Farley peered out, his back turned. “I don’t see—”
He dropped as he saw Braun’s reflection in the windowpane, just before the sphut, sphut of the silenced pistol and the sound of breaking glass. Farley scrambled, popping up behind the sofa to return fire, his Glock booming. Braun crawled unseen behind an armchair and covered the only door just as Farley fired at Braun’s last position and ran. He was framed in the doorway when Braun’s bullet shattered his spine. He pitched forward, his Glock clattering on the hardwood as Braun stepped into the hall and shot him twice in the head.
Braun returned to find the computer done, the screen black, just as projectiles crashed through the windows. How unnecessary, he thought, tossing his gun to the floor and flopping down on the sofa, hands over his ears, eyes shut. The flash bangs were followed by splintering wood. So bloody predictable it was hardly a challenge.
“I’m unarmed. I surrender,” he called.
“What now?” Dugan asked.
Farley sprawled in a bloody pool. Braun was perched on a straight-back chair in the dining room, bound hand and foot and under guard.
“With a firearm-related fatality,” Anna said, “the locals will document the scene. Our request for Braun will go through channels, but we can question him now, while we wait.”
Ward walked in. “Where’s Harry?”
“With Cassie and Mrs. Farnsworth,” Anna said. “He’ll see them home.”
Ward nodded as she turned to the uniformed officer guarding Braun.
“You can go, Constable,” Anna said. “Thank you.”
“Glad to help, Agent Walsh,” said the cop as he left.
“Agent Walsh is it?” Braun said. “And you played the slut so well. Experience? And Dugan’s an agent as well? Bravo. I’ve never been outfoxed before.”
Anna smiled. “Yet here you sit, trussed up like a bloody Christmas goose.”
“A temporary setback.”
“Oh really?” she asked.
“Don’t be tedious, Anna. You know you need my help, and I’m not unwilling to give it.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Immunity and a private jet, of course.”
“Not bloody likely,” Anna said.
Braun shrugged.
“Let’s just beat it out of him,” suggested Dugan.
Braun laughed. “You pathetic amateur. I’m trained to tolerate harsher methods than you lot are allowed. By the way, when can I see a lawyer?”
Ward grabbed Dugan as he lunged, and tugged him into the hall.
Reyes thought Dugan’s suggestion was eminently sensible, and he followed as Ward wrestled Dugan into the hallway. Ward gave Reyes a look over his shoulder and then ignored him to concentrate on Dugan.
“Tom. Control yourself or leave,” Ward said.
“That son of—”
“Like it or not, we play by the rules,” Ward said. “We don’t beat suspects or hook jumper cables to their balls. Remember that.”
“Suspect? He’s not a suspect. We know the bastard’s behind this, and people — more people — are gonna die if he doesn’t talk, so maybe we just need to remember red is positive and black is negative.”
“God damn it, Tom. We don’t—”
Dugan held up his hands in surrender. “All right. All right. I’ll control myself,” he said.
Ward gave him an appraising look, then nodded, leading Dugan back into the room. Reyes followed. He was beginning to like this Dugan.
The three men returned to the dining room, trailed by a local policeman.
“Harry Albright?” asked the cop, directing his query at the group.
“Across the street,” Anna said.
The cop keyed his mike. “Colin. George here. Is Albright, the MI5 bloke, near you?”
“Right here,” came the reply.
“A friend of his at Metro called,” the cop said into his radio. “He hasn’t been able to get through on his cell but asked us to pass the word that some bugger named Kairouge hung himself. Said he figured Albright would want to know.”
“He heard, George.”
“OK. Thanks, mate.” As George left the room, a peal of laughter shattered the silence.
“Now this makes the cheese more binding,” Braun said. “Kairouz dead. In a fit of remorse, no doubt. I’m sure my lawyer—”
Dugan was faster than Ward this time. He knocked Braun to the floor and was over him in a flash, cocking his fist again as Ward and Lou wrestled him away. Dugan screamed abuse and kicked at Braun with adrenaline-fueled rage as he struggled in the men’s grasp. Lou pressed a hard knuckle behind Dugan’s ear, and he slumped.
“Wha… what the hell was that?” Dugan asked a moment later as Ward helped Braun to the chair.
“Subjection pressure point,” Lou said. “We need the bastard conscious, Tom.”
Braun grinned up with bloody teeth. “Enjoy that, Dugan? It changes nothing. Kairouz hung himself up like a fat, rotten Christmas ornament, and now I’m untouchable. And the price of information has risen. Take a few minutes to consider a reasonable offer, why don’t you all? But not too long. Tick. Tick. Tick.”
Cassie clutched Gillian’s hands. “Is Poppa all right?”
“I’m sure he is, dear. I’ll just go straighten this out,” Gillian said, gently freeing her hands. “Agent Albright,” she called.
Harry entered tentatively, unsure if they’d overheard the radio.
“Agent Albright. Stay with Cassie. I need a word with Agent Walsh.”
“Ah… I don’t know—”
“Thank you,” Gillian said.
She maintained her composure until she got outside, then tears blurred her vision as she crossed the street in a stumbling run, praying she’d misunderstood. She walked into number seventeen and stopped, staring at Farley’s body in a pool of blood, his gun nearby on the hardwood floor beside a numbered marker as technicians photographed the scene. Then she heard Braun’s odious, mocking voice from a doorway down the hall, so like another she’d silenced long ago.
“…changes nothing. Kairouz hung himself up like a fat, rotten Christmas ornament, and now I’m untouchable. And…”
In that horrible moment, she knew it was true that Braun had somehow killed the noblest man she’d ever known. Suddenly she knew what she must do, drawn to the door like a mongoose to a cobra, scooping up Farley’s gun from the floor on the way.
“You bloody arsehole!” she screamed as she rushed into the room.
She was Daisy now, firing point-blank, the round punching into him. Recoil spoiled her aim, and the next shot went wild as the slide popped open, the Glock empty. She charged, the gun a club, and it took both Ward and Lou to restrain her.
The next thing Daisy remembered was Anna’s voice in her ear.
“Cassie needs you now,” said the voice, and rage abated, replaced with a strange emptiness. Daisy searched for Gillian as she was led away between two constables, afraid her wonderful life was lost forever.
Braun lay faceup, frothy blood bubbling from his bare chest. He was blue.
“Sucking chest wound,” Lou said. “No exit. Hit a rib maybe. Gotta seal it.”
“Tom,” Ward said. “The bedroom. I saw some duct tape there.”
Dugan rushed out as Anna called medevac. When he returned, Ward taped the wound, and they sat Braun up against the wall. He quickly improved — and sneered.