by Tom Wood
Wilders said, ‘I appreciate that this is not something you would normally do.’
It wasn’t, but Victor asked ‘In what sense?’ because he wanted to hear Wilders’ interpretation of the meeting.
‘Meeting a stranger, alone and unarmed, in a place not of your choosing. I’m not sure if I really expected you to show. So, thank you for coming.’
‘Thank me when we have parted ways amicably,’ Victor said. ‘Not before.’
Wilders looked over one of his shoulders, towards the front door. ‘I hope my friend outside was suitably courteous.’
‘He didn’t touch anything he didn’t need to.’
Wilders smirked as Victor’s expression remained the same. ‘So, what do I call you?’
‘You don’t need to call me anything.’
‘You don’t have a name?’ Wilders asked.
‘None that is my own,’ Victor answered.
‘How about Tesseract?’
Victor didn’t react.
‘Or would you prefer Cleric?’
Victor didn’t react.
‘I’m well informed,’ Wilders said. ‘As I’ve demonstrated, I know a lot about you, which might be enough to fill a sheet of paper if one were to write in an inefficient prose.’
‘What’s your point?’
Wilders shrugged. ‘Only that you’ve protected your anonymity well over the years, and in managing to do so your reputation has skyrocketed.’ He raised a hand above his head in demonstration.
‘It’s a double-edged sword,’ Victor admitted.
‘But that’s why I want to hire you. I need a professional.’ He paused, considering for a moment. ‘No, I don’t simply need a professional, but someone exceptional.’
‘You’ll make me blush,’ Victor said without inflection.
‘I’m not here to merely flatter. I have a serious offer for your consideration, I assure you.’
‘Good,’ Victor said. ‘Because I don’t like wasting time. There’s not enough of it as it is.’
‘I wish to hire you, obviously. I have a contract that would suit your skill set and one worth a considerable purse.’
Victor said, ‘I’m listening.’
‘May I open this briefcase?’ Wilders gestured to the briefcase resting flat on the table. It was alligator skin, polished dark. ‘Or do you want to do it yourself?’
Victor lifted the case from where it sat and took it over to the dining table, where he placed it down. ‘You can do it from here,’ he said, because a bomb could be small enough to kill the person who opened the case and leave a bystander alive. ‘But I’ll stand behind you as you do.’
‘Why?’
‘So that if I don’t like what’s inside I can tear your throat out before you can remove it.’
Wilders’ eyes narrowed. ‘I do hope you’re joking.’
‘Not even a little bit.’
FOURTEEN
Bagels were surely the universe’s way of saying life wasn’t random, that there had to be a point, a plan, a design to it. And if that were the case then cream cheese was the universe’s way of saying it wasn’t soulless, it cared. Janice Muir felt that love with every huge bite. She wasn’t sure what role coffee played but she felt the universe’s benevolence there too. It was part of her morning routine: a run, then breakfast on the way home. She had awoken while it was still dark and the sun was only beginning to rise over Arlington. The air was cold, but thanks to the coffee and the run, she couldn’t feel it.
She had spent most of the last couple of years behind desks, but she knew the Lincoln was going to pull up alongside her long before it did. She knew the vehicle, though she hadn’t seen it in person for a while. Muir knew its owner in the same way.
‘Good to see you out and about,’ she said as the window buzzed down.
Procter said, ‘Get in, please, Janice.’
‘I’m sweaty. I’ll make a mess of your seats.’
‘Don’t make me stretch across and open the door for you.’
Muir tutted. ‘Still playing the invalid card, I see.’
She held the bagel between her teeth so she had a free hand to open the door, and climbed into the passenger seat. It thunked shut.
‘Warm in here,’ she said.
‘Do you always dress like that when you run?’ Procter asked.
‘What are you trying to say?’
‘You’re not leaving a lot to the imagination.’
‘It’s called aerodynamics, Roland.’
He said, ‘It’s called something all right.’
‘Since when did you become my dad? Because I’m owed a ton of back-dated allowance.’
Procter smiled and pulled away from the kerb. ‘It’s good to see you again, Janice. It’s been a while.’
‘This vacation of yours is certainly an extended one.’
‘Sabbatical. I’m not on vacation, Janice. I’m convalescing. I’ve had three major surgeries in the last two years.’
‘Whoa, back up. I’m teasing. Since when did you become so uptight?’
‘Since Alvarez swung by to see me yesterday.’
She sipped some coffee. ‘I’m surprised he still has time for you. Isn’t he rubbing shoulders with the great and the good now?’
‘That’s precisely my point.’
‘Talk to me, Roland. What’s up?’
‘He wants Tesseract.’
‘Okay,’ she said so Procter would continue.
‘He’s still salty about what went down in Paris. He’s still bitter I had him back off. He never got his man back then and now he’s been promoted he can do what I didn’t allow him to do before.’
‘What does he know about our involvement?’
‘He suspects. He knows Tesseract showed up in Minsk. He’s seen the footage. He knows about Mossad. He could know a lot more he didn’t let on.’
‘Why did he come to see you?’
‘For help. At least, under the guise of asking for my help.’
‘He was trying to rattle you?’
‘Alvarez isn’t the kind of guy who plays mind games. He’s the guy who stares you out.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means I don’t know why he came to see me. If he believes I know more than I’ve told him – and of course he would – then it makes no sense to show his hand so early.’
‘So he’s fishing. He doesn’t know for sure if there are any fish in the pond but he’s throwing out the line just in case.’
‘Maybe.’
‘It’s not like you to be shaken. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you shaken.’
‘I’m limited in how I can respond. I’m stuck at home. I’m not in Langley. I can’t so easily cast my own lines in response. I don’t like that. I feel like I need to sew on a button when I’m wearing oven gloves.’
‘Okay, I’ve caught up. This is why I’m sitting here in your Lincoln. You want to make use of my unburdened fingers.’ She waggled them.
‘I need you, Janice.’
‘To do what, exactly?’
‘Make contact with Tesseract. You need to warn him about Alvarez.’
Muir’s eyebrows arched. ‘Oh God, are you serious? You can’t think that’s a wise course of action. That’s what Alvarez wants you to do.’
‘There’s a risk, Janice, I understand that. But Alvarez has something, else he wouldn’t have come to me. As long as Tesseract stays out of his way, then there is nothing that can hurt us, but Tesseract needs to know who to be looking over his shoulder for.’
‘If you contact him, you’re helping Alvarez get closer to apprehending him.’
‘He needs to know who he is dealing with. He needs to know what’s at stake here.’
‘I want no part of this.’
‘You’re already a part of this. You can’t change that. But we can work with what we have. We have to. If we open a line of communication with him, then we can make sure he stays one step ahead of Alvarez. He must have something. He has something we don’
t know about, but it emboldens him enough to show up at my house and threaten me.’
‘He doesn’t,’ Muir said. ‘That’s precisely why he showed up at your door. He’s shaking the tree and hoping something falls out.’
‘He wouldn’t dare play that game with me. I know him. He worked under me for years. I know how he thinks. I know how he operates.’
‘And he knows that too. He’s playing you, Roland. He’s playing on your expectations of him to rattle you, and it’s working.’
‘If I could leave you out of this and get hold of Tesseract myself, I would. But I don’t have any way of getting hold of him personally. It’s been too long. And if there was a way, I can’t do it myself with this sort of scrutiny. Alvarez will be watching my every move.’
Muir said, ‘Yet you want me to expose myself while Alvarez is watching? What drugs do they have you on?’
‘He didn’t mention your name, Janice. He’s not looking at you. He came to see me. He knows I was involved. He doesn’t know about you.’
‘You can’t know what he knows and what he doesn’t.’
‘What I know is that Alvarez is a relentless son of a bitch with the scent of blood, but now he’s leading the pack too. This is a serious situation. We need Tesseract to keep a low profile until this heat passes.’
‘That’s what he does, remember? That’s who he is. The guy is a walking dictionary definition of paranoia. He can’t be any more cautious than he is already. He can’t be any more anonymous.’
‘Then we need to establish a channel of communication with him, to keep him updated on developments. If Alvarez has something, or finds something, or gets closer than we think he is… Well, better Tesseract knows what’s coming for him.’
‘The more contact we have, the more exposure there is.’
‘I don’t argue that point. But let’s just say that Alvarez gets hold of Tesseract, which is not beyond the realms of possibility, then Tesseract will give you and me up in a heartbeat. He’s an assassin. He’s a killer. He has no loyalty to us. We’re just clients to him. We’re just people he’s worked for. There’s a good chance he hates our guts.’
‘I’m very well aware of that. But we used him for a reason. You had me use him for a reason. Even we don’t know who he really is. So he’s on a couple of video recordings? So he’s a wanted man? Who exactly is Alvarez going to look for?’
Procter said, ‘You don’t know Alvarez like I do.’
‘And maybe you don’t know Tesseract like me.’
Procter was silent for a moment, then asked, ‘When did you last have any communication with Tesseract?’
‘About a year ago,’ Muir said. ‘He turned up out of nowhere to grill me on a job I’d passed him. He thought I set him up.’
‘Did you?’
‘I’m alive, aren’t I? So, no. I didn’t set him up. Someone did though, and he wasn’t best pleased, as you might expect. Then, with you out of the game and given the job I passed to him didn’t go so well, I figured maybe a little breathing room would be good for the both of us.’
‘Do you know what he’s been doing since?’
She shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine. He’s not exactly what I’d call a sharer. I expect he’s been working. For whom? Who knows? Maybe that’s why this has all come about. He’s popped up on someone’s radar. He’s left some evidence.’
‘That doesn’t sound like him, does it?’
‘He’s good, but he’s human. We’ve cleaned up for him before. What if he’s been operating without that sort of backup?’
Procter nodded. ‘It’s a possibility. But that’s not what’s driving Alvarez. Before, when I first decided Tesseract could be useful, I had Alvarez back off from the hunt because I knew that if left to his own devices he would pull down anything I tried to build. That was then. That was when I was his boss. When I could control him.’
Muir said, ‘That was when he was on the inside. Alvarez had a link to Tesseract back then. That’s the only reason you got to the guy yourself, because there was already a link in place. Alvarez doesn’t have one now. That’s why he came to you. He has no starting point. He wants you to create the link for him. If we try and reach Tesseract, then we’re doing exactly what Alvarez wants us to do. What he needs us to do.’
‘Maybe.’
‘No, not maybe. Roland, you’re not seeing the obvious. If Alvarez had something, he wouldn’t have come to you at all. That he did turn up at your door shows he’s looking for help, only not the sort of help you think he wants. You’re not giving him enough credit. You’ve played him once so you think he can’t play you in return. I hate to say it, but you’re being arrogant, and a little stupid, which isn’t like you.’
‘I know what I’m doing, Janice.’
‘I’m sure you really think that, but you want me to make contact with Tesseract to give him the heads-up on Alvarez and I’m not going to do it. No chance. No way.’
Procter struggled to find his words. ‘You know, my only naivety in this is that I didn’t think for a second you’d refuse to help me.’
‘I’m not refusing to help,’ Muir said, ‘but I want to protect myself well before this spirals out of control, and I want to protect you in the process. Even if that’s from yourself. Now take me home so I can shower. I’m starting to hum. Tesseract doesn’t need our help. He’s good at keeping his head down all on his own.’
FIFTEEN
Victor waited for Wilders to rise. He did so with the same slowness the bodyguard had shown while squatting. He didn’t understand why anyone allowed themselves to degrade to such an extent. The Belgian approached the table, eyeing Victor with suspicion. Wilders stood before the briefcase, paling as Victor circled around him.
Wilders said, ‘There’s a dossier inside. That’s all.’
‘Then there’s no need to be afraid of me standing behind you, is there?’
‘I’m starting to understand how a man such as yourself stays alive with so many enemies.’
‘You cannot begin to understand.’
Wilders was several inches shorter, so Victor had no trouble peering over his shoulder as the briefcase was unlocked, then opened. Inside was a slim manila file.
‘The target’s dossier,’ the broker explained.
‘I can see that. Take it out and hand it to me.’
Wilders did as Victor said. Inside was an A4 photograph of a man. Maybe fifty. Maybe Middle Eastern. It was a black-and-white shot, a covert head-and-shoulders photograph taken at long range. Behind it was a few dozen pages of biographical information. Victor didn’t waste his time with it.
He looked at Wilders for a moment. ‘You know, I wasn’t sure how far you would take this, but I really didn’t think it would get this far. A lot of work went into this dossier. It looks genuine.’
The broker was confused. ‘That’s because, naturally, it is a genuine dossier. He’s a Jordanian. He sits on the board of one of the largest natural gas pipeline developers in the whole —’
Victor held up a hand. ‘Spare me. Who’s coming?’
‘I’m sorry, what?’
‘It’s not the bodyguard. He’s too big and too obvious. I’ve never come across a competent professional who would struggle to get off of the toilet.’
‘What are you talking about? Who are you expecting?’
‘It’s not you either. No offence, but I could kill you just by making you run up a few flights of stairs. So we’re talking about a third party. Given, as you put it earlier, my reputation, it’s going to be someone like me or it’s going to be a team. And the last time your boss sent someone like me it didn’t end so well, so if I had to pick one or the other I’d say a team. How am I doing?’
‘I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
Victor regarded him. In Wilders’ eyes he saw only confusion.
‘Ah,’ Victor said. ‘You haven’t been told what this is, have you?’
‘I have no idea what you are talking a
bout.’
‘Let me explain it then. You work for an independent broker who goes by the handle Phoenix. You take these face-to-face meetings so your boss can remain anonymous. He gets the rewards while you take the risks. This particular meeting is an illusion, because Phoenix doesn’t want to hire me. Quite the opposite in fact. There’s an open contract out on me. A big one, worth a considerable amount of money to whoever kills me. Phoenix is the broker. He’s tried to earn that purse twice before in the last year. That’s why I’m here. I’m not here to get hired, I’m here to get to Phoenix.’
‘I work for Phoenix, yes, but I know nothing about any of that. I’m here to hire you. As I said there is a Jordanian businessman we need eliminated —’
‘Again, I believe you, but that’s not why you’re really here. Your orders were to discuss the contract in detail, yes?’
He nodded. ‘The point was to be thorough. To make sure we could work together going forward.’
‘No,’ Victor said. ‘Those were your orders. The point is to keep us talking, to allow the team enough time to move in undetected. This is a trap for us both. I’m afraid I’m more valuable to him dead than you are to him alive.’
Wilders said, ‘I don’t believe you. You’re wrong.’
‘Phoenix couldn’t know for sure if I’d actually show,’ Victor explained. ‘If you weren’t certain I would, then he definitely wasn’t. He wouldn’t want the team in close proximity to see me coming in case I spotted them in return. Therefore, he needs confirmation I’m here before the order can be given to execute. So, how will he know? Are you going to call him? Is he going to call you? If I’m wrong, then there’s no way he can know I’m here and you have nothing to worry about.’
Wilders said nothing for almost thirty seconds but his expression said everything. He walked back across the room towards the fire, towards where they had sat. He reached a finger and thumb into the bouquet of dried flowers and removed a coin-sized audio receiver. He held it up for Victor to see and then tossed it into the fire.
‘What do we do?’ he asked, sudden urgency in his voice.
Wilders may have done business with killers, but he had never found himself in a position like this before. His earlier confidence was gone. He had lost control of the situation, but in truth it had never been under his control. He had come here to arrange a contract, not be part of one. It was a struggle, catching up with the turnaround. He was numb. He couldn’t think. He didn’t know what to do. Victor had seen it before. He had seen it many times before. The fight or flight reflex, going back and forth between the two, undecided. The end result was panic.
