Sarah sat on the back seat of the car clutching Grace, who in turn continued to clutch Scamp. The rear car windows were tinted so nobody could see in. The driver, slick and able, expertly manoeuvring through the traffic towards the city.
“You said you’d let us go if I gave you the brooch.”
“When my boss says you can go, fine. But only then. Soon, it will be soon,” the smartly dressed man sitting in front said. “But be warned, if you make any attempt to draw attention or escape, I’ve been ordered to shoot you, the girl first. You understand?”
Sarah shivered and clutched Grace tighter. “Yes,” she whispered.
After what seemed like an age they stopped below some mega building. The smart man opened the car door and all climbed out. In the process Grace dropped Scamp who scurried round their feet. Closely surrounded by six men, all entered the building and crossed the lobby to a private lift.
“Scamp, Scamp,” Grace called.
A member of the building’s security eyed them with concern and approached the smart man as they waited.
“Mr Silverman’s guests,” the smart man told him.
Security eyed Sarah with concern and nodded.
“OK.” He stood back as all entered the lift, Scamp pushing between their feet.
Crammed tight, all were silent as they went up, except Scamp who made disgruntled noises. When they reached the top floor, the door opened onto a common hallway. Smart man crossed to the principal doorway and pressed the bell. The rest pushed out, the last man kicking Scamp back in as the door closed.
“Scamp, where’s Scamp?” Grace called.
“Escaped,” Sarah whispered to her. “Maybe to get help.”
One of Jerak’s men opened the door and nodded them inside.
“The boss is out but will return any minute.”
“Shall I put them in a back bedroom?” the smart man asked.
“Keep them with the other prisoner, then we will decide.”
Silverman stood as they entered the room.
“Sarah,” He opened his arms.
“Who are you?” She held Grace to her side.
“I am your father. We are being held prisoners by Jerak, my son.”
“Father,” she stared at him in disbelief.
Sean and Joe ran into the ground floor lobby and straight to Security.
“Police. Some men came in with a woman and small girl, where did they go?”
“Top floor, penthouse corridor,” the Head Guard said and tapped on his keyboard. A CCTV film of them leaving the lift and ringing the bell came on the screen. One of the men kicks Scamp back in.
“The dog will still be in the lift,” Joe said.
“This is a terrorist situation.” Sean showed his badge.” Armed police will be arriving in force. Clear the lobby, warn any occupants to stay put and let nobody else in. I want a total shutdown.” As he spoke armed police entered the building and positioned themselves each side, ready for orders. “Let’s check the lift.”
All three hurried over as police and security began to wave people out. Sean opened the lift door and all stared at the empty floor.
“He’s gone, how did he get out?”
“He couldn’t unless someone else used it. Maybe one of the service team.”
“CCTV”
All rushed back. A hooded figured appeared on screen, his face covered, as he picked up the struggling dog.
“Who’s that?” Sean asked.
Security shook his head. “Not service personnel and not a resident. Our residents don’t wear hoodies.”
“OK, prepare to raid the flat now.”
CHAPTER 24
“What is happening, why are we here?” Sarah shouted.
“They are using you both to blackmail me.” Silverman stood. “We can go into the bedroom?” he asked Smartman. “It is safe, we can go nowhere. But at least the child won’t be frightened.”
Smartman crossed to the door on the right-hand side of the lounge and looked inside, nodding when he saw it empty.
“OK, you go in there and stay. Do not come out unless I tell you.”
Silverman opened the door wide and ushered the girls inside, closing the door firmly as he joined them.
“Say nothing,” he whispered to Sarah and slid open the fitted wardrobe door. Leaning to the rear he pushed a button and a panel slid back revealing a dark cubbyhole and the top of a narrow, enclosed spiral staircase leading down. “A rich man’s escape route,” he said. “But remember, always keep secret what lay hidden inside the brooch and on the back. You know the final code?”
“I’ve never looked.” Sarah frowned as she stared at him.
“You will always know it. It marked the happiest day of my life, when my beloved gave me a beautiful daughter. We will meet again soon.” He kissed her cheek then bent to kiss Grace. “Now go, go quickly.”
Sarah grabbed Grace’s hand and immediately climbed into the wardrobe pulling the child behind.
Silverman took out his phone, pressed buttons and spoke.
“Attack now.” He watched the girls start down the stairs, automatically triggering lights as their passing operated movement detectors.
He nodded his relief and closed the rear cupboard door, the same time gunfire sounded from the adjacent room. Smartman threw open the door, firing before he fell beneath a hail of bullets. Silverman jerked, knelt, then slumped to the floor wounded.
Sarah pulled Grace behind her, both running down the narrow stairs. Above, the crash of gunfire ceased as suddenly as it had begun. She heard no sound of her father following. The stairs seemed endless, the lights going on then off immediately they passed.
“Mummy, Mummy, where are we going?”
“Out of here my sweet, back to somewhere safe.”
Sean ran from the lift, Victoria and Joe behind, followed by armed police. A second lift discharged more police, gunfire crashed from the flat while they rammed open the front door.
“Police! Drop your weapons,” Sean shouted when entering, aiming his automatic. Nobody answered but bodies littered the floor, some groaning, some still.
Police went to each room checking no hostiles remained. In the last, Silverman lay in front of a wardrobe, a chest wound leaking blood. Sean checked his pulse and watched him open both eyes.
“One alive,” he yelled. “Where’re Sarah and the child?”
Silverman responded by closing his eyes again just as a paramedic rushed into the room.
Sean stood and looked to Victoria.
“They’re not here. Where the hell did they go?”
“Hiding, look in cupboard,” Silverman whispered.
Sean slid back the door. “No one. Search the whole flat, they’re here somewhere.”
“Inside,” Silverman whispered again. “I am their father. Jerak, Jerak did this, kill him.” He closed his eyes again.
“What did he say?”
Victoria shook her head. “Something about father, Jerak, inside.”
Sean threw open the cupboard again, pushing and parting the hanging clothes. “Nothing, nobody,” he shouted, then knelt by the medics. “Will he survive?”
“Maybe, if we get him to the hospital, now.”
“Listen,” Grace shouted and pushed passed her mother.
“What?” Sarah stopped, then rushed after Grace, both hearing the bark at the same time. “It can’t be.”
“It is, I know him. It’s Scamp. Scamp,” she yelled.
Lights further down the stairs came on, the barking becoming louder and louder until Scamp flew around the corner and jumped straight into Grace’s arms.
“How, how?” Sarah shook her head in disbelief as she knelt beside them.
“By a miracle,” John Kirkwell spoke while coming round the bend. “Thank God you’re safe.”
“John, how did you get here?”
“It’s a long story and I’m here because I work for the CIA. I found Scamp in the lift downstairs going frantic. I knew if anyone could fin
d you it would be him, so I just followed where he led. Now it’s my job to get you to safety, so let’s go. I came through a door off the lobby but the stairs go all the way to a carpark below.”
Sarah lifted Scamp from Grace as she moved by and all clattered down the stairs, John in the rear. After five minutes they reached a door with an emergency bar. Sarah pushed down on it, allowing them to run into a large underground parking area.
“This way,” John said, leading them to a far row of cars. He unlocked an estate and ushered them inside. “OK, there might be police at the entrance. Let me do the talking. We have to get out of here, and fast.”
“But the police are on our side. They’re supposed to look after us.”
“Didn’t do a very good job, did they? Now let the CIA have a go. We got a safehouse ready with armed guards. We can contact the police from there. Right now they have their hands full.” He started the car, drove between the rows of parked vehicles and up the ramp. Two armed police stood at the top.
“Can we go?” he asked them. “We heard there were terrorists so hid in the car. I want to get my wife and child out of here to the safety of my mother’s house.”
Both police checked the back, first Sarah then Grace who cuddled Scamp.
“OK, go, go,” one waved them through.
John manoeuvred passed the throng of police and emergency vehicles, then eased into the flow of traffic.
“Where are we going?” Sarah asked. “I’m not sure . . .” She looked to the receding police cars.
“Like I said, to a secure house. It’s in the country just south of London. From there you can contact the authorities. All will be well, you’re in safe hands now.”
“Is this to do with my father’s money?”
“Everything. The American Government like the British Government are worried who might get hold of it. They don’t want it ending up in terrorists or Mafia hands. The resulting death toll would be significant.”
“I never thought of it like that.” Sarah drew Grace and Scamp closer, suppressing a shiver.
“We’ve looked under the beds, all cupboards, even behind the bath panels. They’re not in the flat,” Victoria said, entering the lounge.
Sean glanced to the bedroom where Silverman had lain on the floor.
“Inside,” he repeated to himself. “Silverman said they were inside.” He moved back to the bedroom and re-opened the cupboard door, removed all clothes and threw them on the bed. After searching over the panelling on the back, he began to tap and heard the sound of hollowness behind. Looking for a means of opening, he accidently pressed the concealed button in one corner. The panel immediately slid away revealing the stairwell.
“Got it,” he shouted. “Emergency escape route.”
Victoria and Joe entered the room to see Sean climb into the cupboard and shuffle towards the stairs. Both followed as he started down. After ten minutes they came out into the carpark, empty except for cars.
“Could be hiding, could be they escaped.” He ran between vehicles then up the ramp. Two police stood sentry. “Did anyone come through?” he asked them.
“Family. Man, woman, child and dog. Said they wanted to get to their mother’s. Seemed no reason to detain them.”
“Shit, we lost them.”
“Who was the man?” Victoria asked.
“Our hooded figure, I bet,” Sean said. “And with a car. Also someone who knew of the escape stairs, someone who knew it was Silverman’s flat.”
“And someone Sarah trusted, otherwise she wouldn’t have gone with them, not quietly.”
“But who and where to?” Joe finished.
“I took the car number if it helps. A grey VW Estate.” One of the police opened his notebook showing it to Sean. “They left maybe twenty minutes ago.”
“It does help.” Sean wrote down the number. “At least it gives us something to work on.”
Grace rested her head on Sarah’s knee, Scamp cuddled close.
“John, I want to know how you knew we were in that flat, how you knew the stairs were there?”
“Easy. The CIA are just as worried about Silverman’s twenty billion as the British Government. Except the Americans are far more organised than the British Security Services. We tracked down all of Silverman’s properties, new and old. This one was bought just before he died. As part of our research we always get copies of the building plans. They showed that each penthouse had its own emergency escape route. When the police raided in such numbers, we figured you were the reason. You’ve been covertly followed since our Greek holiday. We also found out Silverman still lived, hiding in the flat. When Jerak, his son, kidnapped you, we guessed Silverman would keep you safe, after all, you are his beloved daughter and granddaughter. He’d get you out of there as soon as able. There is no love lost between him and Jerak, but you two and your safety would have become the prime objective of his life. I didn’t know you’d be on the stairs but I guessed it very possible, so, I was on my way to find you.”
“And where we are going is safe?”
“Safe as the White House. And you’ll find some old familiar faces.”
Walking back to the lift Sean phoned Alice Sibree.
“Sarah and daughter left the building about twenty minutes ago with the help of someone. We don’t know who but I have a car number.” He read it out to her.
“Twenty minutes from the City, they couldn’t have got far. I’ll put a call out to all units, also a search on the car number. Any one of ours hurt?”
“No, we were lucky, but the opposition had a good shoot out against each other. All wounded or dead. We’ll question any fit enough. I think we also got Silverman. Hurt bad but still alive. He told me of Sarah’s escape route.”
“OK. All of this goes priority. I’ll call you when I have information.” She switched off.
South of Richmond John swung the VW into a carpark.
“All change,” he said and got out to open the back door. Sarah encouraged Grace.
“Come on, my sweet. Not there yet.”
“Where’re we going? I’m hungry.”
“New car, new route,” John said. “I need to make sure no baddies are following us.” He flicked the locks on a Ford parked a few bays away and ushered them both across.
“Can we buy some food?” Sarah asked.
“No worries, a decent meal is waiting at the safe house.”
“How long?” Grace screwed up her face.
“Maybe thirty minutes, maybe less. We’ll be there around dark. Then we can contact the police and all sleep safe.”
Sean sat in the offices of MI5, Victoria and Denise beside him. Cobbart, Alice and Colonel Fox sat opposite. The fact that three top security bosses sat in the same meeting gave him no confidence. It meant none had enough information to go it alone.
“I have CCTV footage of three people and a dog entering the underground carpark and getting into the car,” Alice told them. “Two are definitely Sarah and Grace. Unfortunately, the man has his back to the camera. There is a slight profile on him entering the vehicle but it’s poor. Our teams are working now to match anything with our main suspects. Traffic cameras picked up possible images of the vehicle heading South East.” She glanced at her iPhone when it bleeped. “Progress. A VW Estate has just been found with matching number plate in a shopping carpark South of Richmond. CCTV shows the occupants leaving the VW and climbing into a Ford. Good news is they have the licence number. Unfortunately, again they only gave poor images of the man. These are being checked. We have a specialist doing a photofit. Drones are up and looking South. But darkness is closing.”
“Or they could be doubling back on themselves,” Victoria suggested.
“News on Silverman?” Cobbart asked.
“Latest is, he’ll live. We’ve questioned the injured. Half the men in the flat were his, the other half belonged to Jerak.”
“I suggest we go to town on this guy,” Cobbart said. “We need to find out just who he is and wher
e he stands.”
“Somewhere bad,” Sean finished.
South of Kingston, John pulled the car up before large, ornate gates to a country manor. Flood lights immediately illuminated the dusk. After a minute the gates silently opened. He passed through onto a drive which wound through trees.
“We here?” Sarah asked,
“Sure are. Time to meet our hostess.”
Passing from woods to open fields they finally drew up before the large manor house. Lights shone down on the steps and the front door opened. Laura Manning stood like the grand owner ready to welcome them. Behind her were a cluster of blonde angels.
“Are they all in the CIA?” Sarah asked, recognising them as the girls from Paxos. She grasped Grace’s hand then edged from the car.
“Yeap,” John answered. “Said you’d be safe.”
When they entered the house more of the blonde angels appeared.
“Hello, how are you?” All rushed forward to embrace them both. The shortest girl gave Grace the biggest hug. Sarah guessed her anything from twelve to mid-twenties. She had one of those indefinable faces, neither child nor adult. Amongst them all, Grace seemed to warm to her most.
“You poor things, you must be exhausted. Let me show you to your room.” Laura hugged Sarah then led her up the stairs.
The room stood grand and lavish with a large bed. Fresh clothes lay on the chairs. “I hope the sizes are right,” Laura said. “It was all a bit of guess work.”
“I wasn’t expecting this.” Sarah gestured with her arms.
“America does nothing by halves. Please accept our hospitality. Once you’ve freshened up, come down. We have a meal ready.” She left the room.
Grace picked up a teddy bear sitting on one of the chairs, whilst Scamp ran around sniffing out the floor.
“Are we safe now?” she asked.
“Yes, my sweet. But we still have to contact Victoria and the others. We need to find how Libby is, we must borrow a phone.” She looked into the en suite bathroom. “Let’s have a quick wash.”
When they finally walked back down the stairs, they were met by three blonde angels, including the little one.
The Black Rose Conspiracy Page 17