by Rob Sinclair
It probably wasn’t the response she wanted, but it was the plain and simple truth. If they did nothing, Lindegaard would surely kill Tom anyway. This way, at least he had a fighting chance of survival.
Logan opened his door and got out. Grainger followed. Logan leaned down and stuck his head back into the car.
‘Wait here until I call,’ Logan said to Winter. ‘If you haven’t heard from us in thirty minutes just go, get out of here. You’ve got the evidence. Tell everyone what Lindegaard is. You’ll find some friends, I’m sure.’
‘I will. And good luck.’
‘Luck doesn’t come into it,’ Logan said as he shut the door.
He looked over the car to Grainger on the other side. Logan couldn’t read her expression at all. He had no idea what was going through her mind. In Kazakhstan and on the train to Beijing, he’d finally thought that their stuttering relationship may be making progress. Then she’d pulled a gun on him. Again. He knew he could trust her for this final assault; if nothing else, she wanted to save Tom’s life. That meant they shared a common enemy. After that – who knew?
He moved to the boot of the car and opened it. Logan looked around, waiting for the solitary pedestrian in sight to move away, then took out the M4 and, as discreetly as he could, stuffed it inside his coat. It was bulky and heavy but they didn’t have far to move in the open, and with Grainger taking the handgun, it was the only option if he wanted to be armed.
‘Come on then,’ Logan said as he shut the boot.
Grainger nodded and they looked left and right, then dashed across the road toward the hotel. They cut left and walked around the side of the hotel, away from the main entrance. Winter, in the car, would keep guard at the front of the hotel, the other M4 on his lap in case he needed to take Lindegaard out. But Logan didn’t think Winter would need it. Because Lindegaard wouldn’t be leaving the hotel on foot.
As they made their way around the side of the hotel, they came to the exit ramp that led down into the basement car park. There was a barrier on either side. CCTV cameras were placed above both the entrance and exit sides to record movements, but there was no manned booth. Logan stooped under the barrier on the exit side and Grainger followed just two steps behind.
They headed down the ramp and into the car park below.
‘Looks like a single level,’ Grainger said when they reached the bottom. ‘Makes it easier.’
‘Yeah. But two stairwells into here. He could come from either.’
‘So what do we do?’
‘We sit either side. But stay at this end, nearer to the ramp. Wait and see which stairwell he comes from.’
‘Okay. I’ll go left, you right. When we know where he’s coming from, the other can move across.’
‘Exactly.’
They headed in their respective directions. Logan crept from car to car, edging closer to the stairwell door. He came to a stop up against a minivan, the vehicle’s height providing him with good cover from the door, which was only ten yards away.
He looked around him, trying to see whether he was in view of any CCTV cameras. He spotted three more cameras dotted about, but it seemed that from where he was hiding, he was invisible to them all. In any case, he assumed there wasn’t a guard viewing live footage of all feeds. Most likely the cameras were in place to record incidents. A hotel that size would have hundreds of cameras, far too many to make it feasible for security staff to be watching each feed twenty-four hours a day.
Logan looked over to the other side of the car park, trying to spot Grainger. There was no sign of her. He scooted down and looked underneath the cars and saw one of her feet behind a tyre.
He felt a wave of relief. For just a fleeting moment, Logan had wondered whether Grainger had duped him. But she was there, on the far side of the car park, almost in line with him.
Logan was just about to stand back up when he heard a clunk and then a bang as the stairwell door on his side of the car park opened and then slammed shut on itself. Logan waited, his body relaxed and calm, as he heard footsteps coming toward him.
He risked a peek and saw a woman, smartly dressed. Her arm was interlinked with the casually dressed man walking by her side. It wasn’t Lindegaard. Logan pulled his head back in quickly, hoping they hadn’t spotted him. The lack of change in the rhythmic pattern of their footsteps suggested they hadn’t.
Logan held his breath and waited. He hoped the twosome would simply get into a car before they reached him and drive off none the wiser. But the nearer they got, the less likely that prospect seemed. Logan was about to start to move around the minivan, to keep himself out of sight, when he heard a double beep and the indicator lights of the van flashed.
He cursed his bad luck. He had to move before the two strangers got to the van. The last thing he wanted was for these two to become spooked and run off to tell the police before Lindegaard had even made an appearance.
But just as Logan was about to move, he heard the door on the opposite side of the car park open and then close.
And then he heard Grainger’s voice.
‘Stop, now!’ she screamed. ‘Hands in the air. Both of you.’
Logan tensed, bracing himself for action.
A second later, a gunshot rang out.
Chapter 54
There was a chorus of shouts.
‘Get in the van, now!’ shouted a woman.
It wasn’t Grainger. The voice hadn’t come from the other side of the car park, where Grainger had been waiting, but from much closer by.
It was at that moment Logan realised what was happening.
He had only glimpsed the smartly dressed woman and the man she was with for a brief second. He had taken the whole picture in but not really thought about what it was telling him.
The woman, he had assumed, was on business. Logan guessed many of the hotel’s residents were. The man had been somewhat more casually dressed. The woman had been holding on to the man, her arm interlinked with his, so Logan had thought the two were a couple. He hadn’t thought it unusual that the man was walking with both hands behind his back. But the reason was clear now. Logan had never seen the man before, but he realised who it was.
Tom Grainger.
There was shouting over on the other side of the car park. More gunfire. Logan heard hurried footsteps coming from nearby. He spun on his heel, pulling the M4 around with him.
When he darted out from behind the minivan, it was Tom Grainger he caught sight of first. He had a grimace on his face. An arm around his neck. The woman was behind him, pushing him along. But she was too focused on her job – trying to get her man into the waiting vehicle. She hadn’t spotted Logan at all.
Logan lifted the M4. He saw Tom Grainger’s eyes open wide in panic. Logan pulled the trigger, releasing a single bullet – he’d changed the firing selection in order to save ammunition.
The bullet sailed from the muzzle. It whizzed past Tom Grainger’s right ear, striking the woman who had hold of him just above her eye. She fell down into a heap, taking her hostage with her.
Logan lowered his gun. He rushed over to the two bodies. The woman was dead. No doubt about it.
‘You okay?’ Logan said hurriedly.
‘Yeah. I think so,’ said Tom.
‘Just stay out of sight until this is over,’ Logan said, turning and heading off before he’d finished his sentence.
He looked over to the other side of the car park as he moved toward the exit ramp.
‘Is that you, Angela?’ shouted a man’s voice. It was Lindegaard. ‘And I’m guessing Carl Logan is here too.’
Silence. Logan kept on creeping.
‘Nice little trick you played there,’ Lindegaard shouted. ‘Ambushing us like that. Pity me for actually believing you wanted to do a deal. But you’ve just fucked any chance of you and your hubby getting out of this alive.’
There was another gunshot. Logan instinctively ducked, though he soon realised the shot hadn’t been aimed at him. He reached the
end of the car park and cut back across, over to the side where Grainger was. He pulled up against a concrete pillar and peered around.
Out in the open, near the stairwell door, was a crumpled body. It looked like a man. But it wasn’t Lindegaard.
Five parking spaces in front of him, Logan saw Grainger. She was hunched behind a car bonnet, peeking out every few seconds. Other than the body in the middle of the car park, there was no sign of Lindegaard or anyone else.
Logan edged forward, crouching down, moving from one car to the next. He whispered to Grainger. She didn’t react at all. She mustn’t have heard him.
Logan was three cars away when Grainger took a step out around the front of the car that she had been hunkered behind.
‘No, Angela,’ Logan said in a hushed voice.
This time she did hear him. She turned and glanced at him. But never saw the threat coming from the side. Logan hadn’t seen it either, even though he’d guessed what Lindegaard had been doing. Seemingly from nowhere, Lindegaard rushed toward Grainger. He came into view too late for Logan to make a difference. Lindegaard had outflanked her, moving around to take her out from behind.
Logan hastily raised his gun. He let off two rounds. But Lindegaard had the element of surprise. Neither of the shots hit him. Lindegaard flung himself into Grainger, tackling her like a rugby player and sending her crashing to the ground. She lost her gun in the process. Logan rushed forward. He raised his gun, looking for a shot.
But in the end he didn’t take it. There was too much at stake.
Logan froze.
Lindegaard hauled Grainger up. There was a large red graze on her cheek where she had hit the deck. A line of blood trickled from her nose. As she looked up, her pleading eyes bored into Logan. Lindegaard stood behind her, twisting Grainger’s arm behind her body in a hammerlock. His other hand pushed the barrel of a gun into her back.
‘Now what?’ Logan said.
‘We had a deal,’ Lindegaard spat.
‘Sorry about that.’
‘Well, no more deals now.’
‘You hurt her and I’m not just going to kill you. I’ll make you suffer.’
Lindegaard laughed. ‘Look where you are,’ he said. ‘Police will be storming this place any minute. Remember who you are. You two are both wanted in several countries.’
‘I guess it’s just as well that Winter is so good at digging then,’ Logan said. ‘Pretty soon, you’ll find the tables have turned.’
Logan couldn’t see all of Lindegaard’s face as he hid behind Grainger, but even from the narrow glimpse that he had, Logan could tell his last words had washed some of Lindegaard’s arrogant confidence away.
‘You’re finished, Lindegaard,’ Logan said. ‘Whatever happens here, your life is over.’
‘I should have killed you years ago,’ Lindegaard said.
‘You’re right, you should have.’
‘All you’ve ever done is cause me problems.’
‘I’m sorry for doing my job so well. And for having some real loyalty.’
‘Loyalty? To what? To the JIA? To your country? To Mackie?’
The mentioning of Logan’s long-term mentor sent a shiver down his spine. This was going to end here. Lindegaard wasn’t getting out of the car park alive.
‘You’re not loyal, Logan. You’re dumb. You were a toy for Mackie. Nothing more, nothing less.’
‘Like Lena was to you? I know you’re a cool man, Lindegaard, but having your own niece killed?’
‘You’ve no idea what you’re talking about!’ Lindegaard shouted, clearly riled by Logan’s words.
However much Lindegaard wanted to be, he simply wasn’t in control of this situation, Logan realised.
Logan raised his gun. He knew he didn’t have a kill shot. But he had to do something. He just hoped Grainger would forgive him.
A split second later, a gunshot rang out.
But Logan hadn’t fired it.
Logan looked off to his right. It was Tom Grainger. He held a revolver in his hand, pointed at Lindegaard. He fired again. The sound made Logan jump.
Logan looked back at Lindegaard, who took a half-step sideways before his body slowly crumpled to the ground. Tom had hit him twice. Once in the side. Once in the neck. Lindegaard would be dead in seconds.
But as he fell, another gunshot blasted. Lindegaard’s last act of defiance. Grainger stumbled, her mouth open, a look of shock plastered on her face. Both Logan and Tom shouted out almost in unison. Grainger flopped to her knees, then keeled over onto her side.
Logan dropped his gun and rushed over to her. Tom did the same. Logan reached her first. He spotted the hole in the back of her jacket. The material around it was wet with blood. Tom came up beside Logan. Without thinking, Logan lunged forward and threw his fist toward Tom’s face.
‘You did this!’ Logan screamed, getting to his feet as Tom reeled backward.
Tom wiped at his lip with the back of his hand and looked at the bloody mark that it left. Then, without saying a word – averting his gaze from Logan – he stood up and went back over to Grainger. She was sprawled on the floor, gargling and gagging for breath.
Logan tried his hardest to fight against the rage building inside him. His head was on fire, his heart bursting in his chest. He thought he could feel his veins throbbing with fury. But he fought it off as best he could. Tom’s rash move had led to Grainger getting shot. But it had also felled Lindegaard. Logan himself had been seconds away from taking a similar gamble.
Fighting to keep his emotions in check, he crouched back down next to Grainger.
He took her hand. He looked into her bloodshot eyes.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Logan said.
Grainger stared deep into his eyes. Her breaths were fast and shallow. She didn’t say a word.
‘Angela, be strong,’ Tom sobbed. ‘Please, you’ll get through this.’
Grainger shut her eyes. Her face contorted in pain. When she opened them again, she was staring straight up at the ceiling. Her eyes glazed over. Logan wondered for a second whether she had gone.
But then she opened and closed her mouth and pained sounds came from her lips. As though she was trying to say something but couldn’t.
After a few moments, she finally found the strength.
‘I love you,’ she spluttered as bubbles of blood burst from her mouth.
Logan and Tom looked at each other. Logan knew what Tom was thinking. Neither was sure which man she had been speaking to. Perhaps it had been to both of them. Logan looked back at Grainger, completely still, ghostly.
And then she closed her eyes again.
Chapter 55
Two months later
Logan stood on the balcony and looked down at the crashing, frothing waves below. The dull grey sky seemed to blend into the water, making it impossible to pinpoint the distant horizon.
There was a cool breeze and Logan folded his arms and hunched his head down into the neck of his woollen jumper to escape the cold. Although the scene in front of him looked bleak today, it was a whole lot better than what he had become used to in the frozen wastelands of Europe and Asia over the last few months. And he knew that come summer, this place would be the paradise he craved.
Hell, compared to where he had come from, it already was.
After the paramedics had arrived in the car park in Beijing, Logan had called straight in to Winter. The JIA commander had still been parked in the car opposite the hotel. He rushed as fast as he could on his shot leg down to Logan and helped to straighten out the situation with the local police who, understandably, had wanted to lock Logan up.
From there, Winter had somehow been able to extract Logan from China with little opposition from the Chinese authorities. Logan didn’t know how Winter had managed it, but he was certainly grateful for it. And Winter, naturally, was thankful to Logan for his help in bringing to an end Lindegaard’s life of lies and deceit, and in doing so very possibly saving the JIA’s existence.
; The news story that played in the press explained how the fugitive lovers – Carl Logan and Angela Grainger – had both been killed in a shoot-out in Beijing. Lindegaard and Evans were hailed as the heroes who’d helped bring them down. That was fine by Logan. A fresh start was all he wanted.
Although Winter could never entirely wipe Logan’s slate clean, Logan knew the JIA commander would have done everything he could to get Logan back into business at the agency. It was the last thing Logan wanted, though. For years, he’d carried out Mackie’s orders without a second thought. Then the chinks in his armour had appeared – in Venezuela first, there was no doubt about that. But it was his time at the hands of Youssef Selim that had brought the walls crashing down.
Angela Grainger had been the one who had helped him to rebuild those walls, to rebuild a life. But those walls weren’t as high or as strong as they used to be.
Logan knew he could never go back to the way he had been. He would never carry out orders religiously, unquestioningly, like he had before. He would never kill a man or a woman on nothing more than another person’s say-so. And that was fine. Logan didn’t want his old life back. He just wanted a life.
Winter had been happy to give him that. A new identity, a new location. A fresh start.
Logan knew he would still be on the Russians’ blacklist. The CIA’s too, possibly. He had to believe those agencies knew he was still alive. His enemies weren’t gone for good and they wouldn’t forget. There wasn’t much he could do about that. He knew he would never be able to truly free himself of his past. It was a dark cloud that would forever hang over him.
He was sure one day someone would come knocking, whether Winter, in need of his help, or the many enemies he’d picked up through his troubled and complicated life, come to seek their vengeance.
That was fine. Whoever came for him, Logan would be ready. He was sure of that.
As for Grainger, well, Logan hadn’t been quite sure what to think in the end. There had been so many ups and downs, so many lies in their fraught relationship, that it was difficult to identify what was real and what wasn’t. But some of it had been real, he believed. His feelings for her, for sure. And there had been more to his feelings than just lust. From the moment they had first met, Logan had been drawn to her, had felt a powerful connection that just didn’t seem to diminish no matter what problems were thrown their way.
