‘But he doesn’t know what just happened down in the tunnels?’
‘I don’t see how,’ I said. ‘He didn’t install the surveillance equipment in the Lodge, just made use of it. And since no one up here knew about the tunnels down there …’
‘Someone must have put the lights in,’ said Penny.
‘Good point,’ I said. I raised my voice and addressed the door. ‘Martin! Let us in, please. We need to talk.’
‘You honestly think that’s going to work?’ said Penny.
‘I have to try,’ I said. ‘I really don’t want this to end in violence. There’s been too much already.’
‘You can get reasonable at the strangest times, Ishmael,’ said Penny. ‘What about MacKay’s master key? Would that get us in?’
‘I doubt it,’ I said. ‘That’s one of the first things Martin would have protected himself against. Which is why I gave the key to Doyle.’
‘So what do we do?’ said Penny. ‘Wait for Doyle to bring MacKay down, and hope he’s got some ideas?’
‘I’ve done enough waiting,’ I said. ‘Stand back. I’m going to smash the lock’s keypad and see if I can do something inventive with the wiring …’
‘That won’t work!’ said Martin’s voice. It seemed to come from somewhere overhead, rather than the other side of the door. ‘I’ve isolated the door from the lock mechanisms. I’m the only one who can open it now. You can’t get in, and I’m not coming out. I don’t trust any of you. I’m staying right here, where I’m safe. How safe do you feel?’
And from behind us came the sound of heavy footsteps, approaching slowly and steadily across the entrance hall. When I turned to look, there was no one there. The hall was completely empty. The footsteps were slow and menacing, and coming straight for us. Penny glared about her.
‘This is really starting to get on my nerves!’
‘It’s just Martin,’ I said.
‘I know!’ said Penny. ‘But are you sure, Ishmael? It does sound very convincing …’
‘Sound is all it is,’ I said. ‘I’m not feeling any vibrations through the wooden floor, none of the physical side effects that should accompany impacts that heavy.’
I concentrated, listening carefully. Penny stood beside me, her hands clenched into fists. I turned my head back and forth, searching for the source of the sounds. Until finally my gaze fell on a vase of flowers standing on a side table. I strode over to it, pulled the flowers out of the vase and threw them aside, then smashed the vase to reveal the tiny speaker hidden inside. I held it up to show Penny and then closed my hand around it. And just like that, the footsteps now sounded muffled. I crushed the tech in my hand, and the sounds cut off. I opened my hand and let the tiny fragments fall away.
‘Son of a bitch!’ said Penny.
More footsteps started up, from another part of the hall. And then more, coming down the stairs. More and more footsteps, advancing on us from all sides at once until it sounded like an invisible army was tramping through the hall. And then they all stopped at the same moment, replaced by mocking laughter from Martin.
‘Fooled you …’
‘Not really,’ I said.
I marched back to the security centre and considered the closed door. Penny looked at me expectantly.
‘Could you smash it in?’
‘Almost certainly not,’ I said. ‘It’s too big and too heavy. If you drove a truck straight at it, you’d probably just write off the truck. This kind of door was designed to keep things out, to protect the sensitive information stored inside. Some heavy-duty explosives might do the job …’
‘Have you got any?’ said Penny.
‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m not that sort of spy.’
‘So how are we going to get in?’ said Penny.
‘Easy,’ I said. ‘I’ll talk Martin into opening the door for us.’
Penny raised an elegant eyebrow. ‘You really think you can get him to do that?’
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘I am an excellent judge of character.’
‘Best of luck,’ said Penny. ‘Maybe I should go see if there’s a crowbar in the kitchen.’
I raised my voice again. ‘Martin? You need to open this door.’
‘Pretty sure I don’t,’ said Martin.
‘But you do,’ I said. ‘Because I know something you don’t. Something you need to know.’
‘I really doubt that,’ said Martin. ‘From in here, I see all and hear all.’
‘Then you know we found the sliding panel on the upper floor,’ I said. ‘And you know we went inside. But you don’t know where we went or what we saw, and what we found.’
‘What makes you think I care?’ said Martin.
‘Because you’re the murderer, Martin,’ I said. ‘I know how you killed your victims, using the hidden tunnels to get around unnoticed. I’ve been inside the room where you dumped the bodies. I even know why you did it. And I’ve worked out the one thing you’ve forgotten. Which will mean all your hard work has been be for nothing. Can you really risk not knowing that?’
There was a long pause.
‘All right,’ said Martin. ‘Let’s talk about this.’
The door swung slowly open.
‘You’re damn good!’ said Penny.
I gave her my best ‘Told you so!’ look, and we went inside.
Martin was sitting on his swivel chair, his keyboard on his lap, surrounded by brightly glowing monitor screens, all of them working perfectly. He had a gun in his hand, trained on Penny and me. We came to a halt a respectful distance short of him. Martin smiled and aimed the gun squarely at Penny.
‘I saw how quick you were, Ishmael, when you jumped MacKay and took his gun. Very impressive. I’m still not sure how you did that. But while you’d undoubtedly be ready to risk your own life to take this gun away from me, like the good little secret agent you are … I don’t think you’re as ready to risk Penny’s life. Because if you even look like making a move I don’t like, I will shoot her.’
‘You little shit!’ said Penny. ‘What did you do with the heads?’
‘Oh, they’re around somewhere,’ said Martin, still smiling. ‘Now hush. Grown-ups talking.’
‘Stand very still, Penny,’ I said. ‘Don’t move an inch from where you are.’
‘Not a problem,’ she said.
‘Now, Penny,’ said Martin. ‘I know you’ve got MacKay’s gun. I saw you stick it in the back of your belt. So take it out, slowly and carefully, and drop it on the floor.’
Penny reached back behind her, took out the gun, and let it fall. I flinched, just a little. Guns can go off when you drop them, but it seemed Penny had taken the time to engage the safety.
‘Very good,’ said Martin. ‘Now kick it out of reach.’
Penny did so, not taking her eyes off Martin or his gun for a moment.
‘Where did you get your gun, Martin?’ I said.
‘I took it off Redd’s body,’ Martin said casually. ‘I already had the gun that I’d taken off Baxter, but I decided I preferred this one. It’s bigger. Now let’s talk about what you know, or think you know, Mister Big-time Secret Agent. Starting with how was I able to kill Parker without his cell ever being opened.’
‘That was one of the first things I worked out,’ I said steadily. ‘You opened Parker’s cell from here, then fixed the computer records afterwards to make it look as if the cell had never been unlocked.’
‘Very good!’ said Martin. ‘Haven’t I been a clever boy?’
‘Then all you had to do was check your screens to make sure the way was clear and you could go down to talk to Parker. You knew he wouldn’t be alarmed because, using your speakers, you had told him you were on your way.’
‘You are good,’ said Martin. ‘But is this the information you thought I needed to know? Because I really don’t … In fact, I’ll feel a lot safer when both of you are dead. So stand very still, please. I’d hate to miss you and hit something important.’
‘Are you sur
e you want to do this?’ Penny said quickly. ‘With help on the way? They could be here any time now.’
‘But there aren’t going to be any reinforcements, are there?’ I said to Martin. ‘Because no emergency call ever went out.’
‘Very good again!’ said Martin. ‘The call for help and support is supposed to go out automatically, but I had no trouble countermanding it. And then amending the records to make it look like it had gone out, and been received and acknowledged. Not that anyone ever checked. Because everyone trusts the techie. Everyone believes everything he tells them. If he says the computers have done something or the systems have gone down, they just accept it. Because he understands these things and they don’t. They never really think about what the man behind the curtain might really be up to.
‘I’ll contact Headquarters once you’re all dead. And when the reinforcements finally get here they’ll find me securely locked in the security centre, with computer records to confirm I never left and that all of the cameras have been down for some time. I’ll be ever so upset when they tell me everyone else has been murdered, by some mysterious opposition agent who got in and out through the unguarded lounge window.’
While he was still talking, smiling, and showing off, I aimed carefully and lashed out with my elbow to exactly where Penny was standing. Driving my elbow into her side, under her ribs, so as not to damage her. She fell over backwards, and I jumped Martin. He pulled the trigger a moment after I moved, but it was already too late. The bullet shot through the air where Penny had been standing, but she was already sprawling on the floor. Martin tried to turn the gun on me, but I just snatched it out of his hand, stepped back, and turned it on him.
Martin stared at me in shock, then his mouth went all wobbly, like a child who’s just had a treat taken away from him. I kept the gun trained on him as I heard Penny scramble back on to her feet behind me.
‘Are you all right, Penny?’
‘Yes,’ she said, just a bit breathlessly. ‘You might have given me a little warning, darling.’
‘That might have given the game away,’ I said.
Penny hunted around until she found the gun she’d dropped, and then she moved in beside me and aimed it at Martin. He sat slumped in his chair, scowling sullenly.
‘You’re not human!’ he said to me. ‘Nothing human could move that fast. What are you?’
‘A trained field agent for the Organization,’ I said.
Martin smiled suddenly. ‘So was Parker, and it didn’t save him. Not from someone who really wanted him dead.’
‘He trusted you,’ I said. ‘I won’t make that mistake. How did you find out about the secret tunnels, when even MacKay didn’t know about them?’
‘I spent a lot of time in the library here,’ said Martin, ‘because there wasn’t much else to do. I found this other history of Ringstone Lodge, which did mention the tunnels and the hidden entrances. I took the book, so no one else would find out, and used it to open the sliding panel on the top floor. And then I went exploring. Just for the fun of it. Of course, later on tunnels and hidden entrances made life so much easier for me.’
‘When you started murdering people!’ said Penny. ‘Are you sure we can’t just shoot him, Ishmael?’
‘Do you want to?’
‘Yes. I really do.’
‘That’s why we can’t,’ I said.
‘Well said, Mr Jones,’ said MacKay.
He marched in through the open door, with Doyle right behind him. I’d heard the two of them approaching across the entrance hall for some time, but I needed to give all my attention to Martin. I risked a quick glance back. MacKay had an ugly bruise on his jaw, but he wasn’t interested in me. He was staring at Martin as if he’d never seen him before. Doyle stood beside him, his gaze a very cold thing. There was only just enough room in the confined space for the two of them to crowd in beside Penny and me, so we could all glare at Martin. He snarled back at us, not looking even a little bit cowed or guilty.
‘You lied to me, Mr Martin,’ said MacKay. ‘Over and over, you lied to me. You even persuaded me Mr Jones had to be the murderer. Why? Why did you do all this?’
Martin refused to answer, so I answered for him.
‘Because Frank Parker was his father,’ I said. ‘When I first talked with Parker in his cell, he told me he left the country because he was forced to choose between his job and a woman he’d got pregnant. That was why he left the Organization – because they’d made him choose. But then he got old and decided he wanted to come home. To be with the family he’d never had, the only thing in his life he regretted. And when Martin told me he never knew his father, it seemed a bit of a coincidence. Even then.’
‘You’re so clever,’ said Martin. ‘But you don’t understand everything. I knew that the infamous Frank Parker was my father. Mother told me when she started getting ill. She’d never approved of my being in this business, but would never say why. Once I knew the truth, it all became clear. I never made any attempt to contact Parker … He’d left us, and as long as he was gone and couldn’t hurt my mother any more I didn’t care. But when I was told he was coming here it was like a sign. A chance at last to make him pay for what he did. To her, and to me.’
‘But why, man?’ said MacKay. ‘Why did you want to murder your own father?’
‘Because he went away and left us,’ said Martin. ‘I had to grow up without a father, and my mother had to work herself to death to support us. All so he could run around the world playing secret agent!’
‘He came back for you,’ I said.
‘Too little, too late,’ said Martin. ‘My mother died still waiting for him to come back to her.’
‘Did it never occur to you,’ I said, ‘that he left in order to protect you? No one knew your names, he made sure of that. If he had stayed, word could have got out and his enemies might have come after you, in order to get to him.’
‘I did think that, for a while,’ said Martin. ‘I made myself believe it, because cold comfort is better than none. But once I had access to the computers here, I was able to get into his files. And that’s when I found out what a cold self-centred bastard Frank Parker had always been. Oh, he tried to convince me otherwise when we talked in his cell, but I knew better. I stabbed him in the heart while he was still lying to me. He looked so surprised …’
‘He gave up so much, risked so much, to come home,’ said MacKay, ‘and you killed him.’
Martin looked at me craftily. ‘He did tell me things down in the cell. The names of all the traitors inside the Organization, and many other important things. Because he wanted to impress me. I’ve got the whole conversation recorded, and protected by my very best encryptions. If the Organization wants what’s on that recording, they’re going to have to make a deal with me. I want money and freedom from all charges … And a whole bunch of other things I’ll come up with later. My father’s information is going to buy me the kind of life I should have had. You can all look as disapproving as you want! You can’t touch me, any of you.’
‘Wrong,’ said Doyle. Something in his voice made us all turn to look at him. His smile was grim, and his eyes were fierce. ‘You forget who I am, and why I’m here. I will get the information out of you one way or another, Mr Martin. I am, after all, a professional interrogator and very highly motivated …’
For the first time, Martin seemed shaken. He looked at all of us, and found no comfort there.
‘You’d let him do it, wouldn’t you?’ he said. ‘You’d let him torture me!’
‘Murderers don’t get to take the moral high ground,’ I said.
MacKay shook his head slowly. When he spoke, he sounded heartbroken. ‘It never even occurred to me that you might be the killer. How could you, boy? Not just your own father, but all the others …’
‘They were in the way,’ said Martin. ‘And once I started, there was no going back. Don’t look at me like that, MacKay … How could I do it, after everything you’d done for me? Is that
what you were going to say? Because you were like a father to me? Well, now you know how I feel about fathers.’
‘All these deaths,’ said Penny. ‘Just because one little shit had Daddy issues …’
Martin sat up straight in his chair and fixed us all with a hard, confident smile. ‘You really should have been paying more attention, people. You should have taken my keyboard away as well as my gun. Because in my hands a keyboard can be even more dangerous. All the time we’ve been talking I’ve been quietly entering commands, and now I have complete control over the Lodge’s self-destruct system. I’ve also installed a dead man’s switch. If I take my hands from the keyboard, the command goes out and the whole place goes up. Unless you let me walk out of here, I’ll take you all with me.’
Penny looked to MacKay. ‘Does the Lodge have a self-destruct system?’
‘Unfortunately, yes,’ said MacKay. ‘To ensure that important information and people cannot fall into enemy hands. And it is controlled from here. Mr Martin should not be able to access the self-destruct system, but then he has been able to do a great many things I did not believe him capable of. If he has got past the safeguards and activated the device, he holds all our lives in his hands.’
‘You could just let me walk out of here,’ said Martin, ‘and make my deal with the Organization from a safer location. You don’t have to die.’
Penny looked at Doyle. ‘You’re the shrink. Would he do it?’
‘Well …’ said Doyle.
‘No,’ I said.
I lunged forward, punched Martin out, and snatched the keyboard from his hands. I broke it in two, just to be on the safe side, and threw the pieces away. Then I looked at the others, staring wide-eyed at me, and smiled.
‘I was keeping an eye on him all the time we were in here. I never saw him enter any commands. And he took both his hands off the keyboard more than once without being aware of it. Besides, he wasn’t the type to commit suicide. He wanted to live too much.’
‘That’s it?’ said Doyle. ‘You risked all our lives on a guess?’
‘I’m an excellent judge of character,’ I said. ‘Mostly.’
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