Sam burst through the double doors once more. People were frozen. Through the sound of the alarm, Sam could hear people questioning the noise around them.
‘Is it a drill?’
‘Should we go out?’
‘It’s probably just a test.’
He couldn’t believe it. With all that had taken place over the course of the day, these people would still question whether a fire alarm was real or not.
‘Everybody out!’ He shouted. ‘This is not a drill. Rear exit only.’
Everybody stopped what they were doing and headed for the rear exit. Most still looked confused.
Sam had a decision to make. Take the rear fire exit and risk losing Raynor, or take the front exit and risk getting blown up?
He saw Virani leave the investigation room, followed by Upex, Latif and Barford. Virani looked at him and beckoned him to follow her.
She shouted.
‘Come on Sam, we have to go.’
But Sam had made up his mind.
‘I’m going after Raynor. This has to end.’ He shouted back.
Virani nodded.
‘Be careful, Sam.’
Sam sprinted back through the doors, and bounded down the stairs two at a time. He jumped the last five, turned the corner and repeated the process for the second flight.
At ground level, he turned right and barged through the double doors directly below those he’d just been through on the first floor. As soon as he was through, his progress was halted.
The entrance hall was bedlam. Too many people were trying to get through the front doors. Sam wondered if they’d ever heard of fire exits. It seemed like every member of staff on the ground floor was trying to exit through the same door.
He started trying to force his way through, much to the annoyance of those trying to leave in an orderly fashion. He started shouting.
‘Let me through. Raynor is outside. Please, use the rear exit and the fire exits.’
He wanted to say there was a bomb outside and they were walking directly into its blast-radius, but they probably wouldn’t believe him, and even if they did it would cause a panic. He had to make sure that Raynor didn’t get a chance to send the text messages which would detonate the device.
Eventually Sam made it through the main entrance of Thames House and out onto the stone steps leading to street level. The mass of people were heading to the fire point on the opposite side of the road. It wouldn’t be far enough if the device were to detonate.
Out of desperation, Sam started shouting for people to move further down the road. Few took notice. He couldn’t see Raynor through the throng of bodies. He tried jumping; attempting to see over the sea of heads, but it was pointless. He headed to his car and shooed away a couple of people who had decided it was an ideal height to lean against. He received a dirty look for his efforts, until he used the remote fob to unlock the doors. Once the interlopers realised the car was Sam’s they wandered off, muttering, and joined the rest of the evacuees casually leaving the vicinity of Thames house.
Sam stood on the bonnet of the car and looked down the road in the direction he’d previously seen Raynor. The car was too low, but Sam just managed to get a glimpse of a crash helmeted head, moving towards a bike that was parked up where the bollards had been set back from the pavement.
He jumped down and got into the car. He started the ignition and sounded the horn, then slowly moved off from the kerbside. He took advantage of the slow speed to put his Bluetooth earpiece in his left ear. He tapped the button on the earpiece and said, ‘Call Dave work.’
Raynor turned when he heard the car horn. He saw the crowd start to give way to let a car through. The same car he’d seen a couple of hours earlier. He smiled as he started his bike. The car cleared the parted crowd just in time for Sam to see Raynor speed off.
‘Sam, we’ve got him.’ Said Dave.
‘Yeah, me too. Can you keep track of him? I’ve got a feeling I won’t be able to keep up.’ Sam asked.
‘I think so, mate. Looks like he’s left his phone on.’
‘Good news. What about Mick? How’s he getting on?’
‘Looking good, Sam. Says he’s almost there. Lucy’s homing in on his server too. We’ve nearly got him mate.’
‘Right, let’s keep the line open. I’m going to need constant updates.’
Chapter Forty-Four
‘Where is he, Dave?’ Sam asked as he headed down Millbank. In his mind he was sure there would be an explosion at any moment. He kept looking in his rear-view mirror, expecting the worst, but soon the road turned slightly to the right and Thames House was lost from view.
‘He’s turned right onto Atterbury Street, just past Tate Britain.’ Dave’s replied.
Sam floored the gas pedal and attempted to catch up with his quarry. As the Atterbury Street junction came into view there was no sign of Raynor.
‘Dave, I’m going to need updates, mate. I can’t see him.’
‘Yeah okay mate. I’ll give you a turn-by-update’
Lucy punched the air. ‘Get in!’ She shouted. She’d successfully back-tracked the route of the texts. A computer in Plaistow. Suddenly becoming a little self-conscious, she quietly sat back down, grinning from ear-to-ear.
‘Hang on a minute, Sam’ Said Dave. He put Sam on hold and called to Lucy.
‘Good news I hope, Lucy.’
‘I’ve got a route to his server.’ She replied.
‘Fan-fucking-tastic!’ Said Dave. He took Sam off hold.
‘Got a route to the server, Sam. Lucy’s going to team up with Mickey and get in there. Once we’ve disabled his server, he won’t be able to do a thing.’
‘That’s great news, Dave. Where is he now?’
‘Hang on, mate.’
The line went quiet for a moment, only the slightest of background noises could be heard, and then Dave’s voice returned.
‘Just crossed Horseferry Road, on Marsham Street. Heading North. Looks like he might be heading for the West End again.’
‘Who knows, mate? From there he could get to Buck House, the American Embassy, God knows how many potential targets there are. Shit! I need to catch him up.’
Another brief pause while Sam thought about the situation. Eventually an idea came to him.
‘Dave, put me on speaker.’
‘Okay mate, you are now live on air. Please do not swear.’ Said Dave
‘Mick, can you get into the traffic light systems?’ Sam asked.
Mickey replied, ‘Yeah should be able to, but I don’t think he’s going to stop for a couple of reds, do you?’
‘Probably not, but we can slow him down. He’ll have to cross the traffic from the junctions on green. Meanwhile you can make sure I get green lights all the way.’
Mickey’s pondering was almost audible. ‘Sam, you’re a genius.’ He eventually managed.
‘It’ll take me away from shutting the server down, though.’ He added.
‘It’s a risk we’ll have to take.’ Sam replied. ‘I need to get close or ideally get in front of him.’
‘Leave it with me, Sam. Have you got location services switched on on your phone?’
‘I have. In fact, you can get my location on Google Plus. Just keep shouting directions to me and make sure the lights in front of him are red and in front of me are green.’
Chapter Forty-Five
The night was drawing in and the streets were getting quiet. The rain still fell and the windscreen wipers on the little Lotus squeaked as they arced from left to right.
Sam was tired. So far Mickey had done a great job of keeping him going, but he always seemed to be behind Raynor. He had to be careful. All Raynor had to do was pull over and set off his own devices. Who knew what locations were at risk?