by Tom Barber
‘I don’t know,’ Archer said quietly.
Nikki looked Archer and Josh up and down, noting they too were looking a bit rough. ‘What happened to you?’
‘Payan was a lure. Two snipers tried to take us out.’
‘What? All of you?’
He shook his head, looking at Josh. ‘Just us.’
Turning his head, Archer looked over at Chalky, who was still sitting where he’d left him, a paramedic examining the back of his head. All the other wounded were being transported into ambulances, getting them off site and on their way to hospital.
‘Whoever put the vest on Beckett used her sons as the incentive,’ he said. ‘That means they’re holding them somewhere. I’m going to find them but I need your help, Nik.’
The man examining her shoulder heard this.
‘Not now,’ he said. ‘She’s broken her collarbone and will be in shock. She needs to go to the hospital to be properly checked over.’
‘We need Beckett’s address,’ Archer said to Nikki, undeterred and laser focused. ‘Do you know where she lives?’
‘Not off the top of my head. But I can get it.’
‘You need to go to hospital,’ the medic insisted.
‘I’m staying,’ Nikki said.
‘No way.’
‘I’m staying,’ she repeated, more firmly. ‘This is important. I can get checked out later.’
She motioned to her injured arm.
‘Just give me some strong painkillers and I can manage.’
The paramedic stared at her for a moment, Archer and Josh waiting silently beside him. Then he shrugged, reached into the open bag on the ground beside him and withdrew a white capsule. Opening it, he tipped it into his palm and shook out two tablets.
‘Take these,’ he said, offering them to her. Once she popped the painkillers into her mouth he opened a bottle of water and passed it to her. ‘And two more every four hours until you can get to the hospital.’
Knocking the tablets back and swallowing them with a gulp of water from the bottle, Nikki nodded her thanks to the man, pocketed the capsule and rose gingerly. Archer took hold of her uninjured shoulder to steady her as Josh stood up beside them; Nikki swayed for a moment than regained her balance.
‘One last thing,’ the paramedic said to her, closing his bag and rising too. ‘You’re still in shock. Try to stay seated, stay calm and avoid raising your heart-rate.’
‘It’s a bit late for that,’ Nikki replied, looking at the damage and devastation around her.
*
Moments later, Archer, Nikki and Josh walked up the undamaged stairs to the 1st floor. As he’d entered the building, Archer had immediately noticed that the ground floor was pretty much unaffected, but now up the flight of stairs, he saw that despite all the extensive remodelling and repairs the HQ had undergone the year before, the 1st floor was a different story.
It looked as if it had been hit by an air strike.
Walking down the corridor, he, Josh and Nikki saw that the whole place was blackened and stank of wet ash and smoke. Large sections of brickwork in the Briefing Room had been blown out making the outer wall resemble one of those wartime pictures of houses damaged from the Blitz, the interior of the 1st floor now revealed to the outside world.
As they passed Cobb’s office to their right, they saw papers and bits of glass everywhere mixed with bloodstains, shoes and pieces of clothing. Two filing cabinets had been smashed over onto one side, their contents partially strewn across the floor, the papers fluttering in the wind that was now blowing through the large gaps in the walls. The smell of smoke was overpowering and Archer, Josh and Nikki covered their mouths as they entered what was left of Operations, their feet crunching over pebbles of broken glass.
Up ahead, they saw a group of firemen kill the water supply on their hose, having just put the last patches of fire out. They seemed to be finishing up and the one at the back turned as he heard Archer, Josh and Nikki walking over the broken glass.
‘No way,’ he ordered. ‘Get back downstairs. You can’t come up here. It’s not safe.’
‘I need to get to my computer,’ Nikki said.
‘Good luck with that,’ the fire-fighter said, pointing at the tech area. Looking across, the trio saw everything not secured to the wall or floor had been annihilated by the explosion, all the computers smashed to pieces, their intelligence post destroyed. Archer knew that all of their data was backed up on servers located elsewhere, but Nikki would still need something to access the system.
‘My laptop, then,’ she said, pointing with her good arm, undeterred. ‘It’s in a protective case I had by my desk, so it might be OK if we can find it.’
‘I don’t care if it’s locked in a vault. My job is to keep you safe.’ The fire-fighter motioned to the blackened space around him. ‘It’s too dangerous up here.’
‘It’s vital. Please. It might help us identify who did this.’
The fireman hesitated, then glanced over at where she’d pointed; as his companions started to pack up their gear, the man shook his head then walked over to the tech area. He looked around for a moment, then walked over to the far wall, bent down and picked up a battered silver-coloured case.
‘This?’ he called.
‘That’s it.’
He walked back towards Nikki and passed the case to her.
‘There. Now go.’
The group turned and headed back the way they’d come, but Nikki paused when they drew level with what remained of Cobb’s office.
‘Let’s see if it’s still working,’ she said.
Seeing as she was struggling with just one arm, Josh helped her, taking the case, opening it and revealing a laptop tucked inside. He pulled the screen up and they saw it was still intact.
‘Here goes,’ Nikki said, pushing the power button as Josh held it in front of her.
The laptop switched on.
It powered up fast and Nikki logged herself in, the process slowed by having the use of just one hand and needing to peer closely at the screen, hampered without her glasses.
‘Shit, this is going to take me longer than usual,’ she said, looking around for somewhere to perch. ‘I’ve got one hand and crappy eyesight. I need to sit down.’
‘I wasn’t joking!’ the lead fire-fighter suddenly called again from behind them. ‘Get downstairs now!’
Josh closed the laptop and slid it into the case but before the trio started to make their way to the stairs, Nikki suddenly turned and ducked into Cobb’s office, stepping through a gap where a pane of bulletproof glass used to be.
Archer and Josh paused, watching as she rummaged through the folders spilt from one of the filing cabinets. Impatiently discarding those she didn’t need, she eventually found the one she wanted and rose, re-joining Archer and Josh as she clutched the green folder in her hand.
‘Let’s go downstairs to the interrogation cells,’ she said. ‘We can use the ground floor as a base.’
‘Will it be OK?’ Josh asked.
She nodded. ‘Each section of the building is a separate pod. It’s designed to remain intact in case of something like this.’
‘What’s in the folder?’ Archer asked.
‘You’ll see.’
SEVENTEEN
Shortly afterwards, Archer finished a brief conversation with the last remaining paramedic in the car park and then walked back towards the building as the man jumped into an ambulance and drove off.
Marquez was standing by the front doors, having made a quick call to the Counter-Terrorism Bureau back in New York to let them know what had happened to Shepherd. Joining her, Archer turned and they both watched the vehicle move out of the car park quickly; it passed Wilson and Lipton who were standing by the front gate, both of them talking quietly with the Met firearms officers stationed there and both now armed with MP5s and Glocks as well as wearing a bulletproof tactical vest. Archer noticed that Wilson appeared to be OK but Lipton still looked shaken and was having a
cigarette to steady his nerves; he was on duty but no one was picking him up on it. Considering what had just happened, he could be allowed a quick smoke.
Before he’d left his post, Lipton had locked open the Perspex screen by the front desk to allow ease of access for the fire-fighters. Re-entering the building and passing through the entrance unhindered, Archer and Marquez continued walking straight ahead and pulled open another door, heading down the long corridor of the reverse L towards the interrogation cells. A third of the way down, they both turned right and joined Chalky, Josh, Fox and Nikki inside one of the cells, the only other people left standing. The room was rectangular and bare save for a table and two chairs, three of the walls concrete, the fourth on Archer’s left a long one-way mirror with a viewing area on the other side for personnel to observe interrogations anonymously.
Sitting at the desk in the middle of the cell and with her back to the far wall, Nikki had her laptop on the table in front of her. Chalky was in the other chair beside her, still looking pretty rough but sitting quietly and watching Nikki work. That last paramedic Archer had spoken to had wanted to get Chalk to the hospital and under supervision, saying he had a suspected concussion but just like Nikki, Chalky had refused, demanding to stay.
Archer shut the door to the room and observed the group for a moment.
Then there were six, he thought.
‘How’s it going out there?’ Nikki asked.
‘All the injured are on their way to hospital,’ he replied. ‘Lipton and Wilson are just about to take over from the two Met guys at their posts.’
‘How’s Beckett?’
‘Not so good. There’s a piece of glass in the top of her back the size of a drinks mat. I also just spoke to the fire-teams and told them it was crucial we continued to work down here.’
‘They didn’t object?’ Josh asked.
‘Started to. They agreed with a bit of persuasion, providing we remain on this floor and don’t try to go upstairs again.’
A silence fell, which Archer used to assess their current status.
It wasn’t good at all.
The NYPD team had only been in London for less than two hours but the situation had deteriorated at a shocking pace, moving from bad to critical faster than anyone could have possibly imagined or anticipated. In the past hour the ARU had lost over eighty per cent of its team, two of them dead, many others critically injured, and the two Slovakian suspects the NYPD detectives had come here to apprehend had been murdered.
There’d been three separate well-planned attacks, the ARU Operations area had been destroyed, and Nikki and Chalky were both wounded along with many others, including Cobb and Shepherd. Archer could also see that Josh and Marquez were jet-lagged, stressed and confused, not to mention feeling vulnerable without their firearms and in a foreign city where they’d been on the ground for less than two hours and had already had someone try to kill them.
He glanced at his watch. 7:31pm. Madrid was an hour ahead of London, which meant judging by the ruckus the neighbour heard at 2:30am Alice had been kidnapped a full eighteen hours ago.
And the cherry on the top of all this was that no one still had any idea where the hell she was or what this was all about.
‘So what now?’ Fox asked, breaking the silence in the room. ‘Where do we go from here?’
‘Before we do anything, we need to establish a chain of command,’ Nikki said.
Archer nodded. ‘We’re on your turf. With Cobb out of action, you’re technically in charge, Nik.’
She shook her head immediately. ‘No way. I’m only working at fifty per cent; one arm and shitty eyesight.’
‘It’s protocol.’
‘Stuff protocol. Despite what’s happened, technically this still isn’t our operation,’ she said, standing her ground. ‘Vargas is your missing person. One of you needs to take charge.’
‘I say Arch,’ Josh said.
‘Me too,’ Marquez said.
‘Me too,’ said Chalky.
‘And me,’ Nikki said.
Archer looked at the group, the tables immediately turned on him.
‘I have an emotional involvement in this case,’ he argued. ‘We need a cool head.’
‘That’s exactly what you have,’ Nikki said.
‘We’re the same rank,’ Archer said, turning to Marquez and Josh. ‘We should draw straws.’
They both shook their heads.
‘It has to be you,’ Marquez said. ‘You’re the only one who has experience both working here and with our Department.’
‘And no-one on the planet is more invested in finding Vargas than you,’ Josh added. ‘You’re in charge, Arch.’
He looked at them for a moment, then sighed and relented.
‘Fine.’
‘By the way, I thought we had a detective stationed here?’ Josh said. ‘The exchange for you, Arch.’
Nikki nodded. ‘Detective Slater. She’s been loaned to Scotland Yard working another case. It’s just us on this.’
As she spoke, Marquez’ cell phone suddenly rang; she took the call, motioning one minute with her finger, and opening the door stepped outside, pulling it shut behind her. As she left, Archer turned to the rest of the room.
‘OK, so let’s think for moment and assess this thing. We came here for Stanovich and Payan, two of the three people we’d definitely placed at the villa where Vargas was abducted last night. Now both guys are dead; judging by Porter’s radio recording before the blast in Brixton and what happened in Hendon, it looks pretty obvious that they were both coerced into making the ransom calls. Someone used them to come after us.’
He focused on Nikki.
‘After the ambush, we made it into the house and saw Payan. He was duct-taped to a chair and had a bump on the back of his head the size of a squash ball. Forensics found grease on his lips and teeth from a suppressed .22 pistol and two puncture wounds from a needle on his arm.’
She frowned. ‘Recent?’
Archer nodded. ‘He got busted for coke before, but never heroin. I think they drugged him to transport him quietly and also took a sample of his blood.’
‘Why would they do that?’
‘Let’s say whoever killed the two men took vials of their blood after kidnapping and restraining them. Then they went to Spain and abducted Vargas, leaving the blood samples at the scene as if she’d drawn it from them as she fought back. Shit, they might even have smashed up some of the room to make it look like she put up a huge fight. Stanovich and Payan were both men with history and police records here. Whoever did this to them knew we’d ID them quickly and immediately come looking to get Alice back.’
The others stayed silent, listening.
‘We fell for it hook and line thinking they took her, and raced straight here looking for them both.’
He paused.
‘And less than ninety minutes after we arrive, everyone apart from the six of us is either dead or badly injured. Twelve casualties and two fatalities, not including the four SCO19 boys who died.’
‘In Hendon?’ Nikki asked.
Archer nodded. ‘The snipers whacked them a minute or so before they tried to drop us. And we didn’t hear a thing.’
‘So Stanovich and Payan weren’t connected to Vargas’ disappearance at all,’ Josh said.
Archer shook his head. ‘No. And whoever actually took her knows exactly who she is. She was specifically targeted. All these attacks indicate they want to put us out of action for good.’
There was a short silence as the penny dropped.
‘Holy shit,’ Josh said. ‘We’ve been played.’
‘Like an accordion,’ Archer said. ‘And Stanovich and Payan were thugs; both of them were as hard as nails, ex-cons who made a living out of exploiting young women and running gangs. But whoever killed them handled them both with ease. Neither guy would be easy to intimidate, but on Porter’s recording and Payan’s phone call, it sounded like they were about to piss their pants. Whoever these peop
le are, they also just took out eighty per cent of a counter-terrorist police team without giving us so much as a hint as to their identity.’
No one replied.
‘Whoever really took Vargas and is responsible for all this is extremely dangerous.’
‘And now we’ve got two more hostages to worry about,’ Josh continued. ‘Beckett’s kids.’
‘What did she say when you spoke to her?’ Chalky asked Archer.
‘Two men strapped the vest onto her and sent her here,’ Archer said. ‘She thinks from their accents that they were both Australian. Told her that if she didn’t do exactly what they said, they’d kill her sons. And the only reason anyone who was on the 1st floor is still alive is because of you, Chalk. How did it play out?’
Chalky thought for a moment as he recalled the events of earlier. ‘I was in the Briefing Room. Beckett appeared, looking like she was about to faint. She was wearing a coat with a belt which I thought was weird given the hot weather. She was so scared she couldn’t even speak. I followed a hunch, opened up the coat and saw she had more explosives strapped to her than a demo team uses on a bridge.’
‘What kind of explosives?’ Josh asked.
‘TNT, on a timer. When I saw the vest, we had nineteen bloody seconds and no-one else had even noticed; they were all watching you lot in Hendon.’
‘Perfect timing,’ Nikki said. ‘Immaculate even. Distract the entire team with a fake ransom call and stay on the line long enough to give us a direct trace. Whilst everyone is preoccupied with the situation in Hendon, send Beckett in strapped with enough TNT to blow the building in half and take the entire intelligence team out too.’
‘And they knew some of us would go to Hendon,’ Archer added. ‘They were right there ready to mop us up.’
The conversation suddenly halted, the very few pieces that they had of the puzzle sliding into place.
The group realised they’d been completely duped.
‘Jesus,’ Josh said quietly. ‘This was planned down to the last detail.’
‘But who the hell is doing it?’ Fox asked.