Page 92 of End Game
‘About ten yards away,’ said Ross.
Seven, six, five …
‘Don’t make a sudden move,’ said William, ‘because she won’t hesitate if she thinks … Oh my God.’
‘What’s the problem?’ asked Ross.
William was staring directly at Jojo, who was standing just a few yards away from the British team captain, while Sun Anqi continued to move slowly but surely towards Ben Ainslie. William made another decision – not to tell her father. ‘Nothing important, Ross,’ he said. ‘How far are you from the target now?’
‘She’s just passing me,’ whispered Ross, ‘but as I’m wearing a British tracksuit, she didn’t give me a second look.’
Four, three …
‘And are the rest of your team in place and ready to move?’
‘On your command,’ said Ross.
Sun Anqi’s image now filled several CCTV screens. Ross followed the lone woman as she continued on towards the British team, while the crowd joined in the countdown.
‘How close are you now?’ asked William.
‘Just a few yards, no more,’ he whispered.
‘You’re not close enough,’ said William firmly. ‘Get closer.’
Ross weaved his way through the noisy, boisterous crowd until he was only a pace behind her.
Two, one… the crowd shouted, and suddenly all the lights in the stadium went out, leaving the eighty thousand spectators in darkness.
‘Permission to engage, sir,’ whispered Ross.
In that split second, two thoughts flashed through William’s mind. Am I giving the order to kill an innocent person, as had happened to a colleague when he’d shot Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell underground station, or am I saving the lives of countless innocent victims?
‘Granted,’ said William.
‘Repeat the order,’ said Ross, keeping strictly to Queen’s regulations.
William hesitated, but only for a moment. He thought of the eighty thousand people in the crowd whose lives depended on his decision. He thought of his own family, sitting amongst that crowd. He thought about Jackie, whom this woman had murdered without a thought.
Sun Anqi began to crouch down.
‘Granted,’ repeated William without emotion.
Ross took a deep breath and stepped forward. He hesitated, just for a moment – and then he saw the scorpion tattoo on her neck.
He tapped her firmly on the shoulder and Sun Anqi instinctively turned around, a startled look on her face as she immediately recognized Ross. Ross took her in his arms like a long-lost lover, but that’s where the love affair ended. Sun Anqi tried desperately to bend down and reach her shoelaces, but a firm arm encircled her slender neck and with a well-practised movement, Ross snapped her spinal cord. Sun Anqi’s limp body fell forward and she collapsed onto the ground in front of him. She never saw the blanket of fireworks that lit up the sky.
Four of Ross’s team were by his side within seconds, stretcher in hand. Six more surrounded him as he picked up the dead body and lowered it onto the stretcher.
When Ross looked down at the prostrate body, his only thought was of Jackie and the eighty thousand people she had sacrificed her life for.
•••
Jojo turned around to see a stretcher being carried away. She could have sworn one of the bearers was her father. Poor woman must have fainted, she thought. But once they were out of sight, she was distracted by the final burst of fireworks that lit up the sky, with the five Olympic rings in the colours of the five continents to herald the end of the display.
William’s eyes never left the screen as the body was whisked away. He continued to follow Ross’s progress until the stretcher bearers reached a waiting ambulance parked by the stadium entrance, back doors already open. The stretcher was eased gently and slowly into the back of the ambulance, supervised by a man dressed in a full HazMat suit.
William listened to the doctor’s firm instructions coming over Ross’s radio: ‘All four of you will have to accompany me to the hospital,’ he told Ross, ‘where you’ll remain in isolation until we can be certain none of you is contaminated.’
