The Shadow's Code

by Miles Goodson

  “My name’s Roger Eghard, chief advisor to the President of the United States. This is my team. Warren Jackson, U.S Army intelligence. Bill Stanfield, Senior United States Army and James Conran, CIA… we’re expected.” James and Bill were once again annoyed at Roger describing them as his team as if he was in charge.

  “Alright fellas. Turn to the wall, hands and feet spread apart,” one of the guards said in a gruff London accent.

  “Well, I’m not sure we-“

  “Listen fellas! Either turn to the wall of your own free will or you will be put there by Terry here,” the guard said, motioning to the man next to him.

  Terry was 6’6”, bald and built like a brick wall. He scowled at the four men. Bill nearly leapt to the wall. Warren’s feet felt like they had been cemented to the floor. Big Terry would have to move him as he was too scared to move himself. Roger was very annoyed and mumbled to himself as he pressed his hands against the cold cement. Instead of an aggressive pat down all they received was laughter.

  “Hahahahaha. See Terry, I told you they would fall for it. Apart from this fella here. What’s your name, matey?”

  “Warren,” he squealed.

  “Well, you’ve got the biggest balls of the lot of you. C’mon in lads, we’ve been expecting you.”

  Roger was thoroughly annoyed and missed the humor. Warren felt the blood rush back to his legs and managed to walk. The guards walked over to a man in a dark navy suit standing in an office. He was looking out of the window at the grey sky. A guard leaned in through the office door without knocking.

  “Your men are here, gov. Me and Terry got ‘em good. You should have seen it,” the guard announced.

  The man in the office replied with a classic English accent.

  “Ah well, yes. Show them in then, lads.”

  The man didn’t appear amused at the story from the guard although he looked like a man who was never amused at anything. The guards walked back, talking loudly and laughing. The office walls and door were frosted glass adding to the grey feel of the whole building.

  “Well gentlemen, welcome to Area ‘Vulcan’. You are in a top secret MI5 location. Please do not share it with anyone. We would not usually have foreign visitors here, even if they are allies, but a political favor was called in so here we are. We will assist as best we can. Sorry about the chaps on the door. They’re rough around the edges but they’re a couple of the best SAS soldiers walking this planet. They give everyone a good ribbing when they can get away with it, including me,” he said, raising a frown and walking to his desk.

  Roger introduced himself and everyone else.

  James then began asking questions. “Do you have a closed system we can use?”

  “In Room Foxtrot as requested.” The man pointed to a room near the end of the corridor.

  “OK, and we will need a GPS location tracker in real time,” James said.

  “Already in Room Foxtrot for you.” James looked the man in the eyes and extended his hand.

  “What was your name?” The man shook hands with James.

  “I’m 00-84, but you may call me Simon,” he responded. The questions continued until Simon’s phone rang. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” Simon said, looking at the door. They left his office and went to a large window at the end of the corridor.

  “OK, well let’s have a look at the room they’ve prepared for us,” Warren said, desperate not to bump into the two guards again.

  Chapter 23

  Simon walked into Room Foxtrot after allowing his new guests to settle in. Black computer towers with small blue lights surrounded the room whilst two extractor fans created a constant humming noise. A systems expert and an analyst from MI5 had been brought in to work with the Americans. Both were crouched down by a computer tower when Simon walked in.

  “Everything OK, gents?” he asked.

  “Yeah, we’re just trying to see if any of your security cameras had managed to pick up a secondary target we are tracking,” James answered. Bill and Roger were busy staring over the shoulder of the systems expert as he scanned.

  “Ah. Is this the Kioshi fellow?”

  James stood up straight. “Yes,” he answered.

  “No need to look, we’ve kept an eye out for you. Interestingly he was picked up on camera talking to two men that we believe are enforcers for a notorious Russian gang. There was also a woman, attractive and in her mid twenties, it appears Kioshi had taken one of their escorts for a ride.” Simon raised his tufty eyebrows as he mentioned the escort.

  “So he’s been in London hiring prostitutes?” Warren asked with a smirk.

  “Not prostitutes, escorts, there is a difference,” Simon responded as the light wrinkles by the edges of his lips deepened for moment as he attempted a wry smile.

  “OK, but either way-“ Warren was cut off by James.

  “Did you get a registration for the car” he asked quickly.

  “Sadly not. The angle means we can see the roof of the car but not the number plates. We’ve identified it as a Mercedes E-Class, a new model; also we had one other sighting of him. He was in the passenger seat of a Jeep three days ago. It looks like that was his transport from the airport,” Simon answered, clicking buttons to show the grainy pictures captured of Kioshi.

  “Did you manage to get a registration on that one?” James asked, lifting his heels for a second.

  “Yes, but it appears to be a cloned plate. We had the police question the owner at his Chelsea address. Turns out he hasn’t driven the car in months as he’s the CFO of a tech company and been working abroad. Unlikely he’s got anything to do with this and he was in China three days ago with witnesses and plane tickets as proof. Don’t worry, we checked his story.”

  Simon then looked at his watch and left. Warren got behind a computer and started the tedious task of manually looking through the camera footage to try and spot Lindon.

  The hours passed and progress was slow and with over 400,000 cameras to scan through. Warren was attempting to find a needle in a haystack. Bill slept on an office chair, drooling on his suit jacket. Warren put his headphones on and was now in an environment he knew well. Sat at a computer working through algorithms with the sound of smooth jazz in his ears. Roger and James sat drinking coffee and talking about their uphill task of finding a needle in a haystack.

  “The mission is a couple of days away. Do you think Kioshi will catch up with Lindon before then?” Roger asked James.

  “Well he has certainly proved himself capable,” James replied.

  “Yeah, but we don’t know where Lindon is. Can Kioshi really be that far ahead of us?”

  James thought for a moment. “Possibly. He got to London before us. He killed three members of the inner circle without us suspecting him. If there’s anyone who could track him down I would put my money on this guy,” James said. Roger scowled at the computer screens.

  “But Lindon’s a ghost. He pops up on radar every now and again and then, poof, he’s gone. Surely Kioshi couldn’t have the means to track him down?” Roger said.

  James shrugged “He’s well trained. But we’ll get him. I’m sure”

  “Do you think we can take this Kioshi guy down first though?” Roger asked.

  James was becoming irritated with Roger’s constant questions. “Well in the last two hours we’ve been able to track him better than we have for weeks. I think we might be on to a hot streak here. If we can just identify that Mercedes then we’ve got him.”

  Roger sipped coffee whilst staring at a blank monitor. The systems expert was kneeling down hardwiring the screen to the building’s secure connection.

  “You think we should continue to concentrate on Kioshi?” Roger asked. James began to envy Bill sat asleep in the corner.

  “Yes,” James answered bluntly.

  Lindon woke up the prince at 6.30am as he had requested. He had slept for barely an hour. The prince lumbered to his car at 7am for his final trip before going to the airport. He was going to have break
fast with his cousin. Lindon and Rena waited outside the Chelsea apartment that the Prince’s cousin had rented for the summer.

  “How’s your sandwich?“ Lindon asked.

  “Average,” Rena replied.

  An hour passed. Rena snoozed in the passenger seat and Lindon watched pedestrians walk past in the sunny weather. The prince appeared with a stern look on his face. He often argued with his cousin about future business prospects and today was no different. The prince walked straight to his Bentley and slammed the car door shut.

  “Take me to the airport and park the car in the same place you picked it up from,” he barked at his driver.

  The Bentley lurched from the curb and sped up quickly. Lindon floored the throttle to keep up in the G-Wagon. At the airport the prince’s aide was already waiting for him. He had stayed in a hotel for the past couple of days to give the prince his privacy and enjoy a short holiday away from his 24-hour duties with the prince. Lindon and Rena walked with the two men to the security gates. Their job wasn’t over until the prince passed through airport security. Half an hour had passed since the prince had seen his cousin and he was only just beginning to calm down. He thanked Rena and Lindon for their assistance. They waited as the prince walked through security. As he walked through the body scanner and onto the other side Lindon and Rena breathed a sigh of relief. Their 24-hour guard duty was finished.

  “Well, another job well done,” Lindon said.

  “Looks that way… so we’re done here, I guess,” Rena said whilst starting to walk.

  “Yeah. Do you wanna get some dinner?” Lindon asked.

  “If I’m honest, no. No offense but I’ve spent nearly every minute with you over the past couple of days. Plus I’ve got a flight to catch,” Rena answered in a neutral tone. Lindon shrugged and accepted that he felt the same.

  “You’re going now?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I told you. We spoke about it this morning,” Rena replied. Lindon’s mind had been preoccupied with the messages he had received whilst at the casino. He couldn’t shake off the ominous warnings.

  “Yeah, oh yeah, I forgot,” Lindon said quickly.

  “I told you I wouldn’t be armed, remember?” Rena smiled.

  “Oh yeah. I was listening, it’s just...well… we’ve just had a lot of work,” Lindon said. Rena smiled but didn’t respond.

  “So when’s your departure?” Lindon said, trying to switch topic.

  “The flight leaves in three hours to Dubai then onto Sydney,” Rena answered, staring at the departures board.

  “OK, well. A quick goodbye drink?” Lindon asked. Rena smiled.

  “I’m gonna go through security now,” Rena said.

  “OK, well until next time, Rena. I hope all goes well ‘down under’.”

  “Oh it will.” Rena stood on her toes and kissed Lindon on the cheek. Her plump lips left lipstick marks.

  Rena walked off and Lindon couldn’t help but feel alone for a moment. His mind drifted to Stephanie and to Sweden as he stood in the middle of the airport terminal staring at the departures board. After a few seconds he realized there was no time for hanging around. Now was the time to prepare for the big money job he was taking on, and on his escape.

  Chapter 24

  Seth McGregor, Anthony Bellhouse and Liam Brent boarded a black private plane at a small runway outside Chicago. The plane was a one year old Falcon 2000DX. The paint reflected the airport lights like a glitter ball. They would fly from Chicago to Massachusetts, re-fuel and then go on to England. Dino Logging Brothers Co had paid $150,000 for the return flight to England, including airport fees. Dusk fell as both jet engines spooled up. The plane sped down the runway and after twelve minutes they leveled off at 15,000 feet and cleared busy airspace before air traffic control allowed them to ascend to a cruising altitude. Anthony didn’t like small planes; he began gulping sleeping tablets with whiskey.

  Seth was uneasy and didn’t speak much. He stared at a tablet computer, checking weather and news stories. The mood in the cabin was low. No one wanted to speak about the mission. They all knew they would have to sit through a briefing together on the flight but none of them looked eager to get it going. Anthony spoke to Liam about an upcoming skiing trip he had planned with his family and Liam talked about a games room he was going to build in his garage. As the small talk continued Anthony reclined his seat and stared at the roof. After ten minutes the sleeping tablets kicked in and he slipped off into a snooze.

  Six hours passed. The fuel stop had been quick and the landing and take-off were smooth. Anthony had remained asleep since shortly after leaving Chicago.

  “OK, we gotta address the elephant in the room,” Seth announced midway over the Atlantic Ocean. Liam nudged Anthony. He was unresponsive to the first nudge, but woke up after constant shoving and pinching.

  “Hey,” Anthony screeched.

  Seth sighed, then exhaled. “So how do you guys wanna do this?”

  Anthony was unsure what he was talking about for a second, as his mind was still half asleep. There had been no instructions on how Lindon should be apprehended except the standard rules for someone who was not to be harmed. No blows to the head, conscious on handover and no injuries that immobilize the target on handover.

  “Well I say we confuse him. Create a diversion. Overload him with jobs and then as a team turn on him,” Anthony said in a matter of fact way as he rubbed his eyes.

  “OK, but what do we do to create a diversion? We’re not allowed to interfere with the meeting we are watching over,” Seth said, challenging Anthony’s simple approach.

  “Just ask him to watch a particular area then tell him to check your scope as you see someone suspicious. At the same time we can pretend the system is being hacked. Between him trying to work out if the guy on the ground is suspicious and then thinking the system is under attack he will not be expecting a physical challenge. That’s when we strike. One of us grabs his weapon. The other two wrestle him to the ground and tie his hands and legs together. Then put a hood on, gag him, go to the drop, and go home.” Anthony gestured his hands one way and then another.

  “Yeah, but don’t forget this guy is no rent-a-cop. Do you think you would fall for that, Anthony?” Seth asked.

  “Depends how well it’s done. You gotta remember we’ve worked with this guy a few times before. It will be a total surprise for us to attack him. It would be as if you two attacked me right now.” Anthony looked at both Seth and Liam as he spoke. The suspicion of each other grew for a moment then subsided. Seth looked towards Liam who had remained silent so far. Liam was trying to hide in the black leather jacket. “What do you think, Liam?”

  He hesitated. He looked deep in thought but his mind was blank. So he blurted out whatever he could think of quickly. “I would prefer just to shoot him with a tranquilizer.” Liam’s tone made him sound ashamed of himself. He continued in a louder voice, “So he doesn’t know that it’s us that hands him over at the drop point and disgraced the code of our trade.” Anthony and Seth stayed quiet. Liam then tried to make his plan sound less like a guilt-laden option.

  “It eliminates most of the threat of him fighting back or escaping. Depending on how quickly the tranquilizer takes effect and how long it lasts.”

  The plane bobbed up and down for a moment. An announcement came over the speaker system from the flight deck, “Gonna have some mild turbulence for the next ten to fifteen minutes. Should be pretty light but you might wanna buckle up.” Seth’s mind went off on a tangent and he thought of drinking an ice-cold beer on a beach, just listening to the waves. All three men decided to buckle up, then continued the conversation. It broke out into an argument for several minutes until Seth calmed himself down and Anthony stopped shouting. After a few minutes of silence Seth spoke again.

  “OK, so how about we say plan A is to take him out with a distraction and plan B is a tranquilizer. Let’s not forget the mission brief did say that he should be kept conscious. So plan B really is a last re
sort.” Seth didn’t like the idea of knocking Lindon unconscious but he conceded that it would be the easiest way to get the job done.

  “Yeah, but the main concern is that he doesn’t incur a head injury so we just tell them that he struggled too much for us to guarantee he wouldn’t hit his head and so we tranquilized him,” Liam said.

  All three men sat in thought. Eventually they all come to an agreement. Plan A would be to incapacitate Lindon by using a diversion and confusion. Plan B was a simple knockout approach. Either by injection or chloroform. During the conversation not one of them could bring themselves to say Lindon’s name. Instead they referred to him as the target, as saying his name made them all feel ashamed of what they were doing. Especially Liam who still was having second thoughts.

  Kioshi had spent the night waiting outside the prince’s home. At 2am he broke in. There was no food in the fridge and no sign that anyone had been in the house all day. This was a huge setback for Kioshi. He had got so close and now it appeared Lindon was gone. It now seemed as though he had lost his trail, but he wouldn’t be deterred.

  At 3.30am he drove home in the same Mercedes that he had been driving for several days. Traffic was light but London’s black cabs and night buses were still crawling along the streets. Kioshi turned left off the North Circular as he had noticed a police car had been following him for a couple of miles. Kioshi drove steady. He hoped they would mistake him for an Uber driver or a businessman but they continued to follow. As the minutes passed Kioshi started to become paranoid. If they were calling in backup then he needed a plan. His mind raced. Surely they weren’t looking for him. How would they even know he was in London? Perhaps the car had a faulty rear light or they were looking for another Mercedes and had confused his car with the one they were after. Whatever the reason was the police car continued to follow him. The blue lights lit up just as Kioshi reached a roundabout.