Hunter Hunted by Jack Gatland (best value ebook reader .TXT) 📗

you’re going to kill us all here?’ Declan looked around the warehouse. ‘Not really sporting.’

‘No, I’m going to kill them, but leave you alive,’ Frost replied, pulling out a silenced pistol. ‘My boss needs a password from you.’

‘Oh, he found that I’d changed the safe combination then?’ Declan laughed. ‘Tell you what, Frost. Or whatever your actual name is. How about you let them go and I’ll give you the password? You can take all the folders, make your own luck.’

‘No thanks,’ Frost aimed the gun at Declan. ‘I’m loyal.’

‘To whom?’ Anjli asked. ‘Will Harrison or Malcolm Gladwell? I mean, Will gave you the command to attack the Guv, but he’s dead now.’

‘Curiosity gets you nowhere,’ Frost smiled. ‘Now, which of you do I shoot first?’

‘None of them,’ muttered Billy.

Frost shook his head. ‘Changed your mind?’ he asked. ‘Siding with terrorists now?’

‘No,’ Billy replied. ‘I want to see you take down Declan. He was always a smug shit. But he won’t tell you if you kill everyone. He’s a martyr, with a bleeding heart. You need to hurt them, make him beg you to stop.’

Frost’s eyes widened at Billy’s response, and Declan could see that he was reassessing the situation.

‘Fair point,’ he replied. With his pistol in his left hand, he flicked out his right arm, the extendable baton clicking out into his grasp.

‘Recognise this, old man?’ he asked with a sneer as he turned to face the handcuffed Monroe. ‘Maybe I can start with you, finish the job that I started.’

Monroe, instead of backing away however, stepped forward.

‘Not sure,’ he said. ‘Mind if I have a look?’

Frost, confused by this complied, holding the baton up for Monroe to observe. Eventually, shaking his head, Monroe stepped back.

‘Nope, not seen that before,’ he said.

‘Are you blind?’ Frost raised the baton, holding it close to Monroe’s eyes as he leaned in. ‘Do you need a reminder?’

‘Yours didn’t have DW stencilled on the base,’ Monroe replied with a dark smile.

Confused at this statement, Frost looked at the baton, noticing that the base did indeed have DW stencilled on it. He looked to Billy, who for the first time smiled.

‘Why the hell are you grinning like an idiot?’ Frost snapped.

‘DW stands for Declan Walsh,’ Billy explained. ‘I gave it to you when we were at the house. I took your one and passed it to forensics. Interestingly, they texted me this morning with the news that they found a whole load of DCI Monroe’s blood DNA on it.’

‘You’re on my side!’ Frost hissed. ‘You told me about Sutcliffe! You showed me the texts he sent you!’

‘Yeah, about that,’ Billy shrugged. ‘I stole his phone. Used a silicon sheet that DC Davey made me of his thumbprint, unlocked the phone and sent the message to myself, replied and then sent the second one. Took like five seconds. I then deleted the thread, right after sticking in a worm app that took all the data in his phone and forwarded it to my personal server, while also keeping the microphone on, recording everything that happened around him.’ He shook his head.

‘You really should have listened to me when I told you I was a cyber expert.’

He looked to the armed officer that had ridden in the van with them. ‘You picked Sutcliffe up right before the stakeout, didn’t you, sir?’

‘Indeed, we did,’ the armed officer replied as he now pulled off the helmet and goggles to reveal the face of Chief Superintendent Bradbury, now turning to Frost. ‘And we were right beside him when he radioed you.’

The two armed officers, once believed to be Rattlestone, now turned their weapons on Frost, who slowly clapped his hands.

‘Very good,’ he said. ‘I knew this day was going to end bad. But all you have on me is Monroe, and they blackmailed me into doing that.’

‘We have more than that,’ Billy added. ‘Remember when I sorted your phone’s carrier settings back in Hurley?’

Frost pulled out his own phone, staring in horror at it as Billy continued.

‘Can you guess what I did to your phone as well?’

Declan now stepped forward, his hands now appearing in view, the handcuffs open.

‘You might as well tell us everything, Frost,’ he suggested. ‘It’s the last chance you’ll get to do a good thing. And if you don’t, we’ll just ask Sutcliffe.’

As Frost watched, each of the supposed detainees revealed their hands, all having been uncuffed while in the van.

Frost laughed, looking back to Billy.

‘All this time?’ he asked. Billy nodded.

‘From the start,’ he replied. ‘Anjli and me, we’d decided to use secret codes in case anything went wrong. She wouldn’t let me use Belgrade, but Judas was a good one.’ He pulled out his phone. ‘I’ve recorded every conversation you, me, Sutcliffe ever had. I’ve placed tracker apps in your phones and know exactly where you were each minute of each day, as well as any burner phones you’ve called during that time. Like, for example, that I know you went into the apartment after I left. So when we have time to listen to it, we’ll hear every single moment of what happened in there, courtesy of your phone’s microphone.’

Frost thought for a moment and then physically slumped, as if finally beaten, the baton dropping out of his hand.

But, before anyone could say anything, he brought up the silenced pistol in the other hand, aiming it point blank at Billy as he fired.

Declan was the closest and had been moving before Frost had. He knew Frost wouldn’t go quietly, had watched the trigger hand clench and unclench the grip of the gun, and had intended to push Billy out of the way before Frost fired. However, he was a moment too late and, as Frost fired he’d only moved in front of Billy, blocking the view, the bullet slamming into Declan’s shoulder, spinning him around and sending him to the ground as the Armed Response officers fired their carbines at Frost, hitting him centre mass, sending him already dead to the floor.

Doctor Marcos