by Rob Sinclair
‘Is who with me?’
‘You know who: the FBI agent you’ve been running around with. Is she still with you?’
There was no point in lying anymore. Logan wondered for a brief moment how Mackie had found out. But it wasn’t hard. Logan had told Mackie he was going to Blakemore’s and then a few hours later Grainger made the call to her colleagues about what went down there. Even though she hadn’t mentioned Logan at all, it wasn’t hard for Mackie to link the two. By now, he would know everything there was to know about Grainger.
‘Yeah, she is.’
‘Did you think I wasn’t going to find out about her? Do you know what covert means? For fuck’s sake, Logan. Co. Vert. I got a call at five a.m. saying they’re sending a team of crime scene investigators to Blakemore’s place. Three more dead bodies. What, you’ve got shares in an undertaker’s now?’
This was just the ear-bashing Logan had been expecting. The only way to get through this was to ride over the top of it. Which, given Logan’s bad mood, was easier than it sounded.
‘You always assume the worst about me, don’t you?’ Logan said, barely trying to hide his own irritation. ‘Have you ever considered getting my side to the story before jumping to your baseless conclusions?’
‘It’s no assumption,’ Mackie said. ‘You’re always kind enough to leave a trail of destruction, so it’s pretty fucking obvious really. Why exactly are you with her anyway?’
‘Because it was the only way I was going to get away from the police. Who think I’m a murderer. It’s a far better option than getting myself nabbed. Besides, if you ask me, it’s not worked out too bad so far.’
‘Well no, not if your aim is to achieve a good body count. But it’s not. The aim is, and always has been, to rescue Modena.’
‘And find those responsible.’
‘You should just be glad that your little friend decided not to tell her superiors that she’s with you. That would not have gone down well. For either of you. Let me ask you this, Logan. If she was a he, would you still be running around as a twosome?’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Logan said, offended. Though he knew that the answer was a clear ‘no’. Not a chance. But that didn’t mean that it wasn’t beneficial to have teamed up with Grainger.
‘I’ll take that as a no,’ Mackie concluded. ‘And what it means is that I don’t want this investigation and our involvement in it compromised because you felt like having a little bit of action along the way. You’re not James Bond.’
‘Nothing’s compromised. We almost had them, Mackie. I’m not kidding, we really almost had them. Modena was right there. And Selim …’
Mackie must have heard the dismay in Logan’s voice.
‘Okay, okay,’ he said. ‘Look, the police have turned that place over and they might have some stuff that will help you. I want you to come back to the safe house straight away so we can figure out where to go from here. Got it?’
‘Yeah. I’m on my way anyway.’
‘Good. And Agent Grainger?’
‘I’m dropping her off at Blakemore’s house,’ Logan said, glancing over at her.
‘I’m glad to hear it. And I’m glad you’re both safe. You’ve got two hours.’
Chapter 45
Mackie ended the call with Logan and looked up at Winter, who was standing on the other side of the desk.
‘So he’s okay then,’ Winter said; a statement rather than a question. He’d been listening in to the call.
‘Seems to be. We can at least be sure he’s alive,’ Mackie said. And he was genuinely relieved about that. ‘I think it’s about time we had a little chat with our friend, don’t you?’
Winter smiled. ‘I’ll go and get him.’
Winter headed over to the door of Mackie’s office, then unlatched the bolt before opening it. After their last intrusion from Lindegaard, Mackie was taking measures to ensure they wouldn’t be disturbed again. Requesting a meeting with Lindegaard had been the first thing he’d done that morning. He’d arrived at the office before seven a.m., unable to get back to sleep after the earlier call he’d taken from Winter. Since then, he and Winter had been planning exactly how to handle Lindegaard.
During that time it’d become apparent to Mackie that Winter had in fact been working through the night. He’d now been on shift for over twenty-four hours. Although he still claimed to be alert and raring to go, Mackie could tell that his concentration was quickly fading. They just needed to get through this next meeting, for which they were now ten minutes late, before Mackie was going to pack him off home for some much needed rest.
Since last speaking to Lindegaard, Mackie had also brought Evans into the fold. He was the agent Lindegaard had brought in to replace Logan. But the playing field had changed quite considerably in Mackie’s favour now. As it was, Evans was on his way to the safe house in Paris where he would await further instructions from Mackie.
It had also been a nervous few hours, though. Mackie had experienced conflicting emotions when he’d heard about Dragovic. On the one hand, he had felt satisfaction that his hunch about pushing Lindegaard had been right. But then, even though he knew Logan was more than adept at taking care of himself, he’d felt anxious about what was going to happen to him. Both Mackie and Winter had been trying desperately to get hold of Logan to warn him. They couldn’t tell him exactly what the problem was; he did not need to know what was happening with Lindegaard, not yet. But they had at least wanted him to be prepared for whatever attack was coming. They’d been too late, though. The strike had already come. Thankfully Logan was skilled enough, or perhaps just lucky enough, to have dealt with it.
Now it was time to turn Lindegaard’s underhanded approach on its head.
‘Good morning,’ Macke said with a beaming smile as Lindegaard was ushered into the office by Winter. He had deliberately tried to sound over-the-top upbeat. The sour look that Lindegaard gave him suggested it had done the job of irritating him.
‘What’s this about, Charles?’ Lindegaard said, walking over to the desk but not sitting down. He stood with his arms folded, a constant glare on his face.
‘What do you think it’s about?’ Mackie said, waving his arms about theatrically. ‘It’s about our favourite agent.’
‘So where the hell is he?’ Lindegaard said. ‘I expected him to be back home by now.’
‘Are you sure about that?’ Winter asked, coming over and sitting down at the desk.
Lindegaard looked down at him and huffed but didn’t respond.
‘That was quite some mess he caused last night,’ Lindegaard barked. ‘Three more dead bodies? Logan is no longer on this case. I thought that had been made perfectly clear. So why the hell is he still running around out there causing me problems? You know, I should sanction all three of you for this. Disobeying a very direct and very clear order.’
‘Oh, Jay, I really don’t think you want to do that,’ Mackie stated, unfazed.
‘Tell us about Marko Dragovic,’ Winter said. ‘He lives in Paris, right? So how do you know him?’
Again Lindegaard didn’t respond to Winter’s question, but for the first time the confidence and arrogance behind his eyes seemed to fade.
‘Let’s not play any more games here,’ Mackie said, the false pleasantness now removed from his tone. ‘We know what you did. We know about Dragovic.’
‘And the two men who were sent to Logan’s hotel are now in police custody,’ Winter added. ‘I wonder what we’ll find out from them. Did you really think this would turn out in your favour?’
‘You little piece of –’
‘Ah, ah, don’t take it out on Winter. You’ve brought this on yourself.’
Lindegaard unfolded his arms and sat down, as though for the first time willing to take the conversation seriously.
‘What do you want?’ he said. ‘I could report both of you for this. There’s only one way you could know about Dragovic. Are you aware you’ve both committed a crime?’
Mackie laughed and shook his head. ‘Really? You’re going down that route?’
He knew that Lindegaard was at least partially right. They’d had no approval to hack Lindegaard’s phone and messages. It wasn’t a crime exactly – the relationship between the actions of the JIA and the law were somewhat murky. The way they had gone about it, though, was certainly against the JIA’s own procedures. But then, so was what Lindegaard had done. And the way Mackie saw it, his adversary had a lot more to lose.
‘So what do you want?’ Lindegaard repeated, the colour in his face dwindling as the reality of the situation dawned on him.
Mackie pondered the question for a good while, though he knew what the answer was. ‘You call off the dogs. Logan stays on the case. Me and Winter too.’
‘That’s it?’ Lindegaard said, laughing nervously, as if surprised that he was getting let off so lightly.
Mackie was aware that was the case. If he wanted to, he could take what he knew to the other committee members. With what Lindegaard had done, they might even be able to get him removed from his position at the JIA altogether. But this wasn’t a boardroom scuffle where Mackie was going for some power play. This was the world of the secret intelligence services. In the long run, having this card in his deck, this dirt on Lindegaard, would be much more valuable. Plus it meant that he could keep his and Winter’s tactics, and Winter’s technical nous, under wraps should they find themselves in a corner again in the future.
‘That’s it,’ Mackie said.
Lindegaard shifted in his seat as though unsure what to think about Mackie’s proposition. Eventually, without saying another word, he got to his feet and began to make his way toward the door.
‘Oh, actually, Jay,’ Mackie said, getting to his feet, ‘there is one more thing.’
Lindegaard turned around to face Mackie.
‘Logan doesn’t yet know about what you did. And it’ll stay that way as long as you keep off our backs. That man really has a penchant for revenge, if you know what I mean.’
Mackie smiled as his words sank in and Lindegaard’s complexion turned a ghostly white. Without another word, Lindegaard spun around and walked out of the room.
Chapter 46
Before dropping Grainger off, Logan had swapped phone numbers with her and they’d made a clear commitment to be in touch later in the day. Logan had then made the journey back to Paris and arrived at the safe house ten minutes outside the two-hour limit that Mackie had given him. Inside, he walked casually into the lounge, expecting to see Mackie there, so he was shocked to see a man he didn’t recognise sitting at the desk, facing the door. Logan guessed the man was a few years younger than himself. He was fresh-faced and dressed in an open-necked shirt with a blue blazer.
Logan stopped in the doorway, alarmed by the unexpected presence, and his hand instinctively reached towards the butt of the handgun stuffed in his trousers.
The man looked up and met Logan’s eyes. ‘He’s here,’ he said.
‘Logan? You’re there?’ said Mackie, over the conference phone.
Logan sighed and carried on walking over to the desk, eyeing the young man suspiciously.
‘I’m here,’ he said.
‘Good. Well, take a seat.’
‘I thought you would be here too.’ The tone of his voice showed Logan wasn’t pleased by the surprise.
‘Well, I would have been if you hadn’t left me with such a shitstorm to deal with back here. Things are getting complicated, Logan, very complicated.’
‘And who is this?’ Logan said, sneering at the man behind the desk, who reciprocated Logan’s less-than-impressed look.
‘This is Paul Evans.’
Evans nodded on cue.
‘My replacement,’ Logan concluded, starting to put the pieces together.
‘Well, in a way, yes,’ Mackie said. ‘But I think we can all come to a compromise on that. I don’t think you realise just how hard I’m working to keep you on this case, Logan. Evans has been drafted in to replace you, against my say-so, but luckily for you he’s willing to help us both out here. For some reason, I still trust that with you on board we can get to the bottom of Modena’s disappearance more quickly than we can without you.’
‘Is that so,’ Logan said, looking Evans in the eye. The young agent held Logan’s stare, a stoic expression on his face.
It didn’t surprise Logan that he hadn’t recognised the face of Evans, a fellow agent. Unless he’d worked with someone directly then there was no reason for him to know their face or their name.
‘And whose decision was it to replace me?’ Logan questioned.
‘It was the committee’s decision. Nothing I could do about that.’
‘Lindegaard,’ Logan stated.
‘It’s not important right now,’ Mackie said. ‘What’s important is that you keep out there, keep on after Modena. Let me handle the politics.’
Logan didn’t push the subject, but he knew it would be Lindegaard behind the decision to remove him from the case. He’d never seen eye to eye with the man. Although they rarely had direct dealings, their paths had crossed numerous times in the past. Most recently, and most regrettably, had been when Logan had slept with the man’s sister. He hadn’t known that fact beforehand; it was just one of life’s coincidences. After a fractious relationship, in which Logan had only been interested for a couple of weeks, he’d had a tough time rebuking her many subsequent advances. Ultimately that had incurred the significant wrath of her older brother, to whom she’d been mouthing off about the nasty man who’d been treating her like dirt.
That was all in the past, as were all their other run-ins, but Lindegaard was a man who held a grudge. Logan guessed that in that respect, the two men were very alike.
‘So what are we doing here?’ Logan said, looking at Evans as he spoke but talking to Mackie.
‘Tell me what happened at Blakemore’s house,’ Mackie said. ‘Why is he dead?’
‘Isn’t it in the police file?’ Logan said.
‘The one that conveniently omits the presence of a certain super-spy?’
‘Thanks for the accolade. Yeah, that file.’
‘Well, it gives me some of it, but I want to hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.’
‘We can safely say that the link to Blakemore was good. We saw Modena being dragged to a van at the back of the house.’
‘Did you actually see Modena’s face?’ Evans said.
‘No,’ Logan sighed, raising an eyebrow. He did not like being challenged by the young agent, whose stuffy accent suggested to Logan that he was likely to have come from a well-to-do family. Exactly the kind of agent Logan had come across time and time again in his days, who thought he was the next big thing but ultimately ended up taking a desk job after finding fieldwork just that bit too, well, real.
‘But you’re sure it was him?’ Evans queried.
‘Unless Selim and Blakemore have kidnapped someone else recently then yeah, I’m sure.’
‘Any idea what was happening out there?’ Mackie said.
‘I think that Blakemore has to be key to the kidnapping. That’s the only explanation that works for me. Whatever this is about, Blakemore was the key organiser. Has to be that way. He recruited Selim into this.’
‘You don’t think it was the other way round?’
‘No chance. If this was Selim’s deal then he wouldn’t have bothered with Blakemore in the first place. He didn’t need him. Blakemore brought in Selim to help out. Provide them with the terrorism link to keep us all guessing. They probably knew each other through business deals. Drugs and weapons and the like. We should check out that connection.’
It was a connection they should have found when they were investigating Selim before. It might have prevented Modena’s kidnapping happening in the first place if Blakemore had already been locked up.
‘That’s already underway,’ Mackie confirmed. ‘With a bit of hard negotiation we’ve got direct access to what’s coming ou
t of Blakemore’s house and all of his personal records. We’re looking over every financial transaction that Blakemore has been a party to in the past five years.’
Logan nodded. ‘What I want to know is how and why Blakemore got involved in the first place.’
‘Money would be my guess,’ Mackie said.
‘That’s where I’m going too,’ Evans chipped in.
Logan again gave him the raised eyebrow, this time for the unexpected interjection.
‘What? You might have a couple of days’ head start, but this sort of puzzle is exactly what I’m good for,’ Evans explained. ‘The way I see it, Blakemore hired Selim to provide the front for the operation, muddy the water a bit.’
Logan had to admit, he was pleasantly surprised by Evans’s comment. Finally someone else who was on his wavelength. Not that it made the man’s presence any more welcome for Logan. He had no intention of working out in the field with him.
‘But Selim must have planned to cross Blakemore all along,’ Evans said, looking at Logan. ‘He probably got paid handsomely by Blakemore for his part, knowing all the time that he was going to kill the guy and run off with Modena. For Selim, it’s all win-win. What we still don’t know is who paid Blakemore in the first place. Or why Modena was kidnapped.’
‘Well, I’m not sure that’s the biggest concern right now,’ Mackie argued. ‘The most important thing is still to rescue Modena. The whys and wherefores of Blakemore won’t help us to locate Selim. Or Modena.’
Logan had to agree with that. Knowing who had hired Blakemore and why was all very interesting, but it didn’t help get Modena back. And it didn’t help get to Selim, which, for Logan, was still the main event. But then …
‘If Modena was snatched for a reason,’ Logan mused, a thought hitting him, ‘that reason could still be important. What if Modena was kidnapped because he’s got some priceless information that’s worth a lot of money to someone?’
‘Like what?’ Mackie said.
‘I’ve no idea. But surely it’s important that we find out? If they were after information, and Selim and his cronies now have it, what further damage could there still be to come?’