was with an astronomer and a cop who had just given him his gun because he couldn’t shoot straight. He felt it now, pressing into the small of his back, hidden by his jacket.
‘I don’t have a gun,’ he gambled. ‘They don’t let you take them on international flights.’
The woman pointed her gun at Arkadian. ‘Nice and slow, mister police man, take it out by the barrel then slide it over.’
‘I don’t have a gun either,’ Arkadian replied.
‘You expect me to believe that?’
‘Not really.’ His movement took everyone by surprise. He darted right, drawing the woman’s gun away from the rest of the group as he reached into his jacket.
Shepherd reacted too, only one thought filling his brain as he pulled the gun free from his belt.
A man is holding a knife to my daughter’s throat.
He saw Hevva’s terrified face pass through his sights as they settled centre mass of the man. A gunshot boomed behind him but he stayed focused. The man started lifting Hevva up to use her as a shield.
Shepherd adjusted. Squeezed the trigger.
The man jerked backwards as the bullet hit him and Hevva dropped to the floor. Every instinct made Shepherd want to run to her but his training stopped him.
A gun had been fired behind him.
He corkscrewed round, dropping down to make himself a smaller target. The woman was in a good two-handed stance, professional and well-drilled, her gun turning towards him, no chance of missing at this range and almost ready to fire. He willed his gun round faster, knowing it wasn’t going to happen.
Scalding liquid hit her face and her head jerked away, pulling her aim wide. Shepherd’s gun-sight settled on her tiny frame just as she was pulling her gun back towards him. The impact of the bullet threw her backwards against the open door, knocking the gun from her hand and out of the door.
He looked across and saw Kinderman holding the empty glass that had contained the mint tea. Arkadian was down, sprawled on the floor and not moving. Shepherd knew he should check the shooter was down and her gun made safe. He should check on Arkadian to see if he was hit. He should do all of these things like he had been taught but instead he turned and sprinted over to Hevva.
She was sitting on the floor, bright blood running through the hand she was holding to her cheek.
She should have stayed in the car.
He should have made her stay in the car.
He fell to the floor beside her and took her face in his hands, feeling the wet warmth of her blood as he checked her over, terrified of what he might find. He almost laughed with relief when he saw that the knife had just nicked her ear.
The knife-man was lying on the floor behind her in a spreading pool of his own blood. He was just about breathing but the wound was sucking and foaming. Lung shot. He was drowning in his own blood. A nasty way to go but Shepherd didn’t care. ‘I never knew dying would feel like this,’ the man whispered as he stared up at the ceiling. ‘I never knew it would hurt so much.’ Then the sucking sound stopped and he was still.
Shepherd bundled Hevva into his arms and carried her over to the others.
Kinderman was standing over the woman, holding her gun in his hand like it might bite him. Shepherd could tell by the way the woman was lying, crooked against the door, that she was dead. Arkadian was still down, blood spreading out beneath him. Shepherd set Hevva down and crouched low to look into Arkadian’s face. His eyes were open and he was still breathing – but only just.
‘I didn’t know you had another gun,’ Shepherd said.
Arkadian smiled weakly. ‘I didn’t.’
‘Then why …?’
‘You needed a diversion,’ Arkadian whispered between snatched breaths. ‘Look after your little girl. Life ceases to have much meaning – when you lose the ones you love.’
Then he closed his eyes and was gone.
103
The first batch of inoculations took place the same day Athanasius woke up. All the infected in the cathedral cave, forty-seven men and women, were given the serum one after the other, almost wiping out the stocks at a stroke.
When every patient had been injected Dr Kaplan returned to the main lab and took an ampoule of the serum from the fridge. There were just twelve doses left and they were expecting new cases of the infected within the