Ultimatum

Seventy-four

21.31

Mike Bolt had a cold feeling of dread in his gut that momentarily stopped his nausea. He’d definitely heard shots before Tina’s phone went dead, and he had no idea whether she was alive or dead.

He called Commander Ingrams but his line was busy, forcing him to stagger back towards his car in the hunt for the police radio. He could hear the sound of a helicopter approaching, and as he looked up he saw an air ambulance coming in low over the horizon. His vision blurred again and he suddenly felt very faint. Grabbing the back of his car for support, he speed-dialled Ingrams’s number a second time, knowing he had to hold on until he’d talked to someone at Scotland Yard.

‘Mike, what the hell is it?’ demanded Ingrams, picking up this time. ‘I told you to go home.’

‘The convoy carrying Fox has been ambushed. I just heard shots down the phone.’

‘Are you sure?’ Bolt could hear the shock in Ingrams’s voice.

‘Hundred per cent. They’re near the safehouse. Get reinforcements there now.’

The noise from the air ambulance’s rotor blades drowned out the end of the call as it hovered directly above the car park.

Bolt pushed himself backwards, away from the car, dropping his phone in the process, waving up at the crew to try to attract their attention. A wave of pain, so intense that it made him cry out, surged through his head, culminating just behind his right eye. He lost his sight; he lost his balance; he lost every sense he had. All in that single, agonizing moment as he fell blindly into darkness.