Kill or Die Read online

  Kill or Die

  The House of Killers

  Samantha Lee Howe

  One More Chapter

  a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

  1 London Bridge Street

  London SE1 9GF

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

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  First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2021

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  Copyright © Samantha Lee Howe 2021

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  Cover design by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2021

  Cover images © Shutterstock.com

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  Samantha Lee Howe asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

  * * *

  A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

  * * *

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  * * *

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

  * * *

  Source ISBN: 9780008444617

  Ebook Edition © May 2021 ISBN: 9780008444600

  Version: 2021-05-07

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you for reading…

  You will also love…

  About the Author

  Also by Samantha Lee Howe

  One More Chapter...

  About the Publisher

  For David, Frazer, Andrew and Tracey – more champagne and summer nights ahead!

  ‘I am the way into the city of woe.

  I am the way to a forsaken people.

  I am the way into eternal sorrow.’

  — Dante Alighieri, Inferno (tr. by John Ciardi)

  Prologue

  ‘What was that?’ says Shelley Armitage as she starts to load the food trolley.

  They’ve been in the air for a few hours, and this is the second food service. They are en route to Shanghai with a Boeing 777 300 full of business types and tourists. It takes just under twelve hours from London.

  ‘Just a bit of turbulence,’ says Jay. ‘Nothing to worry about, love.’ But Jay’s dark brown eyes look down the cabin and search for the nearest hatch. He stares outside at the darkening sky.

  Shelley finds the gorgeous black steward’s affectations a little grating and doesn’t really appreciate being called ‘love’ by someone she hardly knows. But she lets it slide, because she wants a chance to do long-haul again and she knows this team will report on how she handles the journey, passengers and especially her interaction with the crew.

  ‘It feels like we’re turning,’ Shelley says.

  ‘I’ll find out,’ says Jay.

  He calls the cockpit from the galley phone. The line rings and then the co-pilot, Carl Bennett, picks up the receiver.

  ‘Have we changed direction?’ Jay asks.

  ‘Yeah. A slight blip,’ Carl says. ‘The captain says it’s nothing to worry about.’

  Jay hangs up. ‘Everything’s fine,’ he tells Shelley.

  But it isn’t.

  The in-flight manager, Angie, comes looking for them. ‘You’ve got to keep everyone calm. Feed them, but if they ask, say we are detouring because of weather.’

  ‘Why are we changing course?’ asks Shelley.

  Angie frowns. ‘Instructions from below. It’s most irregular. I’ll keep you in the loop when I know more.’

  Angie walks away leaving Jay and Shelley to take care of the evening meal in economy. They serve in efficient silence.

  ‘I was just watching the flight map,’ says a man in a seat over the wing, ‘and we seemed to have changed direction.’

  ‘It’s nothing. Just a slight deviation. We’ll be back on course shortly,’ Shelley says, her face a professional mask.

  She gives him his food tray and moves on to the next passenger without further explanation.

  The seatbelt signs go on, followed by the pilot announcing that all crew are to take their seats.

  ‘What’s happening?’ asks a woman coming out of the toilet.

  ‘Just turbulence,’ Shelley says automatically. ‘Please return to your seat.’

  She pushes the food trolley back to the galley and stows it. Then she sits beside Jay who is already strapped in.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ he whispers.

  By then Shelley’s face is blanched white. She clenches her hands in her lap and stares at the partition wall between them and the cabin they are serving. She is regretting taking this flight already. It had seemed such a good idea when her supervisor rang and said that they were a crew member down. She’d never been to Shanghai and it was on her bucket list. Plus, she wanted to be offered other exciting long-haul locations. After all that’s why she’d become cabin crew in the first place.

  The plane plummets, free-falling through the sky as though in a vacuum. For a second Shelley thinks that the engines have failed.

  Jay grabs her arm. ‘What the fuck?’

  Cries of fear erupt in the passenger cabin.

  ‘This is your co-pilot. Please remain calm. We are experiencing unusual turbulence…’

  The plane levels out and cruises as if nothing has happened.

  Shelley and Jay look at each other, knowing that this isn’t true. The sudden drop in altitude is something that they have never experienced before; they are both scared. The phone beside their seat lights up and Shelley reaches for the receiver. She and Jay press their ears against it.

  ‘What’s happening?’ she asks.

  �
�You know that scenario that we all said could never happen?’ Angie says.

  ‘What?’ asks Shelley.

  ‘Someone has taken over the onboard computer.’

  ‘It’s not possible,’ says Jay.

  ‘Are we going to crash?’ gasps Shelley.

  ‘We are being rerouted,’ Angie says. ‘Hang in there. Make sure no passengers go walkabout. The pilot says keep calm, we’re okay for now.’

  Angie hangs up and Shelley and Jay are left feeling hopeless. The fate of all on board is in the hands of someone unknown.

  ‘But how?’ asks Jay.

  ‘This is… Someone has hacked into the system. All they need is an iPad or an Android tablet,’ Shelley says, remembering some training she’d been given when fear of hijack was at its worst.

  ‘But that would mean the security code was compromised…’ Jay says. ‘It would have to be … one of us.’

  Shelley unbuckles her seat belt. ‘I have to go to the cockpit,’ she says. ‘Keep an eye on the passengers.’

  ‘No. Don’t…’ Jay says but Shelley is already halfway through the cabin before he can unbuckle.

  Shelley passes through economy and premium, ignoring the passengers who call to her for reassurance. At the end of the premium cabin, she sees two other flight attendants strapped in as the pilot had ordered. One of them looks at her, an unspoken question on the woman’s face.

  Shelley smiles and nods. ‘We’ll be back on track shortly,’ she says.

  Then she walks towards the business-class cabin, passes through and goes straight into first where she expects to find Angie. The passengers in this cabin are all lying flat on beds, asleep and unaware of the possible threat to their lives. Shelley finds Angie’s crew seat empty.

  She picks up the phone and rings the cockpit again. This time, no one answers.

  What is going on? She turns to the cockpit door and picks up the interphone. She calls the cockpit but there’s still no answer. She knocks on the door, breaking protocol, but she’s feeling concerned that something is wrong.

  ‘Captain?’ There’s no response from inside.

  She turns and starts to make her way back through the cabin.

  Air rushes through the plane and the oxygen masks drop down onto the sleeping business-class passengers. Shelley grabs the nearest seat and holds on. Further back down the plane, screams of fear take up again. No reassurance comes from the pilot this time. The yells continue. Shelley knows what is happening, even though this has never occurred on a flight before in all of her ten years as cabin crew. Someone has opened the middle exit door and the air is being sucked out of the plane. Shelley hooks her arm around the seat, then she pulls the nearest oxygen mask over her face. She holds on tight until the outside air fills the cabin and the pressure equalises with the outside.

  ‘Stay in your seats!’ she yells.

  None of the first-class passengers move. The plane pitches left. Shelley yelps as she is almost thrown from the seat. The plane levels out again and while she catches her breath, she looks around the cabin at the sleeping passengers. Letting go of the armrests of the seat she is in, she reaches for the nearest person: a businessman that Angie had pointed out to her earlier as a regular on this flight. She shakes his shoulder roughly. His arm falls down over his arm rest, limp. He doesn’t wake.

  Drugged, she thinks. Or dead. A surge of fear rushes up inside her. The person who’s opened the door in the middle of the plane is behind this. She pulls off the oxygen mask and stumbles back towards the premium economy cabin. The air is thin, but breathable. Her eyes dart over the business-class passengers, who are also silent. She’s shocked that she hadn’t noticed this on the way through.

  She has to get to Jay and enlist his help. They need, also, to get into the cockpit and find out what the fuck is going on.

  ‘Jay!’ she yells.

  Then, as she reaches the exit, she sees the door wide open. Jay and Angie are poised near it.

  ‘For God’s sake!’ she yells over the noise of the rushing air. ‘Who did this?’

  Angie glances over her shoulder at Shelley. She is holding an android tablet and is typing something into it. On her face is a portable oxygen mask.

  ‘Keep calm, Shell,’ says Jay. ‘It’ll all be over soon.’ There is no sign of his inflected voice. He is cold and impersonal.

  Back in the premium cabin the passengers are quiet. Their screams of fear have been abruptly silenced.

  ‘What’s fucking happening?’ Shelley yells. She is close to hysteria.

  ‘You should have stayed in your seat,’ Jay says.

  Shelley approaches the door. She is trembling and then she notices the packs strapped around Jay and Angie’s shoulders and she knows they are parachutes. Not regulation as they don’t have them on board.

  ‘You two did this…’

  In the galley Shelley sees the slumped body of one of the passengers. Her eyes dart from one to the other of her colleagues; panic makes it impossible for her to think. Then Angie grabs Shelley’s arm and yanks her towards the open door.

  ‘Why?’ Shelley asks.

  ‘Because we can, love,’ Jay says as Angie pushes Shelley out of the plane.

  Shelley’s last scream is snatched away by the howling winds as she vanishes into the clouds scudding below the crippled aircraft.

  Chapter One

  Michael

  ‘Come in, Mike,’ says Ray.

  I see that they are waiting for me. My former colleagues, Ray Martin, Bethany Cane and Leon Tchaikovsky, are sat at the briefing desk.

  ‘Take a seat,’ Ray says.

  ‘I’ll stand,’ I say.

  ‘Mike, we aren’t your enemies,’ Beth says. ‘This is a very difficult situation for all of us.’

  I’ve been on gardening leave for the past six months, waiting to learn my fate. Over that period I’d told them everything I knew in several debriefings. How the Network had raised me through surrogate parents and it was Ray who’d given me the final piece of the puzzle, revealing that the man I’d always known as ‘Uncle Andrew’ was in fact my biological father. Andrew ran the Network until he was shot, after I’d executed a sting on their assassin school. A place we now referred to as the House of Killers, or sometimes merely Kill House. As time went on, I remembered my whole sorry story. Including the brainwashing and how the Network had turned me into a sleeper agent. An agent that Andrew Beech had used as his own personal spy in MI5.

  ‘I just don’t know what more I can tell you,’ I say now.

  The memories, though fully returned, aren’t as detailed as I had hoped. Something happened after we left the Network’s house in Alderley Edge – a huge mansion disguised as a private school where they housed the abducted children whom they reared as assassins: my mind regressed. I slipped back inside myself and lost some of that gained knowledge as another piece of Beech’s awful conditioning kicked in.

  Archive had brought down that appalling training house of Beech’s, freeing the children that had been taken and groomed. But we all knew this was just one of many such places globally and was a drop in the ocean when it came to the mechanisms of the Network.

  Even so, I’d given Ray enough information that MI5 and Interpol had been able to use it to disrupt another house. Though, at the time, I wasn’t privy to what they’d actually found, or how much chaos they’d wreaked on the Network, I still knew that they had halted Beech’s plans for a time. The Network, for now, had been forced to cover their tracks in Europe, as well as the UK.

  ‘The shrink you gave me says it’s self-preservation,’ I tell them now. ‘I didn’t know I was a sleeper. I don’t want to remember being that person. You get that, right?’

  ‘Sit, Mike,’ Ray says again. ‘We didn’t call you here to give you a hard time.’

  I succumb to the invitation and take the spare seat at the end of the table. They look at me. I see curiosity and something else. A mix of fear and distrust. It comes off Beth and Leon like a bad smell. From Ray … noth
ing. Not even the empathy he sometimes tries to convey. For which I have at times been grateful.

  ‘It’s time to change things. This situation, the gardening leave, can’t go on for ever,’ Ray says.

  ‘I guessed as much,’ I say. So, this is it. I’m going to be cut loose. I’ll never work in MI5 again, let alone anywhere else with security access. I can’t say I blame him. It’s the way of the world we inhabit and I’m a liability.

  ‘We want you to come back to work,’ Beth says. ‘Naturally you won’t have quite the same … status.’

  I think I’ve misheard her. ‘What? Come back?’

  ‘If you want to,’ says Leon.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ I say.

  ‘Michael, you were recruited for Archive because you have a very special skill set. Your profiling is second to none. You’ve been a reliable agent,’ explains Ray.