Girl Zero

by A. A. Dhand

  ‘Here,’ he said, passing Olivia the iPad. ‘Any of these look familiar?’

  She looked down at the screen, shaking her head.

  ‘Brimham? Cow and Calf?’ Harry urged.

  ‘That one!’ she said, looking up at him triumphantly. ‘The Cow! I remember, there was a pub we passed and that was its name. I thought it was funny!’

  ‘The Cow and Calf Inn?’

  ‘Yes!’ she said.

  ‘You, Olivia Goodwin, are a very clever little girl,’ Harry told her.

  FIFTY-FIVE

  RONNIE LOOKED AT the diplomatic licence plates in disbelief.

  ‘Who the fuck is it?’ he asked Sarah, lowering his night-vision goggles. ‘Who’ve you kept hidden from us?’

  ‘It’s Faisal Abdul Shah, the Pakistani foreign minister, and his bodyguard, Qaseem, head of the ISI, the Pakistani Secret Service.’

  ‘Christ! What are we supposed to do now?’

  She shrugged. ‘Nothing’s changed.’

  Enzo and Ronnie both sighed.

  ‘It’s only two men,’ Sarah pressed on. ‘Surely you can make them disappear.’

  ‘They’re fucking untouchables,’ said Ronnie. ‘They’re diplomats – they disappear, there’s going to be a massive investigation.’

  ‘Are you really that stupid?’ said Enzo, sidling up next to his boss.

  ‘She is,’ said Ronnie, scowling at her. ‘She really is. You should have told us.’

  ‘You would have backed off.’

  ‘You’re damn right. I’m here for Ali. Not some diplomatic shitstorm,’ said Ronnie.

  ‘They’re all connected to the same thing,’ said Sarah.

  ‘For you, maybe.’

  ‘I didn’t come this far to quit.’ Sarah looked him in the eye; she had to get this right. ‘Because of them, your daughter is dead. You remember your daughter, don’t you?’

  ‘You talk to me like that again, little girl, and I’ll throw you off this fucking rock.’

  ‘Tara was in this with me. You want to avenge her death? We take them all out.’

  Ronnie spread his hands flat on the rock. He turned to Enzo. ‘Can it be done?’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Can. It. Be. Done?’

  Ronnie was stony-faced.

  ‘Yes,’ replied Enzo. ‘Doing it isn’t the issue, it’s the clearing up.’ ‘We’ll torch the place,’ said Sarah. ‘Then you make the cars disappear and take the bodies to that crematorium of yours.’

  Ronnie was startled.

  ‘Tara told me.’

  ‘It’s messy, boss,’ said Enzo. ‘Risky.’

  Ronnie stood up and turned to face the farmhouse. ‘Get eyes on that place,’ he said.

  ‘Two guys are getting out of the car,’ Enzo began a muted commentary.

  ‘Sarah, take these,’ Ronnie said, handing her his night-vision binoculars, ‘give me confirmation it’s them.’

  She looked through them. ‘Yes.’ She swallowed hard. ‘They’re approaching the house. Ringing the doorbell,’ she said.

  ‘Door’s opening,’ said Enzo. ‘Can’t see who’s inside. They’re in.’ ‘Another car coming,’ said Sarah, ‘from the opposite direction, down the hill.’

  Ronnie took the goggles from her.

  A battered Ford Focus pulled into the driveway, parked next to the Audi.

  ‘Small guy. Hood,’ said Enzo.

  ‘Could be Ali,’ said Sarah.

  ‘Short? Stocky? Face covered,’ said Ronnie.

  ‘That’s him,’ she said, ‘can I see?’

  Ronnie stepped aside, handed her the goggles again.

  ‘Definitely him,’ she said.

  ‘Give her a gun,’ said Ronnie to Enzo.

  ‘What?’ replied Enzo, lowering his binoculars.

  ‘It’s a three-man takedown. Minimum. We’re going in,’ said Ronnie.

  Enzo didn’t look convinced. Ronnie glared at him.

  ‘Fine,’ said Enzo. ‘When we get off this rock – not before. Does she even know how to use one?’

  ‘She’s more than capable,’ Ronnie said, looking at Sarah. ‘Aren’t you?’

  Sarah didn’t reply.

  The men disappeared down the rock, Enzo first, then Ronnie.

  Standing alone, feeling like she was on top of the world, Sarah slipped her hand underneath her burka, carrying out her final checks.

  ‘Time to end this,’ she whispered. ‘Time for you all to die.’

  FIFTY-SIX

  OLIVIA WAS SAFE in A & E with Saima’s colleagues.

  Harry pulled into the Cow and Calf car park, saw Ronnie’s Range Rover parked at the top and accelerated towards it.

  What’s he doing here?

  He inspected the vehicle but it was empty, doors locked. Harry scoured the area, frantically looking for any sign of his brother.

  Then in the distance, somewhere beyond the giant rocks, he heard the muffled sound of a gunshot.

  Ronnie, Enzo and Sarah were by the side of the farmhouse, figuring out their strategy. Enzo was about to make his move when they heard the crack of gunfire from inside the farmhouse.

  ‘Something’s happening!’ said Sarah.

  Ronnie and Enzo looked at each other.

  ‘Dissent in the ranks,’ said Enzo.

  Ronnie ran to the house, pressed his back to the wall underneath the window and froze as the security lighting triggered. He waited for a presence at the window and when it didn’t arrive, he cautiously turned and peered over the window ledge.

  Two men were on their knees. A smaller guy with his hood up was pointing a gun at them. Nobody had noticed the security lighting come on outside because they were all focused on the spread-eagled body of what looked like the bodyguard, blood pooling from his head.

  Ali was double-crossing the boss.

  Ronnie hurried back.

  ‘Perfect,’ said Enzo. ‘He wastes the other two and, on his way out, we take him down.’

  ‘I want Faisal,’ hissed Sarah.

  ‘He’s not my priority—’ started Ronnie.

  He’d thought Sarah was reaching out to remonstrate with him. Instead, she snatched his gun and took off running.

  ‘Shit!’ muttered Enzo, grabbing for her.

  But she was gone before they could stop her.

  Sarah shot the lock on the door, then aimed another bullet at the living room window, knowing the shattering glass would distract Ali from the first shot. She fired again as she charged in.

  Without hesitation, Sarah shot at Ali, hitting him in the arm. The bullet sent his body spinning across the room. Riz and Faisal were face-down on the floor, hands over their heads. Sarah stooped to pick Ali’s gun from the floor where he had dropped it before he fell.

  One gun in each hand, she held the attention of the room.

  Harry heard more shots and ran back to his car.

  He sped down the dirt track towards the noise and saw a farmhouse on his right. Pulling his car off the road, he killed the engine and lowered his window, listening.

  The house had lost a front window and the door was only partially closed. He rushed to his boot, grabbing everything that might be of use: the bulletproof vest, his taser and the fifty-shot firework.

  Ronnie and Enzo were in the living room, weapons drawn. Their eyes were wide in the wake of Sarah’s entrance.

  ‘Impressive,’ said Enzo, moving towards her.

  Ronnie glared at Ali’s body writhing on the ground. Tara’s murderer. Nobody else in the room mattered.

  Ali was groaning on the floor, clutching his shattered arm, the hoodie still covering his face.

  Riz and Faisal remained motionless.

  ‘Who are you?’ Faisal asked, his eyes lingering on Sarah for a moment.

  ‘Don’t you recognize me with my fucking clothes on, bastard?’ Sarah spat on him, the gun shaking in her hands. The composure of her entry had given way to incandescent rage. The sight of her abuser brought back harrowing memories of the weight of him on top of he
r, being forced to parade around naked or scantily dressed for his perverse pleasure.

  ‘Sarah—’ Ronnie started. He cut himself off when Sarah stepped behind Enzo and cracked the base of her gun into his spine. Enzo’s legs gave way underneath him and his gun flew out of his hand.

  Sarah pressed one weapon into Enzo’s neck, using him as a human shield, then trained the other on Ronnie.

  ‘Drop your gun, Ronnie,’ she said.

  ‘What the fuck?’ he replied.

  ‘Drop it,’ she said.

  He shook his head in disbelief.

  ‘Are you a good enough shot to miss him and hit me?’ she said.

  ‘No. But if the first hits him, the second one’s yours.’

  Faisal was starting to move on the floor, sensing a chance to escape.

  ‘Starting to lose focus here, Sarah,’ said Ronnie, nodding in Faisal’s direction. ‘You want to give these guys the upper hand?’

  Sarah stepped away from Enzo as Ronnie tensed, preparing to fire.

  Keeping hold of one weapon, she placed the other in her pocket. Using her free hand, she removed the bulletproof vest Ronnie had given her and lifted her burka to reveal what was concealed underneath.

  Ronnie’s mouth dropped open and a tremor shook his firing arm.

  Sarah stared at him coldly. ‘Put it the fuck down.’

  Harry ran towards the farmhouse, stopping where his brother had stopped only moments before.

  There were three cars outside the house and only now did Harry see the Pakistani diplomatic plates on the Audi. Fuck. The ground he was standing on suddenly seemed shaky and he placed the firework on the floor, trying to understand what the hell he was looking at.

  The boss.

  He thought about what Billy had said:

  You’ve no idea how powerful an enemy you are taking on.

  ‘Christ,’ he hissed.

  Harry could hear Ronnie’s voice through the window and hurried towards it.

  Ronnie was staring in disbelief at Sarah, who was wearing a suicide vest and holding a detonator. Where the hell had she got that from?

  ‘Drop the gun,’ said Sarah, ‘or I’ll trigger the vest.’

  ‘You’ll die as well.’ Ronnie’s eyes never left her trigger hand, his gun trained on her forehead.

  ‘Haven’t you realized that whether I live or die isn’t important?’

  She retreated to the back wall so she could see all of them – Faisal, Riz, Ali and Ronnie.

  ‘Got you,’ she said. ‘Every last one.’

  ‘Sarah?’ Faisal interrupted them, rising to his knees.

  ‘Yes, Faisal, it’s me,’ said Sarah, revelling in his shock. Revelling at seeing him on his knees at her mercy.

  ‘It cannot be,’ he said, shaking his head.

  ‘You were double-crossed by your own men,’ she said, and looked around the room.

  Ali lay still, watching the scene from underneath his hoodie, tightly clutching his arm.

  ‘You cannot kill me,’ Faisal cried. ‘I am a diplomat. I am protected!’

  ‘Fuck you, Faisal. I was nothing but Girl Zero to you. A test slave, your first white girl. There are so many lives you’ve ruined since then and all because you got away with it the first time, with me. Well you’re not getting away with it any more.’

  Sarah shot him in the groin. No hesitation.

  He collapsed, writhing in front of her, screaming in agony.

  Sarah pressed the gun to the back of his head and pulled the trigger, sending brain and bone fragments across the room.

  Riz started screaming like a child. Sarah shot him too, one in the groin and another in the head.

  Ronnie was counting the bullets.

  One for the door.

  Two when she came in.

  One for Ali.

  Two each for Faisal and Riz.

  She’s out.

  Sarah dropped the .357 Smith and Wesson revolver on the floor and switched to Ali’s gun, keeping the detonator tight in her other hand.

  ‘I was trained well,’ she said, seeing the disappointment in Ronnie’s face.

  ‘Trained?’ he replied.

  Sarah ignored him, turning her focus and the gun on Ali. ‘Take off that hood so I can see who I’m executing.’

  ‘No,’ said Ronnie, interrupting her. ‘He’s mine. You’ve had your revenge. Even if you’re going to kill me, at least let me have my revenge.’

  ‘Revenge?’ said Ali, struggling to his knees, still clutching his bleeding arm.

  ‘You killed my daughter,’ said Ronnie. ‘I didn’t,’ said Ali.

  Outside, Harry heard Ali’s confusion.

  He put the fifty-shot firework on the floor but the fuse was only a couple of inches long. He searched his pockets for something to lengthen it with.

  ‘I know you did.’

  ‘She was already dead when I got there,’ said Ali.

  ‘You’re lying,’ hissed Ronnie.

  Ali shook his head.

  ‘You’re lying,’ Ronnie said again, becoming increasingly agitated.

  ‘No, he’s not,’ Sarah said, her gaze now fixed on Ronnie.

  ‘This all started with drugs,’ Sarah continued, gripping the detonator tight. ‘For years you’ve flooded this city with heroin and other shit that gives people like Billy and Ali power over their victims. You think you’re not involved?’ she spat mockingly. ‘It all starts with you.’

  Ronnie shook his head. ‘That’s bullshit.’

  ‘Says the man who doesn’t realize it cost him his daughter.’

  Ronnie opened his mouth to protest, then stopped.

  ‘You?’ he whispered.

  She nodded.

  ‘You used my daughter to get to me?’ Ronnie gritted his teeth, fists clenched, anger rising.

  ‘No – you used your daughter, buying her off so you could protect yourself.’

  ‘I don’t believe you,’ he said.

  ‘It was finding out who you were that was the hardest part. Tonight – your warehouse? Gone. Greatest bonfire the city has ever seen. Your family, broken. The empire you built, ruined.’ Sarah nodded at the others in the room. ‘I’ve taken out the whole chain.’

  Harry listened to Sarah’s confession, momentarily stunned. Somehow he needed to get inside, before she blew the place apart.

  Saima’s taweez.

  Harry broke the necklace then put the scroll back in his pocket. Attaching the thread to the fuse should buy him the time he needed.

  He lit it and headed for the front door.

  ‘You kill us and Olivia dies,’ Ali shouted in desperation.

  ‘No,’ said Harry. ‘Olivia’s safe.’

  They all turned to see him standing in the doorway.

  ‘Harry?’ whispered Ronnie, but Harry didn’t look at him. He just carried on walking slowly towards Sarah, his hands raised in a calming gesture.

  ‘Stop,’ she said, waving the detonator at him. Harry kept inching towards her, stopping when he reached her outstretched hand, still clutching the switch.

  He had to get this right first time.

  ‘Olivia was at Ali’s house,’ he said, glancing at the hooded figure. ‘She’s safe now. I dropped her in A & E.’

  ‘You’re lying!’ shouted Ali, hope strangling his voice.

  They ignored him.

  ‘Just walk,’ Harry said softly. ‘That way you win. You got them all. Ronnie’s my problem now.’

  ‘You shouldn’t have come,’ she said angrily. ‘You’re not like him, I know that now. I tried to keep you away!’

  ‘You did,’ said Harry gently, ‘because you’re not a bad person.’

  Harry was doing all he could to force the image of her killing Tara from his mind.

  ‘Ronnie can’t live,’ said Sarah, shaking her head.

  ‘You’ve already destroyed him. Everything he has is gone.’ ‘He’ll start again.’

  ‘He’s under arrest,’ replied Harry.

  ‘You wouldn’t.’

&nb
sp; The firework exploded with a deafening boom directly outside the window. As Harry had hoped, Sarah’s focus turned instantly toward the sound. In that moment, Harry snatched the trigger from her, while driving the elbow of his other arm into her face. The impact sent her crashing unconscious into the wall. She dropped the gun.

  Ali got there first, seizing the weapon and shooting twice at Harry.

  Ronnie was already on him, smashing the butt of his gun into the boy’s face, breaking his nose. Ronnie fired a shot into Ali’s hood, sending his body careering into the wall alongside Sarah.

  As Harry hit the floor, both bullets thudding into his vest, the switch fell from his hand. He rolled on to his side, trying to get air back into his lungs, and watched helplessly as Ronnie removed Sarah’s suicide vest from her unconscious body and dragged her out of the front door.

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  HARRY STRUGGLED TO his feet and removed his bulletproof vest, feeling for broken ribs.

  He looked around at the carnage in the room.

  ‘Shit,’ he whispered, his breathing so ragged it was an effort to form the word.

  Four dead bodies and an unconscious Enzo, blood everywhere …

  A political nightmare waiting to get out.

  But Harry couldn’t worry about Faisal now; he needed to get to Ronnie. Sarah deserved to be punished for what she’d done, but not the way Ronnie had in mind.

  Harry got in his car and drove recklessly up the hill. He parked next to Ronnie’s Range Rover and almost fell out of the driver’s side.

  Harry scoured the area and saw torches flickering by the base of the Cow and Calf Rocks. He hurried towards them, the incline brutal on his lungs, the pain in his shoulder boiling like lava as he reached the summit of the smaller rock.

  Sarah was on her knees.

  Ronnie had a gun to her temple.

  ‘Don’t,’ shouted Harry.

  Ronnie didn’t acknowledge him. His every ounce of focus was on Sarah.

  ‘You killed Tara – for what? To get me? You want to come at me, you don’t go through my baby!’

  When Sarah replied, she looked at Harry, not Ronnie. ‘You must really love him to do what you just did.’

  ‘I didn’t do it for Ronnie,’ replied Harry. ‘I did it for my mother.’

  ‘He makes you weak,’ Sarah said. ‘But you already know that.’ ‘Hey!’ Ronnie kicked her, sending Sarah sprawling across the ground, closer to the lip of the rock. ‘You want to worry about yourself.’