Blackout - By Tom Barber Page 0,102

surprised and somewhat taken aback to find a critically wounded police officer and five dead bodies of anonymous men all covered in strange and foreign tattoos, dotted around the property. Four had been shot in the head, and one had been suffocated outside in the mud. They removed the bodies from the site under Cobb’s orders, without asking too many questions, and the corpses were all disposed of, no record of their existence or any of the events that had happened that night finding its way onto any official report. Fox was rushed to the hospital by helicopter, the medical team already working on him on the way there. Later that night, news came in that he was going to be OK. The bullet had missed his femoral artery by a hair. If it had hit, he would have bled to death right there and then.

Eleanor Cobb's parents had returned to their family home from their holiday in Verona to find the floors freshly cleaned and some new panes of glass in the drawing room windows as well as some new mahogany panels on the walls both down and upstairs. They thanked her for the surprise maintenance, and even though her father sensed something else was afoot he chose not to pry or ask questions. The two boys were also recovering well from the ordeal. Rather than be traumatised, the youngest was already telling Cobb that he wanted to apply for his father's police unit when he was eighteen.

Kate Adams was coming to terms with everything that she and her boy had endured, including the death of her husband which she hadn’t been aware of until someone broke it to her gently at the ARU’s headquarters. She was a tough woman, made of similar mettle as that of her late husband, but the boy was still young, only six, and it was going to take a long time for him to recover, hopefully without any long-term damage. Nevertheless the two of them were still alive. On a day where countless innocent people had died, that was the most important thing.

Pulling open the front door, Archer walked into the ARU’s headquarters and nodded to the new officer on the front desk, a man he didn't know. He signed the form, showed his ID and passed through the barrier as it buzzed. He walked down the repaired corridor all the way to the locker room on the right. Walking inside and swinging a bag from over his shoulder, Archer opened his locker and took out a couple of spare t-shirts, some spare trousers and some other items, tucking them into the bag. He turned and took a good look at the room. He nodded, then walked out, heading along the corridor and out the door, turning right and heading up to the second floor.

The ARU's headquarters had been the victim of two separate gunfights in that twenty four hour period, and much of the building had been damaged by the rounds. Despite the cost, Cobb had been given the go ahead from the top to revamp the entire building. Maintenance crews had started work the following day, repairing and reinforcing the downstairs of the building, with a separate team coming in and replacing the glass of Cobb's office with fresh, equally bulletproof panes. A paint team had recoated the walls, a floor team re-carpeting the rooms, removing any outward signs that the day of terror had ever happened.

Arriving at the tech team's centre, Archer saw them working away, fingers tapping on keys, Nikki with her back to him taking charge of them all. She’d recovered well from that day, both physically and mentally, and they were all proud of her. It had even seemed to have made her more determined in her work, and they had all noticed she was attacking each day with a renewed vigour. Looking at her, Archer guessed the saying was true.

Whatever doesn’t kill you definitely makes you stronger.

He turned right and headed for the door to Cobb's office. The glass was looking good as new, and through the crystal-clear panes he saw his boss sitting there behind his desk, sipping on a cup of coffee. Archer knocked on the door and Cobb nodded. The young officer entered, closing the door behind him.

'Morning, sir.'

'Morning. How's the face?'

'It'll be OK. I just came from the doctor. He said it'll heal up well. Only a faint scar under my hairline, which my hair should cover anyway.'

'Good.'

Archer grinned. 'He asked me