Ultimatum by Simon Kernick

chatting with a couple of the privates over tea in one of the sangars. The next thing we heard a burst of gunfire, followed by screams. We rushed over there, weapons at the ready, just in time to see Abdul come walking out. At first we thought he’d been hit, and then he lifted up one of the private’s SA80s and pointed it at us. His expression was totally calm, almost dreamy, as he started firing. I always remember that. He wasn’t a bad shot either. He hit one of my corporals who made the mistake of hesitating a couple of seconds because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, before the rest of us opened up and finally shot Abdul dead.
    ‘When we got inside the sangar we found the two privates Abdul had been talking to lying on the floor. One of them, a Geordie called Peterson, was already dead. The other was this big Fijian with an unpronounceable name who we used to call Hula and, although he was in a bad way, he was still conscious. He told us that one minute they’d all been chatting away like good friends, and the next, Abdul had grabbed Peterson’s gun and opened up on them. No rhyme. No reason. Hula never made it. Neither did Abdul, so we never did find out what motivated him. Whether he was a sleeper agent all along, or whether the Taliban had got to him somehow.’ Cain shrugged. ‘Personally, I believe it was the former. Not that that matters to either Peterson or Hula. Either way they’re still dead. But the point of the story, that’s easier.’ He gave me a hard stare. ‘You can never be too careful.’
    And that was what was worrying me.

Fifteen
    11.22
    TINA CALLED MIKE Bolt from an empty interview room. She’d asked the warder if she could smoke since the prisoners seemed to do so with impunity, but was told she couldn’t, which pissed her off no end.
    ‘Jetmir Brozi,’ she said when he picked up. ‘Apparently he was involved in procuring the weaponry for the Stanhope siege, and Fox reckons he may well be involved in the attacks today too.’
    She gave Bolt a brief rundown of the details of the interview.
    ‘He’s sure the attacks this morning are linked, and by the way, Mike, it would have really helped me if I’d known there’d been a second bomb before I spoke to him. I felt a right fool when he told me about the Bayswater attack.’
    ‘I called you as soon as I had the chance, but your phone was on silent.’ He sounded stressed and tired, which wasn’t like him at all.
    ‘How many casualties have there been so far?’
    ‘Nine dead from the first bomb. Five from the two in Bayswater. The Bayswater attack was designed to take out police officers attending a flat where they’d traced the phone used to claim responsibility for the first explosion.’
    ‘So it was a sophisticated attack, and similar to the bombs set off prior to the Stanhope siege.’
    ‘Very much so. But that doesn’t mean they’re connected. Our one suspect is a British national of Pakistani origin. The ID he was carrying says he’s Akhtar Mohammed, aged thirty-one and married with three children. He’s not on any watchlists, but then neither were the 7/7 bombers. But the point is, nothing links this man to any previous attacks. I’ll get our people to find out what they can about Jetmir Brozi, but I reckon it’s going to be a long job to gather any evidence against him.’
    ‘We’ve got to do it though, surely?’
    ‘We’ll do what we can, but right now everyone in the Met is focused on what’s going on in central London. The terrorists are threatening a much bigger attack, and if their track record so far’s anything to go by, God knows what they could be planning. I need more from Fox. If he’s serious about cooperating, we need the names of everyone involved in these attacks. And we need them now.’
    ‘He wants to be moved to a safehouse first.’
    ‘We can’t do that, Tina. He’s an extremely dangerous and high-profile remand prisoner.’
    ‘He says his life’s in danger.’
    ‘Do you