by Chris Ryan
Pointer backed away. 'Calm, Matt, calm,' he said quickly. 'We're just having a hypothetical conversation.'
'Let's keep it that way.'
'You've got a month, Matt,' said Pointer. 'Then we come after you. And you can shout and scream and threaten all you like, but remember this: we don't give a fuck if you've been in the Regiment or not. To me you're all just a bunch of pussies. And anyway, there is no back-up. You are just one man, and we're an organisation. We'll kill you, and then we'll cut her up, and there's nothing you can do to stop us.'
Matt looked straight into Pointer's eyes: it was like gazing into the face of a statue, he thought. 'Where the hell am I going to get half a million pounds in a month?'
THREE
The look in the man's eyes told Matt everything he needed to know. There wasn't any money. There never would be any money.
I'm just an embarrassment. They want to get rid of me.
Eddie Addler shifted his pen from one side of his desk to the other. His eyes darted up to the window, then to the door, then to one of the oil paintings hanging on the wall. Anything, Matt thought, to avoid looking me in the eye.
'I'm sorry, but I don't think there is anything we can do,' said Addler. 'With the state of your portfolio, there's just no chance of giving you any more credit.'
Tatton & Friedland was a private bank set up only seven years previously, but its St James's Place offices had been decorated to make it look far older. There was wood panelling on the walls, which were adorned with stuffed fish in cases and a collection of oil paintings of dogs and huntsmen. Matt had felt instinctively uncomfortable the first time he had set foot in the place. He should have trusted his instincts.
'If I could get some collateral, I was thinking maybe I could trade my way out of trouble.'
Harry Stroller had introduced Matt to Addler, back when he was still working for him full-time. At first Matt had dabbled in just a few shares, dealing through his usual bank account. As Stroller's tips had made him wealthier, he'd suggested Matt get himself a proper banker. Tatton & Friedland dealt with a small group of rich clients, mostly technology entrepreneurs or City bankers. You needed a quarter of a million to invest to get through the door. Matt had only just qualified.
'In these markets, Mr Browning, I can't help feeling you'd just be trading yourself into more trouble.' Matt could hear the pained tone in Addler's voice: polite still, but on the brink of rudeness.
'I made money before, I can make it again,' said Matt.
'From these records, I see you made a lot of money trading while you were working for Mr Stroller,' said Addler, looking at the computer screen on his desk. 'Spotting which internet and technology shares were moving up. Maybe Mr Stroller was discussing his own thoughts with you – I can't judge. Since you stopped working for him, you have made a series of investments on your own. You had a half-million in your portfolio, now you are down half a million.' He paused, looking directly at Matt for the first time. 'Let me give you some advice. You're a soldier by training. You're good at it, I'm sure. Trading shares is different. Even the best City operators are losing money this year. Do yourself a favour. Stay out of the game.'
Matt swallowed hard. 'I'm in a jam,' he said. 'I need to make that money back, and I need to make it quickly.'
Addler's eyes moved back to his computer screen. His expression closed. 'I'm sorry,' he said coldly. 'We're a bank. We can't help you. We'd like to help you – we'd like to help lots of people – but we can't. That's business.'
The offices were almost empty compared to the last time he had been there. Ark Technology Systems occupied a refurbished warehouse in Clerkenwell, its insides gutted and rebuilt with stainless steel floors, frosted glass partitions and plasma screens covering every wall. Each desk had once been home to at least two computers, and there'd been so many girls running around in short black skirts and tight T-shirts that Matt had found it impossible to concentrate on the work. Not that there had been much to do. As Harry Stroller had admitted after a few beers one night, bodyguards were mostly there for show, part of convincing the investors they had a big business worth protecting. Bill Gates had a bodyguard, so Ark had one too. Like the plasma screens, and the immaculately groomed receptionists, Matt was there mainly for decoration.
The decorations were all gone now. It was like walking through a house that had been left empty for a few years. A chilled emptiness had descended on the building, and dust was gathering in the corners. There was still a receptionist, and maybe two dozen people occupying a few of the hundred or more desks. But Ark was a pale, waning shadow of what it once had been.
Stroller shook Matt warmly by the hand. A broad grin was playing on his face. He was a short man, just over five foot five, with broad shoulders and black hair that was thinning on top, but sporting a thick, neatly trimmed goatee beard. 'I don't need a bodyguard, Matt,' he said. 'The only people likely to kill me are my shareholders.'
'That bad?'
Stroller turned on his heels and walked back towards his own desk in the centre of the main floor. He'd always refused to have his own office – very 'old economy', he used to point out – even though Matt had argued that it was impossible to protect anyone adequately who worked in an open-place space. Now it didn't matter any more. There were so few people around, the third floor was a private office.
'Look at this place,' said Harry. 'Hardly recognise it, do you? The good times have gone. The orders have dried up, and the venture capitalists aren't taking my calls any more. Heck, I can't even get a date.' Stroller leant back in his chair and swung his right foot on to the desk. 'Internet billionaire had a kind of ring to it. Chicks went for that. Close-to-bankrupt computer nerd doesn't work the same kind of magic.' He paused. 'But, hey, when's the wedding?'
'There isn't going to be a wedding,' said Matt. 'I can't afford to look after myself, never mind Gill.'
'You're in a mess?'
'The worst mess I've ever been in,' Matt confessed.
'I lost all the money I made when I was working for you, and I lost a whole lot more as well. The people I owe it to want it back.'
'And you were wondering if any of my friends might need a guard,' said Stroller. 'Somebody who might share a few stock tips with you?'
Matt paused. Once you got used to the taste, he reasoned, swallowing your pride wasn't so hard. 'If there was anyone on the circuit who needed a reliable man, I could use a break.'
'I like you, Matt – but let me tell you something,' said Stroller, standing up from his desk, his expression suggesting he was fast losing interest in the conversation. 'You know what I've learned about life over the last few months. When you're down, you're down, and nobody wants to help you. I can't even help myself.'
The words were still echoing through Matt's mind as he stepped back on to the street. A year before, he had bought himself a one-bedroom flat close to Holborn. The plan had been to use it on his trips to London – back when he thought he was still a big shot who had to fly home to see his banker. It might have been a good investment, but the place now was mortgaged to the hilt, and the bank was already threatening to repossess it. Four months had passed since Matt last made a mortgage payment, and right now there was no chance of making one.
The walk took about twenty minutes. Matt could have hopped on a bus or taken a cab, but he reckoned he needed the time to clear his mind. When he'd flown to London he hadn't been sure what he was looking for. A way out. Another loan, or a new job . . .
Harry's right, Matt thought. Nobody is going to help me. Why should they? I'm a thirty-five-year-old guy. I know how to fight – but out here in the real world, away from the Regiment, who cares about that? I don't have anything to offer.
There was something about making all that money, so quickly and so easily – it does something to your head. It stops you from thinking straight. And when that happens, you're as good as finished.
A tramp was sitting in the doorway of the office building next to his flat. A man of maybe fo
rty-five or fifty, his skin was pitted with spots and a black beard was starting to crawl down his chin. His hair was matted with sweat and grease. A can of beer was held in one hand, a piece of brown cardboard in the other: 'EX-FORCES. SERVED IN THE FALKLANDS. PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY.'
Matt fished around in his pocket and took out the fiver he would have spent on a taxi. He knelt down, handing the money across. 'How does this happen?' he asked.
The man looked at him suspiciously, taking the money and folding it into his fist. 'I'll thank you for the money,' he said in a Birmingham accent slurred by alcohol, 'but my story is my story, and it's about the only thing I still own. So I'll not be sharing it with you.'
The smell of the man hit Matt hard in the chest: a stale odour of dead fish, cheap spirits and damp cloth. 'Where's your dignity?' Matt said, his eyes suddenly intense and full of anger. 'You were a soldier, man.'
'Fuck off,' spat the tramp.
Christ, thought Matt. I threw away my dignity today.
I'm just inches away.
Maybe I should just get out of the country, he thought. Go to Moscow, Hong Kong, Nigeria – anywhere. Change my name. Change my face, even. Get some security work and become another person. It's not so hard. I've been Matt Browning all my life, and where did it ever get me? Why not try on some other identity. I could hardly make a worse mess of things.
No. That might save me, but it won't save Gill. And if anything happened to her because of me, I couldn't live with it. My dignity would have been stripped from me for ever.
'Pleased to see me?' Alison looked up towards Matt as he walked into his flat, a lipsticked smile spreading across her lips.
Matt looked at her suspiciously, his eyes moving across the slender curves of her body. 'What are you doing in my flat?'
'We need to talk,' said Alison.
Matt laughed. 'Don't tell me – you're pregnant. That's all I need right now.'
Alison stood up, moving away from the sofa. 'I'm here to help you.'
'You're the only person who's said that recently.'
'I know, Matt. I know everything about you.'
Matt stood closer to her, looking directly into her eyes. 'Who are you?'
'Like I said, we should talk.'
'Then start talking,' said Matt. 'I've got all day.'
Alison walked towards the kitchen. She took a glass from the shelf, blew away a thin layer of dust that had settled on its surface, filled it with water and raised it to her lips. 'My name is Alison Hammond,' she said slowly. 'I work for MI5.'
The silence lasted several seconds as her words hung in the air. Matt looked at her closely, wondering if she would suddenly change shape: he had met her as a pickup in the bar, and now, suddenly, she was a spy who had broken into his flat. 'Go on,' he said quietly.
'I have a proposition for you. Whether you choose to accept it or not is up to you. It could solve all your problems.'
'I'm out of that game,' Matt snapped. 'I left the Regiment two years ago. I've done all that misguided shit about risking my life for my country several times already, and I don't need it. These days I'm just interested in chilling out and looking after myself.'
'And making a right screw-up of it too.'
'What do you know about me?' said Matt angrily.
'As I said, everything,' Alison said coldly, swilling the remains of the water into her throat. 'Matt, we know you better than you know yourself.' She paused, looking away from him and walking back towards the window. 'After I left you in Spain, you were visited by a man looking to collect some money. You are half a million pounds in debt, and because the money is owed to Gennady Kazanov, if you don't pay it back soon you're a dead man. I have some pictures of people who didn't keep up with their debts to Gennady. I can show them to you if you like, but you might need a stiff drink first. He usually severs a couple of limbs before he finishes you off. Even the KGB thought he was a bit rough when he used to work for them. We have files on him going back a long time. You're in pretty deep there.' She hesitated, walked back to the kitchen and refilled her glass with water. 'But I think you know that. Two days ago you split up with your fiancee, Gill. Yesterday afternoon you took a Go flight from Malaga to Stansted – budget airlines, Matt. A year ago you were going business class on BA. You spent the night here, ordered in a pizza and two beers. Today you went to see your banker, then your old friend Harry Stroller. You were looking for help. But you were stupid, Matt. The rich only help themselves. That's what makes them rich.'
Alison walked back towards Matt, her lips turned in an engaging smile. 'You see, Matt, we've been watching. We know everything. But most of all we know of a way to help you.'
'Help me?' said Matt. 'I know about Five – you don't help people.'
Alison ran a hand through her hair, messing its neatly brushed appearance. 'We do deals sometimes,' she said, her tone hardening. 'Win-win deals, where both sides come out ahead. That's what we'd like to do with you.' She stretched out an arm and Matt felt her fingers brushing against the skin on the back of his neck. A tingle ran down his spine, a sensation that mixed anticipation and excitement in the same delicate movement. She has class, he reflected. Social class, sure, but also poise and brains – and she's playing me like a cheap guitar.
He felt Alison's breath on his skin as she asked him, 'What more do you have to lose?'
FOUR
The traffic was backing up behind the roundabout that led down to Wandsworth bridge. Thick clouds were lying low over the Thames, shrouding the city in a dark, heavy gloom. A way out of my troubles, Matt was thinking – that's what Alison had said. Right now, I'm not in any position to turn offers down.
There was no choice. He had to see what she had to say. But it wouldn't be a simple way out, of that he felt certain. It wouldn't be safe either.
He pumped the accelerator on his Porsche Boxster and pulled out into the roundabout. He could see Alison's metal-blue Audi TT just ahead. The Holiday Inn sign was plastered against the skyline, sitting next to a B&Q superstore, a BP garage, and a McDonald's. Matt swerved the car around the bend moments before an orange light turned red.
I might as well get some fun out of this car. I won't have it much longer.
He pulled up in the car park of the hotel. Very Five, reflected Matt, taking the Porsche down a gear. The spooks generally met in anonymous, corporate locations, as if they were just computer salesmen. It was part of the routine, a way of throwing their targets off the scent, keeping every operation at a safe distance from the organisation itself. If they invited you to the Thames House headquarters, you knew the conversation didn't matter.
I thought I was through with these kind of games.
When he'd left the Regiment after ten years of active service, Matt had vowed to himself that he would never go back. He'd seen enough violence and risked his life enough times. His appetite for danger was sated. Lots of his mates had become bodyguards or mercenaries, but after a spell working for Stroller, Matt hadn't wanted to do that.
If you were going to kill people it had to be for a cause, not just for money.
'Nice car,' said Alison, suddenly appearing next to him, a playful smile spreading across her lips.
Matt noticed the way the wind caught her hair, blowing it away from her face. Beautiful, he reflected, in the same way a leopard is beautiful: sleek and slender and perfectly groomed. 'Thanks,' he muttered.
'Shame it's going to be repossessed by the finance company next week.' Alison turned smartly towards the entrance of the hotel.
Keep swallowing, man.
He followed her into the Holiday Inn. The lobby was nondescript, with pale blue carpets and a standard wooden desk, the kind of space you might see in a thousand different hotels around the world. 'Room 262,' Alison said to the girl at reception. 'They're expecting us.'