Ariel – who had been Andy's beloved Julia – twisted like a corkscrew as the heavy rifle bullet tore through her.
Ingo looked across in horror as his sister fell. His gun, which had been swinging towards Skinner, wavered aimlessly for a moment… And in that moment Skinner was upon him.
Not the affable if inquisitive Skinner whom he had met before as Alex's Pops. This was another Skinner: the cold, deadly Skinner he had glimpsed a few minutes earlier. The executioner Skinner, with no mercy in his eyes.
He felt his gun hand immobilised as an immensely strong forearm knocked it outwards and upwards. He felt his arm twisted and a hard hand clamping across his throat, setting his jaw at an angle. He felt no more after that, but he heard, crashing through his brain, a terrible thunder as the heel of Skinner's right hand slammed under his chin, driving it upwards, throwing his head backwards, and breaking his neck.
That thunderclap sound was the last living sensation of Ingemar Svart.
Skinner held the dead weight upright with one arm, as he hugged his daughter tight against him with the other. For a few moments, the three figures stood there in some terrible tableau, until Ingo's lifeless fingers loosened their grip on the belt around Alex's neck, and Skinner allowed his body to slip to the ground.
He felt Alex's long slender hands on his face, turning him towards her.
'Pops, Pops, are you all right?'
He blinked, and then smiled at her, as wide a smile of relief and happiness as she had ever seen. As they stood together, Sarah came to them and wrapped her trembling arms around them both.
As Bob embraced them, the women felt a violent trembling run through him, as sudden exhaustion, physical and emotional, OVCTtook him. But quickly he brought it under control.
It's all right now, girls. It's all right. It's all over.'
He led them across into the hangar and towards the plane.
'Now, you two sit in here, and look after the Queen's Sunday hat, while I get this lot sorted out.'
He held the door open as first Sarah and then Alex stepped up into the small craft. Then he turned to go to look for the fallei Arrow, and found, to his great delight, that the little soldier wav sitting upright. V 'Fookin marvellous these new flak jackets are. Give us a handup.' i Laughing with relief. Skinner pulled him to his feet. '
'Don't know what's so fookin' funny. Bob. Takes your fookin' breath away does a bullet in the chest!'
A few yards away Ariel lay on the ground. Most of her white top had been stained blood-red, but she was still moving. Skinner knelt beside her. As he did, he glanced across the landing strip, in the direction from which the shot had come. The moon had risen, and in its glow he could see Andy Martin coming slowly towards him, a rifle in his hand. His shoulders sagged as he walked like a man with no desire to reach his destination.
Skinner looked down at the woman. Her lips were bloodfrothed, and he saw that she was dying. 'Ingo?' she said faintly.
'No.'
He saw her eyes flood with tears.
'Ariel,' he asked, 'who is your buyer?' But he was not surprised when, with the last of her strength, she shook her head.
'Then who is Mr Black?'
'Not so clever after all, eh. Bob,' she whispered. 'Work it out for yourself.'
A final light of satisfaction shone in her hard eyes. Then it faded, and she was gone.
And in death she was Julia again, soft-eyed gentle Julia.
Skinner unfastened the ribbon which tied her pony-tail, and let her hair fall loose. Then he stood up, as Andy Martin came to his side and stood, looking down with reddened eyes at his lover's bodyTin sorry, Bob,' he said very quietly. 'She took me in, hook, line and sinker. I even brought her to your house, and put Sarah in danger.'
'Andy, Andy. She took me in, too. She was Crystal Tipps, remember. I believed her every bit as much. Christ, it was me who told you to take her to Sarah. Andy, man, never blame yourself again. What you did was the hardest thing you'll ever have to do
in your life, and because of that, it was the bravest, too. When I let my gun go, I knew I was putting all our lives in your hands, and I never doubted for one second that you'd come through.'
Then he add Adam Arrow took Andy Martin, now limp and exhausted, and led him away from the bodies of Ariel, who had also been his Julia, and of her brother with whom she had schemed, stolen, killed and finally died.
'Ah, but, lads,' said Andy as they walked away, in a voice full of almost unspeakable regret. 'When she was Julia, when she was good… I'll never find anyone again like the woman she pretended to be.'
Adam Arrow dug him gently in the side with an elbow.
'Sure you will, Andy. Sure you will. She were only an illusion, remember. She weren't real. There's plenty of women who are, though. Why for a start there's two in that plane over there. Mind you, one's spoken for, and the other – well 'er father's a bad fella' to cross!'