13th September – Judgement Day
At first, Joan was unsure as to the cause of the explosions, but then Jenny noticed the starcruiser through a gap in the trees.
‘It must be Beta,’ said Etienne. ‘Good old Christian.’
Tom looked at his watch. ‘The launch doesn’t need to be exactly at twelve noon,’ he said, ‘but we must get to the Dog and Ferret very soon.’
‘Let’s go for it,’ said Joan. ‘The explosions seem to have stopped, which might mean that Amy has taken out all the enemy. I think we’ll have to assume that to be the case.’
They left the building and headed to where the path continued to the Dog and Ferret.
‘Go on without me,’ said Joan. ‘I’ll catch you up. There’s something I need to do here.’ She handed her mobile to Tom. ‘Angela will call this phone with the password.’
Joan watched the others run onwards along the path into the wood. She then looked around her.
Amy had been very specific about the strikes of her weapon beams. She had clearly targeted all their assailants, and Joan could see four bodies on the ground.
She approached the first and pulled off his balaclava. She didn’t recognise the man. She checked for a pulse. He was dead.
She then saw a second body that was beginning to move. She ran towards it and quickly pulled back the balaclava.
David Brightman began to recover his faculties and, as his eyes focussed, he first saw the barrel of Joan’s gun and then Joan. ‘God will not be defeated in his plans, Mrs. Stanford,’ he said.
‘Neither will I,’ said Joan.
‘I don’t understand,’ Brightman replied.
‘As there are so few members of WAR, and this is a final attempt to disrupt the missile launch against the asteroid, I thought it was likely you’d be here.’
‘We don’t have anything to talk about,’ said Brightman. ‘Either the world will end today or God will have spared us His judgement and I’ll be on my way to prison, confident that I’ve done His will. Either way, there’s nothing you can do about it.’
‘This isn’t about the asteroid or WAR,’ said Joan.
‘What do you mean?’ said Brightman, looking puzzled.
‘This is about a covert operation at Gobekli Tepe in 1975.’
‘You know,’ said Brightman.
‘Yes, Swordfish, I know,’ Joan answered deliberately.
‘So what are you going to do?’ he asked nervously.
‘I took some advice from a new, but very able, agent about what she would do in similar circumstances,’ said Joan.
‘What did she advise?’ replied Brightman, attempting to appear in control but sweating as Joan’s gun focussed on the centre of his forehead.
Joan pulled the trigger.