Devastation - A sequel to Devotion (M/F) (M/M) Complete

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Caesar73
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Post by Caesar73 »

Hmm ..... what is seiner? And Harper is under pressure, we learn.
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wolfman
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Post by wolfman »

Steve wakes with a start behind the wheel of the car. "Hey sleepy." Louise says warmly, taking his hand. 

"Hello beautiful, how long was I asleep?" Steve asks slurring slightly. 

"About three hours. I figured that you have been on the go a while so I would let you rest.", she says "How are you feeling?"

"A bit stiff but ok." Steve admits. "I needed that. How are you doing?", he asks, before planting a soft kiss on her cheek.

"I'm ok, managed to sleep in the car last night." Louise says. 

"I didn't mean sleep wise. How are you?" Steve asks sincerely, taking her hand in his.

Louise bites her lip, "I don't know. Everything seems to be moving so fast, we have unknown men chasing us and my sister is,", her voice tails off, as a range of emotions play across her, delicate features, "After what she did to me, the way she destroyed my life, why do I feel so upset that she is gone?"

Steve leans across and puts his arm around Louise, pulling her close, "Despite everything, she was your sister. The heart feels what it feels and no one normal can just turn it off. They can hide from it and ignore it but the feeling will always be there, when they least expect it.", he whispers softly, "The bond between sisters is a special one that even death struggles to break."

"I hate her for everything she did to me and I hate myself for mourning her." Louise says coldly.

Reflecting on his own grief following the passing of his parents, he speaks gently, "Hate is a bottomless pit, that will swallow everything you devote to it and never be filled. Anger can never build anything, it can only destroy." Steve thinks of the support Harris gave in the aftermath of their deaths, exhaling slowly, "Sometimes the only way to rebuild, is to let go."

"Are you saying I should forgive her?" Louise says, incredulously. 

"Much as it pains me to say it, knowing the hurt she inflicted, yes." Steve pauses, "If you forgive her, you will free yourself."

"How can I forgive her? There is no justification for what she did." Louise scoffs. 

"You are the most amazing person I have ever met, that is why I want a life with you. I might not be able to change the past, but I will move heaven and earth to give you a future that will eclipse it. Her loss and the hurt she caused, have left a hole in your life, like the hole, my parents death left in mine. She destroyed your past, let me help you as you helped me. Let's reclaim our future." Steve says, tenderly, stroking her hair. 

"You are so lovely, thank you for everything Steve." Louise says softly, as she rests her head on his shoulder.

"It will take time to heal, but together, we can do this." Steve says, softly. 



"How much longer do you reckon she will be?" Louise asks, sleepily, her head resting on Steve's chest. 

"Who knows." Steve says, with a shrug, "Do you fancy a coffee?"

"Wouldn't mind one to be fair." Louise says, shifting a little. 

"Give me a moment, I will pop in that coffee shop we passed, just down from the police station. Looks like it is the only one open." Steve offers. 

"Actually I wouldn't mind stretching my legs and I need a pee." Louise says, as she sits up.

"If you are sure, you don't mind.", he says, nodding, "I'll have a cappuccino and whatever sandwich looks good."

"Won't be long." She says with a kiss. 

Their lips lock hungrily as their tongues intertwine. Steve caresses her thigh teasing a moan from Louise's throat. She pulls back slowly, "Easy tiger, I don't think the car is private enough for that.", she says with a wicked smile. 

"I hope Kate gets back soon, so we can get out of here." Steve says, feeling a stirring between his legs. 

"We might be able to get her to join in." Louise says teasingly. 

"No way, you are the only woman I want." He says warmly. 

"Well she is attractive and has a killer body. Are you saying you haven't thought about it?" Louise asks in a joking tone, but almost fearful of the answer. 

"No." he says shaking his head, "When I see any woman, I think to myself, 'You are not my Lou.' Then I think of you."

Louise smiles, feeling giddy, "My Lou. I like the sound of that, My Steve."

"There could never be anyone who makes me feel like you." Steve says, gently squeezing her leg.



Her open blue shirt rustles over the dark purple halter top, in the warm breeze, but never showing the small but deadly pistol, tucked into a concealed holster, at the back of her black skinny jeans. Louise waits in the queue for the bustling coffee shop thinking, "On a nice day like today, I'm surprised this is the only one open. Still, nice warm day to queue."

As she waits to enter, she watches the coffee shop staff hurry behind the counter in white blouses and black skirts, just above the knee, hair pinned, under black hats with a felt trimmed brim.  "The staff are run off their feet, bless them, they're earning their money today, surprised that there are only two working." she thinks noting their quiet efficiency through the window.

A boy in his late teens, wearing ripped jeans and an T-shirt emblazoned with the anarchy symbol exits the store, coffee in hand. One of the servers, beckons her to enter. Louise steps into the cool air of the coffee shop, only now realising how warm it is outside. 

She selects two sandwiches and steps up to the counter. As the Asian girl turns, Louise notices her eyes widen slightly, "H-how may I help you?" the girl asks. 

For a moment, Louise shuts everything out and focuses on the girl, "Is everything alright, Sumita?" Louise asks, in a warm tone, using the name from her badge, thinking, "Her make up is a little smudged, she has been crying."

The girl nods nervously, "Of course. What can I get for you today?" She says softly. 

"She is blinking a lot and keeps looking the side door." she thinks. 

"Two cappuccinos please." she asks warmly, closely watching the two servers. 

"The one making them is trembling, something is not right here." she thinks taking out her phone subtly and texting Steve. "Coffee shop. Be discrete. Bring my purse."

"Sorry, I've just realised that I left my purse in the car, my fiancé is just bringing it." she says, keeping her tone light. 

"No problem.", the server says weakly. "Here are your drinks." Sunitta places them on the counter into a bespoke cardboard tray made for two cups and glances at her colleague, as they wait. 



Steve checks his sidearm and slips it in a concealed holster at his hip, before exiting the vehicle.

"I thought things were too quiet." he thinks as he works his way towards the coffee shop. 

"Strange that this is the only coffee shop open.", he thinks looking at the queue.

He pulls out his phone and texts Shaw. "Coffee shop, by the station. Trouble. Come if you can."

He takes his hands out of the pockets of his hooded top and approaches the door. "Sorry, my fiancé forgot to bring any money with her." he says stepping inside, ignoring the protests of those waiting. 



"Hello darling, I will get these." Steve says, breezing through the door. 

Louise glances at the server as Steve approaches and sees her lip tremble. "Thanks babe." she says, to Steve, looking at him and then at the door. 

Steve nods minutely and drops his smile, as he turns locking the door.

The two servers are on the verge of tears as Louise turns back to them, leaning close the the counter and whispering "It is OK, we are not going to hurt you. Why don't you tell me what is wrong?"

The girl making drinks, softly starts crying, while Sunitta softly says, "I'm really sorry, they came in a couple of hours ago and dragged us into the stock room, they showed us your pictures and said if you come in to put something in your drink, or they would kill Milly."

"Who is they? Where are they now?" Louise says quietly and calmly

The scared girl looks over at the door to the back of the shop. "Two men, one has a nasty looking gun, like the police use at Heathrow airport. He hit Milly in the stomach with it and" her shoulders shake, in time to the soft weeping that robs her of her speech.

Steve draws his sidearm and places his hand over the latch to the coffee shop door, nodding to Louise. "That should cover it, love" he says, loud enough for the girls at the counter to hear and look at each other confused.

"Go outside, tell everyone the shop is closed and call the police, ask for Chief Inspector Shaw." Louise says, quietly, before drawing her pistol.

The girls run for the door, as Steve opens it and rush outside. Cheerfully, Steve says "Thank you." as the door closes.  Louise nods to him and mouths the word, "Ready." 



Steve charges at the door, striking it hard with his shoulder. Landing on his side and rolling into a crouch, weapon ready.

Louise enters the room in a shooting stance, pistol in a two handed grip, she moves left, scanning the room. On the floor around twelve feet away she sees a girl laying on her front, her legs wrapped in tape from her ankles to halfway up her shins, her arms, bound with tape at her wrists. Tears stream down her face, over the tape covering her mouth. Standing over her is a bearded man, with a handgun held at his side. A bald man stands at the rear door, carbine cradled loosely. Both men wear looks of surprise, as they see Steve and Louise.

Steve sees the man standing over the girl, raise his weapon. He snaps two shots at the man, striking his hand and wrist. The man howls in pain and drops to his knees. 

The man with the carbine, is galvanised into action, raising his weapon. Louise drops to a crouch and shooting the bald man in the forearm and shoulder. His weapon skitters across the floor as he falls backward.

Steve rolls to the right, clearing a path for Louise to pass, keeping his weapon on the bearded man as he moves. Louise rushes to the side of the bound girl, striking the cheek of bearded man, with the butt of her pistol, sending him sprawling. 

Steve notices movement from the bald man, switching his aim, as his hand pulls a revolver from under his back.


The angry crowd of customers panicked at the sound of the first two shots, believing the two girls, and began to scatter. The second two shots a moment later, drove them into a frenzy.
View my latest story, Revelation, here;

https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8719


To view it's prequel Devastation, please click below;
https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7458
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Post by Caesar73 »

I always love the actions scenes!
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Post by slackywacky »

All this violence ;) Keep it coming. Next to your stories, mine are tame.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment.
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Post by lochness »

I am beginning to see touch of Dan Brown in this story.
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Post by wolfman »

Kate lowers her pistol, trailing smoke from the barrel, and edges into the stock room. From the customer waiting area, she shouts.  "Armed police." ‎

"We know." Steve says, relaxing his stance. "Nice shooting.", he says, noting the tightly grouped shots, in the chest of the bald man. 

"I got your message." she says, surveying the room, "Honestly, I can't leave you two alone for five minutes." she says in mock exasperation. 

"Hi Kate." Louise says warmly as she peels the tape from Milly's mouth. 

"Hi Lou." She responds with a smile, "What are we looking at?" She asks holstering her weapon. 

"I was just about to ask our bearded friend that same question. Shall we?" Steve asks. 

"Indeed we shall, by the time the I have searched and secured him, I think you and Lou, will have freed, this young lady." Shaw says, before looking at the girl, "Are you ok?"

Milly, looks up with tear filled eyes, nodding as Louise cuts and removes the tape binding her arms. 

Shaw begins her search of the bearded man, turning out his pockets and placing his phone, a spare magazine and a money clip with about five hundred pounds onto a shelf. Lastly, she relieves him of a stilleto dagger and a set of car keys, which join the rest of his possession. 

Steve confirms that the bald man, is dead and clears the rear of the coffee shop, confirming no additional hostiles are in waiting, before putting the dead man in to the fridge. 

Louise helps the crying girl to sit, before cutting the tape from her ankles. Once free, she throws her arms around Louise's neck, "Thank you." is all she can whisper, before the tears of relief, begin soaking Louise's recently dislocated shoulder, forcing her to wince. Louise speaks softly, "Shhhh, you are safe. No one will hurt you." rocking the girl gently in her arms.



Shaw takes out her radio, but Steve stays her hand. "If you call it in, he will clam up, lawyer up and we get nothing."

"What are you suggesting?" Kate asks, not liking where this could lead. 

"That we have a chat with him first." Steve says, with a twinkle in his eyes. 

Weighing up the options, Shaw says, "A chat? Ok, but, you are not to hurt him."

Shaw quickly radios dispatch, asking for a team to secure the exterior of the coffee shop, but stay outside.



When the bemused officers arrive, Shaw takes Milly and places her in their protection before returning to the stock room.

The bearded man winces, as Louise presses an absorbent pad, from the shops medical kit into his injured hand and bandages his fist and arm. His other arm has been handcuffed to a metal shelving support. 

Steve leans against the door of a walk in fridge, carefully watching the man. "We will wait for the lady to return." he says to the man, who simply looks at Steve.

Shaw re-enters the shop, blowing the last smoke of a cigarette out of the door before closing it. She walks into the stock room and raises her eyebrows as Louise steps back from the man. "I am surprised you didn't waterboard him quickly while I was gone."

"They only have paper towels, no suitable cloths." Steve says sounding disappointed. "Would you like to start or shall I?" he asks.



"Name?" Steve asks the man bluntly, for the fifth time. "I could turn this guy inide out and he would sing, but I don't want to compromise Kate."

The bearded man simply looks at Steve and smiles. 

"This will go better for you if you co-operate." Shaw adds, inviting a smile from the man. 

"At the moment, you are looking at kidnapping, false imprisonment, several firearms charges, aggravated assault and blackmail. If you co-operate. We can do a deal." Shaw says.

The man chuckles briefly, his mouth firmly shut.

Louise stands up, retrieving his stiletto and opening the door to the walk in fridge, where the bald man currently rests. She walks over to his corpse and reaches down, undoing his trousers.

"What are you doing?" Kate asks.

"You told Steve not to hurt Mr Fuzzy here. Not me." Louise says beginning to pull the dead mans trousers down. "He ain't talking, so I am going to cut off this man's dick, insert a skewer through the middle and then he can either tell me what I want to know, or he can die deep throating his mate."

Shaw sees the anger in Louise's eyes and holds out her arms in a calming gesture, "Lou. I can't let you do that."

"None of the girls working here asked for this, these two pricks have scarred them for life and all he can do is smile and chuckle, like it is a joke. I want to scar him for life and let's face it, if you get in my way who do you think Steve will side with?" Louise says with fury in her eyes and ice in her voice. 

Shaw's stunned silence is the permission she needs, to savaging stab at the man in the chiller.

The man has a far from amused look on his face as Louise turns, skewer impaled phallus in hand and advances towards him. 

"Hold him." Louise commands, in a tone Steve is unaccustomed to, as she bears down on the man. 

Shaw looks on confused, noting that there is no blood between the bald man's legs , as the man squeezes his eyes and mouth shut and shakes his head furiously from side to side, before Steve pins his injured arm behind his back and wraps his arm around his neck. 

"Sorry if this is a little cold, but I am not the type of girl to warm it up for you." she says sarcasticaly, extending her arm. 

When the cold flesh touches his lips, the man breaks. With all his strength, he turns his head to the side and says, "Alright, alright. I'll talk, just get her away from me." He says spitting.

Louise nods to Steve and returns to the fridge, placing the skewer and uncooked sausage out of sight, her hand trembling.

When she re-emerges, she hears the man say, "My name is Aaron Hatcher."

"What are you doing here?" Shaw asks coolly.

"We were notified that you were at the station and that these two were likely waiting nearby." Hatcher begins, "Another team, went around the other coffee shops in the area and closed them down. We were to wait here, make sure their drinks were spiked and follow them to their car.", he explains. 

"What then?" Steve asks, sharply. He sees the hesitation on his face and follows up, "Don't make me call her back in here."

"When you were out cold, we were going to take you out and take the crazy one with us.", he reluctantly, explains. 

"Clean way of doing it." Steve thinks before asking, "Where were you going to take her?"



As he opens his mouth to speak, tyres screech in the street and the glass storefront of the coffee shops shatters, the sound of automatic weapon fire filling their ears. Kate and Steve dive for cover, as bullets streak through the air punching through the thin walls of the stock room. Louise crouches in the fridge, shielded by the insulated, thicker walls. 

A squeal of tyres is heard as soon as the shooting stops, signalling the departure of the vehicle. Steve runs into the shop ignoring the glass underfoot and dives through the window, coming up in a combat crouch weapon drawn to send a volley of shots at the rapidly receding black German sedan, shattering it's rear windscreen. 

Steve turns to one of the officer crouching nearby, shouting "Can you call it in?" before re-entering the shop.



Louise darts from the fridge to Shaw's bloody side, seeing her soaked in blood, "Kate, are you ok?" she asks frantically searching her friend for injuries.

Kate smiles and places a hand on Louise's shoulder, "It's ok, most of this is his." she says pointing to where Hatcher lay twitching from the half dozen wounds he sustained. 

Steve returns to the stock room, "Must have been the team that shut the other shops down." He says, before noting Kate's condition, "Jesus Kate, are you ok?"

She looks up at him and chuckles softly, "Not you as well, I am ok, just a flesh wound." she says removing her bloody jacket to reveal her white blouse, pristene, apart from a slowly growing red patch on her left arm.

"I could only get a few shots off. Your guys all seem ok, they are all moving." Steve says, passing the medical kit to Louise. 

She cuts the left arm off of Kate's blouse, before using a sterile wipe to clean the two inch graze. While Shaw calls in the details of the drive-by shooting, Louise applies a pad and tightly bandages it, "How does that feel? Not too tight?"

Shaw flexes her arm and nods, "Seems good to me.", she looks at Louise, "Were you really going to choke him on the dead man's dick?"

‎"Well, it was an option." Louise says, inscrutably, pursing her lip and then smiling mischievously.

"Where were they going to take you?" Steve asks rhetorically, "Shit, no further forward."

Shaw lights a cigarette and smiles "Not quite, I was just about to text, when your message came through. I have a possible location for Price. I need to fill you in on what I found."



Price sits in silence, watching Dionne as she continues to fight for breath. He admires every curve of her body, holding his breath, as she is forced to hold hers. "Magnificent." he thinks, "Even though it is fruitless, still she tries. If things were different, who knows?"

His phone buzzes, he retrieves it from the table and reads the message, "Coffee shop operation blown, one of the men may have talked. Please proceed with haste."

Price breathes deeply and licks his lips, he replies to the message, "Commencing now." Then he messages his men, "Prepare for tactical ingress. Enemy Tangoes en route. ETA variable."

He sets his phone down and exhales slowly. Price picks up his tray of recently knapped, flint blades, heavy gloves and a coil of barbed wire, before he slowly walks towards Dionne.
View my latest story, Revelation, here;

https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8719


To view it's prequel Devastation, please click below;
https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7458
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Bandit666
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Post by Bandit666 »

Another great set of updates since my last comments wolfman, and it looks like I’m not the only one that not only likes your work but also compares it to an author or two. Keep up the great work. Although I think my writing is a pale example to your own.

Excellent as always, and fantastic read.
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Post by wolfman »

Bandit666 wrote: 3 years ago Another great set of updates since my last comments wolfman, and it looks like I’m not the only one that not only likes your work but also compares it to an author or two. Keep up the great work. Although I think my writing is a pale example to your own.

Excellent as always, and fantastic read.
I beg to differ, you tale have a much lighter feel good tone than my own darker stories and you have great characterisation within them.

At this moment, I have the luxury of time to put into these tales, to craft and polish them as best I can. From what I understand your schedule precludes this.

Don't do yourself a disservice, you tales are excellent.

Thank you for your kind words
View my latest story, Revelation, here;

https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8719


To view it's prequel Devastation, please click below;
https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7458
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Post by wolfman »

Kate leads the way as they exit the coffee shop, cutting effortlessly between the waiting officers, their resistance instantly quelled, with a flash of Shaw's warrant card. 

"Six months ago, he leased an old bed and breakfast, in Maidenhead, backing on to the Thames." Shaw explains, as they pick their way through the crowds. "Two floors, twelve guest rooms, plus kitchen and basement."

She lights a cigarette and pulls out her phone, bringing up a map of the area. "Detatched property, decent neighbourhood, quiet."

Steve takes the phone and stops walking briefly as he looks at the location. "Interesting.", he says passing the phone to louise.

She nods as she looks at an aerial photo of the location, "That is a problem."

Kate looks confused, "What's wrong?"

"The house is set slightly forward of the other houses on the rod and the street is straight. So if we approach by road, they will see us coming, with at least thirty seconds notice." Louise explains, deep in thought. 

"I see your point." Shaw says, "What about approaching from the water?"

"He was a Royal Marine, if I had to guess, there will be countermeasures in place. He has had the place six months, there is no gaurantee that the internal layout is the same. If it were me, I would have modified the layout, to favour defenders, concealed firing points, maybe explosive ordnance." Steve says, weighing up the options. 



As they enter the vehicle, Shaw discards her cigarette, taking a rear passenger seat, behind Louise. "Wait. Before we go. It may be something, or it may be nothing. But." She says, looking uncomfortably at Louise, "It is possible that your mother is avoiding our atempts to contact her, we have tried the chateau and her personal phone and get no answer."

"What?" Louise says, wide eyed.

"She came to identify your sister, yesterday. We haven't been able to reach her since." Kate says, nervously, "It's probably nothing and I know it is unlikely, but if she contacts you can you get her to call the station."

Louise shudders and stares blankly at her feet. "What if she is not avoiding the calls? What if she is unable to take them?" She wonders.

"I am so sorry to bother you with this Lou. I know things aren't great between you" Kate says, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

Louise, rests a hand on Kate's and squeezes it gently, "Thank you Kate. Let me try her now."

Steve glances at her, seeing the fear in her eyes, knowing she is having the same thoughts as him. He watches as she dials her mothers mobile. 

The call goes straight to voicemail. "This is the phone of Dionne Carter, CEO of the Nirvana group, Please leave a brief message with your name and contact details and you will be contacted in due course." 

As the greeting plays, Louise reflects on how her mothers coldness can be felt on a recording made some time ago. At the beep she speaks, "Mum, it's Lou. When you get this can you please call me?"



She dials another number and waits. "Bonjour." Etienne says answering on the fifth ring. 

"Hello, Etienne, It's Louise, is mum there?" she asks, calmly. 

"I am sorry, she is in and out of meetings all day." Etienne says, warmly. 

"Can you get her to call me when she can?" Louise says, in a light tone. 

"Of course." He says, warmly. "As soon as she is available."

"Thanks Etienne." Louise says hanging up. 



Louise sits quietly, cradling her phone, deep in thought. "Somethings wrong." she says, finally breaking her silence. 

"What do you mean?" Steve asks, curiously. 

Louise dials another number and as it is ringing says, "He is her number two at the chateau and he didn't ask why I wanted to speak to her. He also referred to my mother as she, not as Ms Carter."



"Good afternoon." an American voice answers, with a hint of a Texan drawl. 

"Adam?" Louise asks, softly.

"Yes, who is calling please?", he asks impatiently. 

"I think we have only spoken once before, I am Louise Carter, Dionne's daughter." Louise explains, visualising his change in expression once he knows who she is.

"I apologise, how may I help you?" Adam asks, uneasily. 

"Where is my mother?" Louise asks pointedly. 

"She is very busy at the moment. In and out of meetings, ma'am.", he says firmly. 

"Etienne said the same thing, when I called him. Funny, he didn't take a message, or confirm if this was a good number for her to call me back on. Almost as if he wasn't expecting to see my mother, to pass it on." Louise says, trying to keep her voice even. The silence on the line is palpable as Adam weighs up the options. "How many times has Etienne said 'She is in her office?' When you have asked where my mother is?", she follows up. ‎

"We haven't heard from her since she entered Reading police station to identify your sister.", he finally admits, "Same for the team we had assigned to her, a crew detailed to bring in a suspect in your sisters murder from police custody when we found out she was being moved and our other team was also prevented from geting the suspect."

"Kate Shaw is not a suspect, at the time of my sisters murder, she was with me." Louise says, "Sorry about your teams."

"Don't be, we will find those responsible." Adam says still stinging at the loss of his people. 

"You are talking to her." Louise says, "I am not the meek girl, you have been led to believe I am. You come for my friends and loved ones and there will be a reckoning." Louise says, gently, but firmly.

"Understood ma'am." Adam says thinking, "Strong like her mom, but cut from a different cloth."

Steve taps her leg and when she looks at him he mouths, "Ask how many teams he sent?"

Louise nods, "How many teams were involved?"

"Just the three I mentioned ma'am." Adam confirms, sparking a nod from Steve.

"Etienne seemed almost relaxed when I spoke to him. Something felt off about the conversation. You might want to have a chat with him." Louise suggests, "In the mean time, we will look for my mother."

"Yes ma'am, I think Etienne and I need a conversation." he pauses, "We?"

"Doesn't matter. We may speak again." Louise says ending the call. 



"So it was Nirvana who tried to grab me." Kate says. 

"When they found out you were being moved?" Steve asks rhetorically. "Only three teams.", his voice trails off.

"This is such a mess. So if my mother has been taken, does that mean that Price and the coffee shop teams are linked." Louise asks. 

"Looking likely, I would say." Steve says deep in thought. "I think we need to check this address out."

"How shall we play this?" Louise asks Steve.

"Are you sure you are up to this?" Steve asks, glancing at her. 

"I need this, if we don't get to the bottom of this, it will haunt us wherever we go." Louise says, firmly. 

Steve nods subtly and enters the address of the Price's property into the vehicles navigation system. "ETA forty  minutes, but we will need to arm ourselves en route."

Shaw listens to her radio, before announcing "The drive-by vehicle has been found abandoned about a two miles up the road from the shop. No witnesses."

"Must be pre arranged. By now they will know the operation was a bust and be fortifying for us." Steve says, shaking his head. 

"He might run." Shaw offers. 

"I don't think so." Steve says pulling into traffic, "He chose this location for a reason. There are too many variables with contact on the move, he will want to control the engagement."

"If you were him, would you have an escape route via the river?" Louise asks, wondering. 

"Most likely yes, with back up escape vehicles up and down river for flexibility." Steve says, absent-mindedly.

"Were there any other records of leases, rental properties or homes listed since he left the Marines?" Steve asks, deep in troubled thought. 

"No, just this. Why?" Shaw asks, checking the notes on her phone.

"Years of nothing then all of a sudden he pops up. After killing Helen and when your mother goes missing. Doesn't feel right." Steve says, pulling onto the A4. 

"How do you mean?" Louise asks, wary. 

"It feels off. So much time hidden and then, six months ago, there he is, leasing a property in his own name. This is too neat. Whatever is in that house, he has had six months to set it up to his liking. This feels like a long game. He was an FIBUA specialist. He will have created, multiple kill zones. This could be a trap to ensnare any who seek him out, whilst he stays hidden. Take out the prime actors and leave any others in disrray.", he explains, "And if he has got your mother, there is no guarantee he will take the risk of being there himself." he says, as Kate's police radio rasps.




She snatches it from her pocket and turns up the volume, "Negative, this is 242, Chief Inspector Shaw, stand down. Repeat stand down. Target location is a fortified hot zone."

Shaw releases the button on the radio, speakin is fast hushed tones "When I found the location, I was with the Chief Super. We outlined tactical options. But, the team were to set up and wait, pending onsite evaluation. Looks like they are going in."

"No, no, no. Stop them, it's a set up." Steve says, shaking his head. 

"It is too late, they are en route, about two minutes out. I am afraid that they have gone radio silent." she says before, keying her radio again to reach her team frantically. "This is 242 Chief Inspector Shaw, stand down, location fortified. Tactical Evaluation flawed."

She snatches her phone up and dials. 



"Hi Kate, Snipe speaking." the Chief says, warmly, "We are just about to breech."

"No sir, please call them off, this is a trap, they are heading into a bloodbath." Kate pleads. 

"What? They are en route, radio silent, I can't contact them to call them off." Snipe says, weakly. "When the coffee shop incident occurred, it was flagged by the Home Office. Home Office, green lit an immediate strike."

"The house is a set up. Suspect is an expert in urban warfare. There must be something you can do." Kate pleads. 

Kate hears him distantly on the line, as he lowers the phone from his ear, "Sergeant, keys now." A moment later a car door slams and an engine revs. 

"I'll call you back." , Snipe says, hanging up and peeling away to stop the bus. 



Snipe accelerates hard, "This will be tight." he thinks, peeling away from the staging area in a cloud of tyre smoke.

The activates the lights and siren, whipping the steering wheel around and pulling the handbrake, sliding the vehicle around a tight switchback bend at speed. Releasing the handbrake, he changes down and slams down the heaviest right foot in the constabulary once more, tearing along the straight road. 

The parked cars, whip by like ghosts, there one minute, gone the next. His eyes search frantically for the turning. Praying the bus would come into view.



Sergeant Snow, second in command for UK South Counter terrorism operations is standing by the doors of a commandeered bus as it proceeds to target.

An sense of uneasy calm descends upon him as he surveys his team. "Twenty of the finest officers in the service today. I just wish Shaw was here. The team are on edge, they need to see for themselves she is ok, for that matter so do I." He thinks, checking the men and women with him in full assault armour.

"Shit, the locals should know to keep quiet when we are on op." he complains under his breath, as he hears an approaching siren.

He grips the handrail tightly, when the vehicle rounds the final corner from their staging point to the target, "Thirty seconds to target, prepare to disembark."

He checks his weapon and watches the target location come into view, "Nice place, shame really." he thinks, knowing the internal layout and preparing for a rapid sweep with his team. 

The driver holds up his hand all fingers and thumb extended. Snow calls out, "Brace, brace, brace." as the blue lights of a rapidly approaching police car, casts an eerie blue strobe over the street. 



The bus driver swerves hard, smashing through the small brick wall at the front of the property and onwards into the lobby. 

The men behind him stumble, as he stands willow like, swaying in the impact. The driver gives him a thumbs up and opens the door. Snow leads the line out of the bus into the foyer of the building. "A bit sparse." he says entering the unfurnished, twenty five foot square room.

The officers snake into the room, close formation, each man holding a different firing arc. Between them they cover three hundred and sixty degrees around them and from floor to ceiling. 

Snow approaches the door leading to the rest of the house and gives a signal. One man breaks formation, carrying a heavy steel entry tool. He shoulders his carbine, taking the tool in hand. On a three count, he smashes to door open into the corridor beyond. 

"Seems shorter than the plans." he thinks entering the fifteen foot long corridor, lined with cardboard boxes, as a vehicle screeches to a halt outside. 

The man with the entry tool rejoins formation as the snake enters the corridor steadily toward the door at the far end. 

Snow hears the voice of the Chief Superintendent screaming, "Fall back, it is a trap." at the same time, he hears a soft click, of a pressure plate under foot. 

Without thinking he stops dead and raises his fist to stop the men in their tracks. Without turning he says, "Maintain formation, rapid exit."

The men stream back to the foyer, as automatic weapons fire from the upper floor tears through the roof of the bus and shatters the light bar of the police car, stitching a line towards the exposed Chief superintendent in the street.

He dives between two cars and rolls into a crouch covered by the engine block of one of the vehicle. Unarmed, he wrenches the wing mirror from the vehicle and uses it to describe the positions of shooters on the upper floors. 

"919 Snipe, on site and on operation. IC seven men, full armour, assault rifles plus one with a large sniper rifle. Team pinned in the lobby, safe egress impossible. Requesting support, over." The Chief Superintendent says rapidly. 

"704, Snow. Confirm hostiles inside, only way deeper is through a reinforced steel door. I have triggered a pressure plate for something, if I move it will be released, over." Snow says, rooted to the spot.

"Despatch to 919, staging area support unit, inbound." the woman on the radio reports. 



Three cars streak towards the scene loaded with armed officers. "We go in hard, suppress upper floor and cover egress of officers in lobby, then we regroup and take the building." Emerson barks into the radio. 

The officers ready for rapid decamp once they have boxed in the property. Emerson calls out, "ETA twenty seconds."

The street is rocked by the boom of .50 calibre thunder, as the sniper opens fire on the lead vehicle from the upper floor, cracking it's engine block.

The vehicle shudders to a halt as it's engine explodes, the weakened block succumbing to the internal pressure of its cylinders. The middle vehicle, close behind, smashes hard into it. Whilst the rear point vehicle sharply stops, shy of the middle vehicles bumper. 

A spit second later, the sniper presses a button and cars either side of the beleaguered convoy, erupt, showering the stricken vehicles and their passengers with white phosphorus. 



Numb, the grief filled Chief Superintendent, picks up his radio, with trembling fingers "919 to control. Staging area unit down." He calls in, his voice cracking. He drops the radio and weeps for the brave men and women, who have been so brutally taken from his command, whilst bullets thud into the engine block behind him.  



Shaw listens in silent horror as events unfold. "This was the proposed, tactical draft, we put forward. This is my fault. I killed those officers.", she mumbles softly, staring at the floor.

Steve slams on the brakes and swerves bringing the vehicle to a sharp halt, on the hard shoulder, causing traffic to swerve around them. 

"Kate." he says gently, looking her in the eyes. "We can save the rest of your team." He says softly, before gently taking the radio, "This is PMC1, under command of 242 Shaw. Lock up the river, keep hostiles inside. Onsite team maintain position. Stay out of hostile firing arcs. Deploy tear gas into the street, gas to cover Chief Superintendent egress to safer location. Be advised, support inbound, ETA variable. Over." he passes radio back to Shaw. 

"We can get them out, but you need to trust me." Steve says, earnestly, taking her hand.

"242 to despatch, PMC1 is working with me, act as instructed, over." Shaw says, keying the radio. 

Kate looks slowly up at Steve, "I failed my people. This is your world. We do this your way.", he voice filled not with defeat, but grim determination.

"What's the plan?" Louise asks, watching cars, as the flow by angrily sounding their horns.

Steve smiles, "We save the team and the Chief Superintendent, neutralise the hostiles and get Price. But first, we need a van, a mobile phone shop and a builders merchants."
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wolfman
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Post by wolfman »

"This is a bad idea." Kate thinks, crouching inside the bucket of an earthmover, travelling at speed. "I swear he is hitting every bump and pothole in Maidenhead" she thinks, as she is bounced once again in the raised scoop, thankfully cushioned by the bags of sand resting against the leading edge of the blade.

"Are you alright up there?" Steve shouts above the engine noise, thinking, "The van could have worked, but this is like a tank, I hope it holds up." ‎

"Feels like I am in a washing machine." Kate calls back. 

"Sorry Kate, I forgot to set it for a delicate load." Steve says. 

"Cheeky sod, we're swapping on the way back." Kate says, checking her gear. They had stopped at the staging area and picked up body armour, weapons and ammunition and acquired the large red cylinder between her legs. 



Steve drives the earthmover as hard as he can. With the bucket raised, he relies on the bluetooth linked camera feeds to his headset to drive the vehicle. 

He turns to where he knows Louise is crouching, "How are you doing? You have been quiet."

"I am ok." She says, quietly. 

Steve cannot see her, but there is something in her voice that disquiets him, "What's wrong, my love?" he places his hand on her shoulder. 

She kisses his knuckles and rests her cheek on his shoulder, "I am worried about mum." she says after an eternity of silence. 

He squeezes her shoulder, "I am sure she is ok. She might be laying low. Once we get clear of this we will find her, I promise."

She strokes his knuckles and nods, unseen by Steve, "What if Price has her? What if he." he voice trails off. 

Steve thinks, "I have been wondering the same thing. It makes no sense, why go to all this trouble to kill Helen and Dionne? Will he come for Louise? Was that why the coffee shop teams were going to take her?" 

He breathes deeply, "There are a lot of unknowns, but right now, we need to focus on the job at hand. Are you sure you are ok with your part? This could get hairy, if you need to step back, I understand."

Snapping back to the moment, Louise forces herself to focus, "I need to do something, if I stay I wil worry about you and Kate." Louise says, determined. "I still can't believe Kate is in the bucket."

"Highest risk. She said he owed it to her team and those that fell." Steve says, seeing the turn up ahead. 

"This is it. Get ready." he shouts. 



The .50 calibre rifle booms repeatedly, each impact jarring the earth mover. But all fail to penetrate the sandbags strapped to the front of the vehicle, or the thick steel and sandbags of the raised bucket.

Kate flinches from every impact, waiting for the round that will get through, "This was a bad idea." She thinks, bracing herself. 

White phosphorous, burst from vehicles in their wake, spraying white hot metal and ruined car parts behind them.

Louise feels the scorching wind hanging from the side of the vehicle as waves after wave of fragments are unleashed. 

Steve shout to her, "Are you ok love?" unable to see her due to the headset. 

"A bit warm but ok. Keep going." Louise calls back.

Steve says a silent prayer, as small arms fire starts peppering the sandbag covered side of the vehicle facing the building, "Come on, hold just a few more seconds." he says as bullets begin to strike the solid rubber tyres. 

Louise crouches on running guard on the opposite side of the vehicle to the building. Holding tight to the grab rail, she looks down the street to the wrecked police vehicles the other side of the target, "That could have been us, if they had managed to stop us." she thinks gravely, as she feels the vehicle turn to face the building. 



Steve pushes the hydraulics to their limit, raising the lip of the bucket just above the level of the window. Kate takes the extra armour vest in hand and pulls the pins on the two flashbangs attached, before flicking it over the lip of the bucket so the vest hangs at eye level to those inside.

The flashbangs explode a foot from the building, shattering the remains of the windows inwards, with a rapid series of explosive pressure waves. The sound, light and glass staggering the men in the upper floor.  

As soon as the last explosion detonates, Louise drops from the side of the vehicle with a large metal pole in hand. She charges through the officers downstairs to Snow's side. 


Steve lowers the bucket rapidly by a metre, as Shaw seizes the heavy duty CO2 fire extinguisher. 


Louise crouches by Snow, stroking the heavy fabric floor tiles at his feet, tracing the outline of the pressure plate. Snow looks down at her, "I don't know what the plan is, but the plate is slowly pushing up. Get the guys out, I don't know how much time we have."


Shaw hurls the fire extinguisher into the room and reaches for her carbine, as Steve holds the bucket steady. 


Louise picks up the heavy duty masonry brace and places one end on the pressure plate and begins cranking it, she looks at Snow and calmly speaks, "Once this is secure, it should give you a few seconds to get clear. I know you have been standing for a while in the same position, can you run?"


Shaw scoops up her carbine and pops her head over the lip of the bucket, putting a long burst into the fire extinguisher. The extinguisher, pierced by armour piercing rounds, dumps it's entire contents through multiple holes in less than a second. 


Snow shakes his head, "Legs have locked up, no way I can run without stretching." he says, a tear forming unseen behind his mask. 

Louise finishes securing the brace against the ceiling, "We will get you out of here." she says, tapping him on the shoulder, "Be right back." Louise calls over her shoulder, as she sprints for the digger.

As she runs through the crowd of officer, she says, "Outside, get ready to catch."


As the CO2 forces the oxygen temporarily from the room, Shaw takes rapidly, fires several burst from her weapon, through the choking mens weapons rendering them inert. 


Louise calls up to Steve, "Prep for Evac.", as she reaches the earthmover and attaches two lines to the tow ring at the front, whilst the bemused officers gingerly venture outside


Shaw dives from the bucket into the room holding her breath, disabling the remaining weapons with short bursts, before slinging her own carbine on her shoulder. "Not long now." she thinks as she grabs the nearest hostile and man-handles him out of the window to be caught by her men below. 


As men begin to rain down, Louise charges back to Snow, and begins clipping him to one of the lines, before securing herself to the other. 


Shaw let's her breath out, as she approaches the final man, the sniper. He is catching his breath and rising to his feet. He sees her approach and begins to circle, drawing a wicked looking blade. "Pick your moment." she thinks, watching him warily.

He swings wildly, disoriented, causing Shaw to duck and weave, slapping aside, the hand holding the blade, when she cannot avoid it. 

He lunges for Kate, aiming his blade between her eyes. She strikes his forearm hard, bracing at the last moment, blocking his strike. She steps in close, wrapping her other arm around him and using his momentum to spin him out of the window. "That does feel quicker." Shaw thinks reflecting for a moment on their training session.

She cracks her neck to one side then dives out of the window after the sniper.

As Kate lands in the arms of her team, Louise turns to Snow and says, "Brace yourself." before calling out, "NOW!"

Steve slams the accelerator hard, propelling the digger in a straight line backwards across the street, pulling Louise and Snow off of their feet and through the lobby, to rest at the feet of the assembled officers outside. 

Steve rips off his headset and jumps out of the cab, running through the officers to Louise's side. "Are you ok?" He says, concerned. She looks up at his and smiles. 

She whispers something he can't hear, so he leans in. She reaches up and pulls him to her, locking her lips, with his.

"Get a room you two." Shaw says chuckling. She tears her eyes away from the lovers to look upon the stunned faces of the officers who have lifted their facemasks, and at the hostiles, who kneel dazed and restrained. She smiles and addresses her team, "Form up at the Chief Superintendents location, move now."

As they form up and move out, Snow salutes her and nods appreciatively, "Welcome back, Guv."‎ he says before joining the team.



Kate lights a cigarette, while she looks back at Steve and Louise, bringing up the rear, slowly walking hand in hand. She waits while they catch up. "Should we form up and clear the resy of the house." she asks, exhaling a plume of smoke. 

Steve turns to back to the house, "Watch."

Inside the house, the masonry brace finally slips. The pressure pad raises signalling the anti personnel mines secreted in the kill zone. A split second later they detonate, filling the lobby and corridor with shrapnel. 

The impact of the bus has weakened the structure of the building, and the fireball filling the lobby, pushes up into the first floor, overwhelming it with cleansing fire, detonating several devices and immolating two hidden men.

As the building erupts and collapses, Steve nods, "Should be clear now.




Etienne makes his way to the cells under the chateau, guided by Adam's arm not too gently around his neck. 

With his arms bound behind him, he stumbles and falls as Adam steps into a cell and throws him across the floor. 

As he scrambles to sit up, fear fills his eyes, seeing Adam slamming the door to the cell and advance towards him.
View my latest story, Revelation, here;

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wolfman
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Post by wolfman »

The former bed and breakfast, lies in ruins. It's carcass being picked over by bomb disposal technicians, when they left the site and headed to the staging area. 

Steve surveys the captured men, "Mostly uninjured aside from minor cuts and bruises. Demeanour suggests ex military, physique suggests top of their game and not that long ago. None of them have spoken since arrest."

Louise smiles at him and kisses his cheek, freeing him from his thoughts. He takes her in his arms and gazes lovingly into her eyes, "You were amazing." he whispers softly. 

"I am what you made me." She coos. 

"I gave you the skills, but you made them your own.", he says, softly as he pulls her close for a loving kiss a lifetime in the making.



Kate moves to interrupt but stops herself thinking, "Lou needs this. First her sister, now her mother and running gun battles in between. Everyone recharges in their own way."

She stubs out her cigarette and reviews the transport papers for the men from the house as the Chief Superintendent coughs politely to gin her attention. 

"Hello sir." she says, looking up at the man, with a smile. "All seems in order. Anything from the site?"

He shakes his head, "Not as yet, they are still sifting through the rubble.", he pauses, uncomfortably, "I need to talk to you."

"Sir?" Kate asks, warily.

"I don't know of any officer, who would have been able to do what you did today. You are a remarkable officer. I don't want you to quit. The world is changing and we as a service need to change to deal with it. The service needs you." Snipe says sincerely. 

"This is all I have ever known. I am good at what I do, but I don't love it. I'm  not happy in myself and much as I am tempted to carry on, this is not my life. See them.", she says pointing to Louise and Steve, "I want the kind of happiness they feel. I am constantly on the move, only stopping to sleep, not knowing if each day will be my last. I can't do it any more."

"I can understand that, two divorces and a son that doesn't know me are all I have to show for it. Just know that the door is always open, Kate." Snipe says with a warm smile.

"Look you have had a hell of a time of it, did you want to go back with the prisoners, clean up and change at the station?" Snipe asks. 

"I could do with a change of clothes." she says looking at her torn sleeve and bandaged arm. "I will go in one of the escort cars though."

"I can't blame you." Snipe says, "I can wrap things up here."




Louise pulls back from the kiss, with a sigh, "Thank you. It is so good to have something pure, to cut through all of the bad."

"Anytime." Steve says smiling, as a scene of crime officer walks past with the items taken from the prisoners. 

"Hold on a second." Steve says catching the man's arm. 

"Sorry sir, I have to get these items to processing.", the man says. 

"Just a second.", he says rummaging in the back and pulling out a bag of phones. 

"I must insist that you put those back." the technician says, before calling to Shaw, "Chief Inspector. He is taking evidence, can you please help?"

Shaw makes her excuses with the Chief Superintendent and walks over to the technician. "What have you got, Steve?"‎

Steve looks at the message from one of the men's mobiles "Prepare for tactical ingress. Enemy Tangoes en route. ETA variable." 

"Can the number this came from be traced?" he asks pointedly.

Shaw nods and looks at the technician, "It's Pierce, isn't it? Can you please trace this number and let me know? This is a priority."

"Yes ma'am. I am have a mobile tech kit and will do it now." he says, smiling, happy that someone in her position has taken the time to learn his name.



As Pierce heads to his van, Shaw asks Steve and Lou, "What are your plans now? I will be escorting the prisoners back to the cosy cells of Reading when they go. Do you fancy it? Hot food, more or less. Strong coffee and a change of clothes." She asks with a smile. 

"Maybe. If your guy gets a location for the phone, do you fancy a little drive, instead?" Steve says, with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Sounds good, I can't wait to nail Price and end this." Kate admits.

"I am not convinced this ends with Price. We are talking a lot of resources. Guns, explosives, people. Where did he get the capital?" Steve asks wondering. 

"Are you saying that there is something else at work here?" Louise asks.

"First your sister is killed, then your mother goes missing. I don't know. Something doesn't feel right." Steve says, with a faraway look in his eyes."Lou, I know this must be difficult to hear. I am sorry."

"If it means bringing an end to this. I will listen all day.", she says, somberly, before biting her lip, "My mother always travelled with a lot of security, any trip planned to the nth degree. Except for identifying Helen. What if Helen was killed, so that my mother would be exposed with a limited security detail?"

Steve and Kate, both begin to nod slowly, Steve says, "That is not a bad thought. Get her away from Nirvana, make her a softer target."

"But I can't understand why Adam didn't come. He is fiercely loyal to my mother, he wouldn't stay at the chateau, unless she told him to." Louise says, thinking aloud. 

"Why would she tell him to stay?" Shaw asks lighting a cigarette. 

"Maybe there was something at the Chateau, only he could take care of." Steve suggests. 

"Nirvana operates a discreet transport service. Mum said if we needed help to call a number and we could get taken to the chateau, bypassing customs. Maybe after Helen escaped, she called the number." Louise offers. 

"Ok, if that is the case then, let's says, she was in France and vanished from there and ended up at Shaw's place." Steve says, "Would your mother tell Adam to stay to find out how she disappeared?"

"That would work. I still can't understand why Shaw though." Louise says.

Kate breathes a plume of smoke skywards, "I can't work out why, either. The tests show that apart from drugging me and covering me in blood, Price didn't do anything to me."

"Maybe that was the instruction, leave you as a red herring. Throw the police off. Take you out of the picture." Louise offers.

"But why not just kill me, or leave Helen at my place and dump my body where it would never be found?" Kate asks. 

"No idea, but there must be a reason. This has all the hallmarks of a long game. The bed and breakfast set up six months ago, Helen's death, your implication, Kate's transport to Scotland Yard, tracing the phones, the men at the safe house, everything. There is another hand at work." Steve explains, with a shake of his head. 

"What men at the safe house?" Louise asks with a raised eyebrow. 

"When I went into the woods there were three men there, trampled to death by the deer. That's why I wanted to know how many teams Nirvana had sent. There is another player at work, with a lot of money and resources. Maybe a rival of Nirvana, maybe someone else." Steve says, staring into the middle distance. 



"Guv?" the technician says, gingerly approaching.

Shaw turns to him, "Yes, Pierce, what do you have for me?"

"I have a location for the originating sender of that message." he says, holding out a piece of paper. 

"Thank you for this. I appreciate you rushing this for me.", Shaw says, warmly taking the paper. 

"Would you like me to monitor the location and let you know if the phone moves?", Pierce suggests. 

"If you are able to, that would be great.", she says, nodding 

"No problem at all Chief Inspector.", He says with a thumbs up "Let me know if you need anything else."



"Could this be another trap." Louise asks as she straps on a fresh set of armour from the police staging area supply van. 

"I think we have to assume it is." Steve says, thinking out loud, looking at the address. 

"Place looks old, no telling what we will face inside." Kate says reviewing images of the warehouse, using a cigarette like a pointer. "Backs onto the water just like the bed and breakfast."

"What's that?" Louise say pointing to a structure near the water. 

"Looks like a private jetty." Steve says, zooming in on the structure, "Looks newer than the rest of the property."

"What if the warehouse is a decoy? Could he have a boat there?" Kate asks.

"Not a bad option for him. Canvey island is a little way out from the main traffic of the Thames, still close to London and first sign of trouble, he could just take off, head into London, out to sea or to any number of locations on the east coast."

"So he could set up the warehouse like a pyrotechnic funhouse and run, at the first sign of trouble." Louise says, nodding. 

"Should we check it out from the water? If there is a boat, we storm that first perhaps?" Shaw suggests, picking up a tactical shotgun, with a forehand grip mounted on the pump and torch mounted on the barrel.

"Could be an option. You sometimes get container ships in that part of the Thames, but there are a lot of pleasure craft." Steve says, thinking.

"I think I know a place we can hire a pleasure cruiser, we could hit the water and have a discrete look." Kate says, feeding shells into the internal magazine of her weapon. 

"Can you get Scuba gear as well?" Steve asks. ‎



Price breathes heavily and raises. Blood soaked hand to his brow. Aside from his breathing the only sound that can be heard is the slow drip of blood onto a tarpaulin.

He reaches down lovingly and removes the gas mask, from Dionne's face. He breathing is shallow and her eyes flutter as she struggles to muster the strength to open them.

"Why?" Dionne whispers, weakly. 

"You know why. I have already told you." He says impatiently. 

"Why. This. Way?" The words pushed from her lips, with all the force her weaken body has. "Just kill me." She breathes. 

"Many years ago, I was as you are now, I saw the tapestry of my life lain before me and marvelled at its majesty. To take you life without seeing that would be a tragedy. I take those who have been selected and grant them a beautiful death and serve as a catalyst for those who behold their passing." He explains reverentially, "Only those selected see this, any who would seek to stop me are condemned to death without its glory."

"I would rather live, to be honest." Dionne weakly says. 

"That is no longer your decision to make.", He says, placing a soft kiss on her forehead, before wrapping his fingers around her throat. 

"Please, don't do this." Dionne pleads, with tears in her eyes.  

"Don't be sad, you are about to see the tapestry of your life in its glory and feel the love awaiting you." Price says, lovingly, as he slowly starts to squeeze.
View my latest story, Revelation, here;

https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8719


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wolfman
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Post by wolfman »

The pleasure cruiser sways gently in the swell of the evening tide. Louise lays on deck in a red string bikini and dark glasses. She turns her head to shore, seeing the small yacht moored to the jetty, at the rear of the warehouse. 

"I can't see any movement on the boat. Warehouse seems quiet" Lou whispers into her concealed microphone. 

"Confirmed." Kate says, as the lowers her binoculars and steps back from the window. 

"It will be dark in about an hour. I am thinking we circle around, gear up and head in." Steve says, from behind the wheel.

Louise, slowly rises from her recliner and makes her way below decks, to see Kate pulling on a wetsuit over a form fitting top and shorts. "Where's the other suit?" she asks unable to see another wetsuit. 

Steve enters the room, wearing an all black wetsuit and gently takes her by the arm. "I need you to stay on the boat." he says solemnly. 

"No. No way, you are not shutting me out of this. I need to be a part of this." Louise says, shaking her head. 

"I know you do." He says softly, "But I need you to keep watch and if this is a trick, come in all guns blazing." 

"Why me? I need this Steve, don't do this." Louise asks. 

"Kate and I are both experienced divers and he will be expecting a full on assault. If we slip in we have a better chance of being undetected." Steve begins, gently, pointing to the large South African grenade launcher and sniper rifle, lain out side by side, "You have a sharp eye, and a steady aim. You can use that better than Kate. I need you back here, to pull us out if things go wrong."

Much as she wanted to protest, she could see the logic, thinking "Price could rig the whole place from top to bottom, but, the boat is free moving and outside of his influence."

"Ok but first sign of trouble and I am moving in." Louise says, embracing him warmly, "Be safe, my love."

"You too, my Lou." Steve says returning the embrace with an extra little squeeze, thinking, "I can risk taking you into a meat grinder. I couldn't bear to lose you."

Kate looks on whistfully as she checks the waterproofing on the shotgun and holsters the Heckler and Kock P11 from one of Steve's caches, "I wish there was someone to wish I was safe."



Louise lays on the deck in the darkness, clad head to toe in black fatigues, gloves and balaclava. Her face stained with shoes polish to prevent her from being spotted, the rifle and grenade launcher are by her side, their matt finishes, reducing the change of being spotted by a careless reflection. 

She watches the stream of bubbles from the two divers as they approach the boat moored at the jetty. "You are getting close, ETA one minute to target." she softly subvocalises. 



In the inky depths of the Thames, mere feet from the river bed, Kate and Steve advance almost silently, save for the occasional burble of air bubbles as they approach the vessel. They kick gently, maintaining steady progress, constantly on the lookout for countermeasures.

As they glide through the water, Steve brushes an eel out of his path. "Just like old times." he thinks as they approach the jetty. 

Kate hears the soft thump of Steve tapping on the casing of his shotgun and slowly begins to surface. 

They hold two metres below the surface, two metres from the dock wall and remove the bouyancy control devices holding their tanks, but keeping the regulators in their mouths.

Steve attaches a line from his tank to Kate's and they secures it to one of the posts supporting the jetty. Connected to the tanks only by their regulators the breath sparingly as they make minor adjustments until their take hang in the water unaided.

Through the gloom, Steve gives Kate the thumbs up and they release their regulators and slowly float to the surface, weapons raised. They breach the gentle waves to the rear of the moored vessel, emerging only as far as their upper lips. Kate scans the near shore as Steve heads for the ladder. 



Louise sweeps the boat and warehouse, through the scope of the long rifle. "No signs of movement." she subvocalises. 

Steve silently climbs the ladder and slides over the side of the boat. He crouches, weapon raised, covering Kate's ascent. 

Kate slowly climbs the ladder, feeling the soft vibration of the boats engine ticking over. As she takes up position by Steve's side, she places a hand on the deck and moves her hand in a circular motion. 

Steve nods and points towards the door to the main cabin of the boat. Kate raises her weapon and moves to the right side of the door grasping the handle. Steve advances and moves to the other side of the door. 

On a three count, Kate pushes the door inwards and she and Steve aim inside and cover opposing firing arcs. Inside the room nothing moves apart from the light fittings slowly rocking from side to side, in time with the waves below.

Steve steps into the room and ducks left, weapon raised. When nothing moves, Kate follows a moment later, letting the door quietly close behind her. 

They begin their sweep of the boat, one moving, one covering, clearing the yacht a room at a time. "Everything is clear and dust free, maybe he is living here." he thinks as they proceed. 



Price watches them advance through the yacht on set of goggles linked to the cameras. He pulls his phone and opens an app for the boat, with the tap on a button all of the boat outer doors lock silently. 

He floats on a paddleboard in the middle of te river, dressed in black on the far side of the pleasure boat, silently, he begins to paddle. 



Steve stops, holding up a fist and crouching, before pointing to a door, where light, faintly spills underneath. Shaw falls in behind him and watches as he points to the door. She taps him on the shoulder and he advances, holding by the side of the door. 

On a three count, Steve opens the door to a nightmare. 



Price watches, as the two figures open the door to Dionne's last resting place. He taps another button on his phone, turning on a signal jamming device. Once his phone flashes to say radio signal jamming active, he presses a button marked execute.



Steve and Shaw are hit by the smell of blood as they enter the room. Dionne hangs limp, on the cross, bound in barbed wire  before them, aside from her head and face, her body and the wall behind her, is scarlet with blood. On the floor at her feet lay the bodies of four men in suits, "All dead, at least a day, judging by the smell." Steve observes.

Her face is a serene mask of peace as her lifeless eyes stare at them. Kate's lip trembles at the memory of waking next to Helen and Steve is transported back to the night he found his parents. 

The pair stumble, as the boat lurches beneath their feet.

On the dock, detonation cord explodes, severing the mooring points, that the vessels guy ropes are attached to, as the boats autopilot engages and it's engines roar into life. 



From the pleasure cruiser, Louise watches in horror as the boat darts from the jetty, "Steve coming in. What's happening?" she calls over the radio, her only response a hiss of static.

She scrambles to her feet, heading for the bridge, calling over the radio, "Steve. Kate. Come in, over"

She does not notice the silent figure slip from the water onto the boat behind her, she does not hear his approach. However, she feels the dart enter the back of her neck. 

She turns, her legs giving way as she does so. "No." she whispers, as she loses all feeling in her body.

Price catches her as she falls, stroking her face he smoothly whispers, "Don't worry child. I've got you. Soon you will see your mother and sister again."



"Shit. It's a trap. Move!" Steve barks as the boat hurtles from the docks, "Come in Lou, do you copy? Over."

Static. 

"He must be jamming us. We need to get out of here. We have to warn her." he says shaking Kate, breaking her free from the gore filled rooms embrace. 

"Wait, we have to get her out." Kate says, weakly, pointing at Dionne.

"No time, she has already gone and we will be too unless we move." Steve says pulling her back the way that they came. 

The lights of the ship turn off, only to be replaced by rapid strobe lighting. Loud screams and laughter play over the ships tannoy system as they enter the main cabin. Steve pulls on the door handle to the deck to find it will not move.

"Steve?" Kate says, concerned, pointing out of the rear window of the boat. 

He turns seeing the rapidly receding lights of both shore as they are taken out to sea. 

"What's going on?" Kate asks, fearfully. 

"Get your gear off now." Steve says, calmly, as he shrugs off his vest, "This boat is going to sink."

Shaw begins to remove her armour as the boat shudders and slowly starts to tilt to one side. "He has detonated a charge on the hull putting a hole in the boat. We are going down slow, all the while we get further out to sea." Steve says, helping her remove the vest. 

Kate raises her shotgun, blasting the hinges off of the door leaving it hanging from the frame. "Let's get out of here." she says dropping the weapong

Steve takes the door off of its frame with his boot and keys his radio as Kate steps through, "Lou, come in. Can you hear me?"



The yacht sits low in the water, the normal eight foot clearance down to a paltry foot, between the water and the deck. Within the boat, Dionne floats on the cross as the decks fill with water. On the deck, Kate and Shaw pull off their boots and prepare to enter the water. 

Steve points towards the southern shore, "Tide is washing that way, when you enter the water swim as hard as you can with it, when this goes down, there will be a suction effect. If you get caught it will pull you under."

"What about Lou?" Shaw asks, scanning the estuary behind them for signs of the yacht. 

"I don't know." Steve says, trying to keep his voice even, "I just hope she is ok."



Steve launches a flare, before they dive into the water. Soon, between the current and their swimming they are over fifty metres away, as the boat sinks. 

Steve keys his radio, "Louise, come in. The boat was a trap over."

Price hears Louise's radio crackle and picks it up. 

"I say again, the boat was a trap. Come in Lou." Steve pleads into the radio. 

"I will be sure to let her know." Price says, his voice dripping with malevolent honey.

"If you hurt her I swear I will bury you, Price." Steve hisses. 

"I was buried once and reborn, if I am buried again, I will become something even greater." Price says, warmly. "I have followed your career and you are formidable. But, you have already lost."

"I hunt you to the ends of the earth." Steve says coldly. 

"A bold yet fruitless claim." Price says mockingly. 

"We know your face and soon, so will the whole world. No where will be safe." Kate says. 

"Oh, the police officer, how delightful for you Steve, you can have someone to grieve with. Tell me dear, have you missed me?" Price, whispers into the radio. 

"You bastard. What did you do to me?" Kate says angrily. 

"That is the wrong question, my dear. You should be asking, why did I leave you behind, unharmed." Price says, warmly. 

Shaw bobs in the water, letting his words sink in. She thinks, "He had ample chance to kill me when I was out, why did he let me live?"

"Enough games, what do you want?" Steve asks, trying to keep his voice calm. 

"I already have her, Steve." Price says coldly. "It's been fun, but, alas, I must get on. She will not kill herself."

"I will destroy you. Let her go." Steve screams into the radio. 
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Post by RopemanSteve »

Didn't know you had started this up again. Good job! I think I like this kind of storytelling best, where you have initial stories, then sequels. I like seeing the same characters, in different situations....as long as those situations involve lovely women in bondage!
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Post by wolfman »

RopemanSteve wrote: 3 years ago Didn't know you had started this up again. Good job! I think I like this kind of storytelling best, where you have initial stories, then sequels. I like seeing the same characters, in different situations....as long as those situations involve lovely women in bondage!
Thanks mate. I am getting a blast out of writing these. The three stories in this series so far each have a different feel and I have tried to keep the bondage interesting as well as have a half decent plot and good action, to keep things fresh.
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Post by Caesar73 »

What a dramatic chapter! I soo do hope that Price will go down in Agony and Pain! Price is way to confident. Overconfidence can kill.
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Steve and Kate exchange a glance as they listen to static on the radio and kick for shore. After two hours of arduous swimming, they collapse on the bank. Exhausted and bereft of tears, they sit numb.

Shaw gently extends her hand and lays it on Steve's shoulder, "I'm sorry, Steve."

"My plan, my fault and now she is in that bastards hands." Steve says angrily. 

"This is on him, not you." Shaw says softly. 

"We are sat on a bank of the Thames, no idea where she is. Bastard, beat me." Steve says, filled with self loathing. 

"Get off your ass soldier, we aren't going to find her sitting out here, howling at the moon. I have an idea." She says slapping his back hard. 

He slowly gets to his feet and holds out his hand to help her up, "What's your plan?"

She takes his hand and stands next to him. "We walk, till we get to a road, then we get a lift and a phone. Then I make a phone call to a friend at the Thames Barrier."

"How will that help?" Steve asks, curiously. 

"They log all boats that pass through and the time that they pass and keep a video record. Our boat didn't pass us when we were in the water, so it must have headed upstream." She explains.

"I am with you." Steve says nodding thoughtfully. "If there is no log, then it narrows the area we start to search."

"And if there is, then there are cameras on the water as far a Kingston on Thames. I know it is not much, but it is a start." Kate explains. 



"What have I done?" Hughes asks himself again, as he reads the report of the siege in Maidenhead. He has been sat rooted to his desk for hours since the standoff.

"All those officers dead. I should have spoken up sooner. I could have stopped this." He says taking a swig of scotch from his almost empty hip flask.



Steve emerges from the rear of the Moto Medway motorway services, head on a swivel. "Good, no one watching." he thinks, before he sprints across the car park to te bushes where Kate is waiting. 

She looks up at his as he hands her a bag. "Don't worry I paid for them." he says sensing her reluctance. 

She looks at him, questioningly. He smiles and pulls out a small waterproof wallet with a selection of pre-paid credit cards. "Always keep a few handy just in case."

Shaw accepts the bag and begins stripping off her wetsuit. Steve moves to another bush and does the same. After dressing he looks down at the polo shirt, dark chinos and boots he purchased, "Not bad for short notice.", he says to himself, before raising his voice slightly and asking, "Are you decent?"

Kate pulls on her new boots and says, "As I will ever be."

Steve shakes his head and rejoins her, as she is appraising the jeans, t-shirt and leather jacket he picked up for her. "I can work with this." she says, taking the warrant card and her cigarettes from the waterproof pocket of her wetsuit and slipping it into the coats inside pocket. "Are we good to go?", she asks, lighting a cigarette and inhaling deeply.‎

"Everyone has a vice, something that gets them through the hard times." he says, starting to walk towards the services.

"What's yours?", She asks, realising that despite all they had been through, she didn't know a lot about him. 

He stops walking and turns with a gentle smile to Kate, "Louise." he answers, his smile turning to a grin, "When things go crazy, she melts everything away."

"We will get her back." Kate says, reassuring him.

"I know we will, but at what cost?" Steve says, his voice tailing of before he snaps himself out of it. "The phone shop wasn't open, so we need to get one, so we can make a few calls."

"Transport would be handy as well." Kate says, stubbing out her cigarette, she checks the rest of the pack and falls into step with Steve, as he stalks across the car park.



Louise wakes in a cold sweat, unable to see her surroundings. She takes a slow breath and focuses. "Ok, calm down Lou, Price must have crept aboard the boat." she tells herself, "Focus on what you know."

"I am naked, laying on a stone floor, with my wrists are tied behind me. The ropes don't dig in but they are tight enough to stop me slipping out of them." she tries moving her feet, "Feels like my ankles are tied together too, but not secured to anything." she says to herself. "Collar around my neck. Cold like steel." she lifts her head slightly, hearing a soft clink of chain. "Collar is secured to something."

As her eyes adjust to the gloom, she scans her surroundings. "Heavy stone walls, they look old, no windows, maybe some kind of basement. The fact that he didn't gag me, says that this is either a sound proof room, or there is no one around to hear me scream." Her eyes pick out the faint outline of the chain, running from the wall to her collar.

She shifts her body trying to get a little more comfortable. "The walls and floor seem a little damp. Smells" she pauses, sniffing deeply, "Smells like the Thames."

"Now where is it?" she says casting her eyes about in the gloom.  "There." she says seeing the rectangle of faint light coming, from under the door. 



"Nice quiet day." Victor says, leaning back in his chair, overlooking the Thames Barrier control room. "Weather is stable and no unseasonal tides predicted. Aside from a couple of big ships, should be a quiet day."

He opens his e-reader with a sigh and begins to immerse himself into a tale of secret conspiracies and the every day individuals who seize their moment to stop them, as the phone on his desk rings.

"Vic Reaper, Thames Barrier operations." he says puffing out his chest in pride. This was his first job after University and in the ten years since, he has worked his way up to the head of operations. Every time the phone rings, he answers with pride.

"Good morning Mr Reaper, my name is Chief Inspector Kate Shaw, badge 242. I am head of the south UK's counter terrorism operations team and I need your help." Kate explains, firmly. 

‎Victor gulps, as she introduces herself, "This is it. This is my moment." he thinks, nervously.

He deepens his voice slightly, to try to sound more masculine and sucks in his beer belly subconsciously,  as he says, "Anything you need, I can do."

"I need to know if a certain boat has passed through the barrier and if so, at what time. Can you do that?" Kate asks, looking across at Steve and winking. 

"Absolutely, all I need is the name of the vehicle and a scanned copy of a warrant.", He explains. 

Kate winces, "Vic, the man I am looking for is responsible for a classified number of deaths. Every time we get close, he vanishes to come back another day. Our window is closing. By the time I get a warrant, he will be gone."

"Can you email me the details?" He says, as an email detailing the pleasure cruisers name and tag, pings up on his computer.

"Sometimes, doing the right thing, means bending the rules, ma'am." he says, calling up the details. 

"Thank you for this." Kate says, giving a thumbs up to Steve. 

"It is my honour ma'am. The vessel passed through the barrier at approximately six thirty at a speed of eight knots, heading west." Vic confirms. 

"Are you sure on the time?" Kate asks.  

"Time stamp confirmed from registration and CCTV." Vic says, nodding. 

"Thank you for your help with this Mr Reaper, you may have saved a lot of lives." Kate says, solemnly, before ending the call.



Steve notices, as Kate hangs up the phone looking troubled. "What's wrong?"

"Top speed of the boat is about ten miles per hour, he should have only taken about three hours to get there. But he took about five." Kate explains.

"Are you thinking he stopped off somewhere?" Steve asks. 

"It is possible. Dionne was posed on the yacht. What if she was held somewhere else, killed and then placed on the boat for us to find?" Shaw says, thinking aloud.

Steve nods, gently, "That would make sense. He would need somewhere private and secluded, where no one is likely to overhear or interrupt."

"Somewhere with easy access for him. Somewhere he can control." Kate suggests. 

"He knows how good he is, he has evaded society for a while. He may have a home secretly set up where he could have been undetected for years. But where?" Steve says wondering. 

"We have two goals as I see it. One find Lou, two find him. I can contact the Yard and get them to check CCTV against facial recognition for him." Shaw says, picking up her phone. 

"I have a few ideas about where he might be holding Lou." Steve says, with a distant look in his eyes.
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Post by Bandit666 »

Brilliant, haven’t had time to read much these last few days then arrive to find you’ve kept the flow going perfectly, each chapter captivating and informative as always. Truly fit for the bookshelves through out the word.....

Wonderful as always
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"It is starting to make sense." Steve thinks as he enters the key code to storage locker holding one of his private caches, on the outskirts of Bromley. "During the cold war, a series of bunkers were built on island in the Thames. The thought was that if the Soviet's ever launched an assault on London, there would be a number of concealed bases, where a campaign of harassment and interdiction could be launched from. End of the war they were moth balled and forgotten about. They would be perfect for Price to have as a base of operations."

"An old bunker, the use of 'Thegate' email server, it is starting to look like an old cold warrior with serious resources is behind Price.", he thinks as he retrieve two large bags. 

"Every step of the way it feels like we are on the back foot." Steve says aloud, "It makes no sense, Helen, Dionne, letting Kate go, the men at the safe house, Price, Louise. What am I missing?"

"Why did he let Kate go?" Steve wonders as he finishes loading the freshly stolen car.

"Someone set Kate up for Helen's murder and then arranged for her to be moved to Scotland Yard presenting her as a target to Nirvana. Limiting the protection for Dionne, making it easier to take her." Steve thinks nodding. As he settles into the drivers seat, "As we are her friends, we step back from chasing the killer, to secure her safety, slowing us down." Steve thinks as he drives through Bromley, heading for Medway. "Now we are cut off from company resources, we need her for information and tactical support. As she was there last night, I was able to leave Lou on the boat, as a sitting duck for Price." 

He parks the car at the marina, unfolding a map showing the locations of the bunkers. "But whilst initially, she slowed us down, now we have access to police resources, that we wouldn't otherwise have. If they wanted to keep us in the dark they would have to kill her, when she is on her own." 

He snatches up his phone and quickly dials Shaw's new burner phone. "Damn it, no signal." he sets aside the map and peels out of the car park to get a signal and warn her.



Kate gets out of the taxi warily and enters the station. The desk sergeant waves her through and she heads for the teams hot desk. As she sits at the desk and turns on the workstation. Sergeant Snow approaches and places a coffee on her desk. 

"Morning guv," He says, warmly, "How is it going?"

"Fine thanks Jim, how are you and the team doing?" Kate asks looking up at him, with a smile. 

"Still a bit shook up at the deaths of the guys, but everyone coping in their own way.", he says with a troubled look. 

"Is everything ok?" she asks, concerned. 

"Someone uploaded a video, about four hours ago, of you and PMC1 entering a boat and finding the bodies of Dionne Carter and her security team." Snow says, reluctantly, "Looks like it was uploaded to a site in Malaysia, but we are having trouble tracing the original IP used for upload."

"Show me." Shaw says, lighting a cigarette. 

Snow uses the workstation and types in a Web address from his notebook. The video shows Steve and Kate board the vessel and move through the ship, then it transitions from a camera that must have been mounted on the wall behind them as they opened the door, revealing Dionne's bound corpse with men men at her feet. 

She turns away in disgust, exhaling smoke through her nostrils. 

"Guv? Why would they upload a video?" Snow asks. 

Kate thinks for a moment before answering, "The video is proof she is dead, as the boat has sunk, it is the only proof we have."

"But why bother? You saw the body, your testimony would be enough to prove she was dead." Snow says, looking deep in thought.

"He is an artist and wanted his latest work to be shown for all the world to see. He knew would likely find the boat and everything from us entering the boat to leaving was part of his exhibit." Shaw says, reasoning things out. 

"That is messed up." Snow says shaking his head and reaching in his pocket, "I know you don't approve of this kind of thing, but with everything that is going on, I want you to have this."

She takes the small package from him and discreetly opens it. She takes out the small handgun and pulls the slide back to confirm a round is chambered. "Where did you get this?" she asks holding it in the palm of her hand.

"It is my back up. Six rounds in the clip and a spare with hollow points. I have carried it on every op since I started on the team." Snow explains. 

She tucks the weapon and extra clip into the top of her boot. "Thanks Jim. I appreciate it."



"There is something else, guv.", he says, running a search on the workstations browser.

Another video starts to play, entitled, "Supercop makes it rain." 

It shows the earthmover heading towards the bed an breakfast showered with white phosphorus. The mobile phone footage focuses on her using the flashbangs and fire extinguisher. As the video shows Kate leap into the building, "It's raining men",  begins to play and the footage changes speed in time to the chorus, as she starts throwing hostiles out of the window. 

Kate stares at the screen, "Seriously?" she says, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Kid living opposite filmed it and uploaded it this morning, now it is at two million views and counting." Snow advises with a smile. 

"Give me strength." Shaw says stubbing out a cigarette before lighting another straight away.


 
Ten minutes later, just as she sends an email to the Coroner that the video of the boat shows her and Steve finding Dionne's body, zooming in on the cuts, the ropes, the swirls of blood nd the dead men's faces, her burner phone rings, she snatches it up quickly, "Steve?"

"It is all a set up, Kate. When Price left you alive, it forced Lou and I, to move in on you and delayed us finding out about Price. Now we are making headway, whoever is behind this might come after you." Steve blurts out as soon as she answers. 

"Slow down. What do you mean?" Shaw says, looking around the office. 

"You were left alive as bait for Nirvana's people to draw Dionne's security team away from protecting her and to draw our attention away from finding Price.", he begins, pullin over to the side of the road, "Now she is dead, he has Lou, but we are closing in on him and you are a big part of that. To slow us down again, he might try to have you killed, cutting me off from the police and my company." Steve tries to explain. 

Shaw rolls it around in her mind, before asking, "What for? Why delay?"

"I don't know." Steve says, realising that even though he understands much of the picture, some is still kept from him. "Have you got anything from facial recognition yet?"

"Not been here long. Price uploaded a video of us in the boat. Have just been verifying it with the Coroner." Shaw explains, "How are you getting on?"

"I am geared up and about to begin my end." Steve says, checking the rear view mirror for anyone loitering around.

"I will let you know how I get on. Keep in touch, eh?" Kate says, warmly.

"Sounds like a plan." Steve says, hesitating, "Kate?"

"Yes?" she says, not recognising the tone of his voice.

"In case, I don't get another chance. I just want to say thank you for everything. I appreciate you being there and I know Lou does too." Steve says, uncomfortably. "I haven't known you long, but you have earned my respect. I hope you find a life that makes you happy."

"Steve? What's going on?" Kate says, confused. 

"You are not the only one without back up at the moment." Steve admits. "Can you trace this call?" ‎

"Sure. Why?" Kate asks, sounding concerned, while she loads the phone trace software on the workstation. 

"Because Price is sitting in a car about thirty feet behind me." Steve says, staring at the rear view mirror.
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lochness
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Post by lochness »

No. Not a clip. A magazine.
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Post by wolfman »

"I can't believe, I let Price jump me." Louise berates herself, twisting against the ropes, securing her wrists and ankles.

She thinks of Price's boat streaking across the water with Steve and Kate below decks. "We should have realised it was a set up. It was too obvious. Now they are gone." Louise feels her eyes moisten at the thought that Steve and Kate might be dead. 

"What was it Price said, 'Soon you will see your mother and sister again.'", Louise thinks as tears start to flow. "Mum is dead.", she curls up into herself as the realisation hits her.



As she lays on the floor bound and weeping, she hears Steve's voice in the back of her mind, "You have got this, trust what I have taught you and what your gut says. Let's do this.", His words to her during the assault on MK hospital. ‎

"Help thyself girl." Louise thinks, "Mum might be dead, but unless you want to join her, then right now you need to move. Steve and Kate are still out there. "



Now her eyes are more accustomed to the low light of the room, more details begin to emerge from the darkness. She picks out a large wooden frame off to one side, with a small table beside it and a couple sets of drawers against the far wall. 

"First things first," she says under her breath, "Being tied up like this, is aggravating my shoulder.

Laying on her back, she slides her bound wrists under her pelvis and around her legs bringing her hands in front of her. Less than a minute later her teeth have picked apart the knot and her hands are free. "Amateur." she thinks, reflecting that if Steve had tied her up, she would have been in real trouble.

A moment later her ankles are free and she rises to her feet. First she uses her finger to explore the collar around her neck. "Solid steel, by the feel of it. Hinged in the middle and secured with a padlock. That could be a problem."

Louise follows the chain to the point where it is anchored to the wall and then carefully walks backwards until the chain is taut. "Roughly ten feet." She then walks in an arc, keeping the chain taut. "Hmmm, fair bit of movement, but not enough to reach anything that might help."

"Only about four feet from the table, at full stretch of the chain." She thinks looking at the table. "It looks like there is a lamp on it and a few other things, I might be able to use to get out of here."

She steps back slightly and moves around within the limits of the chain, sweeping her feet across the floor. "Gotcha!" she thinks as her feet brush the ropes used to bind her. 

She kneels by the side of them and winds them between the thumb of her bent left hand and her upper arm. "Two lines about six feet each." she nods and the securely ties the rope together. 

She finds the end of the double rope and begins to tie a knot, looping, wrapping and folding the end of the rope, using about two feet of it to make a large dense knot. 

Louise rises to her feet, swinging the rope experimentally, "This could work." she thinks as she approaches the table. 

She swings the rope in a horizontal arc, after a few attempts, she hooks the line around the table leg and catches the knot. Slowly, she pulls the rope dragging the heavy table towards her trying to keep noise to a minimum.

Catching her breath, she runs her hands over the surface of the metal table. "No wonder it was so heavy.", she thinks, turning on the lamp and bathing the room in a very soft glow. 



Somberly, she stares at the blood stains on the floor by the wooden frame. "Oh mum, what happened to you?" she thinks. 

She takes a deep breath, "Snap out of it, Lou. Get yourself out of here, find Steve and Kate and then grieve."

She turns back to the table and sees a tray holding several bloodied shards of stone, heavy duty gloves barbed wire and heavy duty bolt cutters. 

She takes the cutters in hand and hefts them in hand. "These could work." she says to herself as she feels around her collar, for the padlock. 
"Smallish lock, feels new." she thinks, walking over to the wall. 

She closes the jaws of the cutters around the ring of the lock and braces one handle against the wall and the other against her body as she puts all of her weight behind it and pushes. 
 
Louise grits her teeth and shoves hard, after constant heavy pressure gets no where. She steps back panting, feeling the lock. "These could cut the lock, but I would need more force."

"Plan B." she says to herself, as she closes the jaws of the cutters around the link of chain the lock is secured to. "I hope this guy spent his money on a good lock and a weak chain.

As she starts the apply force, she feels the chain slip a little. She walks backwards pulling the chain taut, before trying again. This time the link doesn't move, as she begins to use the cutters. 

A sharp snap fills the room, as the ring is sheared. But, Louise's elation is short lived, in slow motion the chain drops, slipping through her fingers to clatter loudly to the floor.

Louise winces, at the loud noise in the quiet of the room. She holds her breath, watching the door, as she hears someone push a heavy bolt on the other side.
Last edited by wolfman 3 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
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slackywacky
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Post by slackywacky »

You have way too much time on your hands. It is hard to keep up with this story ;)

Always useful when there is a cutter around somewhere. Nice description of her (almost??) escape.

p.s. 'He kneels by the side' should be 'She kneels by the side'
Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment.
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Post by wolfman »

slackywacky wrote: 3 years ago You have way too much time on your hands. It is hard to keep up with this story ;)

Always useful when there is a cutter around somewhere. Nice description of her (almost??) escape.

p.s. 'He kneels by the side' should be 'She kneels by the side'
Still no luck on job front so pottering about with this in between job applications, to keep my mind active.

Spelling amended, cheers for letting me know
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Post by wolfman »

Steve places the phone on the passenger seat without hanging up and watches his mirror. "What's his game? He must know I can see him.", confirming Price has not moved.

"Ok mate, if you wanted to make a move you would have by now. Let's see what you have to say for yourself." Steve says under his breath, as he opens the door. 

He straightens up, as he exits the vehicle and closes the door, softly. He fixes Price with his gaze and walks to the rear of his vehicle, slowly walking towards where Price is parked, stopping a third of the way between the two cars. He turns slowly lifting the back of his loose fitting unbuttoned shirt and opening it to show he is not armed. 

Price opens his door and slowly emerges from behind the wheel. "He has bulked out since leaving the Royal Marines." Steve thinks, as he watches the two hundred and eighty plus pounds of muscle and bone making his way towards him. 

Price stops ten feet from Steve, turning and lifting his shirt as Steve did, showing that he has no weapons concealed in his loose fitting, lightweight track suit. ‎

Steve watches as he approaches, scrutinising the man. "Very pale complexion, dark glasses, if his eyes are bloodshot from oxygen deprivation, maybe he is sensitive to light." Steve wonders, "Seems highly toned. Shaved head, no scars on the neck or higher. He moves confidently, seems formidable, but his left hand is slightly curled.", he thinks.

Price nods, thinking, "I have more muscle than him and more physical power, but, he has a lot of lean muscle and a slight reach advantage. He has a sense of quiet power about him. In a fight, I have the strength, but he will have the speed. 

The two men slowly begin to circle each other in the quiet street. Closely watching each other. "The curled hand is an affectation. He is body proud and it doesn't fit, he is presenting it as a weakness for me to go for." Steve observes. 

"He keeps glancing at my left hand, he will ignore it, thinking my right more powerful. Little does he know.", Price thinks, flashing a small smile. "If I get in close, I will crush him, but, if he keeps me at arms length, he will take me apart a piece at a time." Price muses. 

"He is a wrestler, judging by the way he carries himself and his profile, heavily muscled legs, strong arms and torso and a muscled neck." Steve thinks noting the slightly crouched stance of the man. 

"Calloused knuckles, like a boxer or Muay Thai practitioner, but the stance is all wrong, too loose, too relaxed. Not sure how he will come at me." Price wonders, narrowing his eyes. 

"His body is scarred, he might not feel pain in the same way and if I had to guess, his muscles will be thick enough to absorb any blows I unleash." Steve thinks, before a little smile, creeps across his lips. "His face is not scarred, he may not care about damage to the body, but, his face could be a weakness. He portrays weakness in his left arm, I wonder how he will cope if it is actually weakened."

"Why is he smiling?" Price wonders, raising an eyebrow. 



"I realised earlier that our paths have been entwined for a very long time and yet, we have never met." Price says, breaking the silence. 

"I am sorry to say, it is not a pleasure." Steve says, his voice even. "What do you want?"

He speaks smoothy, sounding otherwordly, when he sighs, "My benefactor has commissioned me to kill the Carter women. I have no doubt when I am finished, you will come for me. I didn't want our only meeting to end with one of us dead."

"Who is your benefactor?" Steve asks, watching the man for sudden movements. "A contractor with the methods of a serial killer." He notes silently.

"Interesting. I thought you would be asking, about why both of us will walk away from this, or why I killed your parents." Price says with an unsettling warmth. 

"Because you wanted to size me up, see who you were facing. You had some measure of who I am from a file, but you wanted to meet the man and fill in the blanks. There was some doubt in your mind of your victory and you wanted to see if the rumours were true." Steve says, with cool confidence, "And you were counting on me feeling the same way. As for why you killed my parents, you are a foot soldier, you do as you are told. You don't know why you did it, only your benefactor does."

Price smiles warmly, "Nice try, Mr Marks." he says, whilst thinking, "Shit, how can he know that."

"Truth is, I got out of the car, to see the man, who killed my parents and holds the woman I love prisoner. Get some answers and maybe end this before it begins." Steve says, keeping his stance loose.

"I am sorry to say that she is already dead." Price says coldly. 

"I don't think so, you are an artist. Each time you kill, you present a tableau. If she were dead, you would want to show me, not tell me." Steve says dismissively, shaking his head, "It must have hurt not being able to display Dionne and her people properly, only being able to post a video of a pale reflection of your works glory."

Price's left eye twitches, "Maybe you are right, maybe not. Truth is she was dead the moment, I took her, the timing is just a formality."

"While you are here, she is safe." Steve says, thinking of the pattern of cuts on his parents, Helen and Dionne. "You take time and care over the cuts you apply and revere their final breath."

"This may have been a mistake." Price thinks, slowly backing away as he and Steve circle. "I have shown too much of myself."

"In many ways you are correct, however, Louise Carter is currently, bound hand and foot in a locked room, guarded, by men with orders to kill her, if I do not regularly contact them. Am I lying?" Price says, trying to regain his composure. 

Steve sees the inner conflict of the man play across his face, as he weighs up the options. Deferring the question, he says, "So she is alive then." 

"For now." Price says, slowly backing towards his vehicle. 

"How long does she have?" Steve asks, advancing on him.

"Clock is ticking, Marks. The longer you delay me, the less time she has." Price says, challenging Steve, trying to force him to back off.



"He wants out of here, I have a feeling this isn't going as he planned." Steve thinks as Price reaches the bonnet of his car. "If what you say is true and you are going to kill her anyway, maybe it is better this way. At least she won't suffer the agony of a death at your hands." He says calmly.

"Damn, I hadn't thought of that." Price thinks, as he wonders how he can get in his car and clear before Steve attacks, "He is close, a few strides and he is on me, but that cuts both ways."

Steve moves closer, as Price approaches the car door. He sees him tense as his hand brushes the handle for the driver's side door. "He will either scramble to get in, or charge now I am close enough."

Price breathes deeply and braces himself to move and launches himself towards Steve. 

Steve tenses his right forearm and curls his hand inwards. As he flexes, the jaws of the gravity sheath, holding the hilt of a stiletto in place releases, dropping the weapon into his hand. 

Price sees the glint of steel and tries to pull himself up short. 

With a practiced flick of the wrist Steve sends the blade arcing towards the charging mans throat. 

Price twists and brings his chin down and turns his head, to protect himself. His hands raise a split second too late, as the blade pierces the skin of his cheek and impales his tongue. 

Price stops in his tracks and howls like a wounded beast, bringing his hands to his face, Steve releases the blade strapped to his left arm into his hand and steps forward, slapping the knife into his right hand, before jabbing the blade up into Price's left armpit, severing the nerve cluster for the arm. Price bellows with rage and lashes out blindly, with his right fist. 

With lightning speed, Steve ducks the blow, rolling to the side. Price turns to face him and slowly pulls the knife clear of his ruined tongue and cheek. 

"Cheap twick old thon." Price mumbles, wielding the blade with wicked intent. 

"You aren't worth the expensive tricks." Steve says, springing forward, backhanded left blow at Price's eyes, knocking off his sun glasses and forcing him to duck back. Price uses the momentum, to shift his centre of gravity, and launch a snap kick aimed at Steve's knee. 

Steve steps back out of danger and kicks the sole of Price's foot, forcing him to stumble back against his car. Steve waits for the muscular man to move, making Price come to him.

Price squints in the light, his vision, blurry. "I go for the handle, he will end me." he thinks, "He is forcing me to fight his way. I need to change the game and risk getting in close." He gets back to his feet and charges, body slamming Steve to the ground.

Steve braces himself, breathing out and allowing the other man to slam into him. Price's right arm wraps around Steve's chest, whilst his left remains limp, as he takes the fight to the ground.

Before Price can exercise any leverage on Steve, he feels the point of a stiletto enter his back, between his spine and right shoulder blade. A twist of the blade and his right arm is as limp as his right, and he looses some feeling in his right leg.

Steve place his left hand on Prices left shoulder and shoves him hard off of him, sending the man flopping onto his back.

Before Price can turn back to face him, Steve slashes up the outside of the stricken man's left thigh and plunges the knife hard into the inside of his right.  

"How did this happen?" Price thinks, able to do little but lay on his back, his arms useless, his legs agonising to move. He turns his head to the side to spit out a large gob of blood from his ruined cheek and tongue.



He looks down at Price, as he wipes the blades clean, "This was your choice, you could have set me up and taken me out, but you had make a display of yourself." Steve says, with a hint of sadness. "You had to put on a how of force, to prove you were the better man."

Price moans softly in pain, while Steve circles. "You've won, Kill me." he says, eyes filled with cold fury. 

"Where is Louise?" Steve asks, calmly

"Go to hell, Marks." Price says, spitting blood. 

"If you are lucky, with time and a good surgeon, you may be able to walk again and even use your arms. But the new scars will never fade, your body will never be the same." Steve pauses for effect, before continuing, "You will never lead the life you had."

"Huck you." Price says, as best as his ruined tongue can manage.

Steve speaks softly. "If you don't tell me, I will see to it, you are put somewhere good enough to keep you alive, but not good enough to fix you. Every year on this date, I will visit you and remind you of how you failed.", he pauses, letting the point sink in, "However, tell me where she is, I will end your life and present you on a tableau of your own, for all the world to see."
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Post by slackywacky »

Geez, all this violence ;) Will Price talk? We'll have to wait and see.
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Post by wolfman »

The door opens slowly inwards, Louise grasps the heavy cutters in a two handed grip, ready to strike at whoever enters. "I am not going to die here." she silently pledges.

The door swings smoothly open, revealing a man in black jeans, light anorak and a T-shirt, pointing a handgun at Louise's chest. 

The man only appears to be in his late fifties, but, his face bears the lines of an older man. "Put it down, love." He says, wearily. 

Louise calculates the distance to him, deciding, "I can't reach him before he shoots me." She carefully lays the cutters down and stands covering her breasts and privates. 

"Please back up to the wall and take a seat.", the man says, looking in dismay around the room, his eyes, lingering on the bloodstained floor.

"I'm naked as the day, I was born. This guy doesn't seem at all phased by it." Louise thinks, following his instructions.

The man looks around the room, shaking his head. Whispering, unheard, under his breath. Slowly, he removes his anorak and tosses it to Louise. He puts the pistol, into the belt of his jeans and as Louise puts on his coat, he looks sadly at her, "What did he do to you?" He asks.

"He drugged me and brought me here. Apart from that he hasn't done anything yet." Louise says, cautiously. "Who are you? You look familiar somehow.", she thinks.

"When he posted a video of the woman on the boat, I knew." He speaks softly, his voice trailing off. "I saw she was scarred."

Louise feels numb, as he speaks, "The woman on the boat. Oh mum." she thinks, sorrowfully.

He slowly moves to the drawers, reaching forth to open one, but recoiling at the last moment, shaking his head in dismay as he softly taps the top of the chest of drawers with his fist. "I should have known, I should have stopped this." He brings his hand to his face and starts to cry, as he sinks to the floor. 

"What the hell? " Louise thinks, as she watches the man. "Are you ok?" she asks feeling awkward.

"He was such a good lad, everyone liked him, then he went to war. My heart broke when I saw his injuries. But it was the change within him." he pauses, trying to find the right words, "He was a gentle, caring boy growing up, but, when he came back, he was so quiet, went for days without speaking and when he did, his voice." he trails off.

"Is he your son?" Louise asks, gently probing.

"He was once, but I am afraid I don't know who he is now." he says, slumping his shoulder, looking through Louise. 

"By the looks of him, he was once a proud man, he almost appears as if he has shrunk since we started talking." she thinks, sympathetically.

"He found this place when he was young. It was a bunker during the cold war. He would often come down here to play when he was a boy, used to say it was his fortress. When he was chased from school by bullies, he hid down here for three days, till I found him." He explains, looking round the room, "After the war, when he came back from the hopital, every so often he would disappear for a few days.  I would come down here every time to find him and here he would be. He used to say that, being underground stopped the nightmares." He says, forcing a smile.



Louise sees the pain in this man's eyes and slowly gets up, moving to his side. She quietly sits beside him and puts a comforting arm around his shoulder.

"I bloody knew he wasn't right when he came back. I tried to get him help, enrolled him in a program for returning soldiers with life changing injuries.  He even got a job and a mentor through the program. Everyone said, how well he was doing. But a father knows." he swallows hard, choking back tears, "I could see there was something eating away at him, worse than when he first came back." he says. 

"There was nothing when we checked about a job." Louise thinks, to herself. "How did he get on at work?", She asks, not wanting to push this man. 

"He seemed fine when he started there, but he withdrew into himself the longer he was there. Never said what he did there, but some days, he looked haunted." He says, shaking his head. "It was some security firm employing ex servicemen and woment. Can't remember the name of the place. Technical something or other."

Louise's heart lurches, "Technical Solutions?"

"That's it. Couldn't think of the name of the place." James says, nodding. "Are you alright, love? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I am ok, just overcome by everything." Louise says, breathing deeply to centre herself. ‎"Oh shit, he worked for Steve's company. That could be how he could track us."

He smiles weakly, "Sorry love, there's you been kept prisoner in here and I am rambling on like an old fart." he says getting to his feet. "Shall we get out of here." he sighs, offering her his hand. "My names James, but the way."

"Sounds like a plan to me." She says, warmly taking his hand and rising to her feet. "I am Louise."



They walk in silence heading for the surface through the dusty, subterranean labyrinth. The corridors are in an eerie half light from the LED lights overhead.

"I keep thinking that you look familiar, do I know you?" James says, his voice echoing through the corridors.

"My face was on tv a lot when I disappeared a few months ago." Louise says, sheepishly.

The older man's face turns ashen, "Good God, how long have you been down here?"

Louise considers lyin, but relents and begins, "Your son killed my sister and my fiancé's parents, we had been hunting him down with the police and he ambushed me." she takes a deep breath, bracing herself, before she continues, "Before I was drugged, I was on a pleasure cruiser, keeping watch, as my fiancé and my friend boarded a boat looking for your son," she swallows, struggling to stay composed, "and my mother."

A range of emotions play across his face, before he speaks, "Oh Jesus, I am so sorry for your loss, love. There was a video posted online of two people finding a poor dead woman and some men on a boat. I had no idea. Otherwise I wouldn't have blathered on." he says, softly. "I should have stopped him. All the blood he has spilled is on my hands. How many has he killed?" James says, sounding lost. 

"I am not sure." Louise says, wondering if there are others. "Did the two who found her, get out?"

"I don't know, the video cuts out as they started to run.", he flashes her a soft smile. "Let's get you out of here." he says, gently, indicating that they press on.

After a few moments of silent walking, he touches her arm, "Please promise me, if you find him, stop him from doing this again.", he says, in an almost pleading tone. "No father should live to see their son become a monster."

"There was nothing you could have done. You can't blame yourself." Louise says softly. 

"A parents job is to be there and do right by their kids. I failed." James says. 

"I wish my mum thought like that." she thinks, harshly. "Mum." she says weakly, allowing her eyes to moisten before wiping them dry, as it sinks in that she will never see her mother again. 



They emerge from the concealed bunker entrance, into the humid air of the late afternoon. Louise breathes deeply, the sweetness of her freedom soured, by the knowledge that over the past few days, she had lost all her living relatives. 

As she weeps for their loss, James puts a fatherly arm around her. "I am so sorry for all this, love." He says softly. 

"It is not your fault, James." She says weakly.

He nods, with a faraway look in his eyes, "Yes it is. I raised him as best I could, tried to help him become a good man, but I failed.", he gently unwraps his arm from around his shoulder. "I failed him, you and everyone he's hurt."

As he turns, she asks, "Where are you going?"

"Keep going straight on. You'll see a bridge, follow the signs for the train station and you will end up on the high street." James says, "I will just wait here a while."

She opens her mouth to speak, as she sees him walking back to the concealed entrance, she hs no words other than, "Thank you."

Slowly, she walks towards the small wooden bridge. When she steps off of the far side of it, the sound of a gunshot behind her, rips through the dam holding back her tears.
View my latest story, Revelation, here;

https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8719


To view it's prequel Devastation, please click below;
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