Adrian Magson - Tracers

‘I’ll give you another,’ Rik muttered. ‘What if he gets bumped off here? That won’t go down well back home, will it?’

Ballatyne looked pained. It was clearly not the first time he had considered that scenario. ‘That would be. . unfortunate.’

‘Nightmarish, more like.’ Rik gave him a sour look. ‘Don’t patronize us, Ballatyne. We can work out what the damages are just as quick as you. If he gets sliced and diced in central London, there’ll be an international riot. The extremists would use it to the hilt, whether they liked him or not.’

‘How about Jennings?’ said Harry, in the silence that followed. ‘He’s the key to what happens next. If anyone can call Dog and his team off, it’ll be him.’

‘We checked his home address. It’s been cleaned out. And I mean cleaned. He evidently knew how things might pan out. It was only a rental place, anyway; he seems to have been moving around a good deal in the past couple of years.’

‘Surprise, surprise.’

‘But we know he’s out there. We intercepted some of his communications, which is how we discovered the presence of the other two men. He’s clearly controlling all three.’

‘But who,’ asked Rik, ‘is controlling Jennings?’

‘That’s what we’d like to know.’

‘Really?’ Harry gave him a sideways look, and the intelligence officer tilted his head to one side.

‘We have some names. We’re checking them out.’

‘The men with Dog,’ said Rik. ‘Do you know who they are?’

‘No. We haven’t got a line on them yet. We’re working through a list of names.’

‘What list?’

Before Ballatyne could answer, the answer clicked in Harry’s brain. ‘You mean the names on the course, don’t you? The course Joanne Archer was on. Just how many killers were you training at the same time?’

Ballatyne flinched. ‘That’s a bit melodramatic.’

‘So sue me. How many?’

Ballatyne hesitated, then said resignedly, ‘All the members on the course were serving personnel, with the exception of three men.’

‘Don’t tell me — Dog and these other two. What were they training for?’

‘That’s classified. I can’t go into it.’

‘Well, they weren’t army chefs, were they?’

‘It’s not as simple as that. As you know, there are times when we have to use whatever tools we can get.’

‘Subbies,’ said Rik. ‘Private military contractors.’

‘Correct.’

‘So what does that make Joanne?’

‘She was different. Special. My guess is, we’ll find these two men failed the course and Dog approached them afterwards. They’d have been sufficiently demoralized or sour to turn without too much persuasion.’

‘But highly trained, even though they failed,’ Harry countered. ‘How long before you work your way through them?’

‘There are four men unaccounted for. Two are believed to be out of the country with their units. If we can locate them, we’ll know for sure who the remaining two are and have pictures circulated immediately.’

‘Fat lot of good that’ll do us,’ Rik muttered. ‘They could be all over us before we know it.’

‘Why was Dog there?’ Harry asked. ‘According to Marshall, he’d already been through everything Special Forces could throw at him.’

Ballatyne shrugged. ‘Frankly, I don’t know. That’s a question for Jennings. He might have been on a refresher, but I think he was there to shadow Miss Archer. She was always the one going to Baghdad because a woman was the only option to place alongside Rafa’i. The others would have been training for different assignments.’

‘But why would Dog have been watching her?’

Ballatyne lifted an upturned palm. ‘We think this whole operation was planned as soon as news leaked out about Archer’s recruitment as a close protection operative for Rafa’i. The people behind this didn’t just cobble something together on a whim; they were thinking long-term. Whatever it is they’re doing, it’s been carefully thought through.’

‘We?’ Harry raised an eyebrow. ‘You said “we”.’

‘There are more than just the British involved. I can’t say more than that.’

‘So how did the news leak out?’

He glanced at his watch. ‘I’m sorry — I have to get back for a briefing.’ He stood up and walked towards the door, then turned before leaving. ‘If it’s any consolation, I know you two were given a raw deal after that business in Georgia. I read the files and I’ve spoken to some of the people around at the time. I can understand your scepticism, but please bear with me for a while longer. We do need your help on this one.’ His eyes drilled into Harry’s, then he turned and left.

‘Well, cheers,’ Rik breathed as the door closed behind the intelligence officer. ‘That makes me feel better.’

‘Ancient history,’ said Harry, standing up. ‘Come on. We’ve got to locate Jennings.’

‘How do we do that?’

‘How about a spot of burglary?’

Jennings’ office was locked and silent. The street lights gave no indication of what lay inside, and the passing lights from cars and vans threw too many confusing shadows to allow more than a glimpse of vague furniture shapes through the windows.

‘Are we going in?’ said Rik, face pressed to the glass. ‘Ballatyne’s mob will have been through here already, won’t they?’

‘I know. But did they find anything?’

‘Good point.’ Rik turned away from the door and surveyed the street. He walked along to a builder’s skip thirty yards away and rooted around in its depths. He came back with a short strip of metal pipe and stamped on one end until it was flattened into the rough approximation of a burglar’s jemmy. When he was satisfied, he said, ‘You give me the nod, I’ll get us in.’

Harry shook his head ruefully. Rik was full of surprises. He let it go. It was either this or a brick, or spend too long trying to get through a rear window. Neither prospect appealed to him, and he was not that expert at picking locks. He waited instead for something heavy to come along. Eventually, a delivery truck rattled down the street, its diesel engine echoing loudly off the buildings. As soon as it was level with their position, he gave Rik the nod.

Rik grunted and heaved and the front door flew open, the crack of the ruptured frame lost in the blast of the truck’s engine.

Harry led the way inside the familiar office suite and switched on the lights. The rooms had been cleared, leaving the basic furniture. The military prints were still in place, and he guessed that the suite had been rented as seen. They set about checking each of the rooms by turn, knowing that even if Ballatyne’s people had swept the place, they might still have missed something.

The secretary’s office was bare, save for a small vase of wilting flowers in brown, scummy water. The desk drawers were empty and smelled unused. She had probably been a temp hired by the day. A tiny washroom at the rear held a soap dispenser, a kettle and some tea and coffee makings. No coats, no umbrellas, nothing that might contain a connection to Jennings’ whereabouts.

They went through Jennings’ desk, taking out the drawers and checking each one. Rik ducked underneath and felt round in the space where the drawers had been, checking the runners with his fingers.

When he backed out, he was clutching two bits of paper. One was a faded bus ticket, years old, which he discarded. The other was a National Car Parks ticket with an adhesive back. It was four days old. He showed it to Harry. It was printed with a time, date, location code, the fee paid and a number for enquiries.

‘I can check this later online,’ he said, ‘or try it now on the phone.’