Andy McNab - Avenger

Secondly there was the surveillance system that Black Star had almost certainly rigged in Elena's room. There could be a miniature camera or two and microphones. He'd probably used the television. It was the obvious place, and in the past Deveraux had rigged many such devices herself. Black Star was known to be a technical expert and would be using state-of-the-art kit. But Deveraux had a plan to turn this to her advantage.

Thirdly there was Elena herself. She had to be followed and watched without Black Star realizing that she wasn't operating alone as he thought. That had been the responsibility of Fran and Mick, but now they would be employed on a job requiring even more experience and expertise. They would be attempting to locate and penetrate Black Star's suspected hotel surveillance system. If they were successful, they were likely to find Black Star a lot sooner than anyone would by following Elena.

Deveraux had watched Danny during the training period and knew that, when he focused, he was able to follow a target without being pinged. Now the skills that he had practised and honed under his grandfather's instructions were about to be put into practice, although this time it was no test run; there could be no mistakes.

The job was his, but first he had to deliver the BlackBerry for downloading and then return it to Elena. He walked round to a prearranged meeting place at the rear of the hotel, where Fran and Mick were waiting in their hire car.

Danny opened the nearside rear door, got into the car and handed the BlackBerry to Fran, who was in the driver's seat. Without a word, she quickly slipped a mini jack plug into the device. The USB connection on the other end of a short lead was connected to a small laptop computer.

The download took just seconds, and while Fran watched its progress on the computer, Danny read the few words Elena had written on the magazine.

'Black Star's told her to go to a drugstore called Duane Reade,' he said as he read. 'She's given me the address and directions.' He looked at Fran.

Fran looked back stonily. 'Well?' she said.

'I'll have to get a cab.'

'Then get one.'

Fran pulled the jack plug from the BlackBerry and handed it over to Danny. 'Get this back to her. And don't be seen doing it.'

Danny had no idea how he was going to manage that little miracle, but he leaped from the car without another word.

The two operatives watched him hail a passing yellow cab. Then Fran passed Mick the laptop and started up the engine. 'We'll get that over to the Consulate – then we can start playing hunt the C-SPAN channel.'

'Yeah.' Mick grimaced. 'Or the needle in the haystack.'

This was Black Star's day.

The day Pointer had dreamed of for over five years. Once it was over, he would continue with his acts of revenge for as long as he could, but this was the special one. The one that counted the most.

He had almost lost the precious opportunity. Two months earlier, the Angel he had long been grooming for this special day suddenly went cold on him. He had been very surprised. It wasn't the first time an Angel had been abandoned during the grooming process, but it was a long time since that had happened. In the early days he had lost a few by pushing too hard, going too fast for the fragile personalities who fell prey to his insidious words, or just by misjudging the character of his victim. More recently he had become much more adept at grooming. Now he was confident that he knew exactly what his Angels were thinking. Once he got them to a certain point, they were completely in his power and his revenge would follow in the most bloody and horrific way he could devise. That was the sweetest feeling, the balm for the pain in his soul. So, after the successes in London and the other cities, it was most disappointing to lose one. It was a crushing blow.

All those months of slow and careful preparation had been lost. Wasted. And there was nothing Pointer could do about it. He knew there was no point using his limited time trying to find out what had happened. Pushing a reluctant victim was useless. His success, his whole method of operation, was based on exactly the opposite. He pulled. Slowly, gently, tugging his victims into exactly the position he wanted. But on that occasion he had failed.

And then Elena had come along, at precisely the right moment. When he was helping her to reach information via the Deep Web, Pointer had only considered her as a potential future Angel.

But once she had slipped back into his net, he had worked quickly, more quickly than he would have wanted. The grooming and preparation process would normally have taken much longer. But Pointer was lucky. He could tell from the beginning that she was close to the edge, and it was easy to work out what emotional buttons to push to bring her into his power. She was perfect. His special Angel for this special date.

He knew that speeding up the grooming could be a risk, but it was one that he had to take. There was no time to test her resolve, and there was still a chance that, if she stopped and thought about what was going to happen, Elena too would pull out at the last minute. Pointer considered the risk to be small – he was certain that he had her completely under his control – but one which he was going to cover. He would not give her time to think. To reconsider. She was tired; he would keep her that way. And keep her on the move, frantically busy with the preparations for tonight's main event.

Because tonight Black Star's special Angel was to die.

Duane Reade was doing good business, even though it was still early. It was like a cross between a British Boots and a mini supermarket, with aisles packed closely together and shelves stacked to overflowing. According to Black Star, this was just the first of a number of stores Elena would be visiting throughout the morning.

She collected a plastic basket and took out her preliminary shopping list. She had to be quick: Black Star had warned her that she would be operating to a tight schedule and that he would be coming online at various times during the morning with further instructions.

And there was the problem. She didn't have the BlackBerry to receive those instructions; Danny had it. At least, Elena hoped he had it.

As she went in search of the first item on the list, a sports bag, all she could do was pray that Danny had picked up the BlackBerry and magazine and then read her scribbled message. If not, she was in trouble.

She located the sports bags and chose one that was folded flat and wrapped in its packaging. Next on the list was a pair of rubber washing-up gloves. She found them and slipped them into the basket.

There was just one further item to find at this first stop. She went to the aisle where the drugs were stacked and picked out two big 'family' tubs of aspirin and then made for the checkout.

The assistant raised his eyebrows when he saw the two big tubs. 'That's a lot of aspirin, miss.'

'They're for my dad,' said Elena. 'He has a heart condition.'

The assistant smiled sympathetically and ran the first of the tubs over his bar code checker next to the till.

Black Star had anticipated the question and provided Elena with the answer. As always, he had thought of everything.

The cab was still a block from Duane Reade when Danny heard the beep from the BlackBerry.

'Oh, no,' he breathed as he glanced at the screen and saw Black Star's message. Hi, Gola, hows it going? U got everything so far?

'Shit!' Danny thought quickly: he couldn't just leave the message unanswered. Black Star would suspect that something was wrong. His thumbs went to the keypad. Just about.

Two words were as much as Danny felt he could risk, but Black Star came back immediately. Great. Ur going somewhere more interesting next. Bergdorf Goodman on 5 th Avenue. Theyre waiting 4 u at the Dolce amp; Gabbana stand. Everything bought and paid 4 but they might have 2 make a few small adjustments. Will do them 2day and deliver 2 hotel later.