Return Fire (Sam Archer )

by Tom Barber

  The man slung his bag over his shoulder, then nodded to the room. ‘Stay safe. Whatever this is about, I hope you resolve it.’

  The others nodded in acknowledgement and the man departed, pulling the door closed behind him.

  ‘You OK?’ Archer asked Chalky once the paramedic had left.

  He cracked a half-hearted smile. ‘I could use a holiday.’

  ‘You should go to the hospital, Chalk,’ Nikki said.

  Chalky shook his head, looking at her injured arm. ‘You stay, I stay. I’m not going anywhere. And you heard the man; I’m as good as new. Well, almost.’

  As she smiled, listening to the exchange, Marquez focused on Bernhardt, who was standing across the room watching in silence.

  ‘Are you hurt?’

  He shook his head. ‘I’m fine.’

  He looked at Chalky.

  ‘The guy was right. You’re a lucky man.’

  Satisfied Chalky wasn’t about to pass out or suddenly drop off his chair, Archer glanced at the people around him. Not including Bernhardt, they were now down to just four; Nikki, Marquez, Chalky and himself. Nikki was working at fifty per cent and Chalky had taken a hammering.

  However, everything had suddenly become a lot clearer.

  Looking at Nikki, Marquez and Chalky, Archer remembered the message inside the parcel outside addressed to him.

  Vargas’ kidnap.

  The bombs in Brixton and here.

  The sniper attacks.

  The ambushes.

  All of it was now starting to make sense.

  ‘So what now?’ Chalky asked quietly from his seat. ‘We’re getting demolished by these people.’

  ‘At least we’ve got one less to deal with,’ Marquez said.

  ‘He’s dead?’

  Marquez nodded. ‘I shot him; his buddy finished the job driving over him to escape.’

  ‘He’s already on the way to the lab,’ Nikki said, as she took a seat at the desk and looked at her laptop screen. ‘Hopefully they can get an ID for us. Whatever the case, as you said, at least that’s one of them down.’

  ‘What about that phone call?’ Chalky asked, thinking back to the parcel sequence. ‘From the woman? Can we trace it, Nik?’

  Nikki shook her head in frustration. ‘To do that, I need to be connected to the phone-line during the call. It all happened so quickly, I didn’t even think about it.’

  Bernhardt turned to Marquez. ‘Any noise in the background? Anything distinguishable?’

  ‘Apart from the power saw, not much. That really dominated proceedings.’

  ‘What about the parcel?’

  ‘Forensics took it to the lab and are working on it,’ Nikki said. ‘Dusting the whole thing for prints and checking for DNA. It’s going to take a while though; this isn’t CSI Miami. I doubt we’ll find anything and if we do it’s probably because they want us to.’

  ‘Someone must have dropped it off for delivery and signed a form,’ Chalky said. ‘Can we check the depot cameras or the UPS log?’

  Nikki sighed, motioning to her injured arm. ‘I can try. I’m working as fast as I can. Normally I’ve got two hands and an entire team working on this stuff.’

  ‘Wait, what was inside the box?’ Bernhardt asked, looking at Archer, who’d gone quiet.

  ‘A piece of paper,’ he replied. ‘A4, folded in half. Five words, hand-written.’

  ‘What did it say?’

  ‘An eye for an eye.’

  ‘An eye for an eye?’ Nikki echoed, looking at Archer. ‘That sounds like revenge.’

  He nodded. ‘Yes. It does. And now I know what this is all about.’

  The group looked at him.

  ‘The kidnap and all these attacks on us haven’t got anything to do with Vargas. They never did. They’re not after her.’

  He paused.

  ‘They’re after me.’

  FORTY

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Nikki said. ‘You’re the target?’

  He nodded. ‘Yes. I am.’

  ‘But you said in Hendon that the two snipers had their sights on Lisa and Fox?’

  ‘They did. And that reinforces my point.’

  ‘How?’ Chalky asked. ‘Why would they kill them and not you?’

  ‘Remember when you all said that I should take command of this operation?’

  Nikki looked at Chalky and Marquez, then nodded.

  ‘What was the main reason why?’

  ‘You were the one person who’d worked in both teams,’ Chalky said. ‘Us and your NYPD group.’

  Archer nodded.

  ‘My old team and my new team. Brought together then viciously and repeatedly attacked. An eye for an eye. That’s a personal message.’

  He paused.

  ‘For some reason, the woman who called and sent the parcel is pissed at me. She kidnapped my girlfriend and all day has been trying to wipe out the people I’ve worked with here and in New York, the men and women I care about most.’

  He glanced at Marquez.

  ‘The snipers were going to take you, Josh and Fox out around me. But not me. Not yet.’

  ‘But you said the three men who ambushed you at Bernhardt’s were trying to kill you?’ Nikki said.

  Archer shook his head. ‘Something about that’s been bothering me. One of them had a clear shot at my head when I was about to jump over the back wall but he dropped his fire, aiming at my legs. That’s been puzzling me ever since; these guys are too good to make mistakes like that. I think he was trying to wound me. They wanted to take me alive.’

  Across the room, Bernhardt frowned.

  ‘How can you be so sure it’s about you?’ he said. ‘This sounds like a lot of guesswork.’

  ‘Firstly, Vargas is my girlfriend. Secondly, whoever this woman is, she knows my name and that I’m back today, otherwise how did she know to send the package? I don’t work for the ARU anymore, so why send it here?’

  He looked at the others in the room.

  ‘Thirdly, the people in these two teams are my closest colleagues and friends. I can think of no other reason why someone would target us all specifically when we were pulled together. And last of all, why else would NYPD detectives be targeted so fast in London? We’ve been in the city for less than four hours. No one else knows we’re here. It’s all way too much of a coincidence.’

  Nikki stared at him for a moment, realising that he was right.

  Then she looked down at her screen as the machine beeped.

  ‘Forensics have pulled a hit on the dead gunman who got run over,’ she said. ‘They’ve attached his file. It’s from the US Army database.’

  With Archer’s statements lingering in the air, the team all moved forward to look as she opened it.

  ‘Staff-Sergeant Ronald Needs; thirty four years old, ex-US Army, been out for eight years. Worked as a contractor in the Middle East for a variety of different companies. Blackwater, Dyncorp, Airscan. His record isn’t great. Beat two theft charges, but when he was still serving he was arrested for assault; stabbed two guys in a bar fight in Louisiana. The army got rid of him after that, so he went solo and travelled out to the Middle East by himself looking for work.’

  ‘A gun for hire,’ Marquez said. ‘A perfect new team-mate for Dash.’

  ‘And his buddy ran him over without a moment’s hesitation in order to escape,’ Archer said. ‘Not a scrap of loyalty. These guys are brutal.’

  ‘He was using a Benelli M2 and a silenced Ruger 22/45 pistol,’ Nikki said. ‘Serial numbers on both trace back to just last year. Fresh off the line and expensive, the Benelli in particular. These weapons and the amount of ammo they’ve been using means someone with very deep pockets is bankrolling this.’

  ‘The woman on the phone,’ Marquez said. ‘If you’re right about her calling the shots Arch, then she must be the one who hired them.’

  Nikki paused, thinking. ‘If this is a personal vendetta then this man’s friends will keep coming back for us until we’re all dead. That means we nee
d to get everyone involved in the Unit under protection.’

  ‘You said all personnel at the hospitals are under armed guard?’ Chalky said.

  ‘Yeah, but we need to think past members, as well as present. We don’t know what triggered this or how far back it happened.’

  Across the room, Chalky frowned; then he suddenly looked over at Archer.

  ‘Mac,’ they said simultaneously.

  ‘Who’s Mac?’ Marquez asked.

  ‘He was the sergeant of the task force here for the first year,’ Chalky said. ‘Once the team was up and running, he retired and left.’

  ‘Where does he live?’ Archer asked.

  ‘Putney, across the River,’ Nikki said, typing with one hand as she pulled up his address and phone number. She paused, trying to withdraw her phone, and Bernhardt stepped forward to help her. ‘I’ll get on to him.’

  She tapped in the number, then pushed the button for loudspeaker.

  The ringing filled the quiet room, all of them waiting.

  But no one picked up.

  The call rang through to the answer machine. Nikki quickly ended the call and tried again just in case he hadn’t made it to the phone in time.

  As she did so, Archer turned to Chalky. ‘We need to get him back here and under protection immediately; should be pretty straightforward. Are you up to it?’

  Chalky grunted and rose. ‘Definitely. Could use some fresh air.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Marquez said. ‘I’m not staying behind this time.’

  Archer nodded.

  ‘Armoury first, guys. Before you go anywhere, I want both of you wearing intact vests and carrying weapons.’

  ‘Damn right,’ Chalky said, unzipping his damaged tac vest as he and Marquez headed for the door. ‘Until this is over, I’m sleeping in one of these damn things.’

  Across town, Dash, Piccadilly, Portland and Grange were waiting in their car in the car park when Dash’s phone rang.

  He took the call immediately.

  ‘And?’

  ‘The package worked,’ Notting said, the sound of a car engine in the background. ‘Drew them all out of the building but they reacted fast. We put two of them down though.’

  ‘Dead?’

  ‘One probably, another possibly.’

  ‘The golden boy?’

  ‘Still standing. But there’s a negative.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘Regent’s down.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘He got shot and caught under the car as I drove off.’

  ‘But you put away two of the cops?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘That’s what matters. He knew the risks.’ As he spoke, Dash suddenly felt his phone purr as a new message came in. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘Getting the hell out of the area. The cops will have tagged my plates.’

  ‘Don’t take any risks; we don’t want you tailed. Pull over, switch them and keep your phone close. I just got another message, so I’ll call you back.’

  ‘Copy.’

  Dash hung up and opened the text message. As he read it, he frowned, but then his eyes widened.

  ‘What is it?’ Piccadilly asked.

  Dash passed the phone to him and fired the engine. ‘Call Notting back right now and put it on speaker.’

  As Piccadilly redialled the American, Dash took off the handbrake and looked in the rear view mirror at Portland and Grange as he pulled out of the parking spot.

  ‘You two, reload your weapons. We’re in business.’

  Back at the ARU HQ, Chalky and Marquez walked down the corridor, both carrying a Glock, an MP5 and each wearing one of the tac vests. Chalky had a fresh, undamaged one over his navy blue ARU polo shirt and jeans, and Marquez had strapped hers over her white t-shirt, stowing the Glock in the thigh holster already secured around her right leg.

  They paused inside the shot-up reception, checking their gear and adjusting the ear pieces to their radios, then looked out at the now quiet car park, both of them glancing up at the sea of office windows surrounding the police HQ.

  ‘Ready?’ he asked her.

  She nodded, hitting forward the cocking handle on the MP5.

  They both took a deep breath, then moved out into the car park, checking left and right as they headed straight for one of the Unit’s two remaining BMWs.

  FORTY ONE

  Now Chalky and Marquez had departed, Archer, Nikki and Bernhardt were left alone inside the interrogation room, Archer’s and Nikki’s focus now purely on finding the three hostages. They’d had a proof of life when Marquez had heard the two boys on the phone call, but they hadn’t heard a peep from Vargas since she’d been kidnapped. If Archer was right, the woman who’d sent the package clearly wanted him to suffer.

  And with Vargas missing for almost a day, her chances of survival weren’t looking good at all.

  Standing across from Nikki and Bernhardt, Archer felt exhausted, unnerved and confused; the message on that piece of paper inside the box was also running through his mind on an endless loop.

  An eye for an eye.

  But whose eye was that?

  If this was specifically targeted at him, it must have been something he’d done personally. He’d pissed a lot people off since he’d been a cop, but if it had been from his time in New York then they’d have gone for him there; the fact that members of the ARU were targets too meant it had to be something from when he was an officer here. The list of potential candidates was huge given the amount of operations the ARU had been swept up in, but the apparent ex-military status of the enemy gunmen could be a clue. He’d encountered a team of Special Forces soldiers in the past on an operation; could the woman have cared about one of them?

  ‘Who do you think she could be?’ Nikki asked Archer, guessing what he was thinking.

  He shrugged. ‘We’ll find out soon enough. Whoever she is, at some point she’ll want me to know what I did.’

  ‘Josh broke a couple of ribs but he’s OK,’ Nikki said, studying her screen. ‘They’re running an x-ray to make sure nothing else is damaged.’

  Archer nodded. ‘Glad he’s OK. Scared the hell out of me.’

  ‘Me too.’

  In the silence that followed, her laptop beeped, alerting her to another message. She clicked it open and read whatever came up on the screen.

  Archer saw her expression change immediately.

  ‘What?’ he asked.

  ‘Damn it,’ she said, reaching for her phone and starting to scroll quickly for a number.

  Four miles south of the ARU HQ, Chalky and Marquez were on their way to Mac’s house when the software already synced into Chalky’s phone inside the car started ringing.

  Keeping his right hand on the wheel, he pressed the button and took the call.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Turn back,’ Nikki said. ‘Now.’

  ‘Why? What’s wrong?’

  ‘It’s a wasted trip.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Mac’s not in the country. He’s in Portugal on holiday. Met operator was calling his family; his daughter just answered and told him.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ Chalky asked.

  ‘Positive. He’s not in the UK. If he’s going to get protection, we need to get on the phone to the Portuguese police. So come back; we need you here. Until we figure out more, none of us should be out and about in the city unless it’s absolutely necessary.’

  ‘OK,’ he said. ‘We’re on our way.’

  Ending the call as they were just approaching a small roundabout up ahead, Chalky took the fourth exit and started moving back down the road they’d just driven up.

  ‘Saves us another task, I guess,’ he said.

  Marquez nodded, checking the passing streets either side of them.

  Neither of them noticed a silver Audi with freshly changed plates making the same turn on the roundabout and slide in behind them twenty yards back.

  The call finished, Nikki tapped away on the keypad,
studying her latest feed as Archer and Bernhardt watched her in silence.

  ‘That’s one less potential target to worry about,’ she said, as Archer nodded, thinking.

  ‘How are you doing on tracking their cars?’ Bernhardt asked.

  ‘Some Met analysts have been checking the CCTV, but there’s been no response.’

  ‘They’ll be changing the plates constantly so we can’t trace them,’ Archer said.

  Nikki went to reply, but suddenly paused.

  She looked at Archer, who’d gone still too.

  Listening.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Bernhardt said.

  Neither responded.

  Chalky and Marquez had left the door slightly ajar and they could both hear a noise echoing down the quiet corridor.

  Faint and distant, but recognisable.

  The phone upstairs.

  It was ringing again.

  FORTY TWO

  As they drove back to HQ, a brief silence had fallen between Chalky and Marquez.

  Looking out of the window to her left, Marquez was watching the unfamiliar city streets passing by. It seemed to her that London was like New York’s older, polite cousin, busy and intense but with shorter buildings and cooler tempers. It was quieter too; people didn’t drive on their horns here or constantly shout on the street. She’d never been to London before and so far the jury was out on whether she’d ever want to come back.

  Today hadn’t exactly been the most pleasant of welcomes.

  Watching all but two of Archer’s old ARU team go down had been hard, but seeing Shepherd and Josh being taken out had been even worse. Both men were like family to her, as were Vargas and Archer; she’d already been totally invested in this case, but now her determination had risen to a whole new level to find out who was doing this and bring them to justice.

  Staying quiet, she pulled her cell phone from the slot on the vest she was wearing and sent a quick text message to her sister, who was watching her daughter for her whilst she was away. As she tapped away on the phone, Chalky took a right turn; the traffic was pretty light and they were making good time as they continued on their way back to the station.

  The quiet of the car and the darkness of the streets were somehow calming, the brief respite of the intensity of the last few hours welcome to both of them.