Page 82 of The Final Vow

‘CCTV from this very building,’ she said. ‘And because anyone who successfully blows up a City of London skyscraper officially wins best terrorist at the terrorism awards – the IRA are the current title holders after their successful bombing of Bishopsgate in 1993 – now CCTV quality has to meet a certain standard. It’s why it’s so clear.’ She touched the trackpad and zoomed in on the Can of Ham’s roof. She pointed at two rectangular patches and pressed pause. ‘The two-storey plant room is underneath the arch. It houses the cooling towers, air-handling units and two generators. But because the generators have to stay cool, the area above them is open to the elements. The two patches that cover them are made of perforated mesh, but they’re coloured to look like glass. That way, when you look at the building from a distance, the entire roof will appear to reflect light.’ She pressed play. ‘Now watch this.’

Poe did. He watched the nearest mesh hatch open.

He watched a man climb out and lie down on the roof.

He watched that man take something from his jacket pocket and raise it to his eye.

Mathers pressed pause and zoomed in again. The picture did lose a bit of sharpness but the something the man had taken from his pocket was unmistakable.

It was the sight from a sniper’s rifle.

Mathers was right. They had got the bastard.

Chapter 68

‘He’s scoping out his next target,’ Poe said. He leaned into the screen. ‘And from up there, he has a three-sixty field of fire. He’ll literally have thousands of targets to choose from.’

Mathers nodded. ‘Given he had a trail camera watching his range in Scotland, we haven’t been up there, but I’m not concerned. We’ve grilled the architects and the maintenance crews, and once he’s in the plant room, we can lock him up there.’

‘What if someone else goes in? Routine maintenance or something?’

‘We have experienced cops on the twenty-first floor and a standing instruction that the plant room isn’t to be accessed by anyone. That way, no matter how he’s disguised himself, once the plant room is opened, we’ll know it’s him. Once he’s inside, my guys lock the door behind him. He’ll be stuck up there.’

‘Like a rat in a trap.’

‘And the moment he opens the mesh hatch is the moment he gets his one and only warning. Drop his weapon or one of my snipers drops him.’

‘How will you get the warning to him?’ Poe asked. ‘He won’t hear you from the ground.’

‘As soon as he’s in the plant room, we’ll send up a loudspeaker drone. It’ll be waiting for him when he reaches the roof.’

Poe nodded. Loudspeaker drones had been trialled by Devon & Cornwall Police. They’d been found to be particularly useful in missing persons cases and in communicating with crowds at large-scale events.

‘Happy?’ Mathers asked.

‘As Prince Andrew at a sweet sixteen.’

‘Poe, are youhappy?’

‘I’m never happy, ma’am,’ he replied. ‘But I can’t see anything I’d have done differently.’ He paused a moment. ‘The question is, areyouhappy?’

‘I think I’ve thought of everything,’ she said, ‘which usually means I’ve missed something important.’

‘Well, like I said, I wouldn’t have done anything different.’ He paused a beat. ‘You know you’ll have to give the order? He won’t put his weapon down.’

‘That’s the prevailing view.’

‘And are you ready?’

Her eyes turned to steel. ‘You’d better believe it, Poe. He gets one warning. After that I put the fucker down.’

Poe didn’t doubt it. He said, ‘Good.’

But even as he said it, he knew something wasn’t right. He didn’t know what, but it didn’tfeel‘good’. He had said locking Ezekiel Puck in the Can of Ham’s plant room was akin to a rat trap. There was only one way in and one way out. And Ezekiel Puck was a planner. He was an ex-MI5 field agent. So, why had he chosen the roof of a building with no escape route? Why put himself at risk? Everything had been risk free so far. The more he thought about it, his rat trap analogy was the only ‘good’ thing about this operation.

He left the operations room and rejoined Flynn on the roof.

‘Everything OK?’ she said.