Thomas reached out and steadied her arm. “I think I’ll take that now.” He pulled out his phone with his free hand and passed it to her. “Call number five — do it in the bathroom. Tell him everything.”
Heick took a few minutes to get there. Thomas had supposed he’d come with backup but he arrived alone. As he entered the room, Heick’s eyes flickered from Karl to Moretti, as though he were making a choice.
“Hey,” Moretti sneered, “we have a deal. If you want what I have . . .”
Heick pointed to Thomas and Miranda. “You two, out. I’ll call you when I’m ready. I’ll take care of Karl.” Heick held out a hand for the gun.
Karl nodded obligingly. Miranda threw Thomas a ‘what the fuck?’ gesture and followed him out.
“Is that it then?”
“Come on.” He strode out and took the stairs down to the fourth floor. It was a hunch, nothing more, that Heick would have a backup of all the camera footage taken from opposite Henriette’s room. If that were true, the receiver would probably be in the room itself. Only one way to know for sure.
* * *
He collected a fire extinguisher by the lifts and marched along the corridor, right up to the door below the camera. Miranda followed him and then backed off a little when she understood. He swung behind him and then twisted to put his full bodyweight behind the blow. The extinguisher crashed against the doorplate, which offered little resistance. They went inside.
“What are we looking for?”
He gave her the briefest of smiles. “It’ll be a small unit,” he shaped space with his hands, “Probably black — and connected to a power supply.”
While Miranda searched the room methodically he pulled up a chair and pressed it against the door, feeling above it for a wire.
“Gotcha.” The camera was well fitted, recessed into the plaster and papered over. He scratched with his fingers and then scraped away with a key.
“Here.” Miranda threw him a penknife and he caught it one-handed.
He realised, as he dug the camera out, that what he was doing served no purpose other than as a wanton act of vandalism. That would do for now.
“It’s not here.” Miranda stood in the middle of the room, hands on her hips. I’ve checked every socket — unless it’s powered by batteries?”
“No, batteries are fallible.” He got off the chair and looked to the door. “Where better than Henriette’s room? We’ll need to be quick.”
“She could be in there though.”
“Well, she’s about to get a rude awakening.”
He moved the chair back and picked up his trusty lock-extinguisher. Miranda held the door open and watched him as he retreated a few steps for a run-up.
Meeting the door head on, he powered through and landed on the carpet. Miranda went straight to work and found it in the wardrobe. He knew what was coming even if she didn’t, and tossed her the camera.
“Improvise.”
The security staff piled through the door and onto him.
Miranda’s voice warbled. “There was a message for Ms Voclain and as I arrived, I found this man here.”
“Well then, you’d better give it to me.” Henriette Voclain appeared at the doorway. She looked imposing, especially to Thomas who now found himself in a double arm lock. “I’m waiting.”
Thomas stopped struggling. “I have a message too: Charlemagne.”
Henriette paled. “Go,” she commanded Miranda, who scuttled out without looking at Thomas. “Leave us,” she told the security staff, who knew when to take an order.
Thomas felt the blood rushing back to his hands and he started to breathe again.
“Sit down.”
He did as she asked. “Stephen sent me.” He reasoned that she’d be carrying a gun and also that she was seated too far away for him to land a punch on her. Ordinarily he wouldn’t hit a woman, but it had been a difficult day and he was willing to make an exception in her case. Hard to say why exactly, apart from his predicament.
He moved a hand towards his pocket and her gun flashed in his peripheral vision. Good call. He froze for an instant. “My phone. Call it — number five in my list.” He took it out very carefully with a thumb and index finger, and lobbed it on to her bed.
She edged around it, her gun trained on him all the time, and reached over to look at the screen. He thought about rushing her but why risk it? Besides, he’d told her the truth — after a fashion.
Lady luck smiled on him. The phone rang and she read the screen. He saw her adjust the volume.
“Thomas, are you there? Get up here.”
She glowered and cut the call.
“Satisfied now?”
She threw him back his phone. “We’ll go together.” She kept the gun hand in a pocket, hoodlum style, and gestured to the door. Outside, the two security staff started walking towards them.
“No one is to enter.” She breezed past within touching distance of Thomas.
They took the lift. Thomas tried to imagine how the pieces could be put together. He wondered how Heick would feel when they showed up at the door. He didn’t have long to wait. Thomas knocked, partly to delay the inevitable. A conversation dried up as the door opened wide.
Heick’s jaw slackened about a foot and so did Moretti’s. Then a light seemed to glimmer in his eyes, as though he’d been handed a lifeline. Thomas stepped over to Karl.
“Are you okay?”
“I’ve had better days. No bones broken though, from what I can tell.”
Heick stared daggers at Thomas. “Why did you bring her?”
“I caught him in my room.” Henriette was on the offensive.
Moretti laughed — a jackal’s cackle. “He’s with the police.”
Thomas held out his pass for Henriette to see. Although it didn’t make him a copper, it agreed with Moretti.
Heick turned to Henriette. “In your room?”
“He was there with one of the staff. I sent her away.”
Thomas saw that Heick got the picture, even if he didn’t understand what it looked like yet.
She turned her attention to Karl. “And who is this?”
Thomas caught the way Heick looked over without saying anything. Interesting. “He’s with me. And your associate here did him some damage.”
Karl staggered to his feet. “Come on, Thomas. We’re getting out of here.”
Moretti leaned back against the wall and lit a cigarette. “The next time I see you both, I’ll kill you, with or without orders.” He took a drag, made a gun shape with two fingers and then blew out a smoke ring.
Thomas stared Moretti down. “Not if I see you first.”
Karl waited by the door while Thomas collected their equipment and grabbed some clothes. Last and not least, Thomas emptied the safe, weighing the gun in his hand before stowing it away.
Heick answered his phone. His face suggested it was bad news. “What do you mean gone?”
Henriette stood in protest as Thomas ushered Karl out, but Heick shook his head. Thomas understood. Heick wasn't bothered because he had the backup images on the camera’s receiver. At least, he used to.
Chapter 38
They hailed a black cab outside.
The cabbie took one look at the hotel front, and their bags, and sniffed money. “Where to, guvnor?”
“A bar called Caliban’s — in Bow. Head for Burdett Road and I’ll direct you when we get there.” Thomas held the door, eased Karl inside and shoved the bags in after him.
Thomas was pleased that Karl didn’t question his logic. After all, where else would Miranda go if the family were away in Spain? The bar was closed up and it had several places to hide. For all Thomas knew she had a weapon there too, after Moretti’s firearms display.
Twenty minutes later, Thomas stood in the pub car park next to Karl. They hadn’t spoken during the cab ride so Thomas figured he’d make up for lost time.
“What the fuck happened back there? One minute we were in control and the
next . . .”
“Politics and expediency, Tommo — same as ever. Moretti might be a killer but he’s also an asset to the Shadow State and he has information to trade.”
“So he walks away scot free?”
“Not exactly. Before you showed up again Heick discussed getting him out of there in return for something useful on Barbara Leibowicz.”
Thomas thought back to Moretti’s parting words. “You think she’s the one giving the orders?”
“Maybe.”
Thomas let it slide. He could see Karl was fading. They crowded the side door together, bags at their feet. Eventually he heard the click of the microphone and a familiar voice.
“You took your time.”
Upstairs, Miranda put the coffee on and served up an admission.
“Stephen Heick asked me to work the conference area so I could be his eyes and ears. He couldn’t be seen in there.”
It made sense. Catching him with Henriette Voclain was sufficient. Catching him with the other delegates might look like he was plotting against her and the Shadow State. It still stuck in Thomas’s throat.
“And you didn’t think to say?”
“He made me a very attractive offer not to. Caliban’s has been struggling for a while—”
“Again, you never said.”
“It’s my business. Anyway, that’s not the whole of it. He also discovered Sheryl is Jack’s daughter . . .”
Thomas shook his head slowly. It always came down to who knew what. Scumbag.
“How did it work?”
“We were walking recorders.”
“We?”
Sheryl emerged from the back room. “Hi. I could hardly say no and I wasn’t about to leave Miranda to the wolves. Security was very tight going in — pat downs and some sort of gizmo at the door.”
“Radio Frequency detector,” Thomas corrected her.
“Like I care.” Sheryl poured herself a coffee. “Heick made arrangements with one of the kitchen staff and left equipment for us in the kitchens. We put it on each day and took it off at the end of a shift.”
“Shit. No receiver?”
“You mean the black box? I took it when Miranda came down. I thought maybe it was a recharger or something.”
Karl was already firing up the laptop.
The footage was all first person. The invisibility of a name badge and a uniform meant that conversations flowed around them. Plus, unlike the camera on Henriette’s door, there was sound.
“Jesus.” Thomas wound the footage on. “This could take hours.”
“Not necessarily, Tommo.” Karl stirred back into life. “We have specialist recognition software back at the office.”
“I’ll go. You rest here, Karl.” He took out the Makarov and passed it to him. “Always have a Plan B.” He packaged up the recorders, receivers and the laptop, and then he nodded for Miranda to follow him to the stairs. “You know the drill. I’ll ring you when I get there. Anything wrong and you use the codeword.”
“Butch.” She gave a thumbs-up. “And what will you do?”
“I’ll come back and kill ’em.”
She kissed him hard — correct answer.
* * *
Thomas made sure his phone was on and jumped the first bus that came along. Once he got near spitting distance of Mile End tube he travelled on the Underground and surfaced at Liverpool Street. There was no welcoming committee, but he walked at twice the pace of everyone else around him. He rang Christine as he approached the building and she came out to collect him.
“My ID card is at home.”
“Just as well. People are looking for you. I’ve had calls from Sir Peter Carroll and an American who said he was given my number.” She did not look pleased about it.
“I need to use the editing suite.”
“Fine,” she snapped. “I’ll come with you.”
As they walked past their office to the room next door he thought about filtering the truth and decided against it. He’d tell her everything. He didn’t expect to find Ann Crossley at one of the two large screens.
“Alright, Thomas?” She didn’t look round. “Just finishing up with the outside footage.”
He glanced over her shoulder to see the Asterion — same hotel — staring back at him. He took a seat at the other screen. Christine sat beside him, waiting.
Ann swivelled her chair to face him. “I’m about done, so if you needed a hand . . .”
“Why not?” He passed her the second black box.
Over the next hour and a half the image recognition software identified thirty-five individuals, storing a snapshot of each one in a separate file. Not quite mug shots but close enough. Anne copied her outside broadcast file and between them they cross-referenced fifteen people for definite and another five probables. Ann also turned out some sterling work identifying several complete vehicle number plates and a couple of partials.
Thomas turned his attention to the hotel corridor footage. Henriette’s room had received callers at all hours — occasionally Heick. For the cameras, Thomas decided. She would also leave after midnight and return in the small hours — to Heick’s room, no doubt. Karl’s statue-cam was motion triggered. Naturally, the faces matched those on the door camera. Heick could be seen at the end of the corridor waving them off or meeting them afterwards.
He sensed the buzz in the room, although he couldn’t tell why.
“What am I looking at?”
Ann joined them as the image tiles streamed across the screen, each one framing Heick and a new friend.
“Proof that Heick knows many of Henriette Voclain’s contacts.” Ann pointed to the screen’s twelve squares.
He shrugged. “I still don’t get it.”
Christine laid a consoling hand on his arm. “You think she knows that he knows them?”
He laced his fingers and rested them on his head, eyes closed. When he opened them a few seconds later, he could see daylight again.
“Make copies for your respective agencies, plus a set for Karl. And then I’d like a little privacy.”
Christine looked at him quizzically. “What are you going to do?”
“You’re better off not knowing.”
* * *
He closed the door and stared at the large screen with just two faces showing: Stephen Heick and Henriette Voclain. Side by side it was hard to decide which one he trusted least. Maybe they weren’t even a couple at all.
He clicked Heick’s face off screen and keyed up anyone who’d seen her for a private meeting, including Sir Peter Carroll. Fourteen people, not counting Heick, Moretti or Jack Langton. Perhaps the rest of the party were too far down the food chain, or too high up.
Now there was a thought. It still rankled that Moretti and Leibowicz seemed untouchable despite everything now known or suspected. He swallowed the bile and focused on the work, using the software to create a sequence of Heick waiting along the corridor, Heick outside the door, Heick going in, Heick leaving and then Henriette leaving. Heick had made it easy for him with the same suit and a white shirt every time. Funny that. He saved the series of clips as a single indivisible file and printed stills. Five sets, including one for Heick and one for Sir Peter Carroll.
It struck him then that the room’s position, mid-corridor and with no natural light, meant that every frame was lit the same. An idea arose — a gift from the gods of retribution and subterfuge. He had the means at hand to set this Shadow State Chapter — or whatever they called themselves — against one another. All he’d need would be the names and contacts from the conference, and Ann and Christine were probably working on that. He wouldn’t even have to limit sharing the carefully doctored set of pictures to Henriette’s visitors. Get it right and everyone would think everyone else was colluding in private. And perhaps that was what Heick had wanted all along — to destabilise Voclain’s entire organisation. Wanted or not, he was going to get it.
Chapter 39
Thomas rapped on the office door
. Christine looked flustered. “I had to tell Sir Peter you were here.”
He understood. No offence taken. Everyone had a chain of command. Well, almost everyone.
“Give him these.” He passed over some prints and a disc. The other sets followed.
He held up a final disc so that it glistened under the lights. “I want you to keep this one safe for me.” He had a feeling he might not be back for a while.
She took it and nodded. “I promise.”
“Good. One more thing. I need their names and addresses when you have them.”
He walked outside, carrying an envelope for Heick. He didn’t have far to go — Heick was waiting for him.
“I thought I might find you here.”
“After Sir Peter called you, you mean? Anyway, I’ve done as you asked — this is a copy of what I sent him.”
He offered Heick the envelope and followed him to the car. This time there was only one person inside: Henriette Voclain. Thomas got in the front and waited while Heick tapped his sat-nav for the route to Caliban’s.
“You must find all this very strange, Thomas.” She made his name sound exotic.
He figured she still had him pegged as a novice and saw no reason to disappoint her.
* * *
Heick eased out into traffic and kept his thoughts to himself. Henriette did the talking. It read somewhere between self-justification and confession. Maybe she found it healing. Thomas listened but it did nothing for him. She insisted she’d been a plant at the beginning, years before, a European politician working for the Americans to make the world a safer place. Heick didn’t contradict her, which painted him as a seducer.
“It was inevitable, with the right information, that I would—”
“Rise through the ranks?” He played the game.
“Oui, c’est ça.” She sighed. “But now my priorities have changed.” She smiled in Heick’s direction.
Thomas didn’t buy it, but now was not the time or the place. He called Miranda from his mobile as they approached Caliban’s.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah . . .” She didn’t sound quite convinced. “Karl did a recce and there’s a car outside with two of our American friends. They’ve stayed put. I managed to rein Karl in.”
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