Chapter Thirty Three

Savage had run out of ammo in the first gun. He threw it on the floor under the dome, bait for anyone foolish enough to think that was all he had. He pulled the other carbine from the dead body into position. He'd stuffed the corpse's pistol into the back of his waistband.

With a possibility someone could flank him again he quickly scanned the tourist map.

To his left was the north transept, a stubby arm sticking out from the dome’s floor with it's mirror image on the south side.

If he could make it to the east side of the transept he had choices. Down into the crypt and back up on the other side of the quire. Or move in round the back of it on ground level.

Neither choice an easy one.

He didn't know whether the tourists and hostages were all being held together and he wouldn't know until he found the face he recognised from the Middle East.

The map went back in his pocket. He stood up and ran diagonally across the open dome floor towards the transept. Someone had taken the bait.

Savage didn't feel a thing when his two bursts of three pock-pock-pocked into his opponent's chest, a glimpse of terror as the man yelped away his final breath, and Savage was across the divide and behind another pillar.

He moved forward past a small chapel with a painting, 'The Light of the World', Jesus knocking on a door. A sign told him ‘God can only enter your life if you let him in’.

Savage checked his ammo, reloaded the mag and saw the light. It emanated front side out from the quire. Its domed ceiling reflected soft gentle light back onto on the scared faces of the tourist hostages.

What a story to tell their friends. If they ever made it home.

The stairwell to the crypt on his left beckoned. Savage answered the call, then hesitated. A man, maybe Arab, maybe Italian, sat in one of the intricately carved dark oak seats underneath a night light the cathedral choir boys used to read their hymn books.

He cried silently. Hands together in prayer, tears streaming down his face. He kept glancing at the far end of the quire, out of sight from Savage's eyes.

He could see the man flinch when whoever was talking looked his way. Angry growls, that echoed in the perfect acoustics of the arches above.

Savage looked from the stairwell to the man. Going down would mean he got to sneak around, find the chancellor, be the hero in the movie that played in his mind of what he should be. Of what he should do.

Savage never planned on being a hero. He'd never really understood that noble lie. He was a killer, an investigator, and anything but cuddly. Accept it or get twisted up inside.

Either he could be the master of his destiny or the victim to deluded expectation.

He silently pulled the breach back on the carbine. Bullet in the chamber, no jams, nearly full mag. The sound of his bare feet on the tiles barely registered when he turned his back on the crypt and pit-patted down the northern aisle that ran the length of the quire.

*

At the churchyard entrance on the south side of the dome stood three ARV police men, each armed with MP5s and pistols on their hips.

Echo held a Glock 17 by her side. One of the ARV backup weapons. She tried to make it look casual. She'd had some tactical training, never a live situation though. She shook out, took deep breaths, and tried to focus.

Jones had a shotgun in his hands. Loaded with solid rounds, one sheer chunk of metal designed for dynamic entry into a building.

'Are you sure you know how to use that, sir?'

He racked the bullet into the chamber with a satisfied grimace. 'Of course.'

The officer cleared his throat. 'And are you sure we have authorisation for this action sir?'

Firing from machine guns started inside. Hostages screamed. Two shots rang out. The screaming intensified.

‘That answer good enough for you?’ Jones said.

The man's honest face soured, he stood away from the door and the heavy lock that secured it in place. He readied his weapon, 'All yours, sir.'

The doors blew open. The ARV men right behind them, moving as one, perfect formation to the first pillar immediately in front of the dome, weapons at the ready. Echo right behind them, Jones reloaded with standard shot behind her.

Their radios crackled, cries for 'Report!'

The three men moved up on the quire taking a central controlling position. They moved quickly between the silent gauntlet of petrified tourists.

At the far end, two ARV men broke left, one to the right. Two men circled round the back of the quire then they split and worked their way along the outside walkways.

They met with the two MI5 officers at the quire entrance.

'Area clear, sir,' the officer said.

'Tell them,' Jones jerked his head to the outside.

'ARV3, ARV3, South entrance to the quire is secure. Request immediate backup to my position to secure remainder of location. Request immediate medical.'

Echo had already moved to a praying man who couldn't keep the smile from his face. He looked up and thanked the sky above him.

'What happened?'

'The lord answered.'

She tilted her head to one side. Then repeated the question. A woman to the man's right said, 'He killed them all.'

'Who?'

'Just a man,' the woman said. 'He didn't even have shoes.'

'Where is he now?'

She pointed to the crypt entrance. ‘Down there.’

The men and women in her line of sight either couldn't take their eyes from the floor or couldn't look at it. The blood from the dead hostage-takers streamed through the quire and across the pretty tiles.

'We're to keep the hostages here, sir,' the officer said to Jones. 'The kidnappers were dressed as tourists, there could still be some amongst them.' The sound of running feet came from outside the south entrance. 'Once we've secured the ground floor, we'll process them.'

Echo dragged her eyes away from the shattered face of a kidnapper on the floor. She'd never been this close to violent death before. It surprised her how much her hands trembled with the adrenalin still popping through her system.

'Sir,' she said, 'Can I have a word?'

Jones motioned with his head for her to come to his side. As she levelled with him the officer's attention was drawn by the arrival of more armed response units.

Echo drew Jones away from the men in black with her eyes, and pointed her head at the crypt entrance. 'Savage is down there,' she said.

'Right,' he said. 'Are you ready for this, Smith?'

She held up her weapon and headed for the stairs. A shout from an officer didn't slow either one down.