Ultimatum

Twenty-seven

15.29

‘What the hell do you think you were doing in there?’ demanded Bolt, staring at Tina in exasperation rather than anger. They were standing out on the pavement, just down from Brozi’s house, and out of earshot of the dozen or so officers who were in the process of sealing off the street in both directions, while Brozi sat in the back of an arrest van. ‘I told you to get out of the house. It was one simple request, and you ignored it.’

Tina took a deep breath, dragging air into her lungs. Her heart was still banging away in her chest, the adrenalin yet to dissipate, and she was experiencing the occasional wave of nausea. She wiped sweat from her brow, hoping she wasn’t going into shock. Having a gun pointed at you at point-blank range, knowing that if the person pointing it pulled the trigger you’d almost certainly die, was a truly terrifying experience, even for someone like Tina who’d been on the wrong end of too many guns in her time, and who’d actually been shot twice. There’d been times in her life when she’d been so angry and disillusioned with everything that she’d wanted to die — when she’d taken major risks because, in the end, the consequences hadn’t scared her — but now wasn’t one of those times.

‘Are you all right?’ asked Bolt, putting a hand on her shoulder, his exasperation turning to concern.

‘I’m fine.’ She brushed his hand aside, not wanting his pity. She knew she was the one in the wrong. ‘I just wanted to check his PC, that’s all, and fit a keystroke tracker.’

‘Well, you almost got us killed, Tina. Don’t you understand that? Or do you just not care?’

‘Of course I care. I was doing my job.’ She pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from her jeans pocket and lit one, conscious that her hands were still shaking.

‘But you weren’t. That’s your problem. You don’t do your job. You do what you think’s right, and ignore the consequences, and the rules.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Christ, I wish I’d never taken you on.’

His words stung. ‘I found a lead on his PC,’ she said with a calmness she wasn’t feeling. ‘It was an email in the drafts section written in Albanian.’

‘How do you know it’s a lead if it’s in Albanian?’

‘Because it was in the drafts section of an anonymous hotmail account. That’s how these guys communicate when they don’t want people listening in, isn’t it?’

‘Not good enough, Tina.’

‘Come on, Mike. We’ve got plenty to charge Brozi with now. He’s just shot at us, and he’s obviously up to his neck in illegal stuff, so he’ll almost certainly cooperate. This is the guy who Fox said organized the weaponry for the Stanhope attacks, remember? Who therefore has access to PETN, the explosive used in the bombs this morning.’

Bolt sighed. ‘We’ll just have to wait and see what the investigating officers say, won’t we?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean we’re going to have to bring in another team from CTC to interview him. We can’t talk to him now. Not after he shot at us. Now, instead of trying to find the people behind the bombs this morning, we’re going to be stuck at the local nick making statements.’ He looked at her with a mixture of irritation and sadness, and shook his head. ‘I’m going to Islington so I can start getting things moving, just in case he does want to cooperate.’

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Stay here and make sure no one goes inside the house until SOCO arrive.’

‘You’re putting me on guard duty?’

‘Just be thankful you’re still on duty at all,’ he said, and with that he turned and walked away, leaving Tina wondering once again whether she’d messed up everything.