Standing his ground, Lilburn aimed for the driver. The VW came on. The windscreen took bullets, holes opened up and starburst cracks rippled out through the glass. Hall had crouched down and shielded his head as the gunfire opened up around him. As he stood up he saw the oncoming car hurtling towards his direction. He went to jump sideways but his ankle rolled sending him to the ground. Lilburn swiftly leapt sideways avoiding impact, still firing at the moving target. Hall stood no chance — he had barely made it to his feet when the VW collected him. The chrome bumper-bar whacked into his shins, Hall’s upper body smashed into the hood, his head almost crashing through the glass before his whole body, limp and broken, careered feet over head and hit the ground with a sickening thud.
The car and Bomani carried on, then did a wide arc and stopped, facing Lilburn, the driver’s door flapping. Lilburn heard the revs increase again as Bomani pumped the accelerator. Lilburn, two hands wrapped around the Sig 9 mm, kept his aim on the driver. Through the damaged windscreen, he could see Bomani wipe blood from a wound to his head. There was a loud graunching of gears, a loud cry of “Allahu akbar!” and the charge was on. Lilburn fired again and again. With each shot went the silent image of the men and one woman the man had recently murdered. God speed, Lilburn said to himself. Bomani reached third gear before his head slumped over the steering wheel, gone to his God. His body held the car’s direction steady. Lilburn could only watch as the vehicle sped past him back out the car-park entrance, the way it had come. ‘Shit, shit!’ Lilburn threw his hands wildly up in the air. “Go, move it!” Lineman, still hovering on the entrance road, watched as the car kept coming on impact course with his helicopter. It was only skill and blind luck that the VW passed inches beneath his skids before thudding into the trunk of a tall tree.
Lilburn ran a hand through his hair then down the back of his neck. It was close.
Hall lay crumpled on his back, one leg at a grotesque angle, blood streaming from a neck wound, his eyes closed. His head rolled to the side and his eyes opened to meet Lilburn standing over him.
“Why? Why did you do this?”
Hall tried to smile, moved an arm and grimaced with pain. “Put a bullet in me. Now.”
“Like hell. You can suffer, you bastard.” Lilburn knelt down beside Hall. “What about Lopez, was she in on this as well, was she part of this?”
Hall was breathing through his mouth. “Of course not! Ah, it nearly worked.” He winced again. “Lopez just happened to be the right person to be… the fall guy. She has a kid all right — to that scientist, Ian Bradley. His death was no accident. He would have broken at some point and come clean he had a bastard with Lopez. I needed her to look as if she was a liar.”
“So why me? Why did you ask for me?”
Hall laughed bitterly, blood welling up in the corner of his mouth. He spat weakly, his chest heaving, before he answered. “Needed someone with credibility… someone who would do their utmost. You were it. Only thing was, I underestimated you…”
“You prick.”
“And I could have been a wealthy prick, if this had worked.”
“You did this for money?”
“This, that and a bit more. I told you, this job gets to you. You should get out, before it kills you.”
Lilburn turned his head and momentarily rested it on his arm before looking back. “Where’s the kid?”
“What’s it to you? She’s nothing but a bitch, always was.”
Lilburn curled his lip. “Where’s the boy?”
“Go fuck yourself.”
Hall’s broken leg was in reach. Lilburn placed the barrel of his gun fair and square on the bone protruding from Hall’s bloodied and torn pants and applied pressure. Hall screamed. When the screaming stopped he asked again.
“I’ve had a lot of pain, Lilburn. You think that will work? Piss off.”
Lilburn stood up. Others would get the information. Hall was injured but he would live.
“What did you do with the virus?”
“I was wondering when you’d get round to that.” Hall shuffled himself up so he rested on one elbow. “I need something up my sleeve, some insurance. When I’m provided that, then I’ll reveal where it is.”
“You gutless coward. You didn’t deserve the respect people gave you.”
“I earned that respect, Lilburn! I earned respect all those fucking years I slaved my guts out for this country, now it’s time for the country to pay me back.”
“By using bioterrorism? You didn’t even make it a threat; you went all out to make it happen.”
Hall laughed. “I didn’t say make this country pay money, I said make it pay. There’s a difference. The country paying me offered a damn sight more money than any ransom from this asshole of a place.”
“Save the crap for someone who cares. The kid, Hall. Tell me where the kid is.”
Hall smiled again. “Ask Abdul Baari Fawaz. And that’s all you get from me until I get a lawyer.”
Lilburn turned around and walked away.
“Hey, HEY! Don’t you turn your back on me.” Hall struggled to get up but fell back with the pain. “You little half-baked piece of shit. I’m more of a man than you’ll ever be! You’re nothing, Lilburn, nothing. Come back here and I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”
Lilburn didn’t look back, not even when he stuck his middle finger up in the air.
Epilogue
The funeral service for agents Dale Jones and Bryce Waterhouse, killed in action, concluded with the tearful next-of-kin being presented with the folded American flag.
Matt Lilburn had stood to attention for most of the service, a lump in his throat. It wasn’t the first funeral for colleagues he had attended, not by a long shot, and probably not the last. Standing by his side was the now acting head of Counter Terrorism, Rob Olson. The pair walked in silence across the green grass of the cemetery towards the director’s car. A staffer opened the rear door for Olson. Before he lowered himself into the seat he held out his hand to Lilburn. As the tall man shook it, Olson said: “I’ve made arrangements for you to accompany the body of Dr. Crawston back to London. I’ve also seen to it that you will be our representative at her funeral.”
Matt Lilburn did not, could not, say a word. He just nodded.