by Andy McNab
I nodded, just wanting him to leave.
"She did mention your apology for the deaths of my nephews."
I nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I never really cared for my sister's family. I hope to see you in St. Petersburg soon, Nick."
As he turned to leave, I said, "Can I ask one more thing?"
He stopped.
"There's a body. My friend. It's still in Estonia and "
"Of course, of course. We are not barbarians." Val waved a hand at the envelope. "The contact. Give him the details."
I lay on the sots far the next fifteen minutes, trying hard not to think about how long it must have taken Liv to die. It certainly took the edge off my enthusiasm for the St. Petersburg property market.
I needed the money, but I wasn't too sure about anything now, apart from the fact that the meeting with Lynn wouldn't be the best moment to fuck the Firm off.
I gave Val and his boys another five before walking downstairs and out of the hotel. Then I went into one of the phone booths under the scaffolding and fed in a fistful of coins as I picked up the receiver.
"Hello, East Anglian Properties. How may I help you?"
"James Main?"
"Speaking."
"Nick Stone here. Slight change of plan, James. I want you to sell the house as soon as you can, for anything you can get."
"But all the offers so far have been well below your purchase price.
You'd do much better if you got the roof finished and the interior work done, then put it on the market in the spring. It would be a-"
"Right away, James."
"But I was driving past the place only a couple of days ago and there's still a tarp over the roof. Really, nobody's going to offer anything like-"
"James?"
"Yes?"
"Which bit of right away don't you understand, for fuck's sake?"
I only had to put a twenty-pence piece in for the second call. It was to a London number.
"Still abroad, I'm afraid," I said when I was finally put through to Hughes. "Looks like I'm going to have to stay here for another month.
What effect would that have on Kelly?"
"Well, she won't get any worse, let's put it that way. She'll stay more or less exactly as she is until you can start the sessions with her."
Exactly as she is.
I closed my eyes and tried so hard to see her looking at me and smiling, but the only image that came to me was of her on that chair, her head strangely tilted, and sitting so still it was as if she'd stopped breathing, or had been frozen to death in an invisible blizzard.
I had hours to kill before seeing Lynn and so I ended up walking all the way to Vauxhall Cross. As I walked, I thought about the two other phone calls I might have to make very soon. One was to her grandparents, to break the news that they might have to sell their house as well, though there was more chance of being struck by lightning. They'd nodded and agreed so far that Chelsea was the best place for Kelly, but I bet they'd suddenly discover how wonderful the public hospital was when I told them they'd have to start shouldering some of the cost.
The other would be to the friend who'd put me onto the freelance job against Val. I'd ask him if he had more work going, and this time somewhere warm, like the Bahamas.
The same Asian guy ushered me into Lynn's office. Nothing had changed apart from the fact that Lynn had a different shirt on and wasn't writing this time. I stood in front of his desk. Once again, there was no coffee on offer, so I knew I was in for another short meeting.
"It's my last few weeks in post, and quite frankly the last person I wanted to see was you." He sat and stared at me, with an expression that said I was 100 percent responsible for his early retirement. I felt sorry for the mushrooms.
I knew to just keep my mouth shut and listen.
"Moonlight Maze," he said. "Do you know anything about it?"
"No." I felt the sharp pain in my chest once again. He knew what I had been doing. He knew and was letting me drop myself in the shit. I had to play along. "Well, not really. Only what I read in the papers a couple of weeks ago."
"That's about to change. Your job is to assist an NSA officer and his team while in the U.K. They will be here for about a month, trying to stop this darned ROC infiltration into Menwith."
I nodded, as if I assumed it would be a boring BGcumescortcumtour-guide job, which these things normally are. But I still had the feeling he was playing games with me. "Why me, Mr. Lynn? You said before Christmas that-"
"It has been deemed that the cost of your training and retainer is not being effectively utilized. Now get out."
I didn't know how he did it, but the door behind me was opened by the Asian guy right on cue. "Please, sir, follow me."
I did and we went up two flights in the elevator to the briefing area and into a sparsely furnished, unoccupied office. There were no windows and all I could hear was the noise of the forced air ducts.
"If you wait here, sir, the officer will be with you shortly."
The door was closed behind me. I sat against the desk and stressed. I was being set up.
As it opened again, I stood up and turned to face the person walking in. My chest pain returned with a vengeance. I had fucked up big time.
"Nick Stone, right?"
The Wasp was smiling at me as he held out his hand. His face looked like I'd gone at him with a pastry cutter. The bright-red, scabby scars around his face were held together with black sutures, along with patches of his scalp, where his hair had been shaved before the wounds were treated. His hands were in shit state, too, but they were all healing nicely.
"There isn't much time, Nick. Me and the team are going to need a lot of help here." He saw me looking at his scars and dropped the smile.
"Hey, I know. Not good. If I ever find the sonofabitch that did this, I'm gonna be pulling the ring back on one big can of kick ass... "
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