They’d been told to be outside the Bedford immigration removal centre at 7 a.m. It was 7.42 a.m. The four of them waited – North, Plug, Granny Po and Fang – their eyes trained on the distant building beyond the boom barrier. Aside from a tubby guard sitting in his box drinking tea from a flask, nothing and nobody stirred. Fang looked over at North and glowered. If he didn’t know her better, he’d have said she was nervous, but Fang didn’t do nervous.
Nothing about Derkind had gone the way anyone planned. What if Hone had changed his mind about this for his own nefarious reasons? North would have to stop Fang tearing him apart with her teeth.
Leaning against Plug’s limo, North folded his arms and started running through their options. His gaze roamed the wire fences, the distant brick buildings and security lighting. They’d have to get hold of plans to the detention centre, put the guards working there under surveillance to see who could be bribed or blackmailed. They would figure out the weak spots in the system – the opportunities. The private company who ran the place expected their detainees to break out, not for anyone to break in. But North and his crew would be doing both. Breaking in for Fang’s mum and then breaking her out. Plug would recruit more people if they needed particular expertise – he mixed in the right circles, if by ‘right circles’ you meant the criminally talented.
Granny Po put her arm around her granddaughter and Fang let her keep it there. Fangfang, North thought. He’d once asked her what it meant and she’d said ‘fragrance of flowers’. Granny Po’s shoulders sagged – the old lady was ageing in front of them. She’d survived the Japanese invasion of China and starvation, the Cultural Revolution, and emigration halfway round the world. But if Hone double-crossed them on this, she might die of heartbreak right there in front of them. Plug put an arm under her elbow to support her, ready to hold her down in case the wind tried to blow her away. They must make for an odd-looking group, North thought. But then family was like that.
North stood to attention as the van emerged, trundling past the mesh fence, the barrier lifting. Scanning the passengers to make sure Mama Yu wasn’t on board. Watching the faces go by. Older women weeping or dead-eyed. One girl in a veil pressed her hand against the window, as if desperate to break through and reach them. The government were shipping these women ‘home’ – but not to anywhere they wanted to go. He wondered what their stories were. Were they picked up on arrival, or had they lived on the margins of British society for years? Did they just want better lives? Or had they made a bid for freedom from torture, from rape and from certain death.
He wasn’t letting Mama Yu make the same journey.
North rested a hand on Fang’s shoulder. There was no time for immigration lawyers, and anyway, if this was down to government interference, any legal challenge to Mama Yu’s detention would turn to dust. But they could do this. Get her mother out of this place. They wouldn’t have long. But this was Mama Yu and the kid needed her. North knew all about what it was for a child to need their mother and what happened when children were left to fend for themselves. North would get Fang’s mum out. If not with Hone’s help, then he’d do it without him. She wouldn’t be able to go back to the North East, but Fang had money, they could make another life together in London.
Beside him, North heard Fang’s intake of breath, and the girl was off and running, skipping past the security box, ignoring the open-mouthed cry of protest from the tubby guard as he struggled to open his door, Plug appearing to help him despite the fact his boot was suddenly jammed up against it.
Along the road, a tiny, dazed-looking woman, her head down, was walking towards them, a bulging plastic bag in her hand. North didn’t think Mama Yu knew where she was walking, only that she had to get away from the detention centre.
Fang shouted, and her mother looked up.
The girl ran at full tilt towards Mama Yu, her boots glittering in the sun.
With a smile almost bigger than she was, at the sight of Fang her mother opened her arms wide to catch hold of the flying girl.