Rowan sat behind the breaker and peeped around one of the posts so that he would not be seen by the patrolmen. He watched David and Zordar board the patrol boat. They both had their hands in the air to show the patrolmen that they were going to give themselves up. He wondered how they planned to take over the boat. Rowan had been watching the guards for ages; they regularly patrolled the deck and were bound to spot David and Zordar approaching. The two patrolmen were in full combat dress and looked indestructible. David didn’t look like he could fight; he carried far too much weight and wasn’t fit. Zordar didn’t look strong enough to win a fight either.
Another thought sent a shiver down Rowan’s spine. Perhaps David and Zordar would be shot dead. It wasn’t uncommon for escaped lifers or wasters to be killed if they were caught in the Channel. Rowan had never seen anyone get shot before. If they scanned Zordar’s heel, they would know he was a prisoner and would not show any mercy.
Rowan brought his knees under his chin as he watched David and Zordar board the boat and waited to see what was going to happen. If everything went wrong then he would have to get across the Channel himself. He looked apprehensively at the expanse of sea ahead of him. If he hadn’t nearly drowned in the river the other day, he might have tried to swim across the Channel. But he knew he wouldn’t try that now; he had lost his confidence.
One of the patrolmen rushed out onto the deck and immediately seized Zordar and brought him down to the floor. Everyone looked on in horror. Something had gone wrong. David was supposed to link up with Zordar to protect him with his force field but he had been distracted by one of the guards coming from behind them - David did not have a chance to protect Zordar.
The other guard tried to punch David in the side but this had no effect as David had managed to shield himself with his force field. The patrolman looked bemused and tried again. His colleague was having trouble holding Zordar and asked for assistance from the officer who was trying to capture David. Soon Zordar was cuffed and thrown face down on the floor and their attention turned back to David. Unable to stop him, David walked over to Zordar and bent down and touched his cuffs. They flew open so Zordar was able to free his hands, David helped Zordar up, the guards were now unable to touch Zordar as David was able to protect him. Zordar looked angrily at the guard who had cuffed him and without warning lunged at the patrolman, barging into him with his shoulder, furious for the rough treatment he had received, but totally forgot to maintain contact with David to protect himself. The patrolman seized Zordar and in one easy move had him down on the floor again, holding Zordar’s arm behind his back and put a gun to his head.
Rowan shut his eyes. He did not want to witness murder. It was OK watching a film but he really did not want to see it for real. He wanted to scream and shout to stop the inevitable from happening. Then he heard the dull thud of a pellet entering Zordar’s head and heard Zordar cry out in pain. The silence afterwards was as painful to witness as the moment of impact. Rowan opened his eyes and saw David on his knees looking at Zordar. He had not reached him in time.
Rowan crawled over to Kayleb, Cornwall and Indigo. ‘What should we do now?’ he asked them. But everyone was too shocked to speak.
Kayleb looked at Zordar without blinking, watching to see if there was any movement. He really couldn’t believe that David would let something like this happen. David still held the men at bay and then slowly he stood up and faced them. David put out his hands to allow one of the patrolmen to cuff him. Everyone watching from the beach whispered to each other anxiously. Why was David turning himself in? What should they do now?
‘What on earth is he doing? My God, he’s lost his marbles!’ said Indigo.
‘I’m not so sure,’ said Kayleb. ‘Look!’ whispered Kayleb, nodding towards the boat. ‘The guard that has cuffed David can’t remove his hands from David’s wrists.’
Everyone watched as the officer struggled to pull his hands away from David and found that he was unable to move his feet from the deck. The second guard tried to help and his hands, too, stuck to the cuffs and his feet to the deck.
‘I think David is in control now and we’re safe to go down to the boat,’ called Kayleb. ‘He seems to have frozen them somehow but I’m sure David is suffering. It must take a lot of energy to do that. Come on, let’s go and help him.’
‘Yes,’ said Cornwall. ‘I’ll go and get the others.’
‘Do you think David will be able to help Zordar?’ Indigo asked.
‘I don’t know,’ said Kayleb sadly. ‘I hope so.’
Rowan climbed into the boat and tried not to look at Zordar’s face. Long ago a friend who had lived next door to him had fallen from his apartment window and had died. Rowan remembered seeing his friend hit the ground. He could remember seeing his friend’s lifeless eyes staring up at him. Rowan didn’t want to add another dead person’s face to his collection. He wondered why a body looked so alien and forbidding; it was almost as if the person who had died had become someone else. Rowan shivered. He would keep his distance from Zordar.
‘Rowan,’ said David. ‘Go and get some cuffs from the cabin or something to bind these two up. I can’t hold them for much longer.’
Rowan easily found several pairs of wrist and ankle cuffs and took them out to David. David nodded towards the two patrolmen, gesturing Rowan to cuff them. Rowan could see that David was struggling to maintain the magnetic force field. Rowan clipped the cuffs onto each patrolman, and they glared at him with angry eyes. Their mouths were closed and fortunately frozen too. Rowan quickly cuffed their ankles.
‘I think the cuffs are operated using voice recognition,’ said Kayleb. ‘I’ve seen Conrad use them on someone before. We’ll have to gag them as well,’ he continued.
Rowan ran back into the cabin and found some thick plaster in a first-aid box. As he approached the men again, he could see that their feet were now free from the deck and Rowan knew that it would only be moments before they could speak and order the cuffs to open. Rowan used Kayleb’s knife to cut the plaster and quickly stuck a piece over each of the two men’s mouths. Max barked furiously at the patrolman as David released them. They both lost their balance and fell onto the deck.
Kayleb watched David stagger back gasping and realised how hard it had been for him to confine the men. David went over to Zordar, around whom everyone else had gathered. Rowan had decided to look in the cabin at the controls. He didn’t want to be anywhere near a dead body.
‘Is he dead?’ Indigo asked David. ‘Can you help him? Can you revive him like you helped your daughter?’
David kneeled down by Zordar and touched his limp arm. ‘No,’ said David sadly. ‘It’s too late. Zordar’s spirit has left his body. It is best if you throw his body over the side of the boat.’
Rowan watched everyone help lift Zordar up and watched them push his body over the side of the boat into the thirsty sea. Max joined Rowan in the cabin and sat silently by him. He seemed to be aware of the misery around him and needed to be away from its source.
Rowan looked at the control panels of the boat. The engine had been left on and it was just as well as there was a handprint starting plate, compatible with the two patrolmen’s hands. Rowan had not been on a boat before and he wondered how a boat was steered. He guessed that it had something to do with the column in the centre of the cabin with a half-sunken sphere at the top of it. Rowan’s fingers itched to drive the boat. He wanted to move the sphere and see what would happen. He could almost taste home.
‘We’ve untied the boat, Rowan,’ called David, entering the cabin. ‘You seem to know what you’re doing. Try and steer the boat northwards. I need to rest a while.’
Rowan smiled and gently moved the sphere forward. The boat began to move. The steering ball was easy to use. Rowan rolled it forward and to the left a little and took the boat out into the Channel away from France and towards the hazy dots of light scattered along the coast of London.