BLOOD DRAGON by Freddie Peters (books to get back into reading .TXT) 📕

10 minutes. Pole checked his mobile a few times. The woman needed time to change clothes, and would need to wait for all the people who might have seen her entering a cubicle, to have left.

“A new nurse is coming my way.” Mandy’s voice was the first to break the silence.

The registrar had provided Pole and his team with photos of the female staff who would be coming on duty for the morning shift. No one had called in sick, there would be no new faces on the ward.

“Damn … it’s one of the regular nurses.”

“Patience. She’ll turn up.” Pole’s voice pacified everyone. He was not so sure himself. It had to work, but it was still a gamble.

Branning’s voice came in to confirm that he and Cora were now on Euston Road, approaching the UCH building.

“Come on …” Pole mumbled.

“Sir … most of the nurses have arrived … all regulars.”

“Shit … this is cutting it fine. She’s got to act now, otherwise it will be too late.”

“She’s here … she hasn’t changed her hair … blonde, short bob, really tall … and not on the registrar’s list.”

Pole could hear Mandy moving around. “She’s gone towards the nurses’ room … No, she just walked past it.”

Mandy kept up her commentary. “I can’t see her now, so either she has gone into one of the patient’s rooms or … the medication room.”

Pole moved back to his bike. “Is there any way you can get closer to the medication room?”

“It’s at the far end of the corridor. If I do, I’ll lose sight of Ollie’s room.”

“What now?”

“Nothing … I can’t see her anywhere …”

Branning’s voice interrupted. “We’re just walking out of the car park and entering the reception area.”

“Just hold back a little, Branning, we have movement near Ollie’s room.” Pole cut in. “Mandy? … PC William?”

“Yes, Sir,” Officer William responded.

“Can you see Ollie Wilson’s room?”

“I can’t … I’m standing away at the moment, as instructed.”

“Has Mandy moved back towards the room?”

“I can’t see her, Sir.”

“DS Branning, where are you?”

“We are just entering the building, but we can delay going up.”

“Get there right now … Mandy is in trouble.”

Branning didn’t answer. His large frame sprang into action. He placed his foot between the doors of the next lift about to leave for the upper floors.

“Mandy … do you read?”

“PC William … go back to Ollie’s room. Check he’s okay.”

“I can get there too, Gov.” Andy had started to move towards the lift as soon as he heard Branning’s instructions.

“Sorry, Andy … you stay put. We can’t let her escape this time.”

“Mandy …” Branning’s voice was anxious. “Are you okay?”

“Sorry, Sir … she must have been hiding … she’s got into Ollie’s room.”

The sound of broken glass and metal resounded in Pole’s ear.

Someone was running. It had to be Branning.

PC William’s intercom had gone dead too.

Pole hesitated. He could ask Andy to join them but he needed him to identify the woman.

“Branning, do you need backup?”

“Stay where you are.” Branning was shouting. “You don’t need to do this … I said …”

Movement, broken glass … people thrashing around, voices grunting in the effort of a fight. A body crashing down … the sound of footsteps running away and fading in the distance.

“Andy … she’s getting away.” Pole straddled his bike and fired it up. “She won’t be taking the lift or going through the main door … where is the emergency exit from Ollie’s wing?”

“At the back of the building … retrace your steps and turn right into Grafton Way.”

“Branning is down. Take over the co-ordination inside the hospital … I’m going after her.”

Pole turns the bike in one sweep against the oncoming traffic. He accelerates, cars sounding their horns at him. He moves into Grafton Way at full speed. There are a couple of bikes parked at the back of the building.

A tall woman wearing a nurses’s uniform runs towards them. She has thrown away her wig and blonde curls are loose down her back. She has picked up her biker jacket, ready for escape. Her helmet is secured on the handlebar of her bike. With a controlled move she frees it and slams it on her head.

She straddles the bike just as Pole has only a hundred yards to reach her.

She has noticed his Ducati rushing towards her. She throttles up and launches back down the street taking a sharp left into the one-way system.

Her bike only just misses a bus that brakes to avoid her. Pole accelerates too, driving against the flow of traffic.

She’s driving down Tottenham Court Road against oncoming cars. This is complete madness. Pole has no choice but to follow. She swerves between lorries and buses with surprising ease. Pole’s Ducati is less manoeuvrable or perhaps he has less experience of escaping pursuit. He loses ground.

The crossroads between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street is approaching fast. From a distance Pole can see the lights have turned amber, within a few seconds the cross traffic will start flowing across her path … there is no way through.

The woman throttles up.

“Shit … she won’t make it.” But Pole accelerates too. In an instant he will have to apply the brakes if he is to miss the cars that are about to drive across his path.

“No …” Pole shouts despite himself. Two buses following one another have moved across swiftly. Her bike spins round, attempting to squeeze into the small gap between the two buses. She avoids the first, attempts a U-turn to avoid the second … too late.

Pole applies the brakes as hard as he can without risking being thrown over the handlebars. He too has waited too long. Pole throws himself off the bike, rolling onto his side, a human spinning ball.

* * *

“There is a stop in Shanghai, both ways.” Nancy had just finished a late lunch with Philippe. They had visited his Gallery in Hong Kong where the staff remained friendly but subdued, following Amy’s disappearance.

Nancy had now returned to the Mandarin Oriental.

Licot had agreed