Stephen Leather - Hot Blood

‘Well, like I said, it’s a bloody mess.’

‘Any of that mess heading our way?’ asked Shepherd.

‘It’ll stop at my desk, whatever happens,’ said Button. ‘I don’t think there’s anything we have to worry about, though. It was an SO13 operation, through and through.’ She sighed. ‘Anyway, I’ve got some good news for you.’

‘That’ll make a nice change,’ said Shepherd. She flashed him an icy look, and he grinned. ‘Sorry.’

She wagged a gloved finger at him. ‘I’ve a good mind to cancel your promotion, except that it’s out of my hands.’

‘Promotion?’

‘Detective sergeant, as of today. Nothing to do with me. Sam Hargrove put it through before he left. You were due, I gather. Congratulations.’

‘Thanks,’ said Shepherd.

‘Yeah, well, like I said, it’s nothing do with what’s happened over the past week. If you ever lie to me again, Spider, we’re through. You, more than anyone, know how important it is that we trust each other.’

‘It won’t happen again,’ said Shepherd.

‘It had better not,’ she said. She straightened her shoulders. ‘Right. I suppose I’d better go and say hello to the galloping Major. I just hope he doesn’t give me one of his famous bone-crushing handshakes. You men do like to prove yourselves, don’t you?’

‘It’s the hormones,’ said Shepherd.

Button smiled. ‘Isn’t it just,’ she said, and went to the black Range Rover, her high heels clicking on the pavement.

At about the same time as Shepherd and his colleagues were standing in the pews in St Martin’s Church in Hereford, a Gulfstream jet with an American registration was landing at a military airfield in the north of Ukraine, some eight miles from the nearest population centre.

It was a cold day and flecks of snow were falling when the door opened. A single Russian Jeep, with two soldiers wrapped up in thick green overcoats, was waiting to meet it.

Only two people got off the plane. One was an Arab, blindfolded, shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit. He moved unsteadily, as if he’d been drugged or badly beaten. His right arm was in a sling. The other man was wearing a brown leather bomber jacket and brown loafers with tassels.