The Fifth Man (Ben Sign Book 2)

by Matthew Dunn

  Sign spoke to a ruddy-faced proprietor. “Larry. How’s your beautiful lady? Is she still working the flower stall?”

  Larry grinned. “You bet she is. She keeps an eye on me. Stops me from chatting up the women-folk.”

  Sign laughed. “Quite right.” He peered at the array of fresh fishing resting on ice. “I’m interested in this fella. Where was it caught and when?”

  The fish was a two foot porbeagle shark. Wearing plastic gloves, Larry picked it up. “Caught off Dorset yesterday. Came in this morning with a load of other stuff. Fresh as a daisy.”

  “I’ll take it. There’s no need to clean the fish. I’ll do that myself. Do you recommend steaming it in a foil parcel with butter, white wine, lemon, and herbs?”

  “Bang on, sir. It should take about forty five minutes in the oven, but you can’t go wrong with steaming it for an hour.”

  Sign and Knutsen walked back to West Square. Sign prepared the food, ready to be cooked an hour before they wanted to eat. He poured two glasses of Calvados and entered the lounge. He gave one of the glasses to Knutsen. Sign sat in his armchair. Knutsen was facing him, in his armchair. Sign raised his glass. “To the successful conclusion of the fifth man case.”

  Knutsen chinked his glass against Sign’s glass. “How did you know that the fifth man was the murderer?”

  Sign sipped his drink. “I didn’t know for sure. It was a hypothesis. Throughout the investigation, I wanted to prove myself right or wrong. It transpired I was right, but it could have gone the other way. Regardless, we must be bold in our deductive processes. Poor Sally gave us no valuable information, simply because she didn’t know what was valuable. It was only when she was under extreme duress by one of the assassins that she blurted out a nugget of valuable intelligence, from her memory vault. The name of Maloney. Thankfully for us, Richards gave us the heads up on Maloney, though he imparted that data too late. Maloney was shot by an assassin; we killed the assassin; Maloney told us about Hunt; Hunt bolted when we tried to speak to him; and in doing so he inadvertently told us that he was running to a place of safety. Little did he know that the opposite was true. He called Pope when he saw us. Pope mobilised with a rifle. He shot Hunt before we could catch up with him. When I questioned Oates about whether someone lived near Hunt, I was wondering if someone could get to Hunt quick enough to kill him. Distance was key, as was the fact that the road north of Hunt abruptly ends after a few miles. Oates told me about Pope. I ascertained that Pope had motive to kill Wilson, Hunt, Taylor, Green, and Jackson. He became my prime suspect.”

  “But, we had to get rid of the assassins first.”

  Sign waved his hand dismissively. “They were nothing more than pit bulls, trying to latch their jaws onto our heels. Still, they wouldn’t have stopped unless we stopped them first.”

  Knutsen smiled. “You followed an audit trail to Pope. But, when you were speaking to him, you said stuff that you couldn’t possibly have known.”

  Sign looked out of the window. “I knew some things; other things I said were filling in gaps; and there is the most important component – imagination and bluff.”

  Knutsen laughed. “In my neck of the woods we’d call it the ability to bullshit.”

  Sign looked at Knutsen. “When a man is terrified, the correct use of bullshit will chill him to the bone.” His expression softened. “I will cook dinner in a moment. But, I must warn you that while I’m doing so you must shave and change into a suit and tie. I too will adorn a suit. We have a guest who will be joining us for dinner. We must look the part. She’s our next client.”

  Knutsen frowned. “What’s the job?”

  “She’s head of MI6’s Russia Department. That means she’s very high ranking and tipped to be the next chief of service. But she’s hit a roadblock. She wishes to know why her prize foreign agent no longer wishes to spy for her. She also has a personal matter that she wishes us to look into. She has a twin sister. But they were separated at birth. She wants us to find her sister.” Sign stood. “Mr. Knutsen – up and at ‘em; onwards! We must be on point. I fear this next case may be our toughest yet. Remember – nothing will be what it seems. The case won’t be merely about a person who’s lost their nerve, or a mundane missing person investigation. It will take us into the bowels of national security. And we journeymen will have to follow that path., no matter what the cost to our lives.”

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  As an MI6 field officer, Matthew Dunn recruited and ran agents, coordinated and participated in special operations, and acted in deep-cover roles throughout the world. He operated in environments where, if captured, he would have been executed. Dunn was trained in all aspects of intelligence collection, deep- cover deployments, small arms, explosives, military unarmed combat, surveillance, and infiltration.

  Medals are never awarded to modern MI6 officers, but Dunn was the recipient of a rare personal commendation from the secretary of state for work he did on one mission, which was deemed so significant that it directly influenced the success of a major international incident.

  During his time in MI6, Matthew conducted approximately seventy missions. All of them were successful. He currently lives in England, where he is at work on his next novel.

  He is the author of the critically acclaimed Spycatcher series of nine novels (published by HarperCollins). His books have been published globally and have been translated into multiple languages.