Matthew Dunn - Spycatcher

Will studied her eyes, tried to detect her emotions. He looked for signs of fear, hesitation, uncertainty, anger-anything. But he could not see any clear indications of the way she was thinking. He nodded slowly. “That is precisely what I want to know.”

Lana reached for her coffee cup again, and this time she placed her fingers around its base. She raised the cup and took a sip, then carefully set it back down. “I know why I stripped out of my clothes to show you my wounds. I did so because I wanted you to really understand what I’ve been through and what I’m still going through. I wanted you to look at me and decide that I was someone who could be exploited; someone who could be used to help you get Megiddo.” She frowned. “But I was surprised. You came to me and did not want me to stand before you seminaked in such a vulnerable situation. Other men in your situation may have been different. But at that moment I saw a gentle man who wanted nothing more than to protect me. I saw a man who was horrified by what he saw.” She smiled a little. “I think in that brief moment I saw a very kind man.”

Will felt confused and angry with himself, and before he could stop himself, he blurted out, “Would a kind and gentle man ask you to do something that was anything but kind or gentle?”

Lana frowned and shook her head. “I wanted you to know the truth about me. I wanted you to understand how much I’ve hated the man you now seek.” She leaned forward. “I want you now to know that the man you want is the man I want. I need you to understand that I want to help you in whatever way you see fit. Please, this may be my only opportunity to change my life for the better.”

Will wondered what to say. He then decided he knew precisely what to say. “Lana, the only way you can help is by being dangled as bait for Megiddo. I would protect you as much as I could, but nevertheless you would still be in severe danger. Regardless, I’m supposed to be here to counsel you that your desire to help me is the correct one. But I’m not going to lie to you. I want you to tell me that you will not help us catch Megiddo.”

Lana didn’t understand. “Surely you want to catch him?”

Will looked away for a moment. He thought about what Alistair had told him about his father. He thought about what Patrick had told him about the Evin Prison room. He thought about Megiddo.

He looked back at Lana and tried to hide the aggression he felt. “I desperately want to get my hands on him.” He sighed. “But there must be another way for me to get him.”

Lana smiled and reached out to cup Will’s large hands in her own. Her embrace felt tender. “Then I know what you think. Now I know that my instincts about you were correct. Now I know that you truly are a gentle man.” She squeezed her hands around his. “But nor am I going to lie to you . You would not be here if you or others in your organization had alternative means to lure Megiddo from the shadows. So I have to take this opportunity. I have to help you, and if that means letting you use me to bring him out of hiding, then I am willing for that to happen.” She withdrew her hands and smiled.

Will kept still for a moment. He looked out the window again, at the table, at the lipstick traces on her coffee cup. Anywhere but at Lana. “You could be killed.”

“I feel as if I’m half dead already. What have I got to lose?”

He sighed and finally met her eyes, and this time he could clearly see strength and defiance in them. “I suspect that you have more reasons to live than you think.”

“Then let me find out. Let me do this and feel alive again.”

He nodded. He knew that there was nothing he could say to dissuade her from her decision. He also knew that she could have no real comprehension of the dangers she would face. An idea came to him.

He drummed his fingers on the table and said quietly, “So be it.” He thought some more for a moment before saying, “I want you to send a letter to him. I want you to seek his audience.”

Lana chuckled. “Do you have an address for him? Because I certainly do not.”

Will shook his head. “Not yet, but I’m working on that. The letter will be our mechanism to draw him out, for you to meet him and identify him and for me to capture him.”

“Why would he want to meet me?”

“You can say in the letter that you love him.”

Lana’s eyes flashed anger. “You are asking a lot of me. And in any case, he won’t meet me unless I have something considerably more valuable to him”-she frowned-“than love.”

“I agree.” Will took another sip of his coffee. When he put his cup down, he reached across and placed his hand over Lana’s fingers. He hoped the act would soften her anger.

Lana smiled. “You say he plans to kill people. They must be important people if he is involved and if you are tasked to stop him. He will not be distracted from his task.”

“Then, as you say, we must bring him something better than your love.”

For a brief moment, the anger returned to Lana’s face. She then laughed quietly.

Will smiled and drained the remainder of his coffee. His face was close to hers, and he stopped smiling. “You need to give Megiddo something irresistible, and I know what that can be.” He pulled her closer to him. “I can’t stop you from agreeing to help me, but maybe I can stop you from being the true bait. So this is what we’ll do. I want you to write to Megiddo saying that Western intelligence services have approached you. I want you to tell him that they know he plans to strike a massive blow against one of their countries. Tell him that an intelligence officer called Nicholas Cree has asked you questions about Megiddo. Tell him I want to capture him. Tell him that you need to meet Megiddo urgently to pass along what you know. Tell him that you can help deliver the intelligence officer to him so that Cree can be tortured to ascertain whether Megiddo’s operation is completely compromised.” Will smiled. “Tell him that you will do this only if in return you can be with him again.”

Lana had been studying Will’s lips as he spoke. When she looked back up, her eyes held tears. She gently withdrew one of her hands from Will’s hold and ran her fingers over the side of his face, shaking her head slightly. “Do you understand the risks you are taking with such a man? You are telling Megiddo to kill you.”

Will imagined the pain his father must have felt in the Evin Prison torture room. “I want Megiddo to come after me . I want him to view me as tethered bait. I want him to realize too late that it is he who is the prey and I who am the predator.

“And then, like all true predators, I will rip my prey apart.”

I forgive you for holding a knife to my throat. But it’s going to take me some time to forgive you for thinking that I might have done something careless to lead a killer to your colleague.” Harry took a gulp of his Red Label whiskey. He was dressed in immaculate casual business attire and had one leg loosely resting over the other. He replaced the whiskey glass on the table beside him and wagged a finger at Will. “Mistrusting a man is one thing. Believing him to be stupid is another thing altogether.”

It was the evening now, and Will had been in London for three hours. He was sitting with Harry in the bar at Park Lane’s Dorchester Hotel.

“How long are you in town?” Will took a small sip of his own whiskey.

“Just one night and one day.” Harry brushed a hand over his trousers. “I have a very large shipment deal, and the paperwork can only be arranged here.” He grinned. “ Discreetly arranged here.”

Will nodded. “Would the shipment be armaments and their destination somewhere dubious?”