Assassin Flame

by Tomson Cobb

  ‘You’re a strange one. I recall making people strip naked before they began their torture was a technique used by the Gestapo. Who taught you this? Your grandfather?’

  ‘There is no reason for you to mention him again, Jago. You are in danger of boring me with this, and it won’t provoke me if that’s what you intend. No, it’s just that I don’t like to leave situations without resolution. I want to finish the affair that we started at Hordiyenko’s villa. As simple as that. Can’t you pay this small enjoyable price to get the information you want and save your beloved dog as well?’

  ‘We started?’ Jago tried to think of a smart answer to the conundrum. He couldn’t think of any that might save Chobi in the time available. The promise of information from the girl also had its attractions.

  ‘Don’t you find me attractive, my Jago?’ Belette purred as she pulled the sheet away from her naked body. The vision she presented to him on the bed was one that many others would accept without a second thought, he knew, but still he demurred. He had to admit though, the deal sounded the best available, all other options considered. It would be better than a bullet in the head as well, which she could have provided before now.

  ‘Okay. Looks like I don’t have much choice.’

  The look of childlike satisfaction this resulted in was unlike any he had seen from a woman. If he did ever want to employ a psychiatrist, his first question would be what the condition was that his nemesis suffered from. If it was available for sale, someone could make an awful lot of money from it. Strange thought at this moment, he decided. Maybe the two of them were more similar than he’d imagined.

  He took off the jacket, threw it on a chair and pulled off the tie and shirt, which he sent in the same direction. She smiled, now kneeling on the bed provocatively with her hands behind her head, her eyes following his every move.

  ‘Good. Now take off your shoes. Now your socks. Good. Now your belt. Just the belt.’

  Jago did as ordered.

  ‘Now loosen your trousers. Let them drop. Excellent. Now walk towards me.’

  She was now at the edge of the bed, one leg stretched behind her, the other bent in what Jago imagined to be a yoga position. Her right arm stretched out as her forefinger beckoned to him.

  ‘Don’t be scared. You will enjoy me also, Jago. Now, let me take off the rest myself.’ She pulled him towards her then pulled down his boxers. It left him with a sense of vulnerability he hadn’t experienced previously in similar encounters with the opposite sex, which he realised was part of her need to impose control. As she completed his disrobe, she held him and pulled him onto the bed with the giggle of a small child. She placed her mouth close to his own, her grip soft around his genitals, which caused the response she’d intended.

  ‘I’m glad to see you haven’t forgotten me, Jago. I was worried that I might not excite you again but I can see that I still do. Now, lie back. You will not have to exert yourself, unless you want to take control of course.’ She said this with a laugh then pushed him backwards, still holding his now very interested appendage. ‘This business we are in is not all about death and money, my love. It can be enjoyable too if you let yourself go sometimes. Can you do that like I do, Jago?

  ‘When you put it like that, Belette, I see the logic. My first question is—’

  ‘Ah. Not so fast my sweet. First you have to perform for me, then I will answer your questions, and you mine.’ She leant down over him and kissed his mouth. The perfume was heady and smelt of citrus, like bergamot, he thought. The next few minutes might prove to be the most enjoyable torture that he would ever suffer for his country. He reminded himself of her nickname. This was still one dangerous female. The problem would come later when he had to explain his predicament to Natsuko.

  Chapter 48

  ‘If we were smokers like in an Ian Fleming novel, this would be the time we would both light one up, don’t you think my Jago?’ Belette panted. She lay back to watch his face from a distance as she started to recover from her noisy exertions.

  ‘Never touch them, so I have no idea. You seemed like you enjoyed yourself though.’

  ‘Oh come, my sweet. Of course I did. You have some affection for me as well you know.’

  ‘Sorry to disappoint you babe. That was just business, as you mentioned earlier.’

  ‘If that’s what you want to persuade yourself, fine. I know better.’ She reached up to touch his cheek. He turned away.

  ‘First question. Who employs you?’ Jago said.

  ‘The organisation that you so charmingly call Chetwynd. Next question.’

  ‘That wasn’t what I asked.’

  ‘It was. You have to be careful how you phrase it, Jago. I answered the question I was asked. Second one?’

  ‘Who is the person that pays you?’

  ‘I don’t know. I do know, however, that it’s a man and he authorises my fees, which are paid by electronic transfer from a company in the British Virgin Islands to my own offshore account in another tax haven located in a domain I will not divulge, I’m afraid. No point to pay tax if you don’t have to. Don’t you have offshore accounts yourself, Mr Jago Hale?’

  ‘Fortunately not. You haven’t given me much information so far, Belette, or should I say La Polpo?’

  She erupted into what sounded to him like genuine laughter.

  ‘Oh, I heard that’s the name that your people call me. It’s appropriate I suppose in a way, but you mustn’t believe all they tell you, as I’m sure you know by now. I accept contracts that amuse me and for clients that will pay my extortionate fees without complaint. Final question.’

  ‘Why do Chetwynd have such interest in me? What do they want to know that I know?’

  ‘That’s two questions. I’ll be generous with answers to both. Their first order was for me to kill you after you exposed Chomsky. Then you were reprieved at the last minute, for what reason I don’t know.’

  ‘When was that?’

  ‘When you and the dog were running in the park.’

  ‘Makes a change from death by pollution I suppose. What do they want now?’

  ‘They need to know how much information you have on their organisation, as well as how you obtained the information since they enticed you into their plan by your investigation of the Volkov murder. That was a very amateur operation by the Estonian psychopath, I have to say. Vulgar even. I would have done that job with much more style. I understand that they wanted to know how much you knew about your wife’s involvement in an African project.’

  ‘So that’s what all this has been about?’

  ‘That’s what I understand. Of course, it’s only my view from the outside. I don’t ask too many questions. I pose only those I need to give me reassurance that my work will not be compromised by surprises later. When I found out from Bryan that you had been ignorant of your father-in-law’s covert business, they didn’t believe it. That’s why I was given Thompson as an additional target. It was unfortunate that he wasn’t able to confirm that, as he passed out before I could get any more details from him. He must have been ill before I met him. He died ahead of schedule.’

  Before Jago could offer his opinion on murder, Belette rolled out of the bed as a ballet dancer would execute a rehearsed move and into a yoga position he hadn’t seen her perform in Majorca. Her head appeared between her knees, her thighs wide apart, which left little to the imagination.

  ‘This is called a Taraksvasana scorpion, Jago. Do you like what you see? I know that you do. How about this one?’ She moved without effort into another position where her whole weight was taken on her elbows while her hands supported the head. ‘It’s called a Sayanasana. Of the three this is my favourite, it’s called Kala Bairavasana, or “destroyer of the universe” in English.’

  ‘If that’s meant to impress me you’re wasting your energy,’ Jago lied. ‘Why Yamada?’

  ‘That I don’t know.’ She uncoiled herself, stood at the end of the bed, then crawled towards him like a panther on
heat until she lay alongside him once again. ‘Does his daughter excite you like I do?’ She touched him again beneath the sheet as she licked his ear.

  ‘Enough,’ Jago said as he pulled her hand away. ‘Just finish what you started to tell me. When was Catesby put on your list?’

  ‘Oh you’re so cruel to a girl, Jago Hale. You’ve had your questions. Despite that, in a spirit of mutual goodwill, I can tell you that I received that contract when I arrived here in London this week. I was told they had used Lord Catesby. The fool thought he was working undercover for your security services, when the person he reported to was in fact a Chetwynd principal. That may be the same man who gives me the targets.’

  ‘Shit.’ Jago couldn’t help release the anger at his own stupidity. It made sense now that Catesby had imagined he was a hero when in fact he’d been used by the traitor all along, perhaps to reveal the weaknesses of other Chetwynd people such as Lopez or Herman. Or maybe to hide the mole’s own identity, Jago realised belatedly.

  ‘Don’t be too hard on yourself, Jago. This organisation is led by very clever people. They plan well ahead. Just to offer you some consolation, it wasn’t me who killed your wife. I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to tell you that in the sauna. I would have done so if your friend hadn’t arrived. So, now it’s time for my own questions. Who is he?’

  ‘A friend, that’s all. He lives in Majorca.’ Jago’s head was still absorbed with the information that Belette had given him. What a fool he’d been. Catesby had been set up like all the others who had been eliminated before him in this saga. He was back to square one on the question of the identity of the traitor.

  ‘You’ll have to do better than that if you want to see your beloved dog again, my sweet. Let’s try again, shall we.’ There was a harder edge to the assassin’s voice now. Who—’

  Their conversation was interrupted by a familiar voice calling his name from the ground floor. It was Nik. Jago realised that when he’d rushed into the house he hadn’t closed either the outer or inner doors. As he turned to shout a warning he lost concentration for a second. Where Belette had hidden the atomiser he didn’t know, but the result was instant incapacity. He couldn’t move. All he could do was watch. She leapt out of the bed to stand behind the door.

  Nik arrived at the top of the stairs at speed. As he ran into the room Belette tripped him, then she sprayed him from behind with the same substance. He fell to the floor twitching violently as she stood over him outside his line of sight.

  Jago was still in the immobile position she’d left him in, unable to move an inch apart from his eyes. He had to watch as she dressed then approached him.

  ‘This is very unsatisfactory. Why do your friends always want to interrupt us, my love?’

  Jago’s paralysed state meant it was only his senses that he remained in control of as she trailed her hand down his chest until it reached his groin. She left it there for a moment.

  ‘It looks like I won’t get answers to those questions now. I could kill you both. At the same time, I promised you the life of your dog if you allowed me to have my fun and I don’t break my word. You’ll find her near the bridge across the Serpentine, where you run most days I’m told.’

  She moved away from the bed to look down on him.

  ‘You are a resilient person, my Jago. I like that. I know we are fated to meet again so I will look forward to it. Still, please understand that now I have achieved what I set out to do, it will be my professional skills that you will experience next time we meet, so I will have no reservation in killing you then.’

  As she reached the door, she turned.

  ‘Goodbye my love. Such a shame we could not have worked together, we would have been an incredible team. I know that you could never enjoy my work as much as I do, so farewell for now, or sayonara as your new woman might say.’ She stepped around Nik’s prone body and walked towards the stairs.

  It was another ten minutes before Jago began to feel some movement in his lifeless joints. Another five before he regained the strength to stagger from the bed, pick up some of his clothes, then one more before he was able to pull them on.

  Nik lay in the same state on the floor, his eyes twitching as they followed Jago’s movements across the room.

  ‘Don’t worry, Nik. You’ll be okay in a few minutes. Whatever it was she used on us, it’s temporary. I have to go get Chob. I’ll explain when I get back. When you get some movement again, go to the kitchen and make us some coffee. I think we’ll both need some, so make it strong with brandy.’

  Jago ran down the stairs and through the door to the mews. He was about to pull it shut after him when he had second thoughts. He opened the house door again to pick up a tyre jack that he’d left in the kitchen, as well as a small flashlight. The clock in the hall showed he had fifteen minutes left to save the dog.

  Chapter 49

  The sprint through the deserted park left him near exhaustion by the time he reached the vehicle parking area near the bridge. The sole vehicle in it was an old white van with a wheel clamp already attached and a notice of intended prosecution for illegal parking stuck on the windscreen. The side door was slightly open, which suggested that it hadn’t been locked properly. The obvious action would be to pull it open wider. Instead, he paused to think.

  His watch showed just four minutes left from the time that Belette had given him. All that he’d learned told him that this woman could never be taken at her word. Jago circled the vehicle with the flashlight. He could see no obvious danger but that didn’t give him any confidence. He knelt down and pulled himself under the front wheels to check the engine area from underneath. It all looked normal, so he pulled himself along the gravel until he was underneath the rear of the vehicle. He almost missed it.

  The flashlight had picked out a small black box attached by a magnet inside the rear wheel arch. From it led a wire that disappeared into a hole that looked as if it had been drilled recently into the van. He checked his watch. Three minutes. If it was a trembler type detonator he would have no chance to survive the probable explosion. The wire suggested another type of mechanism. It also indicated that she had intended this welcome for him, so it was possible she had not used a timer. Was he meant to find this? Did it mean a double bluff of some sort?

  Think. What had his trainers taught him at The Fort all those years ago? The wire must lead to an activator of some sort. In that case it wouldn’t be a movement sensor, it would more likely be a trip device that would set off… what?

  One minute.

  He couldn’t wait any longer. He pulled himself from under the van and pointed the flashlight through the driver’s side window. It was an open type without a wall behind the seats. He couldn’t see inside because a tower of large brown cardboard boxes interrupted his view into the cargo area. He decided he had to take a chance.

  The window shattered into hundreds of pieces from the force of the jack. He pushed up the lock, hoping that the device wasn’t linked to an alarm, and was relieved to find that it wasn’t. He climbed onto the driver’s seat and pulled two of the boxes behind it towards him with great care. After he’d removed them gently and placed them on the ground outside, with the light from the flashlight he peered into the space that he’d opened up.

  The light picked out the dog on the floor. She was tied by a rope to a pillar, encased in a mix of blanket and gaffer tape, her jaws closed by the addition of more tape tied around a muzzle. Jago pointed the light around the cargo area. It picked out the wire that led from a hole in the floor to another box attached to the roof above the side door. That in turn was indeed attached to a trip mechanism which would have activated if the door had been pulled open. He checked his watch once more. No minutes left, so no timer. He breathed a sigh of relief.

  Jago climbed carefully over the row of seats into the cargo area. A pair of frightened eyes watched his every move as he did so. The dog was alive and had started to whine.

  ‘Don’t worry, girl. You’ll be o
kay now. Just wait a while longer then I’ll have you out of here.’

  He was about to start to disentangle the dog when his attention was pulled to a yellow sticker note beside the side door. It read:

  Well done Jago. If you’re reading this you’re still alive, so you’re smarter than they thought. Veni, Vedi, Vici. Can you guess where I am now, my Emperor?

  He decided the conundrum would have to wait. By the time Jago had managed to release the dog from her ties, it was another half an hour before they got back to the mews. Nik was outside the house as they walked up to the outer door, waiting like a worried father for the return of an overdue teenager from a night on the lash. He held himself up against the wall with some difficulty, however.

  ‘She okay? I’ve been worried.’

  ‘Fine. A little disoriented I guess, otherwise okay.’ Jago recounted the recent episode as he followed the canine through the doors into the warmth of the kitchen.

  ‘Who hit me, Jago?’

  ‘That was the infamous La Polpo. You’re lucky you’re still alive to tell the tale. She’s one strange woman, that Belette.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean I’m cold and that coffee must be stale by now. I’ll make another fresh, with some strong additive as well. I need some of that while I fill you in on the details.’

  A few minutes later the dog scrutinised them from the reassuring comfort of her basket in the kitchen. It appeared she’d taken the adventure in her stride without any sign of it having affected her confidence.

  ‘Nik. First of all, can you get a cleaner squad to that van straightaway? It has to be made safe before the public start to arrive in a few hours.’

  ‘Sure. I’ll do that now.’ Nik picked up his cell phone and punched a preset code. The conversation was brief. By the way he snapped out the commands, Jago wondered for a second whether Nik’s rank was higher than he’d been led to believe.