The International Assassin: A Sexy Times Crime Thriller

by Asher, Adele

  Chapter 26

  RUNNING OUT onto the busy forecourt I spotted Roy instantly. He had caused a commotion with a group of elderly French pensioners having knocked one of them over. He saw me, shoved the protestors off him then grabbed Charlotte and ran limping towards the platform. I gave chase after him as fast as I could with the air in my lungs burning with the sharp pain caused by my bruised ribs from Roy’s violent assault.

  I took out my pistol and lined up a shot at Roy as he made his way down the platform. I pulled the trigger firing three times with the final bullet hitting Roy in the leg. He fell clutching his leg in agony as the entire concourse erupted in screams and chaos as the Sig’s gunshots echoed around the station. People ran in all directions. I quickly put my pistol away before anyone realised I was the perpetrator and ran in the direction of the platform.

  Roy now desperate got to his feet and as I rounded onto the platform he took out the M4 and fired a full automatic burst of shots at me, the cacophony of the brutal carbine rifle sending further shockwaves of terror through the commuters. I dived into the safety of the tracks alongside the platform behind the cover of the large TGV train engine. The hail of bullets whistled past over my head striking an innocent bystander who was thrown to the ground by the force of the impact in a shower of blood. By the time I ducked out from cover Roy was gone again. I climbed onto the platform and ran alongside the train carriages trying to see where Roy was hiding inside the train.

  I reached the very end of the train but there was no sign of Roy or Charlotte. Seemingly oblivious to the violent chaos that had taken place on the concourse at the other end of the long platform the conductor blew a whistle and the door sirens started to sound. Taking a calculated gamble that Roy must have got on the train I dived into the first carriage and waited by the door to check Roy wouldn’t try and jump off just before the doors closed.

  The train pulled out of the station. As the guard made the announcement in French I realised what a disaster this was. I was on board the express TGV to Paris and the next stop would be Lyon. There was simply no way I would get back from Lyon in time to make the trade with Anatoly. Time was running out. I started cautiously working down the train in search of Roy. Being just past five p.m the train was crowded full of peak-time travellers. I walked down the carriage cautiously checking the face of every passenger - to walk past Roy by mistake would be fatal. The train sped up to nearly one hundred and seventy miles per hour. I knew Roy had nowhere to go. I was right at the end of the train and he was somewhere in front of me.

  I continued down the carriages checking the toilet cubicles en-route. I neared the end of the train when finally I spotted him sat looking agitated next to Charlotte in a coach full of passengers. An angry French couple were busy remonstrating with Roy as he was clearly sat in their reserved seats and was refusing to move.

  I decided I couldn’t deal with Roy in such a confined space full of witnesses with no way to get off the train so I found an empty aisle seat with a clear vantage point and sat down and hid behind a newspaper watching Roy’s argument with the passengers escalate. Eventually the man stormed off to fetch the guard who returned a few minutes later. Reluctantly and with much protestation Roy got up and relinquished the seat dragging the bags and Charlotte with him he headed in my direction.

  Behind the newspaper I took out my Sig and waited. As he passed I sprang to my feet behind him and dug the pistol into the back of his kidney.

  “Don’t make any sudden moves Roy or I promise you regardless of all these people I will shoot you,” I said quietly. Roy stopped. “Keep walking,” I told him and pushed him forward with the pistol barrel to the empty vestibule at the end of the carriage.

  I pushed him into the space opposite and retreated out of his range.

  “Drop the bags,” I told him “Carefully.”

  Roy complied and lowered the bags.

  “I just can’t seem to get rid of you can I?” Roy said with annoyance.

  “That’s because you just won’t be a good boy and fucking die will you Roy?”

  “You can’t shoot me here. You will never get away with it. Even you know that.”

  “I’m having a very bad day so don’t tempt me to act on impulse.”

  I looked Roy up and down. Bleeding profusely from his shoulder wound and leg, brow covered in sweat he looked like a piece of human wreckage. I hated him and pitied him in equal measures.

  I raised my pistol to finish him off when the door to the carriage opened. I quickly hid my pistol as the guard entered. He looked at us.

  “You have tickets?” he asked looking at us all in turn.

  “Yes I have it right here…” said Roy reaching into his pocket.

  The guard turned to him and Roy took out his gun and shot him twice. I went to grab my pistol, using the guard as a human shield Roy pushed him in my direction causing me to lose balance on the fast moving train. Roy fired at me. I quickly grabbed the body of the guard and shielded behind it feeling his body shake as the bullets thudded into him. Grabbing my pistol I fired it over the guards shoulder in Roy’s direction. The bullet missed and fired straight through the window shattering it and letting a massive rush of air into the carriage buffeting Roy off balance. Roy grabbed the bags and pushed Charlotte through into the next carriage. I shoved the guard’s body off me and checked his pulse but he was already dead.

  I got to my feet and headed for the next carriage in pursuit of Roy. As I opened the door there were more shots and the glass carriage door splintered. I ducked to avoid the fire before firing back in Roy’s direction. After the momentary shock subsided the carriage erupted into screams of terror. Roy made his way down the carriage dragging Charlotte screaming behind him as a shield. Unable to get a clear shot without shooting Charlotte I pursued him down the next carriage. As he reached the end vestibule Roy used the luggage space as cover and opened fire on me again forcing me to dive behind a seat. I fired back a couple of suppressing shots before pursuing him into the next carriage. I checked the gangway but couldn’t see him. The screams and sobbing however told me he was there, probably hiding behind a seat ready to ambush me.

  I walked slowly with my pistol drawn into the carriage ready to dive into cover when he eventually reappeared. Moments later he did so brandishing the M4 from my bag of lethal tricks. I dropped into the safety of the luggage rack as Roy directed his full automatic fire in my direction.

  “Have some of this you dumb bitch!” he shouted as he sprayed the carriage with bullets. I covered my head with my hands and tried to find as much cover as possible as the lethal stream of projectiles ricocheted around me. Luckily the large suitcases on the racks above shielded me from the worst of the fire. Roy reached the end of the clip and it went silent before the carriage erupted into screams of terror and sobbing.

  Quickly I jumped to my feet. With Roy pre-occupied on changing his magazine out I aimed a shot at him. I fired just as the train hit a bump knocking my aim off enough to send the bullet flying past him missing his head by fractions. I tried to steady myself and take aim again. I pulled the trigger and the pistol clicked as I reached the end of the mag, throwing the pistol away I scrambled to find the back up Glock. It was a race against time as to who could rearm but his unfamiliarity with the complexities of a military grade M4 rifle meant Roy was struggling to get the mag to release. I lined up for a shot again and pulled back the hammer. Realising he was trapped Roy dropped the M4 and magazine and grabbed Charlotte who was stood next to him. As I squeezed the trigger he pulled her body in front of him for cover and my two shots landed squarely into her chest narrowly avoiding her heart. I lowered my pistol momentarily. Roy shoved Charlotte forwards grabbing the bag of money he made his retreat backwards. Once he was clear of the carriage I ran forward to Charlotte dropped down and rolled her over. She coughed up a mouthful of blood suggesting the bullet had punctured her lungs and she was now drowning in her own blood.

  I did my best to make her comfortable as her eye
s started to glaze over.

  “I’m sorry Charlotte. I was aiming for Roy.”

  “Not your fault,” she croaked.

  “You do tend to get in the way a lot.”

  Charlotte started crying and moaned with the pain.

  “Try not to breath too hard,” I said.

  I checked her back and felt for an exit wound.

  “I’m going to die aren’t I?” she said with a scared look of fear as she realised the event which we spend our entire lives avoiding - our own death, was finally upon her.

  “Yes…I’m afraid you are,” I told her as softly as I could.

  There was no point in lying to her. We were stuck on a train moving at nearly two hundred miles per hour through the French countryside and there was no help that would reach her in time. It was far better to tell her the truth so she had time to pray and make amends with whatever God she believed in before she went.

  “Fucking Roy,” she exhaled spitting blood.

  “Fucking Roy,” I agreed squeezing her hand.

  “Why?” she exclaimed.

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  “Maybe when you see God you can ask him.”

  Charlotte gasped her last breath and lay still. I rolled her eyelids closed then laid her down on the floor. I slumped back against a seat and quite unexpectedly started sobbing.

  I am not sure if I was crying for me or for Charlotte. I had so wanted to hate her for so many trivial reasons back during our life in Chelsea and for her participation in Roy’s scam but through the course of our journey I had realised she was as much, if not more, a victim than I was of Roy’s treachery. I wiped the tears away from my cheeks with the back of my hand that was now covered in Charlotte’s blood.

  I felt the anger well inside me. Never in my entire life had one man caused me so much pain, hurt, misery and most of all - aggravation. I just could not comprehend how a misfit bullshitting electrician from a miserable little provincial town had been so utterly difficult to deal with.

  Full of anger, fury and hatred I got up. I picked up the discarded M4 and quickly loaded the magazine into it. I slung the kitbag of spare arms over my shoulder, cocked the M4 and stepping over Charlotte’s corpse moved quickly down the train in pursuit of Roy.

  He had already cleared through the next carriage with a paper trail of little red spots of blood staining the carpet. I quickened my pace. However much he ran he would eventually run out of train. As I entered the next carriage Roy revealed he had one final terrible trick up his sleeve. I could hear him shouting at the passengers that there was a bomb on the train before realising the purpose of his warning alarm as a stream of panic ridden passengers came running out of the carriage pushing me out of the way in their bid to escape.

  I realised Roy must have detected the C4 rigged to the money bag and was prepared to make his last stand with it. Dropping to my knees I crouched into the end of the now empty carriage.

  “Roy!” I shouted. “Give it up Roy. You’ve run out of train!”

  “No chance!” Roy shouted back from the other end firing a shot to prove his point that he wasn’t going to surrender.

  I aimed where I believed he was holed up and unleashed five rounds of semi-automatic fire.

  “You managed to get that bloody thing to work then!” he shouted laughing.

  “Why don’t you come down here and I will show you?” I shouted back.

  “I don’t think so! Email me the instruction manual.”

  “You can’t possibly escape Roy. You’re going to run out of bullets before I do.”

  “I don’t need bullets. I found your little surprise. Was that meant for me?”

  “No.”

  “Anatoly then I presume. Never mind. You realise your boyfriend is fucked in any case now. Because I’m not giving up the money and by the time you get back he will be dead.” I fired an angry, petulant burst of bullets at Roy. “Temper temper,” he said laughing sarcastically.

  Roy fired three shots then I heard him run off out into the next carriage. I quickly ran after him then stopped at the end of the carriage realising what he had been busy doing. The block of C4 was rigged to the side of the carriage wall right above where the carriage bogey would be. The digital counter of the clock read fourteen seconds and was going down quickly.

  Even the compression of the explosion in the carriage would be fatal but the effects on a train travelling at nearly two hundred miles per hour would be much worse. I ran as fast as I could backwards to the other end of the carriage. With the next carriage still full of panic-ridden commuters blocking the escape route I dived into the luggage rack for cover and hung on for dear life.

  The explosion seemed deafening as a huge fireball blew the door off the carriage like it was made of paper before the entire compartment filled with acrid smoke and rocked violently. Deafened and dazed I hung on like a terrified passenger on their first roller-coaster ride as the carriage jolted from side to side. The carriage started to swing violently as the exploding structure shed wreckage under the wheels causing them to bounce, judder and then finally derail.

  The entire carriage slammed forwards and disconnected from the front of the train before starting to overtake it. As the wheels dug into the aggregate alongside the tracks it slowed violently before tipping over onto its side and sliding along the banking, windows shattering and metal crumpling like it was made of cardboard. The carriage lurched violently as the kinetic energy of the following train spat the carriages into one enough folding like a concertina as the entire one hundred and eighty miles per hour train descended into the banking before eventually slowing to a sickening halt.

  I lay dazed and shell-shocked covered in suitcases and debris. All sense of orientation utterly lost from the barrel rolling carriage. There was a momentary silence apart from the tinkling of broken glass, tortured moans of twisted metal, electric cables sparking and then the cries of passengers as the shock subsided and the pain of their injuries from the horrific ordeal was realised.

  I tried to move but every part of me hurt. Blood poured down the side of my head from a cut sustained when it collided with the crumpled metal work of the luggage frame. I tried to pull myself free from the mountain of heavy suitcases that had buried me. In the thick acrid smoke I desperately clawed to find a way out of the horrific mess. Eventually spotting a chink of daylight I pulled myself towards it. Realising the carriage was on its side at a sharp angle pointing down the banking I climbed up to the gap of the broken window trying to find footholds on the twisted seat frames. I grabbed the frame of the window and with every ounce of energy I pulled myself up onto the topside of the carriage.

  Sitting on the side of the carriage which was now upturned I pressed hard against the cut on my head to stop my eyes filling with blood. I looked out to see a scene of utter devastation. The entire once pristine, glistening pride of French railway engineering was now a twisted mess of scrapped metal and furrowed earth, the carriages stacked over each other like a pile of matchsticks, overhead electric cables were bouncing around sparking against the carriages and a burnt out destroyed shell bore witness to the power of the explosion that had caused the derailment.

  I tried to focus, the searing pain in my head blurring my vision as I willed the adrenaline to take hold and force me into action.

  To my utter amazement and horror I saw a single lone figure trudging out of the carriage next to the engine. Unlike the rear most carriages the explosion had disconnected the front engine and carriages which had, with the power of the engine managed to outrun the ensuing train wreck enough to escape relatively unharmed. Roy picked his way down the banking throwing the bag of money over the fence before climbing over and casually limping off across the field of long grass seemingly oblivious to the wanton carnage he had just unleashed on eight-hundred terrified passengers many of whom having been spat out of the broken windows were now strewn in body parts across nearly a kilometre of railway track.

  I tried to get to my feet.
The head injury making me dizzy, I felt around in my pocket for the trusty Glock and took it out and steadied my aim. Roy was now more than nine hundred yards from the wreckage. It would be a difficult shot with a sniper rifle let alone using a pistol. Remembering Nick’s advice to aim for the biggest part of the target I lowered my aim to the small of his back.

  I squeezed the trigger three times, moments later two of the rounds found their target in the middle of Roy’s spine. He dropped the bag, staggered forward a few hesitant uneven steps then collapsed face first into the long grass. I drew a long sigh of relief.

  I had finally got the bastard.

  Chapter 27

  THE LIGHT breeze whipped around the train. It was a surreal scene. I couldn’t quite credit how one man, one simple unimportant man had unleashed such utter mayhem.

  I clambered off the overturned carriage wreck and tumbled to the floor picking my way through the debris. I walked down the embankment and climbed over the fence then walked across the field to where Roy had fallen.

  When I reached him he was lying on his stomach desperately pawing at the ground trying to escape. I announced my presence with a swift kick to his ribs. He cried with pain and rolled over clutching his wounded chest covered in blood and soil.

  “End of the line Roy,” I said calmly. Roy coughed and spluttered gasping for breath. “You really should have stayed in Luton.”

  Roy laughed.

  “You think you have won?”

  “Look at yourself Roy. All beat to shit. Was it worth it?”

  “Whatever happens your boyfriend is going to die, so you still lose.”

  “Why Roy? That’s the only question.” I gestured at the train wreck. “What did you ever hope to achieve with all this?”

  “Money. Power. I would have got away with it too.”

  I shook my head.

  “No Roy. You never would have got away with it. You know why?”

  “Why?”