Dark Winter

46

We slid the three sports bags carefully into the rear footwells of the Mondeo, then slung our ready bags into the boot.

Even though she was soaked to the skin, her hair plastered against her head, Suzy was still on a high. ‘Did you see all that writing and the handprints?’

I nodded. ‘Yeah, same as the nine/eleven crew, I reckon – these fuckers wanted the world to know who they are and why they did it.’

Suzy got the key into the ignition. ‘It can’t have been DW in those spray cans. The girl must have gone back to spray the place up.’

I reached under my seat and retrieved the moan-phone. Suzy’s priority was her gum: she got chewing as soon as she’d pulled away from the kerb. Her jaws and the wipers were working overtime.

Rainwater dripped from my hair and nose on to the phone keys as I tapped in the Yes Man’s number.

‘Yes?’

I wondered if he’d ever thought of putting himself through charm school. ‘It’s done, we’re mobile. Three dead—’

‘You have Dark Winter?’

‘Yeah, twelve bottles. Three vaporizing kits still in the building, but four sets of tube tickets, and maps targeting mainline stations. It’s the tube, it was going to happen tomorrow for sure.’

‘Any of the bottles open?’

‘No, all still sealed. They’ve sprayed the place and ID’d themselves with handprints. Same cans as we found in King’s Lynn. What about the fourth bag? You reckon we should lift the source? Find out what he knows? There’s something wrong there.’

There was a pause. ‘There’s always something wrong with those people. We have control of Dark Winter – that is all that matters for now. Wait out.’ His voice went muffled; he must have put a finger over the mike, but I still heard him. ‘We have possible Underground systems, get a message out.’ He came back to me loud and clear. ‘How far are you from Pimlico?’

We were passing Madame Tussaud’s, heading west, the wipers still in a frenzy. ‘Maybe fifteen minutes, twenty at the most.’

‘Yvette is on her way. I want you to leave everything in the car and give her the keys. You’re now weapons free – understand?’

‘Yep.’

‘Wait out at the flat. I’ll be there later.’ There was a pause. ‘Excellent work, both of you.’ The phone went dead before I realized he was talking to me.

Suzy powered down her window and turned up the heater, then wiped condensation off the windscreen as rain hit the side of her face. ‘What now?’

‘We’re weapons free. The Golf Club’s taking the car, and we have to wait out at the flat. He’ll be arriving later to hand out tea and medals.’

She smiled ruefully. ‘We did well, Norfolk boy – we really did.’

I opened the glove compartment and took out a blister pack of antibiotics as her window went back up. ‘Here’s a thing,’ I said. ‘He finished off by saying we’d done an excellent job. Either he’s had a personality transplant, or he had an audience.’

‘He’s hardly going to be sitting there on his own.’

‘That’s not what I’m getting at. There were American and German voices in the background earlier today, and when I told him about the tube maps, he called out to someone close by that it was the Underground systems. Systems, plural. We’ve only got one here . . .’

She thought for a while, rolling the gum between her front teeth with her tongue. ‘I reckon if there are other targets we deserve extra medals and even more tea.’

‘You’ll definitely be getting permanent cadre now, won’t you?’

She didn’t reply. With that grin on her face, she didn’t need to.

I popped four capsules from the blister pack and passed two across to her. ‘Listen, thanks for helping me out back there. I couldn’t see a fucking thing.’

‘You looked a bag of shit.’ She gave me an extra big smile before concentrating once more on the road. ‘But don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody.’

She was silent for a moment. ‘I suppose you’ll be back to the States soon, seeing Kelly, sorting out stuff?’

‘Yeah, and you’ll be watering your hanging plants and all that shit in your conservatory and poncing around in your Blue Lagoon, or whatever it’s called.’

This time she gave me the sort of expression mothers in supermarkets normally saved for their small children. ‘The conservatory’s only half built, and it’s Blue water , dickhead, the shopping centre. If it was the Blue Lagoon, I wouldn’t worry about seeing it from the kitchen window.’

We drove into the square.

‘Nick?’

‘What?’

‘What if you’re right? What if they are planning attacks in the US? Where does that leave Kelly?’

I nodded as the white Transit came into view, parked and two-up. I’d been asking myself the same question.

Suzy found a space nearly opposite the flat, close enough to see the light on in the front room. She killed the engine and we sat there for a moment, listening to the drumming of the rain. ‘Tell you what, Suzy, I’ll stay in the car until the Golf Club comes down. We don’t want any of this lot getting nicked, do we?’

She pulled out the 9mm from her pancake holster to add to the rest of the ops kit scattered around the car. I shook my head. ‘Better hang on to that, just in case there’s a drama.’ I drew down my own pistol, and stuck it under my thigh. ‘Behind us, further down the road, we’ve got the Transit, two-up. They might be with the Golf Club, but then again they might not. I’ll keep an eye on them, just in case.’

She checked safe and reholstered. ‘See you in a minute.’ She smiled. ‘Don’t drink the merchandise.’

She headed for the flat, and as she disappeared inside the hallway I checked traser: it was nearly five. I got my own phone out and called Carmen, keeping an eye on the two-up as best I could through the rain-splattered windows.

The phone rang and rang, before BT told me that no one was available to take my call but they could take a message. Shit, she had turned off the phone.

Yvette came out of the front door and down the steps, just her eyes visible through her Gore-Tex storm hood. She was carrying the Packet Echo suitcase.

I cut off the power, shoved the phone in my bumbag, and checked that the keys were still in the ignition. The Browning went back down my jeans as she opened the driver’s door, put the case in the back and climbed in. ‘Well done, Nick.’ Her voice just about made it through the fabric of the face shield. She pulled it down and I saw her tight cheeks crease into a smile.

Not sure how to respond, I explained what was in the car and where. She nodded avidly, as if she had more to say and was dying to tell me. ‘This has saved so many lives, Nick.’ She put her hand out and shook mine sheepishly, as if I was royalty. ‘Well done, and thank you.’

I felt a strange pain in the centre of my chest. I wasn’t used to this sort of treatment: what I normally got was a bollocking, and an instruction to get back under my rock until next time. ‘What now, just wait out?’

‘He should be here soon.’

‘How many attacks have been planned? This isn’t the only one, is it?’

It was worth a shot, but she was too much of an old sweat. Her cheeks creased once more. ‘I have to take the vehicle away now, and you have to stay in the flat until he comes.’

She pushed in the clutch and found first gear. As she turned the ignition key, I pulled the stick back into neutral. ‘Look, I need to know if there are attacks planned in the States. Kelly’s going home to Baltimore this morning. I need to know, should she stay here? Please, she’s just fourteen. She’s already had more than enough shit in her life.’ I suddenly understood how Simon must have felt. I knew begging wouldn’t work, but maybe she had children of her own. It was my only chance: the Yes Man wouldn’t tell me jack shit.

She lifted her left leg and she released the clutch. ‘You put me in a difficult position, Nick.’

I fixed her eyes with mine. ‘I’m sorry, she’s all I have. I need to know if she should go back tomorrow or if she’d be safer here.’ It was pointless saying any more.

She looked out of the windscreen at nothing in particular, and took a couple of uncharacteristically deep breaths. I sat and listened to the engine ticking over for what seemed like for ever. ‘Nick, I think it might be better if she stayed in the UK for just a few more days. Thanks to you and Suzy, things should be resolved by then. You’ll be staying here for a while anyway. I’ll contact you.’

I opened the door as the clutch went back down and she got in gear. ‘Thank you.’

She didn’t answer, busying herself with the headlight switch as I got out. As I turned to close the door, another set of lights came on. It was the Transit.

‘Nick?’ I bent down so that I could hear her above the noise of the engine. ‘You didn’t mention leaving your weapon . . .’ I jumped back in and pulled the Browning from my jeans and two spare mags from under the seat. ‘It’s still loaded and made ready.’ I couldn’t hold my gratitude. ‘Look, I really want to thank—’

She waved it away. ‘I just hope Kelly responds well to her therapy.’

I closed the door, and the car pulled away from the kerb. Sundance and Trainers stared straight ahead as they passed in the Transit. They’d have probably preferred to stay and give me a good kicking, but they had a more important job to do – to make sure no one rammed the Golf Club in the back and damaged the bottles. They were probably heading for one of the Firm’s secure buildings dotted around the city – or maybe the Battersea heliport, en route to Porton Down in Wiltshire, where Simon’s mates could play about with the microbes.

Now that we were weapons free, that was it, finished, job done.