Everything after that moment became a blur to her. It was a frenzy of coughing and choking and turbulent water. Somehow she managed to claw the door open enough to swim out and then one thought hit her. It was no longer night, the sun startled and hurt her eyes as she twisted and turned in the water, trying to gain her bearings. Then she was being hauled upwards and she fell back onto a hard surface. "Are you alright?" A voice cut into her consciousness but she seemed unable to answer it. "Can you sit up?" She struggled upwards and shortly found herself seated, wrapped in a blanket that someone had put around her shoulders. The shoulders that minutes before had felt his touch, she could still feel his fingers entangled in her hair, the pressure of his forehead against hers.
She wasn't sure how long she sat on that boat, wrapped in the blanket, before she got to shore and was taken away in an ambulance. Time seemed to have little meaning to her. She sat in the brightness of the sun, which seemed to be mocking her at that moment, staring blindly ahead of her. She felt an awful numbness; if she had been forced to sit there forever she wouldn't have cared. Then there were people crowding her on the shore, and a cacophony of noise threatened to overwhelm her.
She reached the hospital and was checked by a doctor but he concluded that she seemed to have no serious injuries. She sat in a small side room, wearing a hospital robe and waiting for some X ray results. The door was ajar and she could see people walking to and fro outside, people going about their business. She stood up and walked to the window, looking out she saw grass, trees, leaves blowing on the ground. Everything looked the same, how odd. She sat back on the chair and a nurse entered. Seeing the look on Makepeace's face, she squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry." She said. Makepeace felt as though she was viewing herself from outside her body, as though she were in a TV programme, the grieving woman being comforted by the sympathetic nurse. "Sorry about your friend." With that Makepeace bolted towards the sink in the corner of the room and was violently sick.
The nurse stroked her back and then helped her over to the chair again, passing her a glass of water to sip. She sat with her head in her hands. Shortly she was aware of someone else entering the room and she heard hushed voices as the person talked to the nurse. "Harry?" She recognized the voice and looked up to see Spikings standing over her. "How are you feeling?" He said in a gentle voice. Tears filled her eyes and she didn't trust herself to speak. Spikings crouched down to her level then and covered his hands with hers. "He's alive you know." Her heart jumped but she frowned at him. "That second explosion allowed him to get free. He's got a few burns and scratches but he's fine." She had a look of suspicion on her face then, as though she didn't believe him. "What second explosion, there wasn't one that I noticed."
"You also didn't notice me when you were put in the ambulance, but I was there. You were in shock Harry." The information still failed to register properly in her confused mind. Spikings smiled at her, "There's someone in the room three doors down who I think would like to see you." She paused and he stood up. "Go on." His eyes moved to the door. She took a deep breath and rose out of the chair, her mind a mixture of emotions.
On finding the room she knocked and entered to see Dempsey sat up in bed with the grin on his face she had come to know so well. "Hiya Harry, you pleased to see me?" When she heard him speak his usual arrogant banter, oddly her relief turned into fury. Fury at the whole situation, at how close he came to dying and at how that made her feel. She paced the room crossly. "Bloody hell Dempsey, don't ever do that to me again, do you hear me!"
"I'll take that as a yes then." He laughed at her and she turned on him. "You smug bastard, do you have any idea what you put me through?"
"Hey, what's the problem? I'm alive aren't I?"
"And what if I'd practically drowned to death in front of you and it was me in that bed right now, can you even imagine how you would feel then Dempsey?" He looked at her in amusement. "Ooh Harry, I know exactly how I'd be feelin' if you were in this bed right now. You wanna test out the theory?" With that he took hold of her arm and pulled her onto the bed. She was caught off guard and collapsed on top of him, laughing and crying at the same time, releasing the tension and terror of the last few hours. His arms held her tightly around her middle, her head fell next to his and he looked at her sideways. "You know I couldn't leave you Harry, I'd have more hell to pay with you than down there." He looked downwards. She was staring at him but she wasn't taking in what he was saying and he could see such emotion in her face. She couldn't put it into words so she simply smiled instead. He smiled back; tickling he ribs and she squirmed, trying to push him away. He turned her around, pinning her to the bed, looking down at her he said, "Hey Harry, I'm not sure I like this look on you," he glanced at the hospital robe, "lets get it off." She brushed his hand away. "Let me up Dempsey, or it'll be your second near death experience of the day!" He beamed at her. "Ahh yes, but at least I'd die with a smile on my face!"
The hospital bed in the adjacent room lay empty, the room in virtual darkness. The voices and laughter of Dempsey and Makepeace could be heard through the walls, although they quietened with the creak of an opening door as the deep, authoritative voice of Chief Superintendent Spikings cut in. In the shadows of the empty room stood an indistinguishable figure holding an AEK-919K and silencer. He waited, all his senses alert, for an opportunity to gain access to his target.
To be continued…