Mind Games

Chapter Twenty-Seven

  A Breach of Security

  Rawlston grabbed for his radio as he ran down the corridor.

  “Security! This is Rawlston! Where’s the breach?” he demanded.

  At the main reception area, the two security guards who were now on duty were both stirred into activity. As one of them grabbed his baton and ran down the corridor, the other one was resetting the alarm on the console in front of him. The alarm died, and the guard immediately grabbed the desk mike and shouted into it.

  “Fire escape, ground floor, corridor A4, car park end!”

  Rawlston shouted back his instructions. “Send Hoskins! You get up to the road and try and head them off!”

  “Hoskins is on his way! And I’m gone!”

  Rawlston burst out of the open fire escape to see a white BMW screeching out of the car park. He immediately fired at it, but it disappeared around the corner of the building with only a few holes in the boot.

  By this time, Julia was already walking down Waterfront Quay heading towards Trafford Road. After she and Rawlston had gone their separate ways, Julia had quickly retrieved her coat and left the MedTec building by the main entrance. She had calmly walked past the two security guards at the front desk, said, “Good night,” and even found the time to smile at both of them as she passed. They had smiled back, and one of them had winked at her. Julia had gained a certain amount of pleasure from the knowledge that neither of the guards had been aware of the gun hidden under her coat.

  Julia had passed several other office buildings on Waterfront Quay as she hurried along, all of which were in darkness. She had reached the last of them, Telegraphic House, when the alarm went off inside the MedTec building behind her. It was too distant and too short-lived for Julia to notice it, but she did hear the car, and Rawlston firing at it. And when she turned, it was to see the white BMW hurtling towards her. Pulling the gun quickly from under her coat, Julia ran into the road in front of it. She held the automatic in front of her, aimed, and then....hesitated.

  “Hey! That’s my car!” she suddenly announced to no one in particular. Then she had to dive out of the way as the car almost ran her down. She landed in the flower beds outside Telegraphic House, rolled over and shouted, “Bitch!” after the car.

  The car went through the traffic lights at the end of Waterfront Quay when they were on red. There was a crescendo of car horns and screeching tyres before the white BMW disappeared among the traffic on Trafford Road.

  When Rawlston and the two security guards ran up to her, Julia was still lying among the flowers, propped up on one elbow. She didn’t look very pleased.

  “Are you alright?” Rawlston asked breathlessly.

  “Of course I am!” Julia replied tartly. “I’m just waiting for a bus!”

  One of the security guards looked down at Julia and said to Rawlston, “I didn’t know Miss Connors worked with you, sir.”

  “You still don’t,” Rawlston told him. “Get back inside, the pair of you. And make sure the building is secure.”

  The two men did as they were told. After all, Rawlston was Head of Security at MedTec.

  Rawlston now turned to Julia. “Come on!” he said, dragging her to her feet. “We’ve got to get after them!”

  “There’s no hurry,” Julia replied as she dusted herself off. “I know where they’re going.”

  “Oh, yes? Tell me where, then, genius?”

  “Tyler used me for his little experiment, so she’s got my memories, Sam. She’ll go to my house. It’s the last place she would expect us to look.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “She went straight for my car, didn’t she? Anyway, where else could she go? Hall’s place? Mum and dad’s?”

  “Alright,” Rawlston said. “But you better be right. It could be the last chance we get.”