CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The first thirty seconds were mostly noise.
Gunfire inside metal buildings always sounded larger than the weapon deserved.
Leah stayed low behind the engine block while bullets tore splinters from the old workbench.
Drew was beside her.
Alive.
She checked because she needed the fact before anything else.
"Hit?"
"No."
"Denny?"
Across the floor, Denny Cross was behind a steel cabinet holding one shoulder.
Blood between his fingers.
"Probably."
"Helpful."
"Trying."
Daniel had crawled behind Ben's chair.
Michael was on the other side using a dropped length of chain to saw at the cable ties around Ben's wrists.
Terry's men held the river end.
Redmile held the landward corner.
Pete and Sam had somehow converted a decrepit fishing boat into naval support.
Calder's voice came through Leah's earpiece.
"Shots fired. We move now."
Leah pressed the transmit button.
"Negative. Rifle upper platform. Terry moving river side. Ben still central. Give me thirty seconds."
"You have ten."
"Generous."
Drew looked at the pistol lying six feet away beneath the workbench.
One of Terry's men saw it too.
They moved at the same time.
Drew slid across concrete.
The man fired.
Leah kicked a metal tray into his shins.
The shot went high.
Drew reached the pistol, rolled and fired once.
The man's weapon fell from his hand.
Shoulder hit.
Not dead.
Drew moved back beside Leah.
She stared at him.
"You could have stayed down."
"I considered it."
"For how long?"
"Very briefly."
"Idiot."
"Fair."
A scream came from above.
Pete fired again through the broken window.
The rifleman disappeared from the platform.
Sam shouted from the boat.
"Move!"
Leah did.
She crossed to Ben while Drew covered the river door.
Michael had freed one wrist.
Leah took the chain from him.
"Other side."
"I have it."
"You have one useful lung and stitches. Move."
Michael moved.
Ben looked at her.
"Nice to see you."
"You too."
"I had a better exit plan."
"Apparently everyone did."
She cut the remaining tie with a dropped utility knife.
Ben rubbed his wrists.
"Gun?"
Leah handed him the injured man's pistol.
"Try not to steal the evidence again."
"No promises."
Daniel crawled closer.
"Ben. Terry's boat?"
"Rigged."
"How?"
"Fuel line has an incendiary charge. He leaves on the pilot boat, burns the maintenance vessel with the archive copies aboard."
Leah frowned.
"Pilot boat?"
Ben pointed toward the seaward doors.
"Other side of the slip. Came in dark before us. Crew belong to Terry."
Drew heard.
"Sam."
Leah understood.
If Terry got onto a faster pilot boat, Sam's old fishing boat would not block anything.
She pressed transmit.
"Calder, second vessel seaward side. Fast pilot boat. Terry's exit."
"Coastguard moving."
Ben grabbed Leah's sleeve.
"No. Terry has a scanner. He hears coastguard channels."
Calder heard him.
"Then what do you suggest, Detective Harker?"
Ben smiled faintly.
"Nice to be employed again."
"Ben."
"Kill the workshop lights. He has low-light optics on the pilot boat. Give him darkness before he reaches it and he'll slow."
Leah looked at the ancient breaker panel beside the landward door.
Across open floor.
Drew followed her eyes.
"No."
She almost laughed.
"Interesting timing for that word."
"I'll do it."
"You're the target."
"You think Terry likes you?"
"Less personal."
"Leah."
Daniel shouted from behind them.
"Stop flirting and shoot someone."
Drew looked at his brother.
"You're very irritating alive."
"Been told."
Leah ran for the breaker.
Two shots followed.
Drew fired toward the muzzle flash.
A Redmile man rose and returned fire.
Denny shouted, "Not at her, you idiot!"
"Which side are we on?"
"The side not shooting the policewoman!"
"She's suspended!"
Leah reached the panel.
"I heard that!"
She yanked the main lever.
Darkness hit.
Complete.
For one second nobody fired.
Then emergency lights glowed red near the river door.
Enough to see shapes.
Not enough to see faces.
Drew found Leah by touch.
His hand closed around hers.
She did not pull away.
A door slammed near the water.
Terry moving.
Ben whispered, "He'll have two men with him."
Daniel said, "Then we're going."
Drew caught his shoulder.
Daniel hissed.
"You're bleeding again."
"Popular hobby."
"Stay with Ben."
Daniel stared at him through the red light.
Drew expected the argument.
It did not come.
Daniel nodded.
That frightened Drew more than resistance.
"Seriously?"
"You said no more deciding for you."
"I didn't say become reasonable."
"Enjoy it."
Drew looked at him for a second.
Then at Michael.
"You stay too."
Michael nodded.
Also no argument.
Leah leaned toward Drew.
"This is unsettling."
"Very."
They moved through the river door together.
Outside, wind nearly took Leah sideways.
The slipway ran down into churning black water.
Sam's boat sat fifty metres off the wall, engine idling low.
Pete crouched behind the cabin.
"Terry went right!" he shouted.
A bullet struck the boat rail beside him.
Pete ducked.
"Rude bastard!"
Drew and Leah ran along the concrete wall toward the seaward side.
Terry appeared ahead with two men.
One carried Mick's ledger.
The other had a hard case.
Terry himself held nothing except a pistol.
He saw Drew.
Stopped.
"You really cannot follow instruction."
Drew raised his gun.
"Family trait."
Terry fired.
Leah pulled Drew behind a rusted winch.
The bullet sparked off steel.
She fired back.
One of Terry's men fell behind a bollard.
The other ran for the pilot boat.
Its engine started.
Deep, powerful.
Drew leaned around the winch.
Terry had moved.
"Where?"
Leah pointed.
A narrow concrete channel led around the old workshop toward a second slip.
They followed.
The pilot boat was already moving from its berth.
Terry stood on the stern platform.
The man with the ledger jumped aboard.
The man with the hard case did not make it.
A shot from behind dropped him.
Denny Cross stood in the workshop doorway holding his wounded shoulder with one hand and a pistol with the other.
"You're welcome," he shouted.
Drew shouted back, "Still hate you!"
"Likewise!"
The pilot boat pulled away.
Leah stared.
Too far to jump.
Too fast for Sam.
Then a motorcycle engine screamed behind them.
Drew turned.
Owen Pike came down the broken service track on a dirt bike.
No helmet.
One arm still limited by injury.
Completely unacceptable.
He braked beside them.
"Get on!"
Leah stared at him.
"Where did you come from?"
"Road."
"That isn't an answer."
Drew was already climbing on the back.
"Where are we going?"
Owen pointed toward the point.
"Pilot boat has to follow the channel round the spit before open water. Old service road cuts across."
Drew glanced at Leah.
Her eyes went to the bike.
Then at the pilot boat.
"Your club is exhausting."
"Get in line."
There was no room for three.
Leah grabbed Owen's coat.
"Take Drew. I'll get Calder to the lighthouse road."
Drew looked at her.
"No."
"You can't argue with physics."
"Watch me."
"Drew. Go."
He hesitated.
Leah touched his face once.
"Go."
He got on.
Owen accelerated into darkness.
Leah ran back toward the workshop while calling Calder.
"Terry is on the pilot boat. Channel east side. Drew and Owen cutting him off by land."
Calder's reply arrived immediately.
"My team is ninety seconds out."
"Too slow."
"Leah—"
"Tell your boat to stay dark until the pilot turns north."
"Why?"
Leah looked toward Sam's fishing boat.
Pete stood in the bow waving both arms.
Then she saw what Sam was doing.
He had turned across the pilot boat's channel.
Not to chase it.
To block it.
"Because North End just became maritime infrastructure."
Calder was silent.
"I'm sorry?"
Sam's ancient boat moved directly into the narrow channel.
The pilot boat sounded its horn.
Pete lifted both middle fingers.
Leah closed her eyes.
"Never mind."
Terry's vessel slowed.
Exactly as Ben predicted.
And on the far side of the channel, a dirt bike reached the end of the service road.
Drew Sayer got off.
Terry Pike looked toward him from the stern.
Even at distance, Leah saw the old man understand.
The younger brother had not stayed home.