Close Quarters

FOURTEEN

The manager’s name was Yuriy and if he didn’t slow down he was heading for a seizure. He didn’t ask to see any papers but marched me down a flight of concrete stairs to the basement where there was the usual mishmash of equipment, stores and furniture awaiting repair. It smelled of damp and the drip-drip of water was echoing along the corridor.

‘That bloody pipe’s causing me serious problems,’ he muttered, gesturing at a growing pool of water on the floor. It looked fresh, without any covering of dust, and I guessed it was finding its way through the fabric of the building from the outside. ‘You need to stop it quickly. Can you do that?’

‘Of course. I’ll turn off the water supply and fix the pipe. It shouldn’t take long. Where are the stopcocks?’

He waved me towards the far end of the corridor. ‘I believe the controls are all down there. But you can’t turn them all off.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because it would screw up the heating. There are important people staying here.’ He made rabbits’ ears at the word ‘important’ and pulled a face to show his disgust. ‘They’ll have my balls if they can’t have their little luxuries. Try and find a way round it, can you? Isolate that damned water pipe.’ He checked his watch. ‘Look, I’ll have to leave you to it. Just do what you can. The tools are in a room down the end.’

I watched him go and checked for security cameras. There were none that I could see, but I made a show of grabbing a toolbox from the workshop just in case and made my way up the back stairs towards the fourth floor where I’d seen the broken pipe.

The layout on each floor was the standard design of a hotel: stairs and elevator, lobby and fire doors leading to a corridor running the length of the building with rooms on either side, with emergency stairs down the back. I checked each level through the glass panel in the doors but couldn’t see anyone. In spite of the manager’s comment about VIPs staying here, the place looked and felt deserted. I chanced a stroll down the corridor on the second floor and found no sign of occupation save for a couple of locked doors near the elevators.

It was on the third floor where things were slightly different.

I peered through the panel and saw an armed guard on the other side, standing about five doors down. Another guard was at the far end of the corridor, blocking entry from the other stairs and the elevator. Both men looked bored but wide awake.

I ducked back and went up another flight. No guard and an empty feeling in the air. Now I knew where Travis was being held.

I got on with finding the broken pipe while mulling over tactics in my head. I was in luck; it was located in a washroom at the end of the building, and I tracked it back to a stopcock in an inspection panel and turned it off. In spite of what I’d told Yuriy, I had a barely rudimentary knowledge of water systems, and had no idea if the stopcock would interfere with the rest of the building’s water supply or not. If it did, I had only a short time to locate Travis and get him moving before Yuriy and a bunch of angry VIPs came looking for my scalp.

I went down to the third floor and pushed through the door to the corridor. It got an instantaneous reaction from the nearest guard, who swivelled like he was on ball bearings and pointed his rifle at me.

‘No entry!’ he shouted. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’m the maintenance engineer,’ I told him, and made a show of putting down the toolbox and raising my hands. Over his shoulder I saw the other guard unslinging his rifle and walking towards us. ‘There’s a bad leak on the floor above. I need to turn off all the taps on this floor so I can isolate it.’

‘There’s nobody on this floor,’ he said, the gun dipping away slightly. ‘Try the other levels.’

‘I’ve already done that. Someone must have left a tap or shower running up here,’ I insisted. ‘I can tell by the flow of water. I’ll have to check the rooms — it won’t take a minute.’

The other guard had opened his mouth to add his two cents’ worth when he stopped and turned his head. He made a gesture for us to stop talking. The hum of an elevator was coming from the far end of the corridor.

‘You must leave,’ the first guard ordered, while his companion legged it back to his station. ‘Come back later.’ He prodded my toolbox with his boot. ‘And take that with you.’

As I turned to leave, the elevator pinged and the other guard hurried to pull the door open.

Four men walked past him without even looking at him. Three were dressed in combat uniforms and armed with assault rifles, while the man in the lead was in a grey suit, white shirt and tie.

‘Who is that man?’ Grey Suit called out, looking at me. ‘Get him off this floor.’

‘He’s building maintenance, sir,’ the guard replied. ‘There’s a water leak.’

‘I don’t care if he’s Mother Theresa. Get rid of him.’

As I was hustled through the door at the end, I turned to look back. The four men had stopped at the door where the nearest guard had been standing. Grey Suit nodded at one of his companions, who stepped forward and opened the door with a passkey and disappeared inside. Grey Suit followed, leaving the other two outside.

This wasn’t looking good. If Travis was in the room, I had a feeling he wasn’t going to stay here much longer.