“What do you know, lady?” he growled, pointing at Sarah. “If I find out that this some sort of publicity stunt, I’ll–”
“You’ll what?” Sarah growled back. “And get your finger out of my face, or I’ll bite the bloody thing off.”
Hannah winced. It was almost guaranteed that a few news drones had caught that. There was no telling how it would play. She tugged on Sarah’s sleeve. “Let’s go. I’ll call the car around.” Again, she made sure Faulkner heard her. She needed to keep his attentions focused here, rather than on directing his men, and buy the others time.
Faulkner’s gaze slid towards her. “You’re not going anywhere.” He turned to his men. “Lock this place down! No one in or out, except with my express permission.”
“Hang on now, you can’t do that,” Jenks said, getting in Faulkner’s face, alongside Sarah. To his credit, Faulkner didn’t retreat in the face of the combined assault. At Jenks’ words, the other constables started pushing forward. Faulkner’s men were outnumbered, but better armed. They reacted like soldiers under fire, hunching up, waiting for orders.
Sarah bared her teeth at Faulkner. “In a few moments, things are going to get very messy, Sergeant. Unless you do the smart thing and back off.”
Faulkner rounded on her. “Is this what you wanted, woman?” Beyond him, Hannah could see that trouble was brewing. It wouldn’t be long before someone threw a punch, or got shot. Even as she shrank back, she hoped Bagley appreciated it.
“What I wanted was a photo opportunity. And that’s what I’m getting, though perhaps not the one I expected. Call off your dogs, and we’ll see what we can do to fix things before they get out of hand.”
Faulkner licked his lips. Hannah could read the violence in his eyes. She’d looked up Faulkner’s record, what there was of it, and knew he wasn’t the sort of man to back off from a challenge to his authority – not when he had the advantage. She could read the calculation in his expression. He was wondering if he could get away with an incident, perhaps blame it on the Met’s lack of training, or–
“DedSec,” he said, abruptly.
Sarah frowned. “What?”
“It’s DedSec. Trying to hide their involvement…”
“In the shooting?”
“Yes,” Faulkner said, quickly. He didn’t really believe it, Hannah knew – or at least, he wasn’t certain. But he was looking for an excuse to back off. He’d realised that whatever happened, it wouldn’t help Albion’s mission in East London if he got into a firefight in a police station. “Got to be. There’s a cell of the insurgent bastards in Tower Hamlets, Ms Lincoln. Acting right under the noses of the Metropolitan Police,” he added, glancing at Jenks. The constable flushed and took a step towards him, but Sarah got there first.
“Be that as it may, they’re not here now,” she began.
“Do we know that?” he said, smiling nastily. “I don’t. DedSec aren’t all hooligans and spotty-faced shut-ins. Some of them are right hard bastards, pretending to be upstanding citizens. Maybe even officers of the Met.”
“What the hell are you implying?” Jenks demanded.
“You know damn well what I’m saying, Constable,” Faulkner spat. “Someone must have let them in. Why not you?” He looked past her, at the press. “Or them?”
At his words, Sarah glanced at Hannah, and Hannah fought to give no sign she’d noticed. Silently, she cursed Liz and Olly, and Bagley too, for good measure. But Sarah said nothing to her. Instead she focused her attentions on Faulkner.
“We can address potential leaks later. Right now, we need to ensure that no one gets shot. That includes whoever your men are chasing right now.”
“Are you giving me orders, then?” Faulkner said.
“That depends – are you planning to follow them?”
Faulkner stared at her a moment longer, and then turned to bark orders. His men retreated, putting space between themselves and the constables. Sarah turned to Jenks. “That goes for you lot as well. Calm them down, or I’ll have them on report.”
Jenks frowned, but nodded and turned to do as Sarah had demanded. Hannah let out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding. “That went well.”
Sarah reached for a nearby chair, and sat down heavily. “Did it?” she said, in a shaky voice. “That’s good.” Hannah realised she was trembling.
“Sarah, are you – are you alright?”
“Scared out of my wits, actually. Things got very close to going very badly there. Faulkner came here looking for an excuse to shut this place down and someone has given him one.” She looked at Hannah. “Those two reporters… where are they?”
“I– I don’t know. They might be outside.”
Sarah frowned. After several moments silence, she said, “You’d better hope Faulkner doesn’t find them, for their sakes if nothing else.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her brow. “Remind me again why I did this?”
“Photo opportunity,” Hannah said, quickly.
“Oh right, yes.” Sarah opened her eyes. “I do hope they got some good ones.” She took a deep breath and stood. “If this is a sign of things to come, it does not fill me with confidence, I must say.”
“Rethinking your potential support of Albion?”
Sarah looked at her, a slight smile on her face.
“Let’s just say, their sales pitch needs work.”
13: Escape
Liz moved quickly down the hall, the blueprints for the police station overlaying her vision. There were two fire-doors between them and the secondary exit. The doors were new, but wired into the building’s security grid. Thankfully, that had been updated with all the rest of the Met’s network and now ran on cTOS programming. Her thumb moved automatically across the screen of her Optik, and the doors swung open ahead of them.
Olly was panting in her wake, more from fear than effort. “What are we going to do? What are we going to do? They’re right behind us!”
“Yes, Olly, that is what these sorts tend to do when
