by David Archer
“You know I would have. Hell, Harry, I’m sure you know me that well.” He scowled. “And this could be as bad as that?”
“Sam, I’m afraid it could be a lot worse. MI6 has reason to believe that terrorists could use this new weapon to kill tens of thousands, and more than once.”
Shaking his head, Sam closed his eyes. “Okay, I’m in,” he said. “One thing, though. This time, I’m taking Denny Cortlandt with me. They can take it or leave it.”
“I’m sure they’ll take it,” Harry said. “Keep your phone handy, you’ll be getting another call in a few minutes.” The line went dead and Sam laid the phone on the table as he looked up at Denny.
“So much for boredom,” he said. “Go pack. You and I are headed for England pretty quickly.”
“What’s going on, Sam?” Denny asked.
“We’re going to work with those special agents, the ones who helped us out in New York. There’s something going on over in England, some sort of possible terrorist activity, and they’ve asked me to come and serve as investigator. If I’m going to England, your ass is going with me.” He looked down at his half eaten burger and pushed it aside. “I’ll be in my office. I suspect we are going to be flying out pretty soon, so get yourself ready and get back here.”
“I’ve got clean clothes here,” Denny said. “It’ll only take me a few minutes to freshen up my bag, and I’ll come to your office. We can leave whenever we need to.”
They rose from the table and took care of the trash, then Sam took his phone out again as he walked back to his office. He dialed his wife’s number, and she answered almost immediately.
“Hey, baby,” she said. “How’s it going?”
Sam had never told Indie about his dealings with Team Camelot, nor even that they existed. She knew that he’d been through something on that mission, but she was also smart enough to know that there would be things he couldn’t tell her from time to time. For that reason, he decided not to explain in detail.
“It’s going,” he said. “I’m afraid I’m going to be taking a trip. We just got a case in England, and Denny and I will probably have to fly out this afternoon.”
“Oh, Sam,” she said. “I hate it when you have to take off so quickly. Do you have everything you need?”
“Yes, I’ve got my travel bag and passport. I’m sure we’ll be taking a private flight, so I shouldn’t need anything else. I just wanted to let you know, because I expect to be leaving shortly.”
“Okay, I guess,” she said sadly. “I love you, Sam. Call when you can?”
“You know I will, and I love you more. Kiss the kids for me, okay?”
They said their goodbyes and Sam got to his office. Jenna, his secretary, looked up at him with a bright smile, but it vanished when she saw his face.
“Mr. Prichard? Everything okay?”
“Call Ron,” Sam said, “and tell him I’ve been drafted by the feds again. I have to head for England, and I’m taking Denny with me. If he needs to know who to bill for this, tell him to call Harry Winslow. He should have enough information to answer those questions.”
He walked into his office and sat at his desk, and that’s when his phone rang again.
“Sam Prichard,” he said.
“Hello, Sam,” said the voice he was dreading. “This is Noah Wolf. I understand you’ve agreed to help us out?”
“Reluctantly. To be perfectly honest, Mr. Wolf, I’m not thrilled about working with you again. I understand that you serve a necessary purpose, but I don’t think I’m really cut out to be part of what you do.”
“I actually understand that, Sam,” Noah said. “However, I’m not cut out to do what you do, either. I can figure out some things, but you have an insight into the criminal mind that I could never come close to. MI6 has their own team working on this case, but there aren’t any viable leads. We need somebody who can find the loose threads and pull them, to help us get to the people behind it. If it’s any consolation, I believe you have the best chance of helping us prevent what would probably be a series of international tragedies.”
“I’m coming,” Sam said. “However, as I told the man who contacted me about this, I’m bringing one of my people along. He just happens to be a former SAS commando, and his name is Denny Cortlandt. You met him in New York, if you remember.”
“I certainly do, and I’ve already gotten approval for you to bring him along. How soon can you get to London?”
“Denny and I are both packed and ready, so it’s just a matter of arranging a flight. We should be able to get a plane within an hour, so it’s likely we can be there by morning, your time. I’ll give you a call when I have an actual ETA.”
“Excellent,” Noah said. “I’ll have someone waiting for you at the airport. You can trust me, Sam, I won’t involve you in our part of the operation if I can possibly avoid it. My team and I will be under your orders until we’ve identified the perpetrators, and then you can step back. Is that agreeable?”
Sam let out a sigh. “I’ll take it,” he said. “I’ll call you back within the hour with an ETA.”
Taking a cue from Harry, Sam simply hung up the phone. He leaned back in his chair for a moment, and then a tap on his door frame got his attention.
“London, huh?” Ron Thomas asked, lounging in the doorway. “Harry says to send the bill to the GAO, and to get you going as soon as possible. There’s a G650 being fueled up for you at the airport right now. It’ll be ready to go by the time you arrive.” He looked at Sam for a moment, then gave him a grin. “Harry said to make sure you get a bonus on this job. You can start thinking about where to spend it, but I’m hitting them for an extra quarter million to cover it.”
“I don’t have to think about it,” Sam said. “Quarter million dollars? I’m buying a house somewhere in the middle of Montana, and retiring.”
Ron laughed. “Yeah, right,” he said. “I don’t think you could retire if your life depended on it.”
Sam looked at him. “You might not want to take bets on that,” he said. “This job could possibly be the last one I can cope with. I have to work with those special people again, the ones from the wild trip I took around Europe. They left a pretty sour taste in my mouth, Ron. I really hoped I’d never have to deal with them again, but fate has a way of putting us into situations we really don’t like.”
Ron nodded. “Yes, sometimes it does. My money is still on you, Sam. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about you in the time I’ve known you, it’s that saving lives is the most important thing in the world to you. Luckily, you’re very good at it.” He turned and walked away without another word, and Denny walked into his office only a few seconds later.
“So,” he said, “how soon do we leave?”
Sam got up and opened the closet door behind his desk, picked up his own bag and then got his passport out of a desk drawer.
“Right now,” he said. He led the way out the door, and the two of them got into his Mustang for the ride to the airport.
The plane was waiting, as Ron had said it would be. Sam climbed aboard and they were ready to go within ten minutes. Sam took out his phone and dialed the number Noah had called from.
“Noah Wolf,” came the answer.
“Sam Prichard. We are on the plane and ready to depart. It’s just after one thirty, here, so a nine hour flight will put us at Heathrow at sometime around six in the morning, your time.”
“Good job, Sam,” Noah said. “Hotel accommodations are already arranged, and you’ll be provided with a vehicle when you get here. I’ll have someone pick you up at the airport, then we’ll all meet for breakfast. After that, we’ll head for MI6 headquarters and get you briefed on the situation.”
“All right,” Sam said. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He hung up the phone and turned to Denny. “We’d better try to get whatever sleep we can on the flight,” he said. “I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.”
SEVEN
Sam took out
his phone again, then tapped the icon for Harry and held the instrument to his ear. Harry answered on the second ring and Sam smiled.
"Sam, boy, how are you, son?"
"We just got on the plane, Harry. Any new developments on your end?"
"Sam, I'm not sure. Strangely enough, I just got a call that tells me Uncle Sam is getting nervous about the situation you’re going into. I guess they’re worried that the people you’re after might have plans over here, once they finish with the U.K."
"I guess that’s possible, Harry. I talked to Noah, but he indicates that they don’t even have any leads over there. You got any ideas how I should approach this?"
He could hear the scowl in Harry’s voice. "Nothing, nothing at all. I don't know what's really going on over there, other than that it’s something that could be disastrous, no matter where it happens. Keep your thinking cap on, and let me know if there’s anything I can do from back here."
"I will, Harry. Denny is looking at me with his eyes wide, but he doesn’t even know as much about this as I do. On the other hand, we got about nine hours to sleep on it, so maybe an idea will strike. Wish us luck."
"You know I do," Harry said, and the phone went dead. Sam looked over at Denny and muttered something about Harry lacking in social skills.
"What is it we’re going into, Sam?" Denny asked. “You still haven’t told me, you know.”
Sam frowned. "I don’t actually know, to be honest. All I’ve been told at this point is that it’s a possible major terrorist scenario, and that somebody is poisoning people around London. MI6 doesn’t have any leads, so Mr. Wolf came up with the wild idea of dragging me into it. If I’m going to be running around England, I figure you’d be a useful guy to have with me."
"Yeah, I can see that,” Denny said. “I still know my way around London, so I should be able to save some time getting about, at least."
Sam nodded. "Hey, when it comes to driving in England, I'm just along for the ride. You can handle all that."
"Ride, my aunt Beatrice," Denny said. "You're the lead man, remember? I’ll do whatever you tell me, boss, but even I know you’re the best investigator I’ve ever met."
The engines started up and the plane began moving a few moments later. Sam leaned his seat back and got comfortable, and the fight attendant appeared from her little station near the front of the plane to offer him a blanket. He took it and asked for a pillow, and noticed that Denny did the same.
Leaning his head back, Sam closed his eyes and thought about his last dealings with Noah Wolf. His team had been working a case that involved an international assassin, and someone at the highest leels of the government had decided that the assassin, as well as the people behind her, should all be eliminated. Noah Wolf had been called in, and Sam had been read in on the existence of E & E.
A large part of Sam’s work had crumbled that day. As a former policeman, he still had to tell himself that justice and honor mattered, but the knowledge that there was an actual governmental organization whose only purpose was to eliminate human beings without even pretending to apply due process of law made it difficult for him to keep believing it.
And then he’d seen the entire team in action. Noah and Marco killed quickly and efficiently, but Jenny…
Sam had never seen anything as terrible as the demented smile that Jenny wore as she killed and tortured men and women.
He woke suddenly, surprised that he had even been able to go to sleep. He’d been sleeping pretty well lately, but just the thought of having to work with Noah again had gotten him all twisted up. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes and brought his seat upright, and realized that the plane was coming in for landing.
“About time you woke up,” Denny said. “Seems we’re about to land.”
“Yeah? Did you get any sleep at all?”
Denny shrugged. “A bit, here and there. I got on the Wi-Fi and did a little research. This thing is awfully bad, Sam. The poison they’re using works very quickly, leading to death within fifteen minutes or less. If they find a way to disperse it in a crowd, we’re talking sheer terror. People will be afraid to leave their homes, they won’t enter a store. We could see people starving to death because they were afraid to go out and buy groceries.”
Sam nodded. “That’s what the people behind it want,” he said. “They want to instill so much fear into the people that it disrupts the entire country. That’s how terrorism works, Denny.”
The plane landed only a few minutes later, and the two men got off with their bags. As soon as they entered the terminal, both of them headed straight for the men’s room. When they came out, they saw a small, balding man sitting in a chair and holding a handmade cardboard sign that read, “Sam Prichard.” They walked straight to him, and he got to his feet as they approached.
“I’m Sam Prichard,” Sam said. “You are our ride?”
The man bowed his head. “That I am,” he said. “Billy Bathgate, at your service. I’m to tell you that you will be staying at the St. Giles hotel, and that you are expected for breakfast there as soon as we arrive.”
Sam grinned at the little man. “Lead on, then,” he said. “I could certainly use some breakfast.”
“Right this way, then,” Billy said. He tossed the sign into a trashcan and started off, slowing down when he noticed that Sam was leaning on his cane. “Sorry, guv, I don’t mean to be in such a rush.”
“Yeah, I’m a little slow sometimes,” Sam said.
When they got to the front entrance, Billy asked them both to wait while he went to get the car. He pulled up a couple of minutes later in an older Jaguar sedan, then hopped out to open the back door for them. As soon as they were inside, he loaded their bags into the trunk—although he referred to it as ‘the boot’—and then leapt behind the wheel once again and they were off.
Sam watched the scenery out the window as they drove through the city, then glanced over at Denny. “Did you ever live here?”
“Off and on,” Denny said. “My uncle’s estate—well, my estate, now, is not terribly far away. Mum and I lived here for a bit when I was a child, but then we moved to Manchester. I didn’t come to London again until I was out of the service. Stayed here for a while working with MI6, then got the itch to travel and went to the States. Found my way to Windlass and felt like I was at home.”
Sam nodded. “Not a lot of fond memories here?”
“Oh, some.” Denny grinned. “I’m not sure the ladies in question would remember me all that fondly, however.”
The car pulled up in front of the hotel and the two of them grabbed their bags and went inside. Billy hopped out to accompany them, then rushed ahead to the front desk to announce their arrival. The clerk looked up and smiled as the little man rushed up to him.
“Billy,” he said. “What have you brought us, then?”
Billy puffed himself up like a peacock. “Rupert,” he said, “I got called up by me old pal Albert who works for the Foreign Ministry, and he told me, he says, Billy, get yer bum to the airport and pick up some important Yanks and bring ’em to the St. Giles, he did!” He turned and pointed at Sam and Denny. “This here’s Mr. Sam Prichard, he is, and he’s come all the way from the States to help save London!”
Rupert smiled at Sam and Denny. “Good morning to you, gents, and welcome to the St. Giles. We actually have a reservation in your name, Mr. Prichard, came in early this morning.” He leaned across the counter and lowered his voice. “I thought your name sounded familiar, sir, so I hope you don’t mind that I did a bit of research. It is an honor to have you as a guest here, Mr. Prichard. I’ve actually read some of your blogs, and...”
Sam rolled his eyes. “It’s not my blog,” he said, “that’s my wife, and don’t believe everything you read there! She likes to, um, embellish things a little, I’m afraid.”
Rupert kept his smile, but his eyes looked subdued as he checked them in, giving them their keys and calling for a bellman. They took their bags up to their rooms, then came d
own and entered the restaurant.
Sam and Noah spotted each other instantly. Sam led Denny toward the table where Noah, Sarah, Neil, Jenny, Marco and another woman were sitting. It was actually two tables put together, so that there were two places left for them.
“It’s good to see you again, Sam,” Noah said. “And thank you for coming.”
“I’m here,” Sam said. “I just hope I’ll be able to help. This is Denny Cortlandt, by the way. Denny, this is Noah Wolf. I’m afraid I can’t remember all the other names.” He made a point of avoiding looking at Jenny, but noticed that Denny was smiling as he sat down across from her.
Noah made the introductions, and then signaled the waiter that they were ready to order. Denny convinced Sam to order a “fry-up,” a traditional English breakfast with back bacon, fried eggs, sausages, baked beans and fried bread. He opted for the same for himself, but Sam noticed that the others were having a more American-style meal.
Sam followed his advice, but noted the high price on the menu. “It’s good,” he said after taking a couple of bites, “but I’m not sure it’s worth nineteen pounds.”
"Places like this can be a bit on the pricey side," Denny said. "This city has more ways to fleece money out of an American than anyplace else I've ever been in the entire world. It doesn't matter how tightly you try to hold onto your wallet, somebody here will find a way to get money out of it."
Sam grinned at him. "That wasn't my money they just got, it was Uncle Sam’s, or it will be by the time Ron gets through writing the invoice. I’m not gonna cry over it."
"All the better, then," Denny said, grinning back.
“I take it you had an uneventful flight?” Noah asked.
“I suppose so,” Sam said. “I slept all the way.”
“You’ll be glad of that before long,” Marco said. “Something tells me we’re not going to get a lot of rest in the next few days.”
“That’s not the first time I’ve had that suggested to me,” Sam said. “Noah, can you tell us more about what’s going on?”