by Tomson Cobb
‘Greenstreet won’t be happy with her then?’
‘He won’t, I grant you that. However, I think he’ll still have to use her again.’
‘For what?’
‘I don’t know yet. Just my gut instinct again.’
‘So we carry on as planned you think?’ Shapiro said clearly. The gum mastication was a lot less today, Jago realised.
‘Yeah. He doesn’t know we’ve turned Wade. At least I hope so. He has to be your pet project now. If you can squeeze that asshole dry, we use him to get inside the Organisation.’
‘I sure look forward to exactly that. At the same time, I think we should keep these shots of the girl to ourselves for now.’
‘Why’s that, Tony?’
‘If I release them through the agencies in the US they may end up in Five Eyes, or even further afield. If she gets a sniff that we can identify her, she’ll go to ground. If we use them with care, we can see where she goes.’
‘Good idea. If we follow the monkey, we’ll find the organ grinder,’ Jago said.
‘Okay. I’ll work on Kruger. What will you do now?’
‘I’ll go to go to Buenos Aires to see what I can dig up on Señor Macblane. I want to bring Yuval into this as well, Tony.’
‘Why so?’
‘Because he’s one of the few others in our community we can trust. The Israelis also have their own operation against Chetwynd, so we have to pool our resources. Besides, Mossad have electronic surveillance software and people embedded in places that even you guys can only swoon over, so he can help us on the ground when I get there as well. He doesn’t trust anyone in his intelligence department either, except for his own little trusted team, just like us.’
‘Okay. Logical next step. I’m convinced. I’ll send a few of my boys down there to help. If you need me on the ground as well, just holler. Now I gotta leave.’
An hour later Jago was still pondering the events of the previous twenty-four hours. He’d been outmanoeuvred too many times by the girl and needed to work out some of his frustrations at the gym. He picked up the sports bag and after more reassurance for the dog, locked the door behind him.
The train from London to Cheltenham was not packed for a change, so as he didn’t have a seat reservation Nik was able to find one without the need to walk the carriages end to end as he usually did.
‘I hope you don’t mind me saying, but it’s quite incredible.’
Nik looked up from his laptop across the aisle of the train. He’d been so immersed in his work since it had left Paddington station that his attention had barely moved from the screen. The view that greeted him was a sight for sore eyes. The woman wore a pair of tight black leather trousers and a red leotard top, with an expensive woollen shawl thrown over her shoulders. It was what was inside them that captured his attention though. Her shiny black hair and glasses served only to reflect the beautiful face that smiled back at him. She was squeezed into her seat alongside a wide overweight man whose face and shirt showed damp with sweat.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry. It’s just that you look so like an old friend of mine...’
She was interrupted in her explanation by the arrival of a young boy with a plastic cup of coffee and a wrapped sandwich.
‘Thank you, Sebastian. Tell your father I’ll join him at the buffet in a few minutes.’ The boy ran away obediently down the carriage of the train, a big smile on his face. ‘My nephew,’ she explained to her new awestruck travel companion. ‘My brother is at the other end of the train. We couldn’t get seats together. Do you mind if I join you? It’s a bit cramped here.’
‘By all means.’ Nik wondered whether a win on the lottery was really the ultimate dream. He decided his regular trip between London and Cheltenham was about to become a little more enjoyable than usual.
Chapter 52
The usual banter about football in the changing room left Jago unmoved as he changed into his kit and walked into the gym. After his usual warm-up stretches he jogged down the stairs into the free weights area. As he reached the floor below, he was almost knocked over by a slap on his back. He turned to see the smiling face of his latest recruit.
‘Samson. Good to see you, my friend. It’s serendipity that you’re here just now.’
‘Seren what?’
‘Coincidence. I need to talk to you. Have you finished your session?’
‘No. Just started.’ The bear-like figure towered over Jago like an oak tree, except without the foliage.
‘Good. I need to do mine as well. Look, why don’t we meet in the coffee shop next door in an hour. We can talk better there.’
‘Sure pal. I’ll see you later.’ The man mountain lumbered off to join the more extreme users of the room who preferred the suicide-inducing weights, while Jago headed for the more sensible machines at the other end. The distraction of watching the huge ex-bouncer’s routine with the heavy metal, which he threw around as if they were made of papier mâché, was not what he needed at that moment. He needed time to think.
After he’d showered Jago had found a quiet corner in the café, switched on his phone’s encrypted Wi-Fi connection, and had done some useful research by the time the big man arrived and squeezed his large frame into the other battered leather armchair across the table.
‘I got you your usual. Large fruit smoothie. That okay?’ asked Jago.
‘Fine. What can I do for you today, Mr Hale?’
‘You can give me a run-down on what’s happened inside the company since your latest boss got snuffed, for a start.’
‘No problem. I thought you’d have been in touch before now though,’ Samson said.
‘I’ve been a bit busy. I was out of the country till a few days ago, so I didn’t get a chance to call you. How did they announce the news about Hordiyenko?’
‘The head of HR called everyone into the boardroom. She just told us he’d been murdered at his villa by some local psychopath while he was there on holiday. Said the COO would take over until head office decided on the new CEO. That was it.’
‘No abnormal activity? No show of panic from anybody?’
‘Nope. All pretty much like a usual day.’
‘Why weren’t you with him on the trip?’
‘He had other people when he travelled abroad. Chomsky did as well. I just did some of the personal protection here in the UK for both of them.’
‘Makes sense, I suppose. You ever see this woman?’ Jago pushed across one of the photos he’d printed of Belette.
‘Wow. She’s some babe. No way. I would have remembered if she’d shown up. Who is she?’
‘Your ex-boss’s killer. She’s a professional assassin.’
‘Oh. Right,’ Samson said with a nod, although without any other sign of surprise or emotion. He just took a gulp of his drink. Jago appreciated Samson’s laidback attitude at moments like this.
‘What are you like with computers?’
‘Never off them when I’m not at work or in here. My hobby is online games. I play against gamers around the world in tournaments.’
‘That’s useful to know. I need you to download a program onto Hordiyenko’s computer in his office. He does have one in there, doesn’t he?’
‘Oh yeah. It’s networked into the company system. But I don’t have his password.’
‘You don’t need it. Just switch it on and then plug in this memory stick. It does all the hard work automatically. It should take about ten seconds to download what we want. When the LED on it turns from red to green, take it out then switch off the computer again. Can you do that without being spotted?’
Samson pocketed the flash drive.
‘Sure. I’m always in and out of there, so nobody would notice if I go in to check the room. That’s part of my job when he’s away. It’s my night shift today anyway so there won’t be many people around in the offices. I start at ten.’
‘Good. Call me when you’ve finished. I’ll pick the stick up from
you here tomorrow, same time. All right with you?’
‘Fine. I’m here every day. It’s my second home.’
‘I realised that a long time ago, Sammo. Good man. We’ll talk later then.’
‘What do you do all day on that laptop anyway?’
‘I have to find new authors that want to work with us, then oversee all new publications they produce. It’s a lot of work.’
‘I thought you said you had a team of commissioning editors?’
‘We do. I have to review their recommendations, then approve them or not. I send the ones I’ve passed to Dad for his final okay, then they go to legal for them to do the contracts.’
’What happens to the ones you turn down?’
‘We try to do it as gently as possible. It pays to keep the channels open. You never know when we might need them again.’
Jago wondered whether his wife’s words had meant something more than they seemed all those years ago. He’d decided to walk home, and made it to about halfway when his thoughts were interrupted by a call from Nigel.
‘Hello Mr Hale. I have some information for you. I don’t want to discuss it on the phone, so as I’m near your place, can I drop in?’
‘Sure, Nigel. I’m on my way there now. I’ll be another fifteen minutes or so.’
Jago had decided to have the encryption software added to both Nigel’s and Ivan’s phones, so for Nigel to still want to call around in person he must have believed it important enough to deliver the information face to face.
‘What have you found, Nige?’
Jago’s visitor had been greeted by Chobi like a long-lost relative. It produced a wide grin on the face of the accountant, who returned the favour by patting the dog’s back.
‘You asked me to look into Real World Analysis. I’ve come across a shell company they bought off the shelf three months ago. That in turn is held by a foundation that’s based in Bermuda with one nominee director. The identity of the beneficial owner I can’t tell, as it has just one bearer share, so whoever physically holds that share owns the company. They can stay anonymous as well.’
‘I realise that. So what’s unusual about it that it needs you to pay me a visit?’
‘It doesn’t hold any cash, just the rights to a software program. They even patented it. For all the world it looks at first like a sophisticated antivirus program.’
‘But?’
‘Yes, well, it appears to do much more than that. I’m not a computer expert so I gave Ivan a call. He checked on the patent then called me back. To be clear, he suggested it could operate in the opposite direction if used by the wrong people.’
‘Well, we know plenty of them. You mean it could send a virus itself?’
‘Exactly. He thinks that it’s so advanced, it could be used to take down a country’s power networks or even its air defence systems.’
‘Wow. I understand your concern now. That is of interest. Explains why they wanted to hide it away in an offshore company, maybe. Thanks my friend. You did right not to call. I’ll have some checks done myself about this.’
Jago had closed the outer door on the accountant and was about to call Ivan when he remembered he hadn’t asked Nigel about Macblane. He went out again and saw the accountant about to reach the far end of the mews. He also saw two men who appeared to be delivering junk mail through the mailboxes along the street start to take an unusual amount of interest in the accountant as he passed them. Jago broke into a run.
The first man had stepped behind Nigel while the second jogged across to join the action alongside his pal. Jago saw the first man pull a knife from his pocket, and with a sense of despair realised he wouldn’t reach them in time. Luckily, the dog had also noticed the activity and didn’t have the defeatist attitude of her owner. Chobi passed him at a rate of knots then started to bark loudly. The three figures in front all turned, which gave Jago the opportunity to make up the ground, and the dog the chance to put the fear of God into the two attackers. They were right to be scared.
The dog launched itself into the air at the second man, a tall, scrawny individual with a scar down the right side of his face. He screamed as the dog’s teeth tore through his bare arm and held on. Jago ignored him as he concentrated on the first attacker, who had now transferred his attention to the madman who was running towards him, the knife held up in front of him for deterrence. The move was a waste of his time. Jago feinted then pushed the arm away and over backwards in a move he’d practised many times with his Systema instructor, which made the attacker crumple to his knees and drop the blade. He then moved close and followed up with a short, sharp punch to the kidney area, then another to the throat. The man crumpled into a ball as he tried to breathe.
The other attacker was by now sprawled on the cobbled road, still screaming with the dog attached to his arm, trying desperately to reach his inside pocket. Jago put that idea to bed with a couple more blows to his new target. The dog let go of the now very bloody arm after Jago’s order. He searched the thug’s pockets to find another blade and threw it against the wall of one of the houses.
‘Watch him, Chob. If he moves, have a taste of the other arm.’ The dog barked once obediently.
Jago looked around to check on Nigel, to find him on his cell phone, deep in conversation with the police. He left Chobi to guard the second man as he approached the first attacker and bent down.
‘Who paid you? Tell me now or I’ll let the dog loose on you as well,’ Jago whispered with menace to the man, who was now just about able to breathe.
‘A woman. Don’t know her. Paid us for a hit. We followed the guy from Camden. Never meant to hurt him, just take whatever was in his pockets and lift his wallet. Honest.’
‘I’m sure you were – once. Now be a good boy and don’t move until the law arrives, otherwise I’ll let the dog do to you what he did to your friend. Understand?
‘Yeah. Okay,’ he gasped. The wiser option.
‘You all right, Nigel?’
‘Oh yes. I’m fine. That was a bit of excitement wasn’t it? Were they about to rob me?’
‘Something like that, Nige. I’m sorry. I should have realised you might become a target again. I shouldn’t have let you come here.’
‘Nonsense. You’ve told me about your work on several occasions so this is no surprise. If I didn’t think your work was important I wouldn’t help you.’
‘Well said, Nigel. Many thanks for that. It’s good to hear someone else cares. Here come the police, just tell them what happened. No word about why you came though. You were just visiting a client. I’ll explain the same from my side.’
An hour or so later Jago had shown the two crime scene investigators from the house. They’d accepted his explanation and also agreed to give Nigel a lift to his apartment, yet still the incident had left him with more questions, not least because his calls to Nik had not been answered.
Shapiro’s flight wouldn’t arrive in DC for another three hours, so he went back to the Chetwynd family tree on the hand-drawn diagram he’d created to try to figure out why the recent incidents might fit into a strategic timetable for the Organisation. No obvious component stood out, but the information from his accountant on the mystery software program nagged him like a sore tooth. He was in the basement gym practising more of his Systema moves, still deep in thought about the latest events, when he heard his mobile ring in the kitchen above.
He sprinted up the stairs to find Nik’s name on the cell’s screen.
‘Hi mate. Where’ve you been?’
‘Hello darling. Have you missed me? I suppose you’ve been worried about your friend Nik?’ The unforgettable voice of Belette shocked Jago from his already worried state of mind into something much worse.
‘What the hell have you done to him, you bitch?’
‘Oh Jago, Jago. Is that the way to talk to your one true love? How cruel of you after our recent passionate encounter. I’m afraid to say that your GCHQ contact was put on my list of customers yest
erday. After he gave me the information that my client wanted, I had to dispose of him. It’s just business once again, Jago darling. You do realise that, don’t you my sweet?’
Jago’s heart sank. He’d known Nik for many years, as they’d both joined SIS around the same time.
‘Where is he?’
‘I left him in his apartment. Such a shame. A nice boy. Gullible but sweet. If you’d given me the information I wanted, it might not have been necessary for me to meet your friend. I gave him some pleasure at least before I had to dispose of him. However, that’s life, or death in this case.’ She started to chuckle. Unstable, he thought. His anger, linked to frustration, now hard to control.
‘What do you and your employer want from me, Dias?’
‘Ah. That’s the second time you’ve called me by my surname. How formal of you Jago, though I much prefer it when you call me Belette. Well, the answer to your question is I don’t know. I’ve been retained on this project for a further period so who knows, we may meet again sooner than I thought.’
‘I hope so, Dias. I really do. I can promise you now that next time we meet you will be leaving this world, so enjoy your time while you can,’ Jago said.
‘Oh, I do love it when you’re angry my sweet. It shows the other side of you that you try and hide from others. That includes your women, no doubt. Still, I don’t have time to discuss your weaknesses any more today. I have to go now, Jago. I have a long trip ahead of me so I want to freshen up before I leave. Au revoir for now, my love. I’m sure we’ll be together again very soon, at least for a few minutes before I kill you this time.’
The line went dead. So did Jago’s mood. He put in a call to Toye and gave him an abbreviated report on the situation. Toye promised to send a team to Nik’s place. Jago then waited another hour with his OCD in full overload mode before he tried Shapiro’s number. It was still on voicemail, so he left a message for the American to call him back. Half an hour later he did.