‘No, you won’t,’ Cam replied as he broke his aim on his target. He placed his weapon in his leg holster and showed his empty hands to the desperate man. ‘I’m here to help you; I want to get you out of here and away from Bell and the rest of them.’
Reilly stared at Cam; sweat began to drip down his face as he looked at the man in black, his face hidden by goggles.
‘I have to, I have no choice!’ He said as he took up the slack on the string.
‘No, no! Wait, wait, wait,’ pleaded Cam. ‘Look, I know all about you. I know about your problems. You don’t want to be here, doing this. You need help to escape. I can help you.’ Reilly seemed to relax his grip. ‘Give me the device, and let’s get out of here. Come on.’ Cam beckoned, indicating that he wanted the vest. ‘Give it here.’
Reilly stood up, his legs shaking visibly. He looked at the vest then at Cam.
‘Good man,’ Cam said as he took the vest from the defeated-looking man.
‘Well done, Cam,’ said Al. He had followed the tense verbal exchange.
‘What now?’ Reilly said, still staring at Cam.
‘What do you want done with him, Al?’
Reilly looked quizzically at Cam, who continued to await instructions. Reilly shifted uncomfortably as he and Cam stared at each other in silence.
‘What do I do now?’ Reilly repeated.
‘Let him go.’ Al broke the silence. ‘We will track him from here. Get out of there, Cam – but make sure he goes straight home.’
Cam closed in on Reilly, who had not heard what Al had said.
‘Listen to me very carefully. Get yourself home. Go nowhere else. Somebody will be in contact. Do you understand me?’
‘Yes, I understand.’
‘Go. Now!’ Reilly hurried off into the darkness. Cam breathed a sigh of relief, but knew he was not in the clear yet. He had to get out himself.
Chapter 28
Cam picked his way back to the area of fence that he cut on his way in. All the time Al watched via satellite and helped him avoid patrols and the odd wandering worker.
‘This helps Al. Why can’t we do this all the time?’ Cam asked.
‘I think we will from now on – if it’s required that is. I’ll organise better communication for us though.’
‘OK, Al,’ Cam said as he reached the small shack, just in view of the fence.
‘Here’s the situation. You know about Reilly – the others are all dead. There was one more – a man called James.’
‘James! Who the hell is James?’
‘He was a CNC police officer.’
‘Christ! And he was one of them?’
‘Yes, he will be found dead in the office next to Bell’s, battered to death with his own extendable baton. That baton will be found in the hand of Doug Roberts, who died in the same office, shot with my silenced P226. I lost my pistol, took James’ Glock and shot Bell and Palmer dead in Bell’s office. I have all my own equipment except my P226. No other traces of me apart from a cut fence and probably some appearances on CCTV.’
‘Bloody hell! Anything else?’
‘No, that’s about it.’
‘OK, I’ll come up with some sort of cover story. I’m going to send George round to Reilly’s and see what information he can get from him. Hopefully you got everyone. Get out and back home, I’ll be in contact.’
‘OK, no problem. Is the coast clear?’
‘Yes, no patrols anywhere near you. I think they are all busy with the black-out and some unexplained CCTV images.’
Cam dashed for the fence, cut his own zip ties, crawled out and used more ties to repair the cuts. As he ran away from the power station he felt an overwhelming sense of relief, and as he ran the adrenaline started to wear off. The familiar feeling of fatigue that always followed operations like that started to drain his body of energy.
George’s car came into view parked in a lay-by. Cam opened the rear door of the car and threw his rucksack on to the seat; he then carefully placed the device on the floor of the car. Cam climbed into the passenger seat next to George who looked over and started laughing.
‘What the hell happened to you? You look like shit!’
‘Long, long story mate,’ he said.
‘Well, it’s a long drive.’
George laughed as Cam went over the whole story. The cuts and bruises on Cam’s face start to ache and sting as he recounted the night’s events.
‘You’ve had quite a night – but you did well. We’re both still here and so is the north of the country – so good work.’
Cam pulled down the sun visor and looked into the passenger mirror.
‘God almighty, look at that,’ he said, surveying the wounds on his face.
‘Yep, you’re gonna have a few bruises in the morning. So what about Reilly?’
‘Oh yeah, Al’s going to be sending you round there to get info out of him.’
‘Good, it will be a pleasure,’ said George, smiling.
Cam stumbled wearily into his flat. He was exhausted, both physically and mentally. He found just enough strength to put his equipment away, and opened his hidden weapon cupboard and placed each piece of equipment in its place. James’ Glock replaced his own silenced P226 and he made a mental note to ask for a new one next time he spoke to Al.
He cleaned the cuts, not only on his face, but new ones that he found all over his body, and stepped into the shower. His face stung as the warm water rushed over him, waking him up a little bit. He dried himself off and put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. His apartment was uncomfortably warm.
He poured himself a large Bells whisky, and as he did so, laughed at the name. ‘Bells, Christ!’ He stood at his window and gazed out over the city that he has saved for a second time. But nobody would ever know. After finishing off his whisky he slumped on to the sofa and immediately fell asleep.
* * * * * * *
Cam spent the next few days watching the news channels. One story dominated the headlines. A murder had been committed at Torness Nuclear Power Station – apparently by a member of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. As the full story came out, it conspired that the police officer had shot and killed three people in the main office building. A hero had emerged through the tragedy; a man called Doug Roberts had managed to stop the police officer by overpowering him and attacking him with his own police baton. Unfortunately, he died from a gun-shot wound to the stomach. ‘Doug Roberts!’ Cam thought to himself. ‘A hero!’ If only they knew the real story. But they never would.
The days began to pass by and Cam was slipping back into his comfortable life. After cleaning and tidying away his equipment, he locked up his weapons cupboard and promised to forget it was even there until the next job. He hoped he might get some time to himself, to rest. A few days later Cam returned from his daily run and was standing in the kitchen leaning on the breakfast bar when he heard his phone ringing.
‘Cam, its George, how’s the face?’
‘Good mate, getting better, how did it go with Reilly?’
‘We had an interesting conversation. Have you heard from Al?’
‘No, why?’
‘No reason. Hey check out The Edinburgh Evening News. Speak to you later.’ With that George abruptly ended the conversation and Cam decided to go for another run.
He ran down the street to his closest newsagent where he bought a copy of the local newspaper. Still sweating from his run, he stood in the street, flicking through the paper. He had no idea what he was looking for until he turned to page seven. There at the bottom of the page, barely noticeable, was a small article. Skimming the paragraph Cam read about the suicide of Phil Reilly. The poor drug-addicted petty criminal had hanged himself in his house. Cam lowered the newspaper and wondered what really happened. Did he kill himself – or did
George and Al have something to do with it? Whatever had happened, Reilly was out of the way and would not be able to reveal the truth.
Paper in hand, Cam made his way back to his flat for a shower. As he stood under the water, he kept looking over at his phone that he had placed on the side of the sink. He dressed and started to prepare his dinner, occasionally glancing over at the still silent phone. ‘When are you going to ring?’ he thought. He was desperate to know what had happened and what Al wanted.
Then it happened – it finally rang.
‘Hello,’ Cam said.
‘Cam, it’s Al.’
‘Hello, Al.’
‘Have you seen the story?’
‘Yeah, how much did you have to do with that?’
‘Me, nothing – but George got some rather interesting information out of him before he, er, killed himself.’
‘Oh yeah. What was that then?’
‘Take a seat, this might take a while. Firstly, George found out that this guy James was James Green, CNC Police Officer. He was part of the cell and a bit of a psycho, but I think you found that out for yourself.’
‘I certainly did,’ Cam replied, stretching his jaw from side to side.
‘Hey, what did you think of my cover story?’
‘Yeah, good one. Fits well.’
‘Thanks. Anyway, George confirmed that the whole team has been eliminated. Well done.’
‘So that’s it – we’re done?’
‘Not quite. We found out how Bell was recruiting his team,’ Al continued. ‘Reilly was befriended in prison by the same man who shared a cell with Palmer. This is the man who is converting the weak-minded first-timers. He’s the last piece of the puzzle, and I have arranged to get him paroled from prison. It’s going to take a couple of weeks, but I’ll get him out – then he’ll be an easy target.’ Al paused. ‘This man is the only remaining piece in this whole mess. How would you feel about having a tidy up?’
Chapter 29
The night was dark, warm but cloudy. The moon occasionally broke through, bathing the sleeping city in silver light. The man was fast asleep, enjoying his new freedom. He had been kept in solitary confinement before his release. He hadn’t even been able to watch television or listen to the radio – but that had just made his release all the sweeter. Tomorrow he would meet his old friend Richard Bell.
‘What was that?’ He woke with a start and sat bolt upright. Had he heard something? Or was he just not used to the silence of freedom. No – something was wrong. He climbed out of bed and slowly moved towards the bedroom door. He was still unsure of the layout of his new house, but he didn’t want to turn on the lights – he was too freaked out about what he might find.
‘Hello,’ he whispered. ‘Is anyone there?’ He peeked out of his bedroom and down the corridor. He saw nothing but moonlight through a break in the clouds casting long shadows down the hallway. Then he heard it again. What was that? It could be something flapping in the breeze. It seemed to be coming from outside. He let out a sigh of relief and stepped out into the corridor.
As he came to the top of the stairs he stopped. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and a shiver went down his back. Something was behind him. He turned slowly to face the open doorway to the second bedroom. He shuffled over to the dark opening. Without going through the door, he tried to peer in. The low light in the corridor wouldn’t allow his night vision to adjust to the pitch-black room.
As he leaned forward, a black-gloved hand shot out of the darkness, grabbing his neck. He let out a shriek as he was pulled into the room and thrown to the floor. He spun round on the floor in a desperate attempt to see who or what had attacked him. He could see nothing as he crawled away from the doorway. Then out of the darkness emerged a figure.
Barely visible in the gloom, the figure was dressed in black; only his eyes could be seen, staring at him through a balaclava.
‘What do you want?’ he demanded, as the dark figure raised a gun in his direction. ‘No, no, wait.’ The intruder didn’t reply, or even move. ‘How did you get in here?’ He tried to again to get a response. Then, after a long silence, the man replied.
‘I can get in anywhere.’
He knew from the glare in his assailant’s eyes that he was about to die. He could see him taking up the slack on the trigger. It was about to happen.
‘Who the hell are you?’
‘I am Sterling!’
Coming Autumn 2013
Sterling Returns
in
Assets
Two years after the Torness job Cam is sent on his next deadly assignment. A rouge Iranian General has disappeared with an arsenal of deadly chemical weapons and is threatening to unleash them on his countries enemies.
Joined by old friends and new, Cam must hunt down and find this dangerous man before he holds to ransom the counties of the Gulf of Oman and the surrounding states.
Join the Assets on their first international adventure, from civilised Dubai to unstable Yemen.
Follow as Cam and his team close in on the enemy.
Can the Assets locate the missing weapons in time?
Also available
Sterling Page 19