Chapter 12: The great escape(s)

07:12, 6 August

Jamie had elected to spend the night in the honeymoon suite at Skibo Castle. All of the bedrooms in the hotel were plush to say the least, but the luxury of the honeymoon suite was something else again. He'd snacked on the nuts and crisps that he had found in the mini-bar and then relaxed in the Jacuzzi that the suite had. The powerful jets of water helped soothe his tired and rigid muscles, allowing him to realise the constant tension he had been living with for days now.

Feeling truly relaxed for the first time in nearly two weeks, he fell asleep in the huge four poster bed as soon as his head hit the pillow. Jamie had always been able to make himself wake up at the time he wanted. It was as if his body had an internal alarm clock and if he told himself he wanted to wake up at 05:00am, he would do. His eyes opened and he glanced at the bedside clock, pleased to see he had woken at precisely 05:01am. Almost on the money!

He sat up and stretched, before getting out of the very comfortable bed and snagging his clothes as he headed for the bathroom to perform his morning ablutions. He realised he would need to think about getting himself some fresh clothing as he eyed the pile of jeans, shirt, socks and underwear he had been wearing for three days now.

"God, I must stink like a hog," he thought.

He ran a bath and climbed into the warm water, scrubbing himself all over before then just lying back and soaking for a while. He suddenly remembered the seventy-two unopened items in his e-mail inbox that he had forgotten to look at the day before. The excitement of IM'ing with Laura and then the close shave with the terrorists had pushed the e-mails out of his head altogether. Now he scrambled to his feet and pulled the plug from the bottom of the bath so it would drain.

He wrapped himself in one of the hotels huge fluffy, white towels and dried himself vigorously. Jamie held his well-worn boxers up to his nose and winced at the ripe smell that came from them. He decided getting some clothing would need to be a priority today.

Once dressed, he made his way back into the enormous honeymoon suite and crossed to the desk where he had left his laptop the day before. He plugged in the power cable and then connected to the hotel's wireless broadband service. When he input his username and password to access his e-mail account, he found that he now had one hundred and two unopened messages. He felt the excitement of the previous day return and began to open the e-mails one by one.

Jamie re-read the first e-mail. He knew the town of Crianlarich, having driven through it with his parents a number of times. It was known as the gateway to the West Highlands and he could picture the small town centre in his mind. He dashed off a quick reply to Kenny to let him know he had received the e-mail and that he was working on a plan to bring survivors together. He suggested the boy hang in there a little longer and warned him about the terrorists in Glasgow, just in case Kenny decided to head for the big city.

The other hundred or so e-mails were very much in the same vein and Jamie began to work through them, replying to every one in much the same way. He hadn't determined how he was going to screen people who contacted him yet and knew it would be foolhardy to simply turn up to meet them without knowing if they were genuine or not. His messages therefore offered encouragement and the prospect of meeting up, but nothing more concrete at this stage.

He had answered perhaps twenty or so e-mails when his MSN icon began flashing and his heart started to beat quicker with the thought that Laura was contacting him once more. He clicked on the icon and opened up a dialogue.

The connection was cut before Jamie could reply to Laura's final message. He thought about the information she had given him, even pulling up the log and re-reading each of the messages she had sent. An idea occurred to him.

"Surely it couldn't be that easy?" he thought.

Excitement and adrenaline coursed throw him as the idea began to crystallise in his head.

"Could I do it? Have I got the bottle? Jesus, for my little sister I think I could do anything. Come on Jamie, just do it!"

His mind made up, he thought about how he would go about it; the things that he would need to do to pull it off. It would be a busy day and he decided fresh clothes would have to wait after all.

Laura disconnected from MSN and closed the laptop down. Fisah was standing looking over her shoulder and she had followed the exchange with Jamie. Both she and Laura had flushed when Jamie had asked if she was trustworthy, but she had relaxed when she saw Laura's response to the question.

"So, we need a plan?" Fisah asked.

"I don't want Jamie taking unnecessary risks," replied Laura.

"Of course. I could just walk out there and shoot Mushtaq. That would be the easiest plan and would mean all of the survivors could leave. There are only three drawbacks. One, I don't think I could shoot someone in cold blood. Two, we don't know when Assam and the others might turn up and if they appeared at the wrong moment it would be a disaster. And three, there's nowhere for everyone to go."

Laura looked at the beautiful woman. She shuddered as she thought about whether she could shoot someone and had to agree with Fisah, she didn't think she could do it either. Perhaps in the heat of the moment, but not premeditated.

"We have to think of a way of getting him out of the picture. That's the key. I guess we'll have to do it soon as well. If Jamie's abandoned the farm then Assam and the others will soon grow tired of looking for him and return. Then we'll have four more to worry about," Laura said.

"If only he didn't always have that rifle with him, he seems to hold onto it like a comfort blanket," said Fisah, "we'll have to get back to the main hall. Mushtaq will be growing suspicious. Both of us can think about this and try and come up with an answer. I'll try to get you alone after lunch."

They returned to the prayer hall just as Mushtaq was ordering the teenagers to assemble for morning prayers. He had them each place their prayer mat on the floor and face east and then led them in a basic prayer from the Qu'ran.

For the remainder of the morning Laura racked her brains to come up with a way of taking care of Mushtaq so they could all get out of the mosque. She wondered if there was a lock on the kitchen and whether Fisah could lock him in there. Even if there was, it wouldn't take him long to shoot the door open with his rifle she thought. She wondered if Fisah had access to any drugs and if they could perhaps knock him out that way? That was something to ask Fisah later.

The morning seemed to drag interminably, but eventually it was getting close to lunchtime and Mushtaq gestured to Fisah that she should begin preparations for feeding the teenagers.

"YOU! DOWN ON THE FLOOR NOW!" screamed a voice.

Laura turned and gasped. It was Jamie. He stood in the doorway to the prayer hall and he had some kind of rifle in his hands. The rifle was currently nestled firmly against his shoulder and was aimed at Mushtaq. The terrorist hesitated for a second and then began to swing his own weapon up and round towards where Jamie was standing.

Laura watched as Jamie's rifle bucked and there was a slight flash at the muzzle. The next thing she knew, Mushtaq was crumpling to the floor, a large red stain appearing in the centre of his chest. Laura made a beeline for her brother.

"Jamie, Jamie! Oh thank god you've come!" she wailed as she threw herself at him.

Jamie pushed her off without looking at her and walked forward slowly towards Mushtaq's body. He nudged the body with his boot and then bent to check for a pulse. Only when he was sure the terrorist was dead did he finally acknowledge his sobbing sister.

"I had to come sis. I couldn't bear to think about you being held by this scum for a minute longer than necessary. Come on, we need to get out right now."

"So, this is the pilot then?" came Fisah's voice from behind them.

Laura and Jamie turned to find Fisah standing there with her own rifle in her hands. Jamie couldn't believe he had been so stupid as to have let his guard down before they were out and away.

"Jamie, this is Fisah. She's the one that's been helping me," said Laura, unaware of Jamie's concern.

"Pleased to meet you Jamie, or should I call you Highlander?" Fisah said, as her rifle dropped to hang by her side and she extended her hand to shake with him.

Jamie's breath came whooshing out. He hadn't even realised he had stopped breathing while he had been staring at the woman. He absently raised his arm and shook her delicate hand. He was amazed at how soft it felt and he was stunned by how exotically beautiful the woman was. He shook himself, as he realised he must be staring at her like a little puppy-dog.

"We have to leave now, right away," he said forcefully.

Jamie turned and looked at the hundreds of teenagers who were still in shock from his entrance and the shooting of Mushtaq.

"Listen all of you. You don't have long to get away before the others return. You'll have to look after each other. There's no shortage of vehicles out there and plenty of fuel still in the petrol stations. Stick with someone who can drive and get out of Glasgow as quickly as you can. I think your best bet is to make for Argyll and the West Highlands. If you can find access to the Internet do a search for 'Surviving in Scotland'. You can contact me there," said Jamie, "now, let's get as far away from here as quickly as we can."