Read Online Close Range by Nick Hale - Free Book Online Page B

Jake’s mum to safety behind the overturned platform. A few more protestors had brokenthrough, and were approaching fast. Their eyes were crazed with anger.
    ‘Abri, get over!’ said Jake, picking up the piping dropped by the other protestor.
    ‘You first,’ she said.
    Jake looked at her in amazement. This girl had guts!
    ‘We’ll go together,’ he said. Jake hurled the pipe towards their attackers, who ducked out of the way. It gave them enough time to scramble over the other side of the platform barricade.
    ‘Is everyone OK?’ Jake asked. A glass bottle flew over the top and smashed on the artificial turf that lined the tunnel. Suddenly there were hands and feet pounding the other side. Someone appeared at the far end, trying to climb over.
    Jake rushed at him, and pushed him back. The man fell with a cry.
    ‘Get down the tunnel,’ Jake said. ‘Find help.’
    The crack of a gunshot brought silence.
    Everyone froze. Jake stared at his mother in horror.
    She was pale. ‘What happened? Has someone been shot?’
    ‘It was probably just a warning,’ said Jake, hoping he was right.
    He pulled himself up to look over their self-made barrier. Armed security guards were shepherding the protestors intothe centre circle at gunpoint. No one was resisting any more. And there was no sign of anyone badly injured.
    Mark Fortune and the other players who’d stayed on the pitch to help were now standing well back on the far side of the pitch with the assistant coach. They’d done a brave thing coming out to stop the protestors.
    ‘It looks like everything’s calmed down,’ Jake said, sliding back to join his mother and the models.
    ‘You saved us,’ Abri said, slipping her arm around him.
    ‘You saved yourselves,’ he replied. ‘I just helped.’ He drummed his hand on the wooden surface of the catwalk. ‘That was quick thinking to turn this over. Stopped them getting behind the stands, wreaking more havoc.’
    ‘Guess we’re more than just pretty faces,’ Sienna said sarcastically.
    Jake heard footsteps pounding down the tunnel. His pulse quickened. Was it more protestors? Then he saw who it was. His dad – moving so fast, he’d forgotten he faked a limp.
    ‘Jake! Hayley! Are you all right?’ he called, gasping for breath. ‘God, I saw it from the commentary box.’
    He wrapped Jake’s mum in his arms and she pressed her head into his chest. After the businesslike kiss at the airport, the sudden show of affection knocked Jake off-balance.
    ‘It’s lucky Jake was here,’ said Abri. ‘We’d have been caught up in the worst, otherwise.’
    His dad nodded gravely at him. The look wasn’t much, but Jake knew what it meant:
You did well.
    ‘Hay,’ said his dad. ‘You could have been seriously hurt. This has to stop, don’t you think? Time to sit it out.’
    Jake’s mother pulled away, disentangling herself. ‘Just because of this?’
    Jake’s dad shrugged. ‘It’s risky. These people are serious.’
    ‘It’ll take more than a few protestors to stop the Granble shoot,’ Jake’s mum said.
    His dad tried to reach for her arm. ‘Hay, I care about you –’
    She shook him off.
    ‘I can look after myself, Steve.’
    Jake could feel a fight brewing. Did they have to do this in front of Abri?
    ‘All I’m saying,’ said his dad, ‘is that there’ll be other assignments. Safer ones.’
    Jake saw blood rushing to his mum’s face, but she held it together.
    ‘I’ll be careful,’ she said. ‘I know what I’m doing.’
    Jake’s dad looked at the ground, his shoulders sagging.
    I guess now’s not the time to mention Olympic Advantage,
Jake thought to himself.
    A painful silence descended, until Steve turned round and trudged back up the tunnel. A few moments later, his mum followed.
    ‘Sorry about that,’ Jake said to Abri. ‘My parents don’t really get on.’
    ‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said. ‘That’s life. It’s worse for you, stuck in the middle.’
    You don’t know the