Adrian Magson - Execution

Rik shrugged and took out the iPad. He switched it on and called up a full-screen photo. It showed a slim woman with short, fair hair and a confident stance. She was frowning slightly, and standing on a city pavement next to a man in a suit. A car number plate at the edge of the scene showed it to be somewhere in Moscow. The man in the suit had the bearing and stolid lumpiness of a bureaucrat, and appeared to be waiting for permission to move. Balenkova was looking off to one side, her jawline determined. She had a curly wire tucked down into her collar and was carrying a small comms device in one hand. She looked every bit the steady bodyguard, in spite of her slim build.

‘She hasn’t changed much,’ Clare remarked. ‘A bit thinner, maybe.’ She turned away from Rik and the photo, anxious to be on the move. ‘Can we do this sooner rather than later?’

Harry looked at Rik. ‘Suits me. Did Ballatyne’s man say where they are now?’

‘Yes.’ He consulted the iPad messenger. ‘They’ve just arrived back at the hotel. They’ve probably got some free time before the dinner at the embassy.’

‘Right. You get over to the Imperial and make contact with him, then let us know where they go. We’ll drop your bag at the hotel and catch up with you.’

Rik handed over his overnight bag and turned as a cab crawled by, the driver eyeing them as potential fares. Seconds later he was gone.

‘You love all this stuff, don’t you?’ Clare said, pulling her coat around her. ‘The intrigue, the chase.’

‘It’s part of the job.’

‘Really? What about catching Paulton? Isn’t that part of the job, too?’

‘What’s Paulton got to do with this?’

‘Nothing. But he hasn’t rated a mention yet. Have you forgotten what he did, with Bellingham?’

‘Of course not.’ Paulton and what he’d done was never far from his thoughts, but life had to go on. He had a feeling Clare didn’t share that view. ‘His time will come.’

Clare leaned closer to him, her face intense. ‘Damn right, Tate. Because if you don’t get him, I will.’

Back in London, Paulton was staring at his laptop, checking the details of the MI6 surveillance log on Katya Balenkova, former captain in the FSO, now a humble lieutenant. He didn’t waste time reading the commentary about her suspension and punishment following her secret assignations with Jardine; he knew most of it anyway, and was much more interested in the here and now.

He scrolled down the list of sightings and reports, most of it undecipherable to an outsider, but offering a ready picture to a man with his experience. She was being watched along with several other persons of interest, her progress tracked with surprising ease by the watchers employed by Five. But then, she wasn’t using covert means and was operating quite openly in an otherwise mundane job, escorting a variety of government appointees on their daily business and being a good girl until she could be rehabilitated back to her former position.

Vienna. The latest surveillance log entries had her entering Austria with three financial bureaucrats attending a conference in the city. Three charges with Balenkova and one other to keep them out of trouble. Good luck with that, he thought. Once free of the watchful eye of Moscow, three bureaucrats could kick up a ton of grief for a security team trying to keep them under control.

He glossed over the rest. It didn’t tell him much other than where she was right now. It certainly didn’t explain to him what her frame of mind was, which would have been a lot more interesting. Just beneath the final words of this entry was a blue hypertext link. He frowned. What had Maine been playing at — copying anything that came to hand? He clicked on it.

The screen flickered and opened up a cross-connection of KAs — Known Associates. It was a standard format on files for persons of interest; you might know their names and addresses, but more often than not, their associates gave you a far greater grounding in what their specific interests were. The greater the KA file list, the clearer was the subject’s probable intentions.

He chuckled knowingly. Clare Jardine was at the top of a very short list. She was a KA, all right; about as KA as you could get without being married. But so what?

Then his heart skipped a beat.

An entry had been made further down showing a further link, this time to a file being run by a Richard Ballatyne of MI6, requesting an all-eyes lookout for Clare Jardine, a former officer currently on the loose in central London with two former members of Five. Their names were Tate and Ferris. The look-out was tagged LAR — Locate and Report. In other words, no direct action until otherwise ordered.

Beneath that, like the good little bureaucrat that he was, Maine had cut and pasted a reference code from a travel docket raised by Ballatyne.

Three return tickets to Vienna. Tate. Ferris. Jardine.

Bingo. Or game set and match of his own.

He reached for his mobile and dialled a number. Rule 1 of intelligence gathering: check and double-check the source of your information. Rule 2: never trust a source completely, even then.

The phone was answered immediately. He identified himself and said, ‘Now why would Tate, Ferris and Jardine possibly go to Vienna, do you think? For coffee and cake? A bit of Strauss?’ The sarcasm was deliberately heavy, because he sensed he was being ignored.

‘I don’t know. I only just heard myself.’ Candida Deane sounded testy. There was a long pause, then she said, ‘How come you know?’

‘I have my means. I’m intrigued by any departure from the norm. What on earth would attract them to Vienna — have you thought about that? Tate and Ferris are hardly the cultural type, and Jardine’s a nasty little killer.’

‘Maybe it’s as good a place as any to hide, knowing who’s after them.’

Paulton considered that seriously only for a moment. Vienna as a hiding place was ridiculous. Too full of government officials of every kind, therefore security people as well, it was too conservative a city for fugitives to stay for any length of time without standing out. Even experienced people like Tate and Jardine would be pushing it to go there with the intention of finding a secure hole longer than a couple of days.

‘No. That doesn’t fit,’ he said. ‘Vienna is a specific destination; they would have gone there for a reason.’

‘And you think I would know?’

‘Well, not you perhaps, Candida, dear.’ His voice was purring with a vicious undercurrent he was finding hard to retrain. ‘But somebody in that nest of vipers you call a workplace does. Try finding out who.’

‘You know something.’ The accusation was immediate.

‘Suspicions, actually. But there’s nothing I can do about it. Much better if you do, don’t you think? Gain some more kudos.’

‘Why the hell should I? I don’t need this.’ The south London tones came thick and harsh on the edge of anger. ‘This is getting pointless, George. I’m thinking I should cut you adrift and let you fend for yourself.’

‘I wouldn’t do that. You’ll regret it, I promise.’

‘Are you threatening me?’

‘Hardly. But then I don’t have to. If Tate and Ferris get Jardine clear, the FSB team will pack up and go home because there’s no point in them staying. If they do that, you’ll have nothing to take to your bosses: no Jardine, no hit team — and if you cut me loose, there’s no way I’ll ever tell you who the inside man is.’

He heard her gasp at the promise he was offering. At the same time, he knew she wouldn’t let him go that easily. She needed whatever he could offer and, most of all, she needed him. He had no illusions about her real plans; she wanted him wrapped, parcelled and stamped for the senior men and women in MI5 to call their own. He was, after all, a rogue intelligence officer. And rogues had to be brought down.