The Shadow Project

Chapter Eighteen

The kidnappers were stopped in their tracks. Suddenly the tables had turned, and now they were the ones running out of options and squandering precious seconds in indecision.

The second chopper was almost overhead now, hovering and circling, battering the trees with its downdraught as the pilot zeroed in on a safe landing point.

Then the kidnappers scattered in panic. The black-clad ground team went running wildly towards the trees. The pilots staggered up on their feet, hobbling away after them. Ben lowered the pistol and let go of Steiner’s collar, ignoring the man’s fury. He turned and saw the second chopper landing on the far side of Steiner’s personal craft, the doors flying open, Neville and Woodcock and the others spilling out, clutching their weapons, sprinting across the clearing towards them.

Ben pushed Steiner towards Dorenkamp, who was staring at him wide-eyed, as if in a trance. ‘Get him into the helicopter.’ Then, as the PA gripped hold of his employer’s arm and started tugging him away to safety, Ben took off towards the forest.

On the other side of the trees, he could hear the Fiat’s engine revving up hard as the fleeing kidnappers darted through the thicket towards it. The sound of its side door sliding open. A voice inside screaming ‘Come on! Move!’

The woods were dark after the sunlit clearing. He crashed through the bushes and whipping branches. If he could just catch one of them, he might be able to neutralise the threat against Steiner, end this whole thing. That would probably mean the end of Shannon’s protection contract – but Ben didn’t have time to worry too much about that right now.

Up ahead, he saw two of the men in black burst out of the trees and reach the van and leap inside. Then a third, followed by the bloody-nosed co-pilot. The van was rolling now. More screams and yells. The second pilot managed to scramble on board, another man in black right behind him.

They’re going to get away.

There was just one kidnapper still in the woods, fifteen yards from the road and moving fast. Ben ran harder, forcing every ounce of power out of his legs. Suddenly the kidnapper tripped and went sprawling onto the ground. By the time he’d picked himself up again, Ben had gained precious yards on him. The guy threw a glance back over his shoulder, spotting his pursuer, the eyes in the mask opening wide in alarm.

Someone in the van had seen Ben, too. The flat report of a 9mm, and a bullet cracked off a tree near his head. He crouched low and let off a string of return shots from the captured Beretta, taking out the back window and blowing a rear light into fragments of red plastic. He didn’t want to kill anyone, and he certainly didn’t want to get into a fire-fight. But he might be able to convince the van driver to abandon the last of the gang, who was now dashing along almost parallel with the road to keep up with the accelerating vehicle.

The van surged ahead, braked hard, accelerated again, the driver unsure what to do.

Ben fired a couple more shots, driving the running man further off course, and now the terrain was sloping downwards away from road level, with a steep earth bank snarled with brambles. Nature’s barbed wire, cutting off the kidnapper’s access to the road.

The guy was lightly built, and a fast runner. Ben had to sprint hard to keep up with the flitting black figure. As he ran he levelled the gun out in front of him and considered trying to take him down with a shot to the lower leg. Tactically dangerous. You couldn’t run and shoot accurately at the same time, and if the shot went high he might hit a vital organ, open up an artery. He wanted this one alive.

The van was now a fleeting white shape behind the trees. More shots cracked out from its open side door, but went wide as though the shooters were nervous. Nobody wanted to hit their own man by mistake.

The kidnapper vaulted a fallen trunk and crashed right into the heart of a thorn bush that slowed him down as he stumbled and wrenched his way through it. Ben was close now. Still clutching the pistol in his right hand, he threw out his left arm to grab a fistful of the running man’s combat jacket, but the guy dodged and Ben’s fingers closed on empty air. He could hear the man’s rasping breath as he darted left and right through the undergrowth, zigzagging like a rabbit trying to shake off a fox. Then the ground became more uneven and they were running into what looked like an old river bed. The kidnapper took the lower path through the middle and Ben found himself running alongside him on higher ground. He timed it, estimated distances, then went for it and launched himself into the air.

A moment’s weightlessness, and then a jarring impact as he slammed into the kidnapper and brought him rolling down in the dirt in a tumble of flailing limbs. Ben’s arm whacked painfully against a root and his pistol spun out of his grip. The kidnapper might have been slender, but he was strong and determined, fighting like a wild animal. A knee slammed up and caught Ben’s cheekbone, snapping his head sideways long enough for his opponent to scramble to his feet. Ben jumped up after him, ducked a punch aimed at his face, grabbed the fist and twisted it hard. The kidnapper let out a sharp yell of pain.

It was at that moment that Ben realised he was fighting a woman.

She twisted like a snake out of his grip as he dragged her to her feet, and threw another well-aimed punch that would have smashed his nose if it had landed. He made a grab for her right arm, misjudged it and got a fistful of her sleeve, ripping the black material from wrist to elbow. She danced away like a boxer, then came back in and fired a kick at his groin, and he ducked back out of the reach of her combat boot. The arm with the ripped sleeve came slicing towards his throat, the hand stiff like a blade. Fast, but not quite fast enough. His fingers closed on bare flesh, and now he had her. He could see the tight muscles in her forearm as she struggled against his grip. The fight was just about over. Then they’d find out who was trying to kidnap Steiner. Ben prepared to deliver an incapacitating blow to the neck.

And he saw something that made him stop.

He let go of the woman and took a step back, stunned, disorientated.

The eyes in the combat mask were narrowed, watching him fiercely like a panther’s. His gaze locked on hers – maybe three-quarters of a second, but it felt like minutes. He was lost, unable to move.

Then she whirled towards him and her boot lashed out in a straight kick that caught him in the pit of the stomach. His breath burst out of his mouth and he staggered back and fell.

There was a report like a shotgun, and a heavy projectile flew through the air with a low thrumming sound and smacked off a tree trunk next to where the woman was standing. Ben heard Woodcock’s voice yelling ‘Take him down!’ and twisted round in the dirt to see the rest of the bodyguard team approaching through the trees. A ragged series of blasts as the team let off their Flash-Balls. The humming whoosh of rubber bullets flying through the air. One snapped a branch, the rest ploughed harmlessly into the undergrowth.

The woman’s gaze lingered just a fraction of a second on Ben, and then she took off like a deer. Grabbing a fistful of ivy, she scrabbled up the earth bank and made a dash for the road.

The van was just twenty yards ahead, waiting, revving. The driver threw it into reverse and floored the pedal. Yells of ‘Come on! Move your arse!’ Hands reached out of the sliding door and hauled her in, then the diesel roared, the exhaust kicked out a black cloud of smoke, and the van sped away, weaving down the road.

Ben slowly clambered to his feet as the men gathered round him. Spotting the fallen pistol in the leaves, he picked it up and slipped it absently into his belt, under his jacket. Nobody spoke. Burton and Powell appeared, and Ben suddenly wondered who the hell was looking after the principal.

His question was answered just a moment later when he turned to see Steiner walking towards them through the trees, his chest heaving with exertion. He didn’t look happy. Dorenkamp was a few feet behind, pale and sheepish.

The billionaire stormed over. His face was a mottled purple-red, eyes almost popping, hair in disarray.

‘We all saw what happened,’ Neville said.

Steiner came right up close, toe to toe, so that Ben could virtually smell his rage.

‘That was a very fine display, Major Hope.’ His voice rose to a shout as he went on. ‘Not only did you completely fail to protect me and then point a gun and threaten to kill me – me, your employer, your client – you then allowed that kidnapper to escape.’

Ben didn’t speak, but Steiner ranted on as if he’d tried to protest.

‘If I had not insisted on following, I would never have believed it. But I saw you. You did nothing. You just stood there, staring at him. Have you gone completely out of your mind?’ Steiner virtually screamed the last word. There were flecks of spittle on his lips. He stared in disgusted, trembling fury.

Ben still didn’t speak. There was nothing he could say, except maybe ‘Don’t spit in my face like that’ – but he didn’t have the energy.

‘Don’t even try to answer,’ Steiner yelled. ‘I don’t wish to hear excuses. I have been almost kidnapped, threatened with a gun by my own bodyguard, and I have missed my meeting. What utter, unbelievable incompetence is this?’ He paused, as if searching for more accusations but running out of things to shout in Ben’s face. ‘You’re fired,’ he added simply. Turned to the rest of the team. ‘All of you. Dismissed. You hear? You are all going straight back home where you came from and I will hire a proper team to protect me.’

Then Maximilian Steiner turned and stormed away, back towards the choppers, his assistant following behind him.