‘Just two jackets,’ said Frierson.
‘OK, then that’s what you two will be wearing,’ Stewart told Jake and Lauren. ‘Wear them under your own clothes. It won’t stop a head shot, or if they shoot you in the arms or legs, but it’ll protect you if they go for the heart or chest. And most of these snipers do. It’s a bigger target, easier to make sure of hitting. After all, they missed when they tried shooting you in the head.’
‘I suppose that’s a comfort,’ admitted Lauren. ‘But not much of one.’
‘I’ve got another way to stop them shooting at us!’ said Jake, as an idea struck him.
The others looked at him, quizzically.
‘How?’ asked Stewart.
‘It’s a long shot, but I thought we’d try fighting fire with fire,’ said Jake. He forced what he hoped was a confident smile. ‘Can you get your hands on a metal bucket and an asbestos glove?’
Chapter 27
Jake and Lauren rounded the small hillock and stopped. Directly in front of them, about a hundred metres away, was the cottage which Lemski and his Russians had now turned into a fortress. Jake could see the barrels of rifles poking out of the upstairs windows. The windows, however, hadn’t been boarded up. Lemski wasn’t expecting a long siege. Jake looked at his watch. Five minutes to eleven.
Jake looked down at the metal bucket he held in his asbestos-gloved right hand. Two pieces of coal at the bottom of it glowed red, sending smoke spiralling up. Not enough hot coal to make the bucket too hot to handle, but enough to produce smoke that could be seen from the cottage. In his left hand, Jake clutched the ancient book, the cause of all this death and mayhem. The Kevlar body armour felt bulky, as if he was wearing a life jacket beneath his coat.
‘Stay here,’ Jake whispered to Lauren.
‘Lemski said he wanted us both.’
‘It’ll buy us some time if you don’t come out at once,’ said Jake. ‘It’s the book he’s really after.’
Secretly, he was planning on leaving Lauren out of this; out of the final exchange. Leave her here, behind the protection of the small grassy hillock with DS Stewart and PC Frierson. He looked back at the two police officers, crouched down in the ditch-like area behind the long earth mound.
‘If they start shooting, drop to the ground and lie flat,’ Stewart instructed. ‘I’ll fire back and I don’t want to shoot you.’
Jake nodded.
He looked towards the cottage. His mouth felt dry.
‘I’m coming with you,’ said Lauren.
‘Please, Lauren, wait here at first,’ pleaded Jake. Without turning round, he appealed to Stewart: ‘Tell her.’
‘He’s right,’ came Stewart’s voice from the police officer’s hiding place. ‘Let’s see if we can get away with just one of you going in. If we can mount a rescue, it’ll make that rescue easier.’
Lauren hesitated, then nodded.
‘I’m not going to let them kill you,’ she whispered to Jake fiercely. ‘Or take you to Russia.’
‘I hope they don’t,’ said Jake, forcing a grin and doing his best to put on an air of bravado. ‘We’ve still got a lot of catching up to do.’
Jake took a deep breath, then moved forward along the track towards the wall that fronted the cottage. As he did so, he saw the rifle barrels at the upper windows move; and he stopped.
‘Professor Lemski!’ he called. ‘I have the book!’ And Jake brandished the book in the air. Then he moved the book so that it was directly above the metal bucket. ‘If you look carefully, you will see smoke coming from this bucket I’m holding. That’s because there are red hot coals in it! If you shoot me, the book will drop from my hand into the bucket and burn! It’ll be turned to ashes before you can reach it! Release the MacClains first, and I’ll hand it over to you.’
For a moment there was silence from the cottage, and then the distorted amplified voice of Lemski was heard calling back. He’s using an old-fashioned megaphone, realised Jake.
‘Very clever, Mr Wells! But we have no intention of shooting you! As I said in the message I left, all we want is the book back, and we will release the MacClains!’
‘That’s what you said, but do you really think I would trust you after all that’s happened? You asked me to bring the book. Here it is. Now release the MacClains!’
There was another pause, then Lemski’s distorted mechanised voice called out, ‘How do we know you’ll keep your part of the bargain?’
‘Because if I don’t, I know you’ll shoot me dead.’