Chapter Fifteen: Crumblin' Down

A short man with a beer gut, stubble and an unlit cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth glared at us with narrowed eyes. I shivered and inched closer to Hex. He looked a bit surprised before taking hold of my hand and smiling reassuringly. I felt slightly better, but only slightly. We were still in a terrible and potentially deadly situation that could easily spiral out of control at any moment.

I knew almost nothing about Colin and his personality, apart from what Jasper had told me and what little had come up when Alex had done a quick search weeks ago. Jasper... I thought I'd known Jasper quite well, considering the short time I'd known him for, but obviously not. He was standing beside Colin, twitching and fidgeting, his expression constantly changing, looking slightly insane. Any sympathy, guilt or understanding I'd felt towards him had disappeared as soon as I'd seen Harry's body. While I had no doubt that it had been an accident, all I now felt when I looked at Jasper was hate. Pure and simple.

'Shane?' Colin said suddenly, turning to the beer gut guy.

'Yes, sir,' Shane replied in a gravelly voice.

While Colin pointed the gun in our general direction, Shane bound our wrists together with short lengths of coarse rope. I wiggled my wrists experimentally and the rope chaffed my skin, making me wince. Colin coughed and looked at me pointedly, waggling the gun. I stopped, scowled and tilted my chin up haughtily.

Colin chuckled. 'You're quite the character, aren't you?'

When I didn't answer or even respond in any way, he sighed and shrugged. Shane finished tying Paulo's wrists and took the gun from Colin.

'In the van,' he barked, jerking a thumb at the mentioned object.

Li, the closest to the van out of us, hesitated, then did as she had been instructed. Paulo followed, huddling in the far corner of the van with Li. Alex went next, then me and finally Hex. While there was more than enough room for us to spread out, we opted for a tight bunch in the corner.

For a few minutes there was relative silence, broken only by the occasional scuff of shoes on gravel outside, a cough and murmured words that I couldn't make out. Then a door slammed shut, the van shuddered and rolled forward. At almost the same time, there was a louder roar and tyres spinning on the gravel. So, someone hadn't got in the front of the van. But who? Jasper, Colin or Shane? Who did I want it to be?

'Alex?' Li's soft voice dragged me back. 'Are you ok?'

I looked sideways to see Alex sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest, his arms around them, head resting on his knees. Without looking up, he nodded.

'Are you sure?' Paulo leaned forward slightly, his voice concerned.

As Alex nodded again, it hit me.

'It's not your fault,' I said, feeling tears well up again. 'Please believe that, Alex.'

Alex's head slowly came up. His eyes were red, tears drying on his cheeks. 'I- I told him he should try and get the other gun. Jasper spotted him and...' He trailed off, distraught.

'Oh, Alex.' With my wrists tied together, giving him a hug was going to be almost impossible, so I put my hands over his instead. 'You're not to blame. For any of this. Harry wouldn't have listened to you unless he was going to do it anyway.' I tried to smile. 'You know what he was like.'

Sniffing, Alex returned my weak smile. It felt weird, him needing our comfort. Alex was the strong one, the leader.

'What happened?' Hex asked into the silence.

I whipped back around to face him, my expression screaming No.

Giving a tiny shake of his head, Hex shuffled around me so he was facing Alex. 'We were worried sick, mate,' he continued. 'You weren't answering your phone. Where were you?'

Shutting his eyes for a moment, Alex eventually answered in a small voice thick with tears: 'Harry and I went around to Amber's mission flat to have a look-see. Just to be on the safe side. We didn't find anything useful, but just as we were thinking of leaving, Jasper arrived. He held us at gunpoint and took us out the back way of the flats. We got in his car, Harry driving while Jasper sat in the back seat with the gun. When we got to the shopping centre he took us down to the car park, tied us up and left. I don't know how long he was gone, but when he came back he saw Harry trying to get the second gun out of the bag Jasper had left and-' Alex faltered, sniffed, then went on '-Harry was shot. A while later you guys showed up and here we are.'

There was a pause as we all absorbed what Alex had just told us.

'Jasper will pay for what he's done. Don't you worry, Alex,' Hex said. 'He'll pay.'

Valerie wrung her hands nervously, her gaze fixed on Nancy's face. With a sigh, Nancy hung up and dropped the phone back on the desk.

'Nothing?' Valerie asked, though the look on Nancy's face explained the answer clearly.

'Nothing. I'm really worried, Val. It's not like Harry to just disappear like this.'

'Do you think he's with Alex?' Tapping her fingernails on the desk top, Valerie stared into space as though the answer would appear before her. 'Because, if he is, there might be a valid reason why he's not answering our calls.'

'But what if there isn't a valid reason? What if they've both been abducted?'

Valerie stood up and gently but firmly pushed Nancy back into her seat, handing her the cup of tea she'd barely looked at, let alone started drinking. They'd been a few rumours about that there was something going on between Harry and Nancy, but Valerie, never the gossip queen, had ignored them all. Now, looking at her friend's expression, her shaking hands and the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks at any second, Valerie started to think that maybe the rumours were true.

'Shhhhh, Nancy. It'll be fine. Everything will sort itself out.'

We arrived in a dumpy part of town and pulled up at an equally dumpy set of flats. Shane cracked open the van's doors and grunted at us to get out.

'Would saying please kill you? Or is that too much to hope for?' Hex, once again, being a bloody smart ass.

Shane's left eye twitched and he took a fairly aggressive step towards Hex, but Jasper coming around the side of the van haltered him in mid-stride. So Colin had left in the other car. Hmmm...

'Chill,' Jasper said, not making it clear who the request was for. On the plus side, Jasper seemed to have lost the psychotic aura and he looked relatively collected, calm and in control. I still thought it would be best to not stir the pot at all and gave Hex a gentle kick in the shin as a familiar expression crept onto his face. He rolled his eyes and kicked me back, but didn't say anything.

'Follow me.' Handing Jasper another gun, Shane set off for the fire escape stairs at the back of the flats.

All was quiet and there looked to be no one around, but, when we started up the first flight of stairs, I saw some curtains twitch on the fourth floor. People who knew when it wise to keep their mouths and eyes shut.

Shane pushed open the door of a flat on the top floor and we filed inside.

'Make yourselves at home,' Jasper said, sounding just like a gracious host. He made a beeline for the tiny kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. 'Don't bother shouting for help; no one will pay any attention,' he added, proving my early thoughts correct.

'What do you plan on doing with us?' Paulo asked, sitting on the sofa. 'Someone is going to notice that we're all missing soon.'

Jasper didn't answer, just kept sipping the water and watching us over the rim of the glass.

'Shit.' Mara kicked the edge of the desk. She had a quick temper and the current situation wasn't making it any easier for her to keep calm. Neil, sitting just centimetres from where Mara had kicked, flinched and scooted his chair further backwards.

'Why the hell did this have to happen?' Mara snapped. 'Now we've got six officers missing and no logical explanation for any of them.'

'Getting all worked up about it isn't going to help, Mara,' Neil said, trying to inject some calm into the room. What with Nancy being on the verge of hysteria, Valerie's distracted anxiety and Mara's volatile temper, he was feeling utterly choked. 'We need to think about this logically.'

'There is nothing logical about this situation,' Nancy cried. 'Amber's mission ended. Price should have been picked up and charged. Why have we instead got Harry, Amber, Hex, Li, Alex and Paulo missing and no Price?'

Neil opened his mouth to answer but the arrival of Maggie Walker, flying into the room in a frantic rush stopped him.

'You better come quick. We've found Harry.'

A/N Two more chapters after this most likely. The last one should be lovely and slow. :)