Ruthless

by Chris Ryan

  Woody ran back, allowing the chopper to land. As soon as it had landed, the side door opened and Hector appeared. His face was stormier than usual as he jumped out, his hair ruffled by the downdraught. He took in the scenario with a single glance. He stepped aside to let Sami and Angel carry Abby into the chopper, then he turned to Tommy. ‘You!’ he roared. ‘Get in!’

  Tommy scurried into the helicopter as Hector turned to Lili. There was no acknowledgement that they had succeeded in their mission. Hector clearly only had one question on his mind. ‘Where’s Max?’

  ‘We don’t know,’ Lili shouted back.

  She had never seen Hector look so alarmed. As Woody hustled Pepe into the chopper, Hector clutched his hair then plunged a hand into his jacket and withdrew a handgun from his chest holster. He cocked the weapon then looked around the area as if orientating himself. It seemed to Lili as if he was prepared to take on the whole favela single-handed. She grabbed his arm. Hector’s face grew even darker.

  ‘Wait,’ she shouted. ‘He’ll be here any minute. I promise you.’

  ‘You said you didn’t know where he was,’ Hector roared back.

  ‘I don’t,’ Lili shouted back. ‘But I swear to you, he’s on his way.’

  She didn’t finish. At the end of a street to their ten o’clock, a vehicle appeared. Lili recognised the BOPE’s armoured car – huge, black and threatening – from earlier that night. The bumpers were high and heavy, the chassis sturdy and bulletproof. There was a tiny square windscreen at the front but otherwise it looked utterly impenetrable as it trundled towards them, its headlights burning bright.

  ‘Get back!’ Hector barked. Lili and Lukas stepped back beside him as Hector raised his weapon two-handed and pointed it at the armoured vehicle, which came to a halt in front of them. The air was a cacophony of machinery: the spinning rotors of the chopper and the low grind of the BOPE’s armoured car. Lili’s ears were numb. Unarmed, she stood her ground with Lukas while Hector kept his handgun aimed at the BOPE vehicle. The weapon was no match for the armoured vehicle. It was a symbolic gesture of defiance.

  Nothing, and nobody, moved.

  Then the doors of the BOPE vehicle opened. Six armed police officers, their faces covered with black balaclavas, exited. They took up firing positions on either side of the armoured vehicle and raised their assault rifles. If it came to a firefight, their firepower would completely overwhelm Hector’s handgun, but he didn’t lower it. His face was stony. He didn’t move.

  Lili could feel the blood pulsing through her veins. She glanced sidelong at Lukas, who had sweat on his brow but who showed no sign of retreating.

  Movement. A seventh BOPE officer emerged. He too wore a balaclava, but his bore a silver insignia on the front.

  Lili felt bile rising in her throat. Maybe she had been mistaken. Maybe she hadn’t seen what she thought she had on the TV screen.

  Nobody moved. Not Hector. Not the BOPE officers. Not the Jackal.

  Hector spoke. ‘Get into the chopper, both of you.’

  Lili and Lukas glanced at each other. They took a step back.

  Then somebody else emerged from the armoured car. A girl. She had dark matted hair and grimy skin. Her eyes darted nervously from left to right and she stood by the vehicle, as though uncertain what to do next.

  Then a final figure climbed out. Lili’s pulse raced even faster – with relief, rather than fear.

  Max moved calmly. He stopped alongside the girl and said something to her. Then he turned to the Jackal. Lili could see the hate in the Jackal’s eyes through his balaclava. But the BOPE officer just nodded. He walked past his men towards Hector. Max and the girl – surely this was Beatriz – followed.

  They stopped a few metres from Hector and the cadets. Hector kept his weapon trained on the Jackal. He turned to Max again. Lili was close enough to hear, over the noise of the machinery, what he said.

  ‘Never set foot in this favela again.’

  Max inclined his head. ‘Next time you feel like taking money from a gang lord, or shooting a defenceless kid, remember that everybody knows who you are now.’ He turned to his friends and nodded. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  Max led Beatriz up to the chopper and they disappeared inside. Hector still hadn’t moved. The Jackal stepped up to him, seemingly unconcerned by the pistol pointed at his face.

  ‘You call yourself a man,’ he said, ‘when you get children to do your dirty work for you?’

  Finally Hector spoke. ‘They made short work of you,’ he said. ‘You should learn some respect.’

  The Jackal’s eyes narrowed behind his balaclava. He had no response.

  ‘Get into the chopper,’ Hector told Lili and Lukas. They ran back to the helicopter. Inside, Abby lay on a stretcher. A drip had been inserted into the back of her hand and Angel was suspending a saline bag from a hook above her. Max was by her side, holding her other hand. Pepe was at the front, sitting on the floor, clasping his knees. At the back of the chopper, Tommy and Beatriz were hugging. Sami stood awkwardly by them. He looked relieved when Lili and Lukas arrived and he was able to move over and join them.

  ‘Angel says she’ll be okay,’ he told his friends, pointing at Abby. He grinned. ‘I’m sure I saw her perk up when Max held her hand.’

  Lili looked around the dull, military interior of the helicopter. ‘Yeah, well,’ she said, ‘it doesn’t get more romantic than this.’

  They watched Hector. He hadn’t turned his back on the BOPE or lowered his weapon. He was walking backwards towards the chopper. When he reached it, he turned and jumped in, then slammed the door shut. ‘Go!’ he shouted at the flight crew. ‘Get out of here, now!’

  The chopper rose into the air. Lili pressed her face against the window. The BOPE were still in position down below, but the Jackal was storming back to his vehicle. Lili allowed herself a smile.

  Then they rose above the rooftops of the favela and the helicopter turned. Dawn was arriving. The pink morning sun illuminated the rooftops and, in the distance, the ocean. She sensed someone standing behind her and turned to see Max.

  ‘I saw you on TV,’ she said. ‘Quick thinking.’

  ‘They killed Guzman,’ Max said. He seemed haunted by the fact.

  Lili looked over Max’s shoulder at Abby. Her eyes were open.

  ‘He’d have killed us, if he had the chance.’ She felt her face harden. ‘I’m not sorry he’s dead.’

  ‘Someone else will take his place soon enough,’ Max said. ‘I just hope that, without the Jackal’s help, they won’t get quite so powerful.’ He frowned. ‘Have you noticed how, whenever we get involved in a situation, people die?’

  Perhaps Hector had overheard from the other side of the chopper because, as Max said this, he was there beside them. ‘That’s soldiering, Max,’ he said. ‘People die.’ He glanced over at Abby. ‘Our job is to make sure it’s not the good guys.’

  Max nodded. Lili looked around at her fellow cadets. It struck her that they looked older than they had when they first got together as a team. With a pang, she realised they would not be together for ever. The time would come when the Special Forces Cadets would be disbanded, because they wouldn’t be teenagers any longer.

  What then? She didn’t know. But she hoped they would all manage to stay alive long enough to find out.

  Something told her it wasn’t very likely.

  But for now, they were all okay. The chopper sped through the air, away from the dangers of the favela, towards safety.

  Epilogue

  They finished where they started. In the suite on the thirty-fifth floor of the Hilton Hotel. The chopper had set them down on the rooftop helipad. As the cadets disembarked along with Tommy, Beatriz, Pepe and the Watchers, Max saw medics waiting for Abby. He wanted to stay with her, but Angel gently moved him away. ‘They’ll patch her up,’ she said. ‘She’ll be fine.’

  He took a moment to watch the sun rising over Rio de Janeiro. High up, the cityscape was beautiful and peaceful. The
sea stretched out invitingly to the horizon. Sunlight gleamed off the skyscrapers. Even the favelas were bathed in gold. Max turned his back on them, and on Abby, and followed the others down into the hotel.

  Pepe’s family were waiting for him in the hotel suite. The little boy’s mother gathered him up in her arms and planted kisses all over his face. Pepe grimaced, but endured the attention in a way that made Max smile. Woody walked up to Pepe’s father Manuel. ‘He’s a good kid,’ he said. ‘Without him, a few of us wouldn’t have made it out of the favela.’

  Manuel didn’t seem to know what to say. He looked proudly at his little boy as Woody gave Pepe a fist-bump. ‘Keep practising those penalties,’ Woody said. Pepe, even though he spoke no English, grinned as if he understood.

  Tommy and Beatriz were sitting in a corner, holding hands. They looked exhausted and dirty. Tommy’s face was bruised and beaten. They gazed at each other in a way that almost made Max feel embarrassed to watch. He was about to wander over to where Lukas, Lili and Sami were standing by the window, when the door slammed open and a man entered.

  It was Tommy’s father, Sir Alistair Sinclair. His hair was dishevelled and he had bags under his eyes. He looked frantically round the room before his gaze settled on Tommy. Max watched him carefully. He saw the ambassador’s expression change from panic to relief in an instant. And then, just as quickly, his face became granite. He barged passed Hector and Angel as he strode up to his boy.

  Tommy looked up. He was still holding Beatriz’s hand, but the ambassador didn’t acknowledge her presence. ‘What the hell do you think …’ he started to say.

  But Tommy stood up. He was almost as tall as his dad. Something in his demeanour made the ambassador fall silent.

  ‘I’m sick and tired of you telling people I’m a problem child,’ he said. ‘Ever since Mum died you want to control me. It ends now.’

  The ambassador looked outraged.

  ‘This is Beatriz. She lives in a favela. Get used to it, because you’ll be seeing a lot more of her.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Tommy,’ the ambassador said. ‘You can’t spend your time with a –’

  ‘With a what?’ Tommy demanded.

  The ambassador waved his arms angrily. ‘She’s not good enough for you,’ he said.

  A silence descended on the room.

  Max stepped forward. ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘she’s pretty much the smartest person I’ve ever met.’

  The ambassador glanced at him. ‘Who the hell even are you?’ he said.

  ‘He’s –’ Tommy started to say, but Hector interrupted him.

  ‘He’s one of the young people who just put their lives on the line to rescue your son,’ Hector said. ‘You can either talk to him and to the young lady with respect, or you can get the hell out of here.’

  The ambassador flashed Hector a look then turned back to Tommy. ‘We’re leaving,’ he said.

  Tommy ran one hand through his blond hair. ‘No, Dad,’ he said. ‘You’re leaving.’

  For a moment, Max thought the ambassador might hit his son. He raised one arm and kept it in the air for a second before lowering it again. Suddenly Hector was at his shoulder. ‘These kids have survived Blue Command and the BOPE. Do you really want to pick a fight with them?’

  The ambassador hesitated. He looked at his son, then at the other people in the room, who were all staring at him. ‘You haven’t heard the last of this,’ he said. He stormed towards the exit and out of the room.

  Tommy looked like he might crumple. ‘I didn’t mean to upset him,’ he said.

  ‘He’s an adult,’ Hector told him. ‘It’s up to him whether he gets upset or not. He might find that if he starts treating young people with a bit more respect, he’ll have an easier time of it.’

  ‘Careful, Hector,’ Max said with half a smile. ‘That was almost a compliment.’

  ‘You earned it,’ Hector said in a gruff voice. ‘That was a long night’s work.’

  Hector walked over to Pepe’s family and started talking to them. A hum of conversation descended on the room. Beatriz seemed to be consoling Tommy. Lukas, Lili and Sami were deep in conversation with Woody and Angel. Max stood by himself. He watched how Manuel put a proud hand on Pepe’s shoulder. How Tommy covered his eyes, clearly upset at the argument with his dad.

  All of a sudden, Max found himself thinking not of the favelas, or the BOPE, or Guzman, or gunfire. He wasn’t even thinking about Abby. He thought about his own father, the father he’d never known. What kind of a dad would he have been? A dad like Pepe’s, or a dad like Tommy’s? And was it because they’d come so close to death that Max missed him now more than ever?

  Hector saw him from across the room and approached. The grizzled Watcher seemed to size Max up before he spoke. ‘He’d have been proud of you,’ he said quietly, as though he could read Max’s thoughts. ‘Damn proud of you.’

  Max nodded. ‘I hope so,’ he replied, and he walked across the room to join his friends.

  Chris Ryan

  Chris Ryan was born in Newcastle.

  In 1984 he joined 22 SAS. After completing the year-long Alpine Guides Course, he was the troop guide for B Squadron Mountain Troop. He completed three tours with the anti-terrorist team, serving as an assaulter, sniper and finally Sniper Team Commander.

  Chris was part of the SAS eight-man patrol chosen for the famous Bravo Two Zero mission during the 1991 Gulf War. He was the only member of the unit to escape from Iraq, where three of his colleagues were killed and four captured. This was the longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS, and for this he was awarded the Military Medal. Chris wrote about his experiences in his book The One That Got Away, which was adapted for screen and became an immediate bestseller.

  Since then he has written five other books of non-fiction, over twenty bestselling novels and three series of children’s books. Chris’s novels have gone on to inspire the Sky One series Strike Back.

  In addition to his books, Chris has presented a number of very successful TV programmes including Hunting Chris Ryan, How Not to Die and Chris Ryan’s Elite Police.

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  First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

  HOT KEY BOOKS

  80–81 Wimpole St, London W1G 9RE

  www.hotkeybooks.com

  Copyright © Chris Ryan, 2020

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  The right of Chris Ryan to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Also available in audio

  ISBN: 978-1-4714-0787-1

  This eBook was produced using Atomik ePublisher

  Hot Key Books is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK

  www.bonnierbooks.co.uk

 

 

 
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