The Valkyrie Song

2

Fabel had watched it all. He had stood and watched as Anna had been gunned down. He had seen the flashes, then Anna crumple to the ground. He should have stayed where he was, but, without thinking, he found himself running down the stairs and out onto the street, screaming into the radio for an ambulance.

By the time he got to Anna there were already two MEK officers tending to her, applying first-aid-kit pressure pads to the wounds in her legs. Werner was there too, brushing the hair away from her face. Fabel felt sick as he saw the crimson bloom on the white gauze of the pressure pads.

‘Anna…’ He dropped to his knees beside her. ‘Anna… I’m so sorry.’

Her face was pale, almost grey. Her breathing was shallow and short, but she shook her head and smiled weakly. ‘Not your fault. Mine. I’m ready for that anger-management course now…’

The ambulance arrived and the paramedics set to work on her, ordering Werner and Fabel to stand back. Dietz, the MEK commander, approached them.

‘What the hell were you doing?’ Fabel screamed in his face. ‘How the fuck did you allow this to happen? I brought you into this because this is exactly what I didn’t want to happen.’ He pointed in the direction of the paramedics working on Anna.

‘Before you start shooting your mouth off, Fabel, I’d remind you that two of my men are dead, two more critical from burns. This isn’t my fuck-up — it’s yours. Why the hell didn’t you give us the say-so to take her down before she got to the road? She knew that we would have to choose our shots if she got between us and occupied buildings. There…’ He jabbed a gloved finger in the direction of the park. ‘That’s where our chances were best.’

Werner, now without his wig, placed his considerable bulk between them. ‘Pack it in, for God’s sake. This isn’t helping. Jan, we’ve got three more down — the hostage is critical, shot in the gut. We’ve got a dead uniform and another wounded civilian. It’s a mess, all right.’

‘Have we found the car yet?’

‘No. It can’t be that hard — the windscreen’s shot out.’

‘This bitch isn’t going to be scared into a panicked flight,’ said Fabel. ‘My guess is she’s dumped the car very close and stolen another. I want the control room at the Presidium to alert us to any stolen cars in a five-kilometre radius. Or a damaged Polo being abandoned. In the meantime, get every mobile unit to check alleyways, side streets, disused sites — anywhere she might have dumped it. But I’m pretty sure we’ll find it close by. And have every woman walking alone stopped and questioned. Minimum two officers. And extreme caution.’

‘There’s something else,’ said Dietz. ‘I’m pretty sure I hit her. There’s some blood on the road further up where she ran. I think I got her in the leg.’

‘She’ll have tried to find somewhere to get fixed up. She’s still here, Werner. We’ve got to find her.’