Panic Button (14 page)

“He’s got my little girl,” she protested, her voice choked with emotion, “She’s just a baby...”

Jo’s eyes filled with tears.

Dave glared at her coldly, as if assessing her feelings and checking they were genuine.

“No, no, no, no!” Gwen made a fist around her scarf, tugging at it in frustration. “We shouldn’t even be talking about this, don’t you see? He said no conferring.”

Dave ignored her wild eyes. “He said we
can’t
reveal our tasks, that’s all.”

His eyes bore into Jo’s again. “What did he say?”

Jo slowly shook her head in defiance. “Nothing,” she snarled.

“Bollocks! I don’t trust you.”

Jo took a step back from Dave’s sweaty bulk. Then it struck her.

“You know what I think? You’ve got something to hide and you’re trying to cover up by pointing the finger at me.”

Gwen tried to be the voice of reason. “Guys, please, we should be thinking about how we can get of this...”

Engrossed in their argument, they didn’t notice Max retreat quietly to the crew prep area behind the curtain.

Max bit down on his lip as his eyes scanned the little metal cupboard compartment doors. It had to be there somewhere. He looked again, and saw it, high up above the others. Recalling Alligator’s grim words in the bathroom, Max reached out and popped the catch on the metal door. It read: ‘EMERGENCY USE ONLY’.

Back in the cabin, Dave’s mood had escalated. He looked desperate, cornered by Gwen and Jo who were both trying to reason with him, to make sense of their predicament. But Dave could only see as far as his own concern for Sarah.

“We’re rats in a cage here!” he yelled. “We are fucked! And if we don’t play by his rules, a lot of people we know will be too!”

Jo
levelled
her gaze. “You give up if you want. But I for one am not dead yet...”

Max burst through the dividing curtain, back into the cabin, with an angry roar.

Jo and the others recoiled.

Max was brandishing an emergency crash axe, swinging it above his head like a berserker charging into battle.

He smashed the heavy metal blade into Gwen’s touch screen. It broke away from the cabin wall, showering Jo and the others in sparks.

They all backed off as Max continued smashing with the axe, not stopping until the screen was shattered and its wiring severed like an umbilical cord.

“Jesus!” Dave exclaimed.

Max looked up them, panting. He looked crazed clutching the crash axe, eyes red from stinging tears.

Jo looked at the axe - the main blade formed a ‘P’ shape, with an ice pick protrusion at the back. It looked lethal.

“Where... did you get that from? Jo asked.

“He told me where to find it...” Max moved toward Jo’s touch screen. “Stand back!” he commanded.

“What the hell are you doing?” Dave asked.

“Cutting them off. These things are rigged. Webcams, microphones... so I’m de-rigging them.”

Seeing Dave take a step towards him, Max held the axe aloft.

“I said stand back!”

“Don’t...” Gwen started.

As Max glanced at her, Dave used the opportunity to step forward, blocking Max from attacking Jo’s touch screen.

“For fuck’s sake, sit down,” Dave said. He sounded almost weary.

“No!” Max protested, “If they can’t see or hear us, then the game’s over.”

Careless of the axe, Dave pushed his face right into Max’s.

“Don’t you give a shit about anyone other than yourself? Sit down, now, or I’ll knock you out you little prick!”

Max swallowed dryly, Dave still right in his face.

“I can’t do this...” he muttered, “My task...”

Gwen covered her mouth with her hands.

Jo shook her head. “Don’t say it...”

“That sick fuck told me...” Max went on, “I’m supposed to kill whoever he tells me to - when he tells me to.”

Gwen wailed, hysterical - this was too much for her to bear.

“Don’t you see?” Max said, “He doesn’t just
want us dead, he wants to punish us! You think they’re going to let your loved ones go because you followed the rules? You’re idiots if you trust him....”

“Yeah, but he’s got the upper hand here,” Dave said, “We have to do what he says.”

“I don’t,” Max said.

As if in answer to Max’s challenge, the Alligator reappeared on-screen.

The animation
glitched
momentarily and his smiling face juddered, grotesque slit eyes stretching across the screen like dark chasms.

“Yes you do Max.”

For the first time during their voyage, there was a trace of anger in the Alligator’s voice.

“Put the axe down and return to your seat, otherwise someone else will face the consequences of your stupidity. And we both know who that is, don’t we? Your brother - Mike...”

 

The remaining screens flickered and a video window popped up on each of them.

Dreading what was to come, the passengers looked at the screens.

Mike, in his early twenties and dressed in a smart white shirt and dark slacks, was tied to a kitchen table. Pots, pans and broken crockery lay strewn on the worktops and floor around him - he’d put up a struggle before they got him. His mouth was taped shut with thick gaffer tape. He made terrified whimpering sounds as the cameraman’s gloved hand moved into frame, making a show of a huge razor-sharp machete. The unseen assailant brushed the flat of the blade across Mike’s cheeks, smearing the polished metal with his tears. The cameraman removed the blade slowly and Mike tried to cry out through the tape again. But he choked on his breath as his attacker lifted and swung the blade without warning, severing his right arm below the elbow. Blood cascaded from the eviscerated arteries across the kitchen table. Mike writhed in agony, his pitiful cries stymied by the thick tape gag.

Gwen wept openly, unable to quite process the horror she had just witnessed as Max, Jo and Dave watched Mike on the little screens.

He was bleeding out, helpless.

“If I take his other arm,” Alligator said, “he’ll bleed to death in minutes. Are you ready to say goodbye to your flesh and blood?”

Max looked at the video window anxiously. “Wait, wait!”

“Then put the axe down and return to your seat,” Alligator commanded.

“I’m not who you think I am. Whoever that guy is - he’s not my brother! Please... don’t do this.”

“Max, just please do as he says!” Jo pleaded.

The screen flickered, showing a close up of Mike’s contorted face. Tense silence fell across the cabin. Max hurled the crash axe onto the bar, shattering glasses and tipping over a bottle of champagne.

“There! Now listen to me!” Max went on, “I’m telling the truth! I don’t even have a bloody brother. Whoever that guy is, he’s nothing to do with me. Please, help him...”

A ghost image of Alligator’s predatory face appeared on the screens, superimposed over Mike’s. With a crackle, the image flickered again and cleared to reveal the killer was moving around to Mike’s other side. Holding onto Mike’s wrist with one gloved hand, the killer brought the machete blade hammering down, severing the other arm. The cameraman stepped back to survey his handiwork through the cold glass of the camera lens. Mike’s torso
spasmed
in shock as more blood gushed from the open wound where his other
arm
used to be.

Exasperated, Max punched the hull in frustration. “I’m not going to do a single thing you say - you hear me? Not one single thing.”

Alligator fell silent for a moment. The speakers crackled with static. It sounded like anger, and chilled the very air in the cabin.

“How noble,” Alligator purred, voice controlled once more, “Sit back, do nothing.
The mantra of the Internet Generation.
Doing nothing is what you are best at, after all.”

The screens went blank, leaving them to consider his words as the engines droned louder.

“What is the matter with you?” Jo demanded, “You just left your own brother to die.”

“You trying to screw things up for the rest of us, is that it?” Dave asked.

The winners were gathered in the lounge area of the aircraft, all eyes on Max, their accusing eyes demanding an answer from him.

“Max?” Jo said.

“I’m-not-Max!”

Dave groaned in frustration.

Gwen echoed his sound with a dismissive shake of her head.

Jo searched Max’s face with her eyes, trying to fathom him out.

“Listen. Why couldn’t I answer the questions in the game, eh? Do I look like a violinist to you? I’m not him, I’m not Max. God, I’m not even supposed to
be
on this flight,” he reasoned.

“But your name was on the list... I looked at your profile,” Gwen said.

“It’s not mine! Max is just some... student. I hacked his All2gethr account, changed his contact details...”

Jo glanced at the others. They looked as unsure as she felt about whether or not to believe him.

“I thought they’d rumble me at the airport,” Max said, “but they didn’t even check.”

“What a crock. You expect us to believe you?” Dave said.

“Believe what you want mate, but I’m telling the truth.”

Jo considered Max’s words for a moment. “So, who
are
you?”

“Like I’m going to tell you that,” Max replied, exasperated.

This quickened Dave’s anger. “Are you part of all this? You little prick...”

Dave lunged at Max. Jo put herself between the two men, holding her arms out to keep them apart.

“Wait! Wait!” She turned to Max and fixed him with a stare. “Who the hell are you?”

Max glanced at each of them. He could feel their tension, anger and fear. He recalled his own tangle of feelings from just moments ago, watching a stranger die with a confusing mixture of remorse and detachment. It was different for the others; Alligator was dangling their family and friends in front of them like bait. But he had no such limitations, he was operating outside of the rules - and he intended to keep it that way.