by Tim Neilson
“Claudia doesn’t know?” enquired Anna.
“I can’t get an answer from her. Maybe she’s taking a tutorial or is in a meeting with her phone off. Anyway, let’s leave that for now. You obviously got away alright?”
Anna and Tina turned and gazed at each other.
The cafeteria echoed with the kind of clatter that goes with crockery and cutlery, hordes of people, and hard floors and walls, but to James and the girls it seemed peaceful compared with the world beyond. As they talked, they occasionally glanced around, partly to check they were in fact in a place of safety, but also out of a sense they would eventually have to venture back outside.
“So, what do we do now?” James asked.
“It’s either back to Cambridge or finish here, I suppose,” Anna said reflectively. “We seem to have shaken them off. The Crick Institute is almost next door and there are lots of people around so I think we might take a chance and do that one. But I’m not so sure about the Lister. Maybe I should go there,” she suggested. “It was you they were after, so if we make sure you get to the Crick …”
“But those guys in suits were on to you two,” James pointed out.
“And I reckon that the guys with the gold spotted us from inside the bus,” Tina interposed.
“Yes, that’s true,” Anna admitted. “It’s odd, isn’t it?” she mused. “No one tailed us in Cambridge … no they didn’t, James, we would have seen them … and now they suddenly turn up here in London pretty much as soon as we get here. Tracing us to the British Library of all places has to be less likely than tracking us to Cambridge, even though we were so careful about contacting Cam, not making phone calls to him, and not sending any emails.”
“Not any emails,” James echoed. “I wonder if that’s it.”
“What?” demanded Anna and Tina in unison.
“You know how Cam first got Daniel involved by email, and Daniel forwarded that email to me? Well, maybe they took Cam’s email to Daniel seriously enough that they then hacked Daniel and got onto the email he sent me. If so, they would have realised that I was in on it. And maybe,” he added, concerned, “that’s why my place keeps being burgled. We should tell your cousins to leave …”
“They’d never listen,” Anna interrupted. “In fact, they’d get more excited than ever. But you’re right. I’d better tell them. But leave that for now. Why didn’t the guys with the gold get onto me, or at least follow you to Cambridge?”
“Daniel forwarded the email to my home email address,” James said. “But I booked my flights and the hotel online at work, where we have great cyber defences, so even if they got as far as tracking me there, they wouldn’t have been able to find out my travel plans. But, thinking about it, I did set things up with the British Library, UCL and the others from home, so if they’d hacked me at home like we think, they’d know I’d be in London researching Crick and Burnet at those places at around this time. But they wouldn’t have picked up on Cambridge. Remember that Cam arranged all our access there himself, and I’ll bet he was careful to cover his tracks. And I never did anything online at home that related to Cambridge. I never emailed you, remember? I just told you the flights, the hotel, and the contact details for the places here in London and you did it all yourself. It’s possible that they never realised you were in on it.”
“That would explain things,” Anna agreed. “But we don’t really know. And now we know that they know about Tina and me, and we should assume they may even be able to work out who we are.”
“I suppose so,” said James. “They must have done some good work to be able to spot me just by having hacked my emails.”
“Don’t be silly, James,” Tina said. “I know you’re not big on social media, but there’s bound to be things online where they could find out exactly what you looked like. All they had to do was stake out a couple of the places they knew you’d be and eventually they’d spot you.”
“Maybe,” Anna intervened, “but more importantly, if they accessed your emails setting up things here in London, then we’ve got a big problem. We’ve got away from them, but they know that we’ve been to the Library and UCL. If they’ve got any sense, they’ll stake out the Crick Institute and the old Lister building and wait for us to turn up.”
“Or turn up back here at the Library,” James suggested with alarm.
“I don’t think so,” Tina said. “They’ll assume you’ve done whatever you wanted to do here.”
“What, walk through that literary exhibition, and spend a few minutes looking at Magna Carta?” James queried sceptically.
“The guys in jeans won’t know anything about what was in there, any more than I did,” Tina argued. “You only have to look at them to see they’re low-level operatives. If it was the suits, that might be different, but even if they were here following us and we didn’t spot them, they’d have seen Anna go upstairs. I think we’re safe.”
“Probably,” agreed Anna, “and if they followed us in we’d have seen them by now. It’s much more likely they’re at the Crick or the Lister. But Tina’s right, they looked pretty low level. And that’s worrying. If they’re not investigating which documents we’re looking at, what are they doing? We know that Cam got attacked.”
Anna gazed pensively at the roof while the others waited for her to speak.
Maybe the Crick Institute is too dangerous, she thought. It’s so close to the Library that it would make sense for them to stake out both, one at each, and join up once one of them spotted James. If that’s what they did they’d know we haven’t been to the Crick yet. Or maybe the suits and the others staked out all four places at the same time, so they know we haven’t been to the Lister either. Unless they didn’t spot Tina and me till we got involved at UCL, in which case they may now be guessing whether we’ve done the work at the Crick, or the Lister, or both. But there are enough of them to stake out both. We must assume that both places are being watched.
“Maybe we should drop the Lister at least,” Anna said, finally breaking the silence. “It was always a long shot.”
“No, I think I should go to the Lister,” James announced.
“I don’t want you hanging around public transport areas, or walking along open stretches of footpath,” Anna interjected.
“Taxi?” James suggested.
“What happens when you want to get back?” Anna asked.
“Uber?” James ventured.
“I still don’t like it,” Anna insisted. “There’s too much chance of some mix up leaving you hanging around outside the Lister because someone else has taken your ride.”
James was a trifle annoyed but didn’t want to overrule Anna on how to avoid danger. He brooded for a while, got out his phone and started tapping his screen. After a while he looked up.
“Here’s the plan,” he said. “There’s a hire car place inside St Pancras station. It’s very close, and there are lots of people milling around between here and there. I can go and pick up a car right on the spot and drive to the Lister. I’ll do a circuit in the car, and if it looks safe I’ll go in and check things out. If not, I’ll give it up and come straight back. Meanwhile, if it looks safe, you two check out the Crick Institute, and …”
“No way,” interrupted Tina angrily. “You’re not going anywhere on your own.”
James would very much have liked Tina with him. He knew from past experience his chances of staying safe would be orders of magnitude better with Tina present. But he also thought it was poor form to leave Anna on her own to tackle the Crick, even though he knew Anna was more capable of staying out of trouble than he was. Sexist? Maybe, but that was how he felt.
He also reasoned that on his own he might be able to blend in with some group walking past the entrance and duck in unobtrusively. There was nothing particularly remarkable about his height, build, appearance or clothing, and he thought it possible that he might, with luck, escape being spotted. Tina, on the other hand, had the kind of face and figure no normal man would
forget having seen before, and in the hot summer weather she wasn’t dressed to disguise those attributes. But he thought it might be tactless to focus on that argument, so he gave another reason for wanting to go alone.
“The jewellery guys were following me,” he argued, “and the suits were following you. So if both of us go to the old Lister building, if any of them are watching they’ll spot at least one of us. There’s got to be at least a chance that the suits aren’t so familiar with how I look, so if they’re at the Lister, I’ve got a better chance of getting away with it on my own.”
Tina began to protest, but Anna intervened.
“Don’t argue Tina,” she said calmly. Tina turned to her, furious, but the look on her sister’s face caused her to pause.
“Alright,” she said, staring at Anna, appearing to struggle to make her tone of voice neutral. James very nearly announced that he’d changed his mind and wanted her with him, but he told himself not to be a wimp, tapped out a message to the hire car company, stood up and marched off to his fate.
He was nervous as he walked hurriedly towards St Pancras, despite his confidence that their opponents would almost certainly be elsewhere. He picked up a car without incident and traversed his way across central London. When he turned into the broad straight sweep of Chelsea Bridge Road, with Battersea Power Station looming straight ahead and the greenery of the gardens to his right, he knew he was close to his objective. He began glancing apprehensively around the vicinity of the buildings near the river ahead to his left. He couldn’t see anyone resembling either set of pursuers, which didn’t altogether comfort him. If he saw them, he would, in deference to his promise to Anna, have turned tail. But merely not having spotted them gave him neither any real confidence that they weren’t hidden somewhere, nor an excuse to back out.
He couldn’t find a parking spot in front of the tall, red-brick Lister building, so he cruised around, navigating his way to an area behind a row of old houses adjoining it. There he found a large car park below, but adjacent to, his destination. There were some modern buildings along the opposite side of the car park – he couldn’t tell whether they were flats or offices – but he did see a pleasingly consistent stream of people walking in and out. Their presence might deter any thugs from initiating any unpleasantness.
Ahead was a flight of steps leading back up, he presumed, to Chelsea Bridge Road. From his drive down that street he’d seen the top of these where they came out almost next to the old Lister premises, so he decided to scale the steps, keeping a good lookout, and then hasten through the front entrance. He parked, left the vehicle, and headed off for his last roll of the dice at finding something to help Cam.
The building had long ago ceased being used as a scientific research centre and was now occupied by a private hospital. The receptionist confirmed that a Mr James Bentley was permitted to examine what few archives might contain some records of its former use, and if he would kindly wait, someone would be along soon to show him to the top floor and guide him to where the records were. He didn’t expect much. Burnet’s work there had been well before the contact with Crick he was investigating, and the change of use of the premises made it highly unlikely that anything of any interest would remain.
Still, it was slightly deflating, when eventually he did get to review the meagre pile of potentially relevant material, to discover, as expected, there was nothing of any note. He hoped Anna was having better luck at the Crick Institute. He departed the building, trotted back down the steps, and nearly fell over in shock when he saw lounging near a parked car two men in jeans and t-shirts, wearing an inordinate amount of gold jewellery.
They didn’t look like they wanted to cause any immediate trouble. But he didn’t like the way one of the men smirked at him, so he kept his distance as much as possible while heading back to the car. James thanked heavens that there were still a fair number of people around the car park. It occurred to him that he’d never found out what had happened to Cam, only that whatever it was, it hadn’t been an accident.
As he passed them, he noticed them move unhurriedly towards the doors of their own vehicle. James wondered how he would evade them after returning his own car to the car hire depot. Should he try to link up with the others, or would that just put them in danger for no benefit? He began to wish fervently he’d brought along …
“Tina!”
“Keys,” she demanded tersely, but with an air of quiet excitement, as he arrived at his car. James fumbled in his pockets.
“Keys,” she reiterated with exasperation. He handed them over and scurried to the passenger side door as Tina slid into the driver’s seat.
James had half expected, and hoped for, an immediate tyre-screeching exit. To his surprise, Tina examined the satellite navigator thoughtfully, glanced across at the stalkers’ car, and only then, with a smile of suppressed anticipation, put the car into gear.
Even then, she seemed in no hurry. She rolled the car slowly towards the exit of the car park, checking the mirrors as if to ensure that the following car was not falling behind. James felt an intense desire to implore Tina to show a bit of urgency in her approach to the situation. Britain, just like Australia, was a ‘drive on the left side of the road’ country with right-hand drive vehicles, so he couldn’t imagine that Tina was experiencing any difficulty adapting to the car. However, he reminded himself that in matters like this she was the expert and he was the novice, so he refrained from commenting.
At the car park exit, Tina watched and waited, missing at least one good chance to get onto the road in a gap for a single vehicle, and moving only when there was a large enough break in the traffic for their followers to swing on to the street immediately behind them as she turned right. James internally screamed with frustration, but rigidly forced himself to remain silent.
Tina then drove maddeningly slowly, still checking to make sure they were being tailgated, and kept going for some distance until they approached a large, wide intersection. She carefully indicated well in advance her intention to move into the lane allocated for the right-hand turn. She glanced in the mirror with evident satisfaction. James turned around to see the two heavies in the vehicle right behind them, which didn’t strike him as good grounds for Tina’s apparent equanimity.
The signal turned to green. Tina swung the car gently into the wide street heading approximately south. She cruised along slowly, as if to give James plenty of time to admire the imposing stuccoed houses to their left, and once again giving considerable advance warning of her intention to turn right as she steered the car across ready for the turn. It seemed to James that she deliberately missed the lights.
To their right was a small street, which then curved away to the left – what lay ahead was fully visible only for a short distance. On their left was a substantial road; traffic entering the intersection from it was crossing in front of their car, then turning into the street they were in and heading in the opposite direction, back the way they had come. There was no traffic signal giving Tina priority to turn right into the small road. James imagined that they would probably have a long wait after the lights changed, while all the cars that were banked up facing the opposite direction went through before the road was clear for them to proceed.
But he hadn’t reckoned on Tina. Cars stopped entering the intersection from the street to their left, from which James inferred that the lights on that street had turned red. Just as James was about to point something out to Tina, the last car from the left crossed their path, and Tina instantly hit the accelerator, swinging hard right and heading the car down the small side street, just as the lights turned green permitting the oncoming traffic to come through.
James hoped their pursuers would be cut off by the renewed flow of traffic but, to his dismay, their chasers followed suit, cutting across the oncoming cars, provoking a cacophony of angry tooting. They surged into the side street right behind them.
She’s misjudged it, thought James for an instant. If she’d
left it another fraction of a second before taking off … but he had no time to ponder that concept. The street led into an area of bitumen with a railing fence along the left and buildings straight ahead, large enough to turn a car in safely, but not, James thought with terror, large enough to do so at the speed Tina was travelling.
But even as James cowered instinctively as they rushed towards some massive walls looming ahead, Tina swung the steering wheel hard right, locking the brakes so the back wheels spun out left. The car screeched sideways to a near halt, and in the next instant she slammed down the accelerator. The tyres gripped and the car shot down another narrow thoroughfare heading off at a sharp angle to the right.
James couldn’t see properly in the rear-view mirror from his position in the passenger seat, but behind them he heard a highly gratifying sequence of screeching rubber, crumpling metal and shattering glass. Tina glanced in the mirror, grinned, and, to James’s relief, slowed to a more conventional speed.
“You meant that to happen, didn’t you?” he asked Tina, unable to conceal the admiration in his voice. She modestly refrained from replying. James’s euphoria at having seen off the enemy, however, was also tempered by shock at Tina’s dangerous exploits.
“What would have happened if there’d been someone in the way when we accelerated into the side street?” he asked.
Tina retorted that it had been a negligible risk, since she knew from the satellite navigator that the street led into the broad bitumen area, and she could see far enough ahead to know that there wasn’t anything there that she wouldn’t have been able to avoid.
“But what if a car was entering from the street we’re on now?”
The speed limit on that street was too low for that to be a problem, Tina replied. James wasn’t totally convinced by her explanations but knew that he could never prove her wrong. He did, though, point out that he had noticed, just before she had taken off, the side street was a one-way street, and she’d just broken the law. Tina dismissed the matter as being of minimal importance.