Mudada

by M G Leslie

Price turned to face him – just as Mudada gripped the gun and started to squeeze the trigger. But he was too late – Chas was holding the gun Fabio had used to shoot Mancilla, and he fired it without hesitation – two shots to the chest.

  Mudada fell backwards as Price raised his gun and fired again – this time to the head.

  Chas looked over at him – as if to say, “Why did you do that?”

  Pre-empting the question, Price said, “It’s a long story – I had a bad experience once.”

  “I know mate – it was in the Paras – I was there if you remember. But you need to put it behind you, because, trust me, I had that guy covered.”

  “Yeah, sorry – paranoia on my part.”

  For a moment the room fell silent. Then one of the other men in the room said, “Gents – it’s nice to reminisce – I do it myself sometimes. But we’re in some drug lord’s house and we just shot him, which means they’re going to be pissed. So can we please get the hell out of here before the world comes down on our heads?”

  Price looked around, “Yes, good point. Let’s go everyone – get your things – don’t leave anything behind.”

  15. Pure Conjecture?

  Chas looked around – taking in his surroundings. “What did you say this was called again?”

  “It’s a Bombardier Global Express 6000,” said Price. “It’s nice isn’t it?”

  “No. It’s very nice indeed,” said Chas – emphasizing the word, ‘very’.

  Price turned away from Chas and looked forward, “You did well,” he said.

  Fabio looked back, “Thanks. I had a few scary moments at the beginning.”

  “Yes. But you stayed calm and stuck to the script.” Then he hesitated, before saying, “Well apart from the Mancilla incident. But the world’s better off without him anyway. So it was a very good job – well done.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’m sorry we had to put you through that. But I didn’t have enough evidence to convict Mudada – so we had to provoke him and get him to react.”

  “I understand,” said Fabio, before turning away and looking out of the window – still thinking about the previous day’s events and the week leading up to their operation.

  Unaware that Price and Chas had been discussing the case, he’d suddenly found himself back in front of the Chief – this time with a very different agenda.

  The Chief had agreed that the evidence against Fabio was no longer conclusive – there was definitely a chance that it was Mudada who had been the guilty party all along – potentially creating a false trail for Price from the very beginning. So Price and the Chief had decided to test the theory in the most brutal way – put Fabio in front of Mancilla and see what happens.

  All Fabio knew was that Price was suddenly treating him as a member of the team – and not someone he wanted to shoot. It had been hard work though – Price had briefed him again and again – he’d even been taken to the SIS training centre at Fort Monckton to go through the plan in a mock-up of Mancilla’s house.

  There, he’d met other members of The Increment as well as Chas – who Price had insisted must accompany them, because of the close friendship he’d had with Mudada – believing that would contribute to getting a confession. But, despite all that, and the overall success of the operation, Fabio still vowed he would never get involved in anything like that again. “It’s OK for those military types,” he thought – thinking about Price and Chas – but he’d been a civilian until he’d joined SIS – he had no desire to get in to gun fights – or any fights in fact – guns or otherwise.

  That said, whilst he had initially labelled Price as just another thug – he now realised how wrong he had been and had a huge respect for his abilities – both as an intelligence officer and as a senior member of The Increment.

  The pilot interrupted Fabio’s reflective thoughts, “This is the Captain. Please put your seat belts on – we’re approaching Miami and should have you on the ground in around fifteen minutes.”

  Price looked over, “Almost there guys. Change of planes in Miami and home for breakfast tomorrow.”

  Chas and Fabio just smiled. Then sure enough, fifteen minutes later, they were in Miami and two hours after that, they were all safely on a Virgin Atlantic flight back to the UK.

  Many hours later, Chas and Price were seated at the Upper Class bar – drinking beer and joking with each other – until Chas said, “So what are your plans now?”

  “I’ll probably go back to Hong Kong – go and see and old friend of mine there.”

  “Oh yes – your Chinese girl. What’s her name? Scary Mary isn’t it?”

  Price looked at Chas out of the corner of his eye as he took another sip of beer, “Something like that, yes.”

  “Hang on – didn’t she tell you that Jennifer was innocent?”

  “She did. So she owes me an apology – which I plan to collect.”

  “Do you want to borrow my t-shirt?”

  “She’s not a communist.”

  Chas laughed and then said, “Be that as it may – the more important question is, does she swallow?”

  Unfortunately, too much beer meant that he spoke a little louder than normal, causing the barman to look in their direction with a somewhat surprised, expression.

  Chas held his hands up – as if to apologise and said, “Sorry. Childish talk.”

  The bar fell silent for a few minutes, until Price said, “Not mentioning any names. But let’s say for argument sake that someone – let’s say, person F.”

  “As in Fabio?” Chas cut in.

  Price frowned, “Yes – but given where we are, let’s try and avoid disclosing the names please?”

  “Oh yeah. Sorry.”

  Price ignored the apology and started to speak again, “So, for argument sake, let’s assume person F does something they shouldn’t do and someone else finds out.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “Well why else? We need a motive and what other motive does he have? He doesn’t need the money. Why else would he do all this? Just for a laugh? It had to be something else – and I can tell you that most people do this kind of shit for girls or money. So ruling money out – that just leaves girls.”

  “OK, OK, keep going,” said Chas, picking up a fresh beer.

  “So, as I say, F does something he shouldn’t and someone else finds out.”

  “Or perhaps he was set up by mystery person X.”

  “Possibly,” agreed Price. “Either way, his hand is forced and instead of staying loyal to the Firm, he becomes someone else’s asset.”

  Chas laughed, “I love the way you describe it. Mate, he was blackmailed – he’s a traitor – nothing less.”

  “OK, whatever. So he helps set up a factory in Harare using his inside knowledge of the region – after all – it is his speciality – finding these people and knowing the place is what we trained him on.”

  Chas decided to pick up the scenario whilst Price sipped his own beer, “Then for some reason he identifies J as a traitor and has her removed.”

  “Well we know she was being given information she shouldn’t have had.”

  Chas glanced at Price – briefly making eye contact, “Given it was you that removed her, I guess you would say that – but yes.”

  “OK OK – don’t labour the point. The question is where did that information go? Who received it?”

  Chas thought for a moment then said, “Nah. We just don’t know. Maybe the person that set up person F received it – assuming it was a set up.”

  ”You mean person M?” Price asked.

  ”Which one?”

  ”OK, let’s call him JM for the sake of clarity – as in the late South American.”

  ”Certainly JM ran the factory.”

  ”And was about to say something when F shot him.”

  Chas smiled, ”Indeed – you noticed that as well. I wondered if you had.”

  “It doesn’t make sense though.”

  “
Why?”

  ”The information was not useful to JM. The stuff that was leaked wasn’t something JM would benefit from. It was other… ‘Shit’ for want of a better description – it wasn’t relevant to a South American.”

  “Maybe he was going to sell it on?”

  Price looked sceptical, “I don’t think so. However, we do know that the other person M was out for revenge against the world for the loss of his daughter, J.”

  ”And he worked for JM it seems.”

  ”Yes,” said Price, “I didn’t see that coming.”

  ”But M denied giving J the secret data – did you notice that, because frankly speaking, I believe him.”

  ”Yeah me to. He seemed genuinely confused,” agreed Price. “I which case, it had to be F that gave J the data. Only those two would have had access to the data. Which proves F knew the late J.”

  ”I think ‘prove’ is a bit hopeful mate – but I know what you mean. Given the information we have to hand, it’s certainly the most plausible explanation.”

  “Question,” said Price. ”Was the late J what F was doing wrong?”

  ”You mean were they an item?”

  ”Well it makes sense. F meets J. JM catches them and proceeds to blackmail F. F he gets rid of J by setting her up with secret information – M wants revenge and he knows JM – so JM helps.”

  “Yeah OK,” said Chas, “But why would F get rid of J – surely he’d be better off getting rid of the blackmailer?”

  “Yeah I don’t know. Just like I don’t know what the whole Operation Counter-Blow thing was about either.”

  Chas sighed, ”No – although to be honest, I kind of assumed that perhaps just a story.”

  “OK, but if it was a story,” Price replied, before lowering his voice to a whisper, “Why didn’t they ship more of the drugs?”

  Chas nodded, “Well the long term plan must have been to ship it – otherwise what’s the point? But putting that to one side, we still can’t explain where the information F gave J went? Who received it?”

  Price agreed, ”And who introduced F to J – how did they meet?”

  ”Or was that just random?”

  Price burst out laughing, ”Random my arse. Someone very clever is behind this.”

  ”JM? Or someone else?”

  ”JM was a thug – a bully – a very big powerful bully – but not that clever. No, I vote someone else.”

  Chas was already nodding in agreement, ”So do I mate. But who?”

  ”I don’t know. But mark my words – from now on F will have a shadow, because I would bet money, a lot of money, that our mystery person X will be in touch some time soon.”

  ”And?”

  ”His world will end. Not now. But one day – when the time is right – when I have discovered the name of the mystery man.”

  Chas laughed, ”Or woman.”

  ”Woman?”

  ”Yeah, woman. You were being sexist. You know…like your friend Mary – a female? The ones with breasts?”

  Price ignored the sarcasm and said, almost rhetorically, ”Like Mary.”

  Chas could see Price was thinking about that idea, so he said, ”Is she smart?”

  Price turned his head to look directly at Chas, ”On a level of her own – way above the vast majority of people in this world.”

  ”And she knew J.”

  “She kicked my arse on behalf of J mate.”

  “So, as I say, she knew J”

  ”Yeah I suspect she did – and she was angry at J’s passing.”

  “Which makes sense if she is person X – because you just cut off a good source of secret information.”

  “It does. And that’s very worrying because it means, in one operation, she will have discredited a senior officer in the Firm, an overseas asset, and helped the shipment of narcotics to our country – undermining the fabric of the society, you could argue.”

  “Did she know JM?”

  “I don’t know. But the mere fact that he used state-of-the-art encryption that we are still struggling to break to this day, suggests someone serious was involved.”

  Chas nodded, “Mmmm – I see your point.”

  “Encryption we can’t break – secure communications – extremely well-trained security – an increasing body count – they’re all her hallmarks.”

  Suddenly an announcement from the cockpit disturbed their conversation. The men listened as the first officer advised all the passengers to fasten seatbelts for landing.

  ”Take it easy mate,” said Chas, as they walked back to their respective seats. “Don’t jump to too many conclusions – let’s play it carefully. Most of this is purely conjecture – so we don’t want to piss her off for no reason – especially as she sounds like one scary bitch.”

  Price just nodded agreement – his head was swimming with the story they had just discussed. Then he thought, “If it was her all along, this is going to get personal – and very nasty.”

  16. You Didn’t Really Think It Would Be That Easy, Did You?

  Whilst Chas and Price had been passing time at the bar, Fabio had been relaxing and sleeping in between meals. It was only as the plane touched down in London’s Heathrow airport, that he, again, reflected on the events.

  He’d always known that Mudada wanted revenge for his daughter’s death – it was understandable. But there was no way it could have been avoided – he had his own family and wasn’t about to give it up for a girl he met in a bar. That was why he had started to pass her intelligence reports – he knew they would get picked up by the UK’s GCHQ – after which she would be labelled as a spy and dealt with.

  He had felt a little guilty in the beginning – but that had faded completely once the blackmail had started.

  The first set of pictures from Mancilla had sent him in to shock – they linked him to the murder. They proved he knew her – intimately – and if MI6 had got hold of them, it wouldn’t have taken them very long to deduce that he was the one passing her secrets.

  That was why he’d gone along with Mancilla’s drug trafficking plan and had convinced him to get Mudada to join them, so that, if need be, he could take the blame later on. The convincing argument, ironically, had been that they would help Mudada find his daughter’s murderer.

  It had all gone really well – at least, it had until Price had shown up.

  Then he reflected, “It all worked out in the end. Mancilla and Mudada were dead – so they couldn’t talk – and with Jennifer gone as well – this episode was finished.”

  As they disembarked, Fabio said, “Thanks for everything guys – I’m so glad this is all over.”

  Price and Chas didn’t reply – they just shook hands and parted – getting in to separate chauffeur-driven cars.

  Whilst sitting in the back of the car, Fabio switched on his mobile phone and sent his wife a message:

  ON MY WAY HOME. SEE YOU SHORTLY xx

  She replied almost immediately:

  OK. SEE YOU LOVE xx

  Then as Fabio sat back in his seat and closed his eyes, he thought, “Never again – I’ll never let myself get in to this situation again.”

  Six thousand miles, however, Mary saw Fabio’s status change to ‘Online’ and smiled to herself.

  “It’s time for the fun to begin,” she thought. “The beginning of the end. Time to make my little pawn suffer until his usefulness comes to an end – then I’ll just turn him in as a traitor to his own country or swap him for something more valuable.”

  In reality, it had all been her scheme from the very beginning. She had meticulously planned every step and executed her moves perfectly – all designed to keep the various individuals busy playing out her ruthless game of deception and misdirection – whilst she stayed out of sight and acquired foreign secrets.

  And now as she played her final few moves, she would secure an asset in a foreign security service.

  “Amateurs, the lot of them,” she thought. “Except perhaps Price – he’d managed to ge
t to Jennifer and carry out his orders rather more efficiently than she had expected.”

  Indeed, she’d been annoyed at the time, as her original plan had been to simulate Jennifer’s death, so she could be used again. “Price had been way too efficient,” she thought once again. Then she smiled at her own inventiveness. “Nothing I couldn’t fix with a small tweak to my plan on the fly though. Although there’s always the risk he will figure it out.”

  Mary paused for thought as she sat back in her chair with her mobile phone down in her hand, and picked up a glass of wine to toast herself – deciding to worry about Price later. After all, in one respect he had actually been quite useful. Early on, she had been forced to invent Operation Counter-Blow to ensure Mancilla’s support, as he seemed to like the idea of creating mass drug addiction – and certainly, the story had been very effective in keeping Fabio occupied as well. Even Mudada had bought in to it as part of the plan to find his daughter’s murderer.

  “But,” she thought, “Much as I might wish to change parts of the world – drugs are not the way to go about it. Price did everyone a service when he blew that place up.”

  Then, after taking another sip of wine Mary thought, “Enough of Price for the moment – I’ll deal with him later. First things first – I need to finish drawing in my new asset – pathetic little Fabio.”

  As Fabio’s car headed through London towards his home, the low rumble of the engine, combined with the repetitive movement of the car made him sleepy and his eyes started to close. However, a beep accompanied by a vibration from his mobile phone brought him back to reality.

  He was half expecting it to be his wife – perhaps telling him that she missed him. She’d done that before and indeed, that was why he was returning with some gifts for her and the children. But as he unlocked his phone he noticed it wasn’t an SMS – it was from one of his numerous Internet messaging apps.

  Fabio opened the app, which had automatically identified the sender by name – it appeared to be someone called Mary. Since he didn’t know anyone by that name, curiosity got the better of him and he read the message. It said: