To Kill Or Be Killed

by Richard Wiseman

  Stanton eyed him warily and Joe looked at Stanton with eyes that Stanton felt looked right into him. Joe put the chair and the bag down and sat in front of Stanton.

  “We want to know everything you learnt about DIC, everything you saw on the computer.”

  “It’s all on the disk.”

  “There might be more in that head of yours.” Joe leant forward and tapped Stanton’s head with his for finger.

  “I didn’t see much at all.”

  “No? Well I need to be sure.”

  Joe looked at Telford who opened the bag and took out a piece of equipment. There were pads and wires and brown wooden box with a dial. Telford walked over to the wall and plugged in the long lead.

  Stanton braced himself. Electric shock torture! He’d take a few ‘shots’ and make up some stuff. He ran images and information from the DIC network through his mind, trying to pick out useful stuff.

  Brook took a pair of scissors and cut Stanton’s black T-shirt open then he undid Stanton’s trousers pulling them down to his thighs, as far as he could go with Stanton’s legs tied to the chair.

  Stanton said nothing, protest was useless and fear was for children. Stay mentally sharp, eat the pain and plan a way out.

  Pads with wires attached were put on him. One was put over the solar plexus and the other was put on the skin of his abdomen, just above the pubic hair line of his groin.

  Telford lit a cigarette, but all of them heard the door downstairs open and close and Telford dropped the cigarette and ground it into the mouldy green carpet.

  There was a footfall on the stairs, the door opened and a fourth man stood in the room. He was out of place in the dirty, dusty, dilapidated old bare room. He had highly polished black brogues, a neat dark blue three piece pin stripe and oiled, thinning black hair. There was a red silk handkerchief poking in a shiny peak from his top pocket.

  “Hello Trevor.” The voice was clear and crisp, neat and slicing in its enunciation. “You don’t mind if I call you Trevor do you?”

  Stanton looked into the cold ‘telescopic eyes’. Sternway continued.

  “I feel I know you so well from your file. I’m very pleased with your work.”

  “I’d hate to see the way you treat those who fail you.”

  “Cobb and Mason failed me. You can take them as an average example.”

  Stanton knew it all long. He made a vow. If he got free, if he had his chance he was going to kill this man. Sternway saw it in his eyes.

  “Proceed Joe and make it painful to start, no use wasting time.”

  The electric shocks were powerful and with the pads over two of his Chakra points, or nerve centres, the pain was immense, surging through him almost blotting out all thought.

  There were three such shocking surges and Stanton sat writhing in the chair for half a minute before he felt the pain die down.

  “Now about DIC and all you know please or there’ll be more of that.”

  “What do you want with DIC?”

  “They’re an inconvenience. They came close when your friend Spencer did a little job for me and they cause no end of trouble. Only the PM, Home Office Minister and the Queen, oh and some of the royal family, know who the head person is. We know about their existence, but we don’t know where they are and how much coverage they’ve got, which is pretty damned annoying when you’re trying to change things in your own favour through underhanded means, which you can imagine is what I do. Your friend Spencer, who used to work for me, was nearly caught by them when we did for Robert Cole. Right now we’re trying, with the help of a certain Mr Robinson, Cole’s replacement, no coincidence, to get rid of them for good. Then we’ll be free of their meddling influences and sticking their ‘tuppence’ in every time we want to make a change.”

  “I see, if that’s all why didn’t you say? Let me go and I’ll tell you everything I found out.” Sternway smiled a crocodile smile.

  “That’s what I love about mercenaries Joe so easy to get round to your way of thinking. Yes we’ll let you go; in fact well we’ll help you go. I don’t want you getting caught.”

  Stanton gave them details about the building, what he’d seen on the computer. Telford drew a sketch from Stanton’s description of the lobby. Stanton had seen names for floors on the disk and assumed the boss, Fulton, was on the top floor. He told them about the cameras in the building.

  He made up fake facts about security from having seen the foyer and finally told them about how he’d got the badge and what was in the loft in Dover and Bill’s house in Westminster. When he was finished Sternway smiled.

  “Well done Trevor you know you really are quite the most dangerous man I’ve ever met and…” He was interrupted by a phone ringing. Sternway took the orange coloured Bic cell phone from his inside jacket pocket. “Yes. We’re just about ready… within the next hour.”

  He rang off and put the phone in his jacket again. He suddenly patted his left jacket pocket and looked at Stanton.

  “The green Bic cell phone?”

  “Coat.” Stanton nodded with his head in the direction of the table.

  Telford emptied the pockets. There was the lime green cell phone and a DIC pass. He picked up the pass and shoulder holster with the Sig 220.

  “Well goodbye Trevor. I’m sure we won’t meet again.”

  Sternway left the room, Joe and Brook followed and Telford left after checking the ropes on Stanton.

  Downstairs Sternway gave his instructions to Telford who left on what was to be a tricky mission. Sternway told Joe and Brook what to do and left for home.

  Upstairs Stanton knew he was going to be killed. They were down stairs arranging it, he couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he could hear the voices. He wiggled the chair, it was quite old. His hands were tied to the upright struts and his legs to the legs of the chair. Stanton bunched his muscles and tightened them. He balanced the chair on the two back legs, tipping the chair back and bounced slightly, but heavily, trying to avoid noise. There was a sharp crack from the two back legs. They must have heard because the front door opened and closed and there were hurried feet on the stairs.

  With the legs bent inwards at the back Stanton bounced and sat on the chair heavily. The back legs gave way and the front legs snapped as he sat down. Stanton quickly stood up legs free, even if the front chair legs were still tied to his shins. He ran backwards, using his toes to counteract the low level of his trousers, at the closed door with all his might, bracing himself for the pain on his arms. Just as Brook and Joe arrived at the door and pushed it Stanton hit it and the chair back broke away from the seat and at the same time preventing the men from entering. Stanton wiggled free from the back of the chair, braced against the door. With his hands free instinct kicked in and he stepped to one side as three shots perforated the door panels where he had been standing.

  Brook kicked the door in and stepped into the room. Stanton was behind the door and kicked it into Brook, stepped around grabbed Brook’s gun hand, extended into the room, slammed his hand into Brook’s elbow crook, grabbing the gun hand and pushing the revolver under Brook’s chin. Stanton got his finger to the trigger. A single shot slammed up through Brook’s chin, passed through his skull and embedded in the ceiling. Stanton wrenched the pistol from Brook’s grip.

  Joe had left his gun in the black Jaguar under the seat. He ran down the stairs to the front door, but a single shot from Stanton at the top of the stairs hit him in the small of the back paralysing him and he slumped into the door, no power in his legs.

  Stanton did up his trousers. He carried Joe into the room upstairs in a fireman’s lift and dropped him on the floor. Brook was on his knees groaning and twitching, alive but half brain dead. Stanton walked over and shot him point blank in the chest with the last chamber of the revolver. Brook collapsed, twitching; falling in front of Joe’s terrified eyes.

  Stanton stripped Joe’s jacket and shirt off and put them on. They were a tight fit, but better than his split T Shirt.
Stanton gathered up the electrical equipment and sat down next to Joe.

  “You’re going to give me a lot of useful information. I’ve got all night. We won’t bother with anything below the waist, but if you tell me what I want to know I swear I’ll leave you alive.” He tapped Joe’s head with his forefinger. “Let’s see what in that head of your shall we.”

  He attached the pads.

  Joe fought as hard as he could, but knowing he was paralysed weakened his resolve. He took half an hour to break down with the pain and when he did Stanton had all the information he needed.

  As promised he left Joe alive, but he didn’t call an ambulance and he didn’t intend to. It was seven in the evening when Stanton left the house with a loaded revolver, a silenced nine millimetre Browning and the keys to a Nissan Micra, which he quickly found.

  Chapter 106

  London Euston tower

  7-10 p.m.

  April 19th

  Ellie leaned into the proffered kiss from Tony. They were in the shared kitchens of the duty teams in Euston Tower. Ellie decided that on their last day of duty rota she would cook Tony dinner. There was a casserole dish in the oven and the smell of Coq Au Vin permeated the room.

  Tony broke away from the tender and soft kiss first.

  “That was nice. Do that again.”

  Ellie kissed him again, longer this time and more passionately. There was a cough from the doorway. They broke from their embrace suddenly. It was Jack Fulton.

  “Sorry to bother you two. I’ve got a bit of a problem.”

  “Yes boss.”

  “Liam was in the duty office and David was talking angrily about Sternway. Liam thought nothing of it, but David went to get a cup of tea and decryption called to tell David that his five minute access to the MI6 network was ready. Liam said he went to get some dinner and when he came back David was looking at details on Sternway. Then David grabbed his coat and left. Liam said he was still armed”

  Tony and Ellie showed their concern.

  “Any idea where he is?” Tony asked.

  “That’s the thing our DIC listener at Sternway’s house has just phoned to say that David McKie is parked in a car across the road from Sternway’s house.”

  Ellie put her hand to her mouth in shock.

  “I think he’s very worked up. I want you two to go and talk him round. You and he get on well Ellie and Tony has experience in talking people ‘down’ if you know what I mean.” They both nodded.

  “Do we go armed?”

  “No. DIC diplomatic and armed status has been suspended indefinitely.”

  Tony and Jaz left in a hurry. Jack noted the smell of casserole and promised himself he’d keep an eye on it. He leant against the kitchen side. He was worried. ‘Unstoppable’ that’s what the Lympstone Commando base trainers had said about David McKie.

  In the car Ellie frowned at Tony who pulled his pistol and holster from a Tesco bag. He checked it and armed it. They sped away with Ellie half jokingly calling Tony a ‘thrill seeker’ and a ‘renegade’.

  Chapter 107

  Nigel Sternway’s House

  Hampstead

  London

  7-30 p.m.

  April 19th

  David finally made up his mind. He checked his pistol and stepped out of the car. The lights were on downstairs and they made red glow around the edges of the deep red velvet curtains in Sternway’s living room. Della was upstairs with the two children, reading them stories.

  The DIC operative in the bushes had been told to report if David made a move, but he was slumped unconscious, hidden by the thick foliage of Sternway’s neighbour’s bushy border. At the back of the house a figure scaled the drain pipe heading for the small open window of an upstairs toilet.

  At the front David rang the bell.

  Sternway rose from his comfortable chair in the lounge, put the paper down and padded to the front door in his slippers.

  “Yes?” McKie wasn’t familiar to him.

  David pulled out his Sig and pointed it at Sternway.

  “In!” McKie barked.

  Sternway did as he was told backing down the hall, leaving the front door open. David pushed him into the lounge and into a chair.

  “Who are you?” Sternway demanded.

  “David McKie DIC.”

  Sternway smiled thinly.

  David assumed that the listener in the garden was ready and waiting, he wanted a confession and some answers from Sternway. He also wanted to know who had been behind all of the deaths.

  “Oh you’re McKie. DIC diplomatic and arms bearing rights are suspended so you’re breaking the law. Or are you going to kill me?”

  “You’re responsible, through your twisted plotting, for the deaths of innocent people. I want to know why you brought those killers into the country.”

  “Killers come and go. I believe you’re a killer yourself now, or doesn’t killing people like Wheeler count. Just because you have a badge and he doesn’t that makes you the good guy does it? I have a government remit, that’s my badge. Men like Wheeler, Stanton and you are all the same. Hired killers, government trained, whichever side of the trenches you’re on and you kill on orders or as part of the process of doing your job. There are no black and white hats for people to wear McKie. All the hats are shades of grey. You became a government paid killer just like Stanton when you shot Wheeler.”

  “You can’t compare us. I don’t kill for no reason and unlike you and the people who work for you I protect the innocent and wouldn’t kill on orders if I thought it was wrong. You’re to blame for all this admit it.”

  “I don’t know what you mean old boy as far as I…”Sternway’s face was suddenly a mask of horror.

  Behind David entering the room were his children, his wife behind them, pale and frightened and to his ultimate horror Trevor Stanton holding two weapons. One, MI6 snub nose revolver was pointed at his wife and children and the silenced Browning was pointed at Sternway. McKie spun around and pointed his pistol at Stanton.

  Stanton shoved Della and the children towards Sternway, but he pushed them to his left away from him, instinctively protecting them by separating them from him in Stanton’s eyes.

  Stanton suddenly pointed the revolver at McKie and kept the Browning pointed at Sternway.

  “Hello McKie we must stop meeting like this.”

  “Drop it Stanton. Don’t shoot him.”

  “Come on McKie you want him dead as much as me. I heard what he said. The man’s a slug, an evil slug. The cold blooded bastard had me tortured.” He turned to Sternway. "Joe might still be alive, but he’s crippled and he talked. Brook’s dead. You picked the wrong man to play your game with Sternway.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  The shot slammed into the wall by Della’s head, the movement of the Browning from Sternway to Della and back was swift. David held fire when he saw that no-one was shot. He held himself calmly.

  “He planned all this to get to DIC and destroy it. Sternway has an orange coloured cell phone and Robinson, the home secretary, is on the other end of it. That’s the man you want. If you don’t believe me Sternway’s got two lime green Bic cell phones, one of them was for me. If you search here or his car you’ll find them and they’ll link him to me, check the satellite based locations for the calls made if you don’t believe me. He’s going to die and there’s nothing you can do. He’s a monster and he deserves to die. He told me they’d accounted for Robert Cole. DIC were getting too close, he said, a nuisance. You know he has to die for what he’s done.”

  “Don’t listen to him McKie.” Sternway’s voice wasn’t pleading, he kept his authority. “You’re paid to stop men like him. He’s going to kill all of us, including my wife and children. Kill him. Kill him now.”

  Stanton turned the gun pointed at McKie towards Della and the children.

  “Move towards the door you three.” Stanton’s voice held a note of finality.

  “Nigel.” Della was terrifie
d and the children were whimpering.

  “Do as he says it’ll be alright.” Sternway was calm.

  Della made her way towards the door and Stanton repositioned himself pointing his weapon at McKie as he moved and backing into a space between them. Della and the children stood by the door. Sternway was across the room from them and McKie stood in a corner. Stanton pointed the Browning at Sternway and the revolver at Della and the children.

  “Kill him McKie it’s your bloody job.” Sternway barked the order.

  “Sternway if you confess I let your family walk out that door and only kill you. McKie isn’t going to shoot first.” Stanton’s voice was cold and factual.

  “Confess to what?” Sternway held his party line.

  “I’m going to count to three and then I’m going to kill your son Sternway unless you confess to McKie what you’ve been doing, why you hired me and why all those people died.”

  “I can’t tell…”

  “Please Nigel… the children…”

  “One…”

  Ellie and Tony were standing in the hall silent. Tony had his gun drawn. Della and the children were too intent on the scene to see them, but McKie glanced at Della’s pleading face and saw Ellie poised behind her. His face didn’t betray their position.

  “Please Nigel.. for once put the family first…”

  “I can’t do that Della…”

  “Two…”

  “Don’t do it Stanton I’ll fire I swear I will. Put the gun down and we’ll talk you can be a witness there might be immunity…” McKie’s finger tightened on the trigger.

  “Three…”

  Stanton fired both weapons. McKie fired. Ellie dived into the room shielding the children and Tony pushed in and fired his weapon at Stanton.

  Ellie screamed as her body passed between Stanton and the children.

  Sternway cried out and spun around facing the wall as if punched.

  Stanton hit in the hand by McKie’s shot dropped the revolver then suddenly crumpled with a blood stain appearing on the right side of his chest from Tony’s shot.