by Jack Higgins
“Do we have a satellite in position?” the man who had gestured to Ardman asked, equally quietly.
“Patching through to a US Department of Defense bird,” the technician said. “It’ll take them hours to realise they’ve lost control. Then they’ll blame the techies. Or the hardware.”
“How long?” Ardman mouthed at the man. Into the phone he said: “Just listen to what I have to say, that’s all I ask. Where’s the possible harm in that, hmmm?”
“Almost in,” the technician said. “Accessing now. Should have a fix for you in about a minute.” He turned the screen so that Ardman could see the image on it.
It was a map of Britain. A rectangle appeared over the lower half, and the image changed to show just the area in that rectangle. Then another as the image zoomed in again – on London. With every second, the satellite closed in on the location of Chance’s mobile phone…
“Got the general location,” the technician observed. “I’ll get a team into the area ready. I think it’s Goddard on standby today. Soon as we have a street address – bingo!” He grinned. “Shouldn’t be long now.”
* * *
In Krejikistan, the Commander was sitting in the passenger seat of a heavy lorry as it made its way along the narrow track from the KOS main facility. He had waited perhaps longer than he should have done for the jeep, and it wasn’t just the lurching and bumping of the vehicle that was making him feel queasy. He knew what would happen if he had lost Vishinsky’s ‘guest’.
The sight of a soldier staggering along the narrow service road towards them, waving his arms to flag them down, did nothing to ease the Commander’s fears.
“Private Levin, sir. I was escorting the English prisoner,” the soldier explained as soon as the lorry stopped.
The Commander listened to Levin’s story with increasing apprehension. As soon as he had the gist of it, he ordered the soldier to squeeze into the front of the lorry with him and the driver. The heavy army lorry then continued slowly along the access road until it came to the point where the jeep had careered off into the wilderness.
The tyre tracks were easily visible in the mud even before Levin’s enthusiastic shouts of: “Here – this is the place, sir. We’ll find him now.”
“I don’t like the look of the mud,” the driver said as he stopped the lorry. “We could sink right in and be stuck here. A jeep’s one thing, but in this…” He shrugged and waited for the Commander to make the decision.
The Commander shoved Levin out of the lorry. Then he ordered the troops in the back to get out and follow the tyre tracks. Private Levin was still insisting the prisoner could not have gone far and that they would soon find him – right up until they found another unconscious soldier.
“I want that jeep found,” the Commander ordered as soon as the unconscious soldier had been carried back to the lorry. “Private Levin says it was damaged, stopped. So it’s close by somewhere.”
It did not take long to find it – with another unconscious soldier in the back. There was no sign of their former prisoner apart from the ropes his hands had been tied with – sliced through on the ragged metal of the jeep’s bonnet and dropped nearby.
The soldier in the jeep was coming round. He seemed groggy. He insisted he was fine to help with the search, but the Commander sent him back to the lorry.
“Take him and the other one back to the KOS facility in the lorry,” he ordered. “Get them checked out by the medics there.”
One of the soldiers helped the groggy man out of the jeep and back towards the lorry. The man still seemed to be suffering, head down and face in shadow.
The Commander walked back to where Levin was standing, staring out into the empty wilderness. “You will stay and help us find the prisoner you lost,” the Commander said. “He can’t have gone far. Search parties – groups of two or three,” he ordered. “Spread out from this point, on the double. What are you waiting for?”
Within a few minutes, there was a shout from one of the search parties. They had found the man dressed in civilian clothes lying dead in a gully.
“Looks like he fell and knocked himself out,” one of the soldiers who had found him said. It was several minutes before the Commander thought to have Levin look at the unconscious man to be sure.
The private stared in amazement.
“The prisoner?” the Commander prompted. “Yes?”
Levin shook his head. “No.”
“So who is he?” the Commander demanded.
“It’s Dimitri. He was with me in the back of the jeep.”
“Why isn’t he in uniform?”
“He was,” Levin protested. “Those are the prisoner’s clothes.”
The Commander frowned. “And Dimitri was in the back of the jeep? But we have just taken that man to the lorry. So where is…” His mouth dropped open and he grabbed his radio.
The lorry pulled into the main compound, surrounded by industrial units – metal-clad buildings, pipelines, pumping stations. Smoke billowed out from vents and valves so that it was like emerging from the back of the lorry into some region of hell itself.
Chance made a play of rubbing his head. “Sickbay,” he grunted, hoping the guards now carrying the unconscious soldier from the lorry wouldn’t notice his accent needed some work.
They didn’t seem bothered and Chance suppressed a smile. He had hoped to be able to walk away, on the pretext of helping with the search for himself. With luck, he had reckoned he could get to the main road and flag down a lift – maybe even commandeer a car and head for the border with the Ukraine.
But instead he had been escorted right into the heart of enemy territory – right to the place they’d been taking him anyway. But to Chance’s mind it was a setback, not a defeat. There would be a vehicle somewhere he could ‘borrow’.
He turned from the tailgate of the lorry. And found himself staring into the barrel of a rifle. Three soldiers stood in front of him, all aiming their weapons. A fourth was listening to his radio.
“It is all right,” the fourth soldier said into the handset. “We have him now.”
Chance sighed. “It was worth a try,” he said. “You’ve got to grant me that.” He put his hands in the air. “Coming quietly,” he said in Russian, adding in quiet English: “For now.”
“We need to meet,” Ardman’s voice said from the other end of the phone. “We can’t do this over the phone.”
“You mean, so you can have us arrested, or shot, or whatever?” Jade said. She looked at Rich, and could tell from his expression that he agreed with her – it was too risky.
“I understand you must be wary.”
“Terrified, more like,” Rich muttered. Jade smiled.
“So,” Ardman went on, not having heard, “Why don’t you choose the place and the time. I promise to come alone. Just me. Choose somewhere public, somewhere you can tell if you’re being watched, where you can escape easily if you think you’re in trouble. But I promise you, that won’t be necessary. Really it won’t.”
“Hang on,” Jade said, covering the phone with her hand. “What do you think?” she asked Rich quietly.
Rich shrugged. “What else can we do? And like he says, we can choose somewhere they wouldn’t dare try anything.”
“We hope,” Jade said. “All right, where?”
“Here?”
“Too crowded. We need somewhere we can talk. Safely. Anyway, we might want to come back here, use the computers or whatever. So it’s best they don’t know about this place. But a café or restaurant or bar or somewhere might be good.”
Rich grinned suddenly. “What about the bar in a big hotel? He pays.”
“We’re not drinking,” Jade said. “Clear heads – right?”
“I meant a coke,” Rich said. “Or maybe lunch.”
Ardman’s voice came from the phone as Jade removed her hand. “Are you still there?”
“We’re here,” she assured him. “Name me three big hotels in Central London. Just any
three. First you think of.”
Ardman did so, though he sounded puzzled: “The Savoy, the Ritz, the Clarendorf?”
“The last one. The Clarendorf.” Jade raised her eyebrows at Rich – a question. He nodded. It would do. “We’ll meet you in the main bar. In half an hour. If we’re not there, wait for us. See you.” She made to end the call.
“Hang on,” Ardman said quickly.
Jade hesitated. “What?”
“If you don’t recognise me—”
“We will,” Rich said.
“Just in case. I’ll leave my name with the barman, so he knows where I am. Just ask for Hilary Ardman.”
Rich laughed out loud.
“What’s funny?” Ardman asked, sounding a bit hurt.
“Hilary’s a girl’s name,” Jade said.
“And Jade is a slippery semi-precious stone,” the man snapped back. “I’ll see you in half an hour.”
The technician was giving a thumbs-up. Ardman nodded and put down the phone.
“Got ’em,” the technician said.
Ardman swung his feet off the desk and stood up. He took his jacket off the back of the chair and slipped it on.
“Coming to see the fun?” the third man in the room asked. He had just finished speaking urgently into his own mobile phone.
“No,” Ardman told him. “I’m off to the Clarendorf for a drink.”
The man laughed. “Right.” Then he realised that Ardman was not laughing. “You’re serious? They won’t be there, will they?”
“We’ll see,” Ardman said. “If Goddard’s people underestimate these kids, then I’d rather we had a back-up. We can’t let Vishinsky get to them.”
“If Goddard’s team lose them, they’re not likely to come and find you, are they?” the man said.
But Ardman had gone.
“Do we meet him?” Jade wondered.
“I still don’t trust him, whatever he says,” Rich told her.
“Me neither,” she agreed. “So, what do we do? Go and see if he turns up, then decide if we see him?”
“I’ve got an idea,” Rich said. “How much power’s that phone got left in it?”
Jade pulled the mobile back out of her rucksack. “Looks like—”
There was a sudden squeal of brakes from outside the café. At the same moment, it sounded like a hundred emergency sirens had started up. Through the window, Jade and Rich could both see several police cars screeching to a halt in the road outside. Two of them slewed sideways at opposite sides of the café, blocking off the road.
Car doors opened and uniformed police leaped out.
But even before they reached the café, the door crashed violently open. Men in dark suits and darker glasses rushed inside.
“Armed officers – nobody move!”
13
As soon as he heard the first car screech to a halt outside, Rich was on his feet. He grabbed Jade and bundled her ahead of him through the nearby door that led to the toilets at the back of the café.
“I thought the police weren’t interested,” Jade gasped.
“That was then,” Rich said. “This is now.”
As well as two doors into the toilets, there was a third door. It had a bar across it and a fire exit sign above. Rich shoved the bar and felt it give. The door was stiff through lack of use, but with Jade’s help he managed to heave it open.
“How did they find us?” she asked. “Ardman?”
“He doesn’t know where we are.”
“Sure?”
“Maybe they traced the call somehow,” Rich conceded. He was looking round, deciding where to go next.
They were in a courtyard area at the back of the café. There was another door back into the kitchens, and a gate that must open into the street beyond for deliveries. Large, round, industrial-sized metal waste bins stood grouped in a corner. Rich didn’t fancy trying to hide inside those.
He heaved open the gate and looked out into the road beyond. “It won’t take them long to guess where we went.”
“Assuming they know we were actually there,” Jade said.
There was a big key in the lock of the gate. Jade pulled it out, and when she closed the gate behind them, she locked it shut. It was solid wood, like a barn door, so you couldn’t see through.
“Should keep them guessing,” she said.
The street outside was a dead end, finishing at a wall. The other end of the street joined the main road at the front of the café, and they made their way cautiously towards the junction.
Behind them, Rich could hear the gates rattling as someone tried to open them from the other side. With luck they’d assume no one could have got out. They might go and ask for the key, but that would take time.
Rich and Jade emerged into the main street beyond the area blocked by the two sideways police cars. But further down the road, several policemen were setting up a barrier of plastic tape.
“We’re trapped,” Jade said. “Bet it’s the same the other end of the road.”
“They can’t just close the road for ever.”
“They won’t. They’ll close it off then search for us.”
“Side street,” Rich decided. “If we’re quick they won’t have cordoned them all off.”
There was a side street between the dead end they had come from and the cordon. They tried to look inconspicuous, hoping the police wouldn’t look down the street and see them as they hurried along the pavement. Luckily, the police at the barrier were busy answering questions and taking flack from people who wanted to come through.
Rich and Jade slipped into the side street. There were houses down one side of it. A brick wall ran along the other side – too high to climb. A row of tall, mature trees was planted along the side where the wall was, between the road and the pavement.
“Maybe go through one of the houses?” Jade said. “Get out the back door and through the garden.”
“If they have one,” Rich said. “If we don’t get trapped inside. If whoever opens the door to us doesn’t just shout for the police. Yeah, good plan.”
As they hastened along the street they could now see the uniformed figure standing at the other end, turning people away.
“It may be the only plan we have,” Jade said. “What else can we do? Hide up a tree?”
Rich hadn’t thought of that. OK, so his sister was joking, but maybe… He looked up at the nearest tree by the side of the road. To be honest, he doubted they’d be very hidden, even if they managed to get up into the branches.
“Jade, Rich,” a voice said from behind them. “How nice to see you again so soon.”
Spinning round, tensed and ready to run, Rich was surprised to see the figure standing behind them. It was the woman from the café. She must have followed them from the main street. She wore a long grey raincoat and carried a large black handbag under her arm as if it was heavy. Her long black hair blew slightly in the breeze.
“You called the police!” Jade accused her.
“I certainly did not,” she assured them. “I think we should get away from here as quickly as possible.”
“You’ll help us escape?”
“Stay here,” she said, smiling. “I’ll tell the policeman at the end that I saw two suspicious-looking children going into one of the gardens. When he goes to see, you can get past. I’ll keep the policeman busy as long as I can and meet you in the next road. There is a post office and newsagents. Wait for me in there.”
“What if we’re spotted?” Rich said.
“You won’t be. Trust me.” Magda nodded and smiled. “You have been through so much, you poor children. Let me help you. Let me help you and everything will be all right – you’ll see.”
Rich looked at Jade. Jade was nodding in agreement. “All right,” she said. “I think we need all the help we can get.” She smiled, but it was a smile full of sadness. “Thank you.”
Magda smiled back. “My pleasure. Now, be ready.”
While Magda went up to the
policeman, Rich and Jade kept to the shadows close to the high wall and under one of the large trees at the side of the road. They watched Magda talk to the policeman, who seemed very keen to follow her to the gate into the garden of the house at the end of the street.
“Men,” Jade said.
“What do you mean?” Rich said. “If he hadn’t gone with her, we’d be stuck here.”
They ran quickly and quietly to the end of the road and ducked round the corner. They stopped to get their breath back beside the hedge – the hedge round the garden of the house on the end. The policeman was probably right on the other side, but the hedge was tall and dense so there was no chance of him seeing them.
“That post office must be just along here,” Jade said.
“Yes,” Rich agreed. “Lucky Magda found us when she did.” He wondered whether she’d been looking for them or whether it was pure luck. He was about to follow Jade along the road when there was a strange popping sound from the other side of the hedge.
“What was that?” he said, careful to keep his voice down.
Jade ran back to see what he wanted. “I didn’t hear anything,” she said. But even as she spoke, the sound came again – twice more in rapid succession.
“They having a champagne party?” Jade wondered.
Rich could see a part of the hedge where it was quite thin – more twigs and branches than leaves. He reached his arms in between the thin branches and pulled them apart in the hope of seeing through, into the garden the other side. Jade leaned in close beside him, also looking through the gap Rich had made.
They had a good view of a well-kept lawn bordered with neatly weeded flower beds.
But that was not what made Rich and Jade freeze.
The policeman was lying on his back on the ground. Magda was standing over him. She was holding a pistol with a long chunky silencer aimed down at the policeman’s dead body. And there was no doubt in Rich’s mind that the man was dead. He could see the sightless staring eyes, the frozen look of fear and the smoking hole in the man’s forehead…
Magda checked the gun and slipped it inside her bag. Then she looked up as if sensing that she was being watched. Looked straight at the gap in the hedge where Rich and Jade were staring back at her.
