Мик Херрон - Real Tigers

All of them , Dame Ingrid had said. The Slough House crew too.

He watched the black-clad wannabes at work, some unpacking equipment from the back of their van—a pair of quick-assembly scaffolding towers on which klieg lights perched—while others hopped and jumped from shadow to shadow, preparing their ground, and looking like they were having fun, but only because they’d never done this for real before. If he were of a sentimental persuasion, Duffy might have mused that once upon a time he’d been like that himself, but he wasn’t, and he hadn’t, so he simply stooped to the holdall at his feet and pulled out a black silk balaclava. Black for night, silk for coolness—even now, the heat persisted; like a bakery where the ovens had only just been turned off—but most of all, a balaclava so his face wasn’t on show. When this was over, the Black Arrows were going to be left holding the body bags, and it would be nicer all round if they had no descriptions to chuck about.

Then he checked his guns, checked his ammunition, and went down to take charge.

On thetop landing, Lamb found a padlocked door and thought: okay, that resembles a clue. The key was no doubt in Sunny Jim’s pocket, and it wouldn’t take two minutes to pop back downstairs and collect it, but it didn’t look like anyone was about to volunteer, so he simply bellowed “Standish? You might want to step back,” and without further warning applied his foot. The first kick threw splinters and pulled the metal clasp holding the padlock halfway out of the frame. The second completed the job, and the door slammed inwards, hit the wall, and bounced back closed. In the split second between, he saw Catherine Standish, framed in another doorway, holding something in her hand. When he pushed the broken door open once more and stepped through it, she was still there, but her hands were empty.

Lamb looked at her, looked around the room, looked at her again, and said, “Thought this was a kidnapping, not an awayday.”

“The lock was on the outside,” she pointed out.

“I’ve seen more secure rabbit hutches.” Walking past her, he poked his head through the doorway into the bathroom. “It’s en suite, for God’s sake.”

“Maybe. But I requested non-smoking,” she told him.

“That’s a really bad habit, that passive-aggressive shit.” But he lobbed his cigarette at the toilet anyway. It bounced off the seat, and disappeared behind the sink pedestal, where it probably wouldn’t start a fire and burn the building down.

Catherine said, “What did you do with Bailey?”

“If he’s the work-experience type they left in charge, he’s having a lie down. Another old flame, is he?”

“How much of a lie down?”

“I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re asking.” Lamb had spotted the tray now, and made a beeline for it. “Don’t get me wrong, I disapprove of Service personnel being abducted. But it’s not like you’re important.”

Deliberating for a moment, he scowled at the apple, pocketed the flapjack and tore open the sandwich.

“Who’s with you?”

“Nobody.”

“You came by yourself?”

She couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her voice.

“Yes. Well, Ho drove.” Lamb bit into the sandwich and made a face. “Christ. How long’s this been sitting there?”

“What did Donovan want?”

“In return for you?” Lamb chewed for a moment, swallowed, then took another bite. Once his mouth was full, he went on, “Well, he says he wants the Dipshit Chronicles.”

Catherine looked confused, then more so. “The Grey Books?”

“Yeah, that was my reaction. On the other hand, if, as seems likely, he shagged you back in the way-back-when, it’s more plausible.” Another pause for chewing. “On the grounds that he’s obviously a nutcase, I mean.”

“Can we leave now?”

“I haven’t had my flapjack yet.” He paused, and sniffed the sandwich. “Has this got cheese in it?”

“Oh God, not again. Turn round.”

Lamb did so, and a moment later felt her peel something from the seat of his trousers. When he turned back, Catherine was holding a flattened disc of what looked like mozzarella. “Always check before you sit down in Roddy’s room. What are your laundry bills like?”

“What’s a laundry bill?”

She left the room ahead of him, and paused on the landing for a moment to look back. Lamb didn’t bother. It was an ordinary room, and nothing much had happened in there. There were worse things to endure than boredom.

From the next landing, they could see Bailey’s comatose body in the hallway. He looked like he might have been asleep, Catherine reflected, if people generally smashed their faces against an anvil before settling down for the night. “He’s only a kid, Jackson,” she said.

“He had a gun. Why d’you call him ‘Bailey’?”

“He had a camera too.”

Lamb thought about that for a moment, then dismissed it. “Well, you’re gonna have to wake him up now. I want to know what Donovan’s really after.”

“Because you don’t think he’s really a nutcase.”

“Well, he’s probably that too. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t got a hidden agenda.”

She said, “Thanks for coming to get me, Jackson.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t?”

“Oh, I knew you would. I just thought there’d be more mayhem involved, that’s all.”

And that was when Roderick Ho drove a bus through the front door.

“They’re BlackArrow,” Traynor said.

Black Arrow, and they were moving down the corridor the way it was done in the movies; one forging ahead a few yards then dropping to a crouch, allowing another to overtake him, and secure the next few yards. Most held nightsticks; some carried what might be guns, but looked too clunky. Tasers, River thought, triggering a sense-memory at the base of his spine. He’d encountered Tasers before.

Louisa said, “Your crew?”

“They wish.” Traynor looked at Douglas. “Where are they? Where is that?”

Douglas, who was still on the floor, shrugged sulkily.

“Christ on a bike,” Traynor muttered. He grabbed Douglas by the collar, hauled him to his feet, and pointed him at the screen. “That. Where are they?”

It took Douglas’s voice a moment or two to catch up with his lips. “That’s C Corridor.”

“A big help. Where’s C Corridor?”

“This side of B,” Douglas explained.

“How far are they from the warehouse room?”

“That’s just after E Corridor.”

Traynor said, “Okay.” Taking his gun from his belt he checked its load, then held it loosely by his side. “Right, change of plan. I’m going that way.” He pointed towards the corridor down which Donovan had disappeared. “Make sure you’re not in our way when we head back.”

“You still have our colleague,” Louisa said.

“She’ll be released at nine come whatever. Unharmed. You think we’re animals?”

“Jury’s still out.”

River’s eyes were on the monitor on which the Black Arrow crew were securing the complex. “You plan to shoot them?”

“I plan to back up my CO.”

“They’re Noddy squad,” River said. “They’ve got sticks and stones.”

“Some of them are ex-forces,” Traynor said. “And they’re not all unarmed. Ever worked private security?”

“Not yet,” Louisa muttered.

“Trust me. The types who do are the kind to squirrel away illegal handguns.”

“What are you really after?”

But Traynor was gone; through the swing doors, and off down the corridor at a trot.

River looked at Douglas. “Do you keep weapons down here?”

“Are you kidding?”