The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2582 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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We tore down the corridor with footsteps sounding behind us, reaching the end, we ran smack into a burly security man. “What’s the hurry, ladies?”

Just what we needed—not. “There are two men chasing us,” said Danielle.

“Oh are there? We’ll see about that.” He’d obviously seen Danni’s official ID card hanging from a lanyard.

He stepped round the corner and straight into the two pursuers we didn’t wait to see the outcome, though it was unlikely that two Russian agents were going to be put off by a large middle aged man. I hoped he didn’t get too hurt as he had helped slow them down a fraction.

We reached the end of another corridor and had little option but to dive into a room at the end of it. Some bloke was holding forth about something or other.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

“The strippergram, is this where I change?”

Footsteps sounded behind and ignoring the bluster from the plonker who’d challenged me, I spotted a fire exit. “This way,” I said grabbing Danni’s hand and pushed past the man and forced open the door setting some sort of alarm off.

We were about three floors up and before us was a metal fire escape. The grid on the floor of the thing rattled and shook as we pounded down the stairs, with even louder steps above us.

Two floors down, I began to think we might make the ground, but I knew they were gaining on us, why were we carrying these bags? “Watch out, Mummy,” gasped Danni and I realised one of them was right behind me. I threw the bag over my head and there was a strange sound followed by swearing in Russian and this body came bowling past us. He landed ten feet below us and lay groaning on the concrete.

“Very funny,” said a foreign voice, “I do not think.”

The bag had rolled down to my feet and I picked it up. The man was holding a pistol with a very long barrel—possibly some sort of silencer. I could hear people behind dealing with the casualty and someone shouted, “Here, he’s got a gun.”

As he levelled it at me Danni threw her bag at him and it distracted him just enough for me to shout at her to run as I threw myself at him, holding the kitbag in front of me. I felt the bullet hit the bag but so far I didn’t feel anything until I barked my shin on one of the stairs as I knocked him down. The gun clattered down the steps announcing its presence on each one.

In a straight fight a man is going to beat the average woman every time. The only advantage I had was knowing that help was on its way, I’d pressed my panic alarm as soon as I’d seen them following me. Perhaps also in my favour was the fact that I had nothing to lose. He was probably going to kill me anyway, so I might as well give it everything.

We struggled on the staircase, him trying to hit me and me trying to avoid being hit. He stood up and pulled a knife—oh shit, this is it then. Before he could move, I heard a dull thud and blood flew out of his chest. We both looked down the stairs and a security man was holding the gun, “Drop the knife,” he called. The Russian took a step towards me and a second shot hit him and he just folded nearly landing on top of me.

Sirens were sounding and police and security appeared to come from everywhere. Picking up the bag I walked down the stairs, armed police were everywhere. The security guard surrendered his gun and he, Danni and I were taken off to be questioned. On the way I looked at Danni’s overnight bag. There was a hole drilled into it—what was inside it I had no idea, but it had saved my life twice.

We weren’t held for long, as soon as I mentioned my name and Special Branch, we were released to the same Inspector and our MI5 chap as before. “You know who these guys were, don’t you?” asked the Inspector.

“Russian secret service.”

“Why were they firing at you?”

“Presumably they’re fresh out of Polonium.”

He glared at me. “That isn’t very funny.”

“It wasn’t meant to be. I presume they were trying to kill us, or me.”

“Why?”

“Because they wanted Croatia to win—how the hell do I know.”

“You played very well, young lady,” Edward MI5 said to Danielle.

“’Cept I’ve probably outed myself with the second goal.”

“It was reminiscent of a certain young man, who seems to have disappeared these days—until we see you on a soccer pitch.”

“Nah, he’s long gone, I’m a girl all legal and everything.”

“I know, Danielle, and you’re a very pretty one too, just like your mother.” The inspector coughed but Edward ignored him, “Can you tell us what happened?”

“Yeah, Mummy came racing down the corridor with two blokes behind her, she grabbed me and said run. So I did. At the end of the corridor we ran into a security guard—is he all right?”

“He was stabbed but we hope not fatally.”

“Why’d they have to do that, stupid pricks.”

Edward shrugged.

“We carried on running an’ came into this room with some bloke talking to a crowd, an’ he asked who we were. Mum said...” she burst out laughing.

“What did your mum say?”

I felt myself blush as I recalled exactly what I’d said.

“She said she was the strippergram.” Danni roared with laughter again and I heard Edward snort. The inspector nearly fell off his seat.

“A woman of many talents your mum,” said Edward and he pressed Danni to continue.

“We saw the fire exit sign and Mum broke the door open and we legged it down the stairs. We was nearly at the bottom when I saw the first guy nearly catch Mum, I yelled and she threw my bag over her head and he fell over it and rolled down the stairs. Mum told me to run and she went to slow down the other guy. I think he shot her and she dived into him he dropped his gun and the security man picked it up and shot him when he pulled a knife on Mum. He told him to drop the knife, but he didn’t so he shot him again, then you lot arrived.”

“Always too late—eh?” Edward suggested.

“Yeah, me an’ Mum an’ the security guard had it sorted.”

Edward smiled and the inspector shook his head. “Why were they chasing you?”

“They’re Russian.”

“What as in rush’n about?”

“Yeah, natch,” Danni sniggered, and the inspector groaned.

“Why should Russians be chasing you?”

“Same reason they keep attacking the bank.”

“Which is?”

“They wanna take it over an’ Gramps won’t sell, neither would Dad.”

“So they wish to acquire High St Bank, do they?”

“Yeah, I’d thought you knew that...”

“Silly me, I forgot for a moment.”

They released us soon after this and after advising us to be very careful we were met by James in the foyer who escorted us back to the bus. The drive back was quiet except for Danielle telling them about our escape on the fire escape. While she did that I opened her bag, the one which saved my life, to see what stopped the bullet. It seems like it was a load of clothes and in the middle a copy in hardback of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone. It now had a hole through it, but despite this, Harry had worked his magic for me.