‘Killed. But … baby…’ Michael says.
Solomon grabs Subra’s arm and tugs at her. ‘Where is Angela?’
‘Subra ordered kill…’ Michael says.
‘Shut up, damn you!’ Subra says.
She shakes off Solomon and raises the gun once more. ‘I’m going to enjoy this. Beech’s bastard forced on me. Do you think I ever wanted to spew out any brat into this world? You’re useless. I should have just aborted you,’ she says.
There is a loud crack as something hard smashes down on Subra’s head. Solomon swings again. He is holding one of the granite placemats and it crashes against Subra’s skull a second time.
Subra’s head bursts like a traumatised melon, before her legs crumple beneath her. She falls face first down on the floor.
‘You had her killed, didn’t you? You fucking bitch,’ Solomon screams at her body. ‘You murdering sick bitch.’
Solomon falls to his knees. Tears streaming down his cheeks as Michael’s words all begin to make sense. Angela had told him she had something to tell him.
‘A baby? Oh my God. Where’s my child, you fucking cow?’ He shakes Subra’s body but the assassin lies unmoving and unresponsive, a red pool of blood slowly spreading over the marble-tiled floor.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Michael
There’s a loud pounding beside me. I come to and find myself in a hotel room. Solomon Granger is on his knees crying, Subra is unconscious on the floor or, given the amount of blood, more likely dead. I have a rush of memory as my conscious mind coalesces with my formerly triggered mind, and I realise then that I’m in peril.
There’s shouting outside, and gunfire. I look over at the bedroom door and remember that Annalise ran inside. I look around the room assessing the situation. Subra took back the gun she gave me and the bodyguard is still holding mine. I take my Glock from his dead fingers. Then I walk to the door, give it a hard kick and burst inside.
The room is empty, but I see an adjoining door and realise that Annalise has escaped into a second suite. I try the door but find it locked.
Behind me I hear the door to Subra’s suite caving and gather that Annalise’s men are coming in. I shoot the lock on the adjoining door and run through. This suite appears to be empty also, and the main door is open onto the corridor. Annalise has made her escape. I run out and double back to the suite I was in as I hear Granger yelling. By the time I get there, two guards have him pinned up against the wall.
‘She killed my lover!’ he says. ‘She’s got my kid!’
I put two bullets into the first guard. The second lets go of Granger and turns on me, gun in hand. I shoot him in the gut, taking some pleasure in the fact that it will be painful. The gun drops from his fingers and he tumbles forward. I walk to him and shoot him once in the back of the head.
I feel cold and emotionless. I look back at Granger to see him prone. He sobs on the floor, not looking at me, with his hands covering his head. Then he starts to hit himself hard on the head and in the face as though the realisation of Angela’s death tortures him more at every moment.
I look down at Subra. So, this was my mother … or surrogate at the least. I kneel down, check her pulse and, as suspected, find that Solomon did a pretty good job of bashing her conniving brains out. Good.
‘Michael!’
I turn to see Neva at the door. The killer in me is halted by the sight of her. She is the only thing keeping me from the darkness that threatens to take me over to the Network’s side. I’m relieved to see her, and my emotions slip back into play and the coldness inside me begins to thaw.
‘Annalise has escaped,’ I say. ‘Neva… She… I recognised her. She was … she had to be…’
‘My mother?’ Neva says.
She turns and runs down the corridor, hot on Annalise’s tail. Her mother. I have no doubt at all that this is true. Neva was the image of her.
I don’t know what to do with Granger. He hasn’t looked up and acknowledged me, nor even Neva as she came into the room. I think he must be in shock.
‘Solomon?’ I say. ‘Come on, we have to get out of here.’
‘She killed her, didn’t she? She murdered my Angela. I loved her.’
I feel for the man and so I kneel beside him and tell him the truth about Angela Carter. Everything I know.
I take his arm and pull him to his feet. At that moment, Ray arrives with Leon. I pass Solomon on to them.
‘This is Solomon Granger. He hijacked the plane. He’s all yours,’ I say.
Leon takes Granger, cuffs him and leads him out. Armed police are swarming through the hotel by the time we get downstairs.
‘How did you find me?’ I ask Ray. ‘She Tasered me and I thought that neutralised the tracker.’
‘There was a tracker in your shoe,’ Ray says. ‘Neva put it in while you were sleeping. I was worried they’d trigger you and then get you to talk. So basically the tracker pill was a lie.’
‘Subra knew the words,’ I say. ‘Apparently she was my incubator.’
‘Your mother?’ Ray says.
‘I don’t know. Possibly. But she carried me for Beech either way. From what she said she didn’t enjoy the experience.’
‘She triggered you then?’ Ray says.
‘Briefly. I was already fighting it when she Tased me. I think the Tasing helped me gain control. It rebooted my brain. I was playing along as we walked through the hotel and knew what I was doing when I took the guard out. Even so, it was hard to fight when Subra started speaking again and when she ordered me to kill Annalise.’
I tell him about Annalise and her resemblance to Neva.
‘Can you remember the trigger words?’ Ray says.
‘Yes.’
‘Good. We can work out how to undo their power over you,’ Ray says.
I nod, and then I feel bad because I haven’t asked if they got Beth.
As though he anticipates my question Ray says, ‘Beth’s safe. They stuck her on a psychiatric ward. Faked a doctor’s sectioning.’
‘Jesus. They hid her in plain sight,’ I say. ‘Neva said that would be the case.’
‘She’s with Elliot Baker. They’re dating, you know.’ Ray grins.
‘Ha! I had my suspicions. She blushed every time he was mentioned!’ I say.
For a moment this light relief makes me feel better. I’m reassured that Beth is in safe hands.
‘Has Neva flown the nest?’ Ray says.
I look around and then see her across the reception area talking to Elsa.
‘Looks like she didn’t,’ I say.
‘Good. She’s definitely an asset. Michael, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure she’s accepted as such.’
He casts a glance towards Leon and I wonder if words have been spoken to suggest that some people do not want her on board.
I walk towards Neva and Elsa. She looks at me and shakes her head, and I know then that Annalise has escaped. But of course, someone in her shoes would always have an exit strategy.
I nod to Elsa.
‘Glad you hung around,’ I say to Neva. ‘But this is a long way from over.’
‘It will be a steady drip, but we’ll wear them down. Is that Solomon Granger?’ she says.
I look towards the front door and see Leon leading a handcuffed Granger out. As if he feels his eyes on me, Granger looks up. I meet his gaze: another soul broken by the Network. But he’ll have a lot to answer for even so. Hijacking the plane, and living with a false identity. Even if he was coerced, he’s still guilty.
‘It’s her,’ Granger says. ‘Angie! I thought you were dead!’
I look at Neva and she glances at Granger surprised by his outburst. She and Elsa both look shocked.
‘You killed her! She killed my Angela!’ Solomon says and I’m sure he’s looking directly at Neva.
‘Get her!’ Solomon shouts. 'She’s in disguise but I’d know her anywhere!’
‘Michael?’ Neva says. ‘No…’
But Neva has already anticipated their move. She grabs Elsa and, holding her knife against her throat, backs towards the door.
‘Neva! Wait!’ I say. ‘Come in and let’s sort this out.’
But her eyes are cold and distant as she falls back into her assassin mode. She won’t be taken alive, and she will kill as she’s been conditioned to do.
I block Ray and the armed response team.
‘Let her go!’ I say.
‘Get out of the way, Mike!’ Ray says. ‘She’s been lying to you.’
I glance over my shoulder at Neva. She doesn’t deny anything, instead she pulls Elsa out of the door with her.
The response team hurry towards the door but I’m there first and Neva pushes Elsa at me before she runs away, losing herself in a crowd of tourists.
The team flow out onto the streets after her, but I know she’s already hidden.
Despite their efforts they will never find her.
‘Where will she go, Mike?’ Ray says beside me.
I think about the little cabin on the Thames, but I don’t say a word. I shake my head as though I don’t know.
‘It’s a misunderstanding,’ I say to Ray. ‘It has to be.’
‘She’s been playing us, Michael,’ Ray says. ‘She was Angie all along.’
But I’m struggling to believe it even though I know that if she wasn’t guilty, she would not have run.
My mind casts back to the pictures we have from security cameras at the airport of Angela. All blurry. Face turned away for the most part. But possibly the woman was the same height and build as Neva.
Was Solomon right? Could it be her?
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Michael
‘You mustn’t blame yourself,’ Beth says as I sit in the interview room with her.
I’ve just briefed her on everything that’s happened since her disappearance and she’s recorded the conversation for Archive’s files on the case.
We are looking at printouts of the only pictures they have of Angela’s doppelgänger and the resemblance is so close I find it difficult to deny. How could I have been so wrong about Neva?
The dream of our white-sanded beach fades from my mind, worn away by the corrosive tide of doubt. A sharp and painful reality presents itself to me.
‘If Granger is telling the truth then I’ve been a total idiot. Because of our similar backgrounds, I let my sympathy for Neva cloud my judgement. All along she was probably working for Subra,’ I say.
‘There still might be an explanation,’ Beth says. ‘This may not be as it appears. But until we find her, we won’t know.’
I don’t wish her luck on the search: Neva will not be found and it’s pointless to even consider telling them about her Thames bolthole. She won’t have gone back there.
My only consolation is that even Ray didn’t notice the similarity after meeting Neva. Or perhaps he did and just wanted to let it play out. My mind is in turmoil, and my heart hurts. It’s a physical pain brought on by the shock of this revelation. She was giving up running. That’s what she’d said. All to have a life with me, I’d thought. One moment my mind refuses to admit the evidence before us, the next I’m certain she’s been stringing me along to get access to Archive.
‘I’ve gone through every scenario and none of them make her look innocent,’ I say to Beth. ‘But thanks for the optimism.’
Beth pats my arm.
‘I’m sorry they came after you,’ I say. She looks tired and I think that she shouldn’t be here so soon after her ordeal.
‘I’m just glad my kids weren’t there,’ she says. ‘But I was never in any danger once they dumped me on that psych ward. Eventually Doctor Fink would have called Ray and discovered the truth. But at least now we have Granger in custody and Subra is dead. Another strike against the Network.’
‘Agreed,’ I say.
‘Want some coffee?’ she asks.
I nod and Beth stands up and goes out of the room.
Alone with my own thoughts I run through my memory of Neva’s reaction to the news of Carter’s death. I see again her shocked expression. For this reason, I can’t believe that she was capable of killing Angela Carter in cold blood just to steal her child, yet Granger’s accusation implicates Neva.
I’m not being held – my statement is voluntary – but I still stand up and prowl around the interview room like a guilty suspect. I’m a long way from being over the trauma of the last few months, and every day it feels like my life becomes more unstable, when it should be returning to normal.
The door opens and Ray comes in, carrying two coffees. He sits down in the chair Beth just vacated on the opposite side of a table from me. I remain standing, but I lean against the wall and look at him.
‘What a shit show,’ he says. ‘She’s been running rings around us all.’
‘What do you mean?’ I say. ‘Granger could be lying…’
Ray sighs. His eyes fall on me and I see pity in them. He believes Granger. He thinks I’m Neva’s stooge. I see my failure reflected in his eyes and it hurts. A flare of anger and resentment bursts inside me, though I’m not sure if it is Ray’s silent judgement that makes me feel this or whether I’m annoyed at Neva for putting me once again in this position.
‘Mike, it was bugging me. I wasn’t sure…’ Ray says.
‘What was?’ I ask.
‘When I spoke to Neva for the first time. There was this familiarity. I don’t know. The tone in the voice, the accent. I couldn’t place it but I’d heard it before. Then, when I rang her and told her to put the tracker in your shoe, her voice… It was like she was being less guarded. I recognised her then.’
‘Recognised her from where?’ I ask.
‘I think she was the anonymous caller that told me the plane’s coordinates. At the time, when I suspected it, I thought – well, great, she has resources and she’s helped us. But now, it sort of confirms that Granger is telling the truth. Neva probably was Angela Carter’s double and if this is so, she was on that plane.’
I’m struggling to believe this still, but I don’t say anything. I see Neva in our moments alone. I recall how she gave herself to me and I want to hold onto the idea that this was real and everything they say she’s done is somehow a mistake. That Granger is wrong and that Neva just resembles the girl that replaced Angela Carter.
‘Granger’s given me a statement,’ Ray continues with the straight face of a funeral director. ‘It makes interesting reading. This plan of Subra’s sprang up a while ago,’ he says, before outlining Subra’s plan. ‘Then there’s Neva’s part in this. Granger said he never knew her as anything other than Angie. And as Angie, it appears that she killed the flight assistant, Shelley Armitage, because she got in their way during the hijack. Granger thought she’d shot the pilot and co-pilot too. But he never saw it happen. He had believed that Angie was killed when she jumped out of the plane and her parachute didn’t open. It’s possible she used Chloe Bell’s unconscious body to fake her own death. Chloe, as you know, was one of the other flight attendants and she’s the only other body that wasn’t accounted for. Other than the businessman Armin Shah, whom Granger admits to taking with him. After that it’s safe to assume that Angie/Neva rerouted the plane. Probably leaping out at another rendezvous point that Subra didn’t know about. To be honest this does jar with me. If she was working for Subra, why not jump at the rendezvous point and join her? It doesn’t make sense really.’
‘Maybe she was playing a double game with Subra,’ I suggest, still searching as hard as I can for some redeeming part of her character.
‘I hate to say this, Mike, but it’s possible Neva was working with this Annalise, her mother, all along.’
I shake my head in denial. ‘That can’t be right. She was searching for her parents. She wanted revenge for being given to the House. She wanted me to help her find out
who she was. I was convinced she was telling the truth.’
‘I’m sorry, Mike. I know you don’t want to believe it. But the evidence points to her guilt. She told you she didn’t know her parents so that she could enlist your help. She used what she knew about you to gain your sympathy, to build a connection between you that you wouldn’t question.’
I take a breath then let out a slow sigh. He’s right. I don’t want to accept it, but I can’t deny it’s looking more and more likely.
‘Who was Armin Shah and why did they want him?’ I ask. ‘He came up clean on our searches. No illegal dealings and no links to the Network that we knew of.’
‘Granger says he was a committee member of the Network. He believes Subra killed him, but doesn’t know what information she got from him first,’ Ray explains. ‘For what it’s worth, Granger is full of remorse and was happy to tell us everything. It doesn’t excuse him though. He still went along with Subra and he’s just as responsible for the deaths of everyone on that flight.’
I listen to Ray as he further outlines his theory on Neva’s connection and involvement. What he says makes sense, but I still have questions. What did Subra want from Shah that was so important she would orchestrate this whole mission just to get hold of him? Planning it months, maybe years beforehand.
I don’t voice this to Ray because he’ll think I’m still trying to find some good in Neva, when it doesn’t look like there is any. Deep down, I know I probably am, but it’s hard to take after the time we’ve spent together. It jars with me so much that I ask Ray if I can interview Granger too.
‘Let’s all get some sleep and maybe he’ll be able to give us more in morning. The man is in shock and it won’t be economical if we wear him down further. We need him on side and willing to talk.’
‘Okay,’ I say despite my impatience to catch Granger out. ‘Tomorrow it is.’
Ray gives me a new address to go to that night and I’m escorted by a security detail. I’m not safe in my own apartment, I can’t go back to the other safe house as Neva now knows its location, and so I’m put in yet another house. This time I’m not alone, Beth is with me also because Ray is equally concerned about the kidnap. We have guards on shifts posted with us too, so that at least we can get some rest in relative safety.
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