Chapter 22

Day 3-Monsters Chasing Rabbits

Sofia allowed herself to be carried and placed gently on a sofa by one of the burly Russians that had entered the room in response to her scream; the other had hurried from the room to fetch help.

Less than five minutes later, when Sofia had managed to sit up and had been presented with a cold glass of water, Myskin entered the room, followed by most of her party. She swore softly in Russian and closed her eyes, looking down at Alexy Dastik's body with sorrow etched across her face.

"What happened?" She asked quietly,

"I, I don't know...I came in here to, to fetch your glasses Miss and I, I..." she began shaking, tears sliding down her cheeks as the glass in her hand rocked so much that the icy liquid inside was beginning to slop out over her hands.

Kalina Msykin stepped forwards and placed her hands over Sofia's trembling ones, gently taking the glass of water from her hands and setting it on a table before saying,

"Please Miss Connor, Kate; please tell me what happened..."

"I, I can't I'm sorry...I don't know, I just came in and he was there and I..." she trailed off, unable to control her crying,

"Alright, it's alright..." she turned and spoke softly in Russian, "I want someone here who can find me answers...And I want this poor girl taken away, I can manage without her for one afternoon, if the dogs that are down there insist on going ahead..."

Sofia was led down to the foyer area and wrapped in a blanket and was met by Lucas,

"Are you alright?"

"Fine...Does that ever bother you?"

"What?"

"Killing people, doesn't it ever get to you...How little you care anymore..."

"We have to..."

"The ends justify the means, I know...Don't pull that crap on me Lucas..."

"I'm sorry...Do they suspect you?"

No, I'm just an innocent little aide, wrong place wrong time, Myskin sent me home, concerned about me..." she shook her head, "They'll never know, never know what we did, never know what kind of a monster I am...and I am the worst kind, not the kind that stalks nightmares and haunts dreams, I am one that kills unquestioningly, and then goes home for a cup of tea and Coronation Street...They'll never know the truth..." she said, quietly, "Do we? Do we know?"

"We're ninety per cent sure, sure enough to allow the talks to go ahead tomorrow, it's over Sofia..."

"It is far from over...Kalina Myskin will be difficult to convince back to that table, never mind agree with these people, all of whom she will suspect of having had something to do with Dastik, they were close, she won't let this go Lucas..."

"We're constructing a story now...She won't have a choice. Harry's going to charm her with his words."

"And here I thought the assassination attempt would be the greatest threat to these talks..."

Sofia settled herself in the briefing room, she had just finished giving her account of Dastik's murder and Myskin's return and words and she was now looking to them to discover what they were planning on doing with Alexy Dastik, and how they could convince Myskin to return to the negotiating table, the talks for that afternoon having been pushed back to allow her to make u her mind.

"I hope you're not planning on having him painted as a traitor, she won't buy it..."

"We're playing on an already established flaw of Alexy Dastik." Ruth said, spreading several bank statements across the table, "Greed and lack of control...Leads to a gambolling addiction that inevitably leads to massive debts."

"And we just happen to know how he planned to solve those, dealing drugs here in Britain...Though not quickly enough, he was lured to the hotel room and murdered for being unable to pay back his drug source, circles within circles, beginning and ending with the death of Dastik." Ros finished, spreading the ambiguous dead drop shot.

"So...Lucas is being cagey, I'll give you all a moment to try and digest that shock, what do we have on Dastik? Did I kill a drug dealer with gambolling debts? Or did I kill a psychotic member of an extremist group attempting to bring about a nuclear war?"

"The latter alternative is looking increasingly likely..." Lucas said

"Not you, someone who can give me a yes or a no. Believe it or not I took absolutely no pleasure in that and will only sleep slightly easier at nights if he's a nutcase, someone please-" Sofia said, bluntly, looking desperately at Ros, who obliged, sensing that Lucas would be in imminent danger if she did not.

"Yes. We got hold of his autopsy pictures-"

"Bloody Hell they didn't wait long, he'd still be warm..."

"We found this, on either side of his hips." Ros said, showing pictures of two small tattoos, one symbol on his left hip, the other on his right."

"It took me a while to find it but it's Japanese for-"

"War and Peace." Sofia said, quietly, "Fitting...It doesn't prove anything, but it's about the most concrete evidence we could have hoped for...Would have been nice if he had 'I support nuclear lunatics' tattooed across his chest, this will do...So, if we can get Kalina Myskin back to the table it looks as though these peace talks will be good, no pressure Harry..."

"Ms Myskin, I understand the horrible circumstances here but I really do think that you need to understand the delicate position these talks are in, and the power you hold in changing them-" Harry tried again, they had been going round in circles for some time and he was beginning to tire of it.

"You people, all the same, empty, dead inside...A man I have known for almost twenty years is murdered and you are all just telling me to be a good little girl and sit back down at the table, potentially with his killer." She spat, Harry had discovered in the twenty minutes he had already spent with her that the quiet Russian had quite a temper.

"Is that what you are concerned about? Dining with the devil?"

"Of course not, I would not be in politics if I were concerned about that...The devils at the table do not concern me Mr Pearce, the monsters under it do..."

"...They do not wish me to tell you this Ms Myskin, but the monsters you fear behind closed doors are not the devils you are dealing with openly..."

"What do you know that your government thinks inappropriate to tell me? This man was my friend, he did not deserve to die this way and damn you Mr Pearce I will be back on the plane to Russia this evening if I find that you are attempting to conceal from me the reasons behind his death."

"Please Ms Myskin, a little calm, Alexy Dastik was not killed for his involvement in these talks, personal demons as opposed to political devils were responsible for his murder."

"What do you mean? Alexy was a good man-"

"Yes, but good men often have their flaws, the tragic hero...You were aware of his gambolling addiction?"

"Yes." She breathed, "I was aware of it, he was a wonderful advisor, but I knew that he struggled behind closed doors the tragic hero indeed...His gambolling was ultimately his downfall?"

"I'm afraid so, in order to clear his gambolling debts he took out a loan of a very different kind..."

She closed her eyes, "Alexy you fool..." she breathed, "What did he become involved in?"

"Drugs...His suppliers became rather more irritated with him than the casinos...He was given a deadline that he failed to meet and so..."

Her eyes narrowed, "I still do not think you are being entirely honest with me Mr Pearce, if Alexy was killed for drugs, why was he killed at these talks, the risks outweigh the rewards..."

"Not so, not when the reward is total anonymity, they expected everyone to do what they are doing, to look the other way, we spend far too much time as human beings looking inside instead of out. They believed that the talks would protect them as no-one would suspect them while the talks shielded them."

"Sneaky bastards..."

"Quite...I am sorry for your loss Ms Myskin, and, in all honesty, shocked to tell you that none of the backstabbing, lying, manipulative son-of a-bitches that you have the delight of sharing in these peace talks had anything to do with his death..."

"Thank you for being honest with me Mr Pearce, I will keep this quiet for the time being, for your sake as much as Alexy's I cannot imagine your superiors would be thrilled with you having told me these sensitive details of their investigation...The talks will continue as planned..."

"Thank you." Harry said, with real respect in his voice, not something that happened often.

He watched as she walked composedly from the room, Ros entered once she had cleared the second corridor, Lucas at her heels,

"She's something isn't she?" she said, quietly, also watching the door Kalina Myskin had passed through,

"Indeed..." she said, thoughtfully before saying airily, "Has Lucas tried to sleep with her yet?"

Ros, Lucas, Sofia and Ruth took their places in the conference room, sitting around the five corners, all of them feeling considerably more relaxed than they had done the previous few days, now that the threat on the President's life had been severely reduced.

The insider they had identified as Dastik had been vital to the groups plans, and while none of their paranoia allowed them to believe that they had completely neutralised any threat posed to them by Hiroshima, they were content to believe that they had put paid to the better part of their schemes.

The Home Secretary began by offering his condolences to Kalina Myskin. She had been surprised to see Sofia, who had weakly protested that she would be fine and that she had to keep herself busy, something that the reserved Russian Prime Minister had understood and accepted.

The group quickly moved on from the grisly events of the day before and began discussing the terms of the agreement. So far, they had all agreed to limit the construction of nuclear weapons, the complications now came from the suggesting of reducing their existing stockpiles, something that the North Koreans felt especially strongly about.

Half way through a heated argument, Jīnyù got to his feet and stormed from the room, stating that he could no longer negotiate anything with these 'political oafs'. The Russians had gone to have some 'friendly words' with him and the Americans discrete 'smoke signals' contained several things that would have made Ruth blush.

In the end, Jīnyù was returned to his seat, still grumbling, but content to continue and they all agreed that they would be willing to draw up a formal agreement limiting their nuclear weapons, with only a few more minor details to be decided. On this note, they all agreed that it would be best for them to take a break from the intense deliberations that had consumed the morning, have lunch and come back to tackle the minor technicalities that afternoon.

As the group began to file from the cramped, stuffy deliberation room, the team split as ever, Sofia and Ros moving to the front of the groups and ensuring that they were the first ones in the room, Ruth and Lucas coming at the back and being one of the last in the group before the doors closed. It was such a formality that it barely even rated that, it was more of a superstition between the more senior officers who considered it to be necessary meaning that it had developed into a habit since none of them really knew what it was supposed to defend against.

As they filed into the room, Lucas paused; gut instinct was informing him, in no uncertain terms, that something was not right.

Before Dastik's death, MI-5 had insisted that the Home Secretary invent some reason to prevent the talks taking place in the room that they had used for the rest of the week, even after Sofia had successfully dealt with their 'Russian infestation' they had seen no reason not to continue with the change of venue as it would have ruffled even more political feathers than the initial room change.

"Ros." Lucas began, "We're not supposed to be in this room..."

"What?" she asked

He had already slipped through the crowds and was beginning to run in the opposite direction to the stream of people intent on filling their stomachs,

"Where are you going?" Ruth asked, turning around alarmed to find her quarry leaving her at such a speed.

"The roof." Lucas informed them shortly,

"This is no time for your bloody lone ranger antics!" Ros snarled, "If there is a sniper up there, unlikely, then how exactly do you expect to defend yourself against him? You're not armed!"

"Oh I'm fairly creative Ros, I'll think of something."

"I'm fairly creative too, and I swear to God if I have to save your neck because you get shot again, said creativity will go in to divining a punishment that will make you wish you were back in Russia!"

"It's times like this I wonder why you didn't became a motivational speaker...Keep everyone away from the windows."

"Right Mystic Meg, before I start causing a panic in a small space you give me something more than your insatiable desire to become an action hero to base this on, we dealt with Dastik-"

"That doesn't mean they won't still try something, Dastik was a formality, he may not have been a necessity, if I was them, I'd still be having a good go at it..."

Lucas rounded the corner and burst out into an external stairwell, the thick concrete circling upwards endlessly and began to climb. By the time he reached the top his shoulder was burning and he was beginning to curse his paranoid antics when he saw the thin metal ladders that would infuriate his already stinging injury.

Gritting his teeth and snarling he began to pull himself up the ladder, gently easing the trapdoor above him open and darting behind a large solar panel. Peering out from behind it he saw a tall black figure carefully setting up a compass on the side of the roof, the gun lying innocently at his feet.

"Ros?" he said, silence, "Ros?" he hissed again, more urgently, "Shit..."

Stepping out softly from behind one of the large, reflective panels he darted to the next one, closer to the sniper, watching as he readied himself. The sniper checked his watch and, began calibrating the gun based on weather conditions.

Lucas pulled out a phone and began hastily texting Ros while he crawled to the other end of the panel to get closer to the sniper. As he did he unbalanced and his injured shoulder caught the corner of the panel, swearing internally and hissing in pain and annoyance as his arm spasmed and the phone leapt from it, he didn't wait to be caught like a rabbit in its den and lunged at the other man as he turned in surprise.

Pinning the other man to the edge of the roof, he made to flip him off the low balcony but howled as a short, wicked dagger was thrust at his chest, narrowly avoiding doing any serious damage by lodging in a rib. It was not a fatal wound but it hurt like Hell and it was more than enough for the other man who had lost his knife but not his wits. He struck Lucas in the throat with the side of his hand causing him to convulse and choke, unable to breathe as blood filled his mouth and stars burst into existence in his eyes.

He could do nothing but fight to remain conscious and breathing as the other man darted back to his perch and took aim with the rifle.

"Ros!" Lucas' shot and a high pitched squealing noise filled Ros' ear.

"Lucas?" she tried, no answer, "Lucas?" she waited, "Shit."

Putting two and two together and, as ever, reaching disaster she turned to Sofia and Ruth, "I think we may have a problem..."

"What?" They asked, simultaneously,

"I'll be asking Lucas for next week's lottery numbers, in the meantime, keep everyone away from the windows."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than this became rather difficult as they were plunged into darkness.

Hastily connecting their comms to The Grid Ros barked, "Was that us?"

"What?" Tariq asked,

"Didn't think so...Get Harry and special forces, now."

"What I-"

"Tariq, stop thinking start doing."

"Ros, Sofia?" Ruth breathed, she was crouched down beside the window, "There may be a problem..."

"What?" Ros asked

"I don't think the sniper is their main plan...They can't hope to kill someone with a bullet shot through these windows, they're too thick..."

"Then what the Hell is going on?" Ros spun around, trying to force her brain into gear, "Lucas?"

Lucas retched again, doubled over in pain, attempting to force air into his lungs. The unmistakeable sound of a silenced gunshot and distant smashing glass forced him to his feet, knowing that it was him next, fight or flight, kill or be killed.

He seized the sniper around the waist and pinned him to the ground. He yelped in fright and fired a second shot into the air.

Lucas wrestled the gun from his hands and pressed it against his throat, massaging his throat, his chest still heaving as he spat blood onto the ground beside them.

To his astonishment the other man began laughing.

"You cannot stop them...Nothing you do will stop his death now, you have been chasing the wrong rabbits..."

Pinning him to the ground with his knee on his chest, restricting his breathing and movement, Lucas examined the rifle, specifically the bullets, staring at them he swore softly, comprehension dawning as the man beneath him laughed insanely.

The darkness was having the desired effect; anyone who did not know it was coming was now confused and disorientated, although she could not fathom how this helped a would-be-sniper.

The thought had barely formed in her head when the window to their left, the one that Ruth was crouched beneath exploded, shattering in response to a bullet, showering those near it with shards of glass.

"Ruth?" Ros shouted, panicked as confusion reigned, people screaming and hitting the floor,

"Ros! It's a distraction; the sniper is a distraction the assassin's with you Ros. Do you hear me? There are more insiders, they're with you in-"Lucas bellowed in her ear.

"Lucas?" Ros yelled as he was cut off, knowing that he had brought whatever the Hell was happening to him on himself did not help over much but the fact that she could do nothing to help him and everything to help her country forced her to deal with it, "Sofia!" she called, taking charge of the situation.

"He's right...We haven't stopped anything There were three. Three potentials and three insiders, Dastik was one, the other two are in here." She said, having heard what Lucas had said and adding to it hollowly,

At that moment A second gunshot went off, causing even more panic. Sofia and Ros both reacted instinctively, Ros diving for the President while Sofia grabbed the gun from a nearby body guard and used it to first shoot the figure dressed all in black that darted past her causing them to fall to the ground, lifeless and then the thin chain that the chandelier was suspended from; it fell and smashed, spectacularly on the table in the centre, drawing everyone's eyes and drawing everyone's eyes bar Ros' who had lunged for the black silhouette moving towards the President, small handgun clamped in their hand.

Ros hastily thrusting a sharp silver knife she had grabbed from the table under the ribs of their assassin. There was a muffled gunshot a scream and then silence.

"Ros?" It was Harry, "Are you alright?" he barked,

"Yes, we're all fine." She said shortly, breathing hard and praying this was true for Lucas as well, she had not heard anything since his desperate warning.

"The President?" Harry asked, quietly,

Ros did not answer. No-one did.

"Ros, is the President alright?"

"I, I don't know..."

A/N: I have been dreading this chapter almost since the beginning of this, it always felt as though I had just been continually building it up to this point and no matter what I did it was always going to be an anti-climax and a disappointment...Hopefully not, I don't know... Let me know what you thought of this, and thank you everyone who has read and reviewed this faithfully every chapter, your thoughts do mean so much to me :)