"Hold fire!" The senior AFO ordered as the front door to the police station opened and thirteen hostages walked out, including the injured PC. At the cordon with Dot and Hastings, Steve held his breath as one by one, the hostages walked to freedom, hoping Kate would appear at some point. But she didn't.
Word soon reached them about why Kate was still inside. She had given herself up in return for the freedom of the other hostages. Deep down, Steve had known that Kate would do something honourable like that, but right now he couldn't help feeling a little bit angry at her for putting her life in danger.
"We need to get in there," Steve said to Ted. "Why aren't they going in?" he asked clearly frustrated at the lack of action whilst his partner was inside.
"Just hold your horses," Ted placated Steve. He knew how much the partners meant to each other but he didn't want Steve doing something stupid to try and rescue her. "Let's leave it to the experts, eh?" he suggested.
Steve didn't like it, but begrudgingly stayed behind the cordon next to his boss.
"How did you know about my undercover op?" Kate asked. She was on her knees in the cafeteria in the place her colleague had been previously.
"Phone call," she was informed as her hands were wrenched behind her back and cuffed together with her own handcuffs.
"Let me guess," Kate said, ignoring the pain in her shoulders. "Burner phone?". Her captor didn't say anything. "Does the name 'The Caddy' mean anything to you?" she continued, but her captor still wasn't in a talkative mood. Instead he removed his stab vest. Kate had already removed hers before lunch.
"Come on," he said as he yanked Kate to her feet by her cuffs.
"Where are we going?" Kate said as she winced at the pain in her arms as she was tugged to her feet.
"Outside," the man said.
"There'll be AFO's everywhere," Kate said, reminding him he had removed his stab vest.
"I'm a dead man anyway," he told Kate. He knew he wasn't going to get out of this situation alive. "The question is will they shoot at me if I'm using you as my shield?" he said as they left the cafeteria and headed for the entrance. Kate knew the answer and just hoped whoever pulled the trigger had a good aim. They were nearly at the door when Kate's captor stopped. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and put it over Kate's eyes, tying it around her head. "Probably kinder if you don't see the bullet coming," he told her, just in case they did shoot.
"Please," Kate begged, "I have a son," she continued, hoping her captor would take pity on her.
"Should have thought about that before accepting this assignment," he retorted before roughly tugging Kate in front of him. Keeping her close to his body, the male PC slowly walked out of the police station. Kate could feel the cold metal of his gun against her temple.
Steve's heart was in his mouth. He prayed to every god he could think of that the man would not pull the trigger.
"Put your weapon down!" Kate heard someone shout through a megaphone.
"She's undercover scum," the hostage taker announced. "Works for AC-12,".
Kate listened. His tip off had been very accurate. Her career as an undercover cop had just been brought to an abrupt end. There was no way she could go undercover again. Everyone would recognise her. Who had phoned him?
Steve was wondering the same thing as Kate's actual job was exposed. He looked at Ted knowing their work in anti-corruption had just been made ten times harder. They relied on Kate's undercover role a lot and would now have to rely on something or someone else.
This was all Dot's fault he thought angrily. Kate's cover had to have been blown that night she went back to his. He chanced a look at the DI. He had a strange look on his face, not one that looked particularly worried about Kate. Were they dating or not?
As he stood watching the scene unfold in front of him, Dot began to get some strange sensation. Something he hadn't felt before. Was it guilt? This wasn't quite what he had envisaged when he had made the phone call the previous night. Out of the two AC-12 officers, he preferred Kate if he was honest. He had hoped she would be disposed of quickly and quietly and definitely not with him as a witness.
The minutes ticked by as a tense stand off between the gunman and negotiator developed. Steve stood there praying things would come to a peaceful end and quickly. Kate was waiting for the inevitable and just hoped it would be quick and wasn't going to hurt.
The sound of something metal hitting the ground was heard. Looking down under her blindfold Kate could see the gun had been thrown to the ground. Her hopes were briefly raised that her captor had seen sense and was about to surrender. Maybe this was going to end ok after all.
But then something happened to piss him off. Kate didn't see what with her blindfold on and she felt her head being pulled back and something sharp pressed against it. A knife. She was going to have her throat slit like other people dispatched by the OCG.
"Kate!" she heard a familiar voice shout out. Oh god! she thought. Steve was there. She didn't want him to see this but it was strangely comforting to know she wasn't going to be alone in her last moments.
She felt her captor turn her slightly in the direction of where Steve's voice had come from. "Is she with you?" he asked as Kate felt the knife press deeper in to her throat. "Better let AC-12 have a good view of what happens to their type of scum," he continued before Kate felt a trickle of blood run down her neck. This was it.