The angry bull snorted, but then he grinned, morphing into a hyena. “The problems you have caused me, woman. I admit, I am less disappointed in you. Still, you fail.”
Sarah looked up and saw what he meant. A line of vehicles had pulled up outside the factory in front of the open shutters. Headlights lit up the night, and a dozen armed thugs hopped out of the assembled cars. Matt and four SCO19 officers wasn’t going to be enough.
“Get her on her knees,” Maxim ordered, and Hamish obeyed. Sarah teetered back and forth, barely able to hold herself up, flitting in and out of consciousness. She glared at Maxim, wishing she could kill him with a look. He unfastened his zip and looked down at her. “You want to try work something out, sweetheart?”
“You put it in my mouth, you lose it.”
Maxim redid his zip and chuckled. “You are ugly bitch, anyway. At least I will not make your face any worse.” He pulled out a well-oiled Colt Python and pressed it against her forehead. It was cold against her sweaty skin. “Do svidaniya, bitch!”
“Maxim!”
Thomas darted out of the smoke with Sarah’s Sig held in both hands. He fired, and Maxim lurched back against one of the vans, his blood spattering the side panel. The men around him burst into action, crouching and firing. Thomas ducked and took out two targets right away, but then the Sig ran dry and the fight turned sour. The first shot struck his elbow, causing him to drop the Sig and his arm to dangle by his side. The second shot entered his stomach and caused him to double over and spit blood. The third shot struck his shoulder and spun him. He collapsed to the ground, body flip-flopping in shock and agony. It had been a valiant effort, so unexpected that it had nearly worked, but this wasn’t an action movie.
Sarah held her breath.
Why would he be so reckless?
Was it the sight of me on my knees about to die?
“Stop firing!” Maxim bellowed, and at once his men disengaged, pointing their guns towards the rafters. Maxim gritted his teeth, biting back the pain of having been shot through the left biceps. He held his Colt Python in his right hand, cocking it and pointing it at Thomas, who now writhed in a pool of his own blood but seemed unconcerned by his own mortality. He peered over at Sarah and mouthed the words, “I-I’m sorry. F-F-For all of it.”
Sarah nodded, wanting to say she forgave him, but too wounded to speak. All she could do was nod and offer him a blood-soaked smile. It was no way to say goodbye.
Maxim walked closer, still pointing his Colt Python.
Thomas turned his gaze and bared his bloody teeth. “You’re finished, Maxim. You’re a small-time criminal with a big-time ego. Three years from now, nobody will even remem—”
Maxim fired at point-blank range and reduced Thomas’s left kneecap to mush. Thomas bellowed in agony, eyes rolling back in his head. Maxim aimed and fired a second bullet into his right knee. He laughed while he did it.
Thomas passed out. A mercy.
Sarah tried to keep from passing out herself. Even in the smoky gloom, she could see Thomas’s blood sprayed across the floor, saw the insides of his ruined kneecaps. She hated him, but deep in her heart, she loved him, too. Despite what he had done, she believed Thomas to be truly sorry.
It was too late now though.
Maxim chuckled. “I think stomach wound will take care of rest. No reason to end glorious suffering prematurely.” He walked away, back over to Sarah.
Sarah spat a wad of congealing blood from her nose onto the floor. The gunfire was finally fading, replaced by the wounded screams of SCO19 officers. Sarah’s plan had failed. She had set up the pieces, but the odds had been too heavily stacked against her.
I thought I could rely on other people to help me.
I thought I could trust them.
Cosmo appeared out of the smoke, controlling Ollie with a hammerlock. “I find boy pissing in corner. Policeman betray us. Hits me in head after faking this one’s death.” He pointed at Sarah. “Untrustworthy pig.”
“You can’t trust anyone these days,” Sarah mumbled, hoping Matt somehow got out of this alive. They truly had been on the same side.
Maxim sighed. “That’s the problem with bribing men, they are disloyal in first place. I want that turncoat dealt with before we leave. Oliver, you will come with me now. Do you understand?”
Ollie nodded, pale-faced and snotty-nosed. The kid deserved everything he got, but the problem was that he had the skills to do a lot of damage. Maxim wasn’t just escaping with a wanted criminal; he was escaping with a weapon of mass destruction.
“Can I take care of the wee lass now?” Hamish asked Maxim. “We ’ad a deal.”
Maxim nodded. “You’ve earned the right.”
“Aye, ain’t I just.”
Cosmo grunted. He was holding the back of his head where Matt had struck him, and he no longer had his baseball cap. “I want to kill bitch. It is personal.”
Hamish glared at Cosmo, his face a tapestry of scarred flesh. “Personal? You dinnae wanna talk to me aboot personal, pal. This one left me fer dead. Twice. I did yer dirty work earlier, taking care of your captured man. This was my price.”
Maxim nodded towards the vans. “Take care of boy, Cosmo. Do not make me ask twice.”
Cosmo looked at Hamish and said, “Shluha vokzal’naja.” He then grabbed Ollie and stormed off towards the front of the vans.
“There’s a good boy,” said Hamish, and he turned to Sarah with the old Beretta in his hand. “Sorry for yer loss, Captain.” He nodded at Thomas’s body. “I still remember the two of ye, back on base. Lovesick kids, ye were. Maybe if ye’d focused more on yer men and less about gettin’ yer fanny filled, we might nae be here. It’s time those young lads ye got killed had their justice, do ye nae reckon?”
Sarah glared at him, wishing he really had died when she’d let Hesbani cut his throat years before. “Hesbani and Al-Sharir killed those men,” she said. “Justice has already been served.”
“Aye, or at least yer version of it. But what about my justice?”
“You don’t deserve any.”
Maxim grumbled. “Get over with. We leave now.”
“Hold ye ’orses. Just let me enjoy the moment, will ye?”
Sarah glanced over at Thomas’s lifeless body, thinking back to another life, one full of hope instead of despair. The MCU had saved her, but it had also damned her to a life surrounded by ghosts and demons. It was time to be free of it all. She closed her eyes.
More gunfire broke out. It came not from inside the factory, but from without. Sarah opened her eyes again and looked through the open shutters, towards the collection of cars Maxim’s backup had arrived in. Several of the men there collapsed to the ground, wounded or dead. Another sprawled over the bonnet of a light-coloured saloon and started to scream. The remaining men scattered for cover. Suddenly chaos reigned.
Sarah sighed with relief.
Better late than never.
Hamish was distracted by the gunshots coming from outside. He still had the old Beretta pointed at Sarah’s face, but he was looking back over his shoulder. Sarah had nothing left in the tank – she already felt dead – but she grabbed hold of that familiar old anger inside her and used it to launch herself upwards. She grabbed the Beretta and rotated her body out of its way. At the same time, she bent Hamish’s wrist and forced his hand open. He cried out in surprise and tried to grab her by the hair, but Sarah leapt away with the Beretta now in her possession.
Hamish grinned, mouth crooked, teeth on display. “Well, wee lass, it looks like—”
Sarah raised her aim and pulled the trigger. The old Beretta bucked like a mule, but the bullet did its job, putting a small hole beneath Hamish’s left eye – and a great big one in the back of his head. He slumped to the ground, brains leaking onto the concrete.
Sarah stepped over him and shot him one more time in the face. “You should have learned your lesson the first time I killed you.”
There was a moan, audible even over the gunfire
.
Sarah turned. “Shit, Thomas!”
Her ex-husband was still alive, twitching on the ground and reaching a hand out to her. Sarah raced over to him, sliding to her knees and hoping the gunfight wouldn’t find her. Blood bubbled between Thomas’s lips. His watery eyes searched blindly, almost like he couldn’t see, but then his gaze settled on her. “Sarah, I…”
Sarah shushed him, placing a hand gently on his shoulder. “Stay quiet. I’m going to get you help. You’re going to be okay.”
“N-No.”
“Yes.”
“Just… listen… I-I have what you need. Everything. M-Maxim.”
“You have evidence?”
He coughed and blood sprayed everywhere. “I want… I want you to have it.”
Sarah nodded, then listened as Thomas endeavoured to tell her about a safe-deposit box kept at an ordinary high street bank in Hammersmith.
“It’s enough to lock him away for… for a thousand years.” Thomas suddenly sounder stronger, and Sarah grew hopeful. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Maxim and his men were engaging with their attackers outside. It was only a matter of time before someone came to take care of her. She still had the Beretta, but she was a sitting duck.
“Thomas, I’m going to be right back, okay? The cavalry has arrived and I need to go help.”
“N-No. Run. Get the evidence and deal with Maxim later.”
She opened her shirt and revealed the pocket beneath her holster. “It’s okay. I’ve been carrying a bug on me this entire time. I recorded everything. I think. Just need to find my phone.”
“A bug?”
“Yep. I don’t go anywhere without one.” She chuckled and stroked Thomas’s hair. Suddenly, the sins of his past didn’t seem to matter so much. Maybe there had been another way than this.
“So that’s how you…” Thomas’s eyes darted to the side. “Wait!”
Sarah turned and found herself at the end of a gun barrel again. She groaned. “I really need to grow eyes in the back of my head.”
Cosmo glared at her from beneath a pair of bushy V-shaped eyebrows. His faux hawk was sweaty and flat. “Is my lucky day, no? Now I get to kill bitch who kill my friend.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. What was his name again? Sanjay? Sidney?”
“Sergei. His name was Sergei. We were like brothers.”
“Lovers? Nice. Well, I’m sure you and Sandy will be together again soon.”
Sarah sensed the end of Cosmo’s tether and leapt aside right as he pulled the trigger. At the same time, she planted a boot on his kneecap. He howled in pain, staggering backwards, but he stayed on his feet. He pointed his gun at her again and snarled. “Bitch.”
“You should really look behind you.”
It wasn’t a bluff, and something in Sarah’s expression must have told Cosmo that, because he heeded her warning and turned around.
He tried to react.
But Howard was too fast. A bearded assassin, dressed in jeans and T-shirt, he unloaded three rounds into Cosmo’s chest, steadying with his mangled hand like it was no impediment at all. Cosmo hit the ground and left no question that he was dead.
Howard hurried to Sarah’s side, but she shook her head and shoved him away. “You bastard! Why did you come so late?”
Howard noticed Thomas lying in a pool of blood and visibly deflated. His arms flopped to his sides. “I’m sorry. Mandy had to go through Jessica to authorise the assault. It took some convincing, because she saw you marching Thomas out of the earthworm at gunpoint. I got here as fast as I could.”
Sarah sighed, unable to stay angry. “We should have brought her in from the start.”
“H-Howard?” Thomas was staring at him, blinking slowly. “Is that you?”
Howard turned to Thomas, appearing unsure how to react. “I’m afraid I’m harder to kill than you planned on.”
Thomas said nothing, but he released a breath that almost sounded like relief. “Look after her.”
“I can look after mys…” Sarah’s words trailed off as she realised Thomas was dead. A few seconds passed before she could breathe.
“I’m sorry,” said Howard.
“Be sorry later.”
The gunfight outside continued to rage, and as the smoke in the factory began clearing, dozens of bodies revealed themselves. One body was moving, a survivor getting to their feet. It was Matt. He stumbled over to join Sarah and Howard, clutching his side where he was bleeding from a gunshot wound where a bullet had made it through underneath the straps. “Took your sweet time,” he said, glaring at Howard. “I lost men. Good officers.”
“I’m sorry.”
Sarah nodded. “Me too.”
Matt sighed. “I’m sorry to say it, Sarah, but I wish I’d never met you.”
“I get that a lot. For what it’s worth, I lost people too.” She got to her feet unsteadily. “And I’m not so sure I’ll even make it myself.”
“Let’s just finish this.” He shouldered his MP5. “Maxim needs to pay.”
Howard turned and pointed to the open shutters where car headlights still illuminated the darkness outside. “He was trying to escape, moving with the last of his men into the woods. I already have a team moving in to flank him. He’s not going anywhere.”
Sarah sneered. “Let’s go put a sword in this bull.”
The three of them headed out into the night. Gun smoke swirled in the air, thick enough to irritate her throat. Half a dozen of Maxim’s guys lay dead on the ground, executed by high-velocity rifle fire. An MCU strike force had secured the area and was dispelling the remaining darkness with flares and flashlights. Further on, a second team was advancing into the woods. Sarah hurried after the second team as quickly as her wounded groin would allow her. Even running on empty, she was still controlled by her impulses, still determined to be the one who faced evil head-on. Howard went with her, but Matt stayed behind, his injuries catching up with him.
Sarah and Howard caught up with the advance team. Howard asked for an update and shared it with Sarah a minute later, a pleased expression on his face. “Maxim is injured, and he only has a few men left. It’s over.”
“Don’t speak too soon.”
Shouts split the silence, voices yelling in English. Something had alarmed the strike team up ahead. “Drop the gun. Let the boy go. You’re under arrest.”
Sarah broke away from Howard and stumbled through the trees. She found Maxim and two of his men cornered at the edge of a steep incline. To continue his escape, Maxim would have to turn his back and lower his weapon to clamber up it, and if he did that, the strike team would shoot him. Wisely, he had chosen a different tactic.
Maxim had a thick forearm wrapped around Ollie Simpson’s throat. The barrel of his Colt Python dug into the boy’s temple. “Back off, or I’ll blow out boy’s brains.”
Ollie sobbed. “Please. I just want this to stop.”
“Quiet boy. You are ticket out of here.”
Sarah limped out from behind a wide-bodied oak. “Really, Maxim? You think a wanted mass murderer makes a good hostage? I should just kill you both.”
“Ha! No, you are good guys. You want to lock up boy and watch suffer in name of justice, no?”
Sarah had the old Beretta, but it was too hard a shot in the dark. Too much risk of hitting Ollie. “I couldn’t give two shits about you, Maxim, but Oliver Simpson can still face up to what he did. He can help people heal and ensure nothing like it ever happens again. Repentance can make a difference, something you would know nothing about.”
“You want boy to apologise for killing hundreds of people? Ha! Such a thing is worthless, but okay. You leave now, or I kill boy and you never get your worthless apology.”
The two men standing with Maxim tossed their guns on the ground and put up their hands. Their nerves had abandoned them as it became clear there was no possible escape.
Sarah grinned. “And I thought you only hired idiots, Maxim. Looks like at least two of your men have c
ommon sense. There’s no way out of this for you. It’s over. You’re just a footnote. Time to leave things to the real criminals.”
Maxim glared at his surrendering men. “I will bury the both of you alive.” He turned back to Sarah. “And you, I will make my whore until mind breaks.”
“Sorry, Maxim, it takes someone a little taller to blow my mind.”
“I… I will kill you.”
“Yeah, yeah. Look around you, Maxim. Your tiny empire is in flames. Even if, through some miracle, you get away, we have so much evidence against you that you won’t be able to take a shit without an armed response turning up at your door.”
“Then I shall die here, right after I kill boy.”
Ollie sobbed. “Just let him kill me. I don’t care. Sarah, please, just let it be over.”
Sarah considered her options. Ollie Simpson was either getting out of this alive – or not. Both options sucked. Whatever happened, he would forever be known as a mass murderer beyond forgiveness. His life had ended this morning, sitting in front of a monitor.
Maxim has no chance of getting out of here, even with a hostage. He must know that.
He’s too calm.
Sarah glanced at Howard. He had his sidearm raised but didn’t seem worried – why would he be? – yet something felt wrong here. She studied Maxim for a moment, increasingly bothered by his tranquillity. Then it made sense. “You have more men coming, don’t you?”
Maxim readjusted his grip on Ollie, making sure the boy’s body prevented him from being shot. Then he grinned, a gold tooth flashing in the gloom. “A simple phone call, my sweetheart. All we need to do is wait. I will enjoy cutting off your tits.”
Sarah shook her head and sighed. Maxim must have made a phone call once he had realised the fight was going badly. How many men were now on their way? How heavily armed?
He’s going to keep this standoff going until his thugs arrive and slaughter us. He’s safe, because we are the good guys and we won’t take a shot while he has a hostage.
She turned to Howard. “Call in backup of our own.”
He nodded. “I’m on it, but I don’t know how long it will take.”
Terminal (Major Crimes Unit Book 4) Page 15