Siege

Eighty-two

‘WHAT THE HELL happened?’ demanded Fox as he and Bear came together at the top of the central staircase, a few yards from the ballroom door. ‘We didn’t get any of them.’

‘I saw them come in,’ said Bear breathlessly. ‘There were loads of them. I kept my head down and counted to twenty, then blew the thing. Just like you said.’

‘Well, it didn’t work.’

‘They must have been pulled back. If they’d been within twenty yards of that bomb, they’d have been blown to pieces. Are you sure none of them were killed?’

‘Well, there aren’t any bodies out there,’ snapped Fox. ‘Come on, we’d better give Wolf the good news.’

As they went through the doors, Fox could see that the hostages were looking extremely agitated, the noise of the attempted ambush having clearly spooked them, while both Wolf and Cat kept watch on them, weapons at the ready.

Hearing their return, Wolf stepped back, still keeping his gun trained on the hostages, until he was level with Fox and Bear. He looked furious. ‘I called the negotiator. He says there was no attack.’

‘There was. At least one person fired at me. And they threw a stun grenade.’

‘Someone fired at me as well,’ added Bear.

‘Did you get any of them?’

Fox shook his head. ‘No. They were definitely ordered back.’

‘So someone told them about our ambush. Your plan failed, Fox. You’ve made us look like fools.’

‘No, I haven’t. They came in. We fired at them. They left. Which meant it was a victory to us.’

‘But you didn’t kill any of them.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Fox, who was beginning to get heartily sick of Wolf. ‘The point is, we’re still in control, and holding the military at bay. All we have to do is keep this up for another three quarters of an hour and then the hotel goes up in flames and we make our escape. Just as we’ve always planned. We can still say we repulsed their attack. It’s still a victory.’

‘Except we didn’t humiliate them. That’s what we always wanted. To make the great SAS look like amateurs.’

Fox noticed Bear bristling as Wolf said this. For all his anger with the government and the establishment, Bear was still a patriot at heart, a man who’d been disfigured for life fighting on behalf of his country, and he didn’t like the British Army being disrespected. Fox didn’t either, but he was sensible enough not to react and he needed to make sure that his old army buddy kept his cool as well. ‘I think they’ve been pretty badly humiliated already,’ he said, meeting Wolf’s hard stare with a far harder one of his own. ‘And right now, it’s the best you’re going to get.’

Wolf grunted. ‘All right. You and Bear watch the hostages. I need to speak to the negotiator again.’ He turned away, motioning for Cat to follow, while Fox and Bear took up positions standing twenty feet apart.

‘Can you tell us what’s going on?’ one of the younger female hostages asked Fox. ‘Please.’ She fixed him with a vulnerable, doe-eyed gaze.

‘No,’ said Fox, loud enough for the whole group to hear. He pointed his AK-47 at the girl, and made a play of putting his finger on the trigger. She immediately looked away while Fox scanned the rest of the hostages, knowing that it was essential they were kept under control. Their plans had been thrown off course, but if he kept calm, soon most of these people would be dead, and he’d be on his way to a new life.