“Why did you wait until now?”
“You mean why didn’t we bring in Russell earlier? It’s a question of resources, DCI Ford. At any time we’re keeping tabs on a few dozen plots in various stages of planning. It’s a matter of separating the chaff from the grain.” Graves reached into his jacket for a packet of Silk Cuts. “Smoke?”
Kate declined.
He lit one and exhaled gratefully. “I’m supposed to say something about the Official Secrets Act now. You know, ask you to swear not to divulge any information you may learn as part of this investigation. Word is that you’re a good egg. We don’t need to have you sign anything, do we?”
“Is this the part where you’re going to admit that Five was maintaining some kind of surveillance on Russell without a warrant?”
“Something like that.”
“I’m a policewoman,” said Kate. “Not a civil libertarian. I’m sure our interests mirror each other.”
“Good.” Graves picked up a remote control from the coffee table and aimed it at a flat monitor on the wall. It was a SMART Board, an interactive high-definition monitor hooked up to the office’s central computer network. The face of the tired, mousy housewife Kate had seen the previous morning in Russell’s flat appeared. All eyes focused on the screen as she spoke to Russell about Mischa, Victoria Bear, and the “hush-hush” meeting set to take place at 11:15 this morning—a little more than an hour from now.
“Know what it means?” asked Kate afterward.
“Not a clue. There are a hundred Mischas in the Russian embassy alone, and that’s not counting the scourge of them that have taken over the West End. A delegation from the Kremlin is visiting, but they’re in Whitehall today, holed up with the Navy. I think they’re safe for the moment.”
“That sounds rather hush-hush, doesn’t it?” asked Kate, quoting from the video message.
“Actually, it’s a matter of public record. No Mischas among them. Just a few Ivans, Vladimirs, and Yuris. Oh, and a Svetlana.”
“And Victoria Bear?”
“We’ve run the name through all our files and drawn a blank. Our boys in decoding are having a go at it as we speak.”
“Have you been able to draw a bead on the woman? Russell’s source? Frankly, I’m worried about her. If Russell was killed for what he knew, why not her?”
“We’re trying to locate her. It’s not so easy. The way our system functions is that we grab everything going into Russell’s in-box, as it were. That doesn’t mean we know where it came from. Tracing it back to its source is trickier. We brought you in to see if you’ve turned up anything in the course of your investigation that might shed some light on this.”
Kate suspected Graves knew more than he was letting on. She’d long heard that Five kept a roster of spies inside the Met. “Robert Russell was killed by a woman who gained entry to his flat from the basement and shimmied up an old laundry chute to a closet in his master bedroom. Once inside, she defeated the alarm system, knocked him unconscious with a bottle of frozen vodka, then threw him over the balcony to make it appear a suicide. It was our good luck that he landed facedown. Otherwise, we’d never have suspected a thing. It goes without saying that the woman is a professional. She knew her way around Russell’s flat, so we can assume she had access to building plans, including his home security system. It’s my guess that she was working as part of a team, and that her partner or partners were keeping tabs on Russell.”
Graves leaned forward, elbow on his knee. “How do you know it was a woman?”
Kate took a disk out of her jacket. “We have a visual.”
“May I?” asked Graves, rising from his chair. He handed the disk to a deputy, who placed it in the DVD player. A moment later the image of the auburn-haired murderer taken by One Park’s CCTV camera filled the screen.
“Not much to go on,” said Kate. “She did an outstanding job keeping her face away from the camera.”
“A pro, as you said.”
Just then there was a loud knock on the door. Reg Cleak entered breathlessly. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, crossing the room and taking a seat next to Kate. “I’d just nodded off when a big bloke showed up at the back door. Nearly scared the missus half to death.”
Introductions were made, but Cleak was barely paying attention. “Just got off with the boys in Automobile Visual Surveillance. They weren’t able to get a line on the car all the way from Windsor, but they came darned close.”
“Where did Russell go after leaving his parents’ house?” asked Kate.
“To his club in Sloane Square for about an hour.”
“That only takes us to one a.m.,” said Kate. “Where did he go afterward?”
“Hold your horses, boss. I’m getting to the interesting part. From his club Russell drove to Storey’s Gate. We’ve got stills of his car parked on the sidewalk for over an hour. Don’t ask me what he was doing.”
“Storey’s Gate? That’s not far from here.” Graves instructed his deputy to bring up a map of London on the SMART Board. A moment later a city map appeared, with a circle indicating the location. Storey’s Gate was a short, narrow two-way street running east to west about a half-mile from Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Park.
“Do you see what I see?” asked Kate, standing and walking to the screen.
“What is it?” asked Cleak, but Graves was already nodding.
Kate guided her finger along the map down Storey’s Gate Road and turned a corner onto a broader thoroughfare. It was labeled “Victoria Street.” “There’s our Victoria,” she said.
If she expected Graves to show some surprise, she was disappointed. He remained nailed to his seat, smoking his cigarette ruminatively. “So it’s a place,” he said. “Not a name. Now what?”
But Kate wasn’t finished. Sliding her finger up Victoria Street, she came to a rectangular gray outline commonly used to denote a government building. “This is a ministry building. I believe it used to be the Department of Trade. Can you tell me who’s housed there now?”
Graves snapped his fingers and his deputy clicked on the interactive map. A photograph of the building appeared, and under it the name of its current occupant. “Department of Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform, formerly Trade and Industry.”
“Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform,” said Kate. “B-E-R-R.”
“Bear,” said Graves in the same calm voice.
Cleak screwed up his face. “I’d call it ‘brrr.’”
“And if you were foreign, like the person who gave Russell’s girl the clue?” asked Kate. “‘Bear’ sounds right to me. Bear on Victoria Street,” added Kate. “Victoria Bear.”
“I’ll be a monkey’s,” added Cleak, eyes wide, fidgeting in his chair, the only person in the room not above showing some emotion.
“Bring up a list of the building’s tenants,” commanded Graves.
A moment later, a list of all government agencies having offices in 1 Victoria Street appeared. They included the Office of Employment, the Economic Development Agency, the Bureau of Competitiveness, and the Office of Science.
“Get on to Diplomatic Security,” Graves continued. “See if any foreign dignitaries are slated to visit any of the agencies on the list. Then contact BERR’s chief of security. Tell him to lock down the place until we arrive. We’ll be over in ten minutes.”
“What about traffic?” asked Kate. “Shouldn’t we block off all roads leading to the building?”
“If we locked down traffic every time we had a threat, London would go out of business in a fortnight.” Graves looked at his assistant. “Get the demo boys over there. Can’t hurt.” He stood and faced Kate. “I take it you’re joining me.”
Kate, Graves, and Cleak took the elevator to the ground floor, where Graves’s Rover had been brought round and stood waiting, engine idling, doors open. Kate climbed into the front seat next to Graves, while Cleak slid into the back. The blast barrier was lowered and Graves accelerated onto Horsef
erry Road, where he quickly became enmeshed in traffic. The Rover advanced slowly, making it through one signal, then another. Kate glanced at the clock: 11:03.
“Got a flasher?” she asked, referring to a portable siren.
“Afraid not. We’re more in the preemptive line of things.”
The traffic light changed and Graves pulled across the intersection. After traveling 50 meters, he came to another halt. Victoria Street was less than two kilometers away. In reasonable conditions, the drive would take three minutes. As it was, they were looking at upwards of twenty.
Graves was on the phone with his assistant. “No foreign parties visiting BERR today,” he said to Kate, relaying the news as he received it. “The minister is in Leeds. Everything’s business as usual.”
The car inched forward.
Kate noted that Graves’s cheeks were flushed and that he was batting his hand against the steering wheel. “Maybe we should walk,” she suggested.
“Forget it.” Graves studied the road in front of him, his blue eyes no longer so divinely certain. Suddenly he swung the car into the oncoming lane of traffic. The road was clear for 30 meters. He floored the Rover, keeping his palm on the horn, until a lorry forced him back into his own lane.
Again they came to a dead halt.
The clock read 11:06.
Five minutes later they reached the intersection of Victoria Street. Graves turned right and sighed with relief when he observed that traffic was flowing nicely. He accelerated to 80 kilometers an hour, rocking in his seat, mumbling, “Come on.” The light turned red and he braked hard.
“There it is,” said Kate, pointing to a modern office building 300 meters along the road.
“Thank God,” registered Cleak from his post in the rear seat.
The light turned green, but the traffic didn’t move. The driver of the vehicle in front of them opened the door and put a foot on the pavement. Kate got out of the car. “They’re running a temporary road block,” she said, sticking her head into the cabin. “Someone’s coming through. Raja from Whitehall or a visiting dignitary. I thought you said there was nothing scheduled for the area.”
“I said nothing was scheduled inside the building.” Graves threw open the door and climbed out. He had his cell phone to his ear, but Kate couldn’t make out to whom he was talking.
Just then she caught sight of the first car in the motorcade barreling out of Storey’s Gate and turning in front of them onto Victoria Street. It was a black Suburban, windows tinted, riding low to the ground. An armored vehicle moving at speed.
“Who’s in town?” she asked Graves. “Looks like the bloody president of the United States.”
Graves was shaking his head. “I’ve got nothing on this,” he said, his calm suddenly in short supply.
Somewhere in the distance Kate caught the sound of a man shouting. Over the roar of the passing motorcade she couldn’t make out what he was saying. It sounded like he was calling someone’s name. One thing was for sure: he was worked up.
“Do you hear that? Something’s wrong.”
“Where?” asked Graves, only half listening. He was conducting a running skirmish with the office, demanding to know what foreign dignitary was in the city and why he hadn’t been informed about it.
Kate stood on her tiptoes, craning her neck in an effort to locate the source of the shouting. About 300 meters up the sidewalk, she caught sight of a dark head running toward them. The head bobbed up and down. Visible one instant, gone the next. It belonged to a white male. Graying hair. Blue jacket. More than that she couldn’t tell.
A second Suburban shot into the intersection, followed by a trio of Mercedes sedans, all black, all with windows similarly tinted to prevent unfriendly parties from identifying their occupants. A miniature flag flew from the antenna of the lead Mercedes. She recognized the blue, white, and red tricolor of Russia.
She checked her watch. It was 11:15.
Mischa, she thought.
17
Seated in the rear of the cab, Jonathan watched Emma climb from the BMW and walk away from the car. He had his money ready and as soon as Emma had gone ten steps, he passed the cabbie two fifty-pound notes. He waited another moment, his eyes fixed on his wife as if there were a cable connecting them, then opened his door and set off down the sidewalk. He kept close to the buildings, slowing now and again to keep some pedestrians between him and his wife. “Natural cover,” she’d called it, explaining her work to him.
Emma continued down Storey’s Gate for exactly one block before stopping at the intersection of Victoria Street. The light changed. Pedestrians on either side of her crossed the street, but Emma remained where she was.
Jonathan hung back, watching. Any second now, a car was going to pull up, Emma was going to climb in, and that would be that. He would never see his wife again. He turned, looking for a cab, but for once there were none to be seen. He balled his fist and pounded his thigh. He should never have abandoned the taxi.
It was almost 11:15. Dr. Blackburn would be frantically searching for him at the hotel, wondering where his keynote speaker had disappeared to. He imagined Jamie Meadows pounding on the door of his hotel room, asking if everything was all right. Jonathan put them out of his mind. He could give his talk tomorrow.
It was then that he saw a motorcycle policeman zip past him, and all thoughts about the conference vanished. The policeman continued to the intersection of Storey’s Gate and Victoria Street, where he stopped his bike, dismounted, and blocked off all eastbound traffic. Quickly the road emptied of vehicles and grew curiously calm. Jonathan was put in mind of the eerie silence that precedes an avalanche.
By now a group of pedestrians had surrounded Emma. Even so, he could see her clearly standing with a cell phone to her ear, gazing intently in front of her.
Behind him, he heard the hum of a powerful engine. He turned in time to see a flash of black, and a Chevrolet Suburban zipped past him, then another identical to it, close behind. Both were followed by a fleet of jet-black Mercedeses. Three in all. He saw a flag fluttering from one of the cars. The red, white, and blue of the tricolor shimmered in the bright sunshine. It took him a few seconds to guess the country. Not France, not Holland … Russia.
It hit him then. He knew why Emma was waiting at the corner.
Lebanon. Kosovo. Iraq. She had told him about her work in those places. Invariably it involved the kidnapping or assassination of a high-ranking figure deemed unfriendly to the cause—the cause being the security and well-being of the United States of America. It was no coincidence that she was standing on this particular street corner at the precise moment that a motorcade ferrying Russian officials across London was passing.
Emma had come to London to kill someone, or, as he’d once heard her refer to it, “to secure a political objective.”
All this passed through Jonathan’s mind in a second.
He began to run, shouting her name. He wasn’t sure why he was doing it. Emma had taken pains to explain why her actions were necessary, and in every case he’d come to share her views. It was a common misperception that aid work is a liberalizing force. In fact, time spent in impoverished countries, caring for the poor, the sick, the downtrodden, had the opposite effect. Jonathan had no tolerance for the corrupt and powerful who furthered their gains at the expense of their countrymen. It didn’t matter what country. He didn’t believe in second chances, either. The fact was that most of the people who ended up on Emma’s list had it coming. But this was different. This time he was involved. This time he knew. To watch and do nothing, to stand still and bear mute witness—it was asking too much. He would not be an accomplice to murder.
“Emma!”
The last Mercedes drove past. Jonathan’s voice was drowned out by squealing tires, the aggressive roar of so many powerful engines. The motorcade shot down the street, only now coming abreast of the gray BMW.
The car.
The parking space conveniently available.
&nb
sp; The text message on Emma’s phone was emblazoned on his memory. “Package ready for pickup. ETA 11:15. Parking arranged. LT 52 OCX Vxhl. Meet WS 17:00.”
The BMW was the package. The attack was set for 11:15. It was a Vauxhall car that had vacated the space.
“Emma!”
Finally she turned toward him, and in the instant before the explosion, their eyes met. And as the blast wave hit him and lifted him into the air and threw him with astonishing force through the windshield of a Range Rover parked nearby he registered only the ferocious explosion and inside it the image of Emma’s condemning eyes.
He had never seen her more angry.
18
The first thing Kate noticed was the silence. She didn’t think, Oh, I’m alive. What the hell just happened? She knew that she was alive because her throbbing head told her so, and the sharp ache in her ribs wouldn’t let her forget it. And she knew that it had been a car bomb. She had seen the flash of light, the incendiary star burning to orange, before the blast wave knocked her to the pavement. But she hadn’t expected the silence. It was as if the entire city were holding its breath.
Gradually she became aware of the tinkle of glass falling to earth and the groaning of distressed metal. Her vision cleared. The first thing she saw was a line of burning cars. Every automobile parked within 20 meters of the bomb was on fire. They must have exploded instantaneously, she thought to herself, because she’d heard only the one bang, and then she wondered if maybe she’d been knocked unconscious for a moment or two.
She picked herself off the pavement, aware of an ache in her chest. “Christ,” she mumbled. “We’ve stepped in it this time. Can you believe this, Reg?” She looked over her shoulder for Cleak, but didn’t see him anywhere. “Reg? You all right, then?”
He lay on the ground next to the car. His eyes were open and fixed, as if he were staring at the sky. A piece of metal protruded from his forehead. It was a four-inch bolt.
Kate dropped to her knees, putting a hand to his neck to check for a pulse. There was none.
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