The Ben Hope Collection: 6 BOOK SET

by Mariani, Scott

  He was just about to stuff it back into the bag, out of sight, when something fluttered down out of the breast pocket and landed on the floor. He picked it up. It was just litter, a faded receipt. He crunched it up in his hand.

  He stopped. Looked down at his hand. Opened his fist and gazed at the piece of paper. Straightened it out delicately with his fingers.

  There was a phone number scribbled on there.

  His mind suddenly went into overdrive, his anxiety forgotten.

  It wasn’t an Egyptian number. It was British. He stepped quickly over to the phone on the desk, punched in the international code for the UK followed by the number on the crumpled piece of paper.

  After a few rings an answerphone cut in. It was a woman’s voice, speaking English in a strange accent that Claudel couldn’t immediately pinpoint. What was that? Irish?

  ‘University of St Andrews. Faculty of History,’ said the voice. ‘If you know the extension number you require, please enter it now. Otherwise, please hold for an operator.’

  Claudel’s eyebrows rose, and his heart began to thump. Faculty of History. Interesting. He glanced back at the paper and dialled in what he now realised was the extension number underneath. 345.

  After a few rings, an answerphone cut in. Claudel listened to the voicemail message and scribbled down a name.

  Then he called Kamal.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Paris

  It was after eleven by the time Ben and Zara found a quiet restaurant down a cobbled street in the Latin Quarter and were sipping iced Moët at an intimate candlelit table in the corner.

  Watching Zara, Ben felt a surge of mixed emotions. He knew he should be consumed with rage, now that he knew the things Harry Paxton had done. But somewhere in the midst of all those feelings of anger and resentment and betrayal that had emerged from listening to Valentine’s revelations, a strange new sensation had begun to glow inside him.

  It was a feeling of freedom. Incredible, heady, intoxicating freedom. No longer bound by any moral obligations and the old debt of gratitude to Paxton that he’d been harbouring for far too long, it seemed as if a whole new future had opened up in front of him.

  It made him think about something else Brooke had told him. Go with your heart. Now, at last, he could.

  ‘Penny for them.’ Zara reached across the table and took his hand.

  ‘Sorry. I was miles away.’

  ‘Tell me about your home,’ she said.

  ‘You’ll be seeing it soon enough.’

  ‘Describe it to me.’

  He smiled. His thumb caressed the back of her hand as he spoke. ‘It’s beautiful there. This time of year, the woods are full of flowers. Everything’s bursting into life. The air’s rich with wild thyme and rosemary and lavender, and at night the stars are so bright you feel you can almost reach out and touch them.’

  Her eyes sparkled in the candlelight. ‘And the house?’

  ‘It’s a traditional eighteenth-century country house. Rambling old place, stone floors, wine cellar. That kind of thing. A pretty far cry from the Scimitar’

  ‘I can’t wait to be there.’

  ‘I hope you might want to stay there a while,’ he ventured.

  She squeezed his hand tighter. ‘I know I’ll want to stay there a long time, Ben. All I want is to be near you.’

  After dinner they wandered out into the street, feeling close, holding hands. Ben hailed a taxi. ‘The Ritz,’ he said to the driver as they slid across the back seat together.

  ‘The Ritz? We already had dinner,’ she giggled.

  ‘I meant, as in hotel. I was thinking you might want to stay somewhere nice tonight.’

  ‘But don’t you have a place here?’

  He smiled awkwardly. ‘I was also thinking the Ritz might be more what you were used to.’

  She frowned a little. ‘Is that how you see me? I didn’t always live on fancy yachts. You should have seen the place I grew up.’

  ‘Secondly—’ he started.

  ‘I know what you’re going to say.’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘Yes. And the answer is that I do want to spend tonight with you.’ She touched his hand. ‘All night. At your place. I don’t want a fancy hotel. I just want you.’

  Ben gave the driver the address, and the car took off. The city lights zipped by, but they were more interested in each other, talking softly, laughing, touching. A few minutes later, the taxi was pulling up in the street near the entrance to the underground parking lot.

  ‘Where is this place of yours?’ Zara asked, looking around her as the taxi drove off.

  ‘Follow me.’ He led her down the cobbled alleyway, through a side door that led into the dark, echoey parking lot.

  ‘Where are we going?’ she giggled.

  ‘You’ll see.’ He took her hand and she followed him to the concrete steps that led up to the security door. He entered the security code. ‘Remember this number,’ he told her as the door swung open.

  ‘Wow. Talk about secure. A client gave you this? What was he, some kind of mobster?’

  ‘Close. He was a government minister. Anyway, you’ll be pretty safe here.’

  ‘I’d feel safe anywhere with you.’

  They walked inside, and he shut the heavy door behind them.

  ‘Alone at last,’ she said, taking his hands.

  ‘Drink?’

  ‘Later.’ She kissed him. ‘Is that the bedroom door?’

  He nodded.

  She started walking backwards, dragging him towards it. Pushed the door open with her back and led him inside. She lay back on the bed and pulled him down on top of her.

  ‘I can’t believe this is really happening,’ she murmured in his ear.

  Streaming sunlight woke him the next morning. He stirred and rolled on the rumpled sheets. Blinked a few times and smiled to himself as he remembered what had happened.

  He stretched his arm out sleepily and his hand touched the pillow next to his. Zara wasn’t there.

  Hearing her pottering about the flat, he glanced at his watch. It was almost eight. Time to make a move, if they wanted to get to Le Val by lunchtime. He was just about to haul himself out of bed when the door opened and Zara walked into the bedroom. She was dressed, and pulling on her jacket. She bent over him and kissed him. ‘You slept like a baby.’

  ‘Going somewhere?’ he asked.

  ‘There’s nothing for breakfast. I’m off to the pâtisserie down the street to get some croissants.’

  ‘We can have something on the road.’

  ‘Come on. Indulge me. I want to make you a nice breakfast before we leave.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘No buts. I’m making you breakfast, and that’s official. You rest a while longer. I’ll be back before you know it.’ She turned to leave the room, but hesitated at the door. Stepped back to the bed and bent down over him again and kissed him long and tenderly. ‘I love you,’ she whispered in his ear.

  When she was gone, Ben dozed. After a while, he opened his eyes and sat up. It was just gone eight-thirty. Feeling more relaxed than he had in a long time, he got out of bed and headed for the shower. He pulled on the spare jeans, a white T-shirt and grey V-neck jumper from his overnight bag.

  He suddenly realised that Zara had been away a while. Was there a queue down at the pâtisserie? Or maybe she’d forgotten the combination for the security door. He went and checked, half expecting her to be standing there outside the door with an apologetic grin and a brown paper bag full of croissants. But the hallway was empty.

  He came back inside, perplexed.

  Then saw the folded note on the kitchen table. He snatched it up and read:

  Ben,

  I know you’re going to be pissed off with me, but I had to go back to help Kim and the others. It’s the right thing to do. I knew you wouldn’t let me go unless I slipped away. Please don’t be angry with me…

  I love you. We’ll be together soon, I promise. It’ll all
work out, and don’t worry about me. I know how to take care of myself.

  Kisses,

  Z

  He stamped about the flat, furious with himself for letting it happen. Even more furious with Kim Valentine for luring Zara into putting herself on the line. Valentine and her colleagues should have known better than this, after what had happened to Linda Downey. He thought of the photograph of the agent’s mutilated body, and it made him shudder.

  He snatched out his phone and was about to dial Valentine’s number when he thought better of it. He’d go there instead, talk some sense into Zara and bring her away. Then off to Le Val as planned.

  He quickly gathered up the few things he’d brought with him, and stuffed them into his overnight bag. The gun was still lying under a chair where he’d thrown it carelessly down the previous evening. He grabbed it and chucked it into the bag as well. Locked up the flat, ran back down to the Mini. The squeal of tyres echoed through the concrete cavern as he skidded out of the parking lot, hit the ramp and burst out into the street.

  He sped through Paris until he got snarled up in a major traffic jam caused by an overturned delivery van that was blocking a main street. Ben drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and cursed under his breath as the angry Parisian drivers sounded a cacophony of horns. Then police cleared the road, the mayhem dissipated and fifteen minutes later he was on his way again.

  It was almost ten by the time he skidded to a halt outside the house in the suburbs. He marched up to the entrance and thumped loudly to be let in.

  The door swung open of its own accord. He stepped inside. They must have been expecting him, he thought. But it seemed strange to have left the door open like that. Careless. ‘Zara?’ he called down the hall. ‘It’s me.’

  No reply. ‘Valentine? Where are you? We have to talk.’

  He reached the door at the bottom of the passage. It was ajar, maybe an inch. No sound from inside. That worried him. Had they already left? Was Zara on her way back to San Remo? Then he was too late. That fucking traffic jam.

  He pressed his palm against the door and pushed it open. It creaked on its hinges and he stepped into the doorway.

  The blinds were drawn, and the room was dark. There was a strange feeling underfoot. As though someone had spilled a lot of water, or there’d been a flood. He felt a squelch as he stepped into the room, groping on the wall for the light switch.

  That smell. It was sharp and distinctive and triggered memories. Not good ones.

  His fingers found the light switch and flicked it on.

  What he saw in front of him made him stagger back towards the doorway.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Valentine, Harrison and Wolff were all staring at him from inside the room. Their mouths were gaping open, but they had nothing to say. Their three severed heads sat in a neat row on the makeshift coffee table. Blood was congealed thickly across the Formica slab, dripping down into the soaked carpet.

  The rest of their bodies were scattered about the room. It was hard to tell which bits belonged to whom. An arm here, a leg there. The place resembled an abattoir. It was like the picture of Linda Downey. Even worse.

  Ben fought back a gag reflex. ‘Zara—’ he said out loud.

  That was when he heard quiet footsteps behind him, and turned. A figure was standing in the passage behind him, silhouetted against the pale square of light shining through the dappled glass of the front door window.

  The figure stepped closer.

  ‘Hello, Benedict,’ Harry Paxton said. Only the blunt, black shape of the 9mm SIG Pro in his hand made him appear anything less than welcoming. It was trained on Ben’s heart.

  ‘What have you done with Zara?’ Ben asked.

  ‘You mean my dear, faithful wife?’ Paxton replied.

  ‘If you’ve hurt her—’

  ‘What? You’ll kill me? I really don’t think so.’

  ‘Believe it,’ Ben said.

  Paxton chuckled. ‘She’s alive. For the moment, at least.’

  ‘I want to see her.’

  ‘She’s not far away,’ Paxton said. He snapped his fingers. Ben heard a door click open behind him in the room, and wheeled around. Across the room, on the other side of the grisly row of heads, a man appeared in the doorway from which Zara had emerged the day before.

  She was there with him. A fillet knife was pressed to her throat and there was a strip of silver packing tape across her mouth. Her eyes were huge with terror.

  Ben stared at the man holding her. He’d seen him before.

  ‘This is Berg,’ Paxton said. ‘He’s an associate of mine.’

  It was Thierry, the launch pilot who’d ferried Ben and Kim Valentine to and from Porto Vecchio in San Remo. Ben watched him, and all he could see in his face was that placid, stony blankness that comes with mindless cruelty.

  ‘See?’ Paxton said to Zara. ‘I told you he’d come. He is in love with you, after all.’ He turned back to Ben. ‘You don’t think I knew about agent Valentine and her friends from the beginning? And little Miss Loyalty here, arranging for them to spy on me? Oh, yes. I knew all about it. I only had to fit a GPS tracker to my intrepid wife, while she was off pretending to visit her sick friend. She led me straight to them.’

  ‘You’re dead,’ Ben said. ‘No question about it. You’ve just dug your own grave and you’re standing right on the edge of it.’

  ‘Don’t overreach yourself, Major. Remember who you’re dealing with. There isn’t a single trick in your book that I didn’t write there for you. And remember that it’s thanks to me that you’re still alive.’

  ‘May 14th, 1997,’ Ben said. ‘Who are you kidding?’

  ‘Sparing a life is as good as saving one, Benedict. Remember waking up in the hospital that time? Me sitting by your bedside? I was all ready to smother you with your pillow if you’d recalled anything that happened. So you really do owe me your life, whatever might have happened that day.’

  Ben could hardly find the words. ‘Why did you do it, Harry? How could you? They were your unit.’

  Paxton shrugged. ‘Smith had his suspicions about me. I did what I had to do, before he went and told anyone. I had to protect my business. You’d have done the same. It’s called survival.’

  ‘Your business. You mean selling death.’

  ‘I cater to the demands of my clients, that’s all. What they do with my products is what humans have been doing from the dawn of history. That’s just the way things are, and always have been. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”’

  ‘Plato,’ Ben said. ‘Don’t try to glorify what you do by quoting classical philosophy. You’re just a cheap gun runner.’

  ‘Don’t be naïve. If it’s not my guns being used to kill people, it’ll be someone else’s.’

  ‘There’s a saying, Harry. You are what you do.’

  ‘I’m a necessary evil.’

  ‘But evil just the same.’

  ‘You’re the last man I’ll take a lecture in morality from,’ Paxton said. ‘There’s no blood on your hands? You think you were in a different business? And you were one of the best at it. But I think you know that.’

  ‘I left, Harry. I don’t fight dirty wars for corrupt men any more. I got out of it, but you went in even deeper. That’s the difference between you and me.’

  ‘We’re not as different as you like to pretend,’ Paxton said. ‘That’s why there isn’t a man better suited to do a job for me.’

  ‘I did the job. It’s over.’

  ‘It’s not over. I have another for you, and this time you’re going to do it exactly the way I want.’

  Ben made no reply.

  Paxton smiled. ‘That’s right. You’re going back to Egypt. You’re going to find Morgan’s treasure for me.’ He laughed at the look on Ben’s face. ‘Yes, of course I knew what he was into. Do you really think I sent you all the way to Cairo to avenge my dear son’s death? Maybe I would have, if he’d been my own flesh and blood. But I’m afraid he was
just one of Helen’s little dalliances. I don’t like people who betray me.’

  The meaning of his words took a second or two to sink into Ben’s mind. ‘You killed her,’ he said quietly. ‘You killed your own wife.’

  Paxton smiled a thin smile, and nodded. ‘The same week I found out that all those years, she’d been cheating on me. I made it look like a heart attack. Massive adrenaline overdose. She went out like a light.’ He grinned. ‘And I was going to slaughter her bastard, too. I should have known he was no son of mine. I couldn’t bear to be near him any more. I was just biding my time, waiting for the right moment to rid myself of him. He was all set to have one drink too many on board the yacht and fall into the sea. A tragic accident. But then he told me about this thing he’d stumbled on, something that could be worth a lot of money. That was the only thing that was keeping him alive. You think it hurt me when he was killed? I just didn’t want to lose the treasure.’

  ‘So you decided to set me up,’ Ben said. ‘If I’d killed those two junkies for you, you were going to try to blackmail me with it, get me to go after the money.’

  ‘It wasn’t a perfect plan, I admit,’ Paxton replied. ‘When you foiled it by doing things your own way, I quickly realised that I was going to have to find another way to persuade you to work for me. I’m not blind. I could see what was developing between you and my wife. So, thanks to your amorous impulses, you’ve provided me with a perfect solution.’

  Ben glanced back at Zara, tried to put reassurance in his eyes. She returned his gaze, but he doubted that she could even see him. She was transfixed with shock and horror. They must have made her watch the slaughter of the three agents. She would have thought she was next.

  ‘So now, Major, it’s all up to you. You have a mission to complete. If you succeed, you can have her. If you fail, she dies in a very horrible way. You’re on the clock.’