Private Princess

Chapter 108

Colonel De Villiers watched as the bloodied apparition of Jack Morgan leaped down from the bridge-side and raced off toward the southern bank of the Thames.

“He’s with me!” the Colonel shouted to a pair of officers who began to take off in pursuit. The men pulled up short with a look to each other, but knowing well enough that orders were orders.

De Villiers ran to the bridge’s edge. He knew police boat units were already rushing to the scene, but Knight had been in the water for almost two minutes now — his time was running out, if it was not already up.

The Colonel had watched the man get hurled by Flex into the waters. He had seen Rider shot, and the struggle that followed. He had seen all this from a drone feed. Morgan had sent word at 5:28 of where the exchange would take place — Jack Morgan, still a Marine and servant to others, had put his own desire for vengeance after what was best for others. He had put his own head in a noose to draw Flex out so that the police could swoop in at the right moment and arrest Jane Cook’s killer.

De Villiers should have known better than to put faith in a plan to survive contact with the enemy. They had made the difficult decision to stand back, and allowed traffic and pedestrians to continue on the bridge — to do anything else would have alerted Flex. What they had not counted on was Flex’s temper causing him to throw Knight into the Thames, and to begin a shootout that had turned London Bridge into the Wild West.

With no other option, Colonel De Villiers shed his gear and jumped from the bridge.