out now.
“Charlie,” Sean said urgently, “for God’s sake don’t do this.”
I swallowed, ignoring him, bearing down on the fear that was threatening to overwhelm me. We dumped our guns and positioned ourselves around Ivan, with Craddock and Romundstad in the front, Ronnie to his left, me to his right, and Declan bringing up the rear. We were so tight in that we could hardly move without standing on each other’s feet.
Then, before any of us could have second thoughts, we stepped out into the open ground.
Above us, Jan was going practically apoplectic, screaming at her men to shoot us, not to let Ivan reach the safety of his father’s limousine. But Hofmann’s words were hitting home. They hesitated.
Jan drew her own gun and started firing down at us, but there’s a limit to what you can hit with a handgun at that sort of distance. Besides, we were keeping too tucked around Ivan for her to have a clear shot at the boy.
Still, it was only a matter of time.
And then Ronnie gave a shrill cry, spun away to the side and dropped. He’d taken a round through his left thigh, just above the knee, but that wasn’t the real problem. The blood was pumping out between his clamped fingers, a thin jet of it, pulsing to the beat of his heart.
Artery.
Ronnie sat up and almost tried to hutch away from the sight of his own blood, as though it was a separate entity that was attacking him and he could somehow escape it.
He was screaming now, in terror as much as pain. He knew as well as the rest of us how little time he’d got. You can’t work with big sharp chef’s knives for a living and not have it hammered into you about the dangers of accidentally slicing your femoral artery. Untreated, he had minutes.
We faltered, our advance stumbling to a halt.
“Close up, for God’s sake,” I hissed.
Declan stared at me with eyes that were wide with shock. “For feck’s sake we can’t just leave him!”
“We don’t have a choice,” I snapped back. I grabbed his arm and yanked him back close round Ivan. “We stop now and they kill the boy and all this is a total waste of time. You wanted to be a bodyguard, Declan, well this is what it’s all about, not those Hollywood babes you’re so keen on. Now live with it
Just for a second he looked at me as though his dearest wish was that I was the one writhing on the ground in a growing pool of my own blood. Then he nodded darkly and we moved forwards again. The whole thing had taken only a moment, hardly a break in stride, but it felt like hours.
We were almost in the lee of the terrace now, and close enough to Gregor’s Merc to make a dash for it.
Gregor grabbed hold of his son in a quick fierce bear hug, then his bodyguards were bundling the boy into the limo. Gregor climbed in behind him, but just before he slammed the door he looked directly into my eyes, his own bright and hard like pebbles.
“I will not forget this,” he said, his voice a deep bitter rumble. “And I will not forget
It was hard to tell if it was said as a threat, or a promise.
Then the heavy door slammed and we had to jump back as the Merc was gunned forwards, fishtailing wildly as it swerved out of the parking area. What was left of Gregor’s invasion force retreated behind him, covering his escape with well-drilled precision.
If Jan had had the time to assemble a larger force, they might have stood a chance of preventing Gregor’s escape, but as it was they were woefully outnumbered. Their elevated position had only given them the advantage while we were all pinned down in one place. As soon as the Merc left the parking area, that superiority was lost. I heard her barking commands into a radio, but by the growing ire in her voice, she knew she was beaten.
As soon as Gregor had taken Ivan off our hands, we turned and run back to Ronnie. Jan’s men were still firing after the limo. Shots seemed to be landing just about everywhere. Craddock and I piled ourselves over the top of the cook, shielding his body. Romundstad had grabbed a spare magazine out of his jacket and, with a strip of Ronnie’s shirt, turned it into a tourniquet. Ronnie was chewing through his bottom lip in an effort to stay quiet.
Gradually, the firing petered out, leaving a ringing in my ears. The drift of gun smoke left a dirty smell in the air. I sat up, risked raising my head. Craddock did the same and gave me a quick grin. I looked down. Romundstad had managed to stem the bleeding and Declan was holding Ronnie’s hand, telling him he was going to be fine, and this didn’t mean he was let off making our lunch.
Declan looked up and caught my eye. He gave me a brief nod of apology. I shrugged my acceptance. Nothing further needed to be said.
Gilby’s men moved out of cover then. Todd went to carefully prise Heidi away from Hofmann, sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her across to Gilby, uncaring of the blood. Figgis produced a medical kit, elbowed us aside and began patching up Ronnie’s leg more scientifically than we’d been able to.
The tension drained away from us, sapping the adrenaline that had kept us going with it. I got to my feet and staggered back, wiping Ronnie’s blood onto the legs of my jeans.
I saw Sean start in my direction, but Gilby waylaid him on his way across to me, shaking his hand, thanking him. I was glad of the respite. He had that head-ducked look about him, the one that said he was spoiling for a fight. I didn’t think I was quite up to a confrontation with him just yet.
At that moment, above us on the terrace, the French doors clattered wide open and Jan came stalking out, with four of her men behind her carrying MP5Ks. Jan herself was holding a HK nine-mil pistol, like the ones we’d seen in the little apartment in Berlin. I wondered vaguely what she’d done with the SIG she’d taken with her from the outdoor range.
The gun she’d used to callously shoot Elsa.
Jan had always had an air of underlying resentment about her, but now she was halfway to ballistic and she made a beeline for me.
“You!” she yelled at me, her thin sallow face made ugly by her anger. “How dare you interfere!”
“I made a promise,” I said. It was becoming a catchphrase.
Jan’s temper spilled over. She darted forwards and kicked my legs out from under me. If I hadn’t been so damned weary I probably could have done something about it, but as it was I went down as far as my knees. She jammed the barrel of the P7 under my jawbone and lifted my head back with it.
“You have no idea who you’re dealing with here,” she bit out. “I can disappear you, Fox, for what you’ve done today.”
I stared up into her eyes with my heart racing, but I wouldn’t flinch. “I know,” I said.
“That’s enough,” Sean said in that deadly quiet tone I knew so well. “Leave her alone.”
Without moving my body I flicked my eyes sideways to find that one of the SIGs was out in Sean’s hand and was aimed at Jan’s head. I hadn’t seen where he’d been carrying it. From the shimmer that ran through them, no one else had, either.
Sean was dog-tired, grey with exhaustion from the tension and the twelve hundred kilometre drive, but the security service agent must have seen the cool intent in his eyes. It cut through the layers, penetrated. She carefully took her gun away from under my chin.
At the same moment one of Jan’s men came forwards and planted the muzzle of his MP5K, almost leisurely, into the side of Sean’s neck. He may have hesitated over shooting us when we were unarmed and protecting Ivan, but I had no doubts at all that he was capable of pulling the trigger now.
Stand-off time.
There was a moment’s hesitation, then Sean sighed and surrendered the SIG. The man took it and stepped back away from him. I could almost feel the others’ relief that Sean had gone down without a fight. Even surrounded by armed opponents and utterly fatigued he’d still represented a serious threat. He just had that air about him.
Jan tucked the HK back into its speed-draw holster and moved in close, putting her face into Sean’s. “I’ll have the pleasure of dealing with you later,” she sneered.
She brusquely ordered Sean searched and cuffed, and Gilby’s men, too, just for good measure. Major Gilby handed over Heidi into Romundstad’s care and submitted to the restraint with quiet resignation.
Jan eyeballed him as the cuffs went on. “Not quite so superior now are we,
