Greed, page 27
El coughed twice. That was the signal.
The car suddenly started to reverse in Jochen’s direction. A squeal of rubber, a streak of black on the asphalt. The man at the wheel was staring intently at the rear-view mirror. The Range Rover picked up speed, sped over the kerb of the central reservation and slalomed between two trees towards Jochen and the opposite carriageway. He was the last man able to stop them.
His response was immediate. He sprinted on to the grassy strip and aimed his gun at the car, which was trying desperately to maintain a straight course on the cambered central reservation. A few of his colleagues ran on to the other side of the road where they stopped the traffic and levelled their weapons at the fugitives, but they couldn’t risk shooting – the chances of hitting a bystander or a colleague were simply too high.
Jochen was faced with the same choice. Should he let the men get away? The car was heading towards him at speed, its engine wailing. He aimed at the right-hand rear wheel and pulled the trigger.
Bang.
Bangbangbang.
Shit, he’d missed! The car sped past him. He spun round and tried again. The car was getting further and further away. He’d failed.
All of a sudden, the Range Rover started to career across the two lanes without losing speed. The driver regained control of the vehicle and put his foot to the floor again. An arm appeared from the front passenger’s window and took aim at the other police officers by the van. Jochen couldn’t tell if the guy was actually shooting, but he dived for cover behind a parked car anyway. Why had no one warned them that these guys were dangerous? He turned and took fresh aim, joined now by other policemen firing volleys of bullets at the SUV.
There was a colossal din in the distance as the Range Rover scraped past waiting cars in the left-hand lane and smashed into parked vehicles on the right. Screaming passengers from the waiting cars leaped out on to the road in panic or ducked down into the footwells. The windscreen shattered on the Range Rover and the car swerved from side to side before ramming rear first into a parked car. It twisted on its own axis, causing the tailgate to fly open, and kept on spinning until its front bumper crashed into a SUV. The tyres screeched and smoked as the driver sought to break free, but this time he was trapped by splintered metal. Jochen peered down the barrel of his pistol at the Range Rover as it came to a standstill at an angle to them.
69
Jeanne was almost hurled out of the boot when the tailgate burst open. Her feet were dangling in mid-air, but now they touched the asphalt, and she used all her strength to lever herself upright. Jumping out, she ducked behind the nearest car and stayed in cover there. All around her people were screaming, individual figures ran across the pavement doubled over and took shelter in doorways, cars pulled up wherever they happened to be on the street, and there was an atmosphere of complete chaos in which no one paid attention to anyone else, intent only on saving their own skin. Fitz had followed her lead, but Jan was still writhing around in the boot of the Range Rover before he eventually found his footing and, catching sight of them, dashed over to where they crouched, his hair a tousled mess.
Jeanne spotted the fleeing hitmen away to her right. One of them spun round and fired at them, although the bullet was probably meant for the police.
At least eighty yards away to Jeanne’s left, a posse of policemen were huddled low behind parked and stopped cars. Their guns were trained on the Range Rover and they were all yelling at one another, then suddenly started shooting.
The rear of the SUV was facing diagonally away from them and was close to the line of parked cars, so there was no way they could have seen Jan, Fitz and Jeanne. Bullets thudded into the bodywork of the Range Rover as well as nearby cars.
While the other killers were making good their escape, one of them turned and fired off several shots in return as he ran before catching up with the others.
‘Are they all out of their minds?’ Jan cried. ‘They’re going to hit someone!’
It was some time before a shouted order brought the gun battle to an end.
‘For hell’s sake, stop shooting!’ Jeanne heard a police officer roar in the distance.
‘Keep down,’ Fitz hissed. ‘They’ll have no idea who we are if we stand up now, and I don’t fancy getting my head blown off by a trigger-happy Rambo.’
The cable ties were slicing into Jeanne’s wrists. ‘Yeah, not to mention we’ll be in trouble if they order us to put our hands up,’ she joked.
The policemen shouted something, but none of them moved.
‘What now?’ Jeanne asked.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Jan.
In the chaos, no one had noticed the three figures squatting between two cars. Keeping low, Jan darted into a doorway.
‘Wait there!’ hissed Fitz, following him, with Jeanne hot on his heels. ‘Maybe it’s all a big misunderstanding.’
‘Yeah, one that might have killed us,’ Jan said.
‘Where are you going?’ called Fitzroy as Jan scurried from one doorway to the next, away from the police. Jeanne could hear sirens in the distance. Stunned bystanders couldn’t figure out where to look or to hide.
‘We should join forces with the police,’ Fitz hissed, but this didn’t stop him running after Jan.
‘The police just riddled that Range Rover with bullets,’ Jan argued, ‘and we could’ve still been inside. I’m not staying here another second.’
He did have a point, Jeanne thought, as much as she could think amid the wreckage and the screaming. Everything seemed to be happening all at the same time – a total mess no one would be later capable of describing with any accuracy.
‘There’s no way I’m trusting the police after this,’ Jan continued. ‘What if it wasn’t our call that triggered the police intervention? Holden’s security team must’ve raised the alarm immediately after the attack in the car park. Maybe the police are after those killers for kidnapping people, but they still want us for burglary.’ He quickened his pace. ‘Whichever way, I’m not sticking around to find out.’
A few of Jochen’s colleagues were standing in the middle of the road, while others were sheltering along the verges behind waiting cars whose panic-stricken occupants were cowering on the floor. At first sight the line of vehicles looked as deserted as in a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie.
The Bavarian lagged a little behind the first police officers to reach the empty Range Rover. They gave it a quick once-over, but by this time the men in dark clothing were mere specks in the distance; they were surprisingly fast for their size and build. These were no ordinary security guards, drawn from a pool of the great unemployed, ageing rockers and gym bunnies. Ex-military, he reckoned – professionally trained and seriously tough.
He glanced inside the Range Rover. The broken glass of the shattered windscreen lay in a sea of shards on the front seats and floor. The tailgate window was scattered all over the boot. All five doors including the tailgate were open. There were two bullet holes in the roof, and one in the C-pillar. He couldn’t spot any others at the moment, but they could do a closer inspection later.
He looked back at their own van. One policeman was on the radio and another was walking along the line of traffic, checking for collateral damage. They’d get an earful for engaging in a shoot-out among innocent bystanders. Jochen had started it, and he was damned if he wasn’t going to end it. He’d seen all he needed to here. He set off after the fugitives.
El was running along the empty carriageway, his four comrades keeping pace alongside him. He could feel his restless night in his bones, but had no concerns regarding his fitness. He glanced over his shoulder. Six police officers were pursuing them at varying distances and speeds. Two of them had fairly big beer bellies to haul around so they’d soon give up. Which left four against five. He assessed the situation. They were coming to a crossroads.
‘Crossroads,’ he panted into his headset. ‘Sam and Rob, go left, Jack and Bell straight ahead and I’ll take a right. Split up as soon as possible.’
The policemen weren’t gaining on them. The two overweight men were already slackening their pace. El turned right. The street ahead was lined with shops and offices. There were quite a few pedestrians on the pavements and a moderate amount of traffic on the road. The police wouldn’t dare fire their guns along here.
El shoved his way through the crowd, but his pumping elbows barely registered the impact as he barged people aside. Another glance over his shoulder. There was only one policeman on his tail now, and he was a good twenty yards back. Even after a bad night’s sleep, El was still fit enough to toy with the man and eventually outrun him. He wasn’t planning to do that though. He didn’t know how much stamina the man had and how many reinforcements, if any, he might be able to call upon at key moments. He couldn’t afford to take any chances.
This whole job had been a disaster. It never rains but it pours …
‘Stop!’ his pursuer shouted. ‘Police!’
Bystanders looked round in surprise, but made way for El rather than attempting to block his path. El slackened his pace even further. The policeman closed the gap.
‘Stay right where you are!’ The officer was only eight yards behind him now.
Suddenly El stopped dead, spun round and charged the man. They collided before the officer could react, and El felled him with a punch to the temple. A second blow knocked the man out cold. Screaming passers-by took to their heels, while he disarmed the man and quickly bound his hands and feet with two cable ties. The whole operation had taken no more than five seconds. He leaped to his feet and ran back to the junction he’d crossed moments earlier.
In the other two streets he could see police officers chasing his team members into the distance. The whole area was gridlocked, and honking horns filled the air in the road where the Range Rover had crashed. He could see the black SUV about a hundred yards away and the flashing lights of the police van beyond it. He was aware the bystanders would be watching him and might already have alerted the police.
El ran back towards the scene of the shoot-out and slipped into the nearest doorway from which he could survey the scene. None of the eyewitnesses to his attack on the policeman appeared to have followed him.
Time for a change of outfit. He removed his shirt, flipped it inside out to display the orange side and put it back on again, this time leaving it hanging outside his trousers rather than tucking it in. The team’s reversible clothing was designed for precisely this kind of situation. From the hip pocket of his cargo trousers he pulled a mint-green baseball cap with coloured piping along the edges and emblazoned with the logo of a well-known brand. All that remained of the former security man were the grey trousers. An old trick. If you don’t want to stand out, do something that makes you stand out, as no one will imagine you’re hiding in broad daylight.
Thus camouflaged, he ventured across the street and planted himself in another doorway that gave him a better view of the Range Rover. He couldn’t stay here for ever, but maybe he’d catch a glimpse of the three passengers in the boot the police had strafed so ruthlessly.
70
‘The men slipped through the net and are on the run,’ the field commander told Maya over the phone. ‘We’re dealing with it.’
‘Slipped through the net?’ Maya asked incredulously. ‘How is that even possible?’ She’d just left The Estate and was wondering where to head next.
‘First by car, and then on foot. No one warned us they were armed.’
‘No one warned you?’ Maya had informed control all right, so why hadn’t their colleagues passed on the message? ‘What happened to the people they’d supposedly abducted?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The vehicle was apparently carrying three kidnapped passengers. Did you find or free anyone?’
‘No, I didn’t see a soul. My men advanced as far as the vehicle and then pursued the fugitives. I’ll take a closer look, but as far as I can tell from here, the car’s empty.’
‘How many fugitives were there?’
‘Five, according to first reports. All of them wearing dark grey or black clothing.’
Maya heard him address a second person but couldn’t make out another word until the man came back on the line.
‘I’m standing next to the Range Rover now with a colleague who’s been taking care of the bystanders. The car, including the boot, is empty.’
Maya suppressed her urge to swear. ‘Can you see two men and a woman nearby? One of the men is pretty tall, and the woman’s very attractive.’
‘There are a few people standing around,’ the policeman said, ‘but none fitting that precise description.’
Maya let out a long silent scream.
‘Running away will only make us seem more suspicious,’ said Fitzroy. ‘And having our hands tied definitely will.’ He’d begun to run the cable ties up and down the sharp edge of a metal plate. They were huddled with their backs to the wooden door of a building about two hundred yards from the wrecked car. ‘We should let the police do their job. The hotel must have CCTV footage of our abduction.’
‘At least our kidnappers seem to be gone for now,’ said Jeanne. ‘So you think they were the same men who murdered Thompson and Will?’
‘Yeah,’ said Fitzroy. ‘Ha, done it!’ He rubbed the spots on his freed wrists where the cable ties had gouged out dark red furrows.
‘Can you do mine?’ begged Jeanne.
‘Just a second.’ Fitzroy went over to the kerb and returned with a jagged piece of glass, then set about slicing through Jeanne’s shackles.
‘Holden’s security detail never intended to take us to the police,’ Jan said.
‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ cried Jeanne. ‘Anyway, if Ted really was behind this, why were we kidnapped by a different crew?’
‘Maybe because someone else got wind of the speech and the manuscript?’
‘That sounds absurd to me. Oh, thanks.’
While Jeanne was rubbing her wounds, Fitzroy attacked the cable ties around Jan’s wrists and realized that the kid was still clutching the mobile.
‘You managed to grab the burner in the midst of all that chaos?’ he said with some admiration.
‘I thought it might come in handy.’
‘I expect you’re going to lose your job,’ Fitzroy said to Jeanne as he hacked away at Jan’s bindings.
‘Not only that,’ she mumbled. ‘One thing’s clear though. We’ve got to find out who gave the orders to the men in the Range Rover.’
‘Oh, not that again,’ groaned Fitzroy. ‘The last time I got sucked into something like this, I missed a lucrative poker game, had to sprint across a roof sixty feet up—’
‘Fifty feet,’ Jan corrected him.
‘Oh yeah, those ten feet would’ve made a massive difference if we’d fallen off. Carry on if you like, but count me out.’
‘There’s no way the police are going to listen to us after the things we got up to last night,’ Jan insisted. ‘They’ll clap us in jail until the demos are over. They won’t have time to deal with us beforehand.’
Fitzroy paused.
‘Get on with it,’ Jan demanded crossly, holding up his bound hands, ‘and focus instead on to how to find those guys. All we’ve got is a number plate.’
‘We have to go back to the hotel,’ Jeanne said, relieving Fitz of the shard of glass so she could finish off his work.
‘Oh, I’m sure they’ll be delighted to give you the information,’ Fitzroy scoffed. ‘I bet Mitch is waiting there with the next set of cable ties. Along with those police inspectors investigating how we were kidnapped, not to mention how we managed to break into Will’s room and all the rest of it.’
‘Got a better idea?’ she shot back, marching off. Jan stalked after her, nursing his swollen wrists.
‘Sam, Rob, Bell, Jack,’ El whispered into his headset. ‘How are things your end?’
‘I’ve lost mine,’ Rob said.
‘Ditto,’ Jack replied, breathing heavily.
‘Mine gave up,’ Bell reported.
El was concentrating on the vehicle in front. He was a few cars behind the taxi that Fitz, Jan and Jeanne had flagged down a couple of blocks away from the accident. Luckily, El had managed to hail one too.
‘Good. I shook mine off too and I’m back on the trail of our targets. They’re in a taxi heading for the centre. I’m following them in another taxi. Make your way into the city and I’ll give you a precise location as soon as I’ve got one. How about you, Sam?’
El waited for an answer. The driver stuck religiously to his instructions to keep a safe distance behind the other cab. The dense traffic and large number of other taxis made this a fairly straightforward task.
‘Let me hear you, Sam.’
Jörn had to make a detour to avoid the demonstrations, blockades and traffic jams. Flashing lights on and siren blaring, he raced through the streets of Berlin towards Checkpoint Charlie, from where he swung west to give a wide berth to Potsdamer Platz and the Tiergarten.
The colleague who’d just reported from the empty Range Rover radioed them again. ‘We’ve got one,’ he said breathlessly.
‘One what?’ asked Maya.
‘One of the occupants of the Range Rover.’
The first good news she’d had since this whole bloody case began.
‘Who is it?’
‘He’s not carrying any papers, but he does have a pistol.’
‘Are you and your team OK?’
‘One man injured, but not critically.’
‘That’s bad news, but also good. I’m on my way. Where are you exactly?’
71
‘OK, we do as we agreed,’ said Jeanne as she got out of the taxi in front of the hotel. She could hear a faint noise like thunder in the distance, even though the demonstration was half a mile away. Hundreds of thousands of voices, mingled with music, like ocean waves breaking on a beach. It was broken only by the buzz of a helicopter circling overhead.
