stupid wasn’t it,’ said Rhodes, ‘and Sludge is stupid most of the time, but don’t underestimate him. I tell you, Quantas don’t want to see Sludge again. We surrounded the plane with troops, all with machine guns. He came quietly, but broke out that night. The usual subtle approach, straight through the wall. Some idiot decided that Sludge would break a normal wooden bed, and so they gave him a steel, reinforced bed that he couldn’t break. Well, we happen to think that Sludge was strong enough to break that bed as well. He didn’t try to break it, however, not when a steel, reinforced bed makes such a good battering ram. The armed guards got there just as he broke through the wall. He threw the bed at them and then some of the rubble from the wall he’d just demolished. Some of the bricks he threw went so fast they took out part of the next wall. Sludge ran in among the guards, knocked them out, and for good measure, bent their guns.’
‘Clever,’ the gardener muttered in his thick accent.
‘Why is that clever?’ asked Kate.
Mrs Warp explained, ‘Well, by running in among the guards it made it difficult for them to shoot him. They could not shoot without possibly shooting one of their colleagues.’
Mrs Warp then turned to Gary Rhodes, ‘How close is he?’
‘He’s here. He got a small boat from England. The boat owner asked him to pull it onto the beach, but Sludge misunderstood and pulled it eighty metres inland. You can see his footprints. He stole a car and drove down across France. Sludge is a dreadful driver, and stole a different car after each of the six accidents he had. As far as we can tell, he’s been joined by a Chinese gentleman called Mr Tick. We think Mr Tick is supposed to increase the team’s average IQ, but adding a senile sheep would do that.’
Gary Rhodes did not stop for tea. It was as if he was eager to get away; aware that they were already doomed; reluctant to have the opportunity to get to know and possibly like them.
Tea was a somber affair. Kate had hidden behind a door and listened to Gary Rhodes briefing a senior French officer. He kept emphasising how fast and strong Sludge was. He was trying to impress upon the man just how many people Sludge had killed, and that while he was undoubtedly dim, he could be resourceful in a fight. The French officer, however, dismissed a good deal of what Gary Rhodes told him. The Frenchman was either well-prepared or surprisingly complacent.
Things turned ugly when Gary Rhodes suggested that there was a spy in the French police, and that not everybody in the French force could be trusted. Kate had eaten her tea in silence, trying to digest more than the iced buns.
Once alone with Hector, Kate explained everything she had heard. Hector, as usual, seemed quite unperturbed.
‘I expect we’ll have to fight Sludge,’ he said casually.
‘Hector, he’ll murder us in an instant. And, there is a spy. Someone on the French side could be helping Sludge.’
‘Yes, I think it’s Mrs Warp,’ said Hector, ‘She has a gun, some explosives and a box marked piano tuning kit in her handbag,’ He then added in his most casual tone, ‘I should think she was too closely watched last night, and tonight will be the night she does us in.’
‘Hector, how could you think that, she’s been really nice. She’s looked after us, and made nice meals, and just been nice,’ Kate trailed off.
Hector was looking smug. He was miming shooting and blowing up.
‘Oh no Hector, what are we going to do?’ Kate whimpered as a feeling of hopelessness engulfed her.
‘Nothing,’ said Hector, ‘I’ve already done it. I’ve nicked the bomb and the gun and hidden them under your bed.’
‘Why my bed?’ exclaimed Kate.
‘Well, I didn’t want the blame if they’re found,’ explained Hector, as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world.
Hector began to act rather strangely at bedtime. He cleaned his teeth and had a shower without an complaint.
‘You’re not a French boy pretending to be Hector are you?’ asked Kate.
‘You’ll see,’ replied Hector in an undertone.
After Mrs Warp left them Hector triumphantly revealed that he had managed to smuggle Bandit up to their room. He also had a spade and axe he had taken from somewhere downstairs. Kate sat on the floor, and she and Hector cuddled Bandit, who sat passively, but apparently happy, between them.
‘We’ll see Mum and Dad tomorrow,’ said Hector, and Kate smiled, feeling reassured for the first time.
‘I don’t want the excitement to stop.’ Hector confessed.
‘You just think we’ll survive and everything will turn out right,’ Kate observed.
‘Yep!’ said Hector.
They sat in silence for a while, before turning to a discussion of what to do tomorrow. Hector was convinced there would be hidden tunnels. He was sure Bandit could sniff them out. Kate was beginning to laugh. There was something infectious about Hector’s wild and utterly unrealistic optimism.
Eventually, Bandit settled down in the gap between the beds. Hector and Kate climbed between the crisp, clean sheets. It appeared as though their beds had been changed. Kate believed this was down to Hector’s disastrous breakfast in bed.
Their sleepy talk soon turned to conspiracy. Kate and Hector were for once agreed; they should keep Bandit. Hector had a range of thoughts on how Mum and Dad could be manipulated, deceived and emotionally blackmailed.
Hector’s favourite plan was to convince Dad that he should take up clay pigeon shooting. They should then claim Bandit was a highly trained gun dog. Kate pointed out that gun dogs were for retrieving birds that had been shot, and clay pigeon shooting did not involve shooting real birds.
Kate favoured emotional blackmail. She believed they should emphasise the shock and fear the attack on the plane had caused, following on from the bomb attack on Dad’s car. Bandit was a source of security, and if Mum and Dad did not want them to grow up emotionally scarred they should allow them to keep this source of warmth and hope.
Hector privately thought it was the best plan, but could not agree on the grounds that his sister had thought of it. He suggested variations on his ideas as he and Kate spoke in the darkness, over Bandit’s increasingly loud snores. Neither he nor Kate could recall slipping off into a deep sleep.
There was a shot from the grounds. Kate woke first, wondering whether she had imagined the sound. It was dark and silent as Kate looked around for a clock. There were more shots and these woke Hector. Kate and Hector looked at each other through the gloom of the darkened bedroom, and then got out of bed and ran to the window.
There was shouting in French and then two bursts of automatic gunfire. After this there was an eerie silence that seemed to last for minutes, but only lasted seconds. Then there was frantic shouting followed by three explosions.
A huge squat figure was running across the furthest lawn towards the house. Sludge had broken through. He was coming to kill them.
Beneath them another figure had emerged from the house. The gardener was running towards Sludge, clearly aiming a gun. Sludge saw him, dived to his left, rolled and shot. The gardener slumped to
