‘He’s in there, I know,’ Neva says.
Olive is shivering, in shock, and incapable of speech. But she still manages a nod.
Neva reaches for the study door as Michael opens it.
‘Michael?’ she says.
‘Don’t, he’ll be—’ Olive gasps at her side.
Michael lifts a gun and fires.
Neva pushes Olive aside and dives at Michael. They grapple. His knee jerks up into her side, winding her. Neva staggers back. Olive backs away; the crossbow is up in front of her.
‘Amelie!’ screams a voice.
Simone Arquette throws herself in front of Neva. Michael fires again. The bullet hits Simone. Her hands fly to her stomach. She looks at Michael and then crumples down on the floor between him and Neva. Blood pours from the wound, but Neva doesn’t bend to see if Simone is alive because it’s crucial that she doesn’t take her eyes from Michael.
‘Michael,’ Neva says, ‘This isn’t you. Please. Listen. They’ve sparked your conditioning but you can fight it. Remember all of yourself, not just this part.’
Michael levels the gun at Neva.
‘Wait!’ says Beech. He comes out of the room and looks around at the carnage. ‘I’m afraid Michael can’t break free, my dear. He’s been activated with a deeply embedded word that only I know, which means he’ll fight until I stop him. You’ve caused me a great deal of trouble these last few months, Neva. Operatives are dead because of you. My organisation’s work has been disrupted and we’ve lost the support of politicians that were once very firmly in my pocket. I can get that back, but I have to make a clear example of you. And as for you, Olive, what a disappointment after all my confidence in you! Of course, I can’t say I’m surprised. You were always substandard material. Even to Creda.’
‘Michael?’ Neva ignores Beech’s speech and focuses on Michael. He is indifferent, cold. She’s seen this killer side of him briefly before and now she doesn’t have the element of surprise to take him down.
‘Kill her, Michael,’ Beech says.
The weapon moves up, levelling with her chest as Michael aims his killing shot. Then Neva notices a bead of sweat dripping down Michael’s face. He’s trying.
‘Only you can do this,’ she says. ‘Break away, Michael.’
‘I said, kill her!’ Beech orders. His voice is sharper, higher pitched than usual, and shows an element of hysteria. His personal weakness leaks through.
Neva knows then that Beech is afraid. It strengthens her resolve to pull Michael from his clutches, to save the children, and even Olive too. All is not lost and for the first time in her life a new emotion works its way into her chest and stomach. A feeling of warmth, of … hope. For the future is still not set and she can still walk away from this. She even risks a glance at Simone Arquette.
When Michael doesn’t comply, Beech reaches for the gun. He tries to pry it from Michael’s hand and then there is a hard, sharp thrum as something zings through the air towards them. Beech staggers back, releasing the gun. Michael turns it towards him. Both he and Neva see the crossbow arrow that’s buried in Beech’s side.
Using his other hand, Michael forces the hand holding the gun down.
‘It’s over … Beech,’ Michael says, his voice forced and struggling against the conditioning. ‘You corrupt bastard!’
Beech slides down the wall, feet splayed, hands on the arrow. He tugs at it.
‘What’s that sound?’ Olive says.
Michael glances at her, then back at Beech.
‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ Michael says. ‘You’ll do more damage and you’ll bleed out faster.’
‘I didn’t think you cared, dear boy,’ Beech says.
There is a loud whirring sound, like a tornedo is taking up outside the building.
‘I don’t. But that sound you hear is Archive arriving here in helicopters with a SWAT team. I called this in when I arrived. I’d like to see you brought to justice.’
A gurgling, blood-filled chuckle slips from Beech’s lips. He tries once more to tug out the arrow but the strength is no longer in his hands. His breath rasps in his chest.
Neva bends down and examines Simone. ‘She’s dead.’
‘I’m sorry. His control was too strong,’ Michael says.
‘I think she was my mother,’ Neva says.
‘I suspected as much,’ Michael says. ‘Olive? Where is she?’
Neva looks around. ‘She’s slipped away. Good for her.’
‘Good for her? She was running this place.’
‘Do you think she had any more choice than you did when you fired at Simone?’ Neva says.
‘Oh God! What a mess,’ Michael says.
Gunfire starts outside. They hear shouts and cries as the last remaining security guards are taken down.
‘I need to get out of here too,’ Neva says.
‘I can help you. Get you immunity from prosecution.’
‘How will you manage that? No one but us will understand how hard it is to resist the Network.’
‘Exactly. I can tell them, from my own experience.’
‘Michael, the last thing you should do is admit you’ve been a double agent. Even though you couldn’t help it,’ says Neva.
The front doors burst open and Michael turns, holding his hands up in the air as the SWAT team pours in.
‘I’m Security Agent Michael Kensington!’ he calls. ‘I’m holding a gun but I’m going to put it down.’ Michael bends and lowers the gun to the floor and then he stands again, hands held up.
‘Michael, look out!’ calls Ray Martin.
Beech snatches up the gun. Michael sees the man aim and he throws himself aside and then there is a barrage of automatic gunfire. Michael is deafened by the shots, and he watches Beech jerk and twitch as each bullet penetrates his body. The gun falls from Beech’s lifeless fingers and skitters across the floor.
‘Neva!’ Michael calls, looking around to see if she was caught in the crossfire.
But she’s nowhere to be seen.
Chapter Seventy-Two
MICHAEL
‘So, you’re saying that Neva was Simone Arquette’s daughter Amelie? That Arquette was willingly involved with the disappearance and grooming of her own child, and so are the parents of all the other missing children?’ Ray says.
We are back at Archive. After the SWAT team arrived, I was bundled into one of the helicopters and brought back. They told me they found all the children and some arrests were made.
I’m now in an interview room with Ray and Beth and they’ve been grilling me for what seems like hours. I’m tired but all I want to do is tell them the truth.
I nod. ‘This thing has been going on for years. People exchanging power and wealth for their children. Though in some cases it might only be one parent involved and not the other. Ambassador Arquette isn’t involved. I know that much.’
‘That’s like a fairy tale or something, Mike,’ Beth says. ‘One I read to my kids, like Rapunzel.’
‘It may seem far-fetched but people have done worse for money,’ I say. How can they possibly understand how real this is to me? And how awful. ‘My own godfather was running this thing. My parents were both involved. In fact, they weren’t my real parents at all. But I didn’t know. My whole life … it’s been a lie. I don’t even know who my real parents were.’
‘Okay,’ says Ray. ‘We’ve been through that, and I sympathise, Mike. We’re going to sort this out. But what you’re telling us is wrong. Neva isn’t Amelie.’
‘What do you mean?’ I ask.
‘She isn’t Arquette’s daughter, though she does look like her.’
‘But…’ I say, ‘Simone saved Neva’s life. She believed—’
‘We found this on Olive Redding’s desk,’ Ray interrupts.
Ray places a brown folder in front of me. I open it and begin to read the contents.
‘Amelie died during the first week of her conditioning,’ Ray explains, even though I can see this for
myself. ‘It seems she had a heart condition. She was a premature baby. There were complications that the parents hadn’t known about. The poor kid couldn’t take the drugs and hypnosis. They killed her.’
I put the folder aside. I feel sick. I know I saw Neva back in the house when I was there for a few short weeks of initial conditioning. They were calling her Amelie. I remembered it all once I entered the place. It had given me physical pain. I knew her then; she’d tried to warn me. Somehow, despite the circumstances, we’d been friends. But regardless of wishing we had resolved her parentage, she wasn’t the girl in the photograph I’m now looking at. Similar – very similar – but not the same.
‘If she isn’t Amelie, who is she?’ I ask.
‘The file just admits they brought in a replacement. It seems that they were afraid to let Beech know the girl had died. I’m combing missing persons to find out who she was but I’ve had no luck so far,’ Beth says.
‘Mike, you’re going to have to be detained until we can straighten this out. You see, we found some very irregular activity on your computer. You understand how this goes, don’t you? You need to tell us the whole truth,’ Ray says.
I sigh and rub my hand across his forehead. It’s been a long day and still I can’t get them to understand how I didn’t know about my involvement. Will this ever end?
But I know now what they found. I was changing records, making Ray and Beth appear guilty, directing the heat away from myself. It was me that sent that initial email cancelling Sharrick’s toxicology, though I made it seem as though it was from Ray. Then at some point, too, I’d also put things in Beth’s reports that would make Ray worry about her ability to work on the case, all designed so he would give the case to me. And the other me would have made sure it was never solved. Beth was getting too close to the truth; she’d found a link between Arquette and one of the other parents, an old photograph of them together at school. So, while I thought she wasn’t doing anything, she was just keeping this knowledge close to her chest until she had all the evidence she needed.
‘I’m willing to do what I can to help you bring the Network down. Start at Beech’s company offices… Here’s what I remember of my visits there…’
Chapter Seventy-Three
MICHAEL
I’ve been in custody for a couple of months. They don’t tell me much about the ongoing investigation, but Ray has said they found the documentation I told them about at Beech’s offices. He’s implied, but not said, that they have SWAT teams taking out several locations in the UK, and Interpol are involved for those locations in Europe.
‘We know more about your real parentage,’ Ray told me soon after they’d brought me to this facility. They’d found a file on Olive’s desk that told them everything about my conditioning. ‘They used a surrogate mother. Unnamed. And you were left with her for the first few years of your life. Then you were handed to the house. Beech was your biological father.’
I’d taken this information in and tried to recall before but nothing came to me. Perhaps they had successfully erased all recollection of the woman who’d raised me in the beginning. Was she nurturing? Loving? Did she cry as Simone Arquette collected me and took me, with Amelie, to the house of killers?
‘Beech was preparing me to take over from him one day. Like his father did with him.’
I’m in an unknown location, where political criminals are kept. I’m being considered highly dangerous. But because I have no hope of escape, they’ve given me the file and I’ve read it over and over. Seeing what they did to turn me into their perfect sleeper operative is difficult to take, but the more I read it, the more in control of myself I feel.
Mia is a problem for them. She’s also Beech’s child, by a different surrogate, and we were born within hours of each other. Almost twins. They brought her in and interviewed her. She doesn’t remember anything of those visits to the house. I didn’t tell Archive what I know about her involvement; she will be guiltless unless activated. She has a beautiful baby daughter now, who is only a few weeks old. They showed me photographs, and seeing that tiny innocent creature brought me to tears. I hope that everything I’ve done will help to protect her and the child in the future. The Network will not be getting my niece. Come hell or high water, I’ll make sure of that.
When he visits, I ask Ray about the children we rescued.
‘I can’t tell you much,’ he says. ‘But we found the recent kids and they are relatively unharmed. There were seven teenagers though. Four boys and three girls. They are undergoing intense psychiatric help. I have no idea if they will ever be let out into the real world at this point, but we’re doing what we can.’
Then he tells me that the parents are still under observation. Some they were able to prove were involved. But the majority do appear to be innocent. Perhaps Beech had trouble buying the children from these people after all? Maybe Simone Arquette was a rarity. Either way, they are safe and sound and happy to be home, even if social services will be in their lives until adulthood. Better that than they are taken away again, this time never to be found.
‘The file on Amelie gave us the location of her grave,’ Ray tells me. ‘She’s been returned now to her father and given a proper burial.’
The thought makes me cry again. I’m so emotional these days; the pain of it all can no longer be held in check.
I think about Neva a lot – who she is, where she’s going, and what her future holds now. It’s worrying that there are operatives out there still. Some, like myself, may be sleepers. Others are trained killers with no direction now that their leadership is gone. I hope they feel they can be free, as Neva did, as Olive learnt.
I find the two of them in dreams sometimes. They lie on a beach like two friends without a care in the world, the sprawling sand pale as bone, kissed by silver waves. It’s a hope-filled fantasy that I want to believe in.
‘Good for you!’ I say when I wake.
Ray says I shouldn’t concern myself with them. I need to think about me, and they have me in therapy to help with the trauma of everything. The counselling helps, but the truth is, I’ll always be a child of the house. What they did, who they made me, will never leave me. With time, however, I’ll learn to live with it.
Ray says the work I’ve done, the efforts I’m still making, have gone a long way to securing my future. But the job at Archive, high classification, probably won’t be open to me after this. I don’t blame him for his caution. I’d say the same if it was him, or Beth, or Leon.
I don’t think they will ever trust me again, but I hope that one day, one distant impossible day, I’ll be lying on a beach of white sand and Neva will find me.
THE END
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Michael and Neva will return in Kill or Die…
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Acknowledgments
What an exciting, and terrifying, day it was when I sent The House of Killers to my lovely agent Camilla Shestopal for her thoughts. I knew that The House of Killers was a very different novel and for that reason I was somewhat apprehensive. So, I was thrilled when Camilla came back to tell me that she ‘loved’ it and that One More Chapter wanted to not only publish this one, but were invested enough in the series to commit to the next two also. Hence The House of Killers series was born.
Huge thanks go to Camilla as always for being such a wonderful support and for the amazing guidance she gives me on my writing and career. And for absolutely being a friend too, whom I love to just chat with and see whenever we get the opportunity.
A massive thank you needs to go to my editor Bethan Morgan, whose amazing and insightful observations of character, plot and setting have helped me immensely to focus this novel into the work it is today. I’ve never been more excited to read feedback on one of my works because it had such energy and enthusiasm as well as helping me clarify everything I wanted to achieve within these pages. I was delighted by how completely Bethan ‘got it’. And I’ve absolutely lo
ved the editing process, which is always a joy at HarperCollins. I feel like I learnt so much from the process that I could then carry forward into the next two books.
Thank you to Charlotte Ledger, who with Bethan, thought I was worth taking a chance on and who also got the vision for this series. And also to the fantastic marketing team, Claire Fenby and Melanie Price, who never let a good opportunity pass by when it can help the authors at One More Chapter promote their books. Seriously, what a team!
And of course I will not forget Holly Macdonald and Lucy Bennett for such fantastic cover design, all of which helps to show The House of Killers in its best possible light.
Final thanks must go to my friends Tracey Herod (what an appropriate name) and Andrew Beech, who happily let me use their names to become such great villains in the series. You guys rock!
Thank you for reading…
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Don’t miss Kill or Die, the second explosive instalment in The House of Killers series, coming in May 2021.
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And be sure to nab your copy of the nerve-shredding conclusion to the trilogy with Kill a Spy, coming in July 2021.
You will also love Samantha Lee Howe’s debut The Stranger in Our Bed, a page-turning thriller exploring the dark secrets at the heart of a picture-perfect marriage…
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Be sure to follow Samantha on Twitter @SamanthaLHowe, on Facebook @SamanthaLeeHoweThrillers, and check out her website at samanthaleehowe.co.uk for all the updates on her latest work.
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