Dark Secrets

by Doug Pountain

  “Let me speak to the Swiss Embassy, but don’t expect too much, you know what they are like. But they do owe me a favour for covering up the details and events of their man Blosh who had that nasty accident when he hung himself”. Said Sir Richard.

  “Yes, that was indeed a nasty accident, especially when he removed his own head and then nailed it between his legs before hanging himself upside down, well accidents happen don’t they”? Said Graham.

  Joyce looked around and found herself very impressed by the fact that she was sitting here in an office at the heart of British Intelligence, and far from being badly affected by the evening’s events, she was actually thriving on the action and the adrenalin rush. She now realised to its full extent of just how poor some of the decisions that she had made when she was young were, and that she allowed that piece of shit of a Husband to control her. She had wasted her life on a man that truly deserved to die, and eventually she would be the one to send him on his way to Hell.

  “May I ask a question”? She said.

  “Of course you may”. Said Sir Richard.

  “Well, first I would like to clean up just a little, as at the moment I honestly feel like the victim of a zombie attack”.

  “Yes, you are a little blood spattered I must admit”. Said Sir Richard.

  “Thank you for that quick assessment, but before I do anything I want to know when can I get hold of those bastards, because if you think I am going to walk away just because I am a Woman then you have another think coming, and I also believe they are not going to walk away without having another shot at retrieving that eight billion dollars, plus we still have no idea what it was going to be used for”. She said.

  Sir Richard looked at Joyce, he knew that she was right and there were many unanswered questions regarding the actual use of the money, this job was nowhere complete for anyone.

  “Well we do still have my ex officer downstairs, so shall we go and speak to him”?

  Joyce had still not cleaned herself up as the group got into the lift and descended into the basement of the building where the man was being held. He was asked many questions but to no avail, he just stared at the wall. It was now that Joyce, who by now was finally losing her patience slowly walked over to him.

  “Would you mind if I asked him a few questions”?

  “Not at all, please be my guest”. Said Graham.

  Joyce placed her face within inches of the man who had been secured in his seat.

  “You see this blood on my clothes, well it’s not mine. I was asking some of your friends a few questions and they decide not to talk either, but even if they had known anything they can’t tell anyone now due to the fact they are full of holes if you take my meaning, and I would also like you to take notice of how pleasant I am being. Now if you don’t mind I would like to ask you for a little information myself, that’s if it’s alright with you”?

  “Fuck off bitch”. He retorted.

  “There you are, I have not asked you a single question and yet you have spoken to me, and so I think we are getting along just fine. So how do you know Saunders the Civil Servant”? But the man made no reply. She now turned to David.

  “May I borrow a pen please”?

  And Graham passed her a fountain pen and she removed the top. She stood in front of him and looked directly into his eyes.

  “Look I have had a very very bad day, and I must admit that I am just a little on edge. No one knows you are in here and also you were a very shit officer to start with, and so your chances of walking out of here alive are very slim at best, and I believe that because I can foresee a future where you and your family may well have a very nasty accident”.

  “Don’t bring my family into this”.

  “You, and they became involved the moment you betrayed your country. I now want you to look into my eyes, and there you will see a woman tottering on the edge of sanity and I have truly had a really truly shit day, and so I really don’t give a fuck, so try this”.

  And Joyce plunged the fountain pen through his trousers between his legs and into his penis.

  The others looked away and grimaced as the man screamed in agony as the pain surged through his body before a large patch of blood appeared on his trousers, but his pain was intensified by the fact that his hands were secured. Joyce removed the pen and showed it to him, but he still refused to speak, and so she repeated the process, but this time twisting the pen in a circle.

  “This is your last chance, as the next time it will be an eye”. And she drew back her hand to strike, but that was enough for him.

  “Alright, alright, you fucking crazy bitch. Saunders approached me with a deal, he knew that I had information on the Nigerian banker who originally negotiated the deal with the world bank, and that he personally had major money problems, Saunders introduced the Nigerian to a man who he knew about through his work, he was an Italian”.

  “The Nigerian banker then passed the account details on to the Italian after he agreed to cover the man’s debts, but after the money was moved from the country’s bank, the Nigerian banker suddenly found a conscience and contacted the Italian, but that got him killed. Saunders and I both knew that only your team had the expertise to hack the Italians account with the money in it before it was moved to Lucerne, and so the idea was that we were going to use your team to steal it for us while you were led to believe that you were doing it for your country. But we hadn’t realised when we started that it was the Russian and American Mafia who were working together”.

  “So the money was just pure greed”? Asked Graham.

  “For my part yes, but then Saunders let it slip that he was more involved than he had told me, and that the money was stolen for a specific purpose, something that was so big that even he didn’t know what it was for, and so it was not just for our own bank accounts”.

  “You say Saunders didn’t know what the money was to be used for, but do you think he was telling you the truth”?

  “I was never really convinced that he didn’t have any knowledge of the monies final use, and that’s all I know, now get me a doctor”.

  “All in good time, we need to check some details first, but let me know if your penis turns blue with the ink won’t you”? Said Sir Richard.

  The group left the man to his pain and also to ponder his future and returned to the comfort of Sir Richard’s office.

  “Remind me never to piss you off Joyce”. Said Graham as Sir Richard turned to Joyce. “I like your interrogation techniques very much Joyce, if you ever get fed up of working for this crook just give me a call, you would be more than welcome here”.

  Joyce had now fully regained her composure and Sir Richard’s comments had raised her morale to even new heights.

  “Right, so now we know that the information regarding the money transaction that was passed on by Sir Alex at Brother’s Bank to what he thought was the correct government department, was then used by Saunders to try and steal money from the mob using your team, and then it would be you who would carry the can, but now the truth is out I don’t hold much hope for either of them now that Aslanov and Fermi both know. But if the money was for a specific purpose, I still have no idea what that is, there have been no indications from GCHQ of any specific chatter, and so I have a feeling it must be something very big and very dark”.

  Just then Sir Richard’s telephone rang and the conversation lasted just a few minutes. “Right thank you for letting me know”.

  “Well we are not going to get much information from Saunders now, his body has just been found in a carpark near Gatwick airport with a bullet through his head, and not only him but his wife and also his two children”.

  The mood of the group changed dramatically.

  “They are such evil bastards and even kid’s lives don’t matter when there’s that sort of money involved”. Said Graham.

  “Well I think we can assume that the others are now long gone, so it is now just a waiting game until they turn up, but I s
till think they will come after you and your team Graham”. Said Sir Richard.

  “Not if we go after them first”. Replied David.

  “Is that not a little foolhardy”?

  “No, David’s right, they won’t be expecting anything like that”.

  The phone rang again and this time it was the American ambassador.

  “I can confirm that we have our missing man back at the Embassy, and he has with a little persuasion been quite talkative about assisting a U.S. national to gain access to the United Kingdom using diplomatic immunity. Because of his known association with a Mafia Family in Chicago, it could have prevented his entry and that’s all he knows. Don’t get me wrong, he was well paid for his effort, but I still have a funny feeling that he is telling the truth, but obviously we will find out much more when we get him back to the states”.

  “Oh, just one other thing Richard, the U.S. treasury wants to know if they can have their money back, I told them I would ask”.

  “I will try and sort that out and let you know, what are you proposing to do about your American citizen Adamo Fermi”? Asked Sir Richard.

  “Well, when he turns up we will obviously speak to him, but unless you Brits issue an arrest warrant for illegal entry, as far as I can see we can’t connect him directly to the money. And even if we did, the mob have some very good lawyers and he would have been out in minutes, but it’s the Russian connection that worries me the most. Why would the Russian mafia be working with a family in Chicago? I don’t quite understand that yet, but I intend to find out, don’t forget our money will you”?

  “As if we would”. Replied Sir Richard, as he sat there with a very pensive look on his face after his conversation with the American Ambassador.

  “So there we have it, the yanks don’t know any more than we do, I don’t trust many in the embassy but I have known the Ambassador for many years, and I have always considered him to be a good friend. I am sure that if he knew anything, then he would at least give me a clue, but let’s see how it goes”.

  “Right, well in that case we will be on our way, but I am going to tell Carol to meet us at your apartment in Chiswick David, at least then we are all together.” Said Graham.

  “I am so pleased we are going, I so badly need that shower”. Replied Joyce. As the three left the building and again squeezed into David’s Jaguar.

  “I have to say that took some balls what you did back there Joyce, and also how you kept your calm in that house, we are all very proud of you”.

  “Truthfully, I was scared shitless, but I realised I couldn’t let those men see me like that, and so I did exactly as you taught me. Anyway I was just practising for when I next see that bastard of a husband of mine just before I blow his fucking one cell brain out of his dormant head”. She replied.

  CHAPTER 8

  Now back in the comfort and relative safety of David’s apartment and regrouped with Carol, the group discussed what their options were and they were indeed very limited, all their leads were now dead. The man that British intelligence were holding knew very little, as did the American which only left Fermi, Aslanov and his daughter Cathy but they were all long gone.

  “I want to search Cathy’s apartment just in case there is something there, I doubt it very much but it’s worth a go”. Said Joyce.

  “Well apparently MI5 have already done that, but they found nothing”.

  “Well in that case that’s a none starter, well I am going to have a shower and then I am going to bed”. Said Joyce.

  David turned to Graham and Carol. “Please take my room and I will take the sofa”.

  “Are you sure”? Said a very relieved Carol, the days of sleeping on sofa’s was long gone for her.

  “Yes that’s not a problem, let’s have a fresh start tomorrow”.

  Joyce showered and put on her dressing gown and returned to join David in the lounge.

  “How safe are we here David”? She asked.

  “Not very much, you have to remember that you and I are now both now known to them, and Graham is right, they will come after us, but I don’t think straight away. They have other things to do and plans they have already made, and to chase us would be a distraction which could also put those plans at risk. But make no mistake, we will always be in danger until we find out what the money was really for, and don’t forget, they will still need money for their final goal whatever that is, and that’s why I believe we should go after them first”.

  “I completely agree with you and I also think there may be a weak link that we haven’t looked at yet, what did you do about that two billion that was in the Lucerne account”?

  “Well it was still in there last time I checked, but they will know that we are watching it to see where it finally goes”.

  “How is it that you can access all of these accounts David”?

  “Well If I tell you how I do it then that could put you in greater danger as well, but maybe it’s right that you should know. Several years ago when I was working alone, I placed a worm in a Swiss banks computer system, and I buried it so deep they never found it, and that’s how I can hack most of the files in any bank in the world. They are all now so interconnected these days it makes it for me so simple”.

  “Will you teach me more about what you can do”?

  “I will, but at the moment keeping us all alive is more important”. He replied.

  Joyce looked at David. “When I spoke about a weak link to you I was also referring to Herr Bloch’s wife, she must surely realise by now that it was her Father who murdered him”.

  “Yes I was thinking the same thing, but making contact with her will expose us, but I think that we will have to take that chance and make that our starting point”.

  Just then the phone rang and David answered it to find it was Roger calling from Rome.

  “I have been trying to contact Graham for several hours, but his number is unobtainable, is anything wrong there”.

  “Well sort of, and so we have dumped our phones for safety”.

  “Well that’s probably a good idea as a contact I have here tells me there is now a contract out on all of you, it looks like things are moving very quickly”. Said Roger.

  “I don’t quite understand that, the only people they would know are Joyce and me and we thought that the others who knew of our involvement were all dead”. Said David.

  “Well it’s not quite as simple as that, I am being told that this group have information on all of you, and as you can imagine they are a little upset about you stealing their money. But they also know that the eight billion dollars is in your account, and also that it hasn’t been returned to the Americans, which I think points to the fact that there is a mole, but I have no idea where, but my best bet would be with the yanks”.

  Joyce went through to Graham and told him Roger was on the phone. He and Carol joined David in the lounge and Roger told them all he knew.

  “So who has actually put the money up for the hit? Asked Graham.

  “Well this is where it gets a little confusing, it’s not the Italians or the Russians, the money is coming straight from the states, but it has no connection as far as I know to the mob”.

  Graham sat there with a strange look on his face. “I don’t mind if I know who is coming after us, but this job is getting completely out of hand, what started out as a straight forward retrieval of money has now turned into something very different”.

  “Look Graham I think whatever is happening is way beyond any mob connection here in Italy, alright, yes they are very friendly with the families in America, but I am informed that they know nothing about the money, and I have known my contact for many years and I really do believe he is telling the truth”.

  “Alright Roger, if there is no more you can do there, go and join Carl in New York and I will contact you in a few days, but before then I will text you with our new phone numbers”.

  “Alright, I will get the morning plane, but watch your backs, even though the
re is a contract out I have no idea who they have given it to, so you all take very great care, bye everybody”, and with that the line went quiet.

  “I always thought this job would go tits up, every time the Americans are involved there is always a hidden agenda, something they know about but don’t want to share.

  “I am going to speak to Sir Richard at M.I.5 and keep him up to date with the latest information we have, he is always ok with our cousins across the water, but he doesn’t really trust them, so at the moment he is our only ally. Well in the morning Joyce and I are going to check on Fermie’s daughter, and even though her husband was a little naughty, I don’t believe she ever wanted him dead, I have her address. She lives in an apartment near the Swiss embassy in Montagu place. Right, well I am going back to bed, see you in the morning”.

  Joyce and David looked at each other in the subdued light of a small table lamp in the corner of the lounge, when they suddenly became aware of sirens and flashing blue lights outside.

  “Those sirens sound very close”. Said David as he looked out of the window. It’s a fire engine in our car park, and it’s my bloody car that’s on fire”.

  Joyce leapt to her feet and looked out of the window before David quickly pulled her away.

  “But David that’s your car that’s burning down there”.

  “Yes I realise that, but it could have been done deliberately, go and tell Graham”.

  Joyce quickly ran to the bed room and told Graham what was happening and he joined David who was by now standing well away from the window.

  “Turn out that light Carol”.

  By now Joyce was a little confused as to what was actually happening. “Are you going to check on your car”?

  “No, go and get dressed we are leaving right now”.

  She asked no further questions as everyone quickly dressed and grabbed a bag and made their way down the fire escape stairwell and out into the rear carpark to where Carol had parked Grahams Range Rover. Graham drove down several side streets to make sure that he was not being followed and then quickly made his way out of the city and north to the M1 motorway.