13th September – Judgement Day
The van halted on the road by the cathedral.
Duck turned into a side road and stopped his vehicle out of view of the van.
Jenny and Duck got out, walked back to the corner and peered around it.
They watched Wycombe and Topeka each take a holdall from the back of the van and begin to walk towards the office of Bishop Summerland.
Jenny and Duck waited in the shadows as Wycombe and Topeka stopped at the entrance to Bishop Summerland’s office and knocked on the door.
The Bishop opened the door to see a gun pointing at him.
Wycombe gestured with the gun for the bishop to go inside.
At that moment, Jenny drew her weapon and thrust her hand, still holding the gun, into her coat pocket.
She ran out of the shadows and shouted to Wycombe: ‘Fred, what on Earth are you doing here?’
Jenny knew that she and Duck would have no better opportunity to neutralise Wycombe. He was an ex-marine, and as soon as he identified them as an enemy, they would have no chance.
Her words won her the fifteen seconds she needed to get within ten yards of Wycombe and Topeka.
Jenny began to speak again as she noted the bewildered look on Wycombe’s face: ‘Hello, Fred,’ she said cheerily as she pulled the trigger of the gun in her pocket four times in quick succession.
Wycombe was dead before he hit the ground.
Jenny turned slightly and continued to fire at Topeka. There was no time to take prisoners; no time to shout the official warnings. Life on Earth was at stake and risks had to be minimised. Quickly killing both was the most reliable strategy.
Topeka reached into her pocket as she fell. Jenny pulled her own weapon from her pocket, ready to respond, but as Wycombe and Topeka did not move, Jenny did not fire again.
Duck arrived at this moment and trained his weapon on the motionless bodies in order to cover Jenny as she checked and disarmed them – just as he had learned in his brief training back in May.
Jenny rolled Wycombe onto his back and kicked away his gun. She felt for a pulse. There was none. She then turned Topeka and did the same. She too was dead.
Jenny reached into the pocket where Topeka had thrust her hand. She withdrew a small box, about the size of a mobile. ‘Damn,’ said Jenny, ‘this is a warning signal, and she’s activated it. Someone knows that they’ve failed to destroy the control room. Let’s get them inside.’
Bishop Summerland helped Duck and Jenny to pull the bodies into his office.
Jenny retrieved the holdalls and opened them. ‘These are bombs,’ she said, ‘but they’re not armed. Wycombe and Topeka would have initiated that when they placed them.’