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“Be careful,” I said, releasing Vivian to push the lighter into Marcia’s hand. “Throw it as far as you can and run like the fucking wind, do you understand?”
Marcia nodded solemnly. “Yes, I do.”
I pointed to a steel manhole cover on the edge of the car park. “If you can reach it in time, get inside there. You’ll be shielded from the fire and any falling debris.”
Marcia followed my gaze. “I will.” Then she turned back to me. “Thank you, Rupert.”
I pressed a cool hand to her cheek. “No, thank you. I wish I could have done something sooner.”
“You did everything you could,” she said with a small smile. “Now go. This has to be over.”
I planted a kiss to her forehead then led Vivian back to my car. I noticed her legs had stopped shaking when she climbed inside. When I slid into the driver’s seat, her gaze burned into the side of my face, drawing my eyes to hers.
“What am I finishing?”
“You’ll see,” I replied and pulled out of the car park towards the main road.
Halfway down the drive, my rear view mirror lit up like a volcano. Vivian leaped up and twisted to look out of the back window.
“Shit! Marcia… We have to go back!”
“We can’t,” I said, steadily, keeping my focus on the road while orange flames flickered in my peripheral view.
“It’s raging, Rupert. There’s no way she’d have made it into that tunnel.”
I breathed deeply. She was right. The manhole cover was at least two hundred metres from the building’s entrance, and petrol would have ignited immediately and right by the door. The chances were very high that flames would have engulfed Marcia within seconds. I couldn’t let myself think about it. I had to stay focused on the next part of the task. Marcia knew what she was doing and was not beneath sacrificing herself for the greater good. It might have been the last time but it wouldn’t have been the first.
“Rupert, please… We have to turn the car around.”
“No, it’s too dangerous,” I replied, driving through the iron gates to the world outside Thorn Pharmaceuticals.
“We can’t just leave her,” she cried.
I turned the car until it was facing the outer fence, then turned off the engine and took Vivian’s face in my hands. “She knew what she was doing, and you heard what she said. She earned the right to blow up Ossian’s pride and joy. She earned it. She wanted to do it.”
Vivian’s gaze trailed over my shoulder and she stared sadly out at the burning building. I wiped a tear from her cheek and resisted the urge to lick it from my finger. Something about this moment – the heat, the adrenalin, the relief and the raw emotion – made me hot with yearning.
The sound of tyres tearing through the gates made us both turn around. Marcia’s car swerved onto the main road, straightened and skidded off towards the main town.
“Was that—?”
Vivian’s lips were wet and parted as she spun back to face me.
“Marcia?” I grinned. “It definitely was.”
Vivian’s eyes roamed my face with renewed vigour. “What now?” she asked, breathily.
“Now,” I replied, reaching for the small black device burning a hole in my jacket pocket. “We finish it.”
Vivian
I looked down at what appeared to be a pager – a small black box with a rubber circle on the top. “What is that?”
Rupert looked up at me through thick, heavy lashes. “The trigger.”
“Trigger for what?”
Silence stretched and neither of us blinked. “For the end,” he eventually said.
