Blackout - By Tom Barber Page 0,84

in his mouth and he spat at the beak-nosed man with the knife.

The guy didn't react.

'Oh, I forgot to tell you,' he said. 'You're not the only person from your station here. There is a woman next door waiting for me. She is beautiful. Dark hair, dark eyes. I'm going to go talk to her. Or I might just skip the talking and do something else with her. These walls are thin. You’ll be able to hear. But I'll be back soon.'

He paused. Archer blinked, feeling the hot sting of blood running down the side of his face and his neck. He could feel the cut on the top of his forehead, and it burned and throbbed intensely as blood flowed from the jagged wound.

'You know, I lost my girlfriend and my son that night. Both of them were in the first hut the two sons of bitches attacked. They were the first ones to be killed.’

He paused.

‘Do you have a wife, or a girlfriend? A woman you care for?'

Archer looked at the ground, blood pouring into his eyes and dripping onto his lap. Hard as he tried to ignore the man, an image of Katic flickered into his mind, like a television screen with bad reception catching a signal.

He saw her dark hair and brown eyes, smiling at him.

She looked beautiful.

'I want you to think of her,' the man said. 'And know that you're never going to see her again. That's a promise from me. Because I just changed my mind. When I come back, I'm going to take your eyes out. And after the woman next door tells me where Cobb is, I'm going to cut your throat, from ear to ear. Then we'll see if you are still so pretty, you piece of shit.'

The man spat at Archer, then turned and walked towards the door, switching off the light.

Archer was left all alone in the dark, blood dripping down his face and soaking his t-shirt, half-blinded.

Tied up and alone.

'Where the hell are they?' Chalky shouted to the re-gathered team in the ops room back on the second floor of the ARU’s headquarters. 'They'll kill them!'

Most of the squad had gathered up there, but without Archer, Cobb and Nikki. They were three of the core members and the room felt empty. Unused to combat situations, the remaining members of the tech team were still shell-shocked and traumatised. They were used to the safe and secure confines of the building, but the headquarters had already been attacked twice in one day. With the captive gone, as well as Archer and Nikki taken hostage, the mood in the room was dark. They were running on emergency power and the lights were still dimmed. In the low light and in Cobb's absence, Chalky was desperately trying to get the team going and thinking straight.

'C'mon! Someone think of something,' Chalky shouted.

He turned to the members of the tech team, all of them sitting in their chairs.

'Do you have access to traffic cameras?'

'Of course,' one of them said.

'Then find the white van that left here and tail it. We need to know where they took them. Do it now! If we wait, Archer and Nikki will die!'

The tech team turned and started tapping away on their computers, glad for something to do to help. Fox and Porter stood there in silence, both of them still covered in Jackson's blood, as Chalky paced back and forth. His normally jovial demeanour was gone, his face hard and his brow furrowed with anxiety. He’d seen the kind of men they were dealing with here. He’d heard Wulf’s threats to Archer, watching them through the glass of the viewing room downstairs.

And he knew if they didn't find them soon that Nikki and his best friend would die.

Across the city, in a dark car speeding through south-west London towards Heathrow, the commander of the Panthers thought about the young officer who had tried to interrogate him. He had been telling the boy the truth. Since he could remember, everyone had called him Wulf.

He had been named Ibrahim as a baby, but his nickname had stuck as a child. Nicknames in his squad and in the KLA were common, especially using names of animals due to the time they spent living out on the plains and in the valleys. Sometimes the naming was apt, other times it was because of mannerisms or physical appearance. Bug was named because of the scarring on his face and torso. A Serb phosphorous