Black Ops: The 12th Spider Shepherd Thriller

by Leather, Stephen

  Harper thought back to his initial conversation but he couldn’t for the life of him remember whether he had told Shepherd he was in Germany. ‘Hand on heart, I don’t know. Maybe I told him where I was. I don’t have his trick memory.’

  ‘Did he know why you were there?’

  Harper shook his head. ‘No, and I didn’t tell him.’ He saw the look of disbelief flash across her face and he put his hand on his chest. ‘Hand on heart, Charlie, I told him nothing.’

  ‘Do you think he knew already?’

  Harper frowned. ‘I hadn’t thought about that. Yeah, he didn’t ask anything about what I was doing, so maybe.’

  ‘And when did he meet you?’

  ‘Last Friday.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘We went to a bar. Had a few drinks.’

  ‘You didn’t go to his hotel?’

  Harper shook his head. ‘Definitely not. We met at a bar. I left, he made his own way back to his hotel.’

  ‘But you knew where he was staying?’

  Harper nodded. ‘Sure.’

  ‘And you knew he was being followed?’

  Harper swallowed but his mouth had gone dry and he almost gagged. He sipped his coffee and watched Button over the top of his paper cup. He was reasonably certain that Button already knew everything, but until he was sure he wasn’t going to go running off at the mouth.

  ‘You spotted he had a tail?’

  Harper nodded again.

  ‘Do you have any idea what you’ve done, Lex? Any idea at all? You killed two Russian agents. Members of Putin’s protective team.’

  Harper’s hand trembled slightly and he saw the look of satisfaction on Button’s face as she registered his reaction. ‘I didn’t have a choice,’ said Harper. ‘They were heavy hitters, they would have identified me and my team eventually. I couldn’t take that risk.’

  ‘Spider got you into this. Why the hell didn’t you say something to me?’

  ‘Spider doesn’t know they’re dead,’ said Harper. ‘At least not from me.’ Harper tried to sip his coffee but his hand began to shake again so he put the cup down on the bedside table. ‘Look, he wanted to meet, I saw that he had a tail so I pulled in the two guys I spotted. I was worried that they might be on to me. I questioned them and during the course of the interrogation my team started to worry that they had been compromised. You know what bastards the Russians can be. None of them wanted to end up stashed in a kitbag in their bathroom.’

  ‘So you killed them?’

  ‘We had a Chinese parliament and we decided it was the only thing to do.’

  ‘You can’t go around killing people like that.’

  Harper flashed her a tight smile. ‘To be fair now, that’s what I do.’

  ‘They’re Russian secret service. There’ll be repercussions.’

  ‘There would have been repercussions if we hadn’t done it. They’d have tracked us down eventually. They’d have found out why we were there. And that would have opened one hell of a can of worms, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘That doesn’t make what you did right. It doesn’t even make it necessary.’

  Harper shrugged. ‘What’s done is done. No use crying over spilt milk, et cetera, et cetera.’

  ‘You’re a bit flip about the death of two men, Alex.’ She looked at him for several seconds. ‘And Spider doesn’t know you killed the two Russians?’

  ‘Swear to God. I said I’d let him go back to London and then cut them loose. But after he went my team started to have misgivings.’

  ‘And despite the fact you knew who and what they were, you still killed them?’

  ‘It was precisely because of who they were that we had to, don’t you see that? They were pros. They’d have tracked us down one by one. At least this way we had a chance of getting away clean. Who else knows, Charlie? Who else knows what happened?’

  ‘At the moment, only me. The Russians know that their men were killed. I mean seriously, Alex, a mugging and a suicide on the same day? Did you think you’d get away with that?’

  ‘We were thinking on the hoof,’ said Harper. ‘We just wanted rid of them. With no witnesses, no one would know we’d been involved.’

  ‘And what about Spider? The two Russians who were following him both turn up dead on the same day. You didn’t think that would put him in the frame?’

  ‘He was back in the UK when it happened.’

  ‘In which case the Russians would think it was Five or Six.’

  ‘Not if they thought they were following an assassin who was planning to take a crack at Putin.’

  Her eyes narrowed and again Harper realised he’d said too much.

  ‘So Spider told you what he was working on?’

  Harper tried to look less tense than he felt. ‘We questioned the Russians, they said they had been told to tail a guy who was believed to be a threat to Putin. They didn’t know he was Shepherd or that he worked for Five. At least if they did know, they didn’t let on.’

  ‘They told you he was planning to kill Putin?’

  Harper nodded.

  ‘And what did Spider tell you?’

  ‘Not much. But he confirmed what the Russians had said.’

  ‘So he knows that the Russians are on to him?’

  Harper nodded again.

  Button stared at him with unblinking eyes. The longer she didn’t speak, the more Harper had to fight the urge to say something to fill the silence. It was an interrogator’s technique, he knew, but knowing how it worked didn’t make it any easier to resist. He reached for his cup and managed to take a sip of coffee without spilling any.

  ‘And again, Spider didn’t tell you what he was working on?’

  ‘Not a thing. Is that what you’re worried about?’

  ‘I’m worried about two things, Alex. I’m worried about the fact that you didn’t see fit to tell me that Spider had come to see you in Berlin. And I’m worried that you took it upon yourself to murder two members of the Federal Protective Service.’

  ‘I was wrong on both counts. I’m sorry.’

  Button didn’t seem to hear his apology. ‘But here’s the thing that’s really worrying me, Alex. Why did Spider come to see you in the first place? He’s on an active operation in the UK, so it must have been pretty damn important for him to fly to Berlin. It’s time to stop playing coy and tell me what the hell is going on.’

  Harper stared at her for several seconds. ‘Fine,’ he said eventually. ‘I give up. I’ll tell you everything. But you’re not going to be happy.’

  ‘Alex, believe me, that ship has well and truly sailed. Now tell me everything, and be quick about it.’

  Shepherd left his flat wearing a sweatshirt and tracksuit bottoms. He had old army boots and thick socks on his feet. He always preferred to run in heavy footwear even though it was harder going. Moving into the Hampstead flat had been like returning to an old friend and he was glad to be back. He liked Hampstead with its quaint high street, its old-fashioned shops and bustling bars and restaurants. And the heath was a great place for a run. The flat was much smaller than the one he’d been given in Battersea. It was on the second floor of a block that had been built during the sixties to fill the gap left when two mews houses were demolished by a Second World War bomb. There was a small sitting room overlooking the street, a bedroom at the back, a small shower room and a kitchen that wasn’t much bigger than the shower room. Button was right, the flat was up and running but the cable had been disconnected and there was no terrestrial television, but there was a good range of books to read so that wasn’t a concern.

  He jogged to the heath, then set off on his regular route: up North End Way and round the Hampstead Heath extension, a large open space to the north-west of the main heath, then he cut around West Meadow and down to Parliament Hill Fields. It was while he was cutting across the fields that he realised he was being shadowed by another runner. Several running clubs used the heath but the guy behind Shepherd wasn’t one of the hi-tech trainers and L
ycra shorts brigade, he was wearing a tracksuit and black Nikes and had a woollen beanie hat pulled low over his brow. He had an aggressive style, his arms pumping at his side with every step. He matched Shepherd’s pace for a couple of hundred yards then started to gain on him. Shepherd could hear him breathing as he headed east to Duke’s Field and he put on a spurt as he skirted the secret garden and headed north to Cohen’s Fields. Shepherd took a quick look over his shoulder. The runner was only a dozen or so feet behind him. Shepherd hit the ground hard with his right foot, pushed off to the left and whirled around, his hands up to defend himself. He froze when he recognised the runner. Lex Harper.

  ‘What the hell are you doing here, Lex?’ he asked.

  Harper grinned. ‘Just out for a run. Stretch the old legs.’

  ‘How did you know where I was?’

  ‘It’s me you’re talking to, mate.’

  ‘I’ll ask you again, Lex. How did you know where I was?’

  ‘I found out where your phone was and I figured you’d be running on the heath sooner or later.’

  ‘Do you know where my flat is?’

  Harper’s grin widened. ‘I know the building, it’ll take me a bit longer to find out the flat’s number. Why, have you forgotten where you live?’ He frowned. ‘What happened to the old rucksack? The one you filled with house bricks.’

  ‘I’m getting a bit old for the iron man stuff,’ said Shepherd. He put his hands up slowly, wondering if Harper was about to attack him. There was nothing in the man’s hands but there was a heavy belt pack around his waist that could easily have contained a handgun.

  Harper sensed his unease and his face broke into a grin as he put his hands on his hips.

  ‘I hope you’re not here to shoot me, Lex,’ said Shepherd.

  Harper laughed and clapped him on the back. ‘Now would I do that?’ he said. ‘I just need a word. And as I was in the area, I thought I’d strike while the iron was hot.’ He guided Shepherd over to a bench and they sat down. Harper looked around, checking for tails.

  ‘There’s no one on my case,’ said Shepherd.

  ‘What, you move north of the river and they can’t find you? They’re Russian secret service, mate. If they want you, they’ll find you.’

  ‘Charlie’s fixed it,’ said Shepherd. ‘She’s spoken to the Russians. They thought I was an assassin out to get Putin. It was nothing personal. We’re on the same side now.’

  Harper shivered. ‘Yeah, about Charlie …’

  ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘She knows pretty much everything, mate,’ said Harper. ‘That’s why I’m here. She called me back for a bollocking. Wanted to know why I hadn’t told her that you’d been in Berlin.’

  Shepherd cursed.

  ‘Yeah, she’s not happy with you, obviously. She hasn’t mentioned anything?’

  Shepherd shook his head. ‘How the hell did she find out, Lex?’

  Harper held up his hands. ‘Hey, don’t be looking at me like that. I’m just the fucking messenger here. She called me back to London and knew everything already. There was no point in trying to lie to her, I’d have just been digging myself into an even deeper hole.’

  ‘When you say everything …’

  ‘She knows about the Russians. She knows that MI6 sent you out to talk to me. She knows you’re trying to set her up.’

  ‘I’m not setting her up. That’s not what’s happening.’

  Harper screwed up his face. ‘To be honest, mate, it is. They sent you out to Berlin to get me to give evidence against her. And now she knows.’

  Shepherd felt suddenly sick. He stood up and took a couple of deep breaths but that didn’t make him feel better.

  ‘There’s something else you need to know,’ said Harper quietly.

  ‘Bloody hell, Lex, I can’t take much more of this,’ said Shepherd.

  ‘I have to tell you,’ said Harper. ‘Those two Russians in Berlin. We had to off them.’

  Shepherd’s jaw dropped. ‘Please tell me that’s a joke.’

  ‘I had no choice. The others insisted on it.’

  ‘Your team? What the hell are they doing dictating to you?’

  ‘It doesn’t work like that,’ said Harper. ‘It’s like when you were in the SAS. We have Chinese parliaments, everyone has a chance to say how they feel, everyone has an equal voice. My guys were scared of the repercussions and they decided the best way out of it was to kill them.’

  ‘Killing two Russian secret service agents was the best way out?’ said Shepherd. ‘Are you insane?’

  ‘Well, to be fair, mate, you did bring them to us, remember? This is all down to you.’

  ‘Fuck that, Lex,’ said Shepherd, exasperated.

  ‘You know I’m right,’ said Harper quietly. ‘You led them to us. We nabbed them. At that point, even though they hadn’t seen our faces, they would have been looking for us the moment we let them go. And you know what the Russians are like. Relentless. They would have found us and killed us.’

  ‘And now what? You slotted them and you think that’ll be the end of it? They’ll just send more agents.’

  ‘Yeah, but the ones they send won’t know who we are or what we look like or how many of us there are. They’ve got nothing.’

  ‘They’ve got me, Lex. They were following me and now they’re dead. Who do you think they’re going to blame?’ He paced up and down, his mind racing.

  ‘That’s why I’m here, mate. I know I flew off the handle in Berlin, but you need to know what’s going on.’

  Shepherd sat down and folded his arms. ‘I’m screwed. That’s what’s going on.’ He looked up at the darkening sky. ‘I’m so screwed.’

  ‘You said Charlie had fixed it with the Russians.’

  ‘That’s what she told me. But now she knows I lied to her.’ He shook his head and cursed again. ‘This is a fucking nightmare, Lex.’

  ‘Maybe that’s how she found out about Berlin,’ said Harper. ‘The Russians told her.’

  ‘I guess so. When did you see her?’

  ‘This afternoon. Straight from the plane to a hotel. I’m flying out tonight.’

  ‘And she contacted you yesterday?’

  ‘You’re wondering how long she’s known?’ He shrugged. ‘Couple of days, I think. She wouldn’t have waited long before talking to me.’

  ‘I was attacked in London,’ Shepherd told him. ‘As soon as I got back. An Israeli contract killer. She botched it big time and I killed her. I had to tell Charlie, obviously. I didn’t know it was the Russians who’d sent her, not then. But she ID’d the woman and went to see her contact at the Russian embassy. He told her that they thought I was an assassin hired to kill Putin. They didn’t know I was MI5. But they do now.’ He cursed again. ‘I was on safer ground when they thought I was a contract killer. I could have just disappeared. But Charlie told them who I was, thinking that would help. But if they know that I’m responsible for the deaths of two of their men …’ He shook his head. ‘I am so fucked.’

  ‘What about that MI6 guy who sent you out? Jeremy whatshisname? Can’t he protect you?’

  ‘He’s a devious bastard only interested in his own career. I wouldn’t trust him as far as I can throw him.’

  ‘Then maybe you need to talk to Charlie.’

  ‘After what I did? I betrayed her. She’s not the type to forgive and forget.’

  ‘No, mate, you were told to do what you did. You couldn’t say no. It’s like being in the army – if an officer says, “jump” the only thing you can say is “how high, sir?” You didn’t have a choice.’

  ‘I could have done what you did and just told him to go fuck himself.’

  ‘You’re comparing apples and oranges, mate,’ said Harper. ‘I don’t work for MI5 or Six or the cops. I work for Charlie. She has my loyalty one hundred per cent and I know that she has my back. But you work for MI5. They pay your wages. And if you refused you’d be out on your ear.’ He grinned. ‘Mind you, you could always come and work for me.
’

  ‘Somehow I don’t see that working,’ said Shepherd. He leaned back and rubbed his hands over his face. ‘I need to think about this,’ he said. ‘There’s got to be a way out.’

  The two men sat in silence for a while, Shepherd staring up at the sky while Harper kept glancing around, looking for signs of surveillance. ‘So how’s your boy?’ he said eventually. ‘What’s his name? Liam?’

  ‘Yeah. He’s okay.’ Shepherd shrugged. ‘Actually, he screwed up quite badly. Got caught with drugs at school. They expelled him and he’s back in Hereford now.’

  ‘Sorry to hear that, mate. What the hell was he doing with drugs? He’s what, sixteen?’

  ‘Just seventeen. Drugs are everywhere now, you know that. His school is in the middle of the countryside and you’d have thought he was safe there, but …’ He shrugged and didn’t finish the sentence.

  ‘So what’s the story?’

  ‘A pal gave him what he thought was cannabis to hold for a party. Turns out it was coke. Half an ounce.’

  ‘Bloody hell, kids are knocking around with that much coke? They must be getting too much pocket money.’

  ‘There’s a lot of wealthy kids at the school. Overseas students. A lot of them have got more money than sense. Anyway, the school has a zero tolerance rule for drugs so they kicked him out. I got him into a school in Hereford, which means his grandparents can keep an eye on him, but that’s not the major problem. The local cops want to make an example of him.’

  ‘He’s seventeen, you say? He won’t go to prison.’

  ‘If he does go down it’ll be to a young offenders’ institution,’ said Shepherd sourly. ‘His life’ll be over, Lex. Even if he doesn’t spend time inside, a conviction like that will haunt him for the rest of his life.’

  ‘Can’t you talk to the cops? Professional courtesy, and all that?’

  ‘I tried that.’ He sighed. ‘Here’s the thing. They’ll lay off Liam if I can give them a bigger fish. But I’ve gone as far up the food chain as I can – doing it off the books.’

  ‘I’ll ask around, if you like. See what I can find out.’

  ‘Nah, it’s okay. It’s not your problem.’

  ‘Mate, the drugs business is a small world, especially up near the top. I’ll just turn over a few rocks and see what crawls out. Where did the drugs come from, do you know?’