I know you, Sarah. The last thing you want is to sleep with Thomas. Something else is going on.
You lied to me.
Jessica had fought the urge to question Sarah out in the hallway, mainly because she trusted the woman. If she had needed help, she would’ve asked for it.
All you were interested in was getting out of here with Thomas. Why?
Where were the two of you going?
Jessica selected the CCTV feed for the hallway and jogged back to the moment Jessica had encountered Sarah. It showed their brief discussion, but little else. She paused the feed and advanced it frame by frame. Sarah and Thomas were pressed against each other, but Thomas appeared uncomfortable, squirming as though his back itched.
Then Jessica saw it.
A single frame showed a dark object pressed between Sarah and Thomas.
She’s holding a gun to his back?
She’s taken Thomas prisoner. What is happening?
Palms sweating, Jessica searched the other CCTV feeds. She jogged backwards and found the pair inside Thomas’s office minutes earlier. There was no audio, but Jessica gasped when she saw Sarah whip out her Sig and point it at Thomas’s face.
“Sweet molasses.” She reached for her phone, about to order a full lockdown of the earthworm, but realised it was too late. Sarah would already be on the surface by now, taking Thomas God knows where.
But that didn’t mean things had gone too far. There was still time to bring Sarah back before she did anything truly stupid. Maybe the situation could be contained.
I don’t even know what’s she’s up to, though.
What if I interfere with something better left alone?
But what if she’s snapped? What if Thomas is in danger?
What do I do? Heck, Jessica. You want to be in charge, this is the moment.
Jessica put down the phone. Sarah had been a liability from the very moment she had first stepped onto the MCU’s Griffin helicopter, but without her, the MCU would have crumbled into dust a long time ago. Whatever she was up to, Jessica trusted that Sarah was doing it for the right reasons.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” She stared at the CCTV footage of Sarah pointing a gun at Thomas’s startled face. “I really do.”
Chapter Eight
Thomas did indeed know the way to the Beaconsfield business. In fact, he drove there on autopilot, barely speaking or even looking at Sarah. Sarah, meanwhile, sat with her Sig resting on her knee, ready to shoot him if he did anything she didn’t like.
Like breathe.
It was eleven at night by the time they reached a fenced-off compound surrounded by overgrown woodland. Other than a large factory, there were no other businesses around. Because of its size and location, the area must once have belonged to a successful company, but now it was run-down and dilapidated – obvious, even in the dark.
Sarah directed Thomas to park the Range Rover a hundred metres down the road from the compound. The two of them stepped out onto a weed-covered driveway, lined on both sides by mature trees. Sarah searched left and right until she spotted someone hiding behind a towering elm tree. When Thomas saw the man, he yelped.
“Cool it,” said Sarah, moving over to Thomas and prodding him with her Sig. “It’s just a buddy of mine.”
Matt stepped out of the shadows, still kitted out with his MP5 and tactical vest. He gave Sarah a boyish smile. “Thought you weren’t going to come. Should I be worried you brought a man with you at gunpoint?”
“Yes,” said Thomas, desperately. “I’m the director of the MCU. I’ve been taken hostage.”
Matt’s eyes widened, and he looked to Sarah for answers. “Is that true?”
Sarah shrugged. “Sounds worse than it is. He might be the director today, but tomorrow he’ll be under arrest on about six dozen counts of corruption and a handful of conspiracy to commit murder charges. Trust me, he’s no damsel in distress.”
“Okay.” Matt nodded, seeming to make peace with it. “So why is he here?”
Thomas went to speak, but Sarah dug her Sig into his spine. “He’s here because he and Maxim are bros. He’s going in with a wire to get a confession. Then you can move in and arrest Maxim and his guys. Is everything set?”
Matt nodded. “I had to send part of my team to the bogus shootout in Watford – I couldn’t be seen to be disobeying orders – but I have four guys out here with me, ready to move in.”
“That’s not enough,” said Thomas. “You’re going to get us all killed.”
“Four of my guys are worth ten Eastern-European thugs, believe me.”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “You’d better hope so.”
Sarah prodded him again. “We’ll work with what we’ve got. If you don’t want a bloodbath, Thomas, then work with me, okay?”
“I am working with you. I have no choice.”
She looked him in the eye. “Yes, you do. Once we get inside, there’s going to be a moment when you’ll have to decide what kind of man you want to be. I just hope you choose to be the man I once loved.”
Matt cleared his throat. “This situation is more complicated than I thought, isn’t it? Should I call for backup?”
Sarah shook her head. “We can’t do anything that’ll tip off Maxim, and we can’t risk him leaving. Also, he has so many hooks in so many fish that we don’t know who we can trust.” She glared at Thomas.
Thomas looked away.
Matt took a step back towards the shadows. “Just send me a signal when you’re ready and my guys will be there.”
Sarah pulled out her mobile phone and looked at it. “No reception. It won’t be pretty, but the signal will have to be me firing a shot.”
“Elegant,” said Thomas.
“Shut it.” She shoved him in the back and got him moving. “Come on.”
“Wait,” said Matt.
Impatiently, Sarah turned. “What?”
Matt’s handsome face turned ugly. He lifted his MP5, turned it backwards, and rammed the butt right against her jaw. The pain was spiritual, filling her skull and shunting away her vision. She tumbled backwards onto the cracked driveway, thorny weeds scratching at her neck. The blow didn’t knock her unconscious, but it was close.
“Get her gun,” said Matt.
“Do you work for Maxim?” Thomas asked.
“What do you think? Get her gun.”
“This is a bad idea.”
“You want her to shoot you? Get her goddamn gun.”
Sarah groped for her Sig, but she had dropped it. It reappeared a moment later, pointed at her face.
“Thomas,” she said, her words slurred, “what are you doing?”
His hands shook as they held the gun. “I told you this was a stupid plan, Sarah. Now you’re fucked. You’re fucked!”
She looked up at Matt, who had his MP5 pointed at her. “So you’re a puppet too, huh?”
Matt shrugged. “There’s more money to be made on this side of the law.”
“Work with us, Sarah,” said Thomas frantically. “You and I can have that life we always dreamed of. Once we make enough money—”
Sarah spat blood at him. “Even if I could bear to be in the same room as you, you’ll never be free of Maxim. You belong to him. And I will never belong to you. I’d rather die.”
“You’re going to get your wish.” Matt pulled out his radio and made a call. “Okay, boss. I have her. Gellar too. What do you want me to do with them? Uh huh, no problem.” He raised his MP5 and pointed it at Thomas.
Thomas froze.
“Boss wants to talk to you. Get your ex on her feet and take her inside.”
Thomas grabbed Sarah, but she brushed him off and got to her feet by herself. Her nose was broken, streaming hot blood, which she allowed to pour. The coppery taste of it in her mouth made her angry, and anger was a useful thing to have. “Neither of you will survive until morning,” she warned, and then hawked up a mouthful of bloody saliva and spat it onto the driveway.
Matt
struck her shoulder with his MP5, causing more pain and making her even angrier. She held onto it all and stomped towards the factory, eager to meet Maxim Ivanov face to face. At the very least, she would spit in his face before she died.
The factory’s interior was unlit, and in the shadows, a dozen bodies moved. Several high windows were propped open, allowing in an uncomfortable breeze. The building stank of metal and oil. A trio of vans were parked by a loading bay near the back, rear doors open. Whatever their contents, she assumed they were illegal.
A short, stocky man stepped out of the shadows to face her. His ample gut was solid, like you could bend an iron pipe over it. He was clean-shaven with thick black hair, and as he glared at Sarah, he shook his head in disgust. “So, you are little woman who causes me so much heartburn? Such a broken, ugly thing. I am disappointed.”
“And I expected someone taller.”
Maxim stepped forward and backhanded her across the face. The blow rattled her skull, and she slumped sideways, blood pouring from her nose. Thomas caught her and held her up. He protested. “Maxim, you don’t need to do this.”
“I do as I please, and you betray me, Thomas. Did you really think I would believe your silly stories over phone? Did you think I wouldn’t recognise this to be a trap?” He turned to Matt and nodded. “Fortunately, I still have men who are capable and loyal.”
“I am loyal,” said Thomas. “I was brought here at gunpoint. Ask him! Ask your loyal little dog.”
Matt shrugged. “He’s telling the truth. She had a gun pressed against his spine, and he didn’t look happy about it. Also, he’s wearing a wire.”
Thomas reached into his shirt and yanked the small micro-bug from his chest. He held it up, dropped it, and crushed it beneath his shoe. “I have never betrayed you. Never.”
Maxim took a moment, then folded his thick forearms and sneered. “So you are not disloyal, merely incompetent.”
“Don’t blame him,” said Sarah, feeling an odd need to defend Thomas. “You’re not as smart as you think you are, Maxim. I’ve been closing in on you for months. Thanks for the motorcycles, by the way. They were worth a fortune by themselves, but the party treats we found inside the mufflers were a nice surprise. We all had a right good time at your expense.”
Maxim growled and struck her again. This time, she spilled out of Thomas’s grasp and hit the cement floor. Her entire face burned, the bones in her cheeks and nose creaking on the edge of shattering. Thomas protested again, but he did nothing to help her, not even when Maxim started kicking her in the ribs.
He yelled at her like a demon possessed. “Those were my drugs. That was my money. Nobody messes with Maxim Ivanov and lives. Do you hear me? Nobody!”
Somewhere around the fifth kick, Sarah’s lights went out. When she opened her eyes, someone was standing over her and grinning. They wore a blue baseball cap.
“We meet again,” said Cosmo, dragging Sarah to her feet. Two other men stood behind him. “Now I get to repay for Sergei’s death. I cannot wait.”
“Put her with the boy,” Maxim ordered. “We’ll move out as soon as I get the all clear from the Mad Scot.”
Sarah moaned as she was dragged away on battered legs. “You’re going to spend the rest of your life in a cell, Maxim,” she called back weakly, “and Thomas Gellar won’t be able to do a thing to help you.”
“You underestimate me, woman. I have men far more powerful than Thomas Gellar on my payroll. Even the Home Secretary herself is at my mercy.”
Cosmo dragged Sarah away from the factory floor and took her into a corridor. He opened a door and tossed her inside an empty office. Before he closed the door, he grinned at her. “I look forward to breaking you.”
Then he was gone.
The small office was unlit, but a tiny rectangular window near the ceiling let in a sliver of moonlight. Ollie Simpson sat in the corner, arms wrapped around his knees. His eyes widened when he saw her. “Wh-What are you doing here?”
“Trying to rescue you. It’s not been going so well.” Ollie didn’t laugh, but she didn’t expect him to. The levity was for her own benefit, a way of balancing the anger inside her. She couldn’t let it out yet. “You doing okay, kid?”
He removed his arm from around his knees and straightened his legs. “That man, the one in charge, he wants me to work for him.”
“You know what that would mean, right?”
“It means I would probably have to do bad things.”
“There’s no probably about it. Maxim Ivanov is as ruthless as they come. He won’t stop at anything less than becoming the world’s biggest crime lord. He’s a Netflix special waiting to happen.”
“But if I work with him, he’ll take care of me and keep me out of prison.”
Sarah exhaled and chewed the inside of her bruised left cheek. With a shrug, she said, “Maybe. But that won’t mean you’re free. Once you work for Maxim Ivanov, there’s only one way to quit. And it comes with a one-way ticket to Hell.”
Ollie stared at the ground. “The alternative isn’t any better. I won’t survive in prison. I’m just a kid.”
“No, you’re not. You’re a young man who killed eight hundred people this morning. I mean, you get that, right? I know you’re scared, but you’ve got to take responsibility for this, Ollie. You can join Maxim if you want, but I promise you, I’m getting out of here. And when I do, I’ll be coming for you. I’ll track you to the ends of the earth if I have to. Because that’s my job. Taking down bad guys is what I do.”
Ollie continued staring at the ground.
“But right now, Ollie, I don’t class you as a bad guy. You’re a mixed-up kid who did something monumentally bad. I mean, you’ve really taken teenage high jinks to a whole new level, but you can keep things from getting any worse. Don’t go with Maxim. You’ll regret it.”
“I don’t want to go with him.”
“Good.”
“But I can’t go to prison either. You can say whatever you want, but I would rather be dead than that. I won’t go.”
If Sarah could have made a joke, she would have, but all she had left was anger. She grabbed Ollie by the throat and forced him against the old carpet in the room. “This isn’t about what you want, you little shit. Why don’t you think about all the people you killed and their families for a second, huh? Everything you’ve got coming is your own fault, so man up and accept it.”
She let Ollie up, resisting the urge to pummel him. He scooted back up against the wall, wiping at his eyes and choking back tears. Sarah didn’t care about the kid’s emotions right now though. She needed to focus on what came next. Her phone was gone and Thomas still had her Sig, but its holster was still in place beneath her jacket – including the secret pocket. She had on a belt, but didn’t see any way to make use of it. She was unarmed and stranded half a mile from the nearest property.
“I’m sorry, kid,” she said a few minutes later. “You okay?”
Ollie was staring into space, but he replied, “Not even close.”
“Yeah, it was a stupid question. Can I ask you another?”
“Okay.”
“What the hell were you thinking?”
He sighed and actually appeared to loosen up slightly. Rather than answer the question, he spoke about something else. “When I was fourteen, my sister died. She was ten. Most of the time, growing up, I just ignored her. She was into girl stuff – stupid stuff – and I was… I guess I was into computers, even back then. The thing is, whenever she was around, it was impossible to be alone, because I had a sister. We were a pair. I didn’t appreciate it back then, but when she got ill, everything I thought was safe and normal went away. My parents stopped being parents, and my little sister was suddenly this old and serious thing lying in bed all the time. The pain got worse and worse, yet she only seemed to get braver. Right at the end, she told me that one of the things she was most sad about was that she would never be able to grow up with me, that I would have to do it alone. That terrif
ied me. My sister was just this normal, healthy kid, with loving parents, and she never even made it to eleven. After she passed, I just went away. The Internet is really good for taking you away from your life. You can be anyone you want and do anything you want. I decided to break things. The world was already so broken anyway, I decided to get good at breaking it even more. I… I…”
Sarah nodded. “You’re angry. I would be too. Family has a way of slicing right into the meat of our hearts. I’m sorry about your sister. It sucks.”
Ollie didn’t say anything back. He was panting and shaking his head, clenching his fists. Suddenly, he leapt to his feet.
“Hey,” said Sarah. “What are you doing?”
“I can’t sit here any more. I can’t! We need to break the window and climb out.”
“Forget about it. It’s too narrow.”
“We can call for help.”
“Calm down.”
He tore at his hair, growing more and more frantic. “No. No, I’m not listening to you any more. Help me break the window or just… just shut up.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. She unbuckled her belt and tossed it at the kid’s feet. “Have fun.”
Ollie picked up the belt and appraised the large stainless steel buckle – Sarah had used to wear women’s belts, but she found the flimsier clasps were always snapping out in the field – then he folded the belt in half and let the buckle dangle, weighting it up. He leapt up at the window and swung the belt. The buckle struck the small glass panel and caused a crack. He struck it a second time and the window shattered. Glass shards rained onto the ground. Ollie shielded himself with both arms then immediately jumped to pull himself up into the window frame. But it was seven feet off the ground, and the kid clearly had no upper-body strength.
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