than five minutes away. They called in to the source when they got there. We’ve got to find them before their check-in time, or that’s it. Come on, throw this fucking thing round.’
As we turned at another junction, my hands were on the dashboard, rocking backwards and forwards, willing the car to go faster.
We saw plenty of vans, but none of them was the battered Transit. ‘Why hasn’t he called yet? It shouldn’t take this long to locate these fuckers. Faster, Suzy, for fuck’s sake.’
‘Shut it. He’ll call, don’t worry. But we need to check these roads. Keep looking, we’ll find them, we’ll find them.’
I kept checking the cell’s signal. What was taking the Yes Man so long?
We came to another junction. Rain flew in through the windows. ‘Down there. Look, go left, left.’
She turned, driving hard towards two white vans parked further up the road. ‘Got it!’ she yelled. ‘Look right – the carport ’bout five houses up.’
She threw the Renault sideways and it bumped up on to the pavement. I fell out of the passenger door and used the parked vans as cover. The house was end-of-terrace, with a corrugated plastic lean-to down its side.
The cell rang.
I checked the number before hitting the green button and the Yes Man was immediately talking at me.
‘Listen in. Do not go into the house, you understand me? Both of you stay outside. Contain the area. A team is on its way. I repeat, stay outside.’
How the fuck did he know where we were?
I spun round, looked up and found it. A CCTV camera at the end of the road, less than fifty away. The arsehole had located the numbers within a minute of me giving them to him and had just fucked us off and taken over.
Suzy kept eyes on target from behind the van as I bent down to protect the phone from the rain.
‘You bastard! Kelly’s in there!’
‘Where is Dark Winter?’
‘Go fuck yourself. Find it yourself.’
‘Do not go in, Stone.
I brought the phone down, but she grabbed my hand before I could jab the red button. ‘Tell him where it is. Tell him. You can’t take any chances, remember?’
Shit. I brought the cell back up to my ear. ‘It’s above the disused Indian on Caledonian Road, opposite the mosque. Have you got that – opposite the mosque?’
I could hear plenty of commotion going on behind him, even above the lashing of the rain.
I cut the call, and immediately got another series of short sharp bleeps.
61
The number displayed was one of the two UK numbers.
‘They’re checking in! They’re checking in!’
She broke into a run, heading straight for the house. I hobbled after her, the cut in my heel widening until I felt tarmac on bone.
I was only metres behind her as she squeezed into the gap between the van and the side door. I went straight for the front, barging into it with my shoulder. Three times I tried to ram it in, but just bounced off. I checked the windows. No good – double-glazed.
Suzy was breaking glass. Slipping and sliding on the muddy grass I limped as fast as I could round the side to her. She had an arm through the smashed pane. Her wrist jolted upwards as she fired a round, the report drowned by the suppressor and the rain.
She pulled her weapon away, screaming, ‘I’ve missed! He’s gone left, left, left!’
I pushed her out of the way.
My raincoat sleeve rode up my arm and jagged shards of glass cut into my skin as I fumbled for the lock and Suzy jostled for position, weapon up, shouting in my ear, ‘Come on!
My fingers closed over a Yale. I turned it and half fell inside, my arm still in the frame as Suzy barged past, weapon up, running through the inner door.
Almost immediately she was screaming. ‘Fucking hell! Fuck!’
I followed her into the hallway, my mouth still filling with blood. Street-light shone through the panels either side of the front door.
Two young dark-skinned bodies lay on the floor. Suzy must have fallen over them and was now scrabbling to get up the stairs. Her feet thumped on to the landing as a frantic shriek echoed somewhere above me.
‘KELLY! KELLY! I’M COMING!’
I jumped over the bodies and took the stairs two at a time. My legs couldn’t go fast enough.
A door was open ahead of me.
The bathroom.
Empty.
Suzy was standing a few paces further down, weapon up, hammer back. It was gloomy, only the street-light filtering up from the hallway, but I could make out three or four further doors, a couple each side of the corridor. Suzy was trying to work out which one she was behind.
I grabbed the handle of the first left and she went for the right.
It was dark in there, but I saw movement. I dived towards it, crashing into furniture on the way. As we fell between two beds, sharpness penetrated my right thigh.
‘Suzy! Suzy!’
The muscle seized up immediately, in spasm round the blade.
We tumbled on to the floor and his hand was wrenched away, leaving it embedded. He got on top of me, his head rammed into my neck, biting, trying to get flesh.
I smelt cologne, cigarettes, coffee, as his teeth sank into my neck.
I bucked and kicked as I tried to reach the knife in my leg. Blood ran down the side of my neck.
Another scream from next door.
I added a yell of my own as his head jerked away from me, taking a mouthful of my flesh with it.
For a moment all I could hear was his grunting and growling, then Suzy’s voice. ‘Get away! Move away from her! Now!’
Kelly’s screams took over as bodies thumped against the connecting wall.
My fingers reached his eyes. I wanted to gouge my way through to his brain.
He flicked his head and tried to bite my hand. I grabbed a fistful of his slippery hair, yanking it back, trying to keep his teeth away.
The room filled with next door’s screams. I shut it out of my mind, concentrating on the knife.
I head-butted him, and his teeth cut into my face.
I did him again – ‘BASTARD!’ – anything to distract him as my hand stretched down again for the knife.
Suzy was still trying to get control. ‘Let her go! Let her go!’
My fingers closed round the hilt and I pulled.
I screamed at him again as I pulled the blade free, then rammed it into him as hard as I could. I didn’t know where I’d hit, but he stiffened, his muscles tensing to fight the pain.
I pulled it out and thrust it down again and again, into his back, into his arse, anywhere I could reach.
His screams reached a crescendo as he jammed his head down on my face and tried to bite my cheek, never giving up.
Another high-pitched scream next door.
‘KELLY, I’M COMING! KELLY!’
He was leaking over me – our blood was burning into my eyes.
I dug the knife into his back, keeping it there, jerking it forward, backwards, left, right. His breathing was getting laboured, but he still hung on.
