Blackout - By Tom Barber Page 0,92

camp that night, his father had been staying with Flea’s wife and two children.

All four of them had been killed.

In one smooth, gentle motion, he took the slack out of the trigger and gently squeezed all the way. The weapon kicked back and gave a muffled cough and there was a smash of glass in the window ahead. He watched through the scope and saw the target’s head jerk, a white puff of feathers from the pillow behind his head joining the red blood as the round passed through his forehead and the back of his head exploded.

322.

Flea didn’t hang around. He rolled to his right and found the empty shell casing, then picked up the rifle and moved back to the fence, scaling it quickly and dropping down the other side.

On the street, two cars were waiting, the five surviving members of the squad aside from Worm in each. Bird was waiting in the front car, the engine running. Flea climbed in beside him, laying the rifle on the foot-well and covering it with a blanket. He looked over at the other man and nodded.

'He's gone,' he said, in Albanian.

'Time to go get Cobb,' Bug said, from the back.

Bird took off the handbrake and swung a U-turn in the road. The car moved off into the night, Wulf and Spider following them close behind.

Across town, Porter was speeding at above sixty down the street towards the safe-house, Chalky and Fox in the car with him. Jackson's dried blood was still all over his hands, maroon in the grooves of the edges of his fingernails, the harshest of reminders of the kind of enemy they were dealing with and what awaited Archer and Nikki if they didn't get there in time. Second Team had stayed with the tech team back at the HQ, guarding their base. The building had been attacked twice in a day already and they had no idea if there would be a third attempt.

'Hurry, Port, hurry,' Chalky said, jiggling his leg anxiously.

The streets were already flashing past, and barely slowing an inch, Porter turned left, speeding down a side road. He then cut across the next road, weaving through traffic, and headed into a car park, the building ahead of them. As they arrived, the three men saw there was no sign of the white van that had brought the two hostages here.

That wasn’t good.

As Porter slammed on the brake pedal and the car skidded to a halt, they saw the lobby door to the building suddenly burst open. Archer and Nikki were rushing from the building together, but with two other people, a woman and a boy. Archer was carrying the kid on his hip, sprinting as fast as he could. His face was a mask of blood, his white t-shirt covered in it. He had a gun in his hand as he, Nikki and the other woman sprinted away from the building.

'What the-', Fox started.

And behind them, there was a huge explosion.

The eighth floor of the building detonated above them, fire billowing out of the windows.

The group were flung to the ground, landing heavily, Archer rolling to his side as he fell to protect the boy from hitting the concrete. Up ahead, the three officers rushed out of the car and ran over towards the group, the eighth floor ablaze, smoke pouring out of every window and sliding up the building.

'Arch!' Chalky shouted, running over. His friend’s face was covered with blood. 'Jesus, what happened?'

'I'm fine,' he said, kneeling and wiping his eyes with his t-shirt. He turned to the boy. ‘Are you OK?'

The boy started crying. Behind him, Nikki removed a set of binds from the other woman’s hands and the moment they were free the woman rushed forward and hugged her boy, crying herself.

Chalky helped Archer to his feet, whilst Fox checked Nikki.

'Are you OK?' Fox asked, concerned, checking her.

'I'm OK,' she said, coughing, and he gently helped her stand.

‘Who are you?’ Porter asked the woman they didn’t recognise.

‘Kate Adams,’ she said through her tears.

‘Are you OK?’

The woman didn’t respond. She just hugged her boy close. Porter turned to Archer.

'Where are the soldiers?' he asked, as the shrill fire alarms on the building behind them started to sound, echoing in the London night.

'They're gone. They know where Cobb is,' Archer said loudly.

Fox and Nikki had joined them as Chalky went over to try and comfort the woman and boy. After hearing what Archer had said, Fox swore.

'So let's call ahead and warn