The Deadly Game

by Jim Eldridge

  The other man by the table, who had been silent so far, shook his head.

  ‘The reaction was too slow,’ he said in English. ‘We need the book.’

  ‘Our people are looking for it as we speak,’ replied the other. He looked at the smouldering pile of ashes and burnt bone. ‘This one was too big. I believe the excess fat under his skin caused the slow reaction time.’ He nodded thoughtfully, then called an order to the men by the door. ‘Bring in the young woman!’ To the man next to him, he growled: ‘Her flesh should burn faster.’

  Chapter 1

  Jake was worried; very worried. He walked around the supermarket, filling up his trolley with his week’s supplies, moving on automatic pilot. All he could think of was Lauren. It had been five days since he’d last spoken to her, and that had been by phone, not even Skype, so he hadn’t had the chance to see how she looked. She’d sounded odd. Nervous. He knew she couldn’t say why, their conversations were monitored by the intelligence services, but usually they found a way to drop a hint if something was worrying one of them, so they could read between the lines, put together the clues in texts and phone calls. But this last time, no hint, just an awareness in Jake that something was troubling Lauren. And since that last phone call, nothing. No texts, no emails, no phone calls, no letters.

  It was at times like this he felt the distance between them: her in New Zealand and him in London.

  The previous night, when it was daytime in New Zealand, he’d even phoned the place where she worked, the Antarctic Survey Research Centre in Wellington, in case something had happened to her, a serious accident, and she wasn’t able to make contact with him. But the woman he’d spoken to had said Samantha Adams (Lauren’s cover name in New Zealand) hadn’t been in to work for four days, and they hadn’t heard from her, which was very unusual.

  They’d been in touch with Lauren’s flatmate, a young woman called Kristal, who said that Lauren had told her she was going away for a day or so, and not to worry. So she hadn’t. But since the Survey Research Centre had got in touch, Kristal had contacted the local police and hospitals to see if there had been any reports of unidentified young women having been in an accident; but there had been nothing.

  ‘We’re very worried about her,’ the woman told Jake. ‘This is so unlike her. If you hear from her, would you ask her to get in touch with us?’

  Jake promised he would. Just as he was about to ring off, the woman asked him if Samantha had any Russian connections.

  ‘Russian connections?’ Jake frowned.

  ‘It’s just that on the last day she was in the office she had a call from someone, and the switchboard operator was fairly sure the person was Russian.’

  ‘A man or a woman?’

  ‘A man.’

  A Russian? Jake was puzzled. Lauren had never mentioned knowing any Russians. But then, it had been five months since they’d last seen one another. Anything could have happened in that time. What was clear was that Lauren seemed to have vanished suddenly, and without trace . . .

  Also by Jim Elridge

  The Invisible Assassin

  First published in Great Britain in September 2012 by

  Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP

  This electronic edition published in September 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Copyright © Jim Eldridge 2012

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  All rights reserved

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  make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means

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  may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 9781408826867

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