HARD KNOCKS: Charlie Fox book three

by Zoe Sharp

  That got Gregor’s attention. He twisted round to stare across at our position. “I want my son!” he roared. “Miss Fox, you gave me your word!”

  “Yeah, and I want a brand new FireBlade,” I threw back at Gregor, reckless, flippant. “We can’t always have what we want.”

  Ivan tried to wriggle free at his father’s voice. I cursed under my breath and dug my fingers in harder.

  Sean twisted round, careful not to expose himself to the snipers. “Charlie,” he called across, “for God’s sake let the Germans have him. You try anything else and they’ll cut you to pieces.”

  “I made a promise, Sean,” I said and looked away so I wouldn’t see the pain in his face.

  I shuffled backwards, hauling Ivan with me. Ronnie, Craddock and Romundstad were sheltered by the remaining school truck. They managed to duck across to join me behind the wreckage of the Audis and the bike. “Well, Charlie, it looks like you’re the boss,” Craddock said. “What’s the plan?”

  I took a deep breath. “We’re going to have to walk Ivan over there,” I said.

  “Oh you have to be feckin’ kidding me,” Declan muttered.

  “Why not?” Romundstad said, more robust. “This is what we have been training for, is it not?”

  Ronnie didn’t answer that one. I couldn’t see this kind of thing being on the syllabus at catering college, but to his credit he didn’t raise an objection.

  I glanced at Craddock. After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “OK,” he said, “let’s do it. Why not?”

  “Michael,” I said. “How many of the men Jan’s got with her will speak English?”

  He shrugged. He was still holding onto Heidi, hands automatically smoothing her matted hair. “Most will probably understand a little,” he said, frowning. “Why?”

  “In that case, you’re going to have to tell them in German,” I said. “Tell them we’re civilians, we’re unarmed, we’re just pupils here. And keep telling them.”

  He nodded, not liking it, but not about to talk me out of it, either. “You do realise,” he said slowly, “that I could just take charge of the boy and save you from making this decision.”

  Declan brought his gun up and grinned. “You could try, me old lad,” he said. “In fact, we’ll be sure to tell your boss up there that you did.”

  “I should be with you,” he said, but I shook my head.

  “You’ve already taken enough risks and I think, once Jan sees whose side you’re on, that might only encourage her to aim for you, don’t you think? Besides, Heidi needs you.” He couldn’t refute that. Indeed, the girl looked permanently attached to the big German. Disengaging her was going to take some time and probably a strong solvent.

  We crowded round Ivan.

  “Just remember,” I told the boy in a savage whisper. “You try and run for it and there’s a dozen men up there who’ll win a prize for being the first one to shoot you. We’re your only chance, OK?”

  “OK,” he said, the single word torn out of him. He would almost rather get himself shot than submit to this indignity, I realised. I tightened my grip and nodded to Hofmann.

  He started shouting up to Jan, his voice loud enough to carry to all the men up along the roof line. He told them we were coming out, and who we were, and that she would be murdering unarmed civilians if she ordered her men to open fire.

  I looked across to where Major Gilby had crawled to the edge of the last Audi. He met my eyes but didn’t speak. Maybe he just couldn’t bring himself to plead with me. He knew, as well as I did, what had been threatened if we didn’t match Gregor’s half of the bargain. We were risking our lives by this, yes, but even more so if we backed out now.

  “Charlie,” Sean said urgently, “for God’s sake don’t do this.”

  I swallowed, ignoring him, bearing down on the fear that was threatening to overwhelm me. We dumped our guns and positioned ourselves around Ivan, with Craddock and Romundstad in the front, Ronnie to his left, me to his right, and Declan bringing up the rear. We were so tight in that we could hardly move without standing on each other’s feet.

  Then, before any of us could have second thoughts, we stepped out into the open ground.

  Above us, Jan was going practically apoplectic, screaming at her men to shoot us, not to let Ivan reach the safety of his father’s limousine. But Hofmann’s words were hitting home. They hesitated.

  Jan drew her own gun and started firing down at us, but there’s a limit to what you can hit with a handgun at that sort of distance. Besides, we were keeping too tucked around Ivan for her to have a clear shot at the boy.

  Still, it was only a matter of time.

  And then Ronnie gave a shrill cry, spun away to the side and dropped. He’d taken a round through his left thigh, just above the knee, but that wasn’t the real problem. The blood was pumping out between his clamped fingers, a thin jet of it, pulsing to the beat of his heart.

  Artery.

  Ronnie sat up and almost tried to hutch away from the sight of his own blood, as though it was a separate entity that was attacking him and he could somehow escape it.

  He was screaming now, in terror as much as pain. He knew as well as the rest of us how little time he’d got. You can’t work with big sharp chef’s knives for a living and not have it hammered into you about the dangers of accidentally slicing your femoral artery. Untreated, he had minutes.

  We faltered, our advance stumbling to a halt.

  “Close up, for God’s sake,” I hissed.

  Declan stared at me with eyes that were wide with shock. “For feck’s sake we can’t just leave him!”

  “We don’t have a choice,” I snapped back. I grabbed his arm and yanked him back close round Ivan. “We stop now and they kill the boy and all this is a total waste of time. You wanted to be a bodyguard, Declan, well this is what it’s all about, not those Hollywood babes you’re so keen on. Now live with it and let’s move!”

  Just for a second he looked at me as though his dearest wish was that I was the one writhing on the ground in a growing pool of my own blood. Then he nodded darkly and we moved forwards again. The whole thing had taken only a moment, hardly a break in stride, but it felt like hours.

  We were almost in the lee of the terrace now, and close enough to Gregor’s Merc to make a dash for it.

  Gregor grabbed hold of his son in a quick fierce bear hug, then his bodyguards were bundling the boy into the limo. Gregor climbed in behind him, but just before he slammed the door he looked directly into my eyes, his own bright and hard like pebbles.

  “I will not forget this,” he said, his voice a deep bitter rumble. “And I will not forget you.”

  It was hard to tell if it was said as a threat, or a promise.

  Then the heavy door slammed and we had to jump back as the Merc was gunned forwards, fishtailing wildly as it swerved out of the parking area. What was left of Gregor’s invasion force retreated behind him, covering his escape with well-drilled precision.

  If Jan had had the time to assemble a larger force, they might have stood a chance of preventing Gregor’s escape, but as it was they were woefully outnumbered. Their elevated position had only given them the advantage while we were all pinned down in one place. As soon as the Merc left the parking area, that superiority was lost. I heard her barking commands into a radio, but by the growing ire in her voice, she knew she was beaten.

  As soon as Gregor had taken Ivan off our hands, we turned and run back to Ronnie. Jan’s men were still firing after the limo. Shots seemed to be landing just about everywhere. Craddock and I piled ourselves over the top of the cook, shielding his body. Romundstad had grabbed a spare magazine out of his jacket and, with a strip of Ronnie’s shirt, turned it into a tourniquet. Ronnie was chewing through his bottom lip in an effort to stay quiet.

  Gradually, the firing petered out, leaving a ringing in my ears. The drift of gun smoke left a dirty smell in the air. I sat up, risked raising my head. Craddock did the same and gave me a quick grin
. I looked down. Romundstad had managed to stem the bleeding and Declan was holding Ronnie’s hand, telling him he was going to be fine, and this didn’t mean he was let off making our lunch.

  My God, I thought. We’re actually a team.

  Declan looked up and caught my eye. He gave me a brief nod of apology. I shrugged my acceptance. Nothing further needed to be said.

  Gilby’s men moved out of cover then. Todd went to carefully prise Heidi away from Hofmann, sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her across to Gilby, uncaring of the blood. Figgis produced a medical kit, elbowed us aside and began patching up Ronnie’s leg more scientifically than we’d been able to.

  The tension drained away from us, sapping the adrenaline that had kept us going with it. I got to my feet and staggered back, wiping Ronnie’s blood onto the legs of my jeans.

  I saw Sean start in my direction, but Gilby waylaid him on his way across to me, shaking his hand, thanking him. I was glad of the respite. He had that head-ducked look about him, the one that said he was spoiling for a fight. I didn’t think I was quite up to a confrontation with him just yet.

  At that moment, above us on the terrace, the French doors clattered wide open and Jan came stalking out, with four of her men behind her carrying MP5Ks. Jan herself was holding a HK nine-mil pistol, like the ones we’d seen in the little apartment in Berlin. I wondered vaguely what she’d done with the SIG she’d taken with her from the outdoor range.

  The gun she’d used to callously shoot Elsa.

  Jan had always had an air of underlying resentment about her, but now she was halfway to ballistic and she made a beeline for me.

  “You!” she yelled at me, her thin sallow face made ugly by her anger. “How dare you interfere!”

  “I made a promise,” I said. It was becoming a catchphrase.

  Jan’s temper spilled over. She darted forwards and kicked my legs out from under me. If I hadn’t been so damned weary I probably could have done something about it, but as it was I went down as far as my knees. She jammed the barrel of the P7 under my jawbone and lifted my head back with it.

  “You have no idea who you’re dealing with here,” she bit out. “I can disappear you, Fox, for what you’ve done today.”

  I stared up into her eyes with my heart racing, but I wouldn’t flinch. “I know,” I said.

  “That’s enough,” Sean said in that deadly quiet tone I knew so well. “Leave her alone.”

  Without moving my body I flicked my eyes sideways to find that one of the SIGs was out in Sean’s hand and was aimed at Jan’s head. I hadn’t seen where he’d been carrying it. From the shimmer that ran through them, no one else had, either.

  Sean was dog-tired, grey with exhaustion from the tension and the twelve hundred kilometre drive, but the security service agent must have seen the cool intent in his eyes. It cut through the layers, penetrated. She carefully took her gun away from under my chin.

  At the same moment one of Jan’s men came forwards and planted the muzzle of his MP5K, almost leisurely, into the side of Sean’s neck. He may have hesitated over shooting us when we were unarmed and protecting Ivan, but I had no doubts at all that he was capable of pulling the trigger now.

  Stand-off time.

  There was a moment’s hesitation, then Sean sighed and surrendered the SIG. The man took it and stepped back away from him. I could almost feel the others’ relief that Sean had gone down without a fight. Even surrounded by armed opponents and utterly fatigued he’d still represented a serious threat. He just had that air about him.

  Jan tucked the HK back into its speed-draw holster and moved in close, putting her face into Sean’s. “I’ll have the pleasure of dealing with you later,” she sneered.

  She brusquely ordered Sean searched and cuffed, and Gilby’s men, too, just for good measure. Major Gilby handed over Heidi into Romundstad’s care and submitted to the restraint with quiet resignation.

  Jan eyeballed him as the cuffs went on. “Not quite so superior now are we, Major?” she said, spitting out the last word. She stabbed a finger to her own chest. “At least I earned my rank, I didn’t cheat my way into it!”

  Gilby eyed her calmly, but didn’t speak. His silence only seemed to inflame her further.

  “I could have you shot here and now for your treachery, Gilby,” she said. That didn’t raise a response, either, even though Jan looked as though she was seriously considering such an act.

  I climbed slowly to my feet. Two of Jan’s men were standing over me, but they didn’t make any attempts to keep me down. They were too busy eyeing their commanding officer with something approaching concern.

  “I am taking command of this operation,” Hofmann said then, loudly, in German. “Major König, you are relieved.”

  Jan didn’t have much colour to start with, but now what little she had was driven out of her face by a clenched fury. The last thing she looked was relieved.

  “You can’t fucking do this to me, Hofmann,” she flared. “I outrank you. I’m not the one who’s removed a suspect from custody and helped him to escape. You’re a fucking traitor!”

  Hofmann regarded her rather sadly and as her eyes slipped past him to the faces of her own men, the realisation of who they were prepared to follow must have hit her like a smack in the mouth.

  “Oh, I might have expected that,” she said bitterly. “You’re nothing but a brain-dead bunch of chauvinistic morons.” She nodded to Hofmann, her disgust plain. “He’s the man, so he’s got to be right. Is that it?”

  “Major König, you have overstepped your authority and you will stand down,” Hofmann said, ignoring her. “Your weapon please.”

  He stepped forwards, peremptorily holding out his hand. Jan yanked the P7 out of its speed-draw holster again, tight-lipped and livid, and started to surrender it.

  And that’s when Hofmann made his big mistake.

  He allowed the faintest hint of a patronising smile to creep across his mouth.

  Jan saw it, and snapped.

  I saw the change come over her. Her eyes went wild, opaque, her grip shifted slightly, her stance hardened. The means of retribution was in her hand and all logical thought had fled in the face of fury.

  I don’t know how Jan was planning on getting away with shooting Hofmann in cold blood in front of so many witnesses, but maybe she just didn’t give a shit any more.

  I had a sudden almost subliminal flashback to the day when my four attackers had been acquitted and had smiled at me with gloating conceit as they’d left the courtroom. If someone had handed me a gun then, I would have pulled the trigger without hesitation and kept pulling it, rage-blind, until there was no one left standing.

  Something bumped against my hip and I suddenly remembered the SIG I’d dropped into my jacket pocket outside the apartment in Berlin. I’d left the Lucznik behind the FireBlade, but no one had thought to check me for any other weapons.

  The nearest of Jan’s men was standing less than a metre away from me. He caught the sudden flurry as I wrenched the pistol out of my pocket, the first round already sitting snug in the chamber and no safety to delay me. I started to bring it up level all in one move.

  For all his apparently careless lapse in not searching me, he was a trained man and his reactions were damn near instantaneous. He was already turning before I’d got the barrel clear of the fabric. Already launching himself towards me in a ferocious tackle as my target fell between the sights.

  Now or never.

  I fired.

  I got off one clean shot before the guy’s momentum took me straight off my feet. He was big and heavy and we landed solid enough to crack the air right out of my lungs, leaving me gasping.

  He recovered first, viciously twisting the gun out of my unresisting grip and jamming the business end of it hard under my right ear, the still-hot muzzle burning my skin. He dragged me up as far as my knees.

  Everybody seemed to be shouting at once. I closed my eyes, waiting for it all to end. Either way.

>   Nothing happened.

  The gun eased away from my skull, the hand on my jacket relaxed its hold. When I cautiously opened my eyes again I found Hofmann was crouching in front of me.

  He put a meaty hand on my shoulder. “Thank you,” he said solemnly, and stood again. Uninjured, I noticed. Unharmed.

  When he moved aside I found myself staring into Jan’s shock-glazed eyes. The rage that had transported her to the edge of madness was dissipated, spent. She was sitting hunched on the ground half a dozen metres away, breathing quick and shallow, with her right hand curled lifelessly in her lap. I don’t know what happened to the P7 she’d been holding.