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Amber couldn’t let that happen. Shehad to stop this, had to stop Colm from killing… from killing the man sheloved.
“Colm!” Amber yelled, and thekiller started to turn towards her, his gun swinging Amber’s way.
Amber fired once, all her trainingkicking in, the shot ringing out in the emptiness even as Colm fired his ownweapon. Amber felt the bullet whistle past her, and at the same time, Colmtoppled to the ground, his gun dropping from his grasp as he clutched hisshoulder.
Amber ran over to him, kicking thegun clear of him and handcuffing him.
“You’re under arrest, Colm. It’sdone. You lost.”
Colm laughed, even through hispain. “I think you’re about to lose much more, Amber.”
Amber pushed away from him, runningover to Simon. Colm didn’t matter in that moment. The fact that she’d capturedthe serial killer who had killed so many people close to her should havebrought her a sense of triumph.
Amber crouched beside Simon,looking at him with all the worry she felt.
“Simon, how bad is it?” Amberasked. She looked down at the blood coming from him. “Hold on, I’ll call forhelp.”
“Amber, I… you saved me. If youhadn’t come…”
“And then you saved me too,” Ambersaid. “Simon, hold on. We’re not done here. You understand?”
She desperately tried to putpressure on the wound Simon had suffered, pulling out her phone and callingthrough to the FBI. As soon as she got through to a human being, she startedtalking.
“This is Agent Amber Young. I needEMTs to my location urgently. I have Colm O’Rafferty in custody, but AgentPhelps has been shot. Get help here, right now!”
“Okay, Agent Young, units will beon their way.”
The agent on the other end of theline was still talking, but Amber wasn’t listening now. She returned herattention to Simon instead. His breathing was coming shorter now, the bloodstill flowing in spite of Amber’s efforts.
“Simon, stay with me. Don’t leaveme. I love you. Did you hear me? I love you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Amber gritted her teeth as shefaced off against her opponent. She knew that this was the moment thatmattered, the moment when everything could be won or lost. She couldn't letthis moment slip away because the consequences would be disastrous.
She took her time, calculating,trying to make sure that she got everything right first time. She was aware ofthe seconds ticking by, while her opponent was making progress. Amber couldn’tlet him get to his goals, but she knew that she couldn’t just act blindly. Themore the time ticked down, the more she had to be sure that she got this right.She would only have one shot.
Finally, she was ready to act. Herhands flashed out.
She twisted the puzzle box in frontof her, working through its permutations, adjusting its parameters until sheheard a click, and it opened, revealing a coded message within it. Her mindscrambled for purchase on the symbols there, but she had hit a rhythm now. Theplain text of the code started to appear in front of her mind, forming aquestion:
Who wrote this: “There is a tide inthe affairs of men…”
“Shakespeare!” Amber called out,looking up from the puzzle.
“Correct!” the compere said, andaround Amber, the crowd watching broke into cheering and applause. Across fromher, her opponent gave a resigned look before holding out a hand for Amber toshake.
The congratulations flowed out, andAmber took a moment to bask in them, then headed over to the audience. Simonwas waiting for her there, rising to meet her with the aid of a crutch andtaking her into his arms to kiss her.
"Another famous victory forthe puzzle-solving FBI agent," he said with a smile. "Where does itrank in terms of your successes? As good as taking down a killer?"
Amber returned the smile. “You knowthe answer to that.”
“I do. You’re amazing at what youdo. I’m glad we get you on our side.”
That only made Amber lean closer tohim. This wasn’t a man who wanted to stop her from doing her job to keep hersafe. This was a partner who loved and understood her well enough to know that,while solvingpuzzles was a big part of her life, the part that mattered was catchingcriminals. That was what made a real difference to Amber.
“Are you ready to go?”Simon asked. “Palliser will be waiting for us, and we don't want to keep herwaiting.”
