Stephen Leather - The Hunting

Van der Sandt held his rifle above his head to show that he wasn’t a threat.

‘Drop the weapon or I will shoot!’ shouted the guard.

‘It’s me, Jon Van der Sandt!’

The light went out and the gate opened. ‘I’m sorry, sir. I was told to challenge all visitors.’

‘Not a problem, son,’ said Van der Sandt. ‘Where is Colonel Bell?’

‘In the kitchen, sir.’ He opened the gate wider and Van der Sandt walked through. ‘Keep your eyes peeled,’ he said. ‘There are two bad guys still out there.’

‘Yes sir, roger that,’ said the guard.

Van der Sandt walked down the driveway to the house. One of Bell’s men was standing at the front door with his carbine across his chest. He nodded at Van der Sandt and stood to attention. Van der Sandt threw him a mock salute and then headed down the side of the house to the kitchen.

Colonel Bell was sitting at the oak table with a mug of coffee, two radios in front of him and a Glock in his holster. On the other side of the table was Gerry Lineham, the helicopter pilot. Bell’s eyes widened when he saw Van der Sandt at the kitchen door and jumped to his feet.

‘Sir, is everything …’

Van der Sandt interrupted him with a shake of the head. ‘I’m pretty sure the two guys you sent into the woods are dead,’ he said. ‘Two of the targets are still out there, and they came after me.’ He placed his rifle on the table and showed Bell the dressing on his shoulder. ‘They got me with a lucky shot.’

‘Do you want me to get you to the hospital? Gerry can fly us.’

‘It’s a flesh wound, nothing more.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘I’m sure.’ Van der Sandt took off his backpack and placed it on the table, then picked up his rifle. ‘The two still out there – they’ll be heading this way.’

‘I’ll take care of them, sir. There’s no way they can get onto the estate. All the gates are locked, the CCTV and alarm system is working just fine, and I’ve got one of my best guys in the gatehouse. As soon as we see them, we’ll be on them like flies on shit.’

Van der Sandt nodded. He wanted to do it himself but the shoulder wound made that impossible. There was no way he could aim and fire the weapon with any degree of accuracy. ‘I’ll be in my study,’ he said. He headed upstairs.

‘Billy-Joe is outside,’ said Bell. ‘Just to be on the safe side I’ll send him up to you.’ Van der Sandt was already out of earshot and Bell wasn’t sure if he’d heard or not.

‘Do you need me, Colonel?’ asked Lineham.

‘Can the chopper fly at short notice?’

‘Sure. All fuelled up and ready to go. Just give me the word.’

‘Let’s see how we get on tonight.’ Bell pulled his Glock from its holster, checked the action, and slotted it back before heading down the hallway to the front door. He grabbed one of the radios as he went.

Billy-Joe Maxwell was standing outside, his carbine across his front. He was a big man with a barrel-like chest and a square jaw who had done three tours in Afghanistan with Delta Force before joining the private sector. ‘Go upstairs and keep an eye on Mr Van der Sandt,’ said Bell. ‘But don’t disturb him.’

‘Roger that, sir.’ Maxwell went inside and headed up the stairs.

Bell looked up at the night sky. It was totally clear of clouds and there was so little light pollution in the area that there were millions of stars to be seen. He shuddered as a breeze blew across the lawn. He fished a pack of Marlboro from his fatigues and lit one.

CHAPTER 65

Raj lay on his stomach under a bush, studying the wall through his night vision goggles. He had them set to infrared and they gave him a near-perfect, albeit greenish view of his surroundings. There were CCTV camera housings every hundred yards or so, but no barbed wire. If they did climb the wall there was no doubt that they’d be spotted. There was a barred gate midway along the perimeter – he couldn’t see a guard but the gate was covered by one of the cameras.

Sid crawled up next to him. ‘What’s the story?’ he asked.

Raj removed his goggles. ‘I don’t see any guards but they’ve got CCTV everywhere. I could put together a ladder and we could get over without too many problems, but there’s no way we could do it without being seen.’

He saw movement at one of the upstairs windows. A man was standing there, looking out. Instinctively, Raj knew it was the hunter. Raj sighted on the figure and eased his finger onto the trigger, but he knew it would be pointless to shoot – the man was well out of range.

‘So what are we going to do?’ asked Sid. ‘We can’t stay out here all night.’

‘I’ve got a plan,’ said Raj.

He turned and crawled back into the forest. Sid followed him.

CHAPTER 66

Andy Isom popped a fresh stick of gum into his mouth as he scanned the CCTV screens in front of him. The feeds from the cameras around the perimeter, grounds and house were shown on three large monitors, each showing nine views on a rotating basis. There was a fourth screen on the wall above them which could be used to see any individual views that were of particular interest. He spotted two figures on one of the displays and he clicked on it. The image transferred to the main screen.

Isom stood up and leant towards the display. An Asian man, dark-skinned and bearded, was walking towards the main gate, his hands on his head. Behind him was one of Bell’s men, pointing his Heckler at the captive’s back.

Isom pulled his Glock from its holster and headed out. The main gate was opened using a switch in the gatehouse but there was a smaller pedestrian gate to the side that was unlocked with a security card that Isom had on a chain clipped to his belt.

The men were about twenty feet away from the gate as Isom approached. The floodlights covering the area cast giant shadows over the ground. The captive’s skin was glistening under the harsh light and Isom could see his eyes flicking nervously left and right.

‘He give you any problems?’ asked Isom.

‘Nah,’ said the guy with the gun. It must have been either Emmett or Holland – whichever one it was had their helmet pulled low over their face, so from a few metres away he couldn’t tell.

The two men came to a halt and stood just inches from the gate. There was a holster on the captive’s hip, but there was no gun in it.

‘Everything okay?’ Isom asked, looking down and holding out the key card towards the reader.

‘Yeah,’ the man in the helmet grunted, but as Isom looked up he immediately realised the man wasn’t Emmett or Holland. Panicked, Isom reached for his gun, but as he did the captive lowered his hands. The right hand went behind his back and reappeared holding a Glock. Isom’s mouth fell open in surprise, and before he could even touch his own weapon the other man’s gun barked twice.

CHAPTER 67

Colin Bell heard the crack-crack of pistol shots from the direction of the main entrance. He took his transceiver from the holster on his belt and put it to his mouth. ‘This is Charlie Bravo, come in Alpha India.’ He released the transmit button, but there was no reply. He tried again. ‘Come in Alpha India, I need a sitrep.’

Again there was no reply. Bell cursed and put the transceiver back in its holster, and began running towards the main gate, pulling his Glock from its holster.

The main gates were closed and there were no vehicles on the drive. The gatehouse door was open and the lights were on inside. Bell slowed as he got closer to the building. He moved to the left and saw a figure lying on the ground by the pedestrian gate. It was Andy Isom, he realised. A man was reaching through the barred gate. There was another man in fatigues and a Kevlar helmet standing behind him, holding a Heckler. Bell frowned, trying to understand what he was seeing.