get far on what he had in his pockets. Plus, there was another problem: Hart.
‘The job’s really over?’ Coughlin asked.
Hart nodded. He dropped the phone to the floor and crushed it under his heel. ‘No one can win them all. And neither should they.’
Coughlin closed his eyes and exhaled. ‘I haven’t been paid yet. How am I going to get my money if Kooi kills Leeson?’
‘A financial contribution for your services should be the least of your worries.’
‘So what do we do now?’
‘We?’ Hart echoed. ‘There is no we. There is only you and I. And what I am doing now is ensuring none of this debacle leads back to me.’
There was something in Hart’s voice Coughlin liked even less than usual. He backed away and hesitantly asked, ‘What should I do?’
‘All you need do is not resist,’ Hart answered as he stepped closer. ‘It’ll be far less painful that way.’
‘Back out,’ Dietrich ordered. He pointed when the two Chechens didn’t respond. They hesitated, so he ascended ahead of them.
The ambulance exploded.
The noise was deafening. The overpressure wave destroyed the back compartment, ripping through the roof and sides as it expanded out, blowing out the back doors and tossing them away. The windows shattered. Great gouts of flame followed the wave, funnelled by the two mill buildings either side. The ground shook. Smoke billowed and mushroomed.
Dietrich dived to the ground. Heat and pressure washed over him. Debris and the ceramic shards peppered his body, but he was far enough from the blast for them to have lost their capacity to kill and injure. Oily black smoke thickened the air around him.
Behind Dietrich, the first of the two Chechens hesitantly climbed up the steps.
Gunshots made Dietrich remain prone. The first Chechen contorted and stumbled backwards, collapsing down the steps, his face a bloody mess. Dietrich scrambled across the ground and followed the corpse, hearing more gunfire as he rolled into cover.
The shots had been a double tap of single shots, the distinctive noise almost a pop. Which meant Kooi was using a handgun. Close range, lacking in stopping power. No match for an assault rifle. He gestured for the other Chechen to keep clear, then crouched to keep his head lower than the ground and held up his rifle to release a burst of rounds. He wasn’t trying to hit Kooi – he didn’t know where he was hiding – but he wanted to grab his attention and make him get his head down.
Dietrich raised his head and shoulders from cover, sweeping the AK in a fast one hundred and eighty degree arc. Through the smoke, he spotted a figure between the two buildings dart through the doorway into the new mill. Dietrich fired another burst and the recoil lifted the muzzle up. He charged from the sunken staircase, barking orders and motioning wildly for the Chechen to flank Kooi through the other entrance at the end of the building. The Chechen seemed to understand and hurried off to do as instructed.
Rifle aimed at the entrance to the new mill, Dietrich hurried down the corridor of space between the buildings and backed off until he was close to the open doorway to the antechamber of the old mill.
He shouted over his shoulder, ‘Kooi’s in the other building. I’ve got him trapped.’
Leeson appeared with his Chechen bodyguard. He held a hand up to shield his face from the heat of the burning ambulance. ‘What about his family?’
‘I don’t know. They must be in there with him.’ Dietrich risked taking his gaze off the door Kooi had gone through to glance back. ‘If I’m going in there I want more money.’
‘Kill them all, Mr Dietrich,’ Leeson said. ‘And I’ll triple your fee.’
SIXTY-FOUR
Victor backed away from the new mill’s side entrance. Fat bullet holes had been torn through it. He had the handgun up and pointed at the door, waiting for Dietrich to storm in after him. But he wasn’t taking the bait. Victor backed further away, giving Dietrich more credit, realising he’d gone for another way in or sent one or more of the Chechens to do so instead.
He entered the corridor that led to the planning room, handgun leading. The corridor ceiling had a sprinkler every three metres and Victor rushed through a continuous shower of icy water that drenched his clothes and plastered his hair to his forehead. He hadn’t seen another way in apart from the great rolling shutter doors at the front of the building, but he knew there