Chapter Eleven

Stacey struggled to keep her voice under control. “There’s one thing that’s still confusing me…” she admitted. “And that is… why did you shoot Charlie? What the hell did you have to gain by doing that, and you knew we wouldn’t believe it was Phogolini.”

A flush crept into James’ cheeks, “That didn’t exactly go to plan… You were meant to begin to suspect each other.” Anger flashed into his eyes, “But you’re all so bloody perfect that you trusted that it wasn’t any of you!” He leant in. “That was your last mistake…”

“But, we didn’t make a mistake. It wasn’t us.”

That caught him off guard for a second. “Maybe I’ll just shoot you in the pancreas and let you bleed out,” he mused. Stacey’s eyes widened. “You carry on annoying me, and I might just come up with a slightly more inventive death…”

*          *          *          *          *

Matt groaned and rolled onto his back before sitting up. The back of his head throbbed; he put a hand to the sore spot and felt a large bump forming. “Oh, God. What happened…?” he moaned. He got to his feet shakily and headed along the corridor to the computer room, remembering that Stacey was in there. As he approached, he heard voices.

“You’re insane. You’re fucking insane!”

“If you think that sounding like the Norwegian girl is going to help you here, you’re sadly mistaken…” Matt knew that voice all too well. He couldn’t believe it.

“You can’t do this! Phogolini don’t know that you’ve been twisted. This isn’t what they would’ve wanted you to do!”

“How do you know, Mackenzie?!”

“I’m a hacker, okay.” There was a smack within the room. Matt assumed that James must have hit her, but she continued nonetheless. “I hack websites, email, you name it. I know what your original mission is. You were to kill Matt Willis, and no-one else. His grandfather killed one of your friend's dad, so you were sent to kill him. Charlie has nothing to do with this. It’s all merged together in your mind. You’ve been on this mission for too long. You-” There was another smack, and Stacey cried out.

“SHUT UP!! YOU DON’T HAVE A CLUE ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON IN MY MIND!! YOU HEAR ME, YOU DON’T HAVE A CLUE!!” A shot went off, and Stacey screamed.

“Put the gun down, please.”

“DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!” James sounded demented. He’d gone mad. He must’ve. So many thoughts were running through Matt’s mind. He went with his instinct, and pushed himself into the room.

“What are you doing?”

James spun round and saw him, “Matt! What are you-? I knocked you out!” Behind him, Stacey was motioning for Matt to keep him talking. She looked around her. “STAY STILL!!” James shrieked. He brought out a second gun, and aimed it at the taller male’s head. “Or he’ll be the first to die!”

“Oh, God, there’s two of them,” Stacey muttered. Matt just stared at the black of the gun that his best friend was pointing at him.