Agent 21: Reloaded: Book 2 (28 page)

The lights – blindingly bright – that suddenly appeared all around him.

And Ellie Lewis, sitting up and removing her woollen hat to reveal a Kevlar helmet. Her face was pale and anxious, but she was not dead. Far from it.

People running towards him. Shouting. They were armed. Police? Soldiers? He couldn’t tell. He tried to reach his gun, but the tranquillizer was doing its job and his body wouldn’t obey the instructions of his brain.

Three seconds later he fell to the floor, and darkness engulfed him.

Zak was bruised and freezing cold. The ship was so low in the water now that even the smallest swells of the waves crashed over him.

The STARS harness would have been difficult to fit even under normal conditions. Here it was almost impossible. By the time he had the straps tightened round his legs and abdomen, fifteen minutes had passed and his muscles were exhausted from the effort. He tried not to think about Bea or Ellie. There was
nothing he could do now to help either of them.

Activity on the radio. Noise. A voice, maybe? Zak couldn’t tell. He was suddenly engulfed in spray. By the time it subsided, the radio was dead. He engaged the pressel and shouted into it. ‘
Can you hear me? Can you hear me
?’

Nothing.

And then …

‘
Copy that
.’

Zak’s voice was shrill, he realized, as he shouted into the radio. ‘It’s getting pretty hairy down here. How long till pick-up?’

‘
We’re ten minutes out, son. You’re going to have to get into the water
.’

Zak looked over the fast-sinking side of the ship. He felt his muscles freeze. He’d been doing everything he could
not
to get into the water. The STARS harness had a built-in flotation aid, but this wasn’t going to be like backstroke at the local swimming baths. He’d seen what happened to people who found themselves in these waters.

‘
Do you copy, son
?’

‘Yeah, I copy.’

‘
When you’re in the water, inflate the balloon. It’ll take about three minutes to reach its full height. Make sure the wire that attaches it to your harness is let up smoothly
.’

‘How will you know where I am?’

‘
There’s a white-light firefly inside the balloon. A beacon. We’ll see it. Once you’re in the water, you won’t be able to maintain radio contact. Hopefully you’ll hear us approach, but you need to be prepared for a sharp uptake. Once you’re airborne, we’ll start to reel you in towards the open tailgate. You might start to spin midair. If that happens, you’ll be disorientated once you’re on board. Don’t try to stand. Last time someone did that, they walked straight out of the aircraft again
.’

‘Thanks for the advice,’ Zak muttered.

‘
Say again
?’

‘Nothing.’

He looked out to sea again. Huge peaks. Murky troughs. To jump in there felt like madness, but what choice did he have?

‘I’m going in,’ he shouted into the radio. ‘Do me a favour and don’t miss that balloon.’

‘
Roger that. Good luck, son
.’

And the radio went dead.

Zak felt himself breathing hard. He was tiny among the waves. Insignificant. Like the forces of nature all around could crush him, if they wanted to, just as a human would swat a fly. Every cell in his body shrieked at him not to enter the water.

But the ship was sinking. He’d be entering the water anyway. It was just a matter of time.

He double-checked the straps on his harness. All tight. He made sure he could feel for the inflation toggle. Check.

And then he turned, faced out to sea and waited for a wave to swell so he wouldn’t have so far to fall.

He didn’t have long to wait.

The sea was high. The rain was heavy. The wind howled.

Zak filled his lungs with air and allowed himself to topple from the edge of the ship.

Two seconds later he hit the water.

He’d never known power like it. He immediately felt the currents sucking him down, like a hundred mermaids were pulling at his legs. He felt as if his whole body had filled with water, and the flotation aid that formed part of his harness didn’t feel anything like up to the job of keeping him above sea level. Even though his eyes were open, he couldn’t see anything in the murky water.

It was quiet under the water. He knew the storm was raging above him, but everything was eerily silent. Zak never thought he’d want to hear the sound of the storm again so much. His lungs started to burn. He didn’t know if he was sinking because he didn’t know which way was up. And he didn’t know how long he’d been in the water. All he knew was that he needed oxygen.

Suddenly he was above the water again. His ears filled with the crashing, rushing sound of the waves as he gasped desperately for air. He was in the trough between two waves. Each of them was at least ten metres high, and he was unable to see the ship he’d just jumped from. He felt his body rising up with the swell of the sea. A moment later he could see the vessel. It was twenty metres away. Zak couldn’t believe how quickly the currents had moved him.

He felt for the inflation toggle on his STARS harness and gave it a sharp tug. There was a sudden hissing as the balloon packed into the harness started to inflate. It took only a few seconds to reach its full size – a sphere a couple of metres in diameter. Zak lay on his back and allowed the balloon to rise up into the air, taking with it the thin, strong wire coiled round a pulley at the front of his harness. For a couple of seconds he could see the inside of the balloon flashing white. But then he was underwater again as the wave crested and currents knocked him around.

He was underwater for longer this time, or so it seemed. When he emerged again, coughing and spluttering, the ship was even further away and the balloon was thirty metres above him. It was being buffeted in the gale that howled all around, but it was still rising slowly.

Zak sank again. He tried to stay calm. This was the
third time the currents had pulled him down. He’d spent a lot of time in the water over the past few days, and he thought he knew what to expect. He thought he just had to hold his breath and wait until the flotation aid on his harness brought him to the surface again.

He was wrong.

Thirty seconds passed. His body started aching for oxygen. Surely he’d come to the surface any second now.

Forty-five seconds passed. He could sense his pulse slowing down; his lungs and abdomen shrieked with agony.

A minute. He was still underwater. The panic was subsiding. So was the pain. He felt woozy. Sleepy. Almost like he didn’t care any more if he lived or died.

He felt his mouth opening. He was going to breathe in. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew this meant his lungs would fill with water, but what did that matter? He was going to drown anyway …

When it came, it was like an electric shock. The harness tightened around him. Its straps dug into the flesh on his legs and arms. Suddenly he was moving faster than he’d ever moved before. The water rushed past him and in an instant he was out in the open air.
He inhaled noisily and felt the life surge back into him. Only then did he have the presence of mind to be scared.

Zak looked up. The Hercules was there. He could just make out the large V-shaped clip at the front of the aircraft that had grabbed hold of his STARS wire. He was rising fast. One moment the sea was just five metres below him as he skimmed at immense speed along the waves; the next it was twenty. Thirty …

The gale-force wind meant nothing to him now as he surged through the sky, praying that the wire would hold. He felt the plane swerve. From this new angle he could see a frigate in the distance. The SBS base. Had Bea made it? Was she getting the treatment she needed? Was she even still alive?

He rose higher and higher. And as he rose, he started to spin. Slowly at first, so the sea around him looked like a rotating disc. But it soon became a blur as he spun faster and faster, still screaming through the air and still ascending.

Zak closed his eyes. He had to, otherwise the nausea would overcome him. He tried to take deep breaths, but somehow it was difficult at this speed and this altitude. He was feeling weaker again. Woozier.

A new sound. Different from the rushing of the wind. Engines. Above him. Zak opened his eyes and
instantly wished he hadn’t because the whole earth seemed to be spinning. He clenched them shut again as the noise of engines grew louder.

Louder.

Louder.

All of a sudden he felt hands on his body and the sharp scraping of his skin against metal. He was being gripped and pulled. The sound of engines was screaming in his ears. He could do nothing except let it happen.

He was lying down, but still everything felt like it was spinning.

Zak dared to open his eyes. He saw three men looking over him, anxious frowns on their foreheads. Beyond them, the cavernous interior of the Hercules – all webbing straps and khaki-painted metal. The greasy stench of aviation gas. The throb and vibration of the engines.

Safety.

‘
He’s conscious
,’ one of the men shouted.

‘
Hold him down
,’ yelled another. ‘
Don’t let him get up and walk – not till the tailgate’s closed
.’

Get up and walk? Zak was so exhausted he wondered if he’d ever get up and walk again.

‘You OK, kid?’ one of the men shouted. Zak saw now that he was wearing olive overalls and a large pair of earphones connected to the side of the plane by a
long wire. He was screaming loudly to be heard, holding two thumbs up and wearing a quizzical look.

He nodded weakly, and tapped the flat of his hand against the solid floor of the Hercules – just to be sure he really was safe.

‘Yeah, I think so,’ Zak shouted back. ‘Oh, and by the way …’

‘What?
What
?’

‘Thanks for the lift,’ he said.

24

REVENGE

THERE HAD BEEN
several minutes of confusion on Hampstead Heath. Lights. Shouting. Ellie had seen the tranquillized form of her would-be assassin being carried away by armed police. Nobody seemed to pay her any attention. Suddenly they were all gone. All except Raf and Gabs.

Gabs helped Ellie up from the ground. ‘Well done, sweetie. That took some courage. Our friend Calaca was caught red-handed. He won’t be seeing anything with that one eye of his except the inside of a prison cell for a very long time to come.’

Ellie removed her woollen hat and the helmet it had been concealing. It was made from the same sturdy material as the body armour she was wearing underneath her clothes. She shook her hair out, not quite able to believe what she’d just done.

‘Why were
you
pretending to be my boyfriend?’ she asked Gabs. ‘Why not Raf?’

‘He’s a little stocky for a fourteen-year-old boy, wouldn’t you say?’

‘He’s also,’ said Raf, holding up a Browning semi-automatic, ‘a better shot for backup.’

Gabs grinned at Ellie. ‘Harsh,’ she said, ‘but true.’

‘You should get home,’ Raf said. ‘Your folks will be wondering where you are.’

‘Will they find out about this?’ Ellie asked. ‘I mean, surely I’ll be questioned and …’

‘Don’t worry, sweetie,’ said Gabs as they walked away from the lake and towards the road. ‘We have ways of sorting it. Nobody’s going to know a thing. You can just get on with your life. Pretend it never happened.’

‘Will I …’ She chewed for a moment on her thumbnail. ‘Will I see you again?’

‘I really hope not.’ Ellie felt herself blushing. ‘Don’t get me wrong, sweetie. It’s just that we only tend to crop up when things are going badly.’ Gabs smiled at her. ‘With a bit of luck, everything will go right for you from now on. We’ll just get you home safely first.’

She held out her hand, but Ellie didn’t take it. Not yet. She had one more question to ask, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.

‘That picture Calaca showed me. The first day I saw him in Burger King. It was of Zak. I just … I can’t help thinking … I was just wondering …’ She closed
her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘This is something to do with him. So does that mean he’s still alive? Have you seen him? Do you
know
him?’

Ellie kept her eyes closed and felt herself wincing. She wanted Gabs to say yes. To tell her that her cousin was alive and well. But deep down she knew it was impossible. And the longer Gabs remained silent, the more she realized that she was clutching at straws.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘It was a stupid question.’ And she opened her eyes.

Ellie drew a sharp in breath. She spun round. ‘Gabs?’ she breathed. ‘Raf? Where are you?’ She peered into the darkness, and listened hard for the sound of footsteps.

But there were none. She spun round on the road by the heath, but her mysterious acquaintances had disappeared.

‘Ellie Lewis?’ There was a police car waiting, and a policewoman opened a door. ‘We’re to take you home,’ she said. Ellie groaned. What would her parents say if they saw a police officer walking up to their front door
again
?

Having spent so much time in the water, Zak now felt as though he was living in the air. The Hercules to Ascension Island; a UN flight to Brize Norton; a chopper back to St Peter’s Crag. He’d heard busy
people say that their feet barely touched the ground. For Zak, it was true.

He slept wherever there was somewhere to rest his head. But his sleep, like so often, was filled with horrors. He saw water everywhere, and sinking ships. He saw corpses and jagged, bloodied knives. He saw Cruz: the look of madness on his face as he toppled into the sea. But these were not the greatest of the horrors that haunted him. Far worse were the faces.

There were three of them. The first was a girl with short red hair. Her skin was deathly white, her lips blue. In his dreams, Zak would look at Bea’s shoulder to see the gun wound. The blood had started to clot, leaving a dark, wobbly jelly. Her body didn’t move.

The second face was Ellie’s. It was twisted into an expression of terror and she was screaming. The scream of someone who knew she was about to die.