As soon as Bob entered his suite, the two men in the van sat up, totally surprised at what they’d just seen, they started their machines and got their pens out.
“Where did they come from? They shouldn’t even be in the area, their car was seen going up past Grantham, about thirty minutes ago,” one of the men said.
The other man picked up his mobile and hit the speed dial button when it was answered, he said, “Sir. The targets have just entered the hotel, in Mayfair.”
“What? Are you sure?” said the man on the other end of the phone.
“Yes, it’s definitely them. One male IC, one female IC.”
“That’s only two of them, can you see anyone else?”
“No, sir.”
“Okay. Just watch, for now, we’re on our way.”
“How far out are you?”
“Thirty minutes. Don’t approach them, just monitor. We'll be with you shortly.”
“Yes, sir.” He turned back to the other man, explained what was said, then carried on monitoring.
A couple of minutes later, Lucy waved from the window. Dave grabbed hold of Harry and they worked their way in. When they went through the door to Bob’s room, it had been cleaned and looked as if nothing had happened.
Lucy sat with Harry on the bed, and raised his leg, giving it a rub.
"We’ve got to get away from here, we need time to think," Harry said, then he asked if Lucy had any painkillers in her bag. She nodded and got up to get him some water.
“We’ve got to move, Bob," Harry said, taking the glass from Lucy. "They must know we’re not in that car by now.”
“He’s right,” Dave said. “They probably have someone coming over now. We need to get out.” Dave then asked for a couple of tablets as well, opening and closing his mouth to ease the ache.
“What about the diamonds? Are they still in the safe,” Bob asked.
“I collected the diamonds earlier,” Lucy said. “When they brought us here the first time.”
He looked at her, smiling. He mouthed, “Are you okay?”
She nodded back, half smiling.
Harry said, “I don’t think we should split up again, we don’t know if they’re still watching.”
“Who’s watching? Is the million dollar question,” Dave said.
“Let’s talk about that later, we’ve got to move,” Bob hurried.
The man in the van hit speed dial again. As soon as it was answered, he said, “The whole team are there, what do you want us to do?”
“Hold tight, we’re making good time, we’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Roger that.”
As they left the room the bell went for the lift arriving. They all froze. Then Bob and Dave ran towards the lift, as Harry grabbed Lucy and pulled her back into the room.
Dave reached for his handgun, he had it ready by his side as the doors slid open.
It was the man from the house, the one who got into the SUV earlier. He looked at the two men in front of him with surprise, and then confusion. He saw the gun and went for his, but he was too late. Dave fired and hit him just below his right shoulder, the bullet going through and out of his back - a crimson spray erupted behind him as the bullet smacked the lift wall with a resounding clang. The man dropped back into the elevator with a thud. Bob went forward and swiftly kicked his gun away.
“He was quick,” Dave thought. “He’d do well in a spaghetti western.” He’d had his gun out and was raising it as Dave shot him, he’d managed all that in a split-second.
Bob looked at Dave, then the gun, then at the man on the floor of the lift. Dave read his thoughts and said “Nobody will have heard it. We’re the only ones on this floor, and the man from six-zero-one is dead… and Lucy shot his wife!”
Bob nodded and knelt down. He cradled the man’s head, and asked, “Who are you working for?”
Wheezing, with blood running out of the side of his mouth, he just said, “Fuck off!”
“This is defiantly the buzz word for these guys,” Dave said. “That’s all the answer I keep getting as well.”
Bob leant forward and pushed his hand hard into the man’s shoulder. The man screamed as the pressure bit in and his collarbone cracked. "Who are you working for?” he asked again.
“Help me," he wheezed.
“Tell us who you’re working for and we’ll get you a doctor.”
The man on the floor stared for a second, and then said, “A woman. That’s all I know,” he coughed. “She spoke to the boss more. Said she wants the diamonds.”
“What woman?”
The man choked back the blood pooling in his mouth, “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her.” He breathed out once more, then his head slumped back and he went still.
Dave said, “That’s all four of them!”
Bob nodded, then gestured back at his suite.
They looked around to make sure no one was coming. Why? Dave didn't know, they'd already confirmed no one else was there. They picked the man up and carried him back to Bob’s room, threw him onto the bathroom floor and closed the door.
As they left the suite, Dave placed the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the handle.
They took the lift down, left the hotel and went back to the car.
The two men in the white van who were monitoring the hidden CCTV, watched as they entered the suite carrying the agent, taking him into the bathroom. They heard the thud as he was dropped, and watched as they turned the light off and left.
One of the men picked up his mobile and pressed speed dial, he waited for it to be answered.
“We have a problem,” he explained.
“We’re four minutes out. What’s happened?”
“It’s one of the four operatives who’s been absent for the last seventy-two hours. They’ve just dumped him in the bathroom of suite six-zero-three.”
The man on the other end went quiet for a moment, then said, “Shit! Are you sure?”
“Yes sir, he matches the profile.”
“Recorded?”
“Yes! It’s all on tape. They’ve now left the building.”
“Okay. We’ll be with you in two minutes.”
“Yes, sir.” He hung up and looked at the other man in the van with him, “Call it in.”
The other man picked up his phone, pressed speed dial and waited for it to be answered, then said, “Agent down. Suite six-zero-three. Westbury Hotel. Mayfair.” He listened to the reply and hung up. He looked back at the other man, “They’re on their way. Twelve minutes out.”
The other man nodded and looked back at his monitor
30
They left the hotel, and walked back to where they'd left the car, but as they approached they spotted it being pulled up onto the bed of a tow truck. Bob nodded over at a café, opposite. Inside, Lucy went and got the drinks. When she came back, they'd sat near the window, watching the action.
“You don’t suppose we bought a stolen car do you and they’ve just found it and are recovering it?” she suggested.
As they watched the car being pulled up the ramp, Harry said, “I don’t understand why it’s being towed. I doubt it was stolen, it’s not on yellow lines, and I put a ticket on it for two hours. We’ve only been sixty minutes at most!”
Just then, the back doors of the van swung open and two people jumped out. One of them had headphones on but quickly threw them into the back of the van. He then looked around as if he was checking for someone. The other man went and spoke to the driver of the tow truck, they then both got back into the van and closed the doors.
The four of them looked at each other, suddenly realising they'd just been watching their watchers.
A short while later, a black SUV pulled up alongside the white van. The four of them stopped talking and watched as one of the men got out and tapped on the back of the van and waited, then tapped again. The back doors opened and he started talking to the two men inside.
As they were talking, they looked at the coffee
shop across the road and started pointing, they then pointed towards the hotel. After a few minutes, the two men got back in and closed the doors, the other two men got back in the SUV and drove off. The van then started up and drove off in the same direction, towards the hotel. Once they were gone, the four of them sat staring out the window at where the car and the van had been parked.
“Call me paranoid," Lucy said, breaking the silence. "But did they point straight at us and then along the road we walked down to get here?”
"We need to move," Bob said.
“Where to?” Harry asked, quickly finishing his coffee.
“We’ll ring the number on the piece of paper Bill gave us and go there.”
While Bob got his phone out, Dave looked around at the coffee shop and sat thinking about Jane. “We used to drink coffee, chat about nothing and everything whilst looking out the window. Do the people-watching thing—making up lives about who they’d married and what they did for a living. Nonsense really,” he smiled to himself.
When Bob had finished on the phone, he said, “Right then, Newcastle!”
As they prepared to leave, they talked about the keys and what to do with them.
“Chuck them in a bin and forget them, it’s the diamonds we want,” Harry said.
“Send them to the police,” Lucy suggested, “with a short note saying MI6 might be interested in these.”
“Lucy’s right," Bob said, looking at Dave and Harry. "We don’t know what the keys are for, and they can check them out.”
31
Bond Street was the closest underground station to them, but they went the long way round, so they could see what, if anything, was happening at the hotel.
As they walked down St. George’s Street, they could see a number of police cars blocking the road, their flashing lights reflecting off the office windows. There were two more, and an ambulance parked in front of the hotel. Blue and white barrier tape cordoned the road, blocking the path from pedestrians and the press.
A young-looking copper manned the barrier at the end they approached from.
“He looks keen, Bob!” Dave said.
“Young as well. We’ll walk a bit closer, join the crowd but we won’t go to the front,” Bob said.
They nodded and walked on, separating slightly as they got closer.
The two cars with the ambulance were SUV's, the same type as the one they'd watched next to the white van. The SUV the other guy from the lift had driven, was also there, the white van parked next to it. Bob nodded, and they all walked off, Lucy went first towards the coffee shop, the others followed one at a time.
They met on a side street, three roads from the hotel.
“They’ve probably got more cars around the back. If we were being watched they probably know what we all look like,” Bob said.
Lucy started to cry when she heard this. Harry moved closer and put his arm around her shoulders.
"Don’t worry, Lucy, we’ll get the money and get out of here," Bob smiled, trying to brighten things up.
The tears still ran down her face, Harry leant in and kissed her forehead.
“We’ll go towards Oxford Circus underground," Bob suggested.
At the station, aware the police might have it under surveillance, Lucy went and purchased the train tickets, paying with cash, not wanting to alert anyone who might be monitoring their bank accounts. Returning a few minutes later, looking a bit happier.
“Any problems?” Bob asked.
“We can’t buy the train tickets to Newcastle from here, the machines out of order. We’ll have to get them from Kings Cross. There are a lot of police around the station but they’re just dealing with a bunch of lads who are becoming rowdy and shouting at people.”
“Harry, Lucy, you go together, we’ll follow," Bob said. "We’ll sit apart on the train, the same carriage though, but where we can always see each other. When we get to Kings Cross we’ll meet up near the main information board and work out what to do next, okay?”
Arriving at Kings Cross, Bob stood and waited for the doors to open. He then went and sat in one of the coffee shops and waited for the others.
“The train we want leaves in twenty minutes and it’s on the station now. Harry, you get the tickets this time," Bob said.
“First Class okay?” he asked.
“Sounds good to me,” Bob smiled, looking at Lucy.
Once they were on the train, Harry said, “I can’t understand why we haven’t been picked up yet.”
“Maybe they don’t want people to know about the diamonds, "Dave suggested. “That would lead to the four police officers we’ve killed and would panic people.”
“He's right, Harry, or maybe it has something to do with the keys!” Bob said.
“Those bloody keys!” Dave thought.
Lucy took the keys from the box and dropped them on the table, they clattered off one of the cups. After a few minutes, with all of them just staring, she picked them up again and put them away.
The journey was uneventful. They talked a lot about the keys and came up with some crazy ideas. The topic of what to spend the money on came up again. The ideas hadn't changed much, except Dave had upgraded to a Ferrari!
As they got further from London they started to relax. Lucy even looked as if she was having a sleep.
The second stop was Peterborough. They sat expecting the train to be rushed by armed police, cuffing them and dragging them off kicking and screaming. The only people who boarded were a young couple, settling on the seats behind them. Bob watched them as they sorted themselves out, opened a laptop, plugged in two sets of headphones, leant into each other and started up a film. The couple then recorded everything the four people behind them said.
32
When they arrived at Newcastle, they checked into the B&B Harry had booked whilst they were waiting for the train in London.
The next morning, after breakfast, Bob rang the number again that Bill had given them. He arranged a meeting. At first, the man said he wanted to meet at his shop, but Bob was adamant they met on neutral ground, so a Costa was suggested!
When he got back and told them the plan, Dave turned to Harry, “I think Bob’s starting to like coffee shop coffee!
Lucy and Harry laughed, Harry, wincing at the same time. “Have you got anything stronger than paracetamol in that bag of yours, Luce?” he grimaced.
“Oh, I’ll look. If not I’ll go and get something from the chemist.”
Bob and Dave watched the two of them staring at each other.
Bob coughed, “Ahem!”
They went to the Gosforth Centre and found the Costa by the main entrance. Having located a table at the back, they didn’t have to wait long before a man, about the same age as Bill, walked up and introduced himself. He then went and ordered coffee. When he returned, Bob asked Lucy for the diamonds. She took the bag out of her pocket and handed it over. Bob took the matchbox out and handed it to the man.
He took it with a surprised look, and jokingly said, “What, no briefcase?”
Lucy said, with a smile on her face and tapping the bag, “Nope, I’m a regular Jill. I keep the important stuff in my pouch.”
The man smiled and nodded, probably didn’t even know what she meant, then again, neither did Dave or Harry!
He opened the box and looked inside. Looking up at Bob, “Approximately how many are there?” he asked, smiling.
“Tell us how much they're worth to you first?”
Lucy cut in, taking charge. The man smiled. Dave looked at her, and thought, “Is this the same Lucy?”
The man turned the box over into his hand and smiled some more, “Bill was right, they’re good,” he said, appreciatively. He looked up at Lucy, and enquired, “How is he?”
“Dead,” Lucy said, bluntly. When she said this Dave looked at her again, she had a stony look on her face. It was as if she’d turned a corner in the night and woken up a harder person.
The man looked away, and sighed, “He
always was the careless one.” He viewed them through the same type of eyepiece Bill had used, looking at each one for a few seconds before closing the box, and handing it back to Lucy.
“Two thousand," he said, with a cold face.
Lucy gasped and looked at Bob. "That’s not enough," he said. "We know they're worth five times that... each. So you’d better come up with a different figure.”
"Bill always was quick to talk," he sighed. "Okay, five thousand pounds each, and that’s my final offer!”
“Thank you," Bob said, shaking his head, "but I think we’ll go somewhere else.”
As they went to get up, the man put his hand on Bob’s arm, “Okay. Seven thousand pounds each, and that’s on condition of me having a better look when we go back to my shop.” He wasn’t smiling anymore!
“How many can you take?” Bob joked.
“All of them!” the man said, expecting ten or fifteen at the most.
Lucy smiled at him, got out the four bags and pushed them across the table. His face was a picture, they weren't sure whether he was smiling or crying, but it was a look of shock.
“Let me buy you another coffee!” he said, smiling.
They made their way back to his shop, where he checked the diamonds one at a time. Finally, he got on his computer, and asked, “Where would you like the money paid?”
Bob smiled at the other three, winked, turned and gave him the details.
The money was transferred that day to a bank account Bob had set up in Switzerland, whilst he was still in Ramadi. He’d planned this while they were still out there.
The four of them left feeling like a million dollars. Lucy had the biggest smile they'd seen on her face for days. But Bob spoilt the moment, by saying, “The keys! What about those bloody keys?”
They looked at each other, and one by one the grins on their faces dropped off.
"Now we’re rich and we don’t have to work for a living," Dave smiled. "Shall we find out what they’re for?”
Scavenger Hunt Page 11