Ultimatum

Seventy-eight

21.36

Tina sprinted through the woods, Glock in hand, hunting round for Fox. She’d already caught several glimpses of him running ahead of her, one arm hanging loosely by his side, but now, as she came over a slight incline, looking down towards where the wood ended and open fields began, she could no longer see him. The trees were bare and spaced a few yards apart, and aside from the odd holly bush and bed of ferns, there weren’t many obvious places to hide. She slowed down, working hard to keep her breathing quiet, keeping her finger tight on the Glock’s trigger.

‘Drop the gun,’ a voice called out to her side, cutting through the noise of the approaching helicopter.

She turned as Fox emerged from behind a tree a few yards away, pointing his gun at her face. He took two steps forward, and even in the near darkness she could see that his face was contorted with pain.

‘It’s the end of the road,’ she told him. ‘There’s no way you can get out of here now.’

‘I can, with your help. Now, I’m only going to say it one more time. Drop the gun.’

But she didn’t. Instead she turned and raised it so it was pointed at his chest. ‘And I told you. It’s over. You’re surrounded. There’s nowhere you can go. And don’t even think about trying to take me hostage. It happened once a long time ago. I’m not going to let it happen again.’

‘I could shoot you right here.’

‘I could shoot you right here,’ she answered, having to use all her willpower to keep her gun hand steady.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see the bright swirl of flashing blues lighting up the woods as reinforcements finally arrived. They’d be following her trail through the woods any minute now. All she had to do was hold her nerve.

They were suddenly bathed in the glare of the helicopter’s searchlight. Fox squinted up towards it, then glanced towards the field at the end of the wood, about fifty yards distant, before turning back to Tina.

‘I’m not going back inside,’ he said, almost plaintively.

She could see a change in him now. The determination in his features was gone. Now he just looked thoughtful. It was clear he was contemplating his options and concluding that, like it or not, she was right: he didn’t have any.

‘It doesn’t have to be thirty years’ hard time,’ she told him. ‘We can still come to some arrangement.’

This time he managed a smile, though there was no humour in it. ‘No, I think we’ve gone too far for that now, don’t you?’

‘If you cooperate, some good can still come out of this.’

‘Not for me it can’t.’

‘Give me the names of the people we want, Fox. What do you owe them? Nothing. They’re not the ones facing years and years in prison, are they? But they’re happy to hang you out to dry. Come on. Don’t protect the people behind this. Think of yourself.’

Fox shook his head dismissively. ‘You don’t understand, do you? I’m fighting for a cause. I always have been. And it’ll live on long after I’m gone. I’m not going to betray the people still fighting for it.’

‘Bullshit. It’s over. Can’t you see that? You’ve failed. Your friends have failed.’

He looked at her, his lip curled in a dismissive sneer, and Tina imagined it was the look he’d worn as he’d killed the hostages inside the Stanhope Hotel. ‘You’re wrong. We’ve only just begun. And the next time you hear from us, it’ll be from a place you least expect. You won’t even know we’re there.’

To one side of her, Tina could just about make out a line of half a dozen black-clad armed officers approaching them, moving quickly but carefully, all of them with weapons outstretched.

‘This is your last chance, Fox,’ she told him, trying to keep her voice even. ‘Talk to me now, and we might be able to salvage something.’

The cops slowed as they drew closer. They were only just outside the helicopter’s glare now, all of them pointing their weapons at Fox.

‘Armed police, drop your gun!’ shouted one, working hard to make himself heard above the din.

But Fox’s expression was utterly defiant. ‘Unless you back off I will shoot her.’ His finger tightened on the trigger, and he didn’t take his eyes off Tina.

At that moment they were absolutely stone cold, and she realized he didn’t give a toss that he also had guns, including hers, pointed at him. Was perhaps even willing her to use the Glock.

‘You have five seconds,’ Fox shouted. ‘Pull back and lower your weapons, or I’ll kill her.’

No one in the line of police moved.

Tina swallowed. The barrel of Fox’s gun was barely two yards away from her. This was a ruthless and desperate man with nothing left to lose. A man who would rather go out in dramatic fashion than spend the rest of his life rotting in a prison, and in the end, who could blame him? In the same position, she too would prefer a quick death. An end to everything. But right now, Fox could just as easily shoot her, and get his quick death from the police bullets that would inevitably follow.

‘Five!’ he shouted, a terrifying decisiveness in his voice. ‘Four!’

Tina knew the police wouldn’t want to fire on him while he wasn’t aiming his gun at any of them. It was too risky, leaving them potentially open to manslaughter charges. And there was no guarantee that his gun wouldn’t discharge anyway, wounding or even killing her.

‘Three!’

A picture formed in Tina’s mind of the officers lying dead and dying on the road where she’d left them, their blood pouring all over the concrete. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to be like them. She wanted to travel. To meet someone. To have children. Suddenly, in a huge flurry she wanted all those things, and standing there, surrounded by colleagues, but utterly alone, she knew she risked losing it all. And in the next few seconds.

‘Two!’

Fox was staring right at her now, a maniacal energy in his eyes.

She knew he was going to pull the trigger.

‘One!’

And then the shot rang out, echoing through the cold night air.