The Last Enemy

by Jim Eldridge

  ‘No,’ said Jake.

  ‘Which is a pity,’ said Guy. ‘Because there’s only one way to find out if your theory is correct, Jake, and that’s for you and me to go to this place and check.’

  Then he smiled, and from his pocket he took another ID card, virtually identical to Jake’s, except it had the number 5 in the same silver lettering on it.

  ‘Luckily for us, your friend Gareth Findlay-Weston was carrying his ID card on him when we picked him up. Look, Jake. Level Five. That means, with this card, I can get us into that hangar.’ He held it out towards Jake, and Jake could see that the photo of Gareth had been replaced with one of Guy.

  ‘Good, isn’t it,’ said Guy. ‘It’s wonderful what you can do these days with digital technology.’ Then he sighed. ‘However, this old pal of mine I spoke to told me there was an extra-tight piece of security about these ID passes, especially when getting into a high-level security area like this hangar at Laker Heath. Do you know what that is, Jake?’

  Jake felt his throat go dry and felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  ‘Yes,’ he said in a quiet voice that was almost a whisper.

  ‘And what is that extra piece of security?’ asked Guy, putting on a casual, relaxed air.

  He knows, thought Jake. He’s playing with me.

  ‘I’ll tell you, shall I, Jake,’ said Guy. ‘It’s a fingerprint. Index finger, right hand. So, you can see the problem, Jake,’ said Guy. ‘The photo may be of me, but it won’t match with my fingerprint.’

  ‘I’ll go there,’ said Jake desperately. He had to keep Guy on track with the idea that The Index was at Laker Heath and give them time to work out how to get away. ‘I’ll go in.’

  ‘But you can’t get into the hangar,’ said Guy. ‘Not with a Level Three security pass. And I don’t really trust you to go there on your own, Jake. You might not come back. You might run to the police, and tell them where we are.’ He shook his head. ‘No no, Jake, we can’t have that. You and I shall go to this place together and see if The Index is there. This Level Five card will get me in, and once I’m in, I’ll sneak you in with me. So all I need to make it work is an index finger.’ He smiled. ‘One that matches the fingerprint they’ll have on file for your friend, Gareth Findlay-Weston.

  ‘Now I could take him with me. But the problem is he looks a bit battered and his appearance might raise some awkward questions. So I think it’s safer for us if he stays here.’ He picked up the machete and gently swung it in his hand. Then he turned to Spider and Duke. ‘Spider, will you and Duke go down and bring Mr Findlay-Weston up here. I think he’s got something that I need.’ And he grinned.

  Chapter 23

  Jake was still feeling sick as he, Guy and Des stepped outside the castle into the fresh air. Gareth had been brought up from the dungeons and tied to the same heavy wooden chair where Lauren had sat. And then Duke had cut off Gareth’s index finger with a savage blow from the machete. Jake could still hear Gareth’s scream as the blade slicked through his finger and bit into the wood of the chair. They hadn’t bothered to use tape over his mouth to silence Gareth, as they had with Lauren.

  ‘Ice and a plastic bag, please, Midge,’ Guy had said, picking up Gareth’s finger from the floor.

  As Midge brought a paper cup and a plastic bag to Guy, Guy had grinned at Jake and said, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that these fast-food drive-throughs always give you too much ice with your drink!’

  Then Guy had scooped the ice from the cup into the plastic bag, dropped Gareth’s finger into it, and put it in his pocket, while Gareth was untied and dragged out of the room and back down to the dungeons.

  ‘I think we’re ready to go now, Jake,’ said Guy.

  Guy took the pistol from his pocket and showed it to Jake.

  ‘Just to remind you I’ve got this, Jake. Try anything and you’re dead. Remember, now I’ve got Mr Findlay-Weston’s finger and his ID card, I can still get into that hangar with or without you. At the moment I need you because you know what you’re looking for. But, at a pinch, I can try this without you. Just remember that.’

  He slid the gun back into his coat pocket.

  ‘Des, you keep an eye on things here.’

  Des looked concerned.

  ‘Don’t you want me to drive?’ he asked. ‘Say he tries anything?’

  Guy smiled confidently.

  ‘He won’t,’ he assured Des. ‘Because we’re going to have an arrangement.’ He turned to Jake and said, ‘Just in case you’re thinking that while we’re away from here, it’s worth trying to overpower me, or crash the car or something, and then get away and warn the authorities, that’s not a good idea. You see, I’m leaving Des with specific instructions.’ He looked at his watch. ‘It’s three o’clock now. It’ll take us about an hour to get to Laker Heath. Let’s be generous, say an hour and a half. Then half an hour inside to find The Index.’ He grinned cockily. ‘Let’s be generous again. Forty-five minutes.’ He turned to Des. ‘So, Des, if you don’t get a call from me by a quarter past five, you kill Jake’s girlfriend and the other two.’ He turned back to Jake. ‘How does that sound to you, Jake? Think we’ll have The Index by quarter past five?’

  Jake stared at Guy, shocked, his mind reeling. Yes, Guy was mad.

  ‘We don’t even know it’s there!’ he protested.

  ‘It was your guess, Jake,’ said Guy. ‘That’s what saved your girlfriend.’ He gave Jake a questioning look. ‘If you’re having second thoughts, we could always go back inside and . . .’

  At the thought of Lauren tied to the chair, and the sound of the machete crunching through Gareth’s finger, Jake shook his head.

  ‘No,’ he said quickly, feeling sick. ‘I’m sure it’s there.’

  ‘Good,’ said Guy. ‘Right, Des. Expect a phone call from me by quarter past five. If you don’t get it, kill them. Right, Jake, let’s go and get the car. You first.’

  ‘Where is it?’ asked Jake. ‘I didn’t see any cars when we came.’

  ‘That’s because you came in the back way,’ said Guy. ‘The front entrance is this way.’ And he pointed towards where the overgrown pathway headed towards a gap in the trees. Then he stopped, and dropped his hand, a startled expression on his face. Jake looked at what had made him stop, and saw that the three Mexicans who’d grabbed him and Lauren had just walked through this same gap and were standing glaring grimly at Guy.

  ‘Manolo!’ exclaimed Guy. The startled surprise had gone and been replaced by a friendly, cheerful tone of welcome. Yes, thought Jake ruefully, Guy really can switch his charm on and off. ‘You found me!’ Then, curious, he asked, ‘How?’

  ‘That’s not important,’ growled Manolo. He reached into his pocket and pulled a knife from it, the same knife he’d threatened Jake and Lauren with.

  ‘Well, I disagree, old friend,’ said Guy. ‘It’s important to me.’

  ‘You cheat us!’ snarled Manolo. ‘You promise us money, but then you sell us out.’

  ‘I did nothing of the sort!’ protested Guy.

  ‘Then where is money you promise us?’ demanded the angry Mexican.

  ‘I’ve got it safe,’ said Guy. ‘It’s in a bank.’

  Manolo scowled again.

  ‘Money in a bank no good to us,’ he grunted, and his two companions nodded. ‘You promise us cash.’

  ‘And you shall have cash,’ Guy assured them, his voice sincere and earnest.

  ‘When?’ demanded the Mexican harshly.

  ‘I can let you have some right now,’ said Guy. ‘Let’s call it a down payment.’

  ‘Let’s see this money!’ demanded Manolo suspiciously.

  Guy nodded, put his hand into his coat pocket, and pulled out the gun. Before the Mexicans could react or take a cover, he pressed the trigger and a stream of bullets poured out, with Guy spraying the gunfire back and forth, left and right. It was over in seconds. Jake stared in horror at the bodies of the three dead Mexicans sprawled on the ground.

  Guy took a
fresh clip of ammunition from his pocket and replaced the empty clip in the gun, then put the weapon back in his pocket. He turned to Jake with a broad smile on his face.

  ‘See, Jake!’ he said. ‘What did I tell you! The Hechler and Koch MP5K! A fantastic piece of kit!’

  The sound of gunfire had brought the others out of the ruins. They stared at the bodies of the dead Mexicans.

  ‘Nosy people,’ explained Guy airily. ‘They could have got us into trouble. You’d better get rid of them while Jake and I are away. Bury them somewhere. Oh, and you’d better go and find their car. Take it and set fire to it, but do it somewhere away from here. We don’t want any more people sniffing around.’

  He gestured at Jake.

  ‘Right, Jake. Let’s you and I do what we have to.’ He looked at his watch. ‘We lost a bit of time with that interruption, Des, so let’s say we’ll make it half past five before I call you. OK?’

  Des nodded. Guy hesitated, and then he walked back to Des and whispered something in his ear. Des nodded. Guy smiled. Then he rejoined Jake.

  ‘OK, Jake. Let’s you and I head for Laker Heath.’

  Chapter 24

  They were in the SUV with the blacked-out windows, on their way to the base at Laker Heath. Jake was driving. Guy sat directly behind him, the gun on his lap. ‘Just to remind you, Jake,’ Guy had warned him. ‘Try anything odd, pulling over, using the flashers to attract attention, crashing the car, anything, and I pull the trigger and you’re dead.’

  Now, as Jake drove, he heard a metallic sound from behind him.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he demanded suspiciously. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘My, you do have sharp ears,’ murmured Guy. ‘I’m fitting a suppressor to the barrel of the gun.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Jake.

  ‘Why?’ repeated Guy. ‘Honestly, Jake, for someone who’s supposed to be intelligent, you do ask the most stupid questions. We’re going to be in a hangar on a top-secret base. It’s possible that we may run into trouble, and I may have to use this. In which case, the noise of the gun going off would draw attention to us, which is not something I want.’ His tone changed to chattiness as he added, ‘Just to clarify, a suppressor — or silencer as most people call them — doesn’t actually completely eliminate the sound of the gun going off. It just reduces it. Did you know there are five different categories of gun noise? Action, blast, sonic signature, impact and operation. The two loudest noises are muzzle blast and sonic signature, and that’s what this little baby deals with.’ Jake heard the note that was almost one of affection in Guy’s voice.

  As he drove, Jake’s mind was rapidly wondering how he could get out of this, what he could do to overpower Guy, get hold of the gun, and use it to threaten Guy. Order him to make that call to Des and call him off, or Jake would kill him. But that would be difficult, if not impossible, to do while they were driving. Especially because he had to keep their speed up. He couldn’t afford to slow down, not if they were going to get to Laker Heath in an hour.

  ‘I do hope you’re right about The Index being there,’ murmured Guy. ‘It would be a great pity to have to kill your girlfriend. She seems like a very nice person.’

  ‘How do I know you won’t kill her anyway?’ asked Jake. ‘And me. And Dan and Gareth.’

  He was remembering the callously indifferent way that Guy had killed the Mexicans. Killing people was nothing to him.

  ‘Jake, I’m disappointed in you,’ said Guy. ‘I like you, Jake. You’ve been enormously helpful to me. Without you, I wouldn’t have got this far.’

  ‘That still doesn’t mean you won’t kill me,’ said Jake.

  In the rear-view mirror, Jake saw Guy shake his head, and heard him give a sigh of disappointment.

  ‘You’ve got me all wrong, Jake,’ he said. ‘I only kill people who get in my way, or interfere with my plans. You’re helping me, Jake. I have no reason to kill you.’

  You have every reason, thought Jake bitterly. For one thing, I’m a witness to you killing those three Mexicans, and chopping off Gareth’s finger, and everything else that’s been going on. But it would be foolish to say those thoughts out loud, he thought. Better to let Guy think that he believed that Guy was going to let them all go, even though it was obviously a lie. Maybe because Guy was insane, he really believed he meant something at the time he said it. That was why he was so persuasive and believable with his charm. Perhaps the best thing was to lull Guy into a sense of relaxation, of confidence; and then grab him when the opportunity arose, when he had become too relaxed. Get him to talk. Get him to boast. People like Guy love talking about themselves and how clever they think they are.

  ‘One thing I don’t understand, Guy,’ he said. ‘Why all these games?’

  ‘Games?’

  ‘You know, pretending to be trapped. Needing to be rescued. Why that business at de Courcey Hall with Spider holding that gun on you?’

  Guy laughed.

  ‘Yes, I thought that was clever,’ he said. ‘Though I must admit you began to worry me, taking so long to get there. Do you know how long we had to hang around in that car park waiting for you to arrive? You were so slow, so stupid, Jake! I’d worked out that the books might be in the old library ages before you did.’

  ‘But why do it?’

  ‘Because I needed you to think I was the victim here. And I needed you to keep telling the police that, while at the same time I was telling them I was fine. It’s called confusion, Jake. And it also meant the police were getting more and more irritated by you, and more and more suspicious of what your motives were. You were my scapegoat, Jake, right from the very beginning. Even before I shot Alex Munro. I assume your friend, Mr Findlay-Weston, told you that was me.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Jake. ‘But I don’t know why you did it?’

  ‘Like I said, I needed a scapegoat, someone to take the heat off me, and you were perfect for it.

  ‘When Alex Munro contacted me to ask about The Index, and about the Order of Malichea, he told me there were three people who knew more about it than even he did. You, your girlfriend, and Gareth Findlay-Weston of MI5, whose cover was as the Head of the Department of Science Press Department. I must admit I thought it was a bit strange him telling me all this, but I discovered that was his style: a pretend openness. Telling me the bits he thought might pull me in.

  ‘Unfortunately, by doing that he was signing his own death warrant. Once I knew that, and that Munro didn’t have the information, I decided to bring you into the game. But as Munro had already told me you were a wild card, you had to be handled with caution. So, I decided to put you in the frame for killing Munro. Along with me, of course. I thought that would make sure we met.’

  ‘How were you able to shoot Munro?’ asked Jake. ‘He always had bodyguards with him.’

  ‘I set up a situation where he’d make a good target,’ said Guy. ‘I’m a pretty good shot. I was brought up to shoot. I’ve been using a rifle since I was eight.’ He grinned. ‘Being able to handle a gun has got me out of trouble on more than one occasion. It was a difficult shot. I guessed it had to be a head shot just in case Munro was wearing body armour, or something.’ He chuckled. ‘It was perfect. His head exploded like a melon!’

  ‘So that was you who sent me the text about meeting at Muswell Hill?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘How did you manage to get my name along with yours into his schedule for the meeting at Crouch End? I suppose you hacked into his diary?’

  ‘No need,’ said Guy. ‘I told him I’d been in touch with you, and you had agreed to come along. Much simpler. He was very pleased.’

  ‘What about the Mexicans?’

  Guy grinned.

  ‘Ah, the Mexicans!’ He smiled nostalgically. ‘Manolo, Pedro and Almador. Wonderful chaps! It was them I was working with when I landed in jail in Mexico.’ He chuckled. ‘Well, when I say “working with”, what I really mean is, I was ripping them off. Unfortunately for me, they found out about it,
so when they discovered I was going to be released, they pointed out to me that I owed them.’ He shrugged ruefully. ‘And they didn’t mean just the money I’d planned to take off them. They meant my life.’ He gave a shrug. ‘Injured macho pride. Revenge. Whatever you like to call it, it meant the same thing. They wanted the money I’d promised them, and then they were going to kill me.’

  He let out an unhappy sigh and fell silent.

  ‘So?’ prompted Jake quickly, desperate to keep him talking.

  ‘So, when they realised that I was involved in something back in England that could mean big bucks, mucho dollars, they insisted they come along too. They saw me as an investment. Of course, I was happy to go along with that until we got back here.’ He chuckled. ‘Believe me, Jake, if I hadn’t gone along with it, I wouldn’t have got out of Mexico alive.’

  ‘And, once you were in England, you double-crossed them.’

  ‘They were going to kill me, Jake!’

  ‘And what about Pierce Randall?’

  ‘Ah, yes. Pierce Randall!’ And Jake could hear the smile in Guy’s voice. ‘The most powerful firm of lawyers in the world! People who think they have absolute power are always the easiest to fool.’

  ‘How did you do it? Manage to convince the police you were with Pierce Randall, while you weren’t?’

  ‘But I was working with them, Jake!’ said Guy, his voice full of fake protest. Then he chuckled. ‘At least, they thought I was. Remember, I was bailed into their custody, but that didn’t mean I had to stay with them. And, because Pierce Randall were keen to keep me happy, because they wanted me to find The Index for them, they let me do my own thing as far as where I stayed while I was out on bail.’ He laughed again. ‘All right, I wasn’t exactly honest with them about where I was, or what I was up to, but these are lawyers. And with very dubious morals, as I’m sure you know. So you could say I played them at their own game.’

  ‘How?’ asked Jake.

  Guy gave a pretend weary sigh.

  ‘If we had time I’d tell you every little bit of how I played everyone off against one another,’ he said smugly.