They exited the car, the flashing lights of the cordoned off zone where the temporary center of operations made its home, beckoned them. John shivered in his coat before lifting the tape for Anna to duck under as they joined Chief Crawley, Branson, and someone dressed in tactical gear. The others nodded at them before making space so the group of five could talk around a table with a large map covering its surface.

"We've started a sweep of the area," The tactically dressed one spoke, tapping his gloved finger at a few locations. "And cleared these smaller buildings on the outer edge of the search zone."

"These," John indicated a few of the buildings, "Were old haunts of Vera's operations. They'll probably be good places to clear as well."

Chief Crawley raised an eyebrow. "Something you want to share?"

"It's a tip, from Angela Bartlett." John burrowed his arms into his coat. "I don't trust her but given the connections we've made between Green and Vera, it's worth giving a grain of salt."

"I can get some people to search it."

Chief Crawley looked between John and the Tactical Officer before nodding at the latter. "Alright Matthew. Take the time you need to set everything up and let's tighten this net one step at a time." Chief Crawley looked over the four of them. "I won't have a deranged killer loose in this city any longer."

"Then it may be pertinent to remind all those present that this man is intelligent, sadistic, and highly trained." Anna straightened, shuffling in her coat. "There's sure to be traps in place."

"We'll keep on our toes." Matthew turned to Branson, "You've got your units ready for infiltration?"

"Waiting on your order."

"Then let's get to it." Matthew and Branson left the table, the shivering trio left over huddled a bit closer to the map in their absence.

"How'd Vyner die?" John brought his gloved hands to his mouth, blowing into them as he shuffled to keep flowing to his toes. "Branson sent a picture but…"

"We've got Mary scanning our CCTV trying to figure it out." Chief Crawley motioned with his hand and they followed him into a an overlarge bus, filled with technological equipment and people operating different cameras and monitors. Mary only looked up briefly as they entered and clicked on the file as Chief Crawley continued. "Far as we figure, he got a uniform."

"Is anyone missing?"

Chief Crawley shook his head. "The size matches Vyner so, and this is just a theory, he nicked it from Vyner's things and used it to get in undetected so he could kill his target."

"Not very serial of him." Mary leaned back in her seat. "Vyner doesn't match the profile at all."

"This kill wasn't about the profile but protecting himself." Anna shuffled closer to watch the replay on the monitor. "His style reflects his method but this was a way to rid himself of an obstacle."

"I can't say I'm too miffed about it." Mary clicked the button and they watched the footage as a man, who never raised his head, entered the holding cell where Vyner waited and quickly cut the man down. "But he's fast. Efficient, even. It's like watching one of those butchers who slices up the cow in front of you."

"Hence my summation." Anna turned to Chief Crawley. "This man's dangerous, Chief, as I'm sure you're achingly aware already. But it's more than that. We've…"

She stopped, looking to John, and he nodded for her to continue. "We've come to believe, rather recently, that he's a former agent with Special Branch."

"Hence your ominous warning to Matthew?" Chief Crawley took a breath, "And the tip you received from Mrs. Bartlett, Bates, that wouldn't happen to've come from a ruckus we got wind of just yesterday?"

John stretched his neck, the bus turning stuffy with him bundled against the cold. "It might."

"When I finally read your reports on this case," Chief Crawley looked at both of them. "I'm going to be very irritated while simultaneously sighing in relief at all the things about this case that suddenly make sense."

"I'm sure there are some people in Special Branch who might prevent that." Anna rolled her shoulders but John caught the shiver there. "What we tell you might just have to be in person and as a satisfaction of personal curiosity."

Chief Crawley waved his hand as if to knock the comment away. "Whatever makes me sleep easier at night is fine by me."

"Do you have another angle of this?" Anna leaned back toward the computer, working over Mary's shoulder as John motioned for Chief Crawley to sequester away into a corner with him for a moment.

"How much trouble will Mrs. Bartlett cause?"

"Ideally?" Chief Crawley snorted, "With Vera out of the picture and us turning our department upside down to make sure we've not got another mole, a decent bit. If she's able to consolidate her power base in the vacuum that Vera left, and make friends with Mason, then she'll take the market."

"What kind of trouble will that be for us farther up the line?" John bit the inside of his cheek. "How much trouble have I made for you?"

"You'll find that there's a lot forgiven in a single moment if the moment is big enough." Chief Crawley removed his coat and hug it from the back of the bus. "If we can finally put this man behind bars then there's no reason to think about the other details involved in getting him."

"At least until a lawyer brings it up in court." John removed his coat as well. "Why'd you put Branson on one of the tactical teams?"

"He volunteered." Chief Crawley shook his head, "I would've put someone else from Matthew's team to head the other but Branson wanted to take it."

"Does he have training?"

"He's good for it. And it gives Matthew comfort to have someone he trusts leading the second team." Chief Crawley sucked the insides of his cheeks before pausing. "What all do you know about this?"

"Only that Mrs. Bartlett offered this information to us and we didn't have the chance to act on it before I got Branson's text."

"Yes, but how did you get that information." Chief Crawley's eyes narrowed. "I don't remember you getting on well with any of Vera's friends when you were married and I doubt any of her friends would feel differently once she passed from this peculiar world."

"She seemed a little kinder to me when she had me at gunpoint." John cringed, "Ms. Smith and I haven't been idle in our investigation."

"I'll assume you've also gone a bit off book on this."

"There was a reason for it."

"There always is in something like this." Chief Crawley shook his head. "And I'll not give any kind of arguments against it, right now, but you'll probably be facing some official reprimand later."

"I can handle that." John snorted, "It's not like I didn't have one when Vera turned out to be who she was."

"This might be different." Chief Crawley winced and lowered his voice as he spoke again. "Especially since I know you and Ms. Smith have been… closer than just temporary partners."

"Are you telling me that it's unethical for me to engage in sexual activity with a temporary partner?"

"I'm telling you that there'll be chinks in your armor and, if this goes to court as we hope, then we'll not be above reproach."

"How often do we enter a courtroom above reproach?"

"In a case like this, we've got to be irreproachable."

"I do know how to do my job, sir." John swallowed, "And whatever's going on between Ms. Smith and I-"

"Could be used against us." Chief Crawley shook his head, reaching for his coat. "Whatever you've got going on with her, you make sure that it doesn't come back to bite us in the ass when we finally get this nutter put away."

"You've got my promise, sir." John watched as Chief Crawley left the bus, allowing a burst of cold air to infiltrate the space and leave everyone shivering.

"John?" He turned to Anna and noted the flick of her fingers as she bid him come over to the computer Mary managed. "Will you watch this?"

"Watch what?" John stood on the other side of Mary as she wound the video back and John noted the four split screens compositing an image of the death of Vyner in the holding cell. "What've you found?"

"Watch what he does." Anna pointed and John followed the four cameras to monitor Green's movements as he murdered Vyner. John almost flinched as he watched Vyner's throat slit but he noted how quickly Green worked. "And here it is."

John leaned forward a bit more to watch as Green wrote out the address on the wall before tipping his hat to the camera. He never turned to do it, simply straightened and tipped his hat to the wall. But… "He's known where the cameras are the whole time. He's mocking us."

"It's like the photo all over again." Anna pointed at the screen. "And the address… It's not just a taunt. He knew we knew where we'd look."

"You think he's working with Mrs. Bartlett?"

"Maybe but I doubt it." Anna crossed her arms over her chest. "I think he knew what information to plant. Just like getting rid of Vyner or his father."

"He's cleaning house but we already knew that." John shook his head, pacing the short distance to the back of the bus before returning to them. "This is a trap."

"We warned them to take care." Anna turned to Mary, "Can you bring up a by-the-minute map of the buildings they've cleared?"

"They've got them over there." Mary turned, pointing to two other techs working on larger monitors. "Boys, can you bring up the infrared on one, the cams on another, and the overall map on a third?"

The two techs typed quickly to bring up the requested maps and camera tracking. John followed the map before pointing at one of the screens. "Can you overlay this with building schematics or the by-the-minute clearing?"

"Give me a second." One of the techs typed quickly, frowning. "Hold on, this might take a minute actually."

They waited, John's fingers taping on the side of a wall until the other tech raised his eyebrow at him. "Sorry."

"First time in the waiting box mate?"

"Yeah." John pushed back, removing his coat to stop himself sweating in the bus. When he returned to the techs he noted Anna's coat hanging between her arms. She shrugged at him before they both turned as the tech made a triumphant noise.

"Got it." He toggled the mouse, "Here, we've got live tracking and all I need to do it overlay the image on demand."

"Good, now show us the way the tactical teams are moving, please." Mary tapped at one of the men's shoulders and they worked the monitors between them to represent the whole area. "Where've they cleared?"

"Mr. Crawley's team has cleared this area." The second tech lit up the outer area of the map. "He's moving inward but we've cleared most of it through infrared and some satellite pictures."

"Did those show any activity lately?"

The first tech shook his head, "Nothing recently."

"Not one man moving in this area?"

"Given they're not keyhole satellites, we'd only pick up larger movements. If it's a single man moving in these warehouses, he'd be a smudge on the image."

Anna looked at John, "He'd know that. If he chose this location over Vyner's flat then he's picked it for a number of reasons."

"Is ease of access one of them?" Mary leaned over one of the tech's chairs, looking between Anna and John. "If he's as smart as you say then he'd need to consider a number of factors. Access, hidey holes, etc."

Anna nodded and turned away from the chairs, taking her turn to pace the small space before coming back to them. "The only reason to choose this place, other than accessibility, is its space as a trap."

"As Bates mentioned." Mary pointed at John. "If it's a trap then why didn't we find anything on infrared or with the sweeps?"

"Because he's one person." Anna pointed back to the composite images of Vyner in the cell. "He gave us the address as a taunt. He killed Vera and ten of her people to hang them like slaughtered pigs in a warehouse to send a message to whomever was coming after Vera. He got Mrs. Bartlett's crew to eliminate his father and, by so doing, burned his last bridge."

"Then why even let us get this close?" John pointed toward the monitors. "Why allow two tactical teams to get close to him? To let us get close to him? If it's a trap, what's its purpose?"

John waited but Anna shook her head, taking up pacing over the thin strip of floor. "You said it, he's cleaning up. If this is his endgame then what's the purpose? No one sets a trap without reason."

"One option is to try and draw us away from the station but there are still people there and Vyner's already dead so it's not like he's distracting us from his attempt to commit murder." Mary snorted, "He already did it under our nose."

"What about the unit on Jane Moorsum's house?" John turned to Anna but she could only look at Mary.

"They've not reported anything odd. Jane Moorsum's not really a player now that Vyner's dead."

"Then what about who he's drawn here." John circled his finger in the air around those in the bus. "Two tactical teams would be a prize."

"The tactical teams wouldn't be searching for him if this wasn't a large area." Mary shook her head, "It's probably got more to do with who knew he'd be here."

"Everyone." John frowned but Anna shook her head.

"No, Mary's right." Anna pointed at John. "He knew Mrs. Bartlett would give you this address. And, when we didn't immediately hunt him down, he forced our hands by wiping Vyner from the board."

"Baited the hook pretty heavily with that one."

"Which means he wants us here." Anna took a breath, "This is a trap for us."

"But we're not even out there."

"Because-"

Everyone in the bus stopped when a phone rang. They all checked their phones, and those in the bus, before Anna produced hers. The silence fell heavily on them as she swiped her thumb across the surface and hit the button to send the voice crackling to speaker.

"Anna Smith."

"Thank goodness for plain names eh? Meant that when you rubbed out our history together you could keep your name because there are so many 'Anna Smiths' in the world. How that must've made you feel good to keep a shred of yourself alive after killing everything else."

John noted how Anna tensed, her fingers gripping tightly around the phone. "I guess there's something to be said about anonymity. Not that you were ever one for that, were you? Your name means money and that money kept you safe from people like me."

"My father's money, you mean?"

"Same difference to me." Anna swallowed, "But your ears must've been burning something fierce if you called me now. It's not been your style before."

"You chased me alone before."

John's eyes met Anna's as she grimaced. "What, afraid I'd forget you're important and make something else of my life if you're no longer in it?"

"I'm afraid that your friends haven't made my life as fun as it used to be. The thrill of the chase has changed."

"Is this how you're getting your thrills now?" John cut in and immediately bit at his tongue when Anna scowled at him.

"That must be the detective. He's admirable in his efforts but he's nothing like you, is he Anna?"

"He's not had my experience."

"Or the experience of your friend, the one going home with half a hand." John stilled at the mention of Talbot. "But I guess he served his purpose… scrubbing the remains of my father off the walls of that hotel room."

"Did you kill your father?"

"Why do yourself what you can farm out to other people?" The voice cackled a second, "Something your inept detective can find out for himself when he gets around to dismantling the operation his ex-wife built. Or maybe he'll have to wait for your other friend, the one working with the Russians, to do it for him."

"Is name-dropping everyone in my contacts list your way of trying to frighten us?" Anna leaned toward the phone, "Or is there a reason behind this call? I'd hate to think you're just teasing us because you're bored."

"Why? Because it wouldn't fit your profile?"

"No, because it'd be boring." Anna paused, "And that's the last thing you want to be, right? Boring. It's not your style."

"Look who thinks she knows me." John would have bet there was a hiss to his response but he held himself back from trying to goad the man on the other end of the phone. "You think you've got me figured out, do you?"

"I think you'd be more offended if I knew you as well as the 'inept detective' does?" Anna shrugged at John and he waved the comment away but froze with Green's response over the line.

"Whatever game you think you're playing, trying to make me believe it's just a game between you and I, you're wrong. Especially when I know how close you are with that inept detective." The scoffing laugh on the other end ground John's teeth. "You can't honestly tell me that the old cripple makes you happy."

Anna met John's eyes, flexing her jaw a moment before responding. "Yes, he makes me very happy. But that's all fleeting, isn't it? You think what you do makes you happy so you keep doing it. That's human nature."

"What makes him better than me?"

"Consent would be the first thing on my mind."

"Even though you were both drunk the first night?" John and Anna stared at one another. "Or when your dear friend Talbot wanted to use the two of you as a distraction? Is that what made it better? The fact it wasn't real?"

"So you're a voyeur now too?" Anna ground her teeth, "I'll have to remember to add that to your profile when I update it."

"You're surrounded by computers, just do it now."

John almost spun in a circle as he watched the monitors in the bus take control of themselves and lock the techs out. Mary ducked to her seat but even with the three experts working furiously, the computers remained out of their reach. A second later they sparked and fizzed, smoking as the techs and Mary dodged away from the ruins of their machines.

"I wouldn't want to give anyone an unfair advantage."

"You mean you don't want us to have any advantage at all." Anna moved to the door, opening it to let the acrid smell of burned machinery and fused wires out of the small space. "It's all a game to you."

"It's always been a game. And now, you've reached the next level."

The call ended and Anna tucked the phone away, putting on her coat. "I'm done with this psycho and his games."

"We're blind in here." Mary grabbed her coat, John following suit as the three of them left the bus to find Chief Crawley near the cordon. "Our equipment's blown."

"What?" Chief Crawley stared at them, dumbfounded, until Mary explained the situation. "Get everyone on the radios so we can-"

A crackling came from the radio set-up and the two techs sitting at it backed away as a voice sounded out through it. "I would advise everyone freeze where they are or they might not like what comes next."

"Who-?"

"It's Green." John turned to Chief Crawley. "He's in the system."

"How?"

"The specifics would be beyond the time I've got to explain to you, Chief Crawley, but just know that your systems are my systems. I've got into your station, I've turned your whole city around, and now I've got more Guards in my grasp than I could possibly hope for and you walked them in here like you were in the one in charge." Green's voice tsked at them over the crackling radio. "What a fool you were. What fools you all were."

Anna leaned closer to John, "Maybe we should've used the word 'trap' more liberally when we met earlier."

"Maybe we should've carpet bombed this whole area." John shook his head, "Hindsight is 20-20 I guess."

"What you've got before you, ladies and gentlemen is a choice." They all flinched when one of the monitors sprang to life, showing the positions of the tactical teams. "You can either continue to search for me here or you can play my game. The risks being that to refuse me is to court death and to play is to have a chance at life."

"Mary," John tipped back to whisper in Mary's ear. "Do you have a channel you use that's outside the one he's using?"

"I'm trying to see if he's blanketed the channels right now." She played with a radio in her hands, keeping the steady twitch of the monitor to check against her ear. "So far I can't find a clear one he's not using."

"When you do, how would you get Matthew or Branson on it?"

"We could try texting them, if he's not taking over the cell towers."

John nodded and surreptitiously slipped his phone from his pocket, blindly tapping out a text to Branson and sending it as Green's voice continued. "What's the decision, Chief Crawley? Because delaying is not the tactic you should choose now."

"Why? Does it default to death?"

"As my father, in one of the few times he ever spoke to me face-to-face, once said, 'hesitation is death' and I do believe in that maxim."

"Then what's the game?" Chief Crawley shrugged at John when he gaped in response. "I don't tend to play the game unless I know the rules."

"Then you'll play?"

"I'm analyzing the board before I commit." Chief Crawley stood tall. "I need to weight the risks before I make a decision. As a gamesman I'd hoped you'd appreciate that kind of thought."

"I'm no gamesman. A soldier, formerly, and a hunted man now. Gamesmen are more your breed, aren't they Chief? The kind of people with more money than brains and hoisting titles they've not earned while lording it over others as they believe it's their God-given right."

"If you knew anything about me-"

"I know enough about you to leave photographs at crime scenes for you." John caught Chief Crawley going pale. "So luck you've got loyal people keeping you out of trouble for your mistakes, isn't it?"

"You'd know all about people keeping you out of trouble." John spoke into the radio. "Now stop wasting time and tell us what the ultimatum is."

"Impatient, Detective?"

"It's brass monkeys out here and while you're cold-blooded, the rest of us are freezing while we wait for you to decide if you'll just keep toying with us or actually offer a bit of sanity."

"The noble warrior, valiantly defending all." Green's voice laughed at him. "What a burden you must bear, always being the paladin."

"How's it feel to be the monster from a children's story?"

"I'm not a monster." Green's voice hissed, "And the deal is simple. You all walk away, right now. You leave these cases cold and I'll leave. If you're not hunting me then I've no reason to stay. You let those women stay dead and you give a very apologetic but ultimately final press conference about it and you walk away."

"Are you mad?" John almost spluttered his response, looking to the others who seemed to share his expression. "We just let you go?"

"If you hadn't tried to kidnap my father to force him to tell you where I was, I would've been on a plane last night. It all would've been over the same way but you and your friend from Special Branch cocked that up."

"You had your father killed, not us." Anna interrupted. "But what about me?"

"What about you, Ms. Smith?"

"The Guards might wrap this up as a cold case and walk away from it but I'm not one of them." Anna folded her arms over her chest. "I'd still come after you. It wouldn't be over for me like that."

"I'd hate to think it would be." Green's voice made John's skin crawl with the implied leer to it. "This needs to go back to being just between you and me, Ms. Smith. Like it always was."

"Then give us a minute of silence to decide." Anna waited, "If you're listening then it's cheating and we'll be at an impasse."

"Clock's ticking, Ms. Smith."

The radio went silent and Anna turned to Chief Crawley. "I hate to say this, especially after you brought me onto this team to catch him, but you've got to leave this. Leave it here and now and walk away."

"You can't be serious." John forced himself forward. "To let him off like that? To bow to his wishes?"

"I'm closer than I've ever been to him before and I've gotten under his skin." Anna pivoted to John. "With all the bridges he's burned he'll have to go to ground and I can flush him out. And if he's away from here then my access to resources changes and…"

She took a breath, "Let him go now and I'll catch him downstream."

"This isn't fishing, Anna." Chief Crawley shook his head, "I can't just let him go. To bow to the whims of a… terrorist is to invite anyone else like him holding us hostage in the same way."

"And if he kills those units out there?" Anna pointed toward the darkened warehouses. "If he finds something else to use as even more leverage? What'll you do then? How'll you face the public?"

"With our heads held high knowing we didn't cow to the demands of a murderer." John shook his head, "We can't let him go, Anna."

"He's a rabid animal caught in the corner and he'll lash out."

"Got it." Mary's voice drew them away from their conversation as she brought the radio to her mouth. "Go Branson, we've got you."

"We're about to get into the big warehouse. There's signs someone's been here and we're ready to enter."

"Do it." Chief Crawley spoke at the same time Anna tried to grab the radio.

"Run you idiots! Get out of there!"

The larger radio crackled and Mary lost the signal on hers. "Time's up."

"We didn't-"

"You already chose, Chief Crawley, and you chose wrong."

Their collective ducked and then stumbled with the concussive blast as the warehouses lit up the night sky in a series of explosions. Each one getting closer and closer to them until the last one knocked them all off their feet and send the bus skidding before toppling onto its side. The world blinked brightly and all sound muffled as John's life flashed before his eyes.

It took a few minutes for regular hearing to restore itself, and even longer for him not to blink spots at the back of his eyes, but John climbed to his feet and set about trying to aid those about him. Anna sat on the ground, her head between her knees, and shook John off so he could help Chief Crawley to his feet. But the moment Chief Crawley and Mary found even footing they both dashed in opposite directions.

John waited at the cordon, directing the emergency efforts as he tried to resurrect the set-up to keep a base of operations. But once he had to lead the teams into the warehouses to find the injured members of the tactical units, all he could really see was the charred mess left behind. Or the five dead officers. Or Branson's lifeless body carried by a limping Matthew.

Returning to where Anna waited, wrapped in her coat as she shooed off anxious EMTs and paramedics, John could only stand there. She shook her head, staring at the burning remains of the warehouses as the squeal and whine of sirens continued in time with the firetrucks and ambulances trying to provide damage control to the devastating scene.

Before John could speak, Anna's phone rang. Almost mechanically she put it on speaker and held it between she and John. "Calling to gloat?"

"Does that sound like me?"

"At this point I wouldn't put anything past you." Anna did not look at John. "All my predictions about you were just blown to shit."

"I hoped they'd let you and I play our game without interference."

"Because you don't like other people getting involved, do you?" Anna snorted, "You'd hate for someone else to play with your toys, wouldn't you? You don't want to think that I'd be anything but yours for the taking because you think I'm obsessed with you and what happened to me."

"You've chased me this long. What else am I supposed to think?"

"That I should've stepped back and let Henry put a bullet between your eyes." Anna shook her head, "Maybe should leave you to whomever gets the idea to rub you out next and simply toast your obituary."

"You wouldn't do that."

"Then you don't know me very well." Anna stood. "Goodbye Green."

Before her finger could end the call he sneered from the other end. "What if I made it more interesting?"

"What? Drop more bodies?"

"No, I'll put a ticking clock on it." Anna frowned and finally turned to look at John but he should only shrug.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that we're playing a very different game now and you should be prepared for the next hand I deal." John twitched as his phone vibrated and he pulled it out, face falling as he showed it to Anna as Green spoke through her speaker. "I'm sure Little Miss Marigold would prefer if you stayed involved."

"What did you do?" Anna's voice shook as John tried to find Chief Crawley without moving from his position.

"I decided that since the others weren't enough to warn you all away, that I'd make you all behold your little ones." Green snorted. "You've got three days to save her or you can try to catch me. It's your choice."

The line went dead.