Chapter 60
NADEEKA
Nadeeka stands in the car park at Echelon Warehousing, her breath frosting in the cold air.
She hadn’t had time to grab her coat when they’d been unceremoniously evacuated, and she hugs herself for warmth, freezing fingers clamped beneath her armpits.
Around her, Echelon employees loiter in clusters, a few taking the opportunity for a cigarette break.
At the far end of the car park are three minibuses.
‘I hope they don’t give up and go home,’ Elaine says, nodding to the buses. Vinyls on the side of each one show where their passengers are from. Glydale Community College, Open -Horizons Project, Northern Pathways Youth Hub.
Nadeeka watches as two officers emerge from the main building, each with a brown and white spaniel. They’re joined by Echelon’s security manager, Paul, who looks irritated, even from this distance. ‘Looks like they’re done.’ She crosses the tarmac to speak to them.
‘ . . . better safe than sorry,’ the female officer is saying.
‘Can we go back inside?’ Nadeeka asks. ‘We should have opened the doors half an hour ago.’
‘We’ve checked the premises,’ the male officer says. ‘No sign of any devices.’
‘As I said,’ Paul cuts in, defensive, ‘no one had access to that room except our own staff. We don’t let randoms just wander in.’
The female officer tightens her grip on the dog’s lead. ‘And as I said, we had intelligence suggesting a security breach. I’m sure you’d rather be mildly inconvenienced now than have a bomb go off later.’
Paul blusters, but the officers are already walking away, heading to a police van marked with the words Dogs – Stay back.
Nadeeka is about to signal to Elaine that they can get going again when her phone rings. Scott. Again. For heaven’s sake!
‘For the hundredth time,’ she answers, before he has a chance to speak, ‘you’re bringing the girls back to mine after—’
‘The Civic Centre’s being evacuated.’ Scott interrupts her. ‘We’ve only been here five minutes.’
‘Evacuated?’ The revolving doors at reception are causing a bottleneck as everyone tries to get back in the warm. Nadeeka moves out of the way. ‘Is it a fire? Are the girls with you?’
‘I don’t know. There wasn’t an alarm. They’re keeping the kids in their school groups so they can call the registers.
The parents have been told to go straight to the evacuation point.
’ A siren sounds with sudden clarity and Nadeeka realizes Scott must have left the building now and be out in the street.
‘I cancelled a meeting to come to this shitshow,’ he mutters.
Nadeeka stands very still as a thought takes hold. ‘Are there dogs?’ she says.
‘Dogs?’
‘Police dogs. Are they taking police dogs into the Civic Centre?’
‘Um . . . Yeah. There’s a guy here with a spaniel.’
Nadeeka’s stomach drops. ‘It’s a bomb threat.’ She starts running towards her car. ‘They think someone’s planted explosives in the Civic Centre.’ She’s aware of Elaine calling after her, but she doesn’t look back. ‘Find the girls,’ she tells Scott. ‘Keep them with you.’
When she reaches the car, she’s shaking so much she drops the keys. She takes a series of deep breaths, reminding herself how relaxed the dog-handlers had been. A precautionary search, that’s all. Better safe than sorry.
The road leading to the Civic Centre has been closed off, yellow diversion signs sending cars around the outskirts of the town. Nadeeka abandons her car in a side street and runs to a police officer directing traffic.
‘I need to get to the Civic Centre.’ The words come out staccato, a panicked breath between each one. ‘My daughters are there.’
‘They’ll be at the evacuation zone,’ the officer says. ‘-Northfield Gardens. It’s about half a mile that w—’
But Nadeeka’s already running. She’s trying to call Scott again but it’s going to voicemail, and her head is full of nightmarish images she can’t shake away.
Bombs. Smoke. Screams. The roads are busier now, hordes of people streaming from the town centre.
Nadeeka ducks to one side as a mother drags two confused boys along with her, eyes fixed determinedly on the pavement ahead.
‘Let’s get ice-cream!’ she tells her sons, as though that were a totally normal activity for a December afternoon.
Someone reaches out to Nadeeka – the town centre’s closed off, there’s a bomb threat – but she shakes them off and keeps running.
She has to get to the girls.
They’re all she has left.