by Nick Hale
‘So what if I broke her lousy camera?’ said Abri.
Jake was stunned. None of this made any sense …
Abri bent her knees and stabbed a vicious elbow into Jake’s ribs. He doubled up in pain, and she swept his legs away from underneath him. She was on top of him before he could catch his breath. Then she reached back to her ankle and there was something cold at his throat.
A knife.
‘Don’t even breathe, murderer,’ she said.
The blade pressed tight against his neck. The look in her eyes, fierce and full of fire, told Jake that Abri wouldn’t hesitate to cut his carotid artery. He’d bleed out on the stairs in less than a minute.
‘I didn’t kill Sienna,’ gasped Jake. ‘I came here to make sure you were all right. Y’know, after what happened at the church and the ground. Think about it. I helped you there, didn’t I? Why would I do that if I was a killer?’
The pressure on the blade reduced a little, but it was still only a centimetre away from ending his life.
‘Abri, I found her like that,’ he said. ‘Someone came here just before me – she was still warm.’
The flames in her eyes were quenched as tears misted over. Abri climbed off him, sinking back against the stairs. She dropped the knife with a clatter and placed her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Jake crouched beside her, and put an arm round her back.
‘I’m sorry, Jake,’ she said. ‘I just saw Sienna … like that and you with the club …’
‘That’s OK,’ he said. ‘Why did you go after me like that? Why did you attack me and my mum at the airport?’
She wiped the tears away. ‘I can’t explain.’
‘Why not? Abri, what are you mixed up in? Is someone after you?’
She didn’t say anything.
‘You need to trust me,’ said Jake. ‘Whoever got Sienna may come back for you and Monique.’
A whip-crack sounded in Jake’s ear and he caught a shower of sparks on the side of his face.
Abri pushed him down. ‘Gun!’ she cried.
15
Another round of shots clipped the hand rail and pinged away.
Hurried steps were coming from below. Jake risked peering over the banister. Two floors down, the man in sunglasses with the buzz-cut was pointing the barrel of a gun straight at him. Jake ducked back as another bullet scorched the air.
‘Come on!’ he shouted to Abri, who was snatching her knife from the floor.
He grabbed the model’s hand and pulled her up the stairs after him.
Despite being tired and bruised from their fight, fear drove Jake on. Without a proper weapon, they had no chance against the gunman. Abri kept pace with him as they climbed the stairs. Feet pounded up behind them.
They rounded the landing on the seventh floor. A short set of steps led to a fire door. Jake smashed into the metal emergency bar and they were on the roof. The rooftop was on two levels. Exits from the other stairwells were placed at regular intervals roughly thirty metres apart, and there were vents dotted around from the air-con units. The hot sun bounced off baked tarmac.
‘Over there!’ said Abri.
She pointed to the top of a metal fire escape leading off the roof. Jake sprinted after her, but he knew they didn’t have enough time to make it.
He heard the door slam open. Jake dragged Abri behind the nearest air-con vent, a chrome flue bent over to stop the rain trickling in. They stood close to each other, as the warm exhaust fumes blasted over them.
Jake peered round the edge of the chimney. The hit man was looking over the fire escape, his gun ready. He turned around slowly, eyeballing the roof. Jake ducked back behind Abri.
‘He knows we’re up here,’ he whispered. ‘We’ve got to create some sort of distraction.’ He looked out again. The gunman was doing a circuit of the emergency-exit tower, gun steadied in both hands. Jake saw he was breathing heavily from the climb.
‘We’re sitting ducks,’ hissed Abri.
Jake bent down and picked up a handful of gravel. He threw it in a high arc. The pieces rained down six metres away. The gunman heard and darted over to the source of the sound. Jake gripped Abri’s hand again, and led her in the opposite direction.
The gunman turned, levelled and fired. The shot ricocheted off the topside of the vent, and Jake pulled Abri back under cover. He heard a loud rip of clothing. Her top was torn, and a piece hung off the metal.
We’re screwed.
‘Come out!’ said a growling voice. ‘I promise I’ll make it quick.’
Jake looked into Abri’s wide eyes. He shook his head.
‘Come and get us!’ he shouted.
The hit man’s feet crunched closer in the gravel. Jake didn’t have a plan. But Abri did. She pulled out her knife again. It didn’t look much but it was their only shot.
‘Make him come to you,’ Abri whispered.
‘The other girl didn’t suffer much,’ said the hit man. ‘Neither will you.’
Jake thought about Sienna’s bloated, throttled face. She’d suffered, all right. And this guy had probably enjoyed it.
Abri pointed to his side of the vent, and edged the other way.
I get it, he thought. I keep him busy, and Abri takes him out from the blindside.
He stuck out his head a fraction.
The hit man was ten metres away. His gun pointed towards the floor.
‘That’s right. No need to make this messy. Get your hands up.’
Jake stepped out, hands over his head.
‘Where’s your friend?’ asked the shooter.
His head twitched to one side suddenly, and he started to bring the gun round. Something flashed in the air, and the hit man jerked back with a cry, dropping his gun and holding his arm. Abri’s knife was buried up to the hilt in his bicep.
He seemed to dance on the spot for a second, then reached up and yanked the knife out. A thick slop of blood spattered the asphalt.
‘You freak!’ he shouted. ‘You’re going to pay for that in pain!’
As he reached for the gun, Jake charged. He saw the knife come up and slapped it away. At the same time, Abri came flying in, driving her foot into the hit man’s hip. He crumpled to one knee and his gun skittered away.
The hit man stumbled back and Jake went after him, throwing a jab into his nose, and followed up with a cross aimed at the jaw while he was blinking blindly. Somehow, the guy saw enough to turn and deflect the shot with an arm, pulling Jake down on to his knee. Jake’s breath went out of him as another blow thudded into the back of his neck and sent him to the ground. He rolled over to see Abri turning through the air, and bringing her foot down in the long arc of a spinning roundhouse. The move would have knocked the hit man out if it had connected properly, but it glanced off his shoulder.
Jake was on his knees and could hardly suck in a breath. Abri was sending punches and low kicks at the gunman, but he was just as quick, keeping his guard tight and blocking hard. Each time she hit his injured arm, blood sprayed from the knife wound. Sienna’s killer open-cuffed Abri round the ear, sending her stumbling towards the edge of the building. Jake struggled up, feeling his stomach tighten.
The gunman didn’t see him come in. Jake drove a fist into his kidneys. The man dipped in pain, flailing to protect himself. Abri had backed up, but now she stepped in, delivering a side-kick, powerful as a mule, into the hit man’s midriff. He staggered towards the building’s precipice.
Jake instinctively reached out to grab him, but it was too late. The assassin toppled for half a second on the ledge, arms wheeling, then disappeared over the side. His cry of terror was swallowed by the drop.
Jake and Abri rushed to the edge and looked down. Below, the hit man slammed into a red, green and white café awning, and bounced over the side. He hit an empty table, scattering cutlery and smashing a couple of bottles on the pavement.
From somewhere inside there was a scream.
‘Is he dead?’ gasped Abri.
Jake shook hi
s head in disbelief. The hit man writhed around for a moment, then slowly climbed to his feet. He stumbled to one side, as though dizzy, then steadied himself against a car.
The hit man looked up, and for a moment their eyes locked.
Then their attacker began walking off quickly down the street.
‘Damn it!’ said Abri, stamping back across the roof to collect her knife. ‘We let him get away!’
‘Hey,’ said Jake. ‘Are you kidding? We nearly got executed out here! We’re lucky to be alive!’
Abri picked up the gun too, and popped the clip expertly. She checked the rounds.
‘We should have killed him,’ she said, reloading and drawing back the barrel. ‘For Sienna.’
Jake watched in amazement. One dead body a day was plenty for him. ‘You seemed to know how to handle that …’
‘We need to get out of here,’ she said. ‘He might be back.’
‘You think so?’ said Jake, looking back at the seven-storey drop.
‘I’m not taking any chances,’ said Abri. ‘He probably has friends too.’
She tucked the gun in the back of her jeans and set off along the rooftop.
Jake ran after her, thinking how he’d misjudged Abri Kuertzen by about a mile.
They jumped down on to the lower level, past a nest of antennae and dishes. Abri sped up, and Jake saw why. They were coming to a gap.
‘Wait!’ he shouted.
But Abri leapt off the edge of the building and landed gracefully on the other side, barely breaking stride. Jake skidded to a halt.
Definitely not your average supermodel.
The leap was only about three metres, but looking down into the narrow alley about twenty metres below, it seemed bigger. Jake walked back to take a run-up, aware of Abri watching him from the other side.
Just pretend it’s the long jump at school, he said to himself.
Long drop, more like!
He pelted towards the edge and jumped. It felt like his stomach was trying to escape through his larynx, but he made it, crashing down on the other side, and falling into a roll. As he righted himself, Abri gave him a slap on the back. ‘Not bad … for a beginner.’
They crossed a couple more flat rooftops until they came to a metal fire escape on the side of a building. There was no way anyone could have tracked them here.
‘Ladies first,’ Jake said.
Abri climbed down the short ladder and hopped on to the metal grille platform. Jake shot a last glance in the direction from which they’d come, but there was no sign of the hit man on their heels. He went after Abri.
They were halfway down, and Jake was breathing normally again, when he grabbed her arm.
‘Wait,’ he said. ‘You’ve got some explaining to do.’
‘Take your hand off my arm,’ she said.
Jake complied, but he wasn’t going to let the matter drop. ‘You owe me an explanation.’
‘How d’you figure that?’
‘If this involves my mother, it involves me.’
Abri looked ready to argue for a second, but then relaxed. She brushed her hair away from her face and gave Jake a small nod.
‘We never meant for her to be mixed up in it. But she’s working for Granble, so …’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ said Jake. ‘You work for Granble!’
‘Only on paper,’ said Abri. ‘You remember what I said to you back in the church? About his mining group?’
Jake nodded, remembering that same group being mentioned by his father, but kept his mouth shut. There was no need to let on how much he knew – not just yet.
‘So many lives have been messed up because of that megalomaniac’s actions,’ Abri went on. ‘Kids working in the mines before they can read, inhumane conditions, terrible accidents. It’s economic slavery. Arms dealing too. Granble will shake hands with anyone as long as it makes him richer. Some of us decided to do something about it.’
‘You’re with the protestors?’ said Jake.
‘We have similar aims,’ said Abri. ‘But we like to do things a little … bigger.’
‘Who’s we?’
Abri shook her head. ‘I shouldn’t be telling you any of this.’
‘But you are,’ said Jake. ‘And it sounds like you need as many friends as you can get. Is it just you, Sienna and Monique?’
Abri’s lip began to tremble. She nodded. ‘Just Monique and me now. We made a pact to bring Granble down.’
And he’s not going down lightly, Jake thought.
But there was a piece of the puzzle still missing.
‘How does my mum fit into all this? She’s not responsible for the mining. She’s just another of Granble’s employees.’
‘She was,’ said Abri, ‘but now she has incriminating evidence against us. A photograph.’
Jake remembered the pictures on the computer. ‘Those photos of you on the street … they’re not just “candid modelling shots”, are they?’
‘It’s complicated,’ said Abri. ‘She took hundreds of pictures, all around the city. We think she may have unknowingly photographed a … meeting … a face that can’t be linked to us.’
‘Who?’ Jake asked.
‘His name’s Ferrara. He’s a diamond fence. He clears stolen stones on to the market for a cut of the profits.’
The guy on the motorbike, talking to Sienna. It had to be. But why would Sienna be talking to a diamond fence?
As soon as Jake thought it, the answer came to him.
‘You stole Granble’s diamonds.’
16
A bri nodded, a grim smile on her lips.
‘But … I don’t understand … You –’
‘We rigged the gas canisters on our first visit to the church,’ Abri explained. ‘Once they went off, we took down the guards posted outside. Monique stood guard while Sienna and I went in with the masks on and did what we had to do.’
She leapt off the bottom of the fire escape and continued walking up the street. Jake could see the outline of the gun under her top. He kicked himself for not working it out it sooner. The thieves – at the airport and in the church – had been so graceful and agile. He’d only thought they were men because they were both tall.
Did I learn nothing from Helga, the ruthless Russian assassin?
‘Wait a minute!’ he called after her, realising something. ‘My mother was in that church. I was in there!’
Abri looked back for a moment. ‘We would never have hurt anyone … well, except Granble and his thugs.’
That didn’t seem to be the point, but perhaps this wasn’t the time to argue.
‘So what now?’ he asked, catching up. ‘You sell the diamonds and make a big profit? If Granble’s operation is as big as you say, won’t he just get more diamonds?’
Abri shook her head. They’d reached a corner and she was peering out into the street beyond. ‘A man like Granble needs investors to fund the mining work. He’s promised them all big returns. Our only chance of bringing him down is to make sure he can’t deliver on his promises.’
‘And if investment dries up,’ said Jake, ‘so does the Granble Mining Corporation.’
‘Bingo,’ said Abri. ‘We want to humiliate Granble so much that no one wants to do business with him again. Come on, we have to keep moving.’ She broke into a jog across the street.
Jake followed. ‘There’s got to be a better way,’ he said. ‘Couldn’t you just organise more political opposition? Lobby the South African government?’
Abri snorted as she paused outside a coffee bar. ‘Granble’s rich enough to buy politicians. Anyway, you’ve seen how ineffective protesting is. All those placards, all that chanting – it gets nowhere.’
Her chin was slightly raised, challenging him to defy her. Jake could understand her passion, but he still wasn’t sure he agreed with her methods. And now that Sienna was dead, what was her next step?
They crossed a car park, and Jake kept his eyes open for Buzz-cut or anyone else who
looked threatening. There was a man in builder’s overalls leaning against a lamppost, but he seemed more interested in Abri’s figure than anything else.
‘Do you think Granble’s capable of murder?’ asked Jake.
‘Hundreds die or get injured every year in his mines,’ said Abri. ‘He’s not the sort of guy who gets his own hands dirty, though.’
‘Then we should go to the police,’ he said.
‘No way,’ said Abri.
‘But until Granble gets his diamonds back you’re in danger. So is Monique. He knows it was you who stole his diamonds.’
‘We all knew what we were signing up for. Even Sienna.’
Christ, she was tough.
‘But not me,’ said Jake. ‘And not my mother.’
Across the street was a police car with the door open and the officer behind the wheel making notes on a pad. Jake started walking over, but Abri grabbed his shoulder. ‘Please, Jake. Don’t do this.’
Jake paused. Observe and report, that’s what his dad had said. He probably didn’t think that included concealing a murder, abetting a jewel thief, getting shot at and helping a hired hit man in his fall off a building. But MI6 were interested in Granble too. They were coming at him from a different angle, but they were all on the same side, weren’t they? And certainly his dad wouldn’t want the police sniffing around Granble. Even if the police believed his story – which would probably sound ridiculous to anyone who wasn’t involved in it.
‘Where are the diamonds now?’ said Jake. ‘Are they in the flat?’
Abri tensed. ‘It’s better if you don’t know,’ she said.
Jake pulled his arm free. The policeman still hadn’t noticed them.
‘You want me to trust you,’ he said. ‘Try trusting me.’
‘I’m trying to keep you safe,’ she said.
‘I don’t need you to,’ said Jake.
Abri rubbed a hand across her forehead. ‘Look, Jake, I need to go and find Monique. She’s in danger.’
‘Where is she?’ asked Jake.
‘I don’t know,’ said Abri. ‘The plan was that we all take our diamonds to separate fences, to make sure Granble can’t trace them all together. Monique was meeting hers first.’