Assassins Hunted

by Rachel Amphlett

  Chapter Fourteen

  Berlin

  * * *

  Miles fought down the sense of frustration that was threatening to overwhelm him and instead paced the room, his eyes roaming over the different feeds from the various CCTV cameras around the hotel.

  Knox had found three more analysts to work with him, but had been reluctant to part with more from the Middle East section.

  ‘The fewer people that know about this, the better,’ he’d said. ‘Let’s keep this close.’

  Miles appreciated what the Section chief was saying, but it didn’t help the fact that he was understaffed and desperate to find Eva, Alex and Nathan. Worryingly, there was no sign of the assassin who had killed five of the Section’s agents, either.

  The only lead they had so far for him was a grainy feed from the hotel bar’s CCTV camera. The images were saved onto a different server than the rest of the hotel, and were recorded at one minute intervals rather than continuously. Greg was running the images through a software application to try and clean them up.

  ‘Who’s checking car rental companies?’

  One of the new analyst’s hands shot up in the air, although his eyes didn’t leave the screen in front of him. ‘Nothing to report. I’ll keep monitoring it, but at this stage it looks like they’ve use another mode of escape.’

  ‘Nothing on the taxi radios, either,’ said Jason.

  ‘Well, they won’t have got far on foot, and Eva wouldn’t risk it with Alex in tow,’ said Miles. ‘That leaves the train station, subways, and bus stations. Get on with it.’

  He ran a hand through his hair, knowing he was taking out his frustration on the team, but unable to stop himself. His mind raced while he tried to fathom who had found out that Eva was in the hotel before she’d even arrived, let alone how they had found out she was in Berlin. The flight plan hadn’t been logged until the RAF plane was an hour north of Alicante the previous night.

  Desperate, he returned to his desk and began to scroll through the reports that were coming in.

  He cursed himself for being so complacent. He should have known that whoever organised the attack on the condo in Cyprus wouldn’t stop there. Somebody wanted Eva and Alex dead, and was prepared to do anything to ensure that outcome.

  Guilt washed over him. He had no doubt Eva could look after herself, but he had put Nathan in that situation and the man had undergone no current field training. Not for situations like this. In his haste to find answers, he had put three lives at risk.

  ‘Miles? I think I’ve got something.’

  His head jerked up from his screen at the sound of Greg’s voice, and he made his way over to the other man’s desk.

  Greg pointed at the frozen image on the screen. ‘I found him.’

  Miles leaned forward. On the screen, Greg clicked through a series of images. A man dressed in a black suit entered the bar at two minutes past eleven, sat on a bar stool and twisted around so that he could see the lobby. He waved over a waiter and ordered a drink, which he then ignored.

  ‘This is the only person in the bar,’ said Greg. ‘I’ve already put a call through to the hotel and sent them this image. They confirm the man isn’t a guest.’ He flicked to a different image, this time from the CCTV camera in the hotel lobby. He pointed at the screen. ‘He walked in off the street at ten to eleven.’

  Miles stabbed his finger at the monitor. ‘Find out who that is. Where he’s from, why he’s here. Everything.’

  ‘Why do you think he’s involved?’

  ‘Watch Eva in that footage from the hotel lobby. She’s relaxed, almost, when the embassy car drops them off. Her shoulders are slumped; she’s tired. Yet within two minutes, her whole demeanour changes. Why?’ He tapped the screen again. ‘Because she saw him.’

  Miles picked up his mobile phone and called Knox. ‘You’ll want to see this. We’ve got a match on the gunman. Greg’s emailed you the image. What—’ He waited while Knox barked out an instruction. ‘Okay. I’ll see you in a minute.’

  He ended the call and turned to Greg. ‘Knox is on his way down.’

  He didn’t have to wait long. Within five minutes, the familiar beep of the security pad on the door being activated reached his ears, and Knox strode in.

  ‘Show me.’

  Miles pointed at the screen next to Greg’s desk and joined the Section chief. ‘Run Gerald through it,’ he said, lowering himself into one of the spare chairs and folding his arms over his chest.

  Out the corner of his eye, he saw Knox’s jaw clench as the suspect’s image filled the screen, the analyst taking them through the whole sequence of images, from when the man entered the bar until the moment he left – only minutes before the killing began.

  Knox remained silent as the photographs flashed before his eyes, and Miles was about to ask him what he thought, when the Section chief spoke.

  ‘Miles? Step outside a moment, would you?’

  Knox jerked his head towards the door, then walked away and opened it, not waiting to see if Miles followed.

  Miles cursed under his breath, then pushed his chair back and hurried to catch up with him. He closed the door and found Knox standing a little further up the corridor, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked troubled.

  ‘What is it?’

  Knox glanced up as he approached, then checked to make sure the corridor was empty.

  ‘The man in the CCTV image,’ said Knox. ‘His name is Samuel Parkes.’

  Miles frowned. ‘You know him?’

  Knox’s mouth formed a thin line. ‘I should do. I recruited him.’

  Chapter Fifteen

  Prague

  * * *

  ‘Where are we going?’

  Nathan matched her pace, and Eva could hear the impatience in his voice. She felt responsible for him, aware that he’d been thrust into a situation that was beyond his comprehension. She owed him an explanation, and soon.

  ‘Somewhere safe, I hope,’ she said. ‘We’re nearly there.’

  In fact, they’d already passed the apartment a block back, and she was now circling round to lead them down the street that passed along the rear of the building. So far, she’d seen nothing suspicious, but she wasn’t prepared to let down her guard yet.

  ‘Why did you insist on speaking German to the Czech guy who gave us a lift?’

  ‘It’ll buy us some time if the Section can’t determine where we are, or which direction we went. They’ll put out an alert for a missing English couple with a little boy in tow. If Markus sees it, hopefully it’ll take him a while to put two and two together or, better, not at all.’

  She bent down and gathered Alex into her arms. He’d stumbled, exhausted, and she needed to get him to safety so that he could rest. A fractious child would only draw attention to them, something they could ill afford at such a late time of night on a quiet street.

  After persuading Markus to drop them off close to the city centre, she’d set a quick pace towards the old safe house. She knew it was a risk, but no-one in the Section knew about it.

  The property had been part of an inheritance, and one that had been kept a secret through necessity, the papers hidden in a safe deposit box in a London bank vault.

  Three years ago, it had been cared for by a part-time manager; those days had long passed, and her contact assured her that no interest had been taken in the building for the past few months.

  It would have to do.

  Alex’s weight slowed her progress, and she fought off the weariness that threatened to engulf her.

  ‘I can take him, if you want?’

  ‘That’s okay, I’ve got him.’

  ‘You’re exhausted.’

  ‘We’re nearly there.’

  Headlights flashed further along the street in front of them, and Eva jerked to a stop.

  ‘Get down,’ she hissed, dropping to a crouch beside a parked vehicle. She prayed none of the residents in the narrow buildings lining the street looked o
ut from their windows.

  Nathan copied her stance, and they peered through the car’s windows as the vehicle drew closer, and then passed them.

  Its brake lights flashed when it had gone a few more metres, and then the driver stopped and reversed into a parking space on the opposite side of the road.

  Doors opened, before being slammed shut, and the voices of a young couple wafted across the street towards them.

  Eva and Nathan stood, and she flashed him a guilty smile. ‘Sorry.’

  He shook his head. ‘You’ve got some explaining to do when we get to wherever we’re going.’

  ‘I know. I will,’ she said. ‘I promise.’

  She led the way along the street towards an alleyway. She checked over her shoulder once, then led the way past discarded takeaway cartons, the back door to a Chinese fast food outlet casting bright light over the asphalt.

  She hurried past, avoiding the temptation to look through the door into the busy kitchen, in case someone saw her face, and then stopped at a door set into the side of the opposite building.

  She slid Alex to the floor, made sure he stayed close, then reached into her pocket for a set of keys.

  After her interview at the Berlin office, Miles had automatically assumed they had belonged to the house in Cyprus, and had handed them back to her, a rueful expression on his face.

  Now, she inserted the larger of the two keys into the door, and breathed a sigh of relief when the lock turned smoothly.

  ‘Come on,’ she said, and ushered Nathan and Alex over the threshold.

  A small window set above the door allowed light from the Chinese takeaway to filter through the dirty glass, illuminating a narrow corridor that led away from the door and towards a flight of stairs.

  Eva brushed past Nathan, picked up Alex, and led the way down the passageway, ignoring an archway in the wall to her left.

  As she reached the stairs, she realised Nathan wasn’t following, and stopped, glancing over her shoulder.

  He was standing stock-still, staring through the opening in the wall, a look of wonder on his face.

  ‘A bookshop?’

  She wandered back to join him, running her eyes over the bookcases that ran in several rows through the space to where she knew a counter to be at the front of the shop.

  She pursed her lips. ‘It’s guaranteed to go up in flames very quickly if we need to cover our tracks.’

  ‘Oh.’ Nathan ran his hand along the nearest dusty and cracked spines before he shook his head and caught up with her. ‘That would be a shame,’ he murmured.

  Eva said nothing, turned on her heel and trudged up the stairs ahead of him, ignoring the mustiness from months of neglect that permeated the stale air around her.

  At the top step, she lowered Alex, noticing the way his legs wobbled as he reached the floor, and put her hand on his shoulder to steady him.

  She turned her attention to the door that blocked their path, then punched a series of six numbers into the key pad set into its surface, and stepped back as the locking mechanism released with a loud clunk.

  Again, she stepped aside to let Nathan and Alex pass, before closing the door behind them and flicking a switch set in the wall.

  Four lamps set on small tables dotted around the room flickered to life, casting a muted glow around the large space. Faded sheets covered various items of furniture, their forms reduced to shapeless lumps in the poor light.

  Eva crossed the room and began pulling one of the sheets away, revealing two sofas and a coffee table.

  Nathan followed her lead, and began to help, uncovering a dining table and four chairs.

  ‘Looks like this place was abandoned in a hurry.’

  ‘It was.’

  ‘So, what happens now?’

  ‘I need to make a call. There’s someone who can help us.’

  Nathan frowned. ‘You destroyed our mobile phones.’

  Eva reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a phone. ‘I took this from one of the other agents.’

  ‘Wait. What? You stole that?’

  Eva glared at him. ‘You have a better suggestion?’

  ‘What if the call is being traced?’

  Eva glanced over her shoulder at Alex, who had curled up on one of the sofas and was drifting to sleep.

  ‘Given that we heard shots fired, I’m pretty certain the previous owner is no longer with us,’ she hissed. ‘Aren’t you?’

  Nathan folded his arms across his chest. ‘Who are you going to call?’

  ‘It’s not as simple as that.’

  Eva selected the internet connection on the phone, opened a familiar email website page, and logged in.

  ‘You’re going to use the “drafts” folder, aren’t you?’

  She nodded. ‘It’s not the best way, but it’s the easiest in our circumstances. My contact will be checking this regularly now, waiting for me to get in touch.’

  She hit “save”, then pulled the battery and SIM card from the phone and crushed them under her heel.

  ‘What do we do now?’ asked Nathan.

  ‘We sleep,’ said Eva, and rubbed her eyes. ‘I’m shattered.’

  Chapter Sixteen

  Berlin

  * * *

  ‘What do you mean, you recruited him? When?’

  Miles glared at his boss.

  ‘About ten years ago,’ said Knox. He handed over the folder he’d been clutching to his chest. ‘He was one of our best assets.’

  ‘Was?’ Miles snatched the file from the Section chief and opened it, running his gaze down the neatly typed overview that had been clipped to the inside front cover.

  ‘He went rogue a little over three years ago. Despite our best efforts to trace him, he was too well trained. He disappeared.’

  ‘Until now.’ Miles closed the folder, took a few steps away and ran his hand over the stubble covering his jaw. ‘What the hell happened three years ago, Gerald? What isn’t in the dossier about Eva?’

  ‘Everything we know about Eva is on file, Miles,’ said Knox. ‘Listen, I know you need more manpower to bring this to a successful conclusion but like I said, we need to keep this locked down.’

  ‘I understand. We’re doing our best.’

  ‘Keep up the good work,’ said Knox as he turned away. ‘I’ll be in touch.’

  ‘Sure.’

  Miles waited until the Section chief disappeared from sight, then exhaled and leaned against the wall, staring at the ceiling.

  ‘Something doesn’t add up,’ he murmured.

  He strode back into the room, snatched up the manila folder containing all the paperwork about Eva, then told Greg to phone him on his mobile if there were any developments and made his way to the cafeteria.

  The place was deserted, but he chose a table at the back of the room in a corner away from any windows, and began to leaf through the documents once more.

  When interviewing Eva earlier that day, he’d concentrated on the events of three years ago, sifting through the file to try and extract memories from her, to find out how her Cypriot location had been compromised.

  Now, he pushed that aside and instead began to go through the papers that documented her recruitment process.

  As his eyes skimmed the typed words, a lump formed in his throat. While he’d been working his way through the bureaucratic ranks of the British secret service, Eva had undertaken a brutal training regime, and had been spat out the other end minus twelve other recruits that had attempted the course with her.

  After that, there had been no more recruitment programmes like it. Too many injuries, the report said, both physically and psychologically.

  He blinked, then picked up her active service sheet.

  She’d been busy.

  He traced his finger down the list of confirmed kills, his jaw slack. Some of them he’d seen in newspapers, reported as accidents or deaths by natural causes.

  He’d imagined, on nights where he lay awake in bed unable to get back to sleep, that
the Section probably maintained a black ops capability, but until now, he’d kept that to himself. He’d simply never been part of such an operation, so it was easy to reconcile his work with the security of the nation.

  Yet here it was. Proof that they were involved.

  He pushed Eva’s file to one side, then flipped open the folder Knox had given him. His eyes widened as he read, working his way through each document in turn, until he stopped, and realised his hands were shaking.

  ‘Holy crap,’ he murmured.

  He let the page fall to the table, and rubbed his hand over his mouth.

  As the document settled, his eyes opened wide, and his hand shot out to stop the page sliding over the edge of the table.

  ‘That’s not possible.’

  He pulled the document closer, his eyes flickering over the staccato nature of the communiqué, his mind racing, before pushing the chair back and rising to his feet, trying to ignore the slight tremble in his fingers. Instead, he gathered up the remaining documents, shoved them into the folders and hurried back to the team of analysts.

  If he was right, Eva was in a lot more trouble than any of them had first imagined.

  Chapter Seventeen

  South-east Poland

  * * *

  The interior of the large steel and concrete building fell silent as Maxim Kowalski stalked through the open double doors, his guards closing the metal panels once he was clear.

  A group of men stood in the middle of the space.

  No-one spoke; most were terrified.

  Maxim’s reputation was something the younger members of the group had feared as children in the neighbouring villages; they’d witnessed first-hand the way in which Maxim controlled his territory and dealt with dissenters.

  The boldest of them had later joined his underground army, weary of being destitute. The promise of money, drugs, and as many young girls as they could want, in return for unwavering allegiance.