He located Kroll in a doorway, seeing that he was armed with a Heckler & Koch USP Compact automatic, then looked back at Nina. His wife was still watching Kroll as he continued his rant — waiting for an opening that she could use to escape, he realised with pride. The redhead was stubborn even in the face of death. He risked waving a hand, hoping she would catch the movement in her peripheral vision.
She turned her head — and saw him.
Surprise and relief jostled for position on her face, the latter winning out. He gestured, trying to communicate silently that he was about to slip through the gap and creep up on the Nazi. She nodded in understanding —
Kroll paused, his gaze flicking back towards Nina — and noticing that her expression had changed. He turned to find out why…
And spotted Eddie at the opening
His gun came up—
Eddie threw himself backwards to the floor as bullet holes exploded in the drywall where he had been standing. Plaster fragments spat over his face, briefly blinding him. He rolled to get clear — as another bullet ripped through the wall and blasted concrete chips out of the floor beside him.
Kroll fired another shot at the wall, hoping to hit the man who had been lurking behind it, then rushed towards Nina. ‘Get off me!’ she yelled, pushing him away—
The USP’s butt cracked against her head. She gasped, feeling as if he had just driven a spike into her skull. Before she could recover, the Nazi dragged her to the centre of the room.
He tugged the noose down over her head and yanked on the cable hooked over the pipe, pulling the loop tight around Nina’s neck. The redhead clawed at it, managing to clutch her fingers around the wires, but he kept up the pressure, forcing her knuckles against her throat. She struggled, but was unable to break loose of his hold — and before she could resist, he had lifted her on to the crate.
He hauled harder on the cabling. Nina’s eyes went wide with fear as the noose pulled upwards and tightened still further around her neck. She almost fell, desperately shifting her weight to remain upright. The crate’s upper surface seemed to shrink to a pinhead. She struggled to choke out a word: ‘Eddie!’
Eddie heard his wife’s strangled cry. He jumped up, grabbing one of the ductwork sections as he rushed to the opening.
Nina was wobbling on top of a wooden box, the hangman’s rope taut above her. Kroll turned away from his prisoner to locate her husband, raising his gun as the Yorkshireman pushed through the gap—
Eddie hurled the ducting.
The boxy metal piece hit Kroll’s outstretched arm as he pulled the trigger. The round went wide and smacked into the wall beside the window.
The Nazi lurched back, then took aim again—
Nina lashed out with one foot, almost losing her balance — but managed to catch Kroll in the ribs. He staggered, another bullet cracking past the Englishman as he charged.
Eddie hit the Nazi head-on, knocking him backwards. ‘Natalia!’ he yelled as he wrestled with the other man. ‘The cops, get the cops!’
He clamped one hand around Kroll’s wrist and shoved it away from him just as the younger man fired. The window burst apart in a cascade of glass spearheads.
Kroll tried to twist the gun towards his opponent’s head, but the Englishman slammed an elbow into his ribcage, making him convulse in pain. He took advantage of the Nazi’s momentary distraction, sweeping his hand along his arm to catch the gun and knock it from his grasp. The weapon spun through the broken window and fell to the construction site below.
The Nazi shot a dismayed glance after his pistol; then, realising he had lost his advantage, summoned up a desperate burst of strength to force his adversary back towards Nina. Eddie swerved sideways just in time to avoid a collision with his precariously dangling wife…
Only for Kroll to kick the box out from under her.
Nina dropped two feet before the cable snapped taut. Her clenching grip on the noose literally saved her neck, as her straining arms absorbed much of the force of the abrupt stop — but she couldn’t prevent the loop from pulling crushingly tight, her trapped fingers grinding into her throat.
Eddie instantly released his grip on Kroll and swung a fist at his face. The punch missed, the Nazi reflexively jerking back, but it accomplished its goal, deterring him from an immediate counter-attack. That gave the Englishman the moment he needed to grab Nina by her legs and lift her upwards. Eyes bulging, mouth gaping in a silent scream, she tore at the noose, loosening it just enough to tug it up over her chin.
Her husband lowered her. The knotted wires scraped over her face, briefly catching her nose before coming free. Eddie hunched to drop her to the floor, already turning to face Kroll — only to take a painful blow to his head as the Nazi charged at the couple.
They both fell to the bare concrete, Eddie managing to twist to let Nina land on top of him. The combination of the hard landing and her weight drove the air from his lungs. He grimaced, pushing her aside in anticipation of Kroll’s next attack—
It didn’t come.
The Nazi hesitated, the hatred in his eyes telling the Yorkshireman that he wanted nothing more than to smash his boot down on his enemy’s face, but instead he broke for the exit. ‘Natalia! He’s coming, run!’ Eddie yelled as he scrambled back upright. ‘Get out of here!’
Now it was his turn to hesitate, his head telling him to pursue the Nazi before he could catch the young woman — but his heart demanding that he help his pregnant wife first.
No contest. ‘Nina! Are you okay?’ The noose was caught in her hair; he worked it free and tossed it aside.
She drew in a whooping breath. ‘Yeah, yeah!’ she managed to croak. Red marks were already visible on her neck, from both the strands of the wire noose and her own knuckles. ‘I’m all right. Where is he, what happened?’
‘Natalia’s going to get the cops — and he’s going after her. But I need to—’
‘Go on, go,’ she said, struggling to her feet. ‘Get after him!’
‘You sure you’re okay?’
‘I’ll be right behind you. Go help her!’
Eddie gave her a last look, then turned and ran after Kroll.
Natalia hurried down the stairs, panic rising as she heard running footsteps growing louder behind her. She glanced upwards as she reached the second-floor landing, glimpsing a shadowy figure practically vaulting down the steps to the third floor. With a frightened gasp, she continued her descent, again looking up to see the man gaining on her—
The moment of fearful distraction was enough to make her misjudge her footing in the near darkness. Her sole skidded over the edge of a step, and she fell with a scream.
Her cry was harshly truncated as her head hit the wall. She tumbled to a painful stop in the corner of the stairwell. Dazed, she tried to sit up—
Hands yanked her forcefully to her feet.
‘Get up!’ Kroll snarled in German. ‘You’re coming with me. If you try to escape, I’ll kill you!’ He dragged the woozy woman down to ground level. She heard her name shouted from above.
‘Eddie!’ she managed to cry. ‘Help! He’s—’
The Nazi slapped her hard across the face. ‘Shut up! Keep moving!’ He pulled her through the lobby of the unfinished building and out into the open. He was about to head for the gap in the fencing when he spotted something lying on a mound of sand amongst shards of broken glass.
The gun.
He changed direction to scoop it up, shaking sand out of the barrel before pushing it against Natalia’s side and driving her onwards to the fence. ‘Go through!’
With no choice, she obeyed, Kroll squeezing through the opening right behind her. ‘Move, run, run!’