Chris Ryan - Killing for the Company

Nathan laughed. Pieter was a crude motherfucker when he wanted to be and the Grosvenor Group’s CEO quite enjoyed that. It made a change from the usual po-faced Brits he spent so many of his days with. But it wasn’t so much the guy’s choice of words that tickled him. It was the suggestion that either of them would face any kind of negative consequences for… well, for anything, really.

‘Tell me, Pieter, how long have you been with us now?’

‘Five years.’

‘Five years. And in those five years, how many former presidents of the United States have you dined with?’

Pieter shrugged. ‘Two,’ he said.

‘And members of the Senate? I bet you can’t even remember.’ Nathan could tell he was right, because Pieter didn’t reply. ‘How many share options in the Grosvenor Group have you drawn up for prime movers in Washington, Pieter? How many millions in dividends did we pay out to sitting members of Congress in the last financial year?’

‘Plenty,’ Pieter mumbled.

‘Yeah, plenty. You know how the world works, Pieter. You think any of those guys are going to let us go down when they know they could come down with us? Huh?’

Pieter shrugged.

‘I’ve been at this a long time. And I’ve juggled more slippery skittles than Alistair Stratton, believe me. He’s just a greedy little man who wants to fill his boots. You really think he’s going to go public about our arrangement with him? He’d be up in front of The Hague quicker than you can say “war crime”.’

‘Then why are you supplying him? Why are you giving him access to our intelligence networks?’

Nathan gave him a flat look. ‘Think of it as a speculative investment, Pieter. You accountants understand things like that, don’t you?’

‘Don’t patronise me, man. I just don’t see what’s in this for Stratton.’

‘Pieter, Pieter,’ Nathan smiled blandly. ‘You must trust me to handle Stratton.’

‘Ah, I don’t know, man. I don’t like it. I don’t like him.’

‘Come on, Pieter. Look what we made from Iraq while everyone else was worrying about oil. Stratton’s like war — good for business.’

He walked round to where the South African was standing and slapped his palm in a comradely fashion against the back of his sweaty shirt. ‘I’m going to get you that chick’s number,’ he said. ‘You look like you could use a good time. All work and no play makes Pieter a dull boy, and we really wouldn’t want that now, would we?’

RAF Brize Norton. 15.00 hrs.

A dull-grey C-17 Globemaster III sat on the tarmac. None of its four jets was yet in motion, but the aft door was open, revealing the massive belly of this packhorse of an aircraft.

Parked no more than twenty metres away were four white minibuses. They’d exited the barriers of Credenhill three hours ago. They were entirely nondescript. See them drive past and you might have thought they contained a local football team, or labourers on their way to a site. And a peek at the men inside wouldn’t have given you much else to go on, all of them dressed in civvies. And although they all wore sturdy boots, there wasn’t a speck of olive drab or DPM in sight.

At the back of the lead minibus, one man had stared out of the window as they left Hereford. There were bags under his eyes as he gazed into the middle distance, seeing but not registering the dingy suburbs as they headed towards the motorway. He should sleep, he knew that. But sleep wasn’t possible. Not with the events of the previous night spinning in his head. Luke Mercer was no longer shocked by death, though he didn’t doubt that the sight of Chet’s lad sliding in a pool of his own blood would stay with him for the rest of his days.

‘If that’s not a professional job,’ he had heard his neighbour saying when they were no more than a minute from base, ‘I’m a fucking Chinaman. Headshots, at that range, no sign of the shooter. You ask me, that’s agency work.’ Luke had turned to see Finn with a copy of the Sun open in front of him. He’d already seen the headline that morning — ‘murder in the cathedral’ — and a grainy telephoto shot of the scene that was so sharp in his memory. He hadn’t had the stomach to read any further.

‘Not sure about the kid, though,’ Finn mused. ‘Doubt he was spilling state secrets. Or the coffin-dodger. And it sounds like the priest just got clipped in the crossfire. Don’t reckon he’ll be rising on the third day.’ He carried on reading, his voice becoming slightly distant. ‘I’m telling you — train bombs, snipers — there’s something in the fucking water this winter.’ He looked up from his paper at Luke. ‘Christ on a bike, mate, you look bloody terrible.’

Luke had wondered for a moment whether he should share with Finn what had gone on last night. They went back a long way, after all. They’d seen some things together, and there was no doubt it would do him good to talk about it. But what would he say? He couldn’t even fit the pieces of Suze’s bizarre story together in his own head, let alone explain it to someone else. And to admit that he’d been in St Paul’s last night? That would be plain stupid. Finn was a good lad, but he’d be almost obliged to tell someone.

‘Thanks, buddy,’ he’d muttered. ‘You look like a pissing toad yourself.’

He’d turned away and spent the rest of the journey in silence, ignoring the banter that came from the other B Squadron men. As they travelled, scenes from the previous night kept flashing through Luke’s mind. He kept hearing fragments of the strange woman’s conversation.

You knew Chet. Do you really think he died in a simple house fire?

… she works for Mossad… Don’t you see? Doesn’t anybody see? First the Balkans, then Iraq, now this…

They sounded like the ravings of a paranoid fantasist, a conspiracy theorist. Luke wanted to believe that was what they were. But in the light of what had happened just minutes after she’d spilled her heart out, he couldn’t help thinking they had the ring of truth — whatever that truth might be.

Now it was time to debus. It didn’t take more than a few minutes for them to carry the crates which held the squadron’s weapons and ammunition up into the C-17 and secure them inside the webbing. The ops sergeant took a headcount and, once he was satisfied everyone had boarded, he gave the word to the loadie. The aft door closed up and the engines started to rumble.

It stank in the aircraft. Aviation gas wasn’t the worst of it. Luke could detect a vague whiff of rotten meat. The C-17 was a versatile beast. It wasn’t just suited to the wholesale movement of troops and equipment. As it could operate on short runways, and even had capability on those that were unpaved, it was suitable for use close to the battlefield. That meant it was a good choice for casevac, and for its evil twin: the repatriation of the dead. Impossible to say how many corpses this machine had ferried since it had been in service. Impossible, too, to say whether the stench inside the plane was related, but there was something sobering about being strapped into an aircraft which doubled as a hearse — two lines of men, facing each other, silent not only because the increasing noise of the engine made talking difficult.

Flight time to Ben Gurion International Airport, fifteen klicks south-east of Tel Aviv: four hours. Four more hours for Luke to try to make sense of things. But in the end, he tried to put it from his mind by running over the details of this morning’s briefing. The next twenty-four hours were going to be full-on and he needed a clear head.

It was a relief when he sensed the C-17 losing height, the wheels finally hitting the ground. The aircraft taxied for a full ten minutes after touchdown as the pilot manoeuvred it to a secluded part of the airfield. The aft door opened to reveal night-time and allow a blast of cool but humid air into the aircraft. A Mediterranean rainstorm was on its way.