Siege

Eighty-seven

FOX WAS IN the ballroom when he heard the gunfire.

‘What the hell’s going on up there?’ hissed Bear.

Whatever it was, it had to be serious. Their hostages had heard it too, and their tension levels were rising once again. The problem was they numbered close to eighty, and with only him and Bear guarding them, all it took was a concerted effort and they’d be overrun in seconds.

‘Do you think the SAS are attacking again?’

Fox shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. Let’s just stay calm. I don’t want this lot to know you’re worried.’

The shooting stopped, but it didn’t make Fox feel any better. It had almost certainly come from the Park View Restaurant. Either Dragon and Tiger had sorted whatever it was and had the situation back under control, or they were dead.

At that moment, the door to the satellite kitchen opened and Cat marched out, with Wolf following. But they didn’t come over. Instead, they made straight for the ballroom door.

‘Shit,’ cursed Bear. ‘Now what are they doing?’

‘Watch the hostages,’ snapped Fox as he caught Wolf’s eye.

Wolf put up two fingers to suggest he and Cat would be back in a couple of minutes, and then they were out of the door.

Fox knew instantly they weren’t coming back. There was something too purposeful in their manner. Which meant it was time to make a quick decision. If they stayed put, they risked being trapped there. If they abandoned their stations, they ran the risk of not being paid the balance of the money for the job. But with the information he had, Fox didn’t actually need that money. Also, he knew that the only way Wolf could stop either him or Bear being paid was by sending a message to the clients claiming they hadn’t done their job properly, but it didn’t look like that was top of his priorities right then.

Bear was standing a few feet away, looking at Fox expectantly.

Fox made his decision. ‘All right. Let’s go.’

Before anyone could react, he fired a burst of shots over the top of the hostages, and as they cried out and covered their heads, he and Bear turned and ran for the door.

It took a few seconds for the hostages to realize what was happening, but when they did, some jumped to their feet. Someone shouted that they were going to detonate the rucksack bomb that was still right in the middle of them, causing a panicked rush after Fox and Bear.

As Fox reached the door, he turned round and unleashed another burst of fire, scattering the hostages as he tried to buy himself and Bear a few extra seconds, not really worried who or what the bullets hit. Then they were through the door and out into the corridor.

Fox couldn’t hear any movement coming from the ground floor but it wouldn’t be long before the SAS came blasting through the doors. Yanking a grenade from his belt, he pulled the pin and rolled it down the central staircase, keen to cause as much mayhem and noise as possible, then he and Bear sprinted through the double doors in the direction of the emergency staircase.

Ahead of them, the corridor was empty, but behind he could hear the panicked shouts of the hostages as they fought their way through the door, followed by the loud blast of the grenade. In a few minutes, this whole place was going to be a screaming mass of people trying to get out, and SAS men trying to get in, which was exactly what Fox had planned. It would have been helpful if the bombs they’d set on timer had accompanied their escape, but in the end it probably wouldn’t matter.

There was just one more thing to do.

As they ran up the emergency staircase to the second floor, where they’d stashed their civilian clothes and fake IDs in separate rooms, Fox pulled out his pistol, and in one swift movement shot Bear twice in the face, not even stopping to watch as the other man grunted and fell back down the steps. He didn’t feel bad about killing the man who’d saved his life in Iraq all those years before, and who’d got his face ripped to pieces in the process. For Fox, it was all business. The fewer people who knew about him the better. Especially ones with big mouths like Bear.

Fox had already stopped thinking about him as he used his master key card to open room 202, from where he would shortly emerge as Robert Durran, freelance architect and guest in the hotel, and join all the other fleeing guests unlucky enough to have been caught up in the terrible events of that day.