Hard Knocks

Twenty-eight

I didn’t know who’d fired the shot that killed Sideburns, but I didn’t really need to. It was enough to know that somebody was shooting at us.

I grabbed the back of Ivan’s neck, ramming my fingers and thumb into the sensitive points there to force his head down. I was already twisting him back towards the cover of the Skyline before Sideburns’s body had completed its final dive.

Heidi had been so close to Gregor’s bodyguard when he died that she was immediately splattered. The noise was like she’d been hit with a wet tea towel. A great swathe of gore was flung across her face and upper body. The pig’s blood scene from Carrie was just a pale rehearsal for this.

The horror of what the girl had just witnessed jerked her mind out of its zombie-like state and sent her reeling into the far reaches of hysteria. She darted away from the other bodyguard’s clutches, screaming fit to strip her vocal cords raw. Her popping eyes were fixed on the blood on her hands in front of her, her fingers stiffly outspread.

Hofmann took two calm strides forward and snatched her off her feet as though she weighed nothing. The relentless chatter of automatic weapons’ fire battered our senses from all sides. My bearings were shot. Then I saw Declan beckoning frantically from behind the wreckage of the Audis and Blakemore’s FireBlade off to my right. I ran hell for leather in that direction, dragging Ivan along with me.

Sean had tried to come out to us as soon as the shooting started, but was forced back almost instantly. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the dirt at his feet puff up from the hits. He fired a short burst from his PM-98 in the direction of the house, then threw himself back behind the Nissan and wisely stayed down.

Whoever had joined the fight had done so with a complement of full clips and the will to spend them. For almost a minute hundreds of rounds came down like hard rain into the parking area. I crouched behind the Audi, instinctively keeping Ivan down, while Hofmann wrapped himself round Heidi’s still-shrieking figure and held on tight. Ivan, for once, didn’t try and get away from me. I guess he was just waiting to see if I was going to get myself conveniently killed, then he could shrug me aside.

Then, as suddenly as it had all started, it stopped. I lifted my head cautiously and risked a peep round the bottom corner of the crumpled FireBlade. Sideburns’s body lay where it had fallen in the middle of the open ground. One leg was still twitching.

Gregor’s men were laying low and the man himself was crouching behind his bullet-proof car with two of his largest bodyguards sticking to his back. So who the hell was attacking us?

And then, high up on the roof of the Manor, I saw movement. Black-garbed figures, armed to their cammed-up teeth. Professionals.

Declan had crabbed himself round into a position where he could look over my shoulder.

“It’s the feckin’ Germans,” he said. He glanced back at Hofmann. “No offence, but it looks like your mates have arrived.”

Hofmann nodded, not looking too surprised about this turn of events. He met my eyes. “Major König,” he said.

If it was indeed the German security services, they’d picked the best spot for an ambush. The flat roof of the Manor offered a superb vantage point over the whole of the rear of the house. We must have all been laid out below them like a map.

I wondered why Gregor hadn’t planted a couple of his own men up there just to hold the ground. Then my eye found Sideburns’s corpse again and realised that probably he had.

From down here I could see along the edge of the parking area. Thinly stretched out to my right were Figgis, Gilby and Todd. They were in good defensive positions, tucked in behind the cars. Providing Jan didn’t have anything larger than the submachine guns they’d used so far, they were safe.

But pinned down.

For Gilby to get either over to Gregor, or to fall back to the woods in the opposite direction involved crossing open ground that was just crying out for the work of a decent sniper. I’d be willing to bet Jan had brought a couple of those with her. There was just too large a gap between the last parked Audi and our position for Gilby to reach us, either.

As for Sean, he wasn’t going anywhere. Hard up against the back end of the Skyline, he had minimal cover, but he was completely stuck or he’d make an easy target.

“Major Gilby!” Jan’s voice rang out above us, strangely unfamiliar and harsh with command now. “We want Ivan Venko. Bring him out and save yourself a lot of trouble. Otherwise, my men will open fire.”

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.

Even so, two of the men so recently under her command were standing close by, their MP5Ks trained on her. Another had a medical kit open on the ground and was dealing efficiently with the wound. I’d managed to plant the shot high through the fleshy part of her right arm across the swell of her bicep and despite his best efforts she was losing blood in a steady stream down the sleeve of her jacket.

Hofmann ordered the release of Gilby’s men and Sean. The squaddie who un-cuffed Sean moved back from him quickly when he’d done it, as though afraid of reprisal. Sean merely dropped the handcuffs contemptuously at his feet and came straight over to me. He skimmed his gaze over Jan as he passed, coldly expressionless, but she was unaware of his presence.

“Can you get up?” he asked me. When I stared at him stupidly he grasped my upper arms and hoisted me gently to my feet. I doubt I would have got there without his help. Once I was upright I found I could stand of my own volition, providing I didn’t try doing anything absurdly athletic. Like breathing deep, or walking.

Sean continued to hold me steady even when there was no longer any need to do so, head bent close in to mine so I could see the individual tiny flecks of colour in the irises of his eyes. His thumbs were unconsciously brushing circles against my arms.

He was watching me with that darkly brooding frown on his face, the muscles bunching under his jaw. It took him a while before he was in control enough to speak.

“Don’t do that to me, Charlie,” he managed at last on a growl. “We’ve only just got things out in the open between us and now you’ve got some kind of a death wish!” His fingers gripped harder, making my shoulders hunch.

“Sean, go easy,” I said, but my voice wasn’t as steady as I would have liked it to be.

He almost shook me. “Christ, there you were on your knees with your eyes shut like you were waiting calmly for your own execution, and you tell me to go easy!” He stopped, lips compressed, eyes skating over my face. “Jesus, Charlie,” he said, softly now, “sometimes you terrify me.”

“What did you want me to do? She would have killed him,” I protested, shaky. “I’d have stood a better chance of reasoning with a shark than of talking her out of it. You saw how she was! Besides, you were the one who walked up and stuck a gun in her face. And that wasn’t supposed to frighten me?”

“I know,” he said, and being forced to admit it made him glower even more, “but I didn’t actually try and kill her. Governments take a very dim view of foreigners who shoot their security services personnel – however crazy they’re acting at the time. For God’s sake – they would have thrown away the key.”

I looked at him blankly for a moment, then shrugged out of his grasp and backed away from him. Suddenly cold, I rubbed at my arms where he’d been touching them, whispered, “Just what exactly did you think I was trying to do, Sean?”

He stilled, but before he could speak Gilby came over. “Venko got away,” he said quietly. His eyes flicked to me. “I hope you realise what you’ve done, Charlie.”

“I gave him my word,” I said, unrepentant. “If I’d gone back on it he would have murdered all of us, then gone after our families. You were there, Major. You heard him say it.”

I glanced across to where Romundstad and Declan were standing with Heidi Krauss, looking faintly embarrassed. She was still clinging to Romundstad, crying inconsolably into the front of his jacket, hands meshed into the fabric like she was never going to let him go. I remembered Dieter’s hysteria, that day in Gilby’s study. They’d both suffered more than they could bear. More, probably, than they would ever completely recover from.

“He may still try,” Gilby pointed out now, “but if the Germans had got him, Venko wouldn’t have had the chance to carry out any threats.”

I thought of the size and scope of an organisation like Gregor Venko’s. It didn’t die away because you cut off its head. It just grew another. More ugly.

“I don’t think so,” I said, shaking my head. “I did what I thought was right.”

I thought of Gregor’s parting words. “I will not forget this. I will not forget you . . .”

I’d risked my life, and those of the others, to save his son. I blanked out the possibility that he might blame me for the ambush. Any other way of handling it was too scary to contemplate.

“I’ll deal with it when I have to,” I said, weary to the point of tears. “Right now I just want to go home.”

The Major nodded, exchanged a look with Sean that I didn’t fully catch, and moved away.

I started to move, too, but Sean put his hands on my shoulders and turned me back to face him. “Don’t do it, Charlie,” he said.

His sudden intensity confused me. “Don’t do what?”

“Don’t go back to Cheshire,” he said. “Not permanently, anyway. They’ll smother you. Come back to Kings Langley with me.”

For a moment I was frozen by both hope and fear.

“What are you offering here, Sean?”

He saw my wariness, responded with caution of his own. “Whatever you’re prepared to take,” he said carefully. “A job, for a start. A home.”

If I’d taken half a step towards him he would have matched it. I know he would. I couldn’t quite bring myself to let go of that final reservation. Maybe Sean felt the same way.

It would come, though. If we let it.

“OK Sean, I’ll do it,” I said, and knew by his face that he remembered the last time I’d said those words, back on the day of Kirk’s funeral when he’d first asked me to go to Germany. I saw too that he realised, possibly for the first time, that what I agreed to now I’d also agreed to then.

He didn’t try and hide the relief, just smiled at me. After a moment or so I smiled back.

After all, we’d both accepted that there was no going back to what we’d had before.

But that didn’t mean we couldn’t go forwards.