Assassin Flame

by Tomson Cobb

  ‘I just landed. What’s up?’

  Jago outlined the latest events with a heavy heart.

  ‘Fuck. He sounded like a good guy.’

  ‘He was. The only consolation is that his parents died years ago and he was single, so no family to grieve for him, just an elderly aunt with Alzheimer’s so she won’t even know he’s gone.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Jago. We have to put a stop to this operation, and this woman.’

  ‘Agreed. She’s on her way to Buenos Aires, Tony. I’m sure of it. Can you put out those photos of her but just to your own network at ports and airports so we can track her? She doesn’t know we have them, so it’s the one advantage we have for now. I want to know where she goes but I don’t want her to know we have them, nor do I want her picked up by some overenthusiastic border guard. I’m off to Argentina tomorrow myself. I’ve asked Haber to meet us there as well.’

  ‘Good. I’ll get on that right now. Look, Jago, I’ll have to report to Chuck Coburn later today. I can’t delay it any longer. You’ve already spoken to Toye, so then we can both say we’ve done as ordered. I’ll get my boys to introduce themselves to you in BA then I’ll be down there myself as fast as I can.’

  ‘Thanks Tony. I’ve had enough of these bastards playing with us, now it’s our turn to hit them. Six and Langley can go fuck themselves as far as I care. This is now personal.’

  Chapter 53

  ‘I’m glad you called me, Jago. I was about to suggest a meeting myself so you saved me the trouble.’

  Yuval Haber looked his usual relaxed self, apart from the way his eyes followed the movements of all the other travellers in the space around them. The departure lounge at Barcelona airport provided a functional setting for their meeting, if not a completely secure one. Haber had arrived via a flight from Rome to connect with an Iberia flight to Buenos Aires, while Jago intended to fly on to Madrid for his ongoing connection to Ezeiza airport in Argentina. Jago still had reservations about them being seen together in such a public place, though.

  ‘Don’t worry, my friend,’ said Haber when he brought it up again. ‘I booked my own flight and changed it at the last minute, so nobody in either of our organisations will know we are talking here now. Even if they do, what the hell. It’s just a coincidence that we’ve bumped into each other.’

  ‘I doubt that, Yuval. The last time we met up it nearly cost both of us our lives. However, it’s too late to worry about it now I suppose. What happened after our exploits in Cyprus anyway? Did it cause you any grief, having to explain why you got shot?’

  ‘Nah. As I told you, we’d been monitoring Chetwynd ourselves so it was a risk we all take. My bosses were pleased we made such good progress after we found the code book for the numbers station at the home of the Lebanese, Abdel. It’s provided Unit 8200 with no end of information since then, I can tell you.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘As well as intelligence gathering, Abdel had been instructed to arrange the accidental deaths of several people over the last eighteen months. Two of them were prominent Israeli tech businessmen who lived abroad.’

  ‘How do you know they weren’t natural or accidents, or even that he was involved?’

  ‘We always investigate unusual or early deaths of our important citizens, particularly when they did their national service and then went on to launch their own tech start-ups as these two did.’

  ‘Which is because this type of new business always works closely with, and has funding from, the Israeli security services of course,’ Jago said.

  ‘Ha. You know us well by now, Jago. I couldn’t possibly comment of course. Suffice to say both individuals were important to our national security.’

  ‘Of course. You didn’t finish your explanation though.’

  ‘When we went back through the recordings of the numbers station – we always archive them even if we can’t decipher them, of course – then linked them to the code book, we found the connection to Abdel. He received his orders in the usual way from Sidney,’ Haber said.

  ‘You mean Greenstreet. Okay, why were the two guys relevant do you think?’

  ‘Both of the Israelis worked in the IT security sector. We believe their product research was about to become a risk to Chetwynd’s own software.’

  ‘That would explain a lot.’ Jago recounted the information on the Real World Analysis product that Nigel had told him about before the two muggers attacked him.

  ‘Ah. That fits then. It just reinforces our belief that the Organisation has plans to use their own stuff for something big soon.’

  ‘That’s what Shapiro and I think also. How well do you know him, anyway?’

  ‘Tony Shapiro you mean, or Mr Greenstreet? Neither very well, although I’ve met Shapiro at a few security briefings. I haven’t met our mystery man, although I might have but don’t know it yet.’ He laughed. ‘Why are we off to BA now though, Jago?’

  ‘Because I’m fed up with being led by the nose. Our friend Greenstreet has choreographed all that’s happened to us all since Volkov’s assassination, so now it’s our turn to take the lead.’

  ‘Excellent. So how do we do that my friend?’

  ‘You, Tony and I are all in the same boat, because we don’t or can’t trust the organisations we work for. At the same time, each of us has some freedom to take action without the need for prior clearance, so we have an advantage over any official op that Langley, Six or Mossad try to put together. Also, as the likelihood is that each has been infiltrated by Chetwynd as well, there’s less chance of a leak by us three operating independently.’

  ‘Did Toye approve this when you told him your plan?’

  ‘He doesn’t know. I just told him I was off to research the Argentina side of the Organisation whether he liked it or not. He didn’t. I didn’t give him any details though.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Partly because Six have taken me for granted for too long, although the reality is as I can only work on my hunch that something is about to happen soon so that wouldn’t be enough to get official sanction for this action.’

  ‘I see. So we’re all off there because you have a feeling in your water that Chetwynd are about to do something now?’

  ‘I know it sounds flaky, but just think. Mr X, or Greenstreet, has used me to find out what we know about his plans. When he got what he wanted, he employed Dias to knock off anyone in his team and our group that might hinder his operation. When he got her to terminate Catesby, I knew that meant he was ready to move to the next stage.’

  ‘Which is?’ asked Haber, who by now was leaning forward in his chair, his attention fixed on Jago’s every word.

  ‘I don’t know. Only that it’s going to happen soon and that thousands of people will be killed. It also involves the Chinese in some way.’

  ‘Wow. That’s quite a next stage. You believe they work for the Chinese then?’

  ‘No, though they probably work closely with them. It’s a business deal with both suspicious of the other but each realising the benefits of both sides joining forces. For now, at least.’

  ‘So the key is the software developed by Real World Analysis, you think?’

  ‘Exactly. I found out that Justin Worsley, the CEO at RWA, also jumped on a plane to BA the day after Catesby was snuffed. With Lopez and Herman already out there, it’s all about to kick off, Yuval.’

  ‘Okay. I’m sold. I have to tell you, though, that our people think Chetwynd are just a criminal organisation with the greater accumulation of money on their minds.’

  ‘It’s much more than that. This has been a long-term strategy since the birth of the Organisation during the dog days of the USSR, when Chetwynd was just a mafia operation run by opportunistic crooks. Someone realised there was a much bigger opportunity so plans were put in place long ago. If they achieve their aim of getting Kruger installed as the new president, we’re all fucked. That would give them enormous strategic power at the very least.’

  ‘So that so
meone is our mysterious mole in UK government?’

  Before he could answer Haber, Jago’s theory was interrupted by his phone. He stood and walked away to take the call. A few minutes later he returned to his seat, a serious expression clouding his face.

  ‘What’s the matter, Jago? Who was that?’

  ‘Toye. GCHQ have been going through Nik’s laptop that was still in his flat. Nik had been trawling through the phone calls that Lopez had made to Macblane, and they found a sound file of one made the night before Nik was snuffed by Belette.’

  ‘Did he tell you about this? Nik, I mean.’

  ‘No. Toye reckons Nik hadn’t opened it as it was still in the actions list. He might have been working on the file during the train journey from London when Belette introduced herself to him. They have footage of a woman leaving the train with him at Cheltenham.’

  ‘What was the conversation about?’ Haber asked.

  ‘What we’ve just been talking about. Lopez mentioned to Macblane that they were ready to go on the scheduled date.’

  ‘So you’re right then.’

  ‘More than that. He added that they should “take out at least a hundred thousand”.’

  ‘My God. If that means casualties… Did Toye get any more detail on what they intend to do?’

  ‘No. They’re still ploughing through the calls that Nik had on his system. Toye ordered me to stand down as London will now take over the operation. He said I was to have no more contact with any of the Chetwynd personnel, including trying to eliminate La Polpo.’

  ‘What did you say to him?’

  ‘I told him I would do as I was told, of course.’

  ‘Did he believe you?’

  ‘I don’t give a toss whether he does or not. I intend to carry on with our plan. I’ve committed too much to this already. Besides, I don’t know how much SIS have been infiltrated, so I don’t have confidence that whatever their intention is, whether the traitor will allow it to be successful.’

  ‘Why the hell do they need to kill that many anyway?’

  ‘No idea. But we have to find out fast.’

  ‘So where does the traitor in London fit into all this?’

  ‘That I don’t know either. Macblane is the key to finding out though. Who thought the Brits were past creating empires? This guy Greenstreet certainly doesn’t,’ Jago added.

  ‘That’s one way of putting it, I suppose. I might describe it a little differently,’ Haber said.

  ‘Whichever way we cut it, we have to stop this massacre before it’s launched. But it has to be just the three of us with only our most trusted teams involved, otherwise the risk is that the people that Chetwynd have infiltrated into our various organisations will do all they can to stop any serious effort by our employers to put an end to this crowd.’

  ‘I agree. My team is ready to support you and Tony, Jago.’

  ‘That’s good to hear, Yuval. It’s up to the three of us to put an end to this organisation once and for all.’

  I hope you’ve enjoyed the book. If you have, please leave a review on Amazon. It will really help me and other readers.

  Want to know what happens next?

  As you’ve read this far, It looks like you’ve enjoyed Assassin Flame. It’s Part Two of a Jago Hale Trilogy, the first being Sakura Spark which was released recently. If you haven’t already read it, you can find it here:

  getbook.at/Sakura

  Assassin Flame will be followed by the third and final part at the end of the year.

  For more information on the next book in the series, join The Tomson Cobb Readers Club. There you will receive exclusive information from me, details of any price promotions, and also the latest chapters of a FREE prequel to this story, which follows Jago and Sammy as they combine forces to release a kidnapped boy from a gang in the jungles of Colombia.

  It’s called The Colombian Contract, is available now FREE, and is being released in a serial format, with each part delivered to your inbox as a Reader’s Club member as soon as each group of chapters is completed.

  This trilogy is the start of a journey for Jago, and for me, so why not join him in his quest for the truth, and me in the development of the series. For more information, check out my website below.

  Yours with thanks,

  Tomson Cobb.

  To learn more about Jago and me, visit my website:

  https://tomsoncobb.com/readers-club/