hard until help comes.’
She scrambled up behind the machine gun, gripped the handles, and started to fire in short bursts at the advancing figures. The gun faltered, the magazine box empty. There weren’t as many out there now, but they were still coming. Very slowly, and in great pain, she took off the empty cartridge box and replaced it with the spare. There was blood in her eye, and she was more tired than she had ever been in her life.
She stood there, somehow indomitable in the light of the fires, with her red hair, and the blood on her face, and glanced down at Frank.
‘Are you still with me?’ He nodded slightly. ‘Good man.’
She reached for the machine gun again and was hit somewhere in the right leg so that she had to grab the handles to keep from falling over. There was no particular pain, which was common with gunshot wounds – the pain would come later. She heaved herself up.
A final group of Taliban was moving forward, and she started firing again, methodically sweeping away a whole line of them. Suddenly, they were all gone, fading into the darkness. She stood there, her leg starting to hurt.
There was a sound of helicopters approaching fast, the crackle of flames, the smell of battle, the cries of soldiers calling to one another as they came down the line of trucks. She was still gripping the handles of the machine gun, holding herself upright, but now she let go, wiped her bloody face with the back of her hand, and leaned down.
‘It’s over, Frank. Are you all right?’
He looked up at her, still clutching her headcloth to his body. ‘My God, I wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of you, ma’am,’ he croaked.
She reached down, grabbing his other hand, filled with profound relief, and then she became aware of the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life, cried out, and, at that instant, found herself back in her seat on the plane to New York.
3
The flight attendant was leaning over her anxiously.
‘Are you okay? You called out.’
‘Fine, just fine. A bad dream. I’ve been under a lot of stress lately. I think I’ll go to the restroom and freshen up.’
She moved along the aisle, limping slightly, a permanent fixture now, although it didn’t bother her unless she got overtired. She stood at the mirror, ran a comb through her hair, touched up what little make-up she wore, and smiled at herself.
‘No sad songs, Sara Gideon,’ she said. ‘We’ll go now and have a delicious martini, then think about tonight’s reception at the Pierre.’
At Kennedy, her diplomatic status passed her straight through, and she was at the Plaza just after five o’clock. The duty manager escorted her personally to her suite.
‘Would you have any news on General Ferguson’s time of arrival?’ she enquired.
‘Eight o’clock, but I believe that’s open, ma’am.’
‘And his two associates, Mr Dillon and Mr Holley?’
‘They booked into the hotel yesterday, but I think they’re out. I could check.’
‘No, leave it. I think I’ll rest. Would you be kind enough to see that no calls are put through, unless it’s the general?’
‘I’ll see to it, ma’am. Your suitcase was delivered this morning. You’ll find it in the bedroom. If you need any assistance, the housekeeper will be happy to oblige.’
He withdrew, and she didn’t bother to unpack. Instead of lying down, though, she put her laptop on the desk in the sitting room and sat there going over all the material sent to her by Major Giles Roper, whose burned and ravaged face had become as familiar to her as her own, this man who had once been one of the greatest bomb-disposal experts in the British Army, now reduced to life in a wheelchair.
It would be after eleven at night in London, but experience had taught her that if he was sleeping, it would be in his wheelchair anyway, in front of his computer bank, which was where she found him when she called him on Skype.
‘Giles, I’m at the Plaza and just in from Arizona. My report on Reaper drones will curl your hair.’
‘I look forward to reading it, Sara. You’re looking fit.’ They’d already become good friends. ‘Are you likely to enjoy tonight’s little soirée?’
‘There will be nothing little about it. No word from the general yet?’
‘I’ve spoken to him. He and Harry Miller have met with the President and should arrive at Kennedy around eight, if the weather holds. I was going to call you anyway. Your boss, Colonel Hector Grant – boss until midnight anyway – would appreciate you being there before eight.’
‘Happy to oblige him. I haven’t seen Dillon and Holley. They’re apparently out at the moment.’
‘Yes, they’re seeing to something for Ferguson.’
‘In New York? Is that legal?’
‘You wouldn’t want to know.’
She shook her head. ‘This whole business is the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me. That General Charles Ferguson could take over my military career by Prime Minister’s warrant, which I never even knew existed, and make me a member of his private hit squad, which I’d always heard rumours about but never believed in.’
‘Well, it does.’
‘And I find myself in your hands, face-to-face on screen with a man who sits in a wheelchair, hair down to his shoulders, smokes cigarettes, constantly drinks whiskey, and seems to eat only bacon sandwiches at all hours, day and night.’
‘I can’t deny any of it.’
Tony Doyle, a black London Cockney and sergeant in the military police, appeared beside Roper with a mug of tea. He handed it to him and smiled at Sara. ‘Good to see you, ma’am.’
‘Tony, just go away.’ He laughed and went out.
‘It’s like a movie, Giles. I only see what you want me to. I have to take your word for everything.’
‘My dearest girl, all that I’ve told you about Holland Park is true, and you’ve got photos of everyone who works here, the details of their lives, their doings.’
‘So Dillon trying to blow up John Major and his Cabinet in London all those years ago, that’s true?’
‘And he got well paid for it.’
‘And Daniel Holley really was IRA and now he’s a millionaire and some sort of a diplomat for the Algerian foreign minister?’
‘Absolutely. He’s not just a pretty face in a Brioni suit, our Daniel.’
‘I didn’t say he was.’ She shrugged. ‘Obviously, he’s killed a few people.’
