Silent Night - By Tom Barber Page 0,107

rooftop. Nevertheless, they’d hit the water hard. So hard it had knocked the wind out of both of them and broken some bones.

Pitched into the ice-cold water, it had been suddenly dark and silent. Archer had still been holding Maddy who’d gone limp. Aware that the parachute was above them on the water he’d kept hold of her and kicked as hard as he could, aiming up and away.

They’d surfaced to the right of the parachute, Archer taking in a mouthful of air. But his joy at being alive was short-lived. In his arms, Maddy wasn’t moving and pieces of the flaming crop duster were starting to rain down around them. Minutes later, a DC Metro patrol boat came roaring up the River having seen the parachute landing. The pair were pulled from the water, sub-machine guns trained on them until it could be verified who they were. Then the adrenaline had worn off and the pain had set in.

Once safely on the boat, Archer had looked down and seen his foot was bent at a bizarre angle. Beside him on the deck, Maddy was still unmoving. They’d injected Archer with something that had to be morphine and the pain had disappeared. Then they’d taken him to a hospital in a painless daze. He was only just starting to re-gather his senses.

There was a knock at the door. It opened and a grey-haired man in military uniform entered the room.

‘Good morning, Detective.’

'Where am I?'

'Walter Reed Medical.'

The morphine was wearing off. Archer moved and grimaced.

‘Jesus. I feel like I got hit by a bus.’

There was a pause. The man in uniform stepped forward.

‘My name is Lieutenant Grant. I spoke to your boss, Sergeant Shepherd, at the NYPD. He explained the situation and told me who you are. I wanted to come here and thank you personally.’

Archer looked at the man. ‘Did it work?’

He smiled and nodded. ‘Everyone’s safe. Finn Sway, Bobby Rourke and Reuben Kruger are all dead. A diving team pulled the canisters containing the virus from the water. They’re on their way to a military lab where they’ll be destroyed.’

‘What’s the cover?’

The man smiled. ‘Farmer lost control of his crop duster. The Army were forced to shoot it down to protect an urban area. He parachuted out before it took the hit.’

Archer nodded.

Then he thought of something. ‘Where’s the doc?’

‘She’s in another room down the hall.’

‘Is she OK?’

He nodded. ‘Some bumps and bruises and a broken leg. Bit of mild whiplash. But she’ll be fine.’

Archer nodded, then struggled to get up and out of the bed.

‘Take it easy,’ Grant said, moving forward to help him.

She was lying in the bed when he entered, fast asleep. Wearing one of the hospital gowns, the same as him, her dark hair was draped over her shoulders. Sunlight was streaming in through the window. Hobbling in on crutches, Archer moved inside the room as quietly as he could, then shut the door. He watched her for a moment, then moved forward awkwardly on the crutches and sat beside her in an empty chair.

She stirred awake and opened her eyes.

For the first time, he noticed they were green.

‘Hey,’ Archer said.

She smiled. ‘Hey.’

‘How are you feeling?’

‘My leg kills.’

‘Yeah. Mine too.’

She looked down at his foot. ‘Jesus, Archer, you should be resting.’

‘I am resting. And I wanted to see you.’

She looked at him for a moment. He watched as tears welled in her eyes. She struggled up, leaned forward and hugged him.

‘You did it,’ she said in his ear, her arms wrapped around him, tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘You saved everyone.’

‘So did you.’

She withdrew and then noticed something on his forehead. Reaching up, she pushed his hair back gently and saw a jagged scar. It ran from the middle of his forehead down to his ear. She’d never noticed it before. It had always been obscured by his hair.

‘How did you get this?’

‘Someone tried to cut my face off.’

‘When?’

‘Earlier this year.’

She looked at him, and saw that he was serious.

‘How did you get him to stop?’

‘I beat him to death with a door.’

She scanned his face. He wasn’t lying.

She couldn’t help but laugh. ‘There’s never a dull moment with you, that’s for sure.’

He smiled.

And she leant forward and kissed him.

At the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, Shepherd was sitting with Rach and Hendricks in the briefing room, all three of them exhausted. Once he’d put Sway down, he’d run into his home and freed his wife and boy. Neighbours had already reported hearing shots fired so back-up had