Behind Rhonda something catches Judd’s eye. She turns to where he’s looking. ‘What?’
The colour drains from Judd’s face and he glances at the Australian. ‘Corey?’
‘Hmm?’
‘Remember the black chopper, the one Severson blew up?’
‘Yes.’
‘And how you thought you might have seen —’
‘A parachute?’ Corey studies him cheerlessly. ‘Why are you asking me this?’
‘You saw a parachute.’
‘How do you know?’
Judd points down the footpath. Twenty metres away Corey focuses on a man with blond hair wearing a trench coat. ‘Oh, damn it!’
Rhonda’s confused. ‘What’s going on? Who’s that —?’
‘Tango in Berlin.’ Judd and Corey say it together.
Rhonda studies the blond man, astonished. ‘That’s — Dirk? The hijacker? I thought he was dead.’
The German sweeps back the right side of the trench coat and draws out a sawn-off shotgun.
‘So did I.’ Judd turns to the crowd gathered by the cinema’s entrance. ‘Everybody down!’ They look at him like he’s mad, then they see the blond man swing the large shotgun towards Judd and they scatter to the four winds.
Judd moves fast, drags Rhonda, pushes Corey and kick-sweeps Spike behind a white Toyota parked on the roadway nearby.
The shotgun fires and the Toyota’s back window explodes. Shards of glass spray as they crouch behind the car’s boot. Judd can’t believe he’d been feeling grateful to this guy a minute ago.
Spike barks.
Corey turns to him with a hard whisper: ‘Does it look like I have the lucky bucket with me?’
Judd takes a breath, rises and scans the sidewalk to locate the German. He doesn’t see him but another blast of shotgun pellets rattles into the car’s roof. He ducks, mind racing. The whole world thinks he’s a steely-eyed missile man so this would be the perfect time to devise an ingenious solution and prove it to himself.
His hands go Rubik and he turns to the others. ‘Okay. I’ve got a plan.’