Three Hours(90)
Rescue boats? I’d use gunships to stop migrants
Show me bodies floating in water, I still don’t care. Make no mistake, these migrants are like cockroaches. Bring on the gunships, force migrants back to their shores and burn the boats.
He is crawling like a cockroach but this journalist is wrong. He is not like a cockroach, he is like Young Seward. And he will reach Basi.
*
The shed is getting darker and the blackness smells of monsters, their mouths with rotting things inside, and they are going to bite his face with their dagger-teeth. He hears them creeping towards him.
He didn’t tell Rafi where he is.
He puts his hands over his mouth, trying not to make any sounds as he cries, but he hears moaning noises, like he’s a little baby not a boy, but he can’t stop.
Rafi won’t be able to find him.
They’re not monsters but a man with a gun. He pushes his fist into his mouth so the man won’t hear him cry, but he’s juddering and he’s making the boat judder too, making it creak, and the man with the gun will hear him and shoot him.
There’s no Ratty in here, nobody with him. His phone is open but it’s dark and won’t switch on and inside all his animals are starved.
*
In the theatre, everyone is looking at their screens; the news is reporting that one of the attackers is called ‘Aryan Knight’.
‘A fucking knight?’ Frank says.
Knights are decent and brave; Arthurian knights and their quests, Chaucer’s gentle knight on a pilgrimage, Rafi coming back for Hannah, and the gunmen are the opposite of everything that is decent and brave and gentle.
‘He’s trending on Twitter,’ Luisa says.
‘Probably not Aryan Knight himself,’ Josh says. ‘Probably needs both hands on his fucking gun.’
‘It’s just bots retweeting, not real people,’ Antonella says.
But real people will be reading it now. Frank puts his arm around Hannah, trying to stop her shaking, as they read Aryan Knight’s retweets:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Thank you to respected columnist Katie Hopkins of Daily Mail.com for her powerful writing on the UK’s Muslim problems.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
The politicians of the U.K. should watch Katie Hopkins of Daily Mail.com on @FoxNews. Many people in the U.K. agree with me!
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
The United Kingdom is trying hard to disguise their massive Muslim problem. Everybody is wise to what is happening, very sad! Be honest.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
In Britain, more Muslims join ISIS than join the British Army.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Just out report: “United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.” Not good, we must keep America safe!
*
There are fourteen minutes until Jamie Alton opens fire. A police UAV operator has just spotted the terrorist’s drone back up over the pottery room.
‘They’re now retweeting Trump’s retweets of Jayda Fransen,’ Stuart says. ‘Deputy leader of Britain First.’
‘We still can’t stop it?’ Bronze Commander’s frustration is evident.
‘They’ve got software which is creating aliases very fast, as fast as we take them down,’ Lysander says.
‘They’ve retweeted Britain First’s response,’ Stuart says.
Britain First @BritainFirstHQ
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN’S TWITTER VIDEOS. DONALD TRUMP HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP!
Rose remembers that the white supremacist murderer of the MP Jo Cox – mother of two young children, wife, daughter, sister and friend – shouted ‘Britain First’ as he killed her.
She wonders what would have happened to seventeen-year-old Jamie Alton if the president of America and mainstream newspapers hadn’t fostered hatred against Muslims? Perhaps there would have been a brake on his mental deterioration and brainwashing; perhaps he would have had more of a chance against it. But there’s no point now going down this path because it is too late.
Police attack drones are being launched to take out the terrorists’ drone. Her team and Dannisha watch the screen, but she turns away.
Not your job.
She goes back to the open door, looks out at the snow. Victor has orchestrated all of it, she’s sure of that, so it’s Victor behind retweeting Trump. And that makes sense because even if Victor thinks him moronic, and she expects that he does, at least he’s a world-famous wielder of immense power; but that’s far from the case with Patrick Stein and Eric Harris, whose words Victor has appropriated.
Again, she wonders if Victor has given them a clue. But if he has, then he’s confident they won’t understand; that he can outplay them.
‘The BBC’s just got a message,’ an officer says on screen. ‘Pull back or we kill now. The message includes a YouTube link.’
He presses the link and YouTube footage plays, which must have been taken by the terrorists’ drone. It shows Jamie Alton pointing his gun at the pottery room.