Tom Cain - The accident man

He found a barbershop and had a shave. Twenty minutes in a gentleman's outfitters provided him with a charcoal gray pinstripe suit, double-breasted in the classic City style, a pink-striped Egyptian cotton shirt, gaudier than any New York banker would wear but perfectly acceptable in London, dark blue tie, plain gold cufflinks, and a pair of black lace-up Derby shoes. Next, he bought a Mont Blanc pen and an elegant black briefcase. Into it went his money belt and his gun: He didn't want to ruin the line of his jacket.

He stopped in a stationery store for a pad of letter-writing paper and a package of envelopes, then drank another coffee while he took out the Mont Blanc and wrote a short note: "Carver is dead. Trench likewise. Circumstances as yet unknown. All communications have been compromised (UK govt suspected)-telephone and e-mail silence essential. Request immediate meeting to relay emergency instructions in person."

There was just one other thing he'd need: a small, easily portable video camera. He got himself a new Sony digital model that recorded onto a PC-compatible disk.

The shopping was done. The props had been chosen; the script written. The curtain was about to go up.

He passed through the open front door and gave a curt nod to the uniformed commissionaire, who immediately straightened his back and nodded back, instinctively acknowledging an officer's presence. At the reception desk, Carver flashed a brief, agreeable smile at the immaculately groomed brunette behind the desk and handed her the envelope with the words, "Please have this conveyed at once to Lord Malgrave. It is extremely urgent."

The receptionist dialed a number and had a brief urgent conversation. A couple of times she glanced back at Carver, trying to judge his authenticity. Then she held her hand over the receiver and spoke to Carver. "I'm very sorry, sir, but Lord Malgrave is in a meeting."

Carver remained unruffled. "I quite understand," he said, not sounding offended in the slightest by this rebuff. "I know he's very busy this morning. Then I'd like to speak directly to his lordship's personal assistant, please."

The fine lines of the receptionist's neatly tweezed eyebrows crumpled into a brief frown. "Of course, sir," she said, passing him the handset.

"Thank you," said Carver. He spoke to the chairman's PA. "My name is Jackson. I have an urgent message for Lord Malgrave. It concerns our transactions in Paris, and I absolutely assure you he will be grateful to read it. If he doesn't think it's worth pursuing, I'll be gone before you know it." He paused to hear what the PA had to say, uttered a reassuring "Absolutely," followed by an enthusiastic "Excellent!" Then he handed the phone back to the receptionist.

This time his smile was broad. "Thank you so much for your help. They're expecting me on the sixth floor. So, where's the lift?" Lord Crispin Malgrave did not cut an impressive figure. He wore a double-breasted suit and an old school tie, and he had the oiled salt-and-pepper hair and the ruddy complexion-redolent of hunting fields, shooting parties, and salmon streams-of the British ruling class. But the facade was cracking, the arrogance peeling away to reveal the raw fear beneath.

Carver had been shown into Malgrave's private office. The chairman's PA was an elegant woman in her fifties, brisk, efficient, and bossy. The man was running a bank, and still he had a nanny. She watched over Carver until her master arrived, as if worried he might steal a paperweight if left to his own devices.

Malgrave had scurried into the room, sweating panic from every pore. He dropped like a loosely packed sandbag into the leather-backed seat behind his mahogany desk, said, "Thank you, Maureen," and barely waited till she'd left the room before blurting out, "Trench is dead? Are you sure? How do you know?"

Carver leaned toward the desk and stuck out his right hand.

"Hello," he said. "My name is Samuel Carver."

Malgrave did not move. He seemed to need all his energy just to keep his mouth from flapping around like a freshly caught fish. Eventually, he managed to get some words out. "But you told my secretary…"

"I lied."

"What about Trench?"

"He's dead. That bit was true."

Malgrave did the math. He worked out who was next. Then he leaned forward in his chair, his eyes pleading, hands held out in supplication. "Oh God, no, please don't. I'll do anything!" He thought for a second. "I owe you money. Of course! I'll pay you in full. Three million dollars. Plus interest!"

Carver let him burble on, his silence only making Malgrave all the more effusive.

"Look at me," he said, once Malgrave had finally shut up.

The banker looked puzzled.

"Look at me," Carver repeated. "Just shut up, look at me, and pay attention. I don't want your blood money. And I'm not going to kill you. I'm a soldier, not a psychopath. I take life when there's no alternative. You have an alternative. You can tell me about the Russians."

"What Russians?"

"The ones in Paris. The ones you sent to kill me."

Malgrave shook his head. "I don't know anything about them, I swear to you."

Carver was inclined to believe him. Malgrave didn't have the nerve to be an accomplished liar. And his ignorance about the Russians tallied with Trench's.

"Okay," said Carver, "so what did you know?"

Malgrave wiped a silk handkerchief across his sweaty brow. "The chairman told me that he was planning to… you know… the princess operation. I mean, I didn't like it, didn't approve at all, argued strongly against the whole plan, in fact. But he said it was vital for the preservation of the monarchy, and besides, he'd committed the consortium, that we were being funded externally, millions of pounds from a foreign backer. The money was wired from Zurich, anonymous of course. I had no idea who'd sent it. So you're saying it was Russians…"

Malgrave frowned, his panic subsiding a little as he considered the possibility. "But why would Russians…? I mean, what possible interest could they have in killing her?"

"I don't know," said Carver. "When I find them, I'll be sure to ask. In the meantime, since no one else has a clue who these Russians are, why don't you call your chairman and arrange a meeting? Now."

"But that would be impossible."

Carver opened his case and took out his gun. "Here's the alternative. So call him. Say you need to see him, in person, immediately. If he asks why, tell him you can't talk about it on the phone. Make something up. Then tell your chauffeur you need your car. We're going for a drive. Got that?"

Malgrave nodded.

"Right," said Carver. "Start dialing."

Dame Agatha Bewley was back in MI5's headquarters at Thames House, on the north bank of the river Thames. It wasn't excitingly new. It wasn't impressively old. It wasn't provocatively ugly or inspiring in its beauty. It was just there, a Department of Works project from 1929. Millions of people drove to and fro in front of it along a crowded riverside route. Not one in a thousand ever wasted their time even looking at it. As a home for domestic spies, it really couldn't have been better.

After her breakfast at the Travellers Club, she had been driven to work in her official black Jaguar, and on the way she'd thought about Sir Perceval Wake. Now that his services were not so regularly required by his country, had he gone into business for himself? What was it Grantham had said in that meeting, straight after news of the crash had come through? Something about Wake's genius for black operations, his instinct for their execution and consequences. Wake had always disturbed her. She didn't feel comfortable with a man whose desire for influence was so apparent but whose sexual and emotional needs were so well-masked.

Wake was a lifelong bachelor, with no known lovers of either gender. He'd been around so long, the chances were he hadn't been security-vetted in decades. He could be hiding some secret shame that would leave him open to blackmail. He might equally well be asexual, of course, repelled by the thought of bodily contact. But a repressed sexuality was almost as dangerous as a perverted one.