Andy McNab - Dark winter

'But she didn't have another key with her.'

'What do you think I'm doing this for, dickhead?' She brought her hand back down and her eyes switched into excited mode. 'Got it, she must have been coming back. Bet these fuckers have an escape route if she's locked them in.'

Our faces were just inches apart, and I could feel her breath on my face. 'Better still check, MOE girl. You still might have to work your magic.'

I smiled as I put my arms round her once more as she tested the key. She wouldn't have turned it in case she couldn't close it again, or the key broke. All seemed well. A police car screamed past us on Gray's Inn Road. Sirens were as common as cuddling couples round here; no one took any notice of it or us.

She pulled away from me a little, smiled, and planted a kiss on my lips. 'Third-party awareness.'

'I wish that gum was mint flavour, you stink like your ready bag.'

'Bet you still liked it, though.'

We moved back to the bow of the ship and carried on round to the other side to start a closer walk-past of the Pentonville side. The MTC was number 297. Suzy linked arms and pulled herself into me. 'Two nine seven – you see it? No locks. Escape route?'

'Could be – maybe bolted inside, or just locked then boarded up.'

'I guess we'll find out soon enough.'

We carried on down Pentonville and crossed over King's Cross Bridge before turning left and left again, so we could get back to the car yet keep a healthy distance from the target area. Eventually we found ourselves under some railway bridges that led from the station: it was quiet, very few vehicles, hardly any foot traffic. I got on the phone to the Yes Man and detailed what we'd seen.

'How long before you get in and clear the building?'

'That's difficult to say. Could be an hour, maybe two. We need to go through things first.'

'Be quick. Remember, take control of Dark Winter at all costs.' I heard him take a breath as if to launch into a speech.

There wasn't enough time for that shit. 'I'll call you when I'm ready.' My second chance to close down on him, and why should I care if I pissed him off? I might be dead soon.

'What do you think, then, MOE girl? With that camera down on us, we'll just have to brass it out and make it look as natural as we can. I can't see any other way out. Assuming you turn a key, of course.'

She ignored the dig. 'What about the NBC kit? We can't go in there already rigged up.'

'If we're not compromised on entry, we can get into it as soon as we're inside, then clear the building until it goes noisy.'

She nodded, and started to look excited again, I didn't know why: we were probably going to be walking into an absolute nightmare.

Suzy ran her fingers through her soaking hair as we skirted the pools of light around the construction area. I slowed down a little: we weren't that far from the car but I didn't want us to be sitting in it longer than we had to. We might get some unwelcome attention from the police in these times of high terrorist alert or, round here, the Vice Squad. The last thing we needed was someone in a uniform inviting us to step out of the vehicle and give him a guided tour of the boot.

'OK, MOE girl, how about this for a plan? We take the ready bags, we get to the door. We cuddle just like before, and you turn that key, yeah? What sort is it?'

I knew she'd have her MOE kit on her body just in case.

'Ward. Shouldn't be too bad.'

'So, you open the lock, I'll move inside and cover you while you bring in the ready bags and close the door. Once you get in, we jam it.'

Suzy glanced across at the world's biggest construction site. 'There's got to be something we could use lying around here.' We needed to stop the entry door from being opened again and block the possible escape route if it went noisy. We had to contain the ASU like pigs in a poke if we were to have a chance of dealing with them.

'Then we get the NBC kit on. I'm not going to put my hood up – it was making too much noise. I'll get my respirator on but keep the hood down until the last possible moment.' This was hardly brain surgery, but we both had to have a clear idea of what was going to happen. 'Once we're ready, we'll clear the place from the bottom up. Unless we hear them, we'll have to go through room by room.'

'What if we've got the wrong door and no one's in that part of the building? We can't walk outside in the NBC kit.'

'We'll have to go across the roof.'

'Dark Winter at all costs, eh?'

I saw that fervent look in her eyes again. 'Something like that.'

She nodded, still scanning the building site. 'Easy money.'

I hoped she was right.

The arches supporting the railway lines in and out of St Pancras and King's Cross were in the process of being stripped bare. But it wasn't the Victorian brickwork I was interested in so much as the scaffolding. There had to be a few stray fixings lying around and, if not, a fresh stock somewhere near. Portakabins stood at every entry-point in the chainlink fence around the sites. I couldn't see any security guards – they'd be tucked inside watching late-night porn on Channel Five.

'Here we go.' Suzy had seen something. She guided me on to the opposite pavement, put her arms round my neck and whispered into my ear. I was getting to like this. 'Time for another of your legendary cuddles, Romeo. You'll find there's some stuff by our feet, just the other side of the fence.'

We embraced and I looked around. I couldn't see any CCTV cameras. 'Right, let's go for it.'

'Last of the great romantics, aren't you?'

I bent down and stretched my fingers through the links. A few seconds later we were heading back to the car, arm in arm, my pocket bulging with five or six steel fixings. Some were triangular, some rectangular, but any of them would do the job.

'The boss needs to know what's happening, Nick. Time for another call.'

She was right, of course. One of the archways had alcove-like chambers, probably a bit of a feature when Gladstone was a boy but only used nowadays by people who needed a piss or a place to smoke some crack. I stepped into one of the shadows to get out of the rain for a few minutes.

'Just one more check.' I pulled out the 9mm and, keeping it by my stomach, put the heel of my right hand on the muzzle and pushed back the top slide just enough to see the glint of brass. She did the same.

I got out the moan-phone, and the first secure bleep didn't even get a chance to sound off before he was up and running. 'What's happening? Where are you?'

I could hear voices behind him. Two sounded American, another I couldn't make out. Maybe Malaysian? Who cared? I had enough worries.

The voices faded, as if the Yes Man was putting some distance between them.

'We're going back to pick up the ready bags and move to target. Should be making entry in less than thirty.'

'Where's the entry-point?'

'Are the signals still in the building?'

'Of course. Where's the entry-point?'

I told him, and for once he sounded nervous. 'Are you sure this is going to work?'

'No.' I was never sure of anything much.

'What are you going to do if you can't make entry?' He sounded almost frantic. He must be under a lot of pressure, and it pleased me to think that a nice big boil might be throbbing on his neck. 'I cannot afford compromise – I don't want to hear about you on the morning news, do you understand? Take control of Dark Winter at all costs.'

The American voices came back within earshot, and I realized the other voice wasn't Malaysian: it was German.

'If you don't hear from us by first light, you'll know there's a problem. I'll call you afterwards.' I cut him off. I didn't want to stand there all night while he told me how to do the job. He had never been out on the ground: his entire professional life had been spent in front of monitors, sorting out communications and that sort of shit. Being lectured on his third-hand ideas would have pissed me off no end, and I didn't want to be pissed off – I just wanted to be worried, and a bit scared. A little healthy fear was what brought everything into focus and shrank my brain to a size where I could think of nothing but the job and getting away with my body intact. What was it that Josh kept bumping his gums about? 'Courage is just fear that's said its prayer.'