“Come back here you coward. Time to face real justice!”

The effort of pumping so much air into his lungs was making Jake’s side explode with pain. Vardy’s pills taken with breakfast were no match for the physical exertion he was subjecting his body to.

He reached the next staircase, threw open the door and ran down the steps, missing the last five entirely. He landed heavily, tripped, stumbled. The men were gaining on him, he forced himself upright, ran again, limping slightly. His ankle had twisted. They were almost upon him now, but they hadn’t got him yet. With monumental effort he have pushed half fell through a door into the Palm Plaza.

Only a rudimentary effort had been made to clear the park area since the asteroid. There was still a lot of ash around, although somebody had swept around the perimeter, keeping it out of the cafes and bars. The palms themselves looked dead, broken. It was a grey, desolate place.

In the middle, on his knees, was Flynn.

• • • • •

Jake limped forwards, the men chasing him bundled through the doors. They stopped dead when they saw Flynn. He was facing them, getting to his feet. He had a gun in his hands.

“Hello Jake,” he said. “So you came back then?”

“I brought some friends with me.”

The men behind him looked at each other, confused.

“Hey, Captain Flynn, we’re no friends of this murderer. Are you going to finish him off properly, or do we have to do it ourselves?” Jimmy said. There was a murmur of others agreeing behind him.

“No, these aren’t my friends,” Jake said. “Mine are from the Royal Navy. They’re on their way here right now.”

“Jake, Jake. Your terrorist friends are stuck fighting on the bridge. My men are well armed. There’s only one door. They can hold out indefinitely. As for my friends? I have many. Thousands. You cannot possibly over power me.” Flynn laughed.

Then he stopped, raised his gun, pointed it at Jake.

Jake raised his hands in the air, and stole a glance over his shoulder. The men behind him came around to his side, out of the way of any bullets that might go astray.

“Flynn, the game’s up. You know it, I know it. We’re going to show these people the truth. We’re going to show them how you framed me, and how you plan on killing them all.”

Jake looked around nervously. He could see the tiniest shadow of doubt play across the faces of the men who had led the chase. Flynn must have noticed too.

“You’re a desperate man spouting desperate rubbish. I shouldn’t never have given you the chance to survive. Setting you free was a mistake. But mistakes can be corrected, and I intend to fix that one. I’m changing my sentence. For the murder of two men, you are now sentenced to death.

There was a click as Flynn released the safety catch.

Jake cried out, tried to move but his feet remained rooted to the spot.

A gunshot echoed throughout the Palm Plaza.

Sixty-Five

THE EXPRESSION ON Flynn’s face was something Jake would never forget. It morphed, slowly, from an evil snarling grin, to a look of incomprehension. He stared down at his chest. Blood was pumping out of a hole in his heart, spurting over the floor, turning the grey ash red. He looked up, saw something above Jake’s head. His eyes opened wide, disbelieving. The gun clattered to the floor, sending a little mushroom cloud of dust and ash into the air. His legs buckled, and Flynn fell to his knees.

Another gunshot rang out. The sound bounced back and forth between the walls of the six decks that overlooked the Plaza. A second hole appeared in Flynn’s chest. He opened his mouth, tried to speak. No words came out, only a dribble of blood. He keeled over and landed face first in the ash.

Then, silence.

Jake looked at the dead man in front of him.

The men either side of Jake looked at the dead man.

Then everyone turned and looked up, behind Jake, to where Flynn had cast his gaze. Standing on a cafe balcony, one deck above, trembling, was Martin. His arms were outstretched, a pistol held tightly between both hands.

“What the…? You killed him!” Jimmy yelled. “You killed the fucking captain!”

The doors burst open. Five submariners brandishing automatic weapons charged in.

“Everyone down on the floor, now! I said now!”

Jimmy and Paul looked around bewildered. They sank slowly to their hands and knees, then lowered themselves onto the dusty ground. The others in the mob did as they were instructed. Jake also made to lay on the floor.

“Jake? Come here, get behind us!”

“Ewan! It’s okay, he’s dead. Flynn is dead.”

He stepped aside so the navy man could clearly see the body. Three others surged forwards, guns raised, alert and searching for any threat. They soon spotted Martin, who remained frozen to the spot.

“You! Put your weapon down and your hands on your head! Do it! Do it now!”

Three guns were quickly trained on the engineer.

“No!” Jake yelled. “Don’t shoot him! That’s Martin our chief engineer. He shot Flynn. He saved my life.”

Martin seemed to snap out of his daze. He lifted his hands above his head, the pistol still in his right hand. Slowly and carefully he brought his right arm down by his side, lowered the gun onto a table, then quickly raised his arm again.

“Eddy, get up there and check he’s alone,” Ewan said.

“Jake, I’m sorry. I should have believed you from he start,” Martin called out.

“It’s okay Martin. I can’t blame you for what Flynn did. How did you know I was here?”

“I’ve been monitoring them on the security cameras. When you said you’d been framed, I wanted to believe you. I went back and found the bridge videos. Saw everything Flynn said. Then I hid out, down below, keeping an eye on the cameras. I saw what was happening. Jake, I know where they’re holding the others.”

Eddy appeared on the balcony. He patted down Martin, turned and nodded to Ewan.

“Show us,” Ewan said. “Show us where they are. You two stay here, keep this lot under control. You, with me,” he signalled to the third man who had entered with him. “Jake, I suppose I can’t convince you to wait here?”

“You suppose correctly,” Jake said, heading for the door.

Sixty-Six

“HOW IS HE holding up, Grau?”

“There is nothing more I can do for him Lucya, I am sorry. I have made him comfortable, but further than that, I have nothing here to work with.”

Lucya bent over the man laid out on the floor between herself and the doctor.

“It’s okay Max,” she said, “we’ll get you out of here. Somehow.”

“It’s a good job he can’t hear you,” Barry said. “Because we’re not getting out of here, are we? He’s going to leave us to die down here.”

“No, I told you. He needs me. They have to come back for me sooner or later. When they do, we’ll storm the door. It’s our only chance.”

“Right,” Silvia said. “She’s right. And I’m with her.”

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of shouting. It was coming from the other side of the thick steel door, impossible to tell what was being said.

Lucya ran over, put her ear to the metal.

“What is it? What’s going on out there?” Silvia asked.

“I don’t know. I can’t hear -“

She was cut off by what sounded like gun shots.

“Get down!” she screamed. “Everyone down. Barry, get over here. If that door opens, this is our chance.”

Reluctantly, he did as she asked and took up position next to the door, his back to the wall.