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“Louisa,” River’s whisper barely tricked through the phone’s speaker.
“River?” Louisa replied, frowning as she clicked the phone onto speaker and laid it on the table.
“There’s people here. With guns.”
Louisa was on her feet in an instant. “Where are you?” she asked, grabbing her gun out of the drawer and tucking it into her belt.
“Grandads. In the upstairs hall closet.”
“Lamb!” Louisa yelled, plugging in one of her Bluetooth headphones and only just remembering to grab the phone as she ran.
“What you yelling about?” Lamb shouted back.
“River’s in trouble. Armed intruders at his grandad’s house,” she yelled back, reaching his office door and leaning on it with frenzied breaths.
“Come on. I’ll drive. You focus on him,” Lamb laboriously pulled himself to his feet and grabbed his keys.
“River. Still there?” Louisa asked.
“Uh huh,” he wheezed.
“Are you ok?” Louisa frowned, jogging down the stairs assuming that Lamb was somewhere on her tail.
“Stun grenade,” River groaned weakly. “Came through the window.”
Stun grenade that was not normal opportunistic robber behaviour and even unarmed and surprised River was better than hiding in a closet while the house was being robbed. They must be professionals, which was even worse.
“Do you know how many?” Louisa asked as the car unlocked in front of her.
“No.”
She dived in and Lamb joined her. “What’s happening?”
“Unknown number of hostiles, armed and with military machinery. River’s in the hall closet and has been hit with a stun grenade,” Louisa relayed. The little yellow shit of a car rumbled into life and sped down the road breaking a couple of laws as they went.
Lamb passed Louisa his phone. “Call 999,” he ordered.
River’s breath was harsh and heavy in her ear but it was grounding. If she could hear that then River was still ok, he was breathing. How could someone leave work to go get a few old books to take to his grandad at his care home and get caught up in a serious armed home invasion? How was one man so unfathomably unlucky? What had River done in a past life to deserve this?
“Hello, what service do you require?”
“Police,” Lamb replied to the woman on the phone before Louisa could speak. His eyes were focused on the road but Louisa lifted the phone up closer to him.
“Hello …”
“No time, this is MI5 operative Jackson Lamb calling in an active threat against an operative in the field at Raithmore, Sheffield Road, Tunbridge Wells. Unknown number of armed hostiles. Operative on site and pinned down in upstairs hall closet. I am on route but over an hour away,” Lamb rattled off as Louisa sat listening to River’s breathing.
“We’re on our way River alright. You just need to stay there and stay quiet,” she muttered, looking up at the ceiling and breathing deeply herself.
“Ok Agent Lamb, we have cars on the way. Are there any more details you can give me?” the operator asked.
“Any more information River?” Louisa asks.
“They didn’t pull up on the drive so must have come through the fields. Must know someone is here. No lights on,” River wheezed. “I think I’ve bruised my ribs,” he added as an afterthought.
“This was a targeted attack, the attackers are trained and likely have night vision gear. River is unarmed and injured,” Louisa relayed into the phone. Louisa didn’t know how Lamb was managing to keep the car on the road with all the distractions and multitasking they were doing. They were weaving and taken backstreets and doing everything possible to get to Tunbridge Wells as soon as possible.
“Ok Agent Lamb. Officers are on the way and will be there soon,” the operator added and Lamb hung up before she could say anything else.
“Hear that River, help is coming.”
River hummed quietly.
Lamb waved his hand, “speaker.” Louisa usually would have snapped back some retort about a little bit of kindness going a long way but then she could hear River shuffle against the hardwood floor. Disconnecting her headphones she held the phone up between the two of them.
“Where are they Cartwright?” Lamb shouted.
“I don’t know,” River hissed.
“You fucking do idiot. I trained you better than that,” Lamb snapped.
“You’ve trained me fuck all,” River hissed.
“River,” Louisa sighed, “please.”
There was silence down the line. It felt like an age with only the quiet rasp of River’s breathing indicating that he was still there. “Kitchen. I think. My ears are fucked but cupboards, pans,” he whispered.
“Ok that means they’re searching through the house. Not looking for you. We have time,” Louisa replied. She looked over at Lamb who’s eyes were now firmly fixed on the road. He was glowering at the car in front like he could move it out of the way with the power of his mind. Louisa reached up and muted the microphone. “What’s wrong?”
Lamb glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and then tutted. “I taught you better too and you’re not concussed. If they know there is someone in the house but they’re not hunting for that person …” Lamb listed off.
Louisa’s stomach twisted. “They’re not worried about him trying to get away. Which means there’s someone watching the house,” Louisa whispered. She didn’t need to say the rest of it.
“I should move. I should run,” River muttered. Louisa fumbled the phone as she desperately tried to unmute it.
“No River stay where you are. We don’t know how many or who’s there,” Louisa shouted.
“I know how to climb from my bedroom window, I should, it shouldn’t be,” River rambled. They could hear him shuffling in place.
“River, stay put. We’re coming for you alright,” Louisa continued. Lamb sped up. “Going out is a risk.”
“Ok, yeah ok I can do that,” River hissed.
“Louisa,” River whispered. They had been driving in silence for the most torturous quarter of an hour that Louisa had ever experienced. The dense quiet was only broken with occasional quiet pained noises down the line.
“River.”
“They’re coming up the stairs.”
“River don’t talk. You need to keep me on the line but put the phone down and find a weapon. We’re about forty five minutes out but the police should be there soon,” Louisa hissed. She wasn’t there she didn’t need to be the one tensing and whispering. River did, River was the one who was there and she wasn’t there to help him.
“Why would there be a weapon in here?” River murmured.
“Shoe in a pillowcase Cartwright,” Lamb called out. Louisa turned to him and frowned but was waved off dismissively.
“Yeah alright, shoe in a pillowcase,” River whispered to himself. The sound of River’s breathing was replaced with quiet rustling and then silence. The silence stretched on and on and Louisa could feel herself withering away under it’s pressure. Then there was a quiet thumping. Louisa had to double take as it could have just as easily been a rattle from Lamb’s death bucket of a car. But it continued, methodical and rhythmic. Echoing footsteps heading towards River’s hiding place. Louisa muted their microphone, her heaving breathing and the clicking of Lamb’s turn indicator would not be the things to expose River’s location. The clacking footsteps got closer and closer. Louisa’s chest was tightening with each noise. Lamb’s car somehow found more speed. He was going to be getting a fuck tonne of speeding tickets in the post but she couldn’t care less even if they were coming out of her pay check; they were most likely coming out of River’s.
“Come on out Cartwright!” a new voice laughed, a startling contrast to the uneasy silence she had been enduring. It was unfamiliar and jovial, like a bad guy in a slasher film. “We know you’re up here and it’ll go a lot easier for you if you just come out now and tell us what we need to know!” The handle of the door jingled and there was a deep exhale that was not from River.
It then all happened so quickly. A deafening bang echoed through the speaker and it was only Louisa’s honed reflexes that stopped her launching the phone at the ceiling. Her heart pounded and chest heaved.
“Ow, shit, fucker just hit me!”
“Stop struggling.”
“Fuck you!”
“Is that a fucking shoe?”
“Get his legs.”
“Fucker hit me with a shoe!”
“Yeah and I’ll hit you with something harder than that if you don’t back the fuck off.”
Thumps and yells and grunts of pain punctuated each statement. There was nothing that Louisa or Lamb could do as they listened and tried to pick out which might be River’s noises of pain or frustration. There were at least two hostiles; one who River seemed to have taken Lamb’s advice literally and hit with a shoe at least once.
“Got him.”
The rip of tape cut over the groans and shouts.
“Fuck,” Louisa cursed. She had hoped that River’s tenacity might get him some more time or a shot at freedom but it seemed his capability to get into the worst situations won out instead.
“Fuck,” River mirrored her sentiment, but breathier and more agitated.
“Tell us where it is Cartwright and we’ll leave you here for your little corral to find, relatively unharmed,” one of them barked.
“I don’t even know what you fucking want,” River growled.
“Oh yeah. Your little grandad has a dossier about an old op. I need it.”
Lamb tensed. “Fucking bastard,” he hissed.
“It’s true?” Louisa whispered.
“Of course it is. David Cartwright was a paranoid asshole who kept information on everyone he ever associated with just in case they became useful later. As soon as River was assigned to me he probably put a file together on you as well,” Lamb muttered.
“I’m alright thanks. Whatever beef you have with David ain’t anything to do with me.”
The sound of flesh meeting flesh made Louisa jump again. It was closely followed by a quite whine of pain.
“Tie him to the chair. We have work to do.”
The next half hour was torture. The thieves, kidnappers, thugs, whatever you wanted to call them, hadn’t noticed the phone in the skirmish trying to remove River from the closet. The phone was just in ear shot of the room River was being held in but not close enough to hear any of the details. His feet had scrapped and thrashed as he was dragged out of the closet and down the corridor. More ripping of tape as he was secured to the chair. A groan as some tender bruised joint was manipulated into place. Louisa knew the value of all intel they could get before the two of them went in to extract their agent but her sanity would have been much saved if they could cut their losses and hang up the phone. The words were formless murmurs but the cries of pain were swords cutting through quiet. It was clear at first River was trying to hold out and bite his tongue, either metaphorically or literally, but as time went on and their little car trudged through the countryside the screams worked free. The cracking of bone sent shivers down Louisa’s spine but that wasn’t the worst but. Somehow knowing River had broken bones wasn’t the worst bit. The sound of River choking was. The sound of his body thrashing in it’s restraints, desperate for air. The sound of his gurled wet aborted inhales. The sound of his heaving, pained breaths when the pressure was released. It was happening over and over and over and Louisa didn’t know whether she was closer to crying or throwing up. It didn’t stop. The whole time they were driving it didn’t stop. Louisa could hear Lamb’s voice in her ear telling her that the fact River was still making noises was good, it meant that he hadn’t stopped fighting and he was still alive. Lamb’s mouth wasn’t moving through, Louisa probably should be concerned that her spy voice of reason was Jackson Lamb. The real Lamb hadn’t said anything or looked away from the road since River had been removed from the closet. There wasn’t anything to say.
Lamb skidded the car to a halt around down the road from the turning towards the Cartwright Cottage.
“What are you doing?” Louisa frowned, her voice croaking from disuse and how much she had been clenching her jaw.
“Get out,” Lamb reached over her and opened the door.
“What?”
“Get out. Find the person that’s watching the back of the house,” Lamb spelled out, slowly like she was a toddler.
“Oh,” Louisa whispered. “What are you going to do?”
“Make a scene. Loop me in to Cartwright’s phone,” Lamb ordered and Louisa did as she clambered out of the car and connected her headphones back to the phone. The door was slammed behind her and Lamb’s car screeched back into life.
Louisa clambered over the wall and into the fields near David Cartwright’s cottage. Lamb was right. They had to have someone watching the back of the house if they weren’t worried about River escaping while they did their search. And River had told her that there was a way to climb up to his old bedroom window. It was a solid plan. Louisa rolled her shoulders as she trudged through the mud. Her hands shook out trying to settle herself from the jitters. She was a capable agent. It didn’t matter that it was River in there, this was textbook asset extraction. The forest at the rear of the property was the most likely place for an operative to be hiding. The noises coming from River had quietened. She hoped that was because of Lamb’s distraction not because he would never make any noises again. Her silencer clicked onto her pistol with a grim finality as the soft squelching grass made way to the crunch underfoot of fallen leaves and branches. Her pace slowed, and her steps softened. As Louisa got closer to the house she could hear Lamb’s voice echoing. Whoever had let him into the hostage negotiations and given him a megaphone was likely regretting their decision but it did ease some of the tension from Louisa. Her head was on a swivel looking for any signs of people coming through this area. The house was visible from her location but there were too many branches and trees for anyone to feel like they would have a clean line of sight. These people were ex-service but they weren’t superhuman. Louisa advanced closer to the house, finger twitching over the trigger. Then she heard it, the crackling of a radio. It was quiet but it was definitely there. Louisa kept low and moving towards the noise.
“… can’t stay here for long.”
“Lamb’s here, distract him, I’ll take one more run at Cartwright. Then Lamb can ID his body.”
A quiet pop. Then a body slumping to the floor. Louisa pursed her lips before reaching past the corpse in the hide out and grabbing the radio. There was no time for mercy or interrogation. They had just put a countdown on River’s survival, that lost them all shreds of potential compassion from Louisa. The radio was clicked onto her waistband and her advance continued.
“Service secrets are more important than Cartwright. Leave him and tell me what you know. I’ll repay in kind.”
Lousia tutted and quickly tuned out Lamb and the fiasco at the front of the house. She couldn’t let the negotiations distract her. They weren’t going to work; it was just a distraction while Louisa did the real work here. She stood looking up at the flimsy wooden trellis leading up to what she assumed was River’s childhood window. That might have been a reasonable way in and out for a teenager but Louisa was not entirely confident that ten years later it was capable of holding up to an actual adult woman. She was going to find out though; there was no time for waiting around and plotting another route. The wood creaked threateningly as Louisa’s foot settled into one of the diamonds
“Come on, just a little climb,” Louisa whispered to herself and heaved her weight up off the floor. She had never climbed so quickly in her life. With each shift of weight she could feel the screws trembling and the wood creaking. It would be one thing to fall but another to have this thing come down on her when she did. The wood scrapped her palms and her shoulders ached with each rapid pulling movement. But when her hands reached stone sill, the fluttering in her heart started to settle. The window itself was old, probably older than River and wouldn’t take much to force open but it would be loud she needed to wait for …
“I cannot authorise a helicopter …” Lamb’s voice boomed through the megaphone and without a moment’s hesitation Louisa wretched the window open. The splitting of the wood was deafening in her ears but as she dropped onto the window seat, there was no movement from the other occupants.
Another deep controlled exhale.
In any other situation, Louisa would be leaping all over being able to snoop around in Cartwright Jr’s childhood bedroom. Someone’s childhood home was an insight into their psyche and every new thing she learnt about River’s was another blow to the gut. There was a morbid fascination with what went into creating The Park’s most famous fuck up. But now she was moving as fast as she dared towards the doorway looking for River himself.
“Tell me where it is Cartwright and all this will be over,” the masked thug asked quietly. Louisa slowly inched through the door and down the corridor. The door at the end was open and Louisa bit back a gasp. River was taped to a wooden dining room style chair in the middle of the master bedroom and he looked like he had been mauled by a bear and then run over by a snow plough.
“Oh when you put it like that. Well then I guess, fuck you,” River wheezed, earning himself a backhand across the face. His shirt had been ripped off revealing various contusions and likely broken ribs. His tapped right hand was a mess of disjointed fingers and blood and his face was swelling threateningly. That was Louisa’s rapid threat assessment. Head, hand, throat, chest. All fucked. Running, not happening. Louisa inched forward, her footsteps soft and quiet even on the hardwood beneath her soles. River looked up wincing as he flexed his jaw. His eyes caught Louisa’s and he blinked slowly. She raised her finger to her lips and River’s face steeled. Another step closer.
“Gamma come in,” the radio on Louisa’s hip flared into life and boomed with a crackling echo.
“Fuck,” she cursed, getting one shot off before the assailant stumbled back and stood behind River with a knife to his throat.
“Put the weapon down agent or you will be the only one walking out of here alive,” he threatened.
“Put the knife down and I won’t shoot you,” Louisa threatened back.
“I have the advantage here. You went to all this effort to save Cartwright here. I would hate for that to all be for nothing. Put the gun down and kick it over here.”
Louisa looked down to River. Her pulse was pounding in her ears. If she shot him then there was the chance that he would slit River’s throat even if it was accidental. Despite the looming threat to his life, River looked calm. Maybe resigned was a better word for it but his glaze stared right through her.
“Trust you,” he mouthed, showing bright red teeth. Louisa took another deep settling breath, prayed to anyone that might be listening, and shot the asshole between the eyes.
“Fuck!” River yelled, his whole body tensing in pain as the body behind him slumped to the ground.
“River, fuck,” Louisa cursed, her eyes only seeing the blood slowly trickling down River’s neck.
“Fine, a nick,” River groaned, uninjured hand frantically scrapping at the wood. “Two more, tell Lamb,” he coughed. Louisa’s gun was cast aside as soon as the shot was fired by she stopped in her tracks at the warning. River wouldn’t survive a firefight. She needed to get the word to Lamb.
River’s phone.
It only took three steps at a sprint to get to the closet that River had been hiding in and retrieve the phone. As soon as it was in her hand, Louisa spun on her heels.
“Lamb. River is secure. Two assailants downstairs. Breach,” she yelled, sliding to her knees to put pressure on River’s sluggishly weeping neck wound.
“Got it.”
“I didn’t literally mean a shoe in a pillowcase you idiot,” Lamb rolled his eyes as he walked alongside River’s stretcher.
River’s shaking hand reached up and lifted the oxygen mask off his face, dismissing the paramedic who was urging him to put it back on. “Had to show you it would have worked,” he wheezed.
“It worked yeah?” Lamb tutted, “tell that to your broken bones.”
“You should see the other guy,” River smiled weakly. But wet coughs racked through his body, taking that smile and twisting it into a pained grimace. Lamb reached over and took the oxygen mask from River’s trembling hand and snapped it back down over his mouth. River’s chest heaved and eyes squeezed shut.
“You need that to breathe, on account of your fucked up ribs, because a shoe in a pillowcase is a stupid idea,” Lamb huffed, softly squeezing River’s shoulder.
Louisa smiled, just as weakly as River seemed to be able to and squeezed his less hurt hand when River tilted his head to look at her. “We got you,” she nodded.
“Go with him. Make sure he doesn’t fuck anything else up,” Lamb waved at her. “I’ve got it here,” he added, turning at looking at the handcuffed assailants with a level of threat Louisa had never seen from Lamb before. She would not like to be them right now; she’d like to watch though but River was more important than vengeance. She could get the run down from Lamb or the Cartwright house security cameras later. River whined as the stretcher was lifted into the back of the ambulance. His hand tightened around Louisa’s and she allowed herself to be dragged into the ambulance with him. A flash of her badge was all it took to stop the inevitable arguments from the paramedics.
“You’re gonna be alright River. I got you,” Louisa whispered, squeezing his hand as River’s eyes started to flutter. The ambulance was a hive of activity desperately trying to stabilise the cacophony of things that had been broken on River. His ribs and lungs seemed to be the biggest concern and there was nothing they could do about that apart from make River comfortable until they reached the hospital. River whined and groaned with every pothole or sharp countryside corner they were forced around. All Louisa could do was hold him and try and help keep him calm until the good drugs kicked in.
Louisa found out that evening that she was River’s emergency contact. I would have been nice to know before she was having to check River into A&E and fill in all of his medical paperwork but she didn’t mind. He couldn’t put down David anymore and there was no way Louisa would ever advocate for him writing his mother down on the paperwork. Louisa had been around for all of River’s recent hospitalisations, which was a depressingly large tally, and she hoped that he would do the same for her. It still would have been nice to have been warned.
“Mr Cartwright has certainly been through it this afternoon. You were there in the ambulance with him weren’t you?” the doctor asked as they walked down the corridor.
“Yes. I’m his colleague so was at the site,” Louisa nodded. There were two cops outside the private room that River had been sequestered in, who nodded to Louisa and the doctor as they entered.
“Good, that saves time. Thankfully there’s not anything that we are majorly concerned about. A lot of the damage is painful but superficial. We want to keep him overnight to keep an eye on the concussion and the damage to his throat and ribs to make sure there’s nothing internally that we missed.”
The door was pushed open and River was asleep in the middle of bed. He was connected to so many wires and tubes that Louisa suspected he wouldn’t even be able to move if he wanted to. Now the blood had been cleaned away she could see all the bruises marring the skin that wasn’t bandaged. He looked like he had lost a fight with a woodchipper.
“He’ll need help moving, observing with his concussion, and PT for his hand and shoulder. No serious exertion for at least two weeks and doctor’s approval,” the doctor explained, pressing some buttons on her tablet. Louisa nodded her confirmation, striding purposely around the bed to settle into the chair closest to River’s uninjured hand.
“I’ll take him home,” Louisa nodded. She wrapped her hand in River’s laying her other one over it when it felt so cold to the touch. Her fingers gravitated to River’s wrist and rested over his pulse point. It was elevated, but it was strong. Tension seeped out of her shoulders as she could feel River alive and relatively ok under her fingertips. He was not leaving her sight again.
“… search through the house,” Louisa woke up to her face pressed into the uncomfortable hospital mattress and River’s voice. The tension seeped out of her as she heard it; River’s voice was raspy and if there was a nurse or doctor in here they probably would be telling River to shut up with the same force that Lamb usually did. She had heard him choking over the phone. That sound would live on with her forever.
“Are you sure? The old bastard wouldn’t like that,” Lamb replied through the fog of sleep slowly draining away from around her head. She hadn’t slept that well in a long time. The reassurance of River, alive and safe next to her seemed to have bypassed the usual low level thrum of anxiety that kept her awake and searching for a warm body to share her bed with. His hand still rested in hers, the beat of his pulse syncing up with her waking heartbeat.
“Since when have I cared what the old bastard thinks,” River huffed, and Louisa couldn’t hold back the scoff. River’s hand squeezed hers softly.
“The stupidity in that statement even managed to wake the dead,” Lamb barked a harsh and abrasive laugh. It was stupid. River cared about what David thought about him far more than anyone else in the world. Lamb was a close second but if David told River to jump off a cliff he would seriously consider the leap, weigh up whether he would survive and probably do it anyway.
“I don’t care. It’s fine,” River huffed, his thumb tracing over Louisa’s knuckles as she slowly straightened and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
“It can wait until you are able to limp around,” Lamb shrugged.
“I won’t know what half of the stuff is. You and Catherine have a way better opportunity of finding it all without gutting the place,” River argued.
“What are Lamb and Catherine doing?” Louisa asked.
“Nothing,” Lamb shook his head. He was sprawled in the armchair in the corner of the room with his feet kicked up on the low table. “Just how I like it.”
“I want them to search the house. Find all the stuff my grandad might have stashed. I don’t like all this blackmail, confidential info, and shit just sitting there. When word gets out that the old bastard’s losing his wits then more people like that will come calling,” River explained.
“That’s actually sensible,” Louisa tutted.
“No need to sound so surprised,” River rolled his eyes.
“It’s a monumental occasion.”
River tutted and went to move his hand not connected to Lousia and winced as he tried to lift it. His shoulder was a patchwork of bruises poking out from the tight white strapping that held it in place. His hand was in a thick bandaged mitten that River was currently glaring at like it personally offended him. Louisa eased off her grip on River’s one functioning hand but his remained firm. He looked at her with a soft smile before turning back to Lamb.
“You can take anything you find. Might have some good blackmail material,” River tried to tempt further.
“You could use it. Get yourself back to The Park,” Lamb retorted.
“If I’m getting back to The Park I’m doing it my way. Not my grandads,” River’s eyebrow twitched, the commonly held frustration tinged with something else that Louisa couldn’t quite place.
“Noble of you. Unbelievably stupid but noble. I’m still not getting any deeper involved in Cartwright bullshit than I already am. Between you and your dickhead grandfather I’ve got enough experience with that.”
“Lousia flip him off for me,” River grumbled. Louisa did as he asked with a big smile at Lamb’s disgruntled grunt.
“I’m sure Catherine’ll say yes if you ask her,” Louisa added to watch Lamb’s jaw tighten even further.
“Yeah Catherine’ll help me, because she’s nice,” River whined.
“Wow, what a scathing dig. How ever will I recover?” Lamb replied completely deadpan. Louisa stretched, rolling her shoulders and her ankles and let their bickering wash over her. River’s hand was still a settling weight in hers. It was going to be ok. River was coming home with her; she could babysit him until he was well enough to be allowed back into the world and all the shenanigans he found himself an unwitting part of. He was ok. And she could rest for now.