Hostage (33 page)

‘Then let’s go,’ said
Connor.

The two of them turned to run, but blocking
their path were four men armed with sub-machine guns.

‘Alicia Mendez, come with us,’
said the lead man.

They all wore matching black jackets and
mirrored sunglasses. Each carried an FN P90 sub-machine gun and a holstered SIG Sauer
P229. Pinned to their jacket collars were identical red badges with the gold
five-pointed star of the Secret Service.

‘You got here quickly,’ remarked
Alicia.

‘We were in the vicinity,’ he
explained.

‘And who
exactly
are
you?’ asked Connor, not willing to let his guard down.

‘Agent John Walker,’ the man
replied, flicking open his credentials. ‘And
you
?’

Satisfied with the agent’s ID, he
replied, ‘Connor Reeves.’

The agent arched an eyebrow.
‘We’d been informed you’d left.’ He glanced at the ominous
smoke-filled skyline. ‘Well, you’d best come with us too.’

He signalled to his men who’d been
keeping a close watch on their surroundings.

‘Let’s move out.’

The four agents swiftly escorted Alicia and
Connor
down the steps and round the memorial. They followed a
treelined path to the car park. The blacked-out 4×4 was waiting by the kerbside, its
engine running. As they approached, Agent Walker keyed his palm mic.

‘Delta Four to Control. Nomad
recovered. Destination update requested. Over.’

The agent listened a moment, then keyed his
mic again.

‘Received and understood, Control. En
route to Blue One. Delta Four out.’ He turned to Alicia. ‘We’re taking
you to a safe house,’ he explained.

As he opened the rear passenger door to the
4×4, its engine died. The driver looked over at his team leader with a bewildered
expression.

‘It won’t start. All the
electrics have shorted out –’

Suddenly the ground erupted with a spray of
bullets and the 4×4’s bodywork rattled as if caught in a hailstorm. One of the
agents screamed as he was cut down by the gunfire.

‘GET IN!’ yelled Agent Walker,
shoving Alicia into the back passenger seat.

Connor dived in after her, pushing her down
into the footwell to shield her from the deadly shots.

‘Stay there,’ Agent Walker
ordered. He went to slam the door shut, but another blast of bullets ripped across the
4×4’s bodywork. The agent grunted in pain and blood splattered the interior. He
slumped forward on to the seat, jamming open the door.

Connor turned to Alicia and saw blood on her
too. ‘Are you hit?’ he asked.

She mutely shook her head, unable to take
her eyes off
the murdered agent. Connor couldn’t allow himself
to think about the man’s sudden and violent death. This was a Code Red situation.
He had to focus all his attention on getting Alicia out of the ambush alive.

The gun battle raged on. The driver jumped
from the immobilized 4×4 and joined the last of his team in returning fire. Connor
risked a glance through the tinted windscreen. The enemy had secured good cover, firing
from behind the car park’s concrete barriers. The two agents, on the other hand,
were in the open, the immobilized bulletproof vehicle their only protection.

Connor ducked as the windscreen thudded
under the impact of more rounds. But the bullet-resistant glass held. Then there was an
agonized cry as a third agent was downed.

‘Radio for back-up!’ Connor
shouted to the driver.

‘Radio’s dead,’ he replied
grimly, firing off another shot. ‘And I’m fast running out of
ammo.’

‘Then we’ll have to make a break
for it,’ said Connor, realizing their chances of survival were dwindling. He
didn’t know what the enemies’ intentions were – kill or kidnap – but he
couldn’t allow either to happen to Alicia. Peering through the window again, he
hunted for a possible escape route. Their only option lay in heading back the way
they’d come. But the path was totally exposed for about twenty metres until it
reached the treeline. Any escape attempt would be little more than a suicidal dash.

Then Connor remembered his backpack.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Alicia
as he hurriedly removed his pack.

‘Making a shield,’ Connor
explained, unzipping the panel to double its length. ‘It’s
bulletproof.’

‘I’ll give you covering
fire,’ said the driver, acknowledging Connor’s intention.

‘What about you?’ asked
Connor.

‘Just get Nomad to safety.’

Connor gave him a single grave nod in
acknowledgement, conscious of the sacrifice this unknown agent was about to make for
them. ‘We’ll head for the trees. Are you ready, Alicia?’

She glanced out of the door.
‘We’ll never make it,’ she said.

‘Imagine you’re racing to the
finish line in the four hundred metres,’ said Connor.

Alicia managed a strained smile. ‘OK,
but I’m never usually shot at!’

She took a deep breath and steeled herself
for the perilous sprint.

‘On my mark,’ said the driver.
‘Three … two …’

Gripping the handle of his backpack, Connor
prayed the liquid body armour would do its job.

‘… one … GO!’

The driver blasted the enemy with a storm of
bullets from his sub-machine gun. Clambering over Agent Walker’s body, Connor
bolted out of the car with Alicia. He kept the backpack shield high to protect them as
they ran. With his other arm he held Alicia close by his side so she was always in his
cover. Their feet pounded in unison across the gravel path.

‘Whatever happens, don’t
stop!’ ordered Connor.

They were halfway when they heard the
driver’s gun give out. There was a rapid return of fire and a pained cry.

But Connor daren’t look back.

‘STOP OR WE’LL SHOOT!’
shouted one of the gunmen.

They had just 10 metres to the treeline – 8
… 5… The ground beneath their feet spat dirt as a spray of warning fire cut across their
path.

Alicia screamed but Connor urged her
onwards. They were almost there when a barrage of bullets struck the backpack. The
brutal impact knocked Connor off his feet. They stumbled the last few metres before
collapsing together behind the trunk of an elm tree.

‘Are you all right?’ Alicia
gasped, realizing he’d taken the full force of the hits.

‘Yes …’ Connor managed to reply.
His shoulder felt bruised, but the liquid body armour had stopped the rounds from doing
any lethal damage.

Masked gunmen now emerged from behind the
concrete barriers and advanced on their hiding place. One of them fired high into the
treeline.

‘STAY WHERE YOU ARE!’ he
ordered.

‘What do we do now?’ asked
Alicia.

Connor realized the gunmen intended to
kidnap her, otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered with warning shots. But
they’d equally shown their willingness to use deadly force to achieve their aims,
even if it meant wounding Alicia and killing him. Their situation was desperate whatever
decision he made.

‘We keep running,’ he replied,
scrambling to his feet.

With the body armour now slung over his
shoulder to protect their backs, Connor shepherded Alicia deeper into the cluster of
trees. The gunmen gave chase. Connor weaved in between the trunks, hoping to prevent a
clear shot. There was a burst of gunfire. Bullets whizzed past, taking out chunks of
bark. Splinters rained down on their heads as the two of them powered on. Then, as they
approached the main road of Ohio Drive, the trees thinned out and they lost their
cover.

‘Over the bridge!’ shouted
Connor.

They raced across. The gunmen were still
among the trees. But it wouldn’t be long before they had them in their
sights again. Connor realized their only hope was to get to the safe
house. From what he recalled, he knew it lay somewhere east of the memorial. Searching
for the quickest route, Connor spotted an underpass on the other side of the junction of
14th and 15th Streets.

‘Through that tunnel!’ he
directed Alicia.

The traffic was heavy, but with no time to
spare they dashed across the highway. Cars swerved round them. A truck blasted its horn
as they were almost mown down beneath its wheels. Connor heard gunfire and felt a bullet
catch the corner of his backpack, spinning him into the side of a passing car. From
behind there was a mighty
bang
and the ear-splitting crunch of metal as several
vehicles collided. Horns blared and tyres squealed as the traffic ground to a sudden
halt.

Connor kept his grip on Alicia and they
darted into the underpass.

‘Where are we going?’ she asked,
breathing hard.

‘To the safe house,’ said
Connor, trying to reboot his phone on the run. But the screen remained blank. ‘Is
your phone working?’

Alicia pulled it from her pocket.
‘No!’

Damn
, thought Connor,
but at
least she can’t be tracked any longer.

He tried to recall exactly where the safe
house was:
6 … 8 … 6 … E Street SW.

‘How far’s E Street South-West
from here?’

‘Only about four blocks away,’
replied Alicia.

‘Then let’s go.’

Behind they heard the shouts of the gunmen
echoing through the tunnel.

Alicia now led the way. They crossed the
road, jumping the central reservation, and headed along Maine Avenue. They were about to
duck into a side street, when a blacked-out 4×4 screeched to a halt in front of them. A
blonde-haired woman wearing a green Secret Service lapel badge jumped out.

‘Quick, get in,’ urged Agent
Brooke from Alicia’s PES team.

They dived into the rear passenger
compartment. She closed the doors behind them and leapt into the front seat. Flooring
the accelerator, she drove off at high speed.

Connor looked through the back windscreen.
The gunmen had disappeared from view.

‘Are we … glad to run … into
you!’ Alicia panted.

‘You’re a hard one to keep track
of,’ replied Agent Brooke, arching an eyebrow.

Connor turned to her. ‘I thought you
were off-duty today, like Kyle.’

Agent Brooke gave him a sharp look.
‘Everyone’s called in during an emergency.’

‘Not that I’m ungrateful,’
Connor quickly added.

She turned left on to C Street.

‘Aren’t we going to the safe
house?’ Connor asked.

‘Yes,’ replied Agent Brooke.

‘But isn’t E Street the other
way?’

‘There’s a roadblock due to the
bombings. We have to go round.’

At the traffic lights, she turned left again
on to 14th
Street. They headed past the junction to D Street and
continued on, joining the main highway that led out of Washington. As the Jefferson
Memorial came back into view, Connor began to sense something was wrong. The detour
wasn’t logical.

‘How long until we get to Blue Two
then?’ asked Connor.

‘About five minutes,’ replied
Agent Brooke.

Connor had called her bluff. The call sign
for the safe house was ‘Blue One’. It was now that he noticed the colour of
Agent Brooke’s Secret Service badge. The other agents today had been wearing
red
lapel badges. On his first outing with Secret Service, Kyle had told
him the colour-coded badges were an important security measure. Any legitimate agents on
a protection detail would be wearing matching badges.

Connor reached for Alicia’s hand and
squeezed it.
We have to get out of here
, he mouthed to her.

Her brow knitted in confusion.
What?
she mouthed back.

‘
She’s NOT Secret
Service!
’ he whispered.

As the traffic slowed, Connor made a grab
for the door handle – but discovered it was locked. He threw his shoulder against the
door. ‘Let us out!’

Agent Brooke spun round in her seat.
‘You’re brighter than I thought,’ she snarled.

Drawing her gun, she shot Connor point-blank
in the chest.