Hikers - The Collection (Complete Box Set of 5 Books)

by Lauren Algeo

  Brewer poured himself a cup of black tea from the pot on the table and took a biscuit from the tray. He’d been too nervous to eat much of the fried breakfast Ellen had made that morning and his stomach felt empty.

  ‘We should go for that drink when we get some time off.’ Adders finally put his phone down. ‘I know some great places.’

  ‘You know seedy places.’ Richards sniffed from behind his paper.

  ‘I didn’t hear you complaining when we went to that new strip club!’ Adders laughed.

  Brewer smiled at their banter although inside he was shaking his head. The team had to let off steam whenever they got time off but being seen in strip clubs wasn’t going to help their reputation. The media had already decided they were incompetent and any debauchery behaviour wasn’t going to help their cause. He couldn’t imagine that they were quiet, innocuous men after a few beers… well, except for Seok. He glanced up to see the man watching him solemnly from across the table. His face was unreadable.

  If anyone were going to pose a problem when Brewer carried out his real task, it would be him. Richards was all mouth and Adders would be easy to palm off. Seok would be the one to watch him carefully and get suspicious if anything was off.

  Brewer would have to bide his time for a little while until he’d settled in and they trusted him more. Right now he was an unwelcome stranger. Not that he could act on the main plan yet, they didn’t actually have any insulin to use on Daniel. Ellen’s job was to track some down while he was at work. They didn’t want to trouble Mitch for any of his – he’d had a hard time getting replacements from his doctor last time they’d used his insulin pens. They’d devised a loose plan that he hoped would work.

  The first step was recon. They needed to know the layout of the building and where Daniel spent most of his time. Brewer would know Connors’ schedule but he had to make note of the rest of the family’s movements. Were there any times when Daniel was left alone? How many staff were around? Which ones were still there in the evenings?

  It would be hard for Brewer to move around freely to find it all out so gaining the team’s trust was key. They had to think nothing of it if he disappeared for short periods of time. Blaming his age for the need to go to the bathroom more often was one excuse he’d managed to come up with. Checking out perimeter security was another.

  The next step was getting the insulin, which Ellen was taking care of, and finding a way for him to carry it around undetected, in case a sudden opportunity presented itself. They had his medical records so he couldn’t lie and say he was a diabetic. They’d settled on a small case, similar to the one he and Georgie had used for the meningitis blood. He could keep it in his suit inside pocket or strap it under his shirts discreetly if they were baggy enough.

  Finding out what Daniel was up to was another factor. The boy would have plenty of plans up his sleeve for mass pain and chaos, and they needed to stop him before he acted on too many of them. So far since Davenport’s suicide, there had only been the financial implosion of Lawsons. Brewer knew that the chairman, Sam, had been at Downing Street on the day of his erratic behaviour so he suspected that Daniel had something to do with it. The boy could have manipulated Sam’s mind to get him to publicly humiliate himself, or hacked into his private accounts from the passwords in his memories.

  From his experience, hikers wanted death and pain but that had previously been taught to them. They’d had the Grand or Master, and plenty of elders, to show them the way. Daniel was on his own so he was more unpredictable. He’d caused death before, and clearly enjoyed it judging by the spectacle of Davenport’s demise. They didn’t know how many other people he’d killed before, or how much pain he’d inflicted, but he would do it again.

  The Lawsons aspect was interesting. Without any guidance, Daniel would be using his power however he chose. Causing a financial crisis was one way to prolong people’s pain. Money could just be the first point on a long list. Who would he target next? The boy had access to plenty of high profile people and the damage he could cause was unthinkable.

  Brewer knew there was a NATO summit in the UK in a few weeks that would have most of the world’s leaders present. The president of the United States, the Prime Minister of Russia, the Chancellor of Germany; there were over 150 leaders on the list. It was supposed to be a peace summit but if Daniel got near any of those minds then wars could be started. They had to put a stop to him before then.

  Brewer sat on one of the dining room chairs and sipped his tea. He could see that Richards was reading the sports section of the newspaper and tried to think of something to say to begin the bonding. Adders beat him to it by starting a different conversation.

  ‘You’re married then?’ he asked, pointing to the thin, white gold band on Brewer’s left hand.

  ‘Yes. I’ve been married for a while.’ Brewer didn’t want to go into too much detail. If he said that Ellen was his second wife then they would ask about his first and he really didn’t want to tell them about Karen.

  Adders shook his head. ‘You’re in for some long, erratic hours. She’s going to get pissed at you. Should have stayed a bachelor like us.’ He gestured to himself and Richards. ‘What made you want to join this ugly lot anyway?’

  There was the question Brewer had been dreading. He saw Richards sit up straighter in his seat and knew the man would be waiting to find out how he explained it.

  ‘It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,’ he said carefully. ‘It’s a really interesting field and I thought I could bring something to the team so I applied.’

  ‘For a job that wasn’t available,’ Richards muttered from behind his paper. ‘I guess sometimes it’s just who you know high up.’

  It was a barbed comment and Brewer tried to bite his tongue. He didn’t want to have an argument on his first day. ‘I think I have a lot to offer,’ he said amicably.

  Richards put down his paper and looked at Brewer with his cool eyes. ‘I’m sure there’s plenty you can share with us about how to catch teenage shoplifters, eh?’

  ‘Sure,’ Brewer nodded, unable to hold back any longer. ‘And how to protect a Prime Minister efficiently. Last week I saw that Connors was standing on a crowded street, alone, chatting to members of the public for nearly five minutes while you guys idled by the car. I’d suggest that with the constant threat of suicide bombers, you keep the primary target moving.’

  Richards bristled and opened his mouth to form an angry retort but Connors chose that moment to appear in the doorway.

  ‘Ready to go?’ he asked the tense room.

  ‘Sure.’ Brewer got instantly to his feet.

  Richards was glaring at him but said nothing. Adders gave him a smirk as he stood up as well, he liked seeing Richards brought down a peg. Seok was watching silently and his expression hadn’t changed at all, which Brewer found very unnerving. This was going to be a challenge.

  Chapter 12

  Ellen was waiting eagerly at the living room door when Brewer got home at 8pm. She was absentmindedly chewing her bottom lip but her eyes were hopeful.

  ‘How did your first day go?’ she asked. ‘Did you see Daniel?’

  ‘Not yet,’ Brewer shook his head. ‘It was a tough day.’

  ‘Your dinner’s warming in the oven, let me get it out and then you can fill me in.’ She darted off to the kitchen before he could respond.

  Brewer was exhausted and the last thing he felt like doing was talking but he knew she was desperate to hear everything.

  ‘I’m going to change first,’ he called to Ellen. ‘Give me five minutes.’

  He walked up the stairs, shrugging off his suit jacket on the way. He couldn’t wait to get into a comfy jumper and jeans. When he reached the bedroom, he stripped off the rest of his clothes then sat on the edge of the bed in his boxer shorts. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to release some of the tension in his shoulders. This was only the beginning of a long journey.

  ‘You’re getting old,’ he mutter
ed to his reflection in the wardrobe mirror.

  He’d endured far worse than today but he felt weary. The long hours and commuting into London were going to take it out of him. He wanted to lie down on the soft bed and go to sleep; instead he stood up and got some casual clothes out of the wardrobe. By the time he got downstairs, Ellen had set out his dinner on the dining table and put a glass of Jack Daniels next to his plate.

  ‘You looked as though you needed it,’ she said as he sat down.

  Brewer took in the steaming chicken pie, mash and vegetables in front of him and his stomach rumbled in anticipation. He’d only had a sandwich for lunch and that seemed like days ago.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said.

  He picked up the glass of JD first and took a large gulp. The familiar liquid instantly burned its way to his empty stomach.

  Ellen sat down on the seat next to him with a glass of white wine. She waited until he’d eaten a few mouthfuls of his dinner before asking the questions that were bursting to come out.

  ‘What was Connors like? Do the team look as though they’ll be a problem?’

  Brewer put down his fork and took another sip of JD before answering. ‘Connors is actually a decent man. He’s smart and confident, and he genuinely wants to help the country.’

  Brewer had managed to chat to him a bit more after the Lawsons meeting and could see why people liked him.

  ‘He’d advanced pretty far in his career before they adopted Daniel and I don’t think the boy would have spent too much time working on him. He probably just influences everyone around them. I think Connors would be too receptive to the sensation.’

  Brewer remembered clearly the uncomfortable feeling of a hiker scratching around in his mind. Connors was sharp and would question any whispering. Brewer hadn’t himself the first time – not when he’d been in so much pain and the voice had made so much sense – but he hadn’t been able to mistake it afterwards. Connors may have been through a recent trauma with Davenport’s death but he couldn’t imagine him listening to any alien presence in his mind.

  ‘He does seem like a good politician,’ Ellen nodded. ‘It’s not his fault he adopted a complete psychopath as a son and unwittingly gave him access to the most powerful people in the world.’

  Brewer chewed some more of the homemade pie. ‘Speaking of the world,’ he swallowed. ‘There’s going to be a NATO summit in a few weeks with plenty of world leaders in attendance. I have a horrible feeling that Daniel will have something up his sleeve for that.’

  ‘I’m working on getting the insulin from some websites,’ Ellen said. ‘If we haven’t got any in a few days we’re going to have to ask Mitch to send some though. We can’t let Daniel near those people.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Brewer said. ‘No one wants a war started.’

  ‘What about the team?’ Ellen asked.

  Brewer quickly got her up to speed on the three men he was working with. After the tension in the morning, they’d warmed to him slightly throughout the afternoon. Adders was the friendliest and he chatted to Brewer about football and rugby while they waited for Connors outside one of his meetings. Adders had been a police officer for about ten years before joining the Specialist Branch. Brewer couldn’t see him advancing very high in the Met so it was a good career move for him.

  Richards and Seok were far less forthcoming. He’d found out from Adders that Seok was ex-Special Forces and had been with the SO1 team for just over a year. He was a quiet man and Adders didn’t know much about his home life and interests. Adders himself was divorced and had a daughter who was eight years old. His ex-wife had moved away when they split up and with his long hours working for Connors, he didn’t get to see his daughter very often.

  Richards had been curt with Brewer whenever they spoke that afternoon. It was partly down to their run-in that morning and partly because of Richards’ nose being put out of joint by his arrival. He could tell that Richards was a proud man and he didn’t like someone who he deemed unqualified coming in and telling him how to run his team. Adders had told him that Richards used to be a Sergeant for the Met and he wondered why he had turned to Specialist Protection instead. Perhaps he would ask if Richards ever became more amicable towards him.

  ‘They sound like hard work,’ Ellen said when Brewer had finished filling her in.

  ‘Adders will be ok,’ Brewer said. ‘It’s Richards and Seok who will be watching my every move. Richards definitely wants me out and he’ll be looking for any excuse to make it happen.’

  Brewer ate another bite of pie although his appetite was already fading. The food stuck in his throat and he washed it down with some more JD.

  ‘Seok seems like the one to watch,’ Ellen mused. ‘Who knows what he did for the Special Forces. It sounds as though he observes everything so you’ll need to keep as discreet as possible.’

  ‘I will.’ Brewer put his fork down. ‘I’m going to try and sneak around the building tomorrow to find out where Daniel spends his time.’

  ‘As long as you don’t draw any suspicion.’ Ellen patted his hand. ‘I don’t want you getting kicked out before we’ve had a chance to action the plan.’

  Brewer sipped some more of his JD and said nothing. He knew all too well how important this was and Ellen reiterating it didn’t help. His eyes roamed over the research board at the end of the table. Ellen had added some more newspaper cuttings while he’d been at work. They were mainly tracking Connors’ movements but they didn’t need those any more – he had first-hand access to the PM’s schedule.

  ‘Connors has got a busy week ahead with the Lawsons collapse,’ Brewer told her. ‘We’re going to an emergency finance meeting tomorrow morning then he’s got some conferences with the Home Secretary and Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the afternoon. They’re both at Downing Street so I can do a sweep of the place then. I might be able to get away with a few short trips without the team getting suspicious.’

  ‘I’m sure you’re allowed breaks to make calls and things,’ Ellen said. ‘Could you ask to use a room for privacy then sneak around?’

  ‘The place is like a maze,’ Brewer told her. ‘There are so many different people working out of there. I have no idea who most of them are. The staff are easy to spot but I bumped into countless men in smart suits today who could have been Ministers or MPs or other security. I’m going to play on being new if anyone stops me. I’ll just babble on about it being my first week and pretend I’m lost looking for the toilets or something.’

  They had some printouts of the floor plans of Downing Street from the internet which, understandably, weren’t completely up-to-date for security reasons. Brewer would need to add his own notes to them so they were more accurate.

  ‘Are you going to take any photos?’ Ellen asked. ‘We might need room layouts and exits for the areas Daniel spends his time in.’

  ‘It’s too risky,’ Brewer shook his head. ‘If they catch me taking pictures on my mobile, they’ll want to know why. Even if I claim it’s to check the security of the building, I don’t think they’d buy it. My job’s to help improve the efficiency of the team on outside visits, not check out the weak points of the building ­– they have their own security outside there. It’ll be hard enough explaining why I’m somewhere I shouldn’t be in the first place. I’ll just take notes.’

  ‘Sounds good.’

  Ellen waited until he’d finished all the dinner he could manage then went into the living room while he tidied away his plate and poured himself another double shot of JD.

  ‘I forgot to say that I’ll be out on Saturday night.’ Ellen glanced up from her mobile as he joined her in the living room. ‘It had completely slipped my mind until Trudy reminded me earlier. We’ve got her niece’s hen do in London.’

  Brewer nodded although he wasn’t really paying attention. All he could picture was getting caught trying to sneak in to the Prime Minister’s living quarters. The consequences would be too great if he failed at this.

  Chapter 13


  Brewer took a deep breath and prepared himself to say the line that he’d been rehearsing for the last ten minutes. The team were all in the Downing Street communal dining room again, finishing lunch. Brewer had managed to eat half a cheese sandwich but he felt too tense to have anything else. The other guys had enthusiastically tucked into the platter of sandwiches one of the staff had brought them.

  It had been a long morning, with nearly an hour of that spent stuck in traffic. Brewer had been on edge the whole time, just counting down until they got back to Downing Street so he could assess the building in more detail. He didn’t know what was wrong with him, he’d faced far more dangerous and stressful situations in the past but this was really taking it out of him. All he had to do was find out where Daniel spent his time, it wasn’t like he was walking up to the Master’s house to try and save Ellen’s life, or getting ready to take on the Grand with Georgie.

  This was a simple task, yet he couldn’t eat or sleep properly. He’d tossed and turned for hours last night, unable to switch his mind off. Who knew how bad he was going to be when the time came to actually put their plan into action. When he had a syringe tucked under his clothes and was on his way to kill Daniel. The very thought made his palms sweat and his legs shake.

  Had he gotten soft with age? Was this how a normal person would react if they hadn’t survived everything he’d gone through in the past? Only he had faced worse than this before. He had the experience and the mental strength, so why was he such a wreck because of one little boy?

  Deep down he knew it was because he had so much to lose now. He’d grown comfortable with his safe, uneventful life and lost his edge. Back then, when it had all begun, he’d been in the depths of grief over Karen’s loss and extremely angry. He’d rushed into things head-on with no regard for his own safety. He’d been lost. Drifting.

  Even when Georgie had joined him, he’d been prepared to end his life to save hers, and again when Ellen had been taken. He hadn’t felt that his life was worth it and didn’t value anything as much as the love he’d felt for Karen. Her loss, and Georgie’s after, had devastated him. In a way, he’d been empty.