Breaking Britain (Completed)

Chapter 55

  55
Sunday 6th January 2030
04:08

            'Will you just answer that phone or switch it off', NK1 said to the boy seated on the floor.

            NK1 had been engaged in some trivial conversation about a boy he had beaten up at a tube station. The wall mounted television was on silent, with flickering pictures of a blaze at Manchester prison. It was believed to have been triggered off by race battles, followed by riots. Some prisoners were believed to have escaped somehow, although they were unable to confirm this.

            Stiff looked at Razor. It wasn't as though he would normally look for permission to answer the phone from his friend and crew leader, but they were in someone else's home. In another crew's area, an opposing rival crew. This meant he had to show they were organized and would follow their leaders instructions, regardless of the outcome.

            Razor nodded, continuing the pretense.

            The phone rang again, Stiff got to his feet, looked at the number on the phone. It was the same number, one he didn't recognize. He headed out of the lounge passing Louis and Sunbite, who were carefully and with some trepidation heading in.

             He answered the mobile phone.

             'Hello?'

             'Oh hi', came an excited response of a female voice, 'is this Cayden? Cayden Tomlins?'

             'No....I mean yes', he was starting to regret answering the phone. No one called him Cayden anymore, not even his own mother. Not unless it was something official, which he always tried to avoid. No news was always good news, these days.

             'You're Cayden?'

             'Who's this?'

             'My name's Samantha, I'm a friend of your sister'

             'I think you've got the wrong person', he said, lowering his voice as Mrs Dean stepped out of the kitchen holding two plates of burgers. He pushed himself against the wall to enable her to get past. 'I don't have a sister'.

             Stiff shifted himself off the wall. Sunbite and Louis were looking at him, they had heard something about sister and it had caught their attention. Stiff wasn't in the mood to continue the conversation.

             'Don't hang up Cayden. It's your half sister, Lucy, I'm talking about'

             Stiff paused. He did have a half sister, even though he liked to pretend he didn't.

             'What does she want?'

             'Nothing......I mean it's not her. She's in trouble and I am too. I was hoping I'd get the number for your dad'

              Stiff laughed. 'Dad. I have no idea where that idiot is and I don't care to know', he was becoming inquisitive. 'What do you want with him?'

              Samantha took a while to answer. 'I was hoping.....well, you see, I have Lucy's baby...only I can't really look after her...I was hoping....'

              'Where the fuck's Lucy? She left the baby with you? Bloody typical, like father like daughter'

               'No, no. It's nothing like that', Stiff could hear Samantha's voice choking up.

               'What. What's it like?', he asked, attempting to remove the cynicism out of his voice.

                'You know everything that's been going on with the violence. Well lots of people are dying around here'

                For the first time, it concerned him that he had a sister he had never got to know.

                'Are you telling me Lucy's dead'

                'No. No. I mean I don't know. We went out tonight and she got kidnapped, along with two other friends'

                'And you have her daughter?'

                'Yes. That's it. I have Tillia....that's her name...Tillia.  Only I'm scared someone might come and take her away, cause she's black'

               'First of all, let's talk about Lucy. What did the police say about it?'

               'Nothing. They can't do anything. The whole place is in chaos. When I look out the window, I can see light in the distance and it's not street lights, it's people's houses being burnt down. I have two girls here.....', she stopped and Stiff could hear another female in the background, telling her not to say anything about them. 'It's just chaos, Cayden'

               'Okay. I'm sorry dad won't be able to help you on this. Even if we could get hold of him. He wouldn't care. The only person that he cares about, is himself', he went silent for a moment.

               'Cayden, you still there?'

               'Yes. I'm here.....Look, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm gonna come up to you', he heard a release of breath, as though Samantha hadn't breathed up to that point. 'Now, I won't be able to take the baby from you. I know nothing about babies. What I can do, is find Lucy, if she's still alive and protect you, until the army takes control'.

              'How will you get here?', she asked, skeptical of his promise.

              'By train, in the morning'

              'You don't get it. It's not safe out there'

              'You let me worry about that. Now give me your address'

              Stiff grabbed a pen that was sitting on a slim shelf above the hall radiator. He scribbled down Samantha's address on his hand and rung off.