Page 175 of Slack Tide Kill

"This is what we do," she grunted. "This is who we are."

Seconds passed as the gale howled around them. Then Liam put the car in gear. "If you pass out, I turn around. I don't care what's happening at the reactor."

"If I pass out … you keep driving."

"Agree to disagree." He hit the gas and the car rocketed away, siren howling into the storm.

72 HEADLONG

Liam raced north as Sally flagged by his side, her head lolling against the head rest. The radio spat crackles back at him, the car bucked as he weaved across the curb, hidden under a foot of climbing water.

None of this was how it was supposed to be.

Wilcot. Sally. The Mustang. Three wasted months of booze. Leaking, lying, coming apart at the seams.

Who even was he now? Crossing lines again and again. He looked at Sally. The rough bandage was beading through. He shouldn't be doing this.

But then here he was, doing exactly this, because of her.

Lydd flew by on the left, a blur of gray and rain, and he raced south toward the reactors. Dungeness. Cold poured through the shattered window and engulfed him. Making bad decisions, gambling with lives on the line.

His father had told him never to join the force. He'd wanted a lawyer or an engineer. He glimpsed Emily Chakrati's face again, in that final moment as Sally dragged him away. He'd barely known her, but she was police, and that was supposed to mean something. Maybe he hadn't ever really understood what until now. The job was just a way of keeping score, of thumbing his father's eye, of being his own man.

But it was more than that. A partner. A purpose. His family of choice.

The lighthouse emerged from the black gloom ahead, the reactors looming beyond it. He turned onto the reactor approach, accelerating right up to a skidding halt scant meters from the fence.

For a second only he sat there, heart pounding, staring through the chain links. No explosion, no chaos. Had they beaten Mercer here? A figure in hi-vis yellow came toward the car, one hand on her radio.

Liam opened the door and the rain and wind pummeled him. The guard seemed familiar, maybe the same one who'd scanned him in three days ago.

"What's going on here, officer?" she shouted over the wind.

"There's an imminent terror threat to the reactors," Liam said, holding out his warrant card. "You may already have a bomb in the compound. You need to start searching for it immediately."

The woman stared. "Is this a joke?"

"It's not a joke. You also need to get your road blockers up here and all other access points. We believe a vehicle may be inbound, possibly carrying the bomb."

"You're serious."

"Right now, ma'am. Counter-terror are coming, but it'll take time."

She stared at him, like he was barely real, then brought up her radio. Liam got back in the car. The engine idled, the wheel was wet, and he didn't know what to do. Wait here and try to ram Mercer when he came down the access route? Or go looking for him?

"Circle … route," Sally said.

Liam turned. She was slumped in the seat but her eyes were sharp. "Up past Appledore?"

"Drier roads, probably."

The map of the marsh spun in his head. "So we go back to Lydd, try to intercept him there?"

"Safer than … this close to the reactor."

He grunted. Then he put the car in gear and took them back north. "How you doing there, Sally?"

"I'm … fine." She tried to sit up. "Try the radio again."