by Karen Guyler
“But she is in custody.”
Luke nodded. “The only way the secrecy works is with the oversight of the ethics committee.”
“I don’t understand, an ethics committee’s that’s okay with us carving up dead bodies and taking the claim for these deaths?”
“No, because it’s a band of assassins doing that, not MI6. I told you the government is an odd master, they trust the checks and balances the Ethics Committee give. Nothing about this mission was a fair trial, Rubin was never going to agree with our protocol and, if the panel insisted on a trial, it should have been a fair one where you could have succeeded.”
“Don’t suppose the arms seizure goes in my favour either?”
Luke shook his head. “The panel can’t know Rubin was involved so they can’t know you were responsible for that find. The appropriation of it will be eyes only, the PM probably won’t see it. This is how our work goes, we get no recognition, apart from at S. We get to sleep easier at night knowing that we’re making a difference, but it’s also harder having that glimpse of how things really are.
All her reasons to try this were contradictions like that, weighing heavily on her now.
“Me being hard on you is nothing to do with you, just trying to make the best of a bad job. I thought if everything else was faultless, it might count for something. It wasn’t a fair test.”
Luke stopped talking to the darkness beyond his window and turned to her. “You deserved that.” He held her gaze, the streetlights strobing over them through the glass sunroof.
“Probably blown my chance to be an analyst again too,” Eva said, but her trying to make light of her failure made it hurt more.
“Gordon will fight for you.”
“I know.”
“We all will.”
“Thanks,” it was a half-whisper. Did she want them to?
Luke’s ringtone stopped her saying anything more. “You’re on speaker with Eva and me.” He held his phone on the console between them, “Iago.”
“Got some dynamite already, Eva, from the ears you planted. Rubin has another test, tomorrow, one thousand casualties, being randomly picked out of ten thousand plus.”
“Do you know where?”
“Nah, didn’t give a location. We’re scrambling to figure out where his yacht’s going.”
“He’ll want to be there.” Eva said.
“We’re en route to S, put the coffee on.” Luke terminated the call. “You need to be dropped home?”
Eva shook her head, Lily was safe for tonight and so would she be, behind a desk. “I promised I’d get him for Fisher and Jacob.”
Then she was done.
35
Gordon called Eva and Luke straight up to the briefing room as soon as they were through the airlock entrance at St George’s Grove. “Good job, Eva, on the bugs. We’ve got solid intel to chase.” He beckoned them to weave their way through the members of S standing almost out in the corridor to the seats he’d saved for them. “We need to figure out where he’s doing this bigger test.”
“Shame he didn’t say where he was going.” A middle-aged man Eva hadn’t met said. “The world’s a big place.”
“Where are his yacht and jet? Does that give us anything?” Luke asked.
Iago consulted his tablet. “Not so much. Yacht is crossing the Baltic Sea, jet’s still at Tallinn airport.” He made a flicking motion and a map sprang up on the briefing table, making Eva start. The screens on the walls displayed the same thing. He’d inscribed a red oval on a map of the Baltic, looping eastwards out from Tallinn.
“This is everywhere he can reach overnight and into tomorrow afternoon.” Iago explained. “Timeline’s vague, but for him to hit a crowd of ten thousand, we have to assume it’s an organised concert, football match, something along those lines. Cross-referencing his projected landing zones with venues of that size, we get precisely six events happening. We’ve alerted our contacts to have the venues searched.”
Eva shook her head. “He doesn’t need to prepare beforehand. His weapon just has to have line of sight to the drone.”
“That makes it an impossible task.” A woman standing at the back of the room pointed out the problem.
“Luke,” Gordon said, “explain to us what this weapon does.”
Luke looked at Eva. “You understand it better than me. Explain how you beat it. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here now.”
Eva felt the gaze of everyone in the room. She gave them a quick rundown of what Rubin had told them about the Lynx Assassin, and her best guess at how Rubin had targeted them.
“Once Rubin docks, it’ll give us an idea of where he’s heading.” Iago said. “We’re contacting marinas to see if he has any berths pre-paid, habitual places he uses.”
“Does he own a helicopter?” Eva asked.
A woman with long black hair tapped at her tablet. “Publicly, no.”
“He arrived back on the Overwatch on one. If he had to rent it, has he returned it? If not, the company should know where they’re expecting it back, what its range is?” Eva’s suggestion was a wild guess.
The woman nodded. “I’ll look into it. Any idea of the charter company?”
Eva shook her head.
“Could be a friend’s, acquaintance’s.” A man added.
Could it though? Something struck Eva as odd about that. If he still had it on board, he could reach anywhere inland, a short helicopter ride, a car waiting.
“Is he still signing the accord with the PM the day after tomorrow?” Eva asked.
Several people around the room consulted tablets.
“No changes announced in the public arena.”
“Nothing on the government briefing channels.”
“PM’s diary still shows day after tomorrow.”
The responses drilled down into the resources S could access.
“We can work his timetable backwards too,” Eva said, “to account for known variables, when and how he’s arriving in London. That might give us something. I can look at that.”
Gordon nodded. “While he’s on the move we have a chance to get out in front of this. Anyone have anything else?” He looked around the room, but everyone remained silent. “Let’s get to it. All non-urgent missions wait, this is our priority. I’m meeting with the Director in the morning, give me something to take to him other than casualty figures. Luke, Eva, stay behind, Iago will play you the recording we got.”
Rubin’s one-sided conversation wasn’t much until he said “When I shot my partner, I was standing right beside him.”
“He shot his partner?” Luke asked.
Iago paused the recording, looked at Eva. “That’s why you asked us last night to check the bullet that killed Goran Willander.”
She nodded. “A hunch, he killed Patricia Dryant in Copenhagen, an accountant at Balancia in which he’s an un-named executive, there all the time apparently overseeing special projects. I figured he might have done the same with his partner at Futura Energy, and we just assumed it was his wife’s first choice of assassin being a bad shot.”
“The bullet came back a match to the one used in Copenhagen.” Iago confirmed.
“To the ones Rubin fired at us,” Eva said. “but it doesn’t make any sense why he killed Goran Willander, the nice guy of the business, the one who dealt with all the pesky employees? He could have picked anyone, why him?”
“We’ll get on that, after we find the test site.” Gordon nodded at Iago to continue the recording.
When it finished, he updated them. “We’re looking at the fatalities in St Petersburg, and those who were close to what happened but survived.”
“But everything in Russia takes longer,” Eva said. “What’re they saying, the Russians?”
“It’s quiet through official sources but the back channels are very busy.”
“I’d bet money that’s why Rubin chose a Russian site. There’re enough cruise ships in Norway that he’s unhappy about, but the
political fallout there would be small, not enough for him. He wants to stoke conflict.”
“Evidence?” Gordon asked.
Eva shrugged. “More instinct, as to who he is.”
“I can’t work with that. Bring me something I can show to prove it and we can talk to the Russians, get them onside. Last thing we need is another spat over there, they’re only just coming round from the US Ambassador being blown up in Moscow.”
Eva managed not to wince at Gordon’s casual reference to another fallout from Charles’ actions.
“Do you need to work remotely tonight?” he added.
“Not tonight.”
“Clock’s ticking.” Gordon dismissed them.
Eva went back to her office via the kitchen where most of the worktop was covered in snacks and fruit and just the smell of rich coffee was enough to wake her up.
She crunched on an apple, looking for a logical way to tie all the loose ends of information together. But nothing seemed to fit.
What about the things Rubin found important enough to show, to remind himself of every time he sat at his desk on board the Overwatch? She zoomed in on the footage she’d got from her lapel camera. The images of nature she understood, and the canvas proclaiming ‘There is no planet B’. Clearly a message of some importance for him, given its placement and his green agenda.
What about the Arabic? She was sure it was the same as the one her father had, something about the pen and hurting, wasn’t it? The sweeping strokes were what she remembered. Each word of the translation triggered the memory in her until she could recite it as much as read it. ‘The wound of the sword or gun will heal, but not that of the tongue’.
Her father must have kept it to remind him he had to make sure his stories were true before going to print. His words so powerful, his influence such that lives could be upended if he wasn’t careful with what he said.
Question was, how did that saying apply to Rubin?
36
Tricia opened her door to Eva’s ring looking as together as she always did, even at silly o’clock in the morning. Despite having grabbed four hours sleep, a very welcome shower and change of clothes, Eva felt a mess beside her. “Sorry it’s so early, I thought Lily might like a change of school uniform.”
“No problem, come on in. You staying for coffee?”
“Taxi’s waiting downstairs for me,” Eva didn’t need to check her watch to feel the increasing pressure that today was the day of Rubin’s test and they still hadn’t figured out where it would take place. “Thanks again for having her.”
“Really not a problem.”
“It’s hard, isn’t it, juggling it all?”
Tricia nodded, her long dark curls bouncing. “Oh, yes, it’s a bundle of stress and angst. But I think we’re doing okay, our girls are good people.”
“Mum!” Lily nearly bowled Eva over with her welcome hug. “You’re back, you took ages.” And Eva had thought she hadn’t noticed.
“I know, I’m sorry. International travel isn’t so glamorous when it all goes wrong.”
“Where did you go?”
“Only Europe, though you’d have believed it was Australia, with all the delays. I brought you a clean uniform.”
Lily squeezed her tighter. Eva smoothed her hair like she used to when she was little.
“Gotta get ready.” Lily released her.
“See you later, sweetheart, have a good day.”
Lily nodded. “Environmental studies today, my favourite. We going to listen to the rest of Carl Rubin’s interview tonight?”
Just the thought of hearing his voice made Eva want to shudder. “That sounds great,” she lied, kissing the top of Lily’s head and she was gone to get dressed.
“I’ve never seen her so keen to get ready for school.” Eva said.
“I have a little incentive,” Tricia said. “I stretch the advent calendar thing all year long.”
Eva laughed. “I’m stealing that.”
The day ticked by too quickly, the countdown clock that Eva had set on her laptop screen was running too fast. Clocks.
Where did Balancia fit? Clocks, a jump to time pieces, the company line, a jump to timing devices, integral parts of bombs.
What about his obsessions? Eva entered time and climate emergency, remembering Lily telling her off that she didn’t use that term.
‘The UN declares a climate emergency’ the first entry, more of the same followed until Eva changed the search term to ‘there is no planet B’. That returned entries about buying merchandise sporting that slogan, books, t-shirts, drink bottles. Then she saw it. She clicked enter on the podcast episode list of the same name until she found number 127, interview with Carl Rubin, CEO of Futura Energy. Eight minutes past the point she and Lily had got to she knew where he was going to do the next test of the Lynx Assassin.
37
“That makes no sense.” Gordon said.
“It doesn’t,” Eva agreed, “but he’s gone to a lot of trouble to hide his tracks. Why else would he do that if it wasn’t to throw us off? Iago traced Rubin and Finch flying into London an hour ago on a commercial flight into Stansted.”
“Quite the commute into London.” Gordon said. “And no weapons allowed on commercial. But all that aside, why on earth would Rubin target the audience who believe the same as him?”
“Because we’d never suspect he would.” Eva leant forward in the seat opposite his desk.
“How Many Heartbeats?” He read from her message.
“It fits everything, the SSE Arena, Wembley Arena, can take twelve and a half thousand—”
“He said ten.”
“He said ten plus and the rally’s sold out.”
Gordon ran his hand through his thick, grey hair. “I follow your logic but it’s an indoor venue. You said he has to have line of sight for the drone to lock onto the RFID signals.”
“Maybe he’ll have it inside, a show of his tech capabilities for his client.”
“Futura Energy’s one of the rally’s biggest sponsors. He won’t sabotage his company name, surely.”
“No one’s going to know it was him, it’s like he’s two different people.”
“I don’t buy it.” Gordon said.
“How Many Heartbeats?” Eva said. “Isn’t that an odd name for a rally about climate change unless it’s through the prism of population control? Click the link at the bottom of the message.”
The chilling video that had convinced her she was right began to play. Recorded over twenty years ago, in it Rubin looked like the young impressed student he was then, watching a speech given by an idealist which felt uncomfortably close to eugenics. Had he taken it a step further?
Gordon dialled a number, put his phone on speaker. “Iago, you’re on with Eva and me.”
“I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary around the Arena.” Iago said.
“Would you though?” Eva’s phone vibrated in her pocket. “He doesn’t need anything special to be set up. He just needs his weapon.”
“Which he didn’t bring in on the commercial flight.”
“That you know of. I could go down there, be boots on the ground, speak to the organisers. It starts in less than an hour, this is his shot, I’m convinced of it.”
She pushed down the sense of panic, the dread of the clock ticking down to zero and them sitting there unable to do anything than just watch.
“You could,” Gordon agreed, “But he thinks he killed you and I don’t want to waste that advantage.”
“Why’s that necessary now?” She was playing devil’s advocate. “What can it hurt if he knows I’m alive? That just shows him his weapon isn’t the all-powerful thing he thinks it is.” Though it would take a lot more than that to shake his confidence.
Her phone quietened to stillness.
“I’m not convinced he’ll do anything to jeopardise the deal tomorrow. He’ll be under the media spotlight while he’s here.”
Eva remembered the look in his
eyes when he talked about the population doubling in his lifetime. “I don’t think he cares about that.” Her phone vibrated again, once.
“But he’ll care very much about the energy deal with our government going through without a hitch, it’s worth a lot of money to his company.”
“Money’s not his motivator.” She had the measure of him, she was sure.
“A man with two companies, a private jet, a super yacht which is quite something and a wife who can afford The Society rates? Once we have something concrete, we can take it to the police and Five. If he’s planning anything on UK soil, it’s down to them. I know you remember from your time here as an analyst we have no remit to operate here.” Gordon reminded her.
Eva nodded.
And she meant it until she checked her voicemail.
38
“Hey, Mum, is it okay if I get a T-shirt? Can you give Tricia the money? It’s twenty-five pounds the one I want. Thanks, Mum, you’re the best.” Lily, bright, gabbling, excited against a background noise of lots of people.
Too busy to pick up when Eva called her back. Tricia answered first time.
“Thanks so much for having had Lily for the extra night. I’m free now, I can come get her early, give you a break.”
Tricia laughed. “They’ve been no trouble, Anya’s a lot easier to manage when Lily’s there. They’re at the How Many Heartbeats rally. A friend of mine—”
“They’re at the rally?”
“My friend had tickets, but he’s poorly so gave them to me. It’s perfect because the girls were desperate to go. I’m in a café nearby, I’ll pick them up when it’s over and drop Lily home.”
How Eva wasn’t screaming, she didn’t know.
“Does Anya have her phone on?” Eva asked, every word clipped and tight while she tried to hold onto her sanity.
“No, I told them to turn them off until it’s over, save their battery. They’re fine, I’m only over the road.”