The fears she’d experienced in the early hours now drift away. She’s more relaxed as she takes Freya back upstairs to bathe and change her.
‘Should we go for a walk today?’ she says. ‘And isn’t Daddy wonderful?’
Freya gurgles in response.
Chapter Nine
Beth
‘We should let Mike cast his eyes over this,’ Beth says.
Ray and Leon exchange a look. ‘We need to be careful with him for the while, Beth,’ Ray says.
‘Look, he’s still Michael. We’ve worked with him for years. And he’s smart, Ray. That’s why you brought him back. We need him.’
Ray sighs. ‘This is need to know. We can’t have this getting out. Can you imagine if the press get wind of this?’
‘Okay,’ says Beth. ‘But how’s he going to tell them about it? We’ve got him under surveillance all the time?’
‘When we are certain he’s not going to regress, or be triggered again, then we can move to stage two of his reintegration,’ Leon says.
Beth always knew when she’d lost an argument with Leon or Ray. Before the business with Michael happened, Michael had been Ray’s second. Now, Leon’s temporary promotion had changed the dynamic in the group. She and Leon had always been equal up to that point. Now she had to answer to him and he made sure she knew it. Michael had never behaved like that when he was in this role.
Ray and Leon were thick as thieves most of the time. It almost felt like they patted her on the head and sent her off to do little chores with a modicum of responsibility. A fact that was frustrating Beth more than the instability of her homelife ever did.
‘When can I have access to the satellite information? I may be able to track the plane and find where it came to rest,’ she says, changing the subject.
‘That’s being taken care of elsewhere. Even we are getting limited content,’ says Ray.
‘Oh. I see. So, what are we permitted to do?’
‘For now, background checks on flight crew and then widen that to the passengers,’ Leon explains.
‘On it,’ Beth says.
Beth returns to her office and glances in at Michael who has his head down in a pile of paperwork.
He looks a little worse for wear today, she thinks. She knows why too. She heard Leon and Ray talk about how he gave his tail the slip and went out drinking the night before. Poor Michael, he doesn’t deserve this! What a mind fuck this must be.
Beth sits down at her desk and moves the mouse. Her screen has gone into auto-lock and she types in her password again in order to reopen it.
On her screen is a partially redacted report about the loss of a Boeing 777 300 headed for Shanghai.
She glances over at Michael’s office door again before submerging herself in the document.
As part of her research Beth pulls up surveillance from the airport systems. She watches as the passengers mill around, waiting to board. An initial analysis of the flight manifest hasn’t thrown up any names with a history and the travellers all appear to be behaving normally.
She turns her attention to the crew. One of their number had fallen sick and a new crew member was brought in. Shelley Armitage was the unexpected replacement. Beth looks at Shelley’s employment history in an email from Leon. Shelley had been an outstanding employee for the past ten years. Nothing suspicious, but this was her first long-haul flight.
There’s also a transcript of an interview with Shelley’s supervisor, Maggie Hanner, who says she picked Shelley because she was ‘reliable’ and had ‘requested’ consideration for long-haul opportunities.
She reads through the names of the others. A team that had worked together for some time. Shelley was the fly in the ointment. But Shelley’s family life showed nothing suspicious. A husband, a child and Shelley’s parents: all of whom were calling for an investigation but had been silenced under the Official Secrets Act. Some of the other crew’s families were also being hushed.
But Shelley could be a sleeper agent… Beth glances over at Michael’s office again. Anyone can be.
There are four crew members that have no family, and no one has apparently raised an alarm to say they are missing. Beth turns her attention to Angela Carter, Chloe Bell, Jay Astor and Frank Minchin.
The security footage shows the crew going through security with flight bags. There is no extra checked luggage from any of them, which is usual. Some of them have electronic equipment such as tablets and phones. No one has a laptop. Nothing peculiar at all. They all follow the rules to the letter and no suspicion is flagged.
She turns her attention back to Shelley. As part of her research, she finds an open Facebook account showing images of Shelley with her husband and son (who would be twelve years old at this point) on various holidays. From the statuses she sees, Shelley has no radical views, or if she does she never expresses them. She is just a normal working mum and appears to be generally happy.
She searches some of the others and finds similar pages. Chloe Bell is a petite and pretty girl. She’s half Chinese and is the youngest among the crew. There are lots of pictures of her with groups of friends, drinking shots and generally partying. Her profile says she speaks fluent Mandarin. Jay Astor is openly ‘out’ on his page. He’s black and has a male model quality that makes his slim body almost androgynous. There is a picture with him in shorts, arms around another young man who isn’t tagged in the picture. Beth saves the image for a future web search. Astor, it seems, has no family members at all on his social media – merely friends or acquaintances. Perhaps he doesn’t want his family to know about his private life? Beth thinks. She makes a note on his file: Family may not know he’s gay.
Then she comes to Angela Carter. There is no Facebook page. No Twitter, Instagram or any other social media. But searching is hard as she shares her name with a well-known novelist. Beth recalls that this is something that is taught during induction. If you want to take a fake name, then find one which is already shared with several celebrities because it clouds the searching and makes it harder to recognise no one of that name, age and employment role exists. As most of these factors come into play with this kind of search, Beth is suspicious: Angela Carter may not exist.
‘Hmmm,’ Beth says.
She returns to the security footage and captures an image of Angela going through passport control. It’s not a clear shot of the woman, though she can see she is tall and slender, with a neat blonde bob. Beth takes the image and does a reverse search online to see what comes up. At the same time, she searches the image in MI5 and police databases.
It is lunchtime by the time she finishes her background checks on the crew. All have thrown up something of their private lives, with the exception of Angela Carter who came out a complete blank other than a few possible email addresses. This in itself is suspicious. How best to hide? No social media, avoid being photographed. Even the screenshot Beth has managed to get isn’t good enough to see what the woman really looks like. She’s just such a generic sort, and her face is never full on with the camera.
She looks over at Michael’s office door again, wishing she could talk this through with him. He always sees things she doesn’t. Like the great work he’s done already on those files. With very little effort, he’d found something that she’d missed. Though she feels she can excuse herself a little on this. She’s been distracted since they became aware of the Network’s assassin school. She’d been in Switzerland while it all went down following a lead that she’d hoped would take her to Neva. When she returned everything had changed at Archive.
But it isn’t a good excuse for missing the original names of those operatives. Michael never goes ‘information blind’; he can scan a page and the things he needs to see just stand out to him. Maybe it is a form of autism – they are all on the spectrum one way or another, and genius is a more accepted description of some people. Michael has always fallen into that category to Beth. Even so, no matter what is happening, he never lets it distract him from the
task and that takes a very special kind of person in Beth’s book.
Needing further information about the crew, Beth searches for the HR details from the airline. They’d been given a contact name for inquiries and a password to use so that the HR Manager would provide her with any necessary data. She picks up the phone and dials the woman now.
‘Hey there, Sophia, this is Security Agent Bethany Cane, password is domicile. Can you give me the addresses of all of the crew that were on the missing flight, please?’
Sophia is flustered by the call, though she agrees to part with the information immediately, having been briefed that this might be a national security issue.
‘Do you know anything about the personal life of the crew?’ Beth asks.
‘Not really,’ Sophie says.
‘What about next of kin?’ Beth says.
‘I’ll look for you,’ Sophia says. ‘Anyone in particular to narrow the search?’
Beth gives Sophia the names of Astor, Bell, Minchin and Carter.
‘Zoe Bell’s grandmother is her contact,’ Sophia explains. ‘That’s strange…’
‘What is?’ asks Beth.
‘Carter and Astor are each other’s next of kin. Details were changed on the system on the same day. When they both started working for us,’ Sophia says.
‘Who did they have before that?’
‘I’m sorry, the file was just overwritten. We don’t retain out-of-date contact details.’
Because of this revelation, Beth becomes even more interested in Jay and Angela. Beth gives Sophia her email and a few seconds after the call ends, she receives all of the information. Sophia, at least, is efficient.
She glances down the list of residences. She decides to start with Angela.
Angela has a flat in Slough, not too far from Heathrow airport, from where she has flown the Shanghai long-haul return flight for the past six months.
Beth searches the land registry database for the owner of the flat and discovers it belongs to Jake and Hilary Tate, a married couple. After a short search, she finds contact details for them both. She decides that the woman might be an easier target and she calls the mobile phone she finds listed for her.
When the call is answered, Beth goes into a well-rehearsed speech about herself.
‘What can I do for you, Officer?’ says Hilary Tate.
Beth doesn’t correct Hilary’s assumption that she is the police. It’s less difficult to explain than her real line of work.
‘I’m making enquiries about a tenant you have in your property in Slough. Can you tell me how long Angela Carter has lived there?’ Beth asks.
This is a crucial moment. Will Hilary give her personal information on the phone, or will she be suspicious and refuse without proof of who Beth is?
‘Just a minute… I’ll have a look at the contract.’
Beth takes a slow breath and waits. She hears the open and closing of what sounds like a metal filing cabinet and then the rustle of paper.
‘It’ll be six months this Friday. She’s signed up for a year, and paid the rent in advance,’ Hilary explains. ‘Is there something I should know about her?’
‘She’s been reported as a missing person. Do you have a set of keys for the apartment?’
‘Yes, of course, but my tenancy agreement doesn’t allow me access without her permission.’
‘Don’t worry about that,’ Beth explains. ‘Meet me at the property at four today and I’ll have the necessary warrant.’
Hilary dithers a little. ‘I don’t know, this is all a bit sudden. I mean, what do you hope to find?’
‘The thing is, Mrs Tate, Angela is missing. For all we know she could be injured and alone inside the flat.’
‘Oh! Right! I see.’
‘So it’s very important we have your cooperation,’ Beth says. ‘It could mean life or death.’
‘Whatever I can do, Officer. Willing to help!’ Hilary says.
Beth hangs up and she sends an email to Ray requesting the warrant. A few minutes later Leon comes in.
‘What did you uncover?’ he asks.
‘Angela Carter looks suspicious to me.’ Beth explains her findings. ‘I think it’s crucial we search her place, see if it reveals anything more about her. She has zero social media and a search of database and online didn’t find any photos of her. She took on the apartment at the exact same time that she started the airline job. Could be why she chose to live there, but I just have this gut feeling that something is amiss.’
‘Let’s go,’ said Leon. ‘We’ll pick up the warrant on the way.’
Beth reaches for her coat. ‘What about Michael? He could be useful.’
‘We can manage this between us, Beth,’ Leon says.
Beth nods.
She places her computer in standby mode and then she follows Leon out of the office.
Chapter Ten
Neva
Her hotel room has been ransacked and her few belongings have been strewn all over the floor. Neva looks behind her, checking the corridor, and backs off rapidly. It’s no accident that anything important is in the backpack she’s wearing. Neva lets her knife slip down from the wrist holster into her hand as she turns and heads for the elevator. All of her senses are on full alert. She’s aware of every sound, her eyes cast left and right as she prepares for an enemy to burst from one of the other rooms at any point.
At the lift, she presses the call button, then hurries to the door that leads to the stairs.
With ninja stealth she goes down the first flight to the level below. Still alert, she walks down the corridor away from the lift. On every floor there is a service elevator on a dogleg bend in the corridor.
As she moves towards this lift, she retrieves a staff pass from her pocket: she cloned the card of one of the cleaners when she checked in a few days ago, using a Proxmark 3 to scan the card and replicate it. Now she uses the card to bring the lift up to her floor and she gets inside as soon as it arrives. She presses the button for the basement and the staff parking lot.
Before the doors open, she reaches into her pocket and removes her revolver. She clicks off the safety and holds it behind her back, while securing her knife in the other hand ready for action.
The doors open. Neva tenses.
The basement is empty. Neva gets out of the lift and follows the staff route to the underground car park. If her presence has been compromised, she needs to make a quick getaway and her plan is to steal one of the cars there.
Her heartbeat is slightly elevated now, but she has a rush of adrenaline that sharpens her reactions and as she opens the door to the carpark, the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. She ducks left just as a barrage of bullet fire pounds into the wall beside the door, sending pieces of concrete flying all around her. Doing a running crouch, gun now pointing upwards, Neva throws herself behind the nearest car. The exit door to the main street isn’t far away but her planned escape from the building has been anticipated. With so many options she could have taken, Neva suspects there is more than one assassin after her. The others no doubt will be covering her other possible choices.
More gunfire rains over her head as she dashes between the cars, hurling herself to the floor as bullets pummel into the nearest car. On her stomach she shuffles past another vehicle, moving closer to her escape route, which is now only one car length away. She hears the pounding of feet running towards her and pulls herself into a crouch ready to make a break for it. But first she stands and lets loose a blast of gunfire. She catches a brief glimpse of a man wearing a black suit then her pursuer throws himself aside to take cover. Neva uses this opportunity to run full pelt towards the door, hurling herself through, and out onto the street, before her assailant can recover.
Outside she carries on running even as she flicks the safety back on the gun and pushes the knife back into its holster. She keeps going, weaving in and out of the pedestrians on the busy London road, and then she dives across the chaotic street and runs towards t
he nearest tube station. A taxi blares its horn as she causes it to brake. Neva doesn’t look at the driver as she reaches the pavement.
Her breathing is labouring a little by the time she heads down into the underground. She’s not unfit but the adrenaline rush is taking its toll.
Using one of her debit cards, she passes through the barrier and hurries down the steps towards the sound of the next train.
The station is full of people, and Neva submerges herself into their throng. As the train stops and the doors open Neva boards, pushing past disgruntled commuters. Once inside the carriage she turns and studies the people boarding to see if she has been pursued. Her breath is coming fast, but she stills her beating heart, getting her breathing under control as she quells the flight adrenaline.
She stays on board as far as the line goes. This gives her time to think and assess who may have found her. Can the Network be onto her already or is it someone else? Either way her position in central London is now untenable.
Using a variety of tube lines Neva travels to Heathrow. With a different identity, she books a room on Airbnb. The room is described as a riverside retreat on the Thames. Then she orders an Uber to take her to Kingston upon Thames. She lets the driver drop her off close to the main shopping area where she buys a few essentials. As she does this, she is hyper-aware of the possibility that she still might have a silent tail.
She buys a sandwich and sits in the main pedestrian area on a bench and eats it, all the time watching everyone around her. There are no obvious tails. No one remains sitting or standing watching her. She crosses through various shops, back and forth across Kingston, all the time looking… Nothing seems awry.
After a while she purchases two new burner phones for cash, giving a false name and address when asked at the sales desk. She orders another Uber – with a different identity and card again – to take her close to the address on the river where she’ll be staying.
Kill or Die Page 5
