The Recruit

40. Hall

Craddogh Church Hall was a madhouse. Eighty people with no air to breathe. Kids ran around screaming. Journalists kept asking Gladys Dunn for quotes and pictures, but the old lady needed rest. Michael Dunn threw a punch and got dragged away by police in a blaze of camera flashes.

The residents wanted to go back to Fort Harmony to get their stuff, but police cars blocked the road and nobody got through. The police said everything was being collected and would arrive in a few hours.

Clark had turned into a basket case. Sobbing for his brother and mum and screaming to any nearby cop that he was going to kill him first chance he got. Ash tried to calm him down, without much success.

"You're the first kid who's ever been nice to us," Clark said to Ash.

Ash felt bad. Clark wasn't his real friend. He'd used him to help with the mission.

On TV you knew who the baddies were and they got what they deserved at the end of the show. Now Ash realised baddies were ordinary people. They told jokes, made you cups of coffee, went to the toilet and had families who loved them.

Ash totted everyone up: Fire, World and Bungle were obviously bad guys for trying to kill everyone with anthrax. The oil company people were also bad for trashing the environment and abusing people in poor countries. The police were bad guys; they had a tricky job to do, but they seemed to enjoy throwing their weight around more than they should. The only good guys were the Fort Harmony residents and they'd all got chucked out of their homes.

Ash couldn't figure what he was himself. As far as he could tell, he'd stopped one small bunch of bad guys killing a big bunch of bad guys and as a result the good guys got chucked out of their homes by another bunch of bad guys. Did that make him good or bad? Ash only knew that thinking about it gave him a headache.

Ash left Clark with his family and went outside. There was no sign of Misty or Cathy. Ash didn't have his mobile and the village phone box had about twenty people queuing up, trying to find somewhere to stay now Fort Harmony was shut off. Ash realised he might be able to phone Misty or Sycamore from Joanna's house. He was sure Joanna's dad would be on duty with all that was going on.

Joanna and her dad stood by their garden gate in night clothes, watching the arguments and blue lights in the centre of the village.

"Hey," Ash said. Joanna gave Ash a smile that made him feel better. Ash was still wary of Sergeant Ribble after he'd caught them in Cathy's hut, but he sounded OK.

"What's going on up there?" Sergeant Ribble asked.

"Everyone's been chucked out of Fort Harmony," Ash said. "How come you're not involved? You're a policeman."

"That lot don't give me the time of day. I'm just the local bobby," Sergeant Ribble said. "As soon as they found the anthrax, the terrorist squad turned up and took everything off my hands."

"Can I use your phone?" Ash asked. "I've lost my aunt and my sister."

"Of course you can, son. Jojo will show you where the phone is."

Ash took off his boots and stepped into the house with Joanna. She was wearing slippers and a Daffy Duck nightie.

"Hi Jojo," Ash said, laughing.

"Shut up, Benny. Only my dad and big brothers call me that."

"I'll probably have to go back to London now," Ash said.

"Oh," Joanna said. Ash was glad she sounded upset. It meant Joanna liked him as much as he liked Joanna. She showed him the phone. It took a minute to remember Misty's mobile number.