If it had worked, I was going to stay here, not leave with Ingemar. I could have married Andy. How's that for funny. But when I had to let Alex see me last night, I lost that chance.'
Ariel, enough. We have to go.' For the first time, anxiety showed in Ingo.
She nodded. 'Yes, we must. So here is he deal. Bob. We leave the ladies here. But we take you. Just you. Not your little friend – he's the soldier Andy mentioned, I imagine – we couldn't handle you both in that little plane. And we take our prizes here, of course – the Crown, the Sceptre and he Sword. We have a delivery to make to our client.
'You.' She turned to Arrow. 'Fetch the bags from the car and load them into the plane. Then we take off – and you make sure there is no attempt to stop us.
Bob. you take your chance at the othel end. Now throw down your gun. Let's get moving!'
Arrow looked across to Skinner, who nodded to him, arid at the same time dropped his Browning on the ground. The little soldier moved past Sarah and Ariel, behind the car, and took the holdalls from the boot. He carried them across to the hangar, shoving its doors further apart with his shoulders, and placed them on one of the two rear seats of the plane.
That's good,' said Ariel. 'That's the most important part.
Now, Bob, you get on board, please.'
Skinner shook his head. 'Not till the girls and Adam are free and clear.'
'Oh no, Adam is not going anywhere.' Barely looking to take aim, she snapped off a single shot. Arrow crumpled and went down.
'So that just leaves the five of us. Now, do you get on that plane or…?' She stopped and shrugged her shoulders, impatiently.
'But why bother? It's much easier if we just kill the lot of you.
Ingemar. I'll shoot the women. You take Skinner – now!'
As she called to her brother, she pushed Sarah away from her and levelled her gun at her chest.
The shot was still cracking all around the airfield, even as she fell.
99
Andy Martin lay on the damp grass. He saw the car's approaching headlights, and saw it swing to a halt with its beams shining into the hangar.
He saw the muzzle-flash and even at that distance, heard the sharp sound as Ingo dispatched the driverHe saw him pull Alex from the car.
He saw the eye-to-eye, gun-to-gun stalemate between Skinner and the Swede.
And then he saw Sarah's head and shoulders emerge from the far side of the car, and saw the profile of the woman who followed, pushing her forward but staying close, holding something to her side.
It was the profile he had come to know so well, in the moonlight not so long before, but different somehow. The truth came to him in a flash, and his heart sank. He had taken the devil into his bed and into his heart, in the guise and the garb of an angel.
He watched, helpless. Seeing her lips move, he strained to hear what she said, but of course he was too far away.
He saw Arrow take the bags from the car and carry them into the hangar.
He started in horror as she shot him down.
And then, still through the telescopic sight of the sniper's rifle which Skinner had taken earlier from Brian Mackie, he saw her push Sarah away from her, and knew instantly what she was about to do.
Tears flooded his contact lens, but only in the second after he pulled the trigger.
100
Ariel – who had been Andy's beloved Julia – twisted like a corkscrew as the heavy rifle bullet tore through her.
Ingo looked across in horror as his sister fell. His gun, which had been swinging towards Skinner, wavered aimlessly for a moment… And in that moment Skinner was upon him.
Not the affable if inquisitive Skinner whom he had met before as Alex's Pops. This was another Skinner: the cold, deadly Skinner he had glimpsed a few minutes earlier. The executioner Skinner, with no mercy in his eyes.
He felt his gun hand immobilised as an immensely strong forearm knocked it outwards and upwards. He felt his arm twisted and a hard hand clamping across his throat, setting his jaw at an angle. He felt no more after that, but he heard, crashing through his brain, a terrible thunder as the heel of Skinner's right hand slammed under his chin, driving it upwards, throwing his head backwards, and breaking his neck.
That thunderclap sound was the last living sensation of Ingemar Svart.
Skinner held the dead weight upright with one arm, as he hugged his daughter tight against him with the other. For a few moments, the three figures stood there in some terrible tableau, until Ingo's lifeless fingers loosened their grip on the belt around Alex's neck, and Skinner allowed his body to slip to the ground.
He felt Alex's long slender hands on his face, turning him towards her.
'Pops, Pops, are you all right?'
He blinked, and then smiled at her, as wide a smile of relief and happiness as she had ever seen. As they stood together, Sarah came to them and wrapped her trembling arms around them both.
As Bob embraced them, the women felt a violent trembling run through him, as sudden exhaustion, physical and emotional, OVCTtook him. But quickly he brought it under control.
It's all right now, girls. It's all right. It's all over.'
He led them across into the hangar and towards the plane.
'Now, you two sit in here, and look after the Queen's Sunday hat, while I get this lot sorted out.'
He held the door open as first Sarah and then Alex stepped up into the small craft. Then he turned to go to look for the fallei Arrow, and found, to his great delight, that the little soldier wav sitting upright. V 'Fookin marvellous these new flak jackets are. Give us a handup.' i Laughing with relief. Skinner pulled him to his feet. '
'Don't know what's so fookin' funny. Bob. Takes your fookin' breath away does a bullet in the chest!'
A few yards away Ariel lay on the ground. Most of her white top had been stained blood-red, but she was still moving. Skinner knelt beside her. As he did, he glanced across the landing strip, in the direction from which the shot had come. The moon had risen, and in its glow he could see Andy Martin coming slowly towards him, a rifle in his hand. His shoulders sagged as he walked like a man with no desire to reach his destination.
Skinner looked down at the woman. Her lips were bloodfrothed, and he saw that she was dying. 'Ingo?' she said faintly.
'No.'
He saw her eyes flood with tears.
'Ariel,' he asked, 'who is your buyer?' But he was not surprised when, with the last of her strength, she shook her head.
'Then who is Mr Black?'
'Not so clever after all, eh. Bob,' she whispered. 'Work it out for yourself.'
A final light of satisfaction shone in her hard eyes. Then it faded, and she was gone.
And in death she was Julia again, soft-eyed gentle Julia.
Skinner unfastened the ribbon which tied her pony-tail, and let her hair fall loose. Then he stood up, as Andy Martin came to his side and stood, looking down with reddened eyes at his lover's bodyTin sorry, Bob,' he said very quietly. 'She took me in, hook, line and sinker. I even brought her to your house, and put Sarah in danger.'
