The Armageddon Protocol

FORTY

In the lobby, Harry, Lucia, Niko and Baupin made their way into what the Shard authorities called the ‘optional elevator’ — the one that went all the way to the top of the enormous skyscraper.

The Englishman stared at the control panel — they were on Floor 65 now, 68 was the sky boutique and first viewing platform, 69 was the main viewing platform and 72 was the open viewing platform. The elevator serviced two other floors — 75 and 78 but both were marked No Access and were disabled to the public.

“He must have gone to 72,” Lucia said. “The open viewing platform.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.” Harry pushed the button for the seventy-second floor and seconds later they had arrived. When they doors opened they found themselves in a small hallway with a sign indicating that the open viewing platform was up a small flight of stairs to their right.

Harry and the others raced up the final few steps and when they reached the top they were met by an immediate rush of freezing air and then the amazing sight of London’s night-time skyscape stretching out to the horizon in every direction.

The viewing platform at the top of the Shard was the highest in Western Europe and gave a breathtaking view over the entire capital, but the platform itself was almost as impressive, like some kind of glass and steel cathedral tower twisting up above their heads and pointing up into the London night.

Harry scanned the platform. Szabo and Ruiz were in the far corner, but Hans Steiner had taken up a defensive position behind a steel support girder closer to the elevators and was now aiming his gun at them.

“Get back!” he yelled.

“Drop the gun, Steiner!” Baupin yelled. “You’re cornered now and you’re wounded. There’s no way out.”

“Never.”

“He’s right, Steiner,” Harry said. “You have nowhere to run now… none of you.”

Baupin fired at Steiner, and struck him once again in the leg. The Austrian grunted in pain but didn’t flinch.

“Looks like you’ve got blood on your Hans, Szabo!” Harry called out.

Lucia rolled her eyes, but across the platform Szabo made no reply.

Harry knew if he wanted to get to them and stop the launch he had to go through Steiner, but the former Jagdkommando wasn’t giving anything away. This was a man who had been shot twice in the same leg and was still standing. Now, without warning he fired his submachine gun at them and sent Harry and the others flying back into the stairwell for cover.

The Englishman belly-crawled forward out of the stairwell to get a clear view of Steiner but the Austrian peppered the deck with flying lead. Harry rolled over several times to avoid the rounds until he ended up on his back in the center of the platform.

Completely in the open now he swung the MP5 around, pointed it through the gap in his knees and fired across the platform as he wriggled back toward the stairwell. The force of the recoil made the powerful machine pistol reverberate in his hands as he sprayed Steiner’s part of the viewing platform with nine mil bullets.

Steiner fired back but the pain from the wounds in his leg distracted him and disrupted his concentration. His aim was high and the first bullets drilled up into the gaping, rainy sky above their heads. The Austrian retreated to another pillar closer to his boss and his next shot was better, striking the glass and steel just above Harry’s head. A flurry of smashed glass and steel sparks rained down over him as he tried to track the fleeing Austrian’s progress back along the platform, but then the former Jagdkommando’s final bullets struck Baupin in the arm and the Frenchman collapsed in the corner.

“Alain!” Harry yelled.

“Forget me… stop them!”

Steiner made the decision to make a break for it and retreat all the way back to his boss in the far corner of the rain-streaked platform. He turned on his heel and tried to sprint, but his wounded leg gave way and a loud snapping sound cracked in the wind as it howled through the angular glass walls towering above them.

Harry fired at him but missed and blasted out the glass screen behind him. The air rushed into the platform as it had done in Szabo’s apartment far below, and now Steiner cried out in pain and collapsed to the floor. The cries turned to grunts as he clutched at the leg with the broken bone, but he found the will to raise submachine gun as Harry sprinted toward him for the final round.

The Englishman pounded across the platform with his MP5 raised in the aim and never once took his eyes off the wounded beast now sprawled out before him. He reached Steiner and booted his submachine gun off the side of the platform through the hole he had blasted with the MP5, ending the Austrian’s only chance of survival once and for good.

In the far corner of the platform, Ruiz drew his gun and stood in front of Szabo, creating yet another defensive barrier between Harry and the insanity of the Armageddon Protocol. Harry glanced at Lucia and Niko, both taking cover in the stairwell and knew neither of them was trained to handle a man like Ruiz. A few meters away Alain Baupin was slumped against the wall with his head nodded down on his chest — probably unconscious because of the blood loss.

Harry knew it all came down to him, and time was running out.

“You failed, Englishman!” Steiner screamed, his blonde hair flying around in the icy wind.

“Not yet, I haven’t,” Harry said, “Now get up!”

Steiner began to laugh crazily, and shake his head. “You are going to kill me?”

“Kill you? Nah — you’re not important enough. You’re going spend the next fifty years in Belmarsh. I imagine an Austrian terrorist who tried to kill millions of Londoners is not exactly going to have a laugh there, but you never know.”

Steiner crawled up to his knees and screamed in pain as the weight went back onto the bone that Baupin’s bullet had smashed to pieces.

As he screamed, Harry was surprised and shocked to see Lucia and Niko lunge forward and rush Ruiz from different directions. It was a daring plan, and the bravery required to attack an armed enemy was substantial. A mix of pride and fear for their lives rushed through him.

In the dark and swirling rain, Ruiz fired at Lucia but missed, giving Niko the chance he needed to launch himself at the CNI man and force him to the ground. The gun went off twice more, its muzzle flashing orange and white in the night, and then Lucia charged back into the fray.

Harry lost sight of the brawl across the other side of the platform, and then he paid heavily for his concern for his friends.

Steiner moved with incredible speed for a wounded man, and the next thing Harry knew he was on his back. The Austrian clambered over him and brought a heavy power punch down into the Englishman’s face.

Harry’s world spun for a few seconds but he was still too dazed to react when he felt the Jagdkommando heaving him toward the hole in the shattered glass at the edge of the viewing platform. As he slowly regained full consciousness he felt the concrete riveted floor of the platform fall away as Steiner pushed him over the edge.

The former MI6 man felt the blood rush to his head as he began to slip upside down, and had to look up in order to see the ground looming beneath him. Then he heard more shots from Ruiz’s gun at the other end of the platform.

“You will reach terminal velocity in seconds,” Steiner said. “From one military man to another, it brings me no joy to say they will need a mop and bucket to clean you up.”

Everything was falling apart. The adrenalin pumped through his veins and his head spun with emotion. Had Leo and the others secured the canister? Had Ruiz gunned down his friends? The icy wind drove the rain into him and it stung his face as he looked down at the lights on the ground and saw the fire trucks and police vehicles far below.

Over one thousand feet below.