No Remorse Part 33

They entered the laundry.

Two minutes later they left, wearing theatre scrubs and surgical masks as the fire they had lit with dry-cleaning chemicals and bed linen quickly grew. Mac was wearing shoes taken from one of the laundry workers he'd shot. They hurried along the corridor and an alarm sounded. They quickly slipped into the air conditioning plant room. A man working on the equipment looked up at them and hurled himself at a weapon resting against the wall. Mac shot him.

"They must have discovered us missing!" Tally said, watching the door with her submachine gun ready as the alarm blared its distinctive tone like an air-raid siren.

He pulled a switch to activate the fire alarm. Now the intruder siren was accompanied by a WHOOP WHOOP of the fire alarm. He prayed the surgeons had not already started the operation.

Mac unscrewed a section of air conditioning duct between the compressor and the resort building and lit the two smoke flares he'd found in the boatshed. He shoved them inside the duct. "Ready?"

Tally nodded.

He took a breath and opened the door a crack. After a few moments, two guards came running along the corridor. He pulled back and closed the door. They ran past towards the laundry. At that instant, orange smoke began to billow out of the ventilation ducts in the ceiling.

"Let's go!"

They ran along the corridor towards the operating theatres, stopping at each intersection to check the way ahead. Around the next comer he spotted three men running towards them, one carrying a fire extinguisher.

"It's the laundry!" one of the men shouted. "Get the fire hose outside!"

Mac shot them and ran ahead of Tally through the double swing doors into the operating room wing. Tally let out a warning cry. Mac turned in time to see a guard behind him bringing up his weapon. This time he could not avoid a bullet.

Tally fired, hitting the man. She fired again and the man fell, his weapon clattering onto the floor.

"Thanks! "Which way?"

"Left!" Tally shouted.

Mac whipped his head back, avoiding a deafening blast of automatic fire that chipped holes in the tiled wall. He returned fire. Two bearded men wearing traditional white Arab thobes dropped to the floor. Zodhami's men perhaps? Was Sophia here? Was the operation underway?

They crossed the corridor.

Mac could see through the semitransparent doors people moving around in one of the theatres. "In there!"

Tally shouldered open the door to the theatre while Mac ran up the stairs to the observation room. He was about to kick in the door when more men in white robes rushed out with weapons.

"Y'Allah!" one of the bearded men yelled.

Mac squeezed off a burst and continued firing as he ran over the two dead men and rammed the door. The hail of metal from his weapon cut another man down. Return fire from a pistol shattered a window part.i.tion next to him. He took cover around a comer and fired off the rest of the clip from the Spectre, then dropped the weapon.

Mac held the pistol ready as he scanned the observation room, glancing down at Tally holding the medical team at gunpoint in the operating theatre. Orange smoke began to blow out of the vents. Mac scanned the operation room and spotted Sophia. She was unmoving on one of the operating tables. They'd found her! Despite the danger they were still in, Mac felt an enormous relief as he thought of Bob and Elena's reaction if they knew. But she wasn't moving. Had they arrived too late? On the other operating table was an old man-Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Sheik Zodhami.

Tally checked Sophia and signalled him. Thumbs up. She's alive!

Then he spotted Khalid, playing possum under the dead bodyguard. He went over and kicked him. Khalid granted a protest.

"Get up, a.r.s.ehole."

"You have no chance. Best you leave me here and take the girl." Khalid rolled out from under the b.l.o.o.d.y bodyguard.

"Sure. We could do that." McCloud glanced out to see if any more guards were creeping up the corridor.

Suddenly Khalid lashed out with his khanjar. Mac stepped back, but not fast enough. The razor edge slashed his pistol arm. Blood began to soak through the blue scrubs. Mac switched the weapon to his other hand and pointed the muzzle at Khalid's head. "Give it to me."

Khalid paused for a moment, shrugged, then handed over the khanjar. "You'll never get off this island. You will pay in days of pain for this."

Mac pressed the khanjar to Khalid's throat. "It would be a pleasure to kill you now." Spotting one of the Al Qaeda men's AK-47s, he picked it up and said, "For your sake, you'd better hope we do make it. Because if we don't you'll be dead. And any lack of cooperation and I will slice a chunk off your face. Now, where's the other girl? Danni."

92.

Ziad was walking along the eastern end of the beach discussing with Colonel Boroni and Captain Khan the deployment of their personnel to guard the Yubani Resort, when the intruder alert sounded. He radioed the control centre. "Report."

"The prisoners are gone, brother. They killed two of our men."

Ziad began to laugh. He had warned Khalid that the Americans were trouble and that he should be allowed to kill them immediately. But Khalid had wanted to keep them as hostages, fearing that his American contact Wisebaum could cause mischief. Now it had come back to bite him. Perhaps this would make His Highness take more notice of him in future.

Then suddenly, the fire alarm began. He radioed security again.

"They have set fire to the building," replied the anxious voice. "We are evacuating. They are headed for the operating theatres."

Ziad considered for a moment. This could be a great opportunity. The other guards would probably stop them. But if not, if Khalid was killed, he would move quickly and take control of the enormous wealth and the nuclear canisters they had stored in the fortress. Or if the Americans tried to escape, there may be an opportunity for him to rescue Khalid and save face following the Sheriti episode. He gave orders to Captain Khan and Colonel Boroni, then ran to get into position.

93.

They lined the medical team up in the operating theatre with their masks down.

"Which of you are the surgeons?" Mac asked them.

n.o.body stepped forward.

Khalid turned and grinned at Mac condescendingly. "As I said, you have no chance, Sergeant. You and her against my men and Colonel Boroni's? Ha! You are going to regret this, in the hours that I-"

Mac smashed the b.u.t.t of the AK-47 into his face. Khalid uttered a howl and lifted his hands to his shattered nose as blood poured down his robe. Mac rammed the b.u.t.t into his fingers. Khalid let out a scream as the bone of his nose was crushed a second time. His eyes welled up with tears.

"That's for what you did to my nose. An eye for an eye," Mac said. "Now, you arrogant p.r.i.c.k, you begin your lesson in respect."

Fear had replaced arrogance on Khalid's face. "All right. I will do as you want."

"Yes, you will, a.r.s.ehole." He glanced at Tally, who nodded her support. "Now, who are the surgeons?"

Khalid pointed to two men.

"Are these men the surgeons?" he asked, addressing the medical team. Several of the team members nodded.

"There'll be no more operations here," he said, and shot the two surgeons in the head.

Several bursts of automatic fire came from outside, clattering against metal equipment. n.o.body was. .h.i.t.

"Tell your men to pull back!"

"Stop firing!" Khalid yelled. His own men had almost shot him. "Get back! Go outside, you fools!"

"Now we move."

They slowly made their way along the corridor into the deserted lobby. Two of the medicos pushed the gurney with the unconscious Sophia, and two others pushed the gurney with Sheik Zodhami. Four of the medical staff walked ahead of them and four behind.

"Do you believe him about Danni being sold?" Tally asked.

"Don't know. She could be here, could have been used in a transplant even. Hopefully we'll see her among the people being evacuated."

A dozen or so people, medical and nursing staff, other employees, and patients were evacuating. Three attendants were pus.h.i.+ng young males in wheelchairs. They had bandages suggesting mainly arm or leg injuries.

"Patients or donors?" Mac asked, prodding Khalid with the khanjar.

"These men are from the crew of the Princess Aliya" Khalid replied, having some difficulty speaking. "Shot when Israelis attacked us on the way here."

The elevator behind them sounded a ding. Mac pulled Khalid behind a huge Romanesque column, holding the pistol at his head. The elevator doors opened and an attendant wheeled a young, semiconscious female out into the lobby towards the exit. She was bandaged around the abdomen. Another woman accompanied them. For a moment, Mac thought the patient might be Danni.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"Just another guest."

Tally said, "I recognise them. It's Rubi, his sister, and Jamila, his wife."

Mac reversed the khanjar and sliced off Khalid's left ear.

"No!" Khalid screamed. He sank to his knees. "What have you done?" He picked the ear up off the floor.

Rubi ran over to him and found a cloth to hold against the wound.

"I warned you. Now get up! You! Bring the woman here!"

The attendant wheeled Jamila over. She was deathly pale.

"Is there anyone else upstairs?" he asked the attendant in Arabic.

"She is the last one to be brought down, sir."

They moved to the exit door. Mac opened it slightly and looked out. He glanced back at Tally and said, "We'll take the launch at the jetty." He turned to Khalid. "Tell your men to drop their weapons and stand with their backs to us and their hands on their heads."

"What about me?" Khalid said.

"We'll take you with us and leave you along the coast, once we're safe."

"You expect me to believe that you'll release me unharmed? No. I need to stay here. You may keep my wife as hostage. I'll order my men to give you safe pa.s.sage. You have my word."

Tally leaned her face close. "You think we'd accept the word of someone who takes organs from children while they're still alive?"

"To save the lives of world leaders, successful businessmen, great scientists and artists. That's what we are doing here. Making the world a better place."

"Giving a living girl's organs to one of the world's worst terrorists is not making the world a better place," Mac said. "Who are you to judge the value of one life against another?"

Khalid grunted. "People make such judgments all the time."

Tally aimed the pistol between Khalid's legs. "You are sick. And I thought you were just greedy for wealth and power."

She fired.

The shot echoed through the lobby. Mac glanced down, shocked by her action, expecting to see blood. The bullet had left a hole in his white thobe where it wrapped around his legs, but had somehow missed him.

"G.o.d, you must have a small d.i.c.k," Tally said, aiming the weapon higher.

Khalid too was looking down. The front of his thobe showed a spreading yellow stain. "All right! I will order them!" Khalid said, his face a mess of sweat and blood. He turned to Rubi. "Go and tell the others to do as he says."

Rubi hurried outside, along the path, and pa.s.sed Khalid's instructions to the men. There was considerable arm-waving and shouting. The Pakistani solders dropped their weapons. But Colonel Boroni looked towards the resort, evidently reluctant to take orders from a woman.

Stalemate.

Mac glanced at Tally "All or nothing, right?"

Tally pursed her lips and gave a slight nod, pointing the pistol at Khalid. "All or nothing."

94.

From her perch ten metres up, Anastia watched through the Swarovski laser range-finder binoculars. She could see smoke billowing from one of the resort outbuildings. Her clothes were still damp from the previous night, and her ankle pained her. But at least the sun was out and there was only a light breeze. A good day for snipers.