Rat opened a door to a luxurious marble bedroom. The huge gold taps were sculpted like swan heads, there was a separate shower and his and hers toilet behind slatted wooden doors, "Hey look, you ought to take some notes. Your bathroom is rank," I point at the neat niche and organised products on Joel's sink, "Oh shut up, that's what I have you for, you always help me clean up," Marc grins, "I'm not your slave doofus," I slap his arm. Rat made sure there was no one except his father inside the bedroom, we followed behind him and he gasped loudly, "Dad!" He runs up, "Sssssh," Mark said irritable, "Leave him be. What are you gawping for?" Marc furrows his brows, "He's always pale, but not this pale, and someone's taken the oxygen tube out of his nose," Rat replied anxiously, I gulped and put my hand ot his forehead, "Stone cold," I say quietly, shuddering a little at the thought of touching a dead body, "Must've died at least an hour ago," Marc says blandly, "Bloody hell," Rat says weakly, taking a step back from his dead father, "Are you okay Rat?" I ask gently and pat his shoulder, "He was totally dependant on that oxygen. I bet Susie waited for him to fall asleep and just pulled the tube out. I guess that solves the mystery of why they're in such a big hurry to leave," He gulps, "Whatever, Susie might come back, let's get out of here," Marc says, I was furious, "Marc! For God's sake, he just found out his dad died, can't you give him a sec?" I angrily say, Marc's eyes soften, "Hey, sorry I didn't mean it like that," He pats Rat's back, "Nah, Marc's right, he never gave a toss about me anyway, let's roll, and it's fine, you don't have to say sorry," He turns to Marc, close to tears. I comforted him as best as I could, Marc radioed Chloe, "I can only guess that it's a deliberate distraction: people will concentrate on Susie stealing millions and murdering her husband, instead of making links between the missing money and Help Earth. We might have even fallen for it if we didn't already know the score." I heard Cloe in my comm, "We're setting off for the vehicle compound right now, we should be okay: we've got an hour until the choppers arrive," Marc replies looking at his watch. The three of us piled out of Joel's room and ran along the corridor towards the front of the residence. "This is so bad, The Spider's a nutter. When she finds out that my dad's dead and Susie's legged it, those turrets are gonna be locked down tight. I wouldn't be surprised if she flips out and says it's the end of the world and starts handing out guns and ammo," Rat says anxiously, "Sensible," I nodded, "A bunch of religious flakes versus Special Forces commandos. I know who my money's on," Marc stares ahead. Rat sped towards the glass-walled lounge at the front of the residence. He unlocked one of the french doors and led us around an outdoor swimming pool and up to a set of high metal railings st the edge, "This is a tricky climb but it saves us a few minutes," He scampers over the metal rails with each hand, "Can you give me a boost? I don't really fancy slicing my hand open." I look at Marc, he shrugged, I took a few paces back and ran at his open palms, I stomped my foot on them and he propelled me up, Rat justed stared at us like an idiot, "The hell..." He muttered and Marc made his way over. We heard a the jet entire roar at full throttle on the runway less than a kilometre away, we ran across the baked earth and shimmied under tangled low shrubs until we reached a paved path towards a giant church at the centre of the Ark. I was a few degrees cooler than the middle of the day but the sun blasted us in the eyes and insects were at their most annoying. We went to a brisk walk, the paths were busy and our youth and school kit earned them us a few odd looks, everyone knew we were boarders but we should be scheduled to be playing games in the exercise yard at this time in the evening, "Shouldn't we use the tunnels?" I ask, "Keep cool, if anything happens, we just say we're running an errand for Susie," Rat says discretely. We set foot to the vehicle compound, the changeover between evening service and recreational activity was now complete and the area of the compound was dead quiet. The only two people on the path were coming towards us: two men and the unmistakably reedy figure of The Spider in a hurry, I felt my breath hitch and I stepped a little closer to Marc, I could also feel him hold his breath, ready to break out in a fight if needed but they just steamed past us, "The Spider's got eyeballs everywhere, she'll have heard that Susie packed up a ton of luggage and took off in that jet," Rat turns to us, "Remember in the hallway earlier? She was going on about that bank account and Susie said, 'Why don't you go and ask your father?' I bet that's where she's headed right now." I say to him, exhaling my breath, "And she's gonna find out that Joel's dead," Rat finishes my sentence, "Tits. How fast can she lock the place down once she finds out?" Marc asks Rat, "In the time it takes to make two phone calls to the guards inside the turrets." He says, "Hilarious," I laughed sarcastically, "Shit, we had an hour. Now we've only got ten to fifteen minutes before we're fucked," Marc turns down to me, I nodded, "Run," We say at the same time "Definitely," Rat answered, "We need the keys to the truck," Marc yelled, as we broke into a sprint, "I know that Ernie hangs them up somewhere inside the office, there's a key cabinet inside Rumble's office," Rat nods, "Who?" Marc asks, "It's my nickname for the evil cow that runs the office, hate her," Rat grins, it took two minutes to get to the office building, Marc kicked the door but it didn't budge, they've locked it for the night, "Pendant," He opens and closes his hand, I snapped my necklace John gave me off and passed it to him, he flicked a small, almost invisible switch on the side and a miniature version of a lock gun protruded out the side, "Sick, you had that on you the entire time?" Rat turns to me, I silently nodded, a click was heard and the door swung open, "Bingo," Marc grinned, "I need to get me one of those," Rat stared at the small pendant. We opened the door and came into the room with the key cabinet, "Pendant," He says again, I pass it back to him and he heard the click of the lock, he grabbed a set of keys with a little Toyota oval on it, "Got it," he says. We run back out into the compound, we slip between cars and stepped across the open tarmac to the dusty Toyota truck, Rat and I piled into the passenger seat, Marc slammed the door behind him, "Wait, babe. You serious on driving this thing? You say you're the best at driving but this is a whole damn truck," I stare at the half-metre steering wheel, "Oh please, I've had to drive a bus before," He grins and turned the ignition key, he pulled out and started step on it, we got out of the canopy and turned onto the three-hundred-metre slip road that led up to the turret. It was starting to get dark so it took a second to realise that the drawbridge on the outside was being winched up by its thick chain, "No way!" I stomped both my feet on the dash, "Leg it, now," Marc says, we nodded and followed him out.
We stayed low for a while, staying in our hiding spot, "Marc, do you copy?" I heard Chloe's voice in our ear, "Loud and clear. What's going on, are they still coming?" He touches his ear, "Looks that way, eight on the dot, what's your situation?" She asks, "Same as. Elanor put on an announcement over the Tannoy that Joel died and told everyone to protect themselves from a possible attack by devils. Everyone here is tooled up and running around dressed like Action Man. When they hear the choppers they'll think it's the bloody apocalypse," He replies, I snickered, "What kind of weapons?" She asks, "Automatic rifles mostly. AK-47s, M16 carbines. There's heavier stuff being set up inside the turrets: twenty-millimetre cannons and rocket-propelled grenades," He says, Rat's eyebrows shot up, he was surprised he knew so much about guns, "Where are you now?" She asks, "We're in a classroom on the first floor of the adult education centre. Rat took us here because it's deserted: it's been mothballed since they stopped letting guests inside the Ark," He replies, "Okay, can you find somewhere with better cover, like an underground bunker or something?" She was worried, "Yeah, Rat says there's a bunch of tunnels right under here. But we won't be able to see what's going on once we're down there," He nods, "I wouldn't worry about that, we've got total communication breakdown. The Special Forces commander won't listen to me and the ASIS officers up there haven't been briefed on the CHERUB mission. In the end, I lost my rag and ended up swearing at them," She sighs, "That's not like you," I touch my ear, "Sheer bloody frustration," He groaned, "Just get yourselves undercover. Keep calm, keep safe and don't try anything stupid. Safety third," She says, I giggled, "Oh why would I? I've got precious cargo in my hands," Marc grins at me.
The emergency sirens inside the Ark began to whine as soon as the helicopters were heard. A minute later it cut to a crackly Tannoy announcement from Elenor Regan. "Angels in the southern turrets have sighted helicopters. My father's death has emboldened the devils and encouraged them to attack. They will soon be upon us. Stand firm, defend your positions and remember that our strength comes from God," We heard, "I bet those brave words come from about four levels below ground," Rat grinned, the sky was black but you could tell the helicopters were close from the vibrating glass, I was jumping up and down, trying to get all the jitters out, "Come here," Marc held his arms out, I leap into them, "Can we make it down to the tunnels in time?" Marc asks Rat, "Depends how long we've got," He shrugs, "We'll have to head out of this building and run about thirty metres, then down a flight of steps," He says, "I'm not betting my life on that," I look up at Marc, he nodded, "Me neither, the last thing we want is to get caught out in the open. We're better staying put," He says, we ducked instinctively as we heard the helicopters skim the roof, two more came into view, one of the helicopters turned on their spotlight, flooding the paved area with light, I clutched onto Marc's arm tighter. As the chopper moved within ten metres of the ground, an orange streak roared out from the church and hit it from point blank range. The blast knocked three men out of the open doorway as a blaze erupted inside the cockpit, "Back up!" Marc yelled, he knew the window would shatter if the helicopter exploded, we dove under the nearest desk, Rat copied, he held my head down tight, he braved a glance, the flames were out and the clouds of fire extinguishing powder billowed out of the helicopters doorways. Apparently the helicopter had it's own fire protection system but the pilot was flying blind and had no option but to pull up, that left the three men on their own, two were engulfed in flames and didn't move, the third rolled around frantically in the dirt trying to extinguish his burning uniform. More helicopters flew down, another missile fired and it hit its tail rudder, the other two choppers flew out, leaving the out of control helicopter on its own, two more rockets slammed home as it tried to pull up, one must've fired the fuel tank as the sky lit up in orange, I felt Marc pull my head down and hold me tight. A deafening slam was followed by a shockwave that blew out hundreds of panes of glass across the Ark, deadly shards sprayed across the room, the sudden change of air pressure made our ears pop, if we hadn't taken cover, we'd be sliced to pieces, "We're okay! Rat?" Marc shouted, "Okay!" He shouted back, we regrouped, our ears were ringing, "You okay?" Marc lifted his arm from my head, I nodded, wincing at the ringing in my ear, "I know darl, it'll hurt for a little while longer, just put up with it until we get underground," He kissed by ear, that's when we realised that this was just the beginning.
