by PETE DAVIES
“She, Sergei, is 442 metres away, but she shoots within a five centimetre spread from a mile, so this is pretty much like picking cherries off a tree for her,” said Sam, and just for effect he had left the mic open again and Terri had flicked on the red dot and flashed it twice.
“An impressive display and I would like to meet your sniper one day in better circumstances, as I understand she is very beautiful,” and he turned again and looked directly at Greg who felt the hair on the back of his neck start to bristle.
“Sergei, this isn’t advice, this is a stone cold promise that if you ever go anywhere near any of my friends or family, you will regret it in ways you don’t even want to imagine,” said Sam.
The mic was still open and Sam motioned Sergei to look towards his daughter who was looking down at her school uniform wondering what the red dot was that seemed to be playing on the front of her dress as though it was something to do with the sun. Sam turned back to see Sergei was gripping the sides of his chair and his face was taut with anger.
“Bookseller, you don’t fight fair,” he said, trying to stay calm. “I love my friend Sonny, but I love my daughter more. So, I think your business idea may be of some interest to me. We will think about a restructure and I will let you know what I decide,” said Sergei.
He looked Sam directly in the eyes and then back to his daughter and then to Anna.
“Señora, I am truly sorry about what happened to you. Now I think it is best if you, your son and your friends get out of my country.” He looked towards Sam and said, “You have two hours.”
“We’ll be gone in one,” said Sam.
THIRTY
They met up half way towards the airport. Terri and Simon had waited until the others had got away from the Square without any problems before they made their way down off the roof and got back to the car.
They had seen Sergei leave in one of the cars and his daughter in the other. Terri rang her father as they made their way back to the drop off point.
“Do you think he will give us two hours Dad?”
“Let’s put it this way. The sooner we’re in the air the better and without over-egging things Daniel had better be prepared for a possible ground to air attack,” said Greg.
“Okay, I’ll brief him. Not a lot he can do if they’ve got the proper kit, but better he’s forewarned,” said Terri.
Simon wasn’t hanging about as he drove and they got to the drop off point in just over five minutes and saw Carruthers parked up, but this time without the subterfuge of the punctured wheel. There was a different young woman with him this time and Simon looked at her again and recognised her from the café, where he had seen her sitting with a coffee and reading a book. Carruthers saw Simon looking at the woman.
“Yes, we had Laura here keeping tabs on you. So it all seemed to go very well. She particularly liked the red dot episode,” smiled Carruthers.
“Glad we put on a good show for you Laura, and Martin, thanks again for all your help. Now could you get this stuff out of here and get it to India?” said Terri.
“India? Now what are you going to do over there that I need to know about? Is this to do with the Kaur woman?” said Martin.
Anna had heard the exchange between Terri and Martin and stepped in.
“Probably best we don’t tell you too much Martin, but I suspect you may well know already. We’re going to see her about a refund on a software support package her company arranged for one of our friends,” said Anna.
“Right. Well that sounds all very reasonable Anna. We’ll get these to where? Which airport? Mumbai?” said Martin.
“Yes, somewhere close to Mumbai would be just fine Martin,” said Terri giving him a wide smile.
With the packages safely transferred into Martin’s Fiesta, they set off again in the Mercedes and the BMW and within ten minutes they were entering the airport where they saw two Audi A7s parked up at the entrance with six men standing by them. As the men saw them arrive there was a movement by the man at the front to show them he was armed with a machine pistol.
“It’s just a show of strength to let us know Sergei’s pissed off with us,” said Simon.
“Let’s hope so,” said Greg, “as we’re sitting ducks now we’ve handed the Glocks back.”
They drove on and parked up at the VIP terminal. Terri grabbed both keys and dropped them in the ‘Leave Keys Here’ box as they walked in to see Frances, who was waiting for them at the security desk with one of the VIP team. They walked them quickly through Border Control, where the officers gave their passports a cursory glance before they got into a VW Transporter that took them all out to the Citation which already had the engines running. Within two minutes of them getting on board, Daniel had been given clearance from air traffic control and five minutes later his passengers felt the wheels lift as the Citation made it into the air. Daniel climbed more steeply than usual straight after take-off as he and Frances looked around for any evidence of a man-pad, a man portable air defence system launch pad, or rather in this case, an air attack launch pad.
These types of surface to air missiles were usually fired from weapons on the back of vehicles but could also be from shoulder held weapons. Despite millions being invested in military research to find an effective tool to combat man-pad weapons, there had been nothing identified as being anywhere near economically viable. Therefore, Daniel’s best defence was to keep a sharp lookout for anything suspicious and to climb quickly to 20,000ft and get at least four miles away and therefore beyond the effective range of most man-pads.
Greg and Terri had flown with Daniel on a good number of occasions and looked across at each other, realising they had never felt him take-off at such a steep angle. Tommy had cottoned on quickly and was looking out of the window at the airport below.
“Bit worried about man-pads are we?”
“Just being careful,” said Terri.
“Bloody good job too,” said Simon, who was also craning his head to see out of the window.
A few more minutes passed before they felt the Citation bank left and head west.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to advise we are now safely on our way to Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, otherwise known as Mumbai. Frances will be flying today and we’ll be stopping off at Muscat in Oman for a refuel and a leg stretch,” said Daniel.
*****
Greg came off the phone after calls to both Lori and John MacDonald and turned to the rest of the group.
“Lori is fine. Her team have been giving Sonny something to think about and John’s happy we’re all in one piece.”
“Have you told them we’re now en-route to Mumbai?” said Terri.
“Yes, Lori will keep a watching eye out for Sonny in case she sees any fall out from our visit to Armenia and John is keen to know how we get on with breaking up Kaur’s operation out there,” Greg paused. “So young Rob told you Anna, that Kaur has at least four, if not five call centres operating didn’t he?”
“Yes, the one he got into is situated in the north of the city. The file he sent has got pictures of the inside and outside of the premises,” said Anna.
“I suppose one issue we have is how to get these to the police where they won’t get hijacked in any court proceedings,” said Sam.
“Yes, good point Sam. I'd hate for us to make real inroads into this woman, only for it all to fall flat because we’ve gained evidence through unauthorised means,” said Greg.
“By unauthorised, presumably you mean illegal?” laughed Sam.
“Well, quite, but it doesn’t sound as bad if we say unauthorised does it,” smiled Greg.
“We may be able to use Martin for this. Anything coming in from MI6, the British Secret Service, will carry a lot of kudos and they may be able to get around questions of where and how the evidence came from with a ‘national interest’ response,” said Sam.
“Okay, let’s see if Martin is up for that. Do we have Wi-Fi up here Terri?” said Anna.
> “Yes,” said Terri and handed Anna her laptop to email Martin the file. “Now I think we’ve got about seven hours or so before we touch down at Mumbai to get some rest. Daniel is stopping for fuel in Muscat, Oman on the way if anyone wants any duty free?”
Simon smiled, “No, I think I’ll just get my head down.”
There was general nodding of heads from the others in the group. They would need to do some work when they arrived in Mumbai before the sun came up and so resting up now was a good idea. Frances came around with drinks and blankets and then she turned down the cabin lights. Greg was on his laptop catching up with some other clients and Sam got up out of his chair and went across to see Anna after she had finished sending the email to Carruthers.
“You all okay Mum?”
“Yes, my dear. I’m fine in fact. What about you?”
“I’m good too. Actually I feel really good. I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve made my decision to stay in Palma, or because I’m leaving the Met behind me and starting off on this new adventure with Greg and Terri, but whatever it is, I’m liking it,” said Sam.
“I was so worried, actually we both were, I mean your father,” she felt she had to correct herself and said, “Luis,” when Sam stopped her.
“Mum, Dad will always be Dad okay? Greg might be my biological father but I know who has been my father all these years,” said Sam.
She smiled. Luis would have dealt with all of this so well, just like Sam, so she needed to do the same.
“Dad would have liked that Sam. Very much, very much indeed,” as tears welled up in her eyes. She hadn’t cried for some time about him, so maybe it was the emotion of everything that had happened recently. He hugged her gently and felt her tears against his face. Then he felt his own tears coming down his cheeks.
“You’ve got me at it now Mum. We’re hardly the two ninjas facing off a mob boss now are we?” he whispered.
She gently eased herself away and she was back smiling.
“I think I just needed a bit of a release.”
“I think I probably did too Mum,” said Sam.
“That’s good and I’m fine now, honestly and will be even better after a few hours of sleep.”
He was such a good son and she couldn’t help but to be excited at the prospect of him coming home to work with her and to eventually take over the business. Then of course there was Greg and Terri and whatever 3R may bring their way. Exciting times indeed. She put her seat back and within minutes Sam saw she was asleep. Greg saw him looking at her.
“What are you thinking Sam?” said Greg.
Sam turned and sat back in his chair.
“I’ve been in the Met for seventeen years Greg and for sixteen and a half years I have never really spoken to her about my job. You know, some of the ugly things I’ve dealt with and some of the close shaves I’ve had and all because I haven’t wanted to worry her. Yet all along, she had as much knowledge and experience as me, if not more so, of operating in challenging and dangerous environments and being faced with life threatening situations.”
“I know the feeling Sam,” said Terri, “I thought Greg was in IT sales when I was growing up. Sneaky pair aren’t they?”
*****
Martin Carruthers saw the file he had received from Anna Martínez. Rob had already sent him a copy as part of their agreement and he had looked through it with interest, but as it had little bearing on national security he hadn’t taken much more interest in it initially. But after he had taken the call from Sir John Woodward he had begun to wonder what, if anything, there might be in terms of payback for the Service, other than helping out a former colleague from many years ago.
He knew Greg Chambers from his time as a field agent and he had been a very good agent. However, Anna Martínez or Anna Mitchell, as she was recorded in her personnel records was unknown to him, although it was clear she had been very highly regarded. The Service wasn’t in the habit of doing favours or at least not favours without something in return, therefore when he had seen Anna’s email about talking to the Indian authorities about undertaking some sort of law enforcement engagement on this Kaur woman, he had seen the potential opportunity. He hadn’t responded immediately, as he knew she was on a plane with the rest of the 3R outfit and any mention of 'payback' was something best talked about without other listening ears, so he just sent a brief email saying that he would look at the file and get back to her.
He wasn’t sure if Sir John would approve of what he had in mind, but he knew full well the current Director General would. He decided that this didn’t need to be a ‘I’ll do this, if you do this for me arrangement’, but it could be something to call in at a later date. After he had put a call into his opposite number in the Indian Central Bureau of Intelligence, the CBI, he rang Anna.
“Hello Martin, so do you think you can provide some help for us?” said Anna.
“Yes, absolutely and I don’t even need anything from you at the moment,” said Martin.
Anna heard the words Carruthers had used ‘at the moment’. She may have been out of the spy game for a long time, but she still sensed something in his choice of words. She paused for a moment, but decided to let it go, as the primary objective was securing some enforcement action against Kaur.
“That’s great Martin,” said Anna. “Just putting you on to speaker phone.”
“No problem at all. So I have spoken with the CBI, the Central Bureau of Intelligence who are based in New Delhi. They need Government authority to investigate, but the man I spoke to sees no issue with that since this is an economic crime with international impact and as such, comes within their jurisdiction. We should get the go ahead pretty quickly and so he is starting the planning phase to carry out raids on four of the call centres our friend Rob has identified for them in the file. He has stated however, that you cannot accompany them on the raids.”
He paused, but Anna stayed silent, so he continued, “This is because they do not want, in fact, they cannot be seen to be operating with a private enterprise, but they are very happy to do this as a Government to Government thing.”
Greg nodded to Anna and she replied, “I’m just glad they will help Martin, so we’ve got no issues at all with that. We’ll focus on the main call centre and keep a watching brief and see what happens to Kaur when the raid takes place.”
“Good plan. Right, that’s that then Anna. We’ll get the packages to you when you land in Mumbai. It won’t be me this time as I’m heading back to London, but it will be Laura, who you all met on your way out of Armenia,” said Martin.
“That’s great and thank you again,” said Anna.
“Don’t mention it and Anna, I look forward to catching up with you for a coffee sometime if that’s something you would like to do?” said Martin.
Greg looked at her. He knew exactly what was going on. Carruthers was trying to get her back in the system. He guessed what she would say and he was right.
“Martin that would be lovely. Let’s do that sometime soon,” said Anna.
She came off the phone and Greg was still looking at her, but he was smiling.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” he said quietly so that Sam couldn’t hear.
“Well I can hardly say no and it’s just coffee isn’t it,” said Anna.
“I think we both know it’s more than just a coffee. He wants payback for helping us out. I wonder if Sir John knows?”
“Hmm, maybe not. Anyway, a coffee won’t hurt and yes, I am interested. I’m almost seventy, just lost my husband, but in the last week I’ve been kidnapped, sat next to an Armenian gang boss whilst carrying a firearm again and been offered a job by you with 3R, so what can I say? It’s been huge fun to feel alive again after losing Luis.”
He looked at her and smiled. “You’re still the woman I knew all those years ago Anna Martínez,” he said softly.
THIRTY ONE
Mumbai was an hour and a half ahead of Armenian time and so after a quick stop
at Muscat to refuel, it was gone midnight local time when they touched down and taxied to the corporate terminal at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
Frances opened the hull door and she immediately felt the heat of the night air as it was still around thirty degrees centigrade. The airport had full fixed base operator (FBO) services for private jet arrivals and so as they walked down the plane steps and stepped out onto the warm tarmac they were met by the FBO staff and taken in a people carrier into the private passenger lounge.
Once inside the cool of the air conditioned lounge the FBO staff helped them through the security and border control checks before assisting them with their hand luggage to the outside of the Terminal. Terri saw Eshaan Achari standing by two Hyundai SUVs.