Hostage (Bodyguard #1)(89)
Rock Creek Park – Beach Drive
Maryland
Downtown DC
‘Rock Creek Park?’ said Alicia, reading the sign twice and still doubting her eyes. ‘We’re still in Washington!’
Connor couldn’t believe it either. The disorientation of their captivity, the terrorists’ robes, the constant use of Arabic and the traditional style of food had all convinced him that they were being held in the Middle East. As the truth dawned on him, Connor tried to recall the park’s layout from his briefing notes. He knew it wasn’t a particularly wide park, a couple of miles at the most, so they’d soon come to the city suburbs. They just needed to keep off the road and out of sight until they could reach help.
The sign clanged, loud and harsh, as a bullet pierced a hole dead centre through the first ‘O’ of ‘Downtown’. Connor spun round to see Malik and his men scrambling down the slope, guns levelled at them.
‘Stay right where you are!’ warned Malik.
Instinctively protecting Alicia, Connor propelled her towards the bushes on the other side of the road. Gunfire ripped through the night, bullets peppering the road at their feet. They dived for the cover of the trees, landing hard on the rocky ground. As they scrambled back up, Alicia’s ankle finally gave way beneath her and she screamed.
‘Come on!’ cried Connor, his adrenalin driving him on as he lifted her on to his shoulders and ran.
But in those fateful few seconds the terrorists had caught up and Connor found himself confronted by the barrel of Malik’s gun.
‘Make one false move and I’ll put a bullet through both of you,’ said Malik, his eye still bloody from where Alicia had clawed him.
Gently lowering Alicia to the ground, Connor stood in front of her – his body, her shield.
‘I admire your commitment to the girl,’ smirked Malik, revealing a row of yellowed teeth. ‘A boy willing to make the ultimate sacrifice … and so you will.’
The gunshot rang loud through the forest.
‘Will he live?’
‘Unfortunately, it appears so,’ replied Kyle as he eyed the wounded terrorist with contempt.
Malik lay handcuffed to a stretcher, a drip in his arm, a mass of bloody bandages wrapped round his chest. Two medics were checking his vital signs and preparing to transfer him into the waiting ambulance.
Connor sat on the back step of a second ambulance, a medic stitching up the knife wound to his shoulder. He could feel the tug of the stitch against his flesh, but the anaesthetic was keeping the pain at bay.
When Connor had been confronted at point-blank range with Malik’s gun, he’d thought his life was over. He’d braced himself to take the bullet for Alicia. A final and fatal act of protection. And the only thing, as a bodyguard, he had left to give. But it was Malik who fell to the ground, screaming.
Immediately following the gunshot, the forest had erupted with Secret Service agents. Connor had thrown himself on top of Alicia as there was a furious exchange of gunfire. One terrorist was instantly shot down. The others were subdued in a matter of seconds. Then Connor and Alicia were encircled by an impenetrable barrier of agents, Kyle among them.
‘That’ll be some battle scar,’ Kyle remarked, nodding at Connor’s wound when the medic had finished.
Connor smiled; he supposed it would look kind of cool. A badge of honour to show Charley, Amir and the others when he got back to the UK.
As the surviving terrorists were bundled, hands bound, into a windowless armoured van, the Director of Secret Service strode over to Connor.
‘How many did you say there were?’ asked Dirk.
‘Six, that I saw.’
‘Well, we’ve accounted for five,’ stated the director, frowning.
Connor looked towards the armoured van. ‘I don’t see the terrorist with glasses.’
‘The one you scalded with coffee?’ queried Dirk. Connor nodded and the director immediately got on his radio, circulating the man’s description to his team. He turned back to Connor. ‘I’ve two units sweeping the park. With any luck, they should apprehend him. We’ve also checked out the house and found the terrorist you locked up. There was a dead one in the hall too. Did you do that?’
Connor shook his head. ‘That was the leader’s work.’
Dirk raised an enquiring eyebrow.
Connor thought of Kalila. She’d be devastated by the news of her brother’s treachery – unless he could offer her some comfort through his last-minute act of redemption. ‘The guy was Hazim, a brother of one of Alicia’s classmates. He had a change of heart and tried to save us.’
Dirk nodded and instructed Kyle to make a note of this.
‘What’s going to happen to the terrorist leader?’ asked Connor as the doors to Malik’s ambulance were slammed shut and he was driven away, sirens blaring.
‘He’ll first be taken to a secure medical facility for questioning, then charged with kidnapping, terrorism and murder,’ replied Dirk. ‘He’ll no doubt spend the rest of his life in a maximum security prison, although he deserves much worse.’
Connor looked over his shoulder into the back of his ambulance. Alicia was laid out on a stretcher, her ankle bound. A medic was tending to the laceration on her forehead and a drip had been inserted into her arm to treat for mild dehydration and shock.