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  ‘James insisted,’ Nicola told me. ‘He thought he could get his team in without being caught.’

  Without being caught, that meant – no.

  I didn’t think before throwing the doors open, my eyes going straight to the large monitor ahead. Brown rubble and broken bricks, dust falling like snow.

  ‘What’s going on?’ I asked, turning to the faculty in front of me.

  Harkness stood at one of the desks, Duke at his side while Ames and Dr McKay were busy on the phones. My eyes flitted upstairs to see Thompson behind the glass wall, frantically typing away at his computer.

  ‘Winters, get out.’ Harkness demanded.

  ‘No.’ I stood my ground, but didn’t move any closer.

  All the staff stopped when I refused, all slowly turning to me and then briefly to Harkness – even he looked surprised.

  Ames didn’t wait for orders, solely focusing on me.

  ‘Trojan knew they were coming,’ he said. ‘The information was retrieved and sent back through the server but MI6 re-routed the feed here in the hope that we’d know how to deal with it.’

  ‘Ames!’ Duke roared.

  ‘No one else has to die!’ he yelled in return.

  Die? James couldn’t, he – he couldn’t.

  ‘Who authorised this?’ I heard Nicola asked from behind.

  ‘Your superiors. This was supposed to be our mission but you thought you knew better,’ Duke said condescendingly. ‘Sending in a small team like that, what were you thinking?’

  ‘I didn’t sign off on this, someone above me did. James left before I could stop him.’

  Someone above Nicola? I didn’t even know who that was, no one did.

  Why did they go out with a small team for something that required specific training and planning?

  The video on the monitor shifted, rubble tumbling down, coughing spluttering through the speakers. It looked like an abandoned warehouse: huge plates of concrete had fallen, like the ceiling had collapsed in. The camera the feed was coming from was at a slant but it didn’t obscure anything, especially what came next.

  I wanted to run towards the screen as James crawled across the floor, his hair matted with blood and hands clawing at the ground. If he wasn’t wearing white I wouldn’t have seen the bright red stains that covered him from the neck down.

  ‘James . . .’ the word slipped out.

  No, this couldn’t be happening. He told me it wouldn’t, not to us. Why did he take this job in the first place?

  ‘Laurent, report,’ Harkness repeated.

  I darted forward, grabbing one of the comm units that lay on the desk and shoving it in my ear. I needed to talk to him. We were going to figure a way out of this, together. Growing up he always told me there was a solution.

  ‘Realistically, daily, we don’t deal with ideal situations. That’s what separates the circumstantial from the adaptable.’

  That was all I needed to do, adapt.

  ‘Laurent,’ I said, trying to keep my voice even. ‘We have you, are you in a safe position?’

  ‘Get her out of there, she doesn’t need to see this,’ my brother warned.

  Oh don’t you dare, don’t you – no, he wasn’t saying that.

  Nicola’s trembling hands fell on my shoulder but I didn’t move. James was going to be alright, I’d make sure of it.

  I looked over to Dr McKay as he spoke. ‘Medical team is thirty minutes out.’ His shaking voice didn’t fill me with confidence.

  ‘Half an hour?’ Ames asked. ‘Can’t they get there any quicker?’

  ‘Trojan are still firing bombs off in the lower town, they need more time to get through.’

  I knew what they were saying, but that didn’t mean I believed it. James had survived worse than this. It’d be fine, we’d get him out of there.

  ‘Laurent, the medical team is on its way. You need to hang on,’ I told him.

  ‘Get out. I mean it, sweetheart.’ His voice faltered.

  I watched as he slumped, the grimace on his face deathly, his eyes screwing shut.

  ‘I’m not leaving.’ I’d stay by his side.

  ‘Is she there, that amazing boss of mine?’ he asked. ‘Think I’ll be fired after this.’

  ‘Laurent, hang on, the medical team is coming. Is there somewhere safe for you to hide?’

  ‘It’s an imploded building and I’ve been shot twice, I think safe is a little out of the question. Besides, where else am I going to get a view of the stars?’ James fell onto his back, arms thrown out.

  Loud booms catapulted from the speakers but James didn’t even flinch, he just stared at the sky.

  ‘Why did you do this?’ I asked. ‘You’re such an idiot, this isn’t even your division.’

  ‘Oh don’t, you sound like Mum. She’d better not come to my funeral.’

  ‘Shut up!’ I yelled. ‘We’re going to get you out of there, you’re coming back and when you do –’

  ‘I’m dying, you can’t yell at me.’

  ‘No, you’re not. You’re not leaving, you can’t.’ I whipped my head to Harkness who only stared in disappointment – oh, fuck him. ‘You need to send another team in there, to help the medics.’

  ‘When will you learn you don’t have the authority here?’ His voice full of loathing.

  ‘If we don’t do something he will die!’

  ‘Then he will bleed to death,’ Harkness snapped.

  I stumbled – how could he abandon him? Someone that I cared about, what about his loyalty to me? It goes both ways. I fought for the Academy, killed for them.

  ‘Jess,’ James’s pained voice scratched in my ear, ‘it’s alright.’

  ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Black Scorpion, why?’

  James hesitated.

  ‘This op had a black stamp.’ What? ‘One of my team sent the recovered files from the stolen computers back to MI6.’

  ‘Anything with that label is a suicide mission.’ I practically slammed my hands on the desk, tears brimming in my eyes. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because at the end of the month it would have been you in this position. After last time, I couldn’t let that happen again.’

  Last time? The hotel, we were in Vienna with mum and I had a gun in my hand, my unconscious hand.

  ‘Watching those men tear apart the room meant nothing, I thought you’d died and I prayed for a second chance. This was it, this was that chance.’

  ‘You could have talked to me, we could have worked something out.’

  A thick lump of metal dropped in the back of my throat as shivers wracked my body – this wasn’t happening, it couldn’t be. I felt the tired ache of tears springing to my eyes and a weighted migraine plunge deep inside; we couldn’t be saying goodbye.

  ‘We both know you’ve been gone. You didn’t recognise me, sweetheart.’

  When did James visit? I don’t even remember him coming to the dorm house, did we meet in the Academy? Why couldn’t I remember?

  Thick arms wrapped around mine but I didn’t give in. I twisted, jumping up with one leg and thrusting my hips back, sending Duke flying over my head. He crashed into the desk, his head smacking off of the table but I didn’t care, no one was going to stop me this time.

  ‘Don’t make me call security,’ Harkness threatened.

  I marched right up to him without fear. I didn’t try to hurt him, I just stood there. My brother was bleeding out and needed rescue, so whatever the consequences were, I would take them. The worst thing he could do was throw me in a cell and plug me full of drugs – I wouldn’t remember my brother but at least he’d be alive.

  ‘Do it,’ I told him. He didn’t scare me anymore, not when I already knew what awaited me.

  I tore down the command room to Dr McKay and Ames – now it was time to improvise.

  ‘Give me a rundown, what’s the situation?’

  Without a single glance to Harkness, Ames pointed to the computer. ‘The op is in Estonia. Long story short, Trojan started at the bottom and they’ve
been working up through the country.’

  ‘Doing what?’

  ‘Bombs, shootings, mass murder,’ Ames listed. ‘The country is decimated but the medical team should get there soon, Trojan agents have left the scene.’

  BOOM

  ‘Rachel come in, Team Lead come in,’ Dr McKay ordered down his phone. ‘It’s gone dead.’

  I couldn’t hide the horror anymore, we were supposed to be winning this war. My team had fought every single day and won every battle but now I understood, Trojan only had to win once.

  BOOM

  As the monitor began to shake, I asked, ‘Can we get a SWAT team?’

  ‘Too far away.’

  ‘Helicopter?’

  ‘I can’t just pluck one from thin air.’

  ‘Use a phone, find me one!’ I yelled. ‘MI6 thought we could handle this so let’s handle it!’

  ‘Medic Team One have gone dark,’ Dr McKay told me. ‘There’s no response.’

  Fuck. Jessica, come on – take charge, you can do this, adapt to the situation. Damn the consequences. Think, think!

  ‘Do we have any agents in the nearby area?’ I asked.

  Ames nodded. ‘We have three.’

  ‘We only need one. Get them on a helicopter and then reroute to the nearest hospital.’

  Thompson scampered down the stairs shaking his head – what was that supposed to mean? Harkness made a move towards me, but Thompson grabbed his arm, whispering something into his ear which for once made him stop and listen.

  Right, well fuck you, I’m busy.

  My teeth clenched the inside of my mouth as I tried to come up with a quicker exit strategy, a better plan. Come on, think!

  ‘James Winters signing off, I’m gonna take my earpiece out. You all know how it ends.’

  ‘Don’t you dare!’ I nearly screamed. ‘James you can’t, please.’

  ‘It’s gonna be OK, to hear your voice sweetheart, it gives me hope.’

  ‘Hope?’ I asked.

  ‘That through it all, you’re still there. You do this thing when you get upset, your voice cracks and you barely blink. I always thought it was like you were having an intense staring competition with yourself.’

  That’s when I clocked the ground beneath James, a sea of red. No, please no. How much blood was there? The limit of the human body was 40%, how was I supposed to tell if he’d lost that much?

  ‘When you were younger and you couldn’t figure out how to read, you’d get so frustrated. Throw the book across the room, but you got there in the end,’ James said.

  ‘Yeah, cause you taught me how,’ I said, nodding, ‘I remember.’

  ‘Mum wasn’t much help, someone had to.’

  I couldn’t tear my eyes away, it was like they were glued to the screen. James lay there shivering in a pool of his own blood and there was nothing I could do about it.

  A clammy hand clasped mine.

  ‘Jessica, you really don’t want to see this.’

  Fresh tears sprung to my eyes. I was supposed to be able to do this, we trusted each other, how could I let him die?

  ‘I’m not leaving, we promised each other.’

  ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart,’ James tried, but I slammed my hand down.

  ‘No!’ I cried. ‘You’re all I have left, I can’t lose you!’

  I turned to Ames but he no longer had a phone in his hand, he just shook his head.

  The medical team had gone dark, a rescue mission was out of the question and now James was bleeding out – this couldn’t be happening.

  I would be nothing without him – I had to do something!

  ‘Tell my boss that I love her,’ he said. ‘But I need you to do something for me. Keep fighting.’

  It was like an earthquake had ransacked my body, threatening to break every bone.

  ‘I can’t, not without you.’

  ‘Promise me you won’t stop fighting.’

  I couldn’t do this anymore.

  A sob burst from my mouth, pain piercing through me like needles – he couldn’t say goodbye. Everything we did together, everything we fought for would mean nothing. I remembered now he said he would help us.

  ‘Promise me.’

  ‘Promise,’ I lied.

  ‘No, promise me, Jess. Promise me you won’t stop fighting.’

  How could I? I’d be thrown in a cell, I’d forget about all of this.

  The rough material of scrubs and jeans rubbed back and forth as Dr McKay and Ames left the room, Duke motionless on the desk – No! Stop pretending it isn’t real! James needs you! There must be something else, some helicopter or a SWAT team nearby, there had to be, I had to think of something.

  ‘OK,’ I told him with a firm nod. It wasn’t a lie – I’d promised to keep fighting and that’s what I’d do, until he came back.

  ‘I love you, sweetheart.’ His voice was soft, without grit or pain, and I wondered what that would feel like.

  ‘I love . . . thank you, for everything.’

  I couldn’t think what to say, what to do or what to think, everything was blank.

  My eyes returned to the pool beneath James and all of a sudden, it’d grown bigger.

  ‘James don’t go!’

  I couldn’t be strong, not like him, everything was crumbling.

  BOOM

  The camera shook this time, falling from its place and skidding down the rubble. All I could see was the sky that raged like a tsunami, but the stars glittered like sea glass, the moon a giant pearl among it all. The night sky was screaming, one cloud crashing over another, and I wanted to scream too.

  ‘Look at the sky Jess, just look at the sky.’

  BOOM

  The monitor fell to black.

  ‘James?’ I asked, but all I got was static in return. ‘James, answer me!’

  In one swift motion I threw everything from the desk to the floor. This couldn’t be happening, no, no, no, he couldn’t be gone. This was just some plan, he’d faked his death before. He’d be alright, of course he would – no, he wouldn’t. He’d been shot twice, lost a significant amount of blood and fell who knows how many storeys as a building collapsed. James was dead.

  I screamed.

  Everything that had been bubbling inside of me for so long let rip. I screamed so hard and for so long that my vocal chords felt ready to snap. Willow was dead, Dr Williams was dead, my brother was dead, my team were mindless and in a couple of hours I would be too.

  ‘Grab her,’ I heard Harkness say.

  I didn’t have time to move before two sets of hands grabbed me by the shoulders. Everything I’d learned was thrown out the window as I thrashed and screamed. He had to be OK, he had to be!

  Nicola’s yells were barely audible as I was dragged from the command room, the cold air from the hallway hitting me like a brick wall. Ames and Dr McKay stood there, not two metres away from me, but they were looking the other way. Why weren’t they doing anything? Why were they not stopping this?

  ‘Let go of me!’ I writhed, but the air caught in my throat.

  Just as I lifted my head I saw them, Lily and Quinn, standing like statues at the end of the corridor, their faces completely blank.

  ‘Move out of the way!’ Harkness ordered and without a second’s hesitation, they split to the sides, their backs to me.

  ‘Quinn!’ She didn’t move. ‘Lily!’ Not even a flinch.

  CRACK

  My head rocked to the side as someone’s knuckles cracked off my cheekbone, the sting reverberating through my entire body. Now there was nothing to lose, and I didn’t give a fuck, they were going to hear me scream! It may be the last time anyone did.

  Before I knew it we were down in the lower levels and then I was flying, the world spinning as pain bludgeoned through my skull – they’d thrown me down the stairs. Every curve and edge hit my ribs, every crack and step sending nothing but agony through me. I tumbled down each flight until my body rolled to a stop and I gasped for air.

  ‘That’s wh
at it takes, emotion?’ Harkness’ voice echoed. ‘That’s what it takes to break the cycle. One burst of emotion. Well there will be no more of that now, will there.’ His fingertips caressed my hair but then he grabbed it in a fist, yanking me to my knees. I cried out but, as always, he didn’t care. ‘Because now, Winters, you’re alone.’

  Everything started spinning again as my body lifted off the ground – all I could see was the green paint of the floor, but now it was spotted with something darker. The smell of piss and shit meeting my nose, catching in the back of my throat. I heard the creaking and clanking of a cell door as it opened.

  The darkness sat waiting for me like an animal and then, it consumed me.

  CHAPTER 30

  Carnifex

  An executioner.

  DANIEL HARKNESS

  Lunacy, sheer insanity. Who did MI6 think we were, babysitters? Sending their agents into the field on an op they knew nothing about. Complete idiots.

  James was right to be paranoid that Thames House had been infiltrated: according to the agents I had posted there, he rarely showed up.

  The new strain of drugs have luckily had a lasting effect: Lily Chan shot someone, not for sport, because I told her to. Winters Jr. shot a first year this morning on Duke’s orders, but now she’s been reduced to a snivelling mess. Pathetic. Emotion was the key. If I could perfect the drug, with regular doses of course, this state of compliance could be permanent. Then I would have soldiers for the war.

  Terrorists weren’t the problem, someone had to do something about our current climate. If they stopped to think then maybe I wouldn’t have to go through what I do every day.

  The Omega team were tricky to handle at the best of times, but now they’d been subjected to the correct course of medication, any risk they posed dwindled. I’ll never forget their former Carrier, Willow Mae, the hardest of them all to control. She’d discovered the money trail from my computer and followed it, to fifty megatons of explosives. Ultimately she found out Gabriel Hale was working for Trojan after she discovered I’d paid him to take care of the bomb. Although I hadn’t deduced if she’d figured out my plan yet, it didn’t matter now, she was dead. One of my agents shot her after all.