The Blood Lance (28 page)

Ethan shot the driver's window out and brought his combat knife under the dash as he rolled into the car. Malloy and Josh washed into the back seat slowly enough that by the time they were in and had the door closed behind them Ethan had brought the engine to life and was pulling away from the kerb.

'Still clear!' Malloy said, the tone of his voice edging up with excitement. They were almost out.

Ethan took the first right and met a police car coming down the road without sirens. He pulled politely to the kerb and watched the car go on. A moment later he hit it hard. Three, four, five seconds. . . 'Clear!' T. K. told him.

He turned again, slowing down to a legal speed.

'Are we still good?'

'We're good!'

Ethan tried to get his bearings. They were still in the district, but at the moment they were alone.
Alone
wasn't good. They needed to lose themselves in traffic. Otherwise a cop was going to make them.

'We need to get Josh to a hospital,' Malloy said.

'No!' Josh shouted. He didn't sound delirious, just frightened.

'I can't tell how bad it is,' Malloy answered.

'Doesn't matter. If I go to a hospital, I'll end up in prison.'

'At least you'll be alive,' Ethan told him. He decided he knew where he was and turned into a new street. Still at a legal speed he was starting to think - to hope, at least - that they had made it out.

'I'm begging you guys, no hospitals!'

'You could be bleeding to death,' Malloy told him, 'and I wouldn't know it!'

'I don't care! I don't want to go to prison - not here! I can't even speak the language!'

Kate found the roof access door locked and shot her way through it. She stepped into an enclosed stairwell carrying her .45 with both hands, her Kalashnikov still under her slicker. She kept her back braced against a brick wall and moved down the stairway carefully. Her thigh was aching from the sniper shot. She could feel blood running down her leg.

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and pulled off her jacket, weapon, armour and blouse. She dropped her pants and took a look at the wound. The bullet had passed through. Her leg was trembling uncontrollably and blood ran steadily from the wound. Using her knife she cut thick ribbons of cloth from her blouse and began tying off the wound. The cloth turned red, and she wrapped another band around it. It too went red. She felt nausea creeping up in her throat again. She needed to quit moving or she was going to lose too much blood. She needed to get someplace safe and quiet. The trouble was if she stopped moving she was going to get caught. Move or die, she told herself, and thought back to the Eiger. Move or die. Kate put her armour back on, strapped her Kalashnikov back in place and then slipped on her jacket. She pocketed her NVGs and opened the door at the bottom of the stairs - again with her gun.

She stepped into the hallway of what looked like a hotbed hotel and saw a man running toward her - he had heard her silenced weapon. He was obviously freelance security and his gun was out, but it was not pointing at her, and when she levelled her weapon on him, he stopped. He looked like he wanted to bring his gun up, but a half second of hesitation took his chances away and he dropped the gun.

'Phone?' she asked.

He reached slowly into his shirt pocket and brought a phone

out. 'Back away,' she told him. He did as she said. Holding her weapon on him, Kate holstered his gun and crushed the cell phone under her boot. Then she went down the hall to yet another stairwell. She shot through this lock and exited into the back of an adult bookstore, finding as she did Chernoff's rifle and armour. Kate looked for Chernoff as she came toward the front of the shop, but she saw only men in the aisles.

Some of them watched her when they saw her gun, but it was the district, and not much seemed to surprise them. At the front door she stripped the security guard's weapon and tossed it. Then she limped across the sidewalk and into the street.

She looked both ways, but Helena Chernoff was gone.

'Move!' Chernoff whispered as she slipped into Carlisle's rental. Carlisle hit the gear selector and pulled forward but the traffic stopped him before he could make the turn. As he waited he risked a glance in the mirror and saw the figure of a woman limp into the street. He looked at Chernoff and saw her watching the woman with peculiar interest.

'Trouble?' he asked.

Chernoff watched her mirror until he was through the turn. 'Kate Brand got out.'

'How?'

'She climbed up the side of the building, David!'

Carlisle swore and then he laughed.

'What are you laughing at? She and her husband nearly killed me.'

'What about the others.'

'They were all down when I left - including my team. If they are not dead, they are going to be under arrest.'

'What about Malloy?'

'I hit him, but if he was wearing armour. . .'

'He needs to be eliminated. Don't you have someone on the police force who can get to him?'

'I have access to a detective in one of the intelligence units, but he's not going to want to commit murder.' 'Everyone has a price.'

Chernoff glanced at Carlisle and then turned her attention back to the street. 'I'll see what I can do. What about the Brands? How do you want to handle them?'

'I'll deal with them once I get back from New York.'

Ethan turned into yet another broad well-lit street, but the traffic he was seeking was slowing down. 'Roadblock!' Malloy called.

Ethan apparently saw the cops up ahead at the same moment and turned a one-eighty. Driving with only one hand on the wheel, he lost control and fish-tailed into a line of parked cars but got moving at once. Malloy watched the cops at the blockade running for their cars. Ethan got two blocks and most of another before they were moving.

'We can still lose them!' Malloy said.

Ethan took a hard right and then an immediate left. They were heading north along side streets again but it was getting late: traffic was too light to give them any cover. Ethan turned randomly and then again, and for a moment it seemed they had actually lost the two chase cars. 'Did you hurt your arm?' Malloy asked.

'I took a round just behind my wrist.'

How bad is it?'

'Broke the bone.'

Turning at the next block again, they could hear more sirens but still saw nothing. Ethan held the steering wheel with his knees, and reached inside his slicker. He tossed his phone over the seat. 'It's Girl!' he said.

'This is T. K.'

'Where's Boy?' Kate asked.

'Boy is a little busy driving at the moment.'

'You're in trouble?'

'Another minute or two, I'd say the cops are going to box us in.'

'Where are you?' Kate asked.

'Hard to know for sure, but probably due west of the Aussenalster somewhere.' He looked out the back window and saw a cop car pull into the street six blocks behind them. The cops had a visual again. He saw Ethan's eyes fix on the mirror. No need to tell him.

'If you're at the lake, you can't be far from the U.S. Consulate.'

'I can't get them involved in a hot pursuit.'

'You're going to have to!'

'We'd never get past the front gate.'

'What about the people coming in from Berlin?'

'They're still a good two-to-three hours away.'

'That will work. I want you to get to the Stadtpark and take cover. Can you do that?'

'They'll come right in behind us.'

'Not if you use your guns.'

'I'm not going to shoot police officers.'

'They don't know that,' Kate told him. 'Just hold them off a couple of hours.'

'Then what?'

'Then pray I can get the three of you out!'

'The Stadtpark,' Malloy said, as he handed the phone back to Ethan.

'We're going to have to cross a bridge to do that,' Ethan told him.

'They can't block them all.'

'Are you sure about that?'

A police car pulled into the road ahead of them and parked broadside before them. With two chasing them, they were trapped.

'Hang on!' Ethan called.

He hit the brakes and snapped the steering wheel to the left. This caused the Mercedes' passenger side to skid broadside into the police car. There was a heavy, hollow explosion of metal on metal. Malloy felt himself slammed against the door. He saw the cops almost next to him tossed about like crash dummies.

Josh screamed. There was breaking glass and then both cars were spinning. Ethan was still working the steering wheel. The Mercedes finished a ragged pirouette through the intersection and took off again. 'Everybody okay?' he called.

Malloy looked back. The chase cars were tangled up with the car Ethan had hit. He looked down at Josh, and saw him wide-eyed. 'I'm missing a show, aren't I?'

'We're fine back here!' Malloy answered. 'When we get to the park,' Malloy told Ethan, 'Girl says we need to take cover and hold the police off for a couple of hours. Is that going to be a problem?'

'Probably, but I guess we can try. Josh,' he added, 'I don't want to tell you what to do, buddy, but you might be better off just staying in the car when we bail. Let the cops pick you up and get you to a hospital.'

Tears came to the agent's eyes and he rocked his head. 'He's coming with us.' Malloy answered.

'I just meant—'

'No debate. He goes until he can't go any farther.'

'Okay. But when I stop the car, you've got to get to your feet on your own. If you can't stand up, we're gone.'

'I can stand up!'

Malloy looked at the city buildings flashing by. They had to be getting close to the park. He looked back. A car was three blocks back, but they were just following at this point. That meant they had called ahead to set up a roadblock they couldn't break through.

They crossed the Alster on one of a dozen or so of its bridges, going airborne in the process. Ethan had already turned off his headlights and was driving with NVGs. Malloy guessed by the noise some six-to-eight units were in direct pursuit, including two units coming up the eastern bank of the river and almost closing them off at the bridge. Ethan dodged an oncoming police van and then burst through a decorative metal fence that was placed at the Stadtpark entrance. He stayed on a wide dirt footpath, twisting through several ninety degree turns until he saw a large expanse of grass stretching out for a couple of hundred metres. The field ended with a stand of trees. 'The Alamo, guys!'

Saying this, Ethan cut off the footpath and raced directly across the meadow. When they were almost at the tree line, he made a hard right, skidding broadside and coming to a stop close to the trees. The Mercedes provided good cover as the three of them spilled out of the driver's side of the car. Ethan grabbed Josh and hoisted him over his shoulder. 'Lay down some cover!' he shouted.

Malloy did as he was told, taking refuge behind the front wheel of the Mercedes and firing a full clip. The effect of the automatic fire was immediate. The police cars turned broadside, forming a line some eighty metres out from the trees. As they did, Malloy slapped his reserve clip into the AKS-74 and dropped back. He heard some pistols, but the police were out of range for most handguns to have any effect.

After he had settled down beside Ethan and Josh, Malloy watched the next wave of cops driving along the borders of the park, presumably with the idea of closing down the perimeter. Once that was achieved, he thought that they would settle down in a defensive posture and wait for their SWAT teams to lay siege inside the park.

'You two stay here,' Ethan whispered. 'I need to take a look around. I should be back in about ten-to-fifteen minutes.'

As Ethan left at a full sprint across the next open meadow there was a moment when Malloy thought his friend wasn't coming back. Well, why should he? If he ran like that, he just might get out before the police had secured the area. Malloy looked down at Josh. Like it or not, Josh was going to jail. They both were. 'How are you doing?' he asked.

'I feel like someone hit me in the chest with a hammer and then threw me in a cement mixer.'

'First time taking a round?'

'Yeah. Have you ever been hit?'

'I took a few in the chest my rookie year in the field.'

'Sounds fun.'

'Mostly educational.'

'Yeah? What did you learn?'

'The only thing worse than pain is no pain at all. No pain means it's over.'

'In that case, I expect I'm going to live forever.'

'Hold that thought.'

After a minute or so of listening to the gathering sirens on all sides, Josh breathed hard, like he wanted to laugh. 'Boy took off, didn't he?'

Malloy looked across the meadow to their rear and felt the tightness in his chest letting go. No more secrets. 'If he's smart he did.'

'I should have stayed in the car. I mean, you had a chance without me. All I could think about was. . .'