The Blue Ring by A. J. Quinnell Page B

Jens asked in a dazed voice, "Who the hell was that?"
    Michael
grinned down at him.
    "That
was my old man."
    "Jesus
Christ," the Dane muttered. "Can I get up now?"
    "No.
He said to lie still. It won't take long."
    It took
a minute, then Creasy's voice called down the stairs.
    "Michael?"
    "Yes.
Everything OK here."
    "Good.
Does Jensen know how to use a gun?"
    Jens
provided the answer himself in a pained voice. "Yes! Jensen does know how
to use a gun and he's fed up lying here doing nothing."
    Jensen
heard a short laugh and then Creasy shouted, "Get one of the guard's guns
and come up here."
    The
Dane scrambled to his feet, moved to the guard near the door and rolled him
over onto his back with his foot. The pistol was lying under him, its barrel
covered in blood. Quickly Jens picked it up by the barrel, wiped it against the
guard's jacket, checked the safety was off and that the magazine was full, and
then ran up the stairs.
    He
found Creasy in the kitchen with Serge Corelli.
    "What
the hell?" Jens asked, astonished.
    "Later!"
Creasy snapped. "We don't have much time. The outside guards are dead and
I doubt there are any more upstairs. They'd be here by now, or they might
be hiding. Let's check it out. I'll go first. You watch my back, from about
five metres."
    There
were no guards upstairs, only an old woman, cowering at the end of the
corridor. There were also two drugged girls in separate cell-like rooms. Jens
recognised the first one immediately.
    "Hanne
Andersen," he said. "I was studying her file only a few days
ago."
    She sat
on the bed, looking back at him with glazed eyes. He spoke a few words in
Danish to her, mentioning her name, and her eyes cleared for a moment and she
nodded.
    "Later,"
Creasy said. "Let's check the other rooms."
    They
found the other girl in the next one. She was sitting in a corner with her arms
around her drawn-up knees. There were bruises on her arms and face. She was
very young, dark and beautiful, and very frightened. She cringed further back
into the corner, mumbling in English, "No...No...Please...No more."
    Jens
moved forward, speaking to her softly, but she only cowered lower, her eyes
reflecting fear and despair. Creasy said, "Let's get the hell out of here.
First we'll get them to the car and you stay with them while I collect Michael.
I'll take care of the old woman."
    Startled,
Jens asked, "Are you going to kill her?"
    Creasy
shook his head. "No, but she deserves it, being part of this slime."
    He
walked quickly down the corridor to the woman, who watched his approach and
started speaking rapidly in French. He did not answer, he just grabbed her by
the hair and slammed his fist into her jaw. She crumpled to his feet. He turned
away.
     
    In the basement, Denise Defors had recovered some of her composure.
    She tried pleading with Michael, telling him that the business had nothing to do with her. He told her to shut
up. Then, with the instinct of any cornered animal, she tried to escape. Her
life had been such that anything she had ever wanted from any man she had
always received. She could not conceive that any man would willingly shoot her.
She pushed herself away from the wall and ran for the door.
    Michael shot her in the back. As she slumped against the doorpost, he shot her again in
the back of her head, then immediately levelled the pistol back at Boutin, who
put up his good hand as if to ward off a blow.
    "No...Please, no," he stammered. His face was dripping with sweat.
    "Just shut up," Michael said harshly. "There's a small chance you might live."
    A minute later, Creasy came down the steps, glanced at the dead woman and then at Michael.
    Michael said, "She made a run for it."
    Creasy nodded, took out a piece of paper from his pocket, gave it to Michael and said,
"Jens is in the Renault outside -" he gestured at Boutin 'together
with two of this bastard's victims. Take the Renault and wait for me outside
the main gates. The kitchen window faces the road there. If you hear any