Dominic Conlon - Silent Warpath

Lomax sighed. ‘Yes. When he briefed me he said he had only a couple of weeks to live. He told me that if we could get hold of the sub, it would be a huge leap for the Agency and our scientists. And he would reinstate me permanently as executive.’ Lomax glanced at Sean. ‘He died last week.’

‘You ordered DD to create a new mission for the rogue sub, one that would force it to escape from capture and lay on a new course for Scotland.’ Sean pointed to the loch. ‘Look Lomax. That shitty sub, in return for promotion. How does it feel?’

Sean stopped to regain his breath. He began again, slowly and quietly. ‘Why didn’t you clue me in on the details?’

Lomax didn’t reply.

‘You didn’t tell me, because you knew I wouldn’t have anything to do with it. You knew that I wouldn’t stoop to some dirty little game of industrial espionage — no, I’m only used when there are fresh graves to be dug for people who need to be eliminated. Isn’t that true!’

Lomax nodded imperceptibly.

‘Finally you were told to go back for Natasha once the sub was on its way, because she still had the memory sticks DD substituted in her bag — the ones DD loaded with the new course details.’

Lomax inclined his head.

‘But you didn’t want to do it in person because I’d get to know. So you had Schaeffer tipped off. The psychopath who would stop at nothing to kill her and me.’

For a minute no-one spoke. ‘How is she?’ Lomax asked eventually.

Sean looked away. ‘She died on the way to the hospital. Schaeffer used rounds tipped with hardened steel. One smashed through her upper arm and ploughed straight on through her chest.’

Lomax sat very still.

‘She was beginning to work out that someone in our team had a different agenda. Then NSA found out you had orders to steal Cetus, and they told her. She could easily have alerted the media. The American political machine would have stamped down so heavily on Britain. It would have quashed the likes of you and every member of the Agency. God knows how far up it would go, but it would set back relationships by a decade or more.’

Sean turned back to the loch where the tugs were securing lines to the sub. ‘Instead she believed me when I told her there was no such plan. That’s something you and Andrews were counting on — my innocence. If she didn’t believe me, it would have been impossible to keep something that size out of the press. They would have a field day and the whole world would be talking about the dirty little deal that you and Andrews made.’

At long last Lomax spoke. ‘Do you have the memory sticks?’

Sean looked away.

‘Make sure you dispose of them properly.’

They both watched as the tugs headed back up the loch to their base at Faslane, towing the submarine behind. Eventually the tugs and the submarine disappeared in the distance.

After Lomax left, Sean wandered down to the shore of the loch. He pulled out his wallet and looked at the picture of Natasha he had taken in the hospital. She was in a hospital gown, smiling through the pain. There would be another three operations to come over the next six months, but she would live.

He found the two memory sticks in his pocket and hurled them as far as he could into the water.

This book is dedicated with love to Fran. Thank you for everything.

All characters, events and commercial organisations in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, events or commercial organisations, past or present, are purely coincidental.