“I’ll get on it right away,” Eckman said. “I’ve already got a dozen assets on their way to London. We’ll set things in motion the moment they arrive.”
He returned to the control room and went to Art Barnaby’s station. “When our people arrive at Heathrow, give them the address of Harvey’s house. I want around-the-clock surveillance and an intercept kit available to them. I want to know every word that comes out of that building.”
CHAPTER 12
After an hour of being scrutinized by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office, the driving rain and howling wind were almost a relief.
Veronica Ellis considered walking to the Home Office building on Marsham Street, just around the corner from Thames House, but decided against it. She needed to look professional when she spoke to the home secretary, not turn up looking like a drowned rat.
She hailed a taxi and it took her just a few minutes to reach her destination. After getting a receipt for the ride, Ellis dashed into the building and showed her ID to get through security.
One good thing to come out of the whole ESO episode had been the change of government. Not that she’d voted for the incumbents, but at least John Maynard was now off her back forever. She’d worked under a few home secretaries, but Maynard had been the worst by a country mile. His successor, Sebastian Faulkner, was a far better fit for the role. For one thing, he didn’t leave her waiting outside his office for a quarter of an hour in a petulant show of power.
Ellis arrived a minute early, and Faulkner’s secretary told her to go right in.
Where Maynard had looked and acted like a slob, Faulkner was every inch the ministerial type. His suit was Savile Row and tailored to perfection, and he didn’t have a single silver hair out of place.
“Please, take a seat.” He smiled and dropped into the chair behind the desk while Ellis sat opposite him.
“Thank you for seeing me,” she said. “I understand you’ll be quite busy right now.”
The ESO scandal had heaped pressure on everyone in government, not least the home secretary. His office was the natural pad from which to launch the investigation into the acceptance of ESO bribes by some of the country’s top civil servants.
“Not at all. Though I do have a meeting in fifteen minutes, so I can’t dally.”
“Then I’ll get right to the point. It’s about the ESO. I have reason to believe they are active and have attacked a British citizen by the name of Tom Gray.”
“And you heard this from . . . ?”
“One of my team. He’s friends with Gray.”
Ellis laid out what she knew about the altercation in Italy, and how Gray had sought Harvey’s help. She also told Faulkner of the connection with Baines and Smart—and ultimately, Eva Driscoll. “I would like permission to help Gray find the men responsible.”
“And just how do you plan to help him? I received transcripts of your chats with Sir David over at IPCO, and from what I’ve read, you continually maintain that you have no knowledge whatsoever about the ESO or their members. Has some new information come to light?”
“No, not at all. I was thinking more along logistical lines.”
“Ah, you mean give him access to our databases. Let him use MI5 as his own personal detective agency, is that it?”
This was only her third private meeting with Faulkner, and on the previous occasions he’d acted with dignity and professionalism throughout. She’d expected more of the same today, but it looked as if she’d be leaving disappointed.
“That wasn’t what I was suggesting, minister. Gray and his young daughter need our protection, and if we are going to root out the people behind the ESO, then it would make sense to use this opportunity—”
Faulkner stood and brushed out the creases in his jacket. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that, Veronica. We have an investigation in progress. Allowing you to run a rogue operation against the same entity we’re investigating seems reckless, to say the least.” He paused to let her consider the seriousness of what he was saying. “From what I understand, Veronica, Tom Gray wants to help Eva Driscoll take on the ESO single-handedly. I’m not about to condone a full-blown war.”
“But if we could just have access to the files you’ve accumulated so far—”
“So that Gray and Driscoll can use that information as ammunition in their private war? I don’t think so. I suggest you have your team take a statement from Mr. Gray and pass it on to us. If we feel it is relevant to our own investigation, we’ll take it from there.”
Ellis knew the conversation was over. Much as she hated to let Gray down, after all he’d done for her and the rest of the team, she couldn’t go against the minister’s wishes.
“And just in case you were thinking of offering Gray some . . . unofficial help—might I remind you that every database search is recorded against the user. If Sir David turns up anything that even remotely smells of the ESO, I’ll have you up on a charge of treason. Do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal, sir. I just hoped that if I could help bring the ESO to justice, it would end any doubts about my loyalty—and MI5’s as a whole.”
“You’re not the target of some witch hunt. Nor is your department, I assure you. Everyone in a position that could be exploited by the ESO is under the most intense scrutiny. President Russell removed the top three layers of management from his own security services, and while I don’t think that is entirely necessary here, we’re keeping a close eye on everyone until this matter is resolved. The ESO is weakened, but far from dead. Yet.”
Ellis rose and picked up her purse. Much as she wanted to argue her point, Faulkner seemed immovable. “Thank you for your time. I’ll see myself out.”
She left the office and made her way back to reception. The rain was still in full flow, but Ellis didn’t care. She stepped out into the deluge and hunched her shoulders as she began the short walk back to Thames House.
By the time she reached her glass-walled office, Ellis’s mood matched the weather.
She clicked the speakerphone on her desk. “Andrew, my office, please.” A moment later, she waved him in. “I just spoke to Sebastian Faulkner. We’re unable to offer Gray any help whatsoever.”
“Not even to look after his daughter?”
Ellis thought for a moment. “That’s a different matter. You said Len Smart offered to pay for a nanny, is that correct?”
“That’s right. He offered fifty grand in cash.”
“Then make sure he pays you by check or bank transfer. You have to be able to explain where the money came from and pay any tax on it. I’d suggest a written contract between you and Smart that makes it look like a loan, complete with a repayment schedule. Either that, or a gift from him. It’s unlikely anyone would suspect it originated from the ESO, given Len’s history with them.”
“Will do,” Harvey promised, “though I still haven’t told Sarah about the new arrangement.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “Well, do that soon. Do I really have to tell you that?”
“I’ll call her as soon as I get back to my desk. As for Tom—”
“As I said, we can’t offer him any help. Anything we do—anything at all—will be perceived by the Home Office as a deliberate obstruction of its investigation into the ESO.” She stood and moved around her desk to usher him out. “You’re aware that any search you perform on the database is recorded. Those records are going to be audited down to the tiniest detail, and if anything suggests we’re looking for the ESO, you can kiss your career goodbye.”
“Okay,” Harvey said. “I’ll let Tom know this evening. I’d better go and break the news to Sarah.”
“Good luck with that.”
Harvey turned to leave.
“And, Andrew, tell him I’m sorry. We owe him so much, and I really wish I could do more.”
Harvey nodded, then walked back to his desk. Before he spoke to Sarah, he needed to find an agency that could send a nanny at such short notice. He spent tw
enty minutes looking up contact details, then began ringing around to check on availability. The fourth agency he tried had someone who could start the next day, and Harvey asked for the woman’s details. Armed with a name and National Insurance number, he began the vetting process.
“Time to pull back,” Durston said over comms. “We’re moving out.”
Dubowitz acknowledged the order and put his binoculars back in their case. He’d been in a field opposite the cottage for the last three hours, and there’d been no sign of Gray or the Hatchers. “Where are we heading?”
“London. Gray flew there on a false passport. We’re going to pay his friend a visit.”
Cold as he was, Dubowitz knew their next destination would be even less hospitable. UK winters might not be on the level of those in Minnesota, but it would be a lot worse than southern Italy.
“Send the car. I’m all set.”
The rental carrying Feinberg and Durston arrived at the house three minutes later, and Dubowitz got in.
“Are we picking Hank up on the way?”
“No. He’s in bad shape. Maybe he can hook up with us in a few days.”
They drove to the airport. As instructed, they picked up their tickets at the Alitalia desk, then boarded the first of two flights to London.
Six and a half hours later, they walked into the arrivals area of Heathrow’s Terminal 4. Durston found the Hertz desk and picked up the keys to the car that had been ordered in advance, then led the other two out into drizzling rain.
Feinberg drove, following the satnav to a hotel near Holland Park. By the time the trio had checked in, it was almost 8 p.m. Durston contacted Nest for further instructions.
“Cobra One will be in contact with you in an hour,” Eckman said. “They’ll have an intercept kit and will be stationed near the target building.”
Durston wrote down the frequency the other team was using. “What’s the mission? Do we hurt this Harvey guy?”
“Negative. I want you to relieve Cobra One at 0800 and keep an eye on the house. Harvey is a friend of Tom Gray. We wait for them to make contact, then snatch Gray’s kid.”
“And if Gray doesn’t get in touch?”
“Then we’ll go to plan B. In the meantime, I want details of everyone who visits the house and every call in and out, plus his Internet activity.”
“Roger that, Nest. Out.”
Durston unclipped his radio and threw it on the bed in disgust. He preferred direct action to pussyfooting around. Surveillance was a pain in the ass, and it looked like this would be a long one. Then again, for the rate he was being paid, another few days of boredom was no great hardship.
“Get your heads down,” he told the others. “We’ll be on station first thing.”
CHAPTER 13
Andrew Harvey parked outside his three-story townhouse and got out. The rain had stopped, and the departing clouds had caused the temperature to drop several degrees. He locked the car and climbed the steps to the house, unsure of how to break the news to Sarah. Despite what he’d told Ellis, he hadn’t had the courage to do it over the phone.
“Hi honey, I’m home,” he said as he closed the door behind him. Sarah emerged from the kitchen, and the look she gave him said the American TV humor had fallen flat.
“I expected you half an hour ago.”
Good start.
“Sorry, darling, but I got caught up at work. You look shattered. Have a sit down; I’ll get you a drink.”
“Treble gin, neat. And keep your voice down. I just got her to sleep.”
Harvey knew she was joking. She was still breastfeeding and hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since the day the doctor had confirmed the pregnancy. He walked past her into the kitchen, giving her a kiss on the way, and put the kettle on.
“Still giving you a hard time?” he asked, rhetorically.
“It’s as if her purpose in life is to give me a nervous breakdown. She cries from the moment she wakes to the second she falls asleep again.”
Harvey managed a laugh, then quickly straightened his face. “I’m sure there are lots of goo-goo-gaa-gaa moments in between.”
Sarah sighed and flopped against the sink, and Harvey saw the woman he’d fallen in love with all that time ago. She might be frazzled, but she still glowed in his eyes. Her blond hair was tied back and she’d swapped the business suit for baggy pants and his old rugby shirt, but she remained, to him, the personification of love.
“Sure, but not enough. I just can’t understand how women can have three or four kids on the go at one time. It would drive me insane. It must be like trying to herd custard.”
Harvey poured water into two cups and added tea bags. “Perhaps you could do with a little help around the house.”
“Oh, please, tell me you booked a few weeks’ holiday. That would be wonderful. I could sleep again, and—”
“Actually, I was thinking about a nanny. And . . . maybe another kid for Alana to play with.”
Sarah looked at him as if he were a stranger who’d just walked in off the street. “Hello? Are you listening to me? I just said I can’t cope with one, and you want us to have another? And what’s this nanny nonsense? You know we can barely afford the rent on this place. We’re dipping into our savings just to pay the bills each month, and you want to bring in hired help?”
Harvey cringed inwardly. Not the reaction I was looking for.
“Well . . . hear me out. Len Smart has offered to pay for a nanny, to help take the pressure off you and me.”
“Oh, he did, did he? Just out of the blue, he calls and asks if you need money for a nanny?”
Sarah was about to go into full meltdown, something she’d done frequently since Alana’s arrival. Harvey pulled her close and hugged her. At first, she resisted, but eventually she collapsed against him and buried her face in his neck. He knew she was exhausted. She desperately needed more time to herself, but in recent months alone-time had been a luxury they couldn’t afford. Harvey had used up his parental leave and most of his annual leave for the year. It would be another three months before he could take any more time off work to let her catch up on life. Len’s offer was a blessing, if only she could see it in that light.
“Actually, he offered it as part of a package. That’s who I saw last night.”
Sarah pulled away. “You saw Len? I thought it was a surveillance op.”
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you at the time. I had to go to Heathrow to meet Tom Gray and his daughter and sneak them out through a service entrance. Some big players are after him.”
“Oh, Andrew, please don’t tell me you’re going to get caught up in something. Trouble follows him around like a shadow.”
“I’m not, I promise. He just wanted some help identifying a few potential suspects, but Ellis told me I couldn’t offer him help. Officially, at least.”
Sarah frowned. “What does that mean?”
“He needs someone to look after Melissa, just for a couple of weeks.”
“And you said he could dump her here? On me?”
“He’s not dumping her on us. Len suggested a nanny to look after her and I thought it would actually be helpful if the nanny looked after Alana, too. So that’s what we came up with. Melissa will join us for a few weeks, and you’ll have someone to take care of them both. Win-win.”
Sarah started turning a strange shade of crimson, and Harvey steeled himself for the onslaught.
“If you’d asked me first, and I’d agreed, it would be win-win. When you invite a complete stranger into my house, it most definitely is not.”
“Melissa is hardly a stranger,” Harvey pointed out.
“I’m talking about the nanny!”
“Oh.”
She stood, arms folded tight across her chest, and stared at Harvey with a face like thunder. His only hope was to play his trump card.
“Look, I know it isn’t the ideal situation, and I could have handled it better, but we owe Tom. Big time.”
Sarah�
��s face softened a little. Harvey owed Tom Gray his life, and it was a debt they would never be able to repay. They both knew it.
“I suppose a little help around the house wouldn’t be such a bad idea,” she said with a sigh.
Harvey’s face lit up and he went to hug her, but she stopped him by holding her palm up to his face. “Before you get all excited, I want someone we can trust to look after our daughter.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got that covered. Her name is Janice and she starts tomorrow morning.”
“You went ahead and did it?” she cried, the color returning to her cheeks.
Harvey put his hands up in mock surrender. “I had no option. You know how long the vetting process takes, so I checked her out myself. She’s a career nanny. She’ll be perfect.”
Sarah looked as if she’d swallowed a wasp. “And I suppose she’s twenty-three, Swedish, and built like a runway model.”
“You’ll be pleased to know she’s fifty-four and looks like Winston Churchill. And just think of the sleep you can get while I’m at work.”
Sarah mellowed once more, and Harvey sipped his rapidly cooling tea. “Go on, have an early night. I’ll take care of Alana if she wakes.”
“I will, but don’t think you’re off the hook that easily.”
He sneaked a kiss on her cheek as she passed, then followed her upstairs. Sarah went into their bedroom and closed the door, and Harvey carried on to the next room, where Alana was sleeping like an angel. He wanted to kiss her, too, but she was such a light sleeper that it would probably wake her. Instead, he tucked her in and crept back out of the room, leaving the door slightly ajar.
He could already hear snoring from his own bedroom as he went back downstairs for microwaved leftovers before a much-needed early night.
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