The cab tried to bring them to MI6 headquarters but the street was blocked off by barricades. There were several parked news vans just outside of it and beyond the police barricades, SCO19 Specialist Firearms Command vans and cop cars lined up in front of the cream and green building. With a quick flash of their IDs, Diana and Amber made their way through the barricade. Signing off with Hoagland had proved to be useful—without that asshole, she may have been stuck on the outside looking in.
“Ms. Weick.” A woman approached with long blonde hair that was pulled back into a braid. She was in a full black and navy SWAT-style uniform, and she reached out her hand as she approached, walking toward them along the stone wall that surrounded the headquarters. “I’m Jillian Watts with SCO19. We’d love to have you in on this.”
“I’m sure you would,” Diana said.
Watts raised her eyebrows and gestured to a van behind them, opening the back door to a variety of screens and wires. They had CCTV footage of a blank hallway, broken glass strewn out across the floor. Then, there was a drone camera, capturing a large office beyond a huge window of green glass.
There were four pieces of paper lined up along the window, each affixed with massive amounts of tape. It said in black marker—one word on each sheet—GIVE ME DIANA WEICK.
“And that’s your kid in there as well, correct?” Watts asked, looking over her shoulder. Diana stared at the screen. To the right of the papers, Wesley and Rex were lined up on their knees, their hands behind their heads. On either side of them were Zabójca and Asher, holding pistols to the temples of her son and ex-husband.
“Where’s Voss?” Amber asked.
“Sitting at the desk,” Watts replied. “Behind the papers.”
“Is she a hostage too?”
“Unconfirmed,” Watts said, crossing her arms.
“Negotiator?”
“You’re looking at her.” Watts crouched down in front of the screen, stretching out her fingers before zooming in on Wesley and Rex’s faces. Pressing her lips together and swallowing something back, Diana took a step forward.
“Sorry, Ms. Weick… not sure if you heard me but…” Watts said. “This is your son, correct? And ex-husband?”
“I heard you,” Diana replied. “Yeah, it’s them.”
“This was all on this ‘Reader’ organization, then?”
Diana and Amber exchanged glances. No one had as much information as they did. And Diana wasn’t going to waste her time explaining everything that had happened over these past few months to a police official that she didn’t know if she could trust.
“I need a way to get up top,” Diana said, turning away from the screen and squinting at the window high up in the clear sky, the papers the size of playing cards from this distance. “Can you guys get me up there?”
“I suppose we could,” Watts said.
“Blow the glass when I get close and I can get the drop on them,” Diana said.
“Seems risky,” Watts replied. “They may shoot the hostages as soon as the glass is blown.”
“The exploding glass should be a sufficient distraction,” Amber said from behind them, hopping out of the back of the van, shaking the hand of another MI6 agent that passed by, giving them a somber smile.
“Give them what they want, hey? Let me talk to my team,” Watts said and shuffled off to one of the other vans.
“You trust Voss?” Diana cupped a hand over her eyes, the glass of Vauxhall Court reflecting the sun in sweeping green beams.
“Absolutely not,” Amber said.
“Well, we know that she and Zabójca have history…” Diana said. “But were they in on this together?”
“Unlikely…” Amber replied. “From what I could gather, she absolutely hates him. If we don’t get up there soon, they’ll kill each other.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“As long as Wesley and Rex don’t get caught in the crossfire.”
Diana sighed and said, “Good point.”
They loaded into the helicopter, Watts wrangling both Diana and Amber SCO19 uniforms with bulletproof vests and automatic pistols strapped to their thighs. They wouldn’t let them go alone so Watts had stuck them with who she claimed were her two best—one short slim man with ridiculously long fingers, Louis, and another woman with dark features and a completely silent gait, Mercy Okpara.
The whipping of the helicopter blades as they rose into the air seemed to synchronize with Diana’s heartbeat, a hard thumping against her chest with every rotation.
It was good that Voss was so important. It meant her office was high up and that it was easier to access from the top of the MI6 headquarters. Still, it had been a long time since Diana had scaled a building. She was nervous, the emotions stirring through her and pulling at her focus.
Amber looked at her from across the helicopter, his dark and intense stare pulling her gaze into his as he said, “Focus on me, Weick.”
She nodded, her mouth going dry and making it difficult to swallow.
It was all she could do—stare at Amber until the helicopter started its descent and settled into a hover. It was the first time in a long time that she had felt truly nervous, and on top of that, though she started off her journey rogue and alone, she was far from it now. Strength in numbers—that was something Ratanake had taught her, and it had been the reason she had taken on Taras Kushkin. But a part of her wished she had trusted him more. Maybe Rex and Wesley wouldn’t be on their knees with guns to their heads right now if she had trusted him with what he knew.
With one deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth, Diana rallied. She wouldn’t let her emotions get the best of her. Not now.
She stood up—taking the lead and opening the hatch after the helicopter pilot gave the signal. With her boot, she kicked and slid the rope
