James Twining - The Gilded Seal

‘If I wanted to make a move, I would have done,’ Archie insisted.

‘Well, it’s probably just as well,’ Tom sniffed, his eyes twinkling at Archie’s discomfort. ‘She’d only have said no. Better to avoid the rejection.’

‘Very funny.’ Archie smiled tightly. Tom decided to change the subject before he completely lost his sense of humour.

‘That was Dorling, by the way.’ Tom nodded towards the phone.

‘What the hell did he want?’ Archie bristled. While Tom had understood the need to forgive his one-time pursuers if he was to move on, Archie was less sanguine. His scars ran deep, and he was suspicious of Dorling’s Machiavellian pragmatism, sensing the seeds of a further about-turn should the circumstances require it.

‘He just got the initial results of the forensic tests back.’

‘And?’

‘And basically they’ve got nothing. No prints at the scene. The getaway car torched. Zip.’ In truth, he’d have been more surprised if they had found something. From what he’d seen, this crew weren’t the sort to make mistakes.

‘Any idea who pulled it?’

Tom flicked the chip down on to the card table, enjoying the expression registering on Archie’s face as he stepped forward for a closer look.

‘Milo?’ he exclaimed. ‘Pull the other one! He was down for a ten-year stretch, minimum.’

‘According to Dorling, he got out six months ago. They found one of these at the scene.’ He nodded towards the chip. ‘This is one he gave me after a job we pulled together in Macau. Back when we were still talking.’

‘Well then, all we have to do is wait. He’ll just follow his usual MO and ransom it back.’

‘I think he’s picked up some new moves while he’s been away. This time he left a message.’

‘What sort of a message?’

‘A black cat. Dead. Nailed to the wall. The chip was in its mouth.’ He shook his head, as if to shake the grotesque image from his mind, but found that every time he blinked its ghostly outline reappeared in front of him, as if it had somehow been seared on to the back of his eyelids.

Archie sat down slowly on the opposite other side of the card table. He picked the chip up and considered it for a few seconds, then locked eyes with Tom.

‘And you think it was meant for you, don’t you?’

‘I think it was meant for Felix, yes.’ Tom was surprised at the instinctive anger in his voice. That name sat uncomfortably with him now, reminding him of a past life and a past self that he was trying to forget, to leave behind. Only Milo was trying to drag him back.

‘It’s a bit bloody crude, isn’t it, even for him?’

‘He’s a showman. He likes to shock people.’

‘What do you think he wants?’

‘To let me know he’s back?’ Tom speculated irritably. ‘To show me that he’s not lost his touch? That he’s still number one? Take your pick.’

‘You don’t think it’s a threat?’

‘No.’ Tom gave a confident shake of his head. ‘We have an understanding. More of a debt, really. Milo operates by this old-fashioned code of honour, a hangover from his days in the Legion. According to his code he owes me a life, because I helped save his once. Until he repays it, he won’t touch me.’

‘But now you’ve swapped sides,’ Archie reminded him. ‘Whatever debt you two had don’t count for nothing no more.’

‘You mean we’ve swapped sides,’ Tom corrected him, with a nudge.

Archie mumbled something under his breath and fumbled for his cigarettes.

‘Do you have to?’ Tom frowned as he lit up.

‘I’ve been gagging for one all afternoon.’ He took a deep drag and sighed contentedly.

‘Why, where have you been?’

‘Over at Apsley House, remember?’

‘Oh, yeah.’

‘You should have seen the bird that runs the place.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Fit as a butcher’s dog.’

‘So you’re glad you went?’ Tom laughed.

‘I was till she gave me this,’ Archie sighed, handing over the CCTV still. ‘Now I’m not so sure.’

Tom studied the picture for a few seconds, attempting to extrapolate the man’s face from the narrow sliver of his features that hadn’t been obscured. He suddenly fixed Archie with an incredulous look.

‘Is that Rafael?’

‘That’s what I thought too. It’s the only shot they got of him. He dodged the other cameras.’

‘It can’t be him.’ Tom shook his head in disbelief. ‘He’d have let me know if he was over here.’

‘You were away when this happened.’

‘What was he after?’

‘Part of a dinner service. They rumbled him before he could get to it. He’s a better art forger than he is a thief.’

‘A dinner service?’ Tom looked up with a frown. ‘The Egyptian dinner service?’

‘You know it?’

‘It’s one of a pair. I saw the other one once at the Kuskovo Estate near Moscow.’

‘Well, next time maybe he should try his luck there instead,’ Archie laughed. ‘He certainly ballsed this one up.’

Tom silently considered the grainy image, his brain furiously calculating all the possible reasons Rafael might have had to try and pull off a job like this. The problem was, none of them made sense. Just like this picture didn’t make sense. If Rafael had managed to avoid all the other cameras, why allow himself to be seen in this one, even if he was only barely recognisable? He would have known it was there, same as the others.

Unless that was the whole point. Unless he wanted to be seen. The question was, by who?

Ginza District, Tokyo

19th April – 6.02 a.m.

This was a sanctuary. A refuge. A place to escape the sensory assault of the outside world. The choking fumes from the long ribbons of traffic, cut into neat strips where the streets crossed. The deafening floods of people, the roar of their heavy footsteps as they funnelled obediently along the sidewalks in different directions, depending on the time of day. The blinding strum of the persuasive neon, the advertising signs preaching their different religions high above the heads of those passing below, heads bowed as if in prayer.

Here there were no windows, and no way in, apart from a solitary, soundproofed door that could only be opened from the inside. The air was filtered and chilled, the walls covered in the same black Poltrona Frau leather used by Ferrari, the recessed lights waxing to nothing more than a lunar glow before waning back into darkness at the press of a switch.

There was a single chair positioned in front of a blank screen that took up almost an entire wall. A man was sitting in it, naked. To his left was a glass of iced water. His head, face, chest, arms, legs and groin were totally bald, giving him the appearance of a grotesque oversized baby. From the way he was sitting, it was also impossible to see his penis, giving him a strange, androgynous quality that his distended stomach, swollen breasts and delicate bone structure did nothing to dispel.

He pressed the small remote balancing on his lap. The screen flickered on, a searing rectangle of white light that made the colourful brocade of tattoos that snaked over his entire upper body ripple as if alive. From all around him came the low hum and hiss of the concealed surround speakers.

Now an image appeared. A man. Terrified. His arms pressed flat against a doorframe. Then someone else stepped into the picture, a hammer in one hand and two nails in the other. The first man’s eyes widened in sudden understanding. The nail went through his wrist, the metal stretching his median nerve across its blunt tip like the strings over the bridge of a violin, his thumbnail drawing blood where the reflex had caused it to embed itself into his palm. He screamed, the saliva dribbling down his chin, then fainted. Reaching for the remote, the viewer turned the volume up.