After three rings, the call went through, the person that answered sullen, reluctant in their duty.
He persisted and then waited.
Eventually, he was handed over to the person he wanted to speak to most.
‘You’re so bloody-minded,’ he exploded. ‘Why leak the story of the isotope theft to the press?’
He closed his eyes, leaned his right elbow against the car window and massaged his temples as he listened to the response.
‘Couldn’t you see?’ he finally snapped. ‘All the time he was looking for the isotope, he was distracted from finding out why his mission had failed.’
He leaned forward in his seat, his chest straining against the nylon restraint that crossed his chest.
‘No, please.’ He sighed and waved a pacifying hand in the air. ‘I’ll do whatever’s necessary. Please.’
He stared at the phone, the dialling tone loud within the confines of the leather upholstery, and then pressed the ‘end call’ button and stared at the blank display.
He turned the key, the engine roaring to life, and then threw the car into gear and eased it from its parking space.
As he turned away from the building and out onto the city street, his mind raced.
He’d have to put contingency plans in place to appease them, especially as he’d already ensured that the first half of their payment had already been secretly stored in an overseas bank account, but it was still possible to carry out their plans. A few adjustments were necessary; that was all. He was sure they’d understand.
And he still had options as far as Dan Taylor was concerned.
Plenty of options.
CHAPTER 45
‘What’s going on?’
‘No time now,’ said David. ‘I’ll explain when we get there.’
‘Get where?’ Dan yelled over the noise of the small train powering along the tracks beneath it.
David shook his head, beckoned to Mitch, and the two of them crawled back towards the front of the train.
He ran his hand over his eyes, relief turning to fatigue and frustration, then leaned back against the steel rail and tried to gauge where David might be taking him.
As the train clattered over a set of points, it swung into a narrower tunnel, and Dan ducked his head as the roof height dropped by several centimetres. He craned his neck, to see David and Mitch crouching on the floor of the train, and he copied their stance, easing himself from the shelf he’d been sitting on and kneeling on the steel floor, his hands gripping the seat to counteract the swaying of the vehicle as it began to slow.
Dan craned his neck to see beyond the driver hunched over the controls and then held his breath.
The mail train’s lights flickered to life, revealing a dead end.
Now what?
As they drew closer, his ears picked up a metallic scraping sound. It began as the train approached the end of the tunnel at a slow crawl, and then his eyes caught movement in the middle of the tunnel.
His jaw dropped.
The whole end of the tunnel was moving apart, revealing an opening.
Dan moved into a crouching position and edged forward, his interest piqued further when he realised he was staring at a large steel door.
He leaned across and tapped Mitch on the shoulder. ‘What the hell is that?’
‘Flood defence door from the Second World War,’ came the reply. ‘We tweaked it a bit.’
Dan leaned back on his heels and wracked his memory. He’d heard of the underground train stations being used during the war for bomb shelters, but had no idea the government at the time had gone to such lengths to protect its citizens and infrastructure.
Mitch turned to face him. ‘You’ve got the same look on your face that I think I had when I saw this for the first time,’ he grinned.
‘It’s amazing.’
‘It worked using hydrophones,’ said Mitch. ‘If they picked up any noise over a certain amount of decibels, such as a bomb hitting the river or a building near one of the lines, the doors closed automatically so the people sheltering down here didn’t drown.’
Dan shook his head in wonder as the doors slid into their housings at each side of the tunnel, and the mail train passed through.
Mitch held up a remote and pressed a button, and then the doors began to close once more. ‘Enhancement,’ he explained and tucked the remote control back into the webbing at the front of his jacket.
They turned back to the front of the train as it moved forward at a walking pace.
Lights began to flicker to life above their heads, and the platform of an abandoned station was revealed, its old wall tiles yellowed with age, the familiar logo and station name faded almost beyond recognition. Old posters peeled away from the tiled walls, ancient advertisements for wartime propaganda, cigarette companies, and theatre shows.
The driver of the train eased it to a standstill and leapt across the gap, before hurrying across the platform towards a spiral staircase, its steel surface glinting under the lights, and began to climb.
Dan clambered from the train, stretched his legs, and then walked across the platform and peered at the name across the middle of the logo on the wall. He turned to David. ‘Where —’
‘This one doesn’t even appear on any historical maps,’ David winked.
‘Then how did you…’ Dan stopped himself. He figured there were some things David would never reveal, and his insight was rewarded with a knowing smile.
‘Come on,’ said David. ‘We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’re running out of time.’
‘Nearly there,’ said Mitch cheerfully and slapped Dan on the shoulder as he walked past, gripped the railings of the spiral staircase, and began to climb.
Dan followed and then glanced over his shoulder as the lights on the platform began to dim, before the area was plunged once more into darkness.
‘We tweaked it,’ Mitch called down to him.
‘Don’t tell me,’ muttered Dan. ‘Another enhancement.’
He concentrated on putting his feet one in front of the other as the staircase wound upwards, careful to ensure his boots landed squarely on the small steel treads.
‘Who built this? Bloody pixies?’ he muttered and ignored the snort of laughter from Mitch as he joined him on a gantry at the top of the stairs.
‘No joking now,’ said Mitch, his face serious. ‘No talking. This last part of the route’s dangerous.’
He beckoned Dan forward and led the way along a passageway, its walls covered with pipes and electrical wiring.
Dan jerked sideways as a thunderous rumbling passed behind the wall to his left-hand side and nearly swore out loud until he remembered Mitch’s instructions. He hurried after the man, who stood next to an open door to the right of the passageway, his finger to his lips.
Dan walked past him and then waited while Mitch carefully pushed the door back into its frame, locking it shut with a faint click.
He pointed behind Dan, who turned and saw another, shorter, spiral staircase.
As he reached the top tread, he stumbled in surprise.
David stood at the entrance to a room off to his left and beckoned Dan closer.
‘Welcome to our new headquarters,’ he murmured and stood aside to let him pass. ‘Keep your voice down.’
Dan stepped over the threshold, his thoughts in turmoil.
Before him, a fully-functioning operations room was laid out, while off to the right-hand side, he saw a conference room and an office – evidently much in use.
He swung round at the sound of the door closing and faced David and Mitch.
‘Okay, we’re clear now,’ said David.
Dan watched in astonishment as the third masked man turned from the computer he’d sat in front of, whipped off his black hood and mask, and shook out a mane of blond hair.
‘Mel?’ He spun round to face David. ‘What the hell?’
‘We felt it safe to leave Melissa in place. That is, until you went storming of
f after Porchester and nearly blew our whole mission. She’s the only other person to know about our operation here.’
‘You scared the crap out of me,’ Melissa grumbled. She scowled at Dan and then turned back to her computer screens.
‘What the hell is this place?’ Dan asked. ‘Where are we?’
David raised his gaze to the ceiling. ‘We’re in a concrete and steel reinforced bunker below the pavement outside Waterloo,’ he said. He tapped his foot on the floor. ‘Below us, probably another metre down, is the tunnel for the new underground line.’
Dan tried to concentrate, to get his jumbled thoughts into some sort of coherent order.
‘How did you know where to find me?’ he managed.
‘I tracked you,’ said Mel. ‘Button on your jacket is wired.’
Dan spun round to face her and then raised his hands and began to tug at each of the buttons on his leather jacket.
‘Bottom one,’ said Mel.
‘Thanks,’ he said and then wrenched the button away and threw it across the room at her.
She caught it one-handed, grinned, and then turned back to her computer.
‘I suppose I have you to thank for finding me before Porchester’s security team?’ he said to her back.
‘Sure do.’
‘Thanks.’
‘You’re welcome.’
‘How—’
‘Hacked into his email,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘Remember?’
‘When Mel contacted us to say you’d gone after Porchester, we figured you’d go straight to his office to confront him,’ explained David.
‘Predictable,’ called out Mitch from the other side of the room.
Dan flicked his finger up and then turned on his heel to stare at the equipment the small team had managed to squash into the tiny space they now occupied.
‘How the hell…,’ he began and then shook his head. ‘I don’t understand – why aren’t you using your own office back at the EPG?’
David dropped his equipment on a table in the middle of the room. ‘Because there are too many secrets, Dan. And we’re one of those secrets.’
CHAPTER 46
‘When we heard that your mission had been compromised, we knew something was wrong,’ explained David. ‘Except we kept being stalled. We weren’t allowed access to the file, which raised a stink – I pointed out you report to me, but was told I wasn’t to be made privy to that operation.’
‘We were given another mission twenty-four hours after you left the country,’ added Mitch. He looked at David. ‘It stank. We were trying to raise hell to get you back, and there we were, being sent on a mission three thousand miles in the opposite direction.’
‘What happened?’
‘I had a quiet word with the Prime Minister,’ said David. ‘Turns out he hadn’t authorised either of the missions – yours or ours.’
‘So Porchester tried to set you up as well?’
‘He’s a bastard, all right,’ said Mitch.
‘How did you escape, then?’
The corner of David’s mouth twitched. ‘We didn’t escape. We never went.’
‘What?’
‘Hence all the secrecy,’ said David. ‘We went AWOL. We’re wanted men in some circles of the British establishment. For the moment, anyway,’ he shrugged. He held his hand up as Dan began to protest. ‘It’s okay. The Prime Minister knows how to contact us. No-one else does. It’s safer that way. Until we can work out what’s going on.’
‘How did they find me in Eastern Europe?’ asked Dan. ‘Why rescue me and then try to kill me again?’
‘The Brigadier organised the rescue mission,’ explained Mitch. ‘No-one was told about that operation. Apparently you were spotted being stretchered away from the helicopter at the airfield in Germany, though, so someone found out you were being transferred to the hospital here in England.’
‘Jesus.’ Dan paced the small room and scratched at the stubble forming on his chin. ‘Why would someone try to kill all three of us? Have you gone through all our old mission reports?’
‘We did,’ said David. ‘It’s the first thing we got Mel onto once we set up down here.’
‘What did you find?’
‘Absolutely nothing. It’s got nothing to do with an old mission, Dan.’
‘Then what’s going on?’
His senior officer leaned against the desk and held his stare. ‘This isn’t about retribution. They’re not trying to pay us back, Dan. They’re trying to prevent us from stopping them.’
‘Stop them from doing what? Break the UK away from the European Union?’
‘That,’ agreed David. ‘But there are others pulling strings behind the scenes. It’s not just Porchester and his cronies in Parliament trying to overthrow the PM to get their own way. Nor are they alone in their endeavours.’
Dan’s eyes narrowed. ‘Russians.’
David held up a finger. ‘Precisely. Or, more to the point, some Russians.’
‘Why?’
‘European Union embargoes are starting to cripple the Russian economy,’ explained David. ‘Internally, there’s a lot of disquiet in the Kremlin, wondering where the President’s aggression is going to lead. No-one knows for sure, and it’s making them nervous.’
‘One thing is certain, though,’ he added. ‘Russia will likely be a broken country economically if something drastic doesn’t happen – and soon.’
‘But – Porchester?’ said Dan. ‘Why the hell would he betray us?’
Mitch dropped his Kevlar vest on the desk next to them. ‘Because we monitor everything to do with energy services and infrastructure in the UK,’ he said. ‘And he probably knew that if he was going to attempt to strike a deal with the Russians, he’d need to make sure we were out of the way first.’
‘What sort of deal?’
‘The sort that ousts the current PM, puts Porchester in a position of power within a new government, and breaks the UK out of the EU.’
Dan sighed. ‘I get it now. It’s what Heatherington said. It’ll free up the UK to buy cheap gas from a Russian government and any companies desperate to sell it to us,’ he said.
‘Got it in one,’ said Mitch, mimicking a gun and firing it in Dan’s direction.
‘But why the stolen isotope?’ said Dan. ‘I don’t understand why that was necessary.’
‘Smoke and mirrors,’ said David. ‘Porchester got that one right. A radioactive isotope stolen from a government fracking project? It’s a massive public relations disaster for the PM. Although I think the leak blew that part of their plan out of the water.’
‘If Porchester could show that he could lead the country in a time of crisis in the absence of the PM, it’d probably make a more convincing transition in the event of a bloodless coup,’ said Mitch. ‘You’ve got to admit, the man’s a natural in front of the cameras.’
‘But then it leaked,’ Dan murmured and sank into one of the chairs next to Mel’s computer. ‘And I made them panic.’
‘You did,’ said David, ‘but without you doing that, we would’ve had a much larger number of members of the public seriously ill from radiation poisoning.’
‘Er, guys?’
They turned at the sound of Mel’s voice. She was staring at one of the monitors on the wall that had been linked to a twenty-four hour news channel.
‘We have a problem,’ she said, her voice shaking. She pointed at the monitor.
On it, a photograph of Dan was being displayed, the caption underneath screaming out its headline.
Wanted by police.
‘Ah, shit,’ sighed Dan.
‘Turn it up,’ David commanded.
They gathered round Mel’s chair as she increased the volume.
‘Police have been warned that this individual is extremely dangerous and probably armed,’ the newsreader said. ‘Under no circumstances should members of the public try to apprehend him. Instead, they should dial nine-nine-nine.’
The photograph disappear
ed and was replaced by a shot of the newsreader.
‘To repeat,’ she said, the excitement in her voice palpable, ‘Police wish to question this man, Dan Taylor, in connection with the stolen radioactive isotope found earlier today. He is considered dangerous and probably armed.’
‘Porchester,’ Dan spat. ‘He set me up.’
‘She’s pretty,’ Mitch murmured.
Dan glared at him and then pointed at the screen. ‘I’m a wanted man.’
Mitch shrugged. ‘We were a good team while it lasted.’
‘Fuck off.’ Dan turned to David. ‘I need to contact Sarah,’ he said. ‘She could be in danger.’
‘Where is she?’
‘The safe house, at Eaton Terrace.’
‘Mel, take the car and get Sarah from the safe house,’ said David. ‘He’s right. I don’t want Dan’s enemies using her to get to him.’
‘On it.’ Mel leapt from her computer, swiped a set of keys from the desk, and turned to go.
‘Hang on,’ said Dan. ‘She doesn’t know you.’ He turned to David. ‘I left her with instructions to keep the door to the house locked unless I phoned first.’ He withdrew his mobile. ‘I’ll give her a heads up.’
Mel shifted from foot to foot while Dan spoke to Sarah, then when he ended the call and nodded at her, she disappeared through the door, pulling it shut behind her.
‘We didn’t know about the plan to steal the isotope,’ David admitted, turning down the volume on the television feed. ‘Since the attempted overthrowing of the Prime Minister last month, we’ve been trying to collate information on his enemies – with all our resources under scrutiny from them, the three of us have been somewhat limited in our abilities.’
‘Where’s the truck?’
A few years ago, David had insisted on a mobile back-up office, enabling the team to travel anywhere around the UK and Europe and still maintain a working ops centre. Now, he looked pained.
‘We destroyed it,’ he said. He pointed at the equipment Mel had been working on. ‘This is everything from the truck. We stripped it, brought it down here in stages over a few nights, and then took the truck apart piece by piece and scrapped it.’
Three Lives Down (A Dan Taylor thriller) Page 20