Contents (84)
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EIGHTY-TWO
- EIGHTY-THREE
- Acknowledgements
Grace nodded again. She placed the spare weapon and magazine into her own belt and aimed her SIG Sauer P229 towards what had, just moments before, been The Stratford’s secure service entrance.
‘What about you? What are you doing?’
Grace glanced over her shoulder as she shouted the question. From there she could see Dempsey striding towards the front of the building, his pistol raised.
He glanced back.
‘Me? I’m going to show your friends how this is really done.’
FORTY-EIGHT
Dempsey wasted no more time explaining. If the attack was properly coordinated – and he had to assume it was – then he would have only seconds to act. But each of those seconds were an advantage.
Grace’s former team was expecting to blindside Dempsey while his attention focused on the corridor. They had no way to know that he had seen through their diversion. And so no reason to expect that he would be waiting.
They would learn that soon enough.
Dempsey kept his gun raised as he stepped further into the lobby. He moved fast, scanning the glass frontage as he closed the distance.
The first sweep revealed nothing.
They’re waiting for my first pistol shot, he realised. Confirmation that the ruse has worked.
He heard Grace begin to unload covering fire into the corridor behind him. He kept moving forward, his eyes scanning left to right.
Dempsey had expected the reaction to be instant. That they would attack immediately after the very first shot. It’s what his team would have done; if it had been them out there, he and Grace might have been dead already.
It was a relief, then, that there was a delay. Little more than a second, it was all he needed.
It was no more than a flicker of movement behind the hedge. The first steps of a man who had taken position there for visual cover.
The first steps. And the last.
Dempsey’s conclusion and his decision were simultaneous. A single 9mm round shattered the lobby’s long pane of glass and ripped into the agent’s skull before he was even fully on his feet.
Dempsey didn’t wait to see him go down. His eyes were already focused through the other stretch of window, now just feet ahead of him. A second round and it, too, was brought crashing down.
Dempsey picked up his pace. The dead agent was his diversion. A shock to catch the attention of whoever else was out there.
A shock from which they would not be given the time to recover.
He was through the broken window in a heartbeat. Moving at a run, he spotted two more agents, both to his left. As intended, the death of their colleague had slowed them.
But it had not stopped them.
The men were ten, maybe fifteen yards apart. One was on the access lane, armed with an assault rifle. The other on the grass, carrying a SIG pistol.
Both men tore their eyes from their fallen teammate and raised their weapons as they registered Dempsey. They recovered from the shock and moved faster than he had hoped.