’
This was the toughest one. No one had any easy answers. We sat staring at each other, turning ideas over in our minds. Finally Homer spoke up.
‘OK, let’s come back to that one. Let’s look at other details. The plan’s basically a good one. It’s got the big advantage of surprise, plus it puts us in a position of strength. If we had Lee in a wheelchair or a wheelbarrow and we were pushing him down the street and a patrol appeared, what could we do? Push harder? Dump Lee? We’d be in such a weak position. But if Robyn goes back to the restaurant, gets Lee ready, gets him close to the street, gives him acupuncture and whips his appendix out and anything else she feels like to fill in time, Ellie and I could get the truck, burn down the street, stop, throw you guys in, accelerate and go like hell. If we do it between three and four am, that should be when they’re at their weakest.’