Richard Wiseman - To Kill Or Be Killed

“Kill him McKie it’s your bloody job.” Sternway barked the order.

“Sternway if you confess I let your family walk out that door and only kill you. McKie isn’t going to shoot first.” Stanton’s voice was cold and factual.

“Confess to what?” Sternway held his party line.

“I’m going to count to three and then I’m going to kill your son Sternway unless you confess to McKie what you’ve been doing, why you hired me and why all those people died.”

“I can’t tell…”

“Please Nigel… the children…”

“One…”

Ellie and Tony were standing in the hall silent. Tony had his gun drawn. Della and the children were too intent on the scene to see them, but McKie glanced at Della’s pleading face and saw Ellie poised behind her. His face didn’t betray their position.

“Please Nigel.. for once put the family first…”

“I can’t do that Della…”

“Two…”

“Don’t do it Stanton I’ll fire I swear I will. Put the gun down and we’ll talk you can be a witness there might be immunity…” McKie’s finger tightened on the trigger.

“Three…”

Stanton fired both weapons. McKie fired. Ellie dived into the room shielding the children and Tony pushed in and fired his weapon at Stanton.

Ellie screamed as her body passed between Stanton and the children.

Sternway cried out and spun around facing the wall as if punched.

Stanton hit in the hand by McKie’s shot dropped the revolver then suddenly crumpled with a blood stain appearing on the right side of his chest from Tony’s shot.

Della grabbed the children and rushed them from the room. Tony dropped to Ellie’s side on the floor.

“Ellie!”

Ellie sat up cradling her arm. Tony saw blood and whipped off his belt and made a tourniquet. In his peripheral vision he saw Sternway turn back from the wall and take a step. He raised his Sig.

“You stay where you are!”

“My wife and children.” Sternway muttered. Blood showed on his right shoulder and he put his hand to it and looked at the blood.

David leant over Stanton. He was coughing blood.

“You tried not to kill me.” He coughed. “You shot the gun hand pointing at the children too.” He felt a pain spasm and coughed heavily. David put his hand on Stanton’s chest, there was a mass of blood, a pool of it was gathering around him on the floor.

“I think he shot an artery.”

“Forget… it… time for me to go… everything I said… find the phones..” Stanton closed his eyes.

“Is there a message for someone? Family maybe?” David asked.

Stanton’s eyes opened.

“No family… no one…”

“I’m sorry…”

Stanton slumped and his body went limp. David stood up. There was the sound of sirens, ambulances and police. He turned to Tony and Ellie.

“You okay Ellie?”

“Just a flesh wound.” Ellie grunted.

“Tough woman.” David said and looked at Tony.

“That’s my girl.” Said Tony keeping his pistol trained on Sternway.

Before the police came David went into the garden to see what the DIC listener had got and found him unconscious. Tony helped him get the unconscious man into the house. David made a thorough search of the house. He worked around Della Sternway as she packed. He found a Bic ‘disposable’ cell phone, orange coloured, in Sternway’s suit jacket and two lime green Bic ‘disposable’ cell phones in the Jaguar.

Ellie was taken away in one ambulance with Tony. The DIC listener was taken away in another and Nigel Sternway had a police escort in his. He had tried to speak to his wife, but she had cut him dead and defeated he had sat looking at the ground whilst Tony held him still at gun point.

Ten minutes after the gun play, the only blue light left was a waiting police car and the ambulances had gone. David stood in the door way of the house having answered all police questions he was able to. The DIC badge had done most of the work, DIC official stand down not having been something that would be externally broadcast.

On the doorstep Della held out her hand for the Jaguar keys. The children were dressed and there were bags on the floor.

“Do you need a hand with those bags.” David asked.

“That’s good of you thank you.” She said softly.

David took the bags to the car and put them in the boot. The children got in the car. Della stood by the driver’s door.

“I didn’t know exactly what he did at work. I knew that he was MI6, but I never asked. I didn’t realise he was so cold blooded… he wouldn’t even stand in front of us, to protect us, he was more concerned about his secrets.”

“I thought he was moving you away from him so that Stanton would shoot at him not you, I thought he was protecting you.”

“You’re a good man Mr..?”

“McKie, David McKie.”

“Do you have a family?” She asked.

“Yes.”

“Don’t ever put your work before your family like he did. His work turned him cold. He wasn’t like that when we first met, his work changed him.”

“I’ve heard a lot about that, killing rotting the soul.”

“Then you’ll know to be careful.” She said and opened the car door and turned to face him. “We’ll be at my sister’s house if anyone wants us. I expect you can get the address easily in your line of work.”

David nodded. He watched her get in the car and pull out of the drive.

He turned his own steps to the Citroen C4. It was getting on for eight o clock and he had a meeting to get to.

Euston Tower

8 p.m.

April 19th

Brook hadn’t heard anything from anyone. He hadn’t been in contact. Once you were into the tube of an E order you kept out of contact and kept heading for the target.

He had prepared well on the information Stanton had given them and done some research on the floor layout of the building from the plans, which were available, but didn’t show any of the details, just the structure.

He walked into the revolving door at the tower. It moved slowly, very slowly. The guards watched him. The x-ray showed the holstered weapon and the infra red showed he was hot, sweating probably. The guard at the desk readied a weapon. When the door revolved to let him into the lobby he made his way to the desk and held up his badge. The MI6 people had quickly made a copy. It was good.

“Hi lads Leigh Taylor new guy reporting for duty.” Telford held out the badge.

The guard looked at the badge and then at the roster and the list of expected people on the screen in front of him under the desk.

Telford noticed a second guard appear from a door to the side. He was a heavily built man. He leant on the door frame.

The guard behind the desk rose and opened the sliding gap in the long desk pressing a button under the table.

Telford walked through, walked up to the two lifts and pressed the button. The door of the left hand lift opened instantly. He stepped in and the door closed. The two guards smiled at each other and one picked up a phone. DIC medical team came down in the lifts behind the hidden entrance door and deployed themselves outside the left hand lift door.

In the lift Telford had a second’s abject fear as the lift filled with gas and then he passed out and slumped to the floor. Fans switched on and sucked the gas out.

Minutes later when the doors opened the medical team put Telford on a stretcher and unconscious he was loaded into a private ambulance. The guards were back at their posts serious faces, but there was an atmosphere.

Suddenly one of them laughed then the other joined in. Their laughter echoed around the lobby.

“Silly bugger!”

“I wonder who he was?”

“I expect Jack will tell us when he gets back from Downing Street.