Ryan, Chris - Zero 22

She paused, as if waiting for Danny to speak. He remained silent.

‘You and your people have taken everything from me. First my husband, now my son. I have nothing left. If I died tomorrow, I wouldn’t care. You need to understand that, Danny. I wouldn’t care. ’

Another pause.

‘What do you want?’ Danny said.

‘I want you to suffer. Like I’ve suffered. And believe me, you will. You’ll feel what I’m feeling now. I’ll take your loved ones from you, one by one. And I’ll let you live to mourn them because that’s what I’ll be doing, every day for the rest of my life.’

It occurred to Danny to argue with her. To tell her that what had happened to her son was nothing to do with him. That he’d been as much in the dark as she was. But he saved his breath. When Bethany White saw Danny Black, she saw all members of the Regiment and Security Services, and she blamed him for all their betrayals and shortcomings.

‘She sounds like a gorgeous little girl, your daughter Rose,’ said Bethany. ‘It would be a shame if something terrible happened to her, wouldn’t it?’

The line went dead.

Danny stared at the phone. A hot, tingling nausea spread to his stomach. He was aware of nothing else. Not the music, not the screens, not the other people in the bar. He was only aware of Bethany’s words, which were ringing in his head like funeral bells.

He stood up. Pulled a damp banknote from his back pocket and placed it on the bar without even checking its denomination. As he walked to the exit, he could feel the weight of his Sig in the inside pocket of his jacket. He hoped, for their sake, that the police had moved on.

Danny Black needed to get back home. He had business there, and nobody was going to stop him.

Two miles to the west, Bethany White stood in the yellow light of a street lamp, rain lashing against her skin. She lowered her phone and stared into the middle distance for a moment. Police sirens had started up again, but she didn’t care.

She saw her boy in her mind’s eye. His gentle smile. His soft, innocent face. A sob escaped her throat and her hands shook and she felt herself bending over with the anguish of it. But she quickly straightened herself and took several deep breaths. She looked around. Rainwater was gushing into another nearby grate. She strode up to it and dropped the mobile phone into the drain, just as she’d done with the memory stick. She thought of the General and his crazy conspiracy. Was he right? Were the most powerful men in the world manipulating the gullible to tighten their grip on power?

She didn’t care. She only cared about her son and righting the wrongs that been done to her.

She put her head down and disappeared through the rain and into the darkness.