by Matthew Dunn
Sign leaned toward her and whispered into her ear. “I cannot compromise you or your profession. Knutsen and I are unconventional. But you have a career and life to protect. You can argue with me as much as you like, dear lady. But, on this matter I must hold fast.” He patted Knutsen’s arm. “Let’s finish this awful affair.”
Sign and Knutsen spun on their heels and walked away.
They traversed London via tubes and a taxi. On arrival, the residential house before them was where the whisperer lived. It was seven PM and getting dark. Tbe house had internal lights on. The whisperer and his wife were easily visible in their dining room.
As they stood on the street, Knutsen asked, “What are we going to do about his wife?”
“We need her as a witness. There are two scenarios: she’s either complicit in what the whisperer has done; or she’s not complicit, in which case we need her to hear what’s happened. Either way, she won’t want prison. Regardless, here.” He handed Knutsen a recording device the size of a cigarette lighter. “This is state of the art MI6. Turn this on as soon as we enter.”
Knutsen laughed. “You spooks are so out of touch with technology. We could have just used a mobile phone to record everything that’s said. It can be saved to Cloud forever.”
Sign looked puzzled. “I’ve no idea what that means.” His expression steeled. “Onwards.”
Sign rang the front door bell.
The whisperer’s wife opened the door.
Sign said, “We’re colleagues of your husband. There is urgent business to attend to. May we come in? We’re sorry if we are intruding on your dinner.”
She answered, “The dinner is in the oven. Casserole. It won’t be ready for a couple of hours.” She called out to her husband. “Two men are here. They say they know you. I’m not letting them in unless you say it’s okay.”
The whisperer appeared in the hallway and asked, “What do you want, Ben Sign?”
“I need to talk to you about Logan. He’s killed himself and confessed his direct involvement in criminal matters that affect national security. My investigation is now closed. But, I need you to hear from me what has happened.”
The whisperer nodded. “Come in. And congratulations on a job well done.”
Sign and Knutsen entered the house.
CHAPTER 23
The whisperer gestured Sign and Knutsen to the dining room table. The whisperer sat opposite them. He was wearing the suit he’d worn to work. He asked, “Would you like my wife to leave the room?”
She was leaning against the wall, watching the three men.
Sign faked a gentlemanly smile. “That won’t be necessary. She’s security cleared to know all about your work.”
“She is. So let’s get on with it. I need to shower and change into more comfortable attire before dinner.”
Sign nodded. “I quite understand, dear chap. And once again, sorry for the intrusion. We’re here because we want to protect you. When MI6 learns tomorrow of Logan’s betrayal, it will be in a mess. Henry Gable won’t be able to control that mess. He’s not up to the task. The Metropolitan Police has no jurisdiction over the intelligence agencies. It can’t step in to keep a steady ship. MI5 are a bunch of quasi–cops. They don’t understand espionage. The announcement about Logan will have to be made to all MI6 staff. But the announcement will rock the morale of the service.”
“Cambridge Five springs to mind.” The whisperer’s tone was calm and precise.
“Exactly. It took decades for us to get over that sucker–punch. During the Cold War, we couldn’t afford that catastrophe. Now, the world’s a more dangerous place.”
The whisper sighed and drummed his fingers on the table. “Spare me a lecture on the obvious.”
“We need leadership. You can give that. So can the only other candidate left alive for the post of chief. One of you has to step up to the plate.”
The whisperer was more benign as he answered, “I’m ready for the challenge.”
“I feared you would be.”
Knutsen’s handgun was hidden from view under the table and pointing at the whisperer’s stomach. Everything being said was being recorded by the electronic device in his jacket.
In a louder voice, Sign said, “Logan didn’t kill Mark Archer, Colin Parker, Arthur Lake, and Terry File. Karl Hilt killed Elliot Roberts. Hilt is now in custody. He has a fatal illness and has nothing to lose. You employed him. You are the serial killer. You are what I call the whisperer. You are Edward Messenger.”
Messenger laughed. “This is the stuff of fantasy!”
“No, it’s not. Hilt has confessed.”
Messenger shook his head. “This man Hilt has been briefed by Logan to give you my name. Probably Logan knew Hilt had cancer. It was Logan’s parting shot.”
Sign glanced at Messenger’s wife. “Mrs. Logan. You’re a nurse. Can you tell me how many fatal illnesses there are?”
She went pale. “Tens, hundreds, thousands. It depends on the quality of the treatment, how far advanced the disease is, the age of the patient, their immune system, and other factors.”
Sign’s expression was cold as he returned his attention to Messenger. “Thousands of possibilities. I didn’t tell you Hilt had cancer. But he does.”
Messenger breathed in deeply. “An educated guess. My wife and I have an agreement not to talk about her day job. My parents are dead. It’s stressful to know what my wife goes through every day.”
“Rubbish!” Sign slapped his hand on the table. “You’ve seen more death than she has. And you’ve dealt it out throughout your career. You understand death as well as me. You’re not squeamish. But, you are stupid. There’s no possibility of you knowing Hilt had cancer unless you knew Hilt and you knew his condition. Hilt will testify against you to get a lesser sentence. A resourceful man like him would never have trusted a Machiavellian man like you I guarantee you he’ll have concrete evidence of your contract together and he’ll have kept the evidence hidden from you. Who knows? Photos; recordings; bank transfers; phone calls; evidence in a closed court of where your paths crossed in MI6. You put him out to an unsavoury pasture. Now, he’s doing the same to you. He’ll crucify you in court.”
Knutsen said, “I’m a former police officer. But, I still work for the police. What you say next will be used in court.”
Messenger was silent but let out a groan after his wife walked up to him and slapped his face.
“How could you?!” She said to him. “How could you?!”
Slowly, Messenger raised his head and rubbed his face. He looked at his wife, then Sign and Knutsen. He bowed his head and said in a quiet voice, “Pendry is going to die.”
Sign frowned. “You’re going to jail. You won’t be able to touch him.”
Messenger rubbed his eyes and smiled. “I’m not, as you describe, stupid. I’m smarter than you. It’s all about chess. The others had to be dealt with expediently. But after I got Logan to confess, I had to deal with Pendry differently. I saw him for a cup of tea yesterday in the MI6 canteen. When he wasn’t looking, I placed a liquid nerve agent in his tea. The agent was designed at Porton Down. It’s ingenious. Under our instructions four years’ ago, the boffins constructed a deadly liquid that assaults the body. But it was crucial the effects weren’t immediate. It means you can have a Russian, or whoever, visiting the UK, be infected with the nerve agent, fly back to Russia and not start getting ill for a few weeks. As a result, no one can categorically trace the poisoning to the UK, even if there are suspicions from other states. Ergo: bad guy dies; no diplomatic fallout.” Messenger retained his smile. “Pendry is a dead man walking. He’ll feel fine now. But soon he’ll start frothing at the mouth. Not even Porton Down can reverse the effects. Our most lethal scientific research and development facility has created a poison that they cannot counteract. There’s an irony there.”
Sign was motionless. “Pendry will die, but you will not be made chief. You’ll go to jail for multiple life sentences.”
Messenger looked resigned to his fate. “I’d have made an excellent chief. The others on the shortlist weren’t a patch on me.” His expression turned menacing as he looked at Sign. “You too would have made a superb chief. But, you took yourself out of the equation. So, it was down to me to step up to the plate. And sometimes in life we have to do rough things to allow the little people to sleep peacefully in their beds.”
“Serial killing to obtain power is not part of the job description of an MI6 officer.” Sign looked at Messenger’s wife. “Did you know anything about what your husband has done? Or, did you have any suspicions?”
She was tearful as she replied, “No. No… I never knew what he did at work. This is awful. Edward – how could you have done this? We were happy. We didn’t need you to get a pay rise. I didn’t need you to be chief.”
Messenger looked at her. “You weren’t enough for me. I needed a mistress. The position of chief was my mistress.” He smiled and returned his attention to Sign. “I won’t spend the rest of my life in prison. So, how do we resolve this situation?”
Knutsen gripped his handgun.
Messenger was calm as he said to Knutsen, “You’re pointing a handgun at me, under the table. Did you expect me not to anticipate that? And did you expect me not to be doing the same to you? I believe they call it a Mexican standoff.”
Sign snapped, “If you kill anyone in this room, it will go bad for you.”
Messenger pulled his hand out from under the table. He placed his pistol on the table. “For the sake of the recording device that no doubt one of you has on his person, I employed Karl Hilt to watch you and kill Katy Roberts’ husband and Colin Parker. I forced Mark Archer, Arthur Lake, and Terry File to commit suicide. I shot James Logan after forcing him to write a false confession. I made that murder look like suicide. And I poisoned Nicholas Pendry. I did all of this because I wanted to be the only remaining candidate for the top job in British intelligence.” He picked up the gun.
Knutsen shouted, “No!”
Messenger blew his own brains out.
Three hours later, Knutsen and Sign were back in West Square. In the lounge, Knutsen lit a fire. “I’ll get Katy,” he said.
When she entered the bachelor pad, Roberts was fully clothed. “What happened?”
Knutsen explained everything.
She looked at Sign. “Will you take over as chief of MI6, even if briefly?”
Sign was in his armchair. “No. I like this job. I like working with you both.”
Roberts touched his hand. “I’m moving to New Zealand. It will be a new life. You and Tom will be on your own.” A tear fell down her cheek.
Sign gripped her hand. “Damn right you should go to New Zealand.” He smiled. “Don’t look back.”
“Never.”
Sign rose and kissed her on the cheek. “Knutsen and I will be alright. You’ll be alright.” He walked to the window and stared through it. “It’s what’s out there that worries me.” He turned rapidly. “Mr. Knutsen, if you please! Three glasses of calvados immediately. Tonight we celebrate. Tomorrow may bring ills. I’ve received a letter. Knutsen – you and I have a new case.”
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As an MI6 field officer, Matthew Dunn recruited and ran agents, coordinated and participated in special operations, and acted in deep-cover roles throughout the world. He operated in environments where, if captured, he would have been executed. Dunn was trained in all aspects of intelligence collection, deep- cover deployments, small arms, explosives, military unarmed combat, surveillance, and infiltration.
Medals are never awarded to modern MI6 officers, but Dunn was the recipient of a rare personal commendation from the secretary of state for work he did on one mission, which was deemed so significant that it directly influenced the success of a major international incident.
During his time in MI6, Matthew conducted approximately seventy missions. All of them were successful. He currently lives in England, where he is at work on his next novel.
He is the author of the critically acclaimed Spycatcher series of nine novels (published by HarperCollins). His books have been published globally and have been translated into multiple languages.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23