Michael Walters - The Shadow Walker

Badzar stood, holding the door for him in a parody of conventional politeness. Nergui stepped forward slowly, holding the pistol in front of him, and entered the room.

It was another large abandoned space, this one probably an old warehouse, as the walls were covered in racks and shelving. As he walked forward in the brightly lit room, Nergui wondered irrelevantly how it was that these deserted buildings still had access to electricity.

Then he stopped. Badzar had paused a few feet in front of him, his arms limply at his sides as before.

The room was not empty. Drew was here, as Badzar had promised, and he was not yet the corpse that Nergui had feared. He looked, though, as if death might not be far away. He was sitting huddled on the floor at the far end of the room, his face pale and drawn, his eyes haunted. He was hunched forward, dressed in the clothes he had been wearing when he left the embassy. One of his arms was handcuffed to a post, the kind of device that one might use for tethering a dog or a horse.

And next to him was another figure, dressed in black, a black ski helmet pulled across his face, hiding everything but his eyes. He held a pistol loosely in his hand, the barrel pointing toward Drew.

The figure turned to them, and Nergui was sure that behind the mask, his face was smiling. “Good afternoon,” he said. “You are just in time. Only just in time. I’d begun to think that you weren’t coming.” He raised the pistol in front of his face and looked at it, shaking his head. “So I will not need this just for the moment.” He looked back up at Nergui, leaving the gun barrel pointing at Drew.

“But I’m glad you came,” he said. “We’ve a lot to discuss.”

Nergui slowly lowered his pistol, but kept it in his hand. “I suppose I should have expected this.”

“You’re a smart man, Nergui,” the masked man said, “but you’re out of your depth here. I think we all are.”

“Even you?”

“Yeah, maybe even me.”

“Drew. You’re okay?” Nergui looked across at Drew now, ignoring the masked man still pointing his pistol at Drew’s head.

Drew nodded slowly. “I think so, for the moment.”

“He’ll be okay,” the masked man said. “So long as you’re sensible.”

“Forget it, Maxon.”

The masked man nodded slowly, then reached up to peel off the helmet. “As I say,” Maxon smiled, “you’re smart. Smart enough to help your friend McLeish here, if you’re sensible.”

Nergui shook his head. “It’s too late, Maxon. Even if you get away from us, you won’t get away from them.”

“Smart again, Nergui. But you’re wrong this time. I’ve been in this game too long to be caught out now. All I need is a little help.”

“Not this time. It’s gone too far.”

“You’ve no idea how far,” Maxon said. “It’s beyond you now. This isn’t about law enforcement or morality, it’s about politics. Nobody wants the truth, they just want a politically expedient outcome. You can be a hero. You walk out of here with McLeish safe and the killer in custody.” He gestured toward Badzar. “He’s in no state to resist.”

“And in exchange I let you get away?”

“You help me get away. I need shelter for a couple of days and help getting out of the country, that’s all. I might manage it on my own, but with your help-with official help-I’ll be safe.” He shrugged. “Nobody loses.”

“Except Badzar.”

“Jesus, he’s a killer. He’s a serial fucking murderer. Why do you care about him?”

“I don’t care about him. I want to see him given the treatment he deserves, whatever that might turn out to be. But I care about you. If he’s a killer, what are you?”

“I’m a professional,” Maxon said.

Nergui shook his head. “Maxon, you are, as you would no doubt say, a piece of fucking work. Okay, so what if I don’t help you?”

“Then we all lose. Let’s think about it, shall we? You don’t play ball, first thing I make off with your friend here. You’re back where you started.”

“You won’t get away for long. We’re combing the city for you.”

“Yeah, without any success till I gave you a small clue. Like telling you exactly where I fucking was. And the point is that I know exactly how much of a political storm is brewing about our friend. You’ve been able to keep the lid on it so far, but not for much longer. Soon as the Western media realize you’ve no idea where he is-or, worse still, if my patience runs out or my trigger finger slips-you’re in deep shit. Particularly if it’s made known that you had me in your clutches but let me slip away.”

“This is insane, Maxon. Even if I do go along with this, what happens once you hand McLeish over? What’s to stop us picking you up, then?”

“Because I’ll make sure you don’t get McLeish till I’m well on my way. You didn’t think I was going to just hand him over on your word as a gentleman, did you? No, it’s quite simple. I take him away to another little hidey hole. You get me the clearance and the papers I need to get me out of here to some place of my choosing, and then I give you a call to let you know where to find him.”

“You’re crazy. Why would we go along with a deal like that? Easiest thing would be for you to shoot McLeish as soon as we’re off the scene. That way it’s minimum hassle for you, and we wouldn’t know till it’s too late.”

“Jesus, you know, Nergui, you should be in my job. I’d never thought of that. Well, there you go. But as I see it, you’ve got no option but to trust me. But okay, you take Badzar with you, anyway. Gesture of good faith and all that. That way, if it all goes belly up, you’ll at least have captured the dreaded serial killer. Sounds a smart deal to me.”

“You’re a bastard, Maxon.”

Maxon shook his head, smiling faintly. “No, like I told you, I’m a professional.”

“So how did a professional get mixed up in a mess like this?”

Maxon shook his head, impatiently. “There’s no time for this crap, Nergui. I’m sure you’ve got the story all worked out for yourself.”

“Some of it. You had a cozy deal going on the Gobi project. Yourselves, the Brits, the Russians, Canadians, the Koreans. All amicable. All legit business.” Nergui paused, watching Maxon. “Legitimate businesses, but a nice front for laundering money through an obscure country with the potential for substantial profits at the end. And our government maybe only too keen to encourage it. Once again, everyone a winner.”

Maxon was watching him closely, though the aim of the pistol toward Drew never faltered. “Cut the crap, Nergui.”

“But then things started to go off track. The explorations weren’t going as well as expected. More investment was needed. The Russians and the locals kept telling you there were problems. Your people-and the others, the Brits, the Canadians-were suspicious. The figures didn’t add up.”

Maxon moved the gun closer to Drew’s head. “Okay,” he said. “Let me finish so we can all get moving and so that your friend here understands what this is all about. The Russians knew we weren’t prepared to invest any more without a fucking good reason. So they announced they were investing more, demanding a bigger stake. We were being squeezed out.”

Nergui nodded slowly. “But surely this kind of dispute could be resolved amicably? After all, our government is in charge of the project-they have the final say.”

Maxon laughed, mirthlessly. “You know, Nergui, that might just have been the fucking problem. It’s not for me to judge, but I got the feeling that there were some people there not batting on our side.”

“So you decided to act on your own initiative?”