Tested by Fire by David Costa (the little red hen read aloud TXT) 📗

He shouted for Cousins to get the first aid kit out of the boot and when he brought the box, he tore the package of the solid bandage and pressed it hard against the wound feeling the warm blood against his fingers.

Mary was kneeling beside him.

‘Mary, put pressure on the wound…press down on this bandage and keep talking to her. Help will be here shortly.’ Reece could hear the sirens getting closer.

‘What happened, Joe?’ asked Reece.

‘It happened so quick…a woman in a red scarf came out of the apartment block and was passing April’s car. April must have recognised her and started to get out when the woman turned and fired.’

‘Where’s this bitch now?’

‘She ran towards the NCP, but I lost her when I was running towards April. I thought her more important.’

Jim Broad broke into the conversation over the radio.

‘Alpha Team, be aware that a female called the male in the apartment telling him we’re on to them and to get out. The female is probably the one who shot Alpha Three. Backup and an ambulance should be with you shortly. Have you a sit-rep?’

‘Roger, Alpha Control, Alpha Three’s wound is serious. She’s losing blood fast. We need that fucking ambulance here now. Mary will stay with her. We’ll go after the woman and close down our friend in the apartment. Make the police aware we’ll be wearing armbands for identification. What’s the story on the Tango Team?’

‘They’re on their way to you but will be about thirty minutes.’

‘That’s too long. We can’t wait. We need to move now. Alpha Four, can you have police move in quietly on Tourist One and take him into custody, then join us here at the apartment building? Mary, you stay here with April. Help’s on the way. Just keep the pressure on the wound until they get here.’

Reece and Cousins started to move towards the apartment building.

‘Be careful, Joseph,’ Mary shouted after them.

When they got to the door and pressed the button for the caretaker, there was no response. It was then that Joe Cousins noticed the man’s footwear on the floor in the corridor to the right of the lift.

Costello had moved fast when Lyndsey had made the scrambled short call. Leaving the rifle where it was, he’d secured his Browning pistol in the waistband of his trousers then he decided to use the stairs instead of the lift, he didn’t intend to be cornered either in the lift or the apartment. He was almost out of breath when he got to the bottom of the stairs. He could see people running outside and could hear the approaching sirens. It was then he saw the Emergency Exit sign with the green arrow pointing to the left of the lift. He ran for the door and was pushing the bar cross handle down to open when Kevin Williams walked around the corner and asked him what he was doing. For the sake of silence Costello used his throwing knife. The caretaker’s face registered both shock and surprise when he felt the pain – as if someone had punched him in the centre of his chest – before looking down to see a strange piece of metal sticking out from his body and blood starting to pour down his clothes. In those last seconds before the darkness came, he realised it was his blood pouring on his trainers. He doubled over then fell to the floor the power in his legs and body gone. Death came quickly.

Costello pressed the escape bar and found himself at the rear of the building running towards a door in the fence about fifty yards away.

Reece moved fast when he saw his footwear. He knew he only had seconds to react. He pulled his gun and fired two shots into the glass door, he didn’t have time to use the buttons for access. The glass shattered, and he cleared the large shards of glass with the gun barrel before using his body to clear the rest and enter the lobby.

Pointing his gun in front, he took a careful look around the corner of the hallway where he saw Williams lying on his back with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling. Reece didn’t need a second glance or to check the body for life; he’d seen that death stare too many times, he knew Williams was dead and he could see that his killer had used the emergency door which was lying open to make his escape.

‘Follow me, Joe,’ said Reece as he moved to the escape door.

Reece left the dead caretaker and ran through the open exit door, arms stretched forward in the standard V-shape, pointing his gun…looking over it ready to squeeze the trigger. As he passed through he saw a man turning right through the open gate in the surrounding five-foot-high steel fence. As he watched, a hand appeared around the gate and the gun in it fired twice towards Reece and Harrison. Both men hit the ground hard, the bullets shattering the glass door behind them. Reece heard Cousins cry out, ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck it!’

Cousins’s face now had a stream of blood coming from a gash above his right eye from where a piece of glass had cut through his skin.

‘Are you OK?’ asked Reece.

‘Yeah…that was too close for comfort,’ he replied as he wiped the blood from his face with the sleeve of his jacket. ‘Where is the bastard?’

‘Can you see all right?’

Cousins wiped some more blood from his eye and his face.

‘That’s better, yes…I’m OK.’

‘He fired blindly just to keep us back. We need to close with him before he gets away, com’on,’ said Reece.

Reece was glad that Cousins had brought the MP5 from the car boot. They might need the heavier firepower yet. They now moved silently and as fast as they dared.