Stephen Leather - False Friends

Kettering shrugged. ‘Why?’

‘Because it takes time to reload,’ said Sharpe. ‘You can fire thirty rounds with one pull of the trigger if you’re on fully automatic. Then you’ve got to start slotting in fresh rounds one at a time.’

‘What he means is that if you’re planning to fire off a lot of rounds you’re better off with pre-loaded magazines,’ said Shepherd.

Kettering nodded slowly. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I get it. You mean we put the rounds in magazines and then just shove in a new one when the old one’s empty.’

‘Click, clack,’ said Sharpe. ‘It’s as easy as that.’

‘We can do you polymer magazines at thirty quid a pop,’ said Shepherd.

Kettering looked over at Thompson. Thompson pulled a face.

‘What if we wanted ten magazines for each gun?’ said Kettering.

‘Sure. Four hundred magazines. We can do that.’

‘But that would be twelve grand,’ said Thompson. ‘That’s a bit bloody steep for magazines.’

‘But you can give us a discount, right?’ Kettering said to Shepherd. ‘They’re only plastic.’

‘Polymer,’ said Shepherd. ‘As good as the metal ones and lighter. But that’s what they cost. How about we say four hundred for ten grand? So all in, guns, ammo and clips, fifty-five grand.’

‘Fifty for cash?’ said Kettering.

Shepherd laughed. ‘I already said it was cash or gold,’ he said. ‘Fifty-five is my bottom price. What about handguns? I can get you Zastava pistols from the same source. Easier to conceal than an AK-47.’

‘Don’t really see the point of a handgun,’ said Kettering. ‘Seems to me that if you’re going to be using a gun people need to see it. So the bigger the better.’ He grinned. ‘How about we call it fifty-two grand and I’ll get you some gloves signed by John Conteh?’

Shepherd nodded. ‘You love to haggle, don’t you? Okay.’

Kettering held out his glass and the three other men followed suit. ‘Pleasure doing business with you,’ he said.

‘The pleasure’s all ours,’ said Sharpe. They clinked glasses and drank.

‘You can get anything, can you?’ asked Kettering.

‘Pretty much,’ said Shepherd. ‘I sold a couple of tanks once.’

Kettering laughed. ‘A tank I don’t need, but I could do with bulletproof vests.’

‘That’s easy enough,’ said Shepherd. ‘Let me come back to you with a price. What sort do you want?’

‘What are the options?’

‘Depends on what sort of protection you want. They go from cheaper ones that will stop a.22 and not much else, right up to vests with steel plates that’ll stop a.45 at point-blank range.’

‘Yeah, the full Monty,’ said Kettering. ‘That’s what we need.’

‘No problem,’ said Shepherd.

‘And what about grenades?’

Shepherd stiffened and Sharpe’s mouth opened in surprise.

‘What?’ said Sharpe.

‘Grenades,’ said Thompson. He looked over his shoulder to check that no one could overhear their conversation. ‘Can you get us some?’

‘What the hell do you want with grenades?’ asked Sharpe.

‘What’s it to you?’ snapped Thompson.

‘James means it’s a bit unusual, that’s all,’ said Shepherd. ‘We don’t get much call for grenades. They’re a bit. . specialist.’

‘But you can get them, right?’ asked Kettering. ‘We’ll pay good money.’

‘I’ll talk to some people, see what I can do,’ said Shepherd. ‘And you’re talking fragmentation grenades, right? You don’t mean smoke grenades or flash-bangs?’

‘Yeah, the real thing is what we want,’ said Kettering. ‘And about the guns. We’re going to need a test fire.’

‘We can arrange that,’ said Shepherd.

‘Up near us?’ said Kettering. ‘I want to bring a couple of guys with us, just to show what we’re buying.’

‘Just make sure they’re people you can trust,’ said Shepherd. ‘And we’ll need to arrange the venue. We’ll pick you up and take you to wherever we do it.’

‘You don’t trust us?’ said Thompson.

‘I don’t trust anybody,’ said Shepherd. ‘If I get caught with a boot full of AK-47s then I’m banged up for ten years. So forgive me if I’m careful.’

‘I get it,’ said Kettering. ‘But no one is going to screw you over. We want those guns.’

‘How long after the test fire will you have the forty?’ asked Thompson.

Shepherd looked at Sharpe. ‘A week?’

‘A week to ten days,’ said Sharpe. ‘We can cover it from stock in the warehouse but I’ll need to arrange a cover consignment.’

‘What’s that?’ asked Kettering.

‘We put the guns in the base of a container, but we have to fill the container with a legitimate cargo. Fruit or veg is the best. Ideally we have the van in a convoy of legit trucks. Soon as we have a delivery date we’ll let you know.’

‘And you’ll deliver them to us in Birmingham?’

‘We’ll arrange a drop-off wherever you want, but again we won’t tell you until the last moment. You check the guns, we check the cash, and Bob’s your father’s brother.’

‘So we’ve got a deal?’ asked Kettering.

Shepherd nodded. ‘Looks like it.’

Kettering beamed. He clinked his glass against Shepherd’s again and finished his brandy. ‘Let’s get back inside and watch the boxing,’ he said.

Shepherd waited until he was back in his Hampstead flat before phoning Hargrove. ‘It’s on,’ he said. ‘We’ve agreed a price and they want a test fire.’

‘Well done,’ said Hargrove.

‘The thing is, they want forty AK-47s and a stack of ammo. And hand grenades.’

‘Hand grenades?’

‘Yeah. How do we want to play this?’

‘Did they say what they want with grenades?’

‘Said it wasn’t our business, which is probably right. We’re arms dealers so why the hell would we care what they’re going to do with them?’

‘Ray didn’t say anything about grenades,’ said Hargrove. ‘And he didn’t say anything about forty AK-47s. What are they planning, a war?’

‘I don’t think Ray’s fully in the loop,’ said Shepherd. ‘If he was they’d have had him along tonight. They want assault rifles, bulletproof vests and grenades. I tried asking him why they wanted that much ordnance but they didn’t say and I didn’t want to push it because it was our first meeting.’

‘Did you get a read on them?’

‘Kettering’s not a nutter, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t have marked him down as a criminal. Looks more like an estate agent. Clean cut, bit of a Jack the Lad, maybe. Thompson’s a bit harder but even so I wouldn’t have thought he’d be the type to go on a murder spree.’

‘Could it be racial?’

Shepherd sighed. ‘I really don’t know what’s going on in their heads,’ he said. ‘At one point Thompson went over and had his photograph taken next to John Conteh. And one of the boxers they brought down from Birmingham was a Jamaican lad. If they’re racists they’re doing a bloody good job of hiding it.’

‘Could they be reselling?’

‘It’s possible, but at the prices I was quoting I doubt there’d be much profit left for them. It’s the grenades that worry me. Guns, even assault rifles, can be used for defence. But there’s nothing defensive about a grenade.’

‘I doubt we’ll be getting to the point where we actually give them grenades,’ said Hargrove.

‘That may be, but they’re going to want a test fire before we get their money, and they’re going to want to see a grenade.’

‘Do you have any thoughts on that front?’

Shepherd laughed. ‘I’m starting to realise why you wanted me on this op,’ he said.

‘I wanted you because you’re the best undercover agent around,’ said Hargrove. ‘But your inside track with the SAS would certainly be a help. If they’re still happy to supply us with the guns would you ask if they could lend us a grenade or two?’