Dark Winter

49

Heading north fast, I stopped the Vectra at a public call-box and made a frantic but hopefully calm-sounding call to Hughes’s office, bluffing it by asking if Kelly had called to say goodbye. Maybe she’d managed to escape and made her way to the clinic, or even left a message.

They hadn’t heard a thing.

I knew the Yes Man’s contact number would now be non-existent but tried it anyway. I was right. I thought about calling George, but what good would that do? He would have been part of anything the Yes Man was up to, for sure. I had to get back to where I belonged, the flat, and wait out as I’d been ordered. It wouldn’t be long before the Yes Man contacted me and gave me another little job that I couldn’t refuse.

I parked in Warwick Square, trying to think of a way to get hold of the Yes Man. I couldn’t wait. I needed to know one way or the other. Then it came to me. I’d hit the panic button: that would get the QRF screaming round, with the Yes Man not far behind.

A young couple walked past, Habitat bags overflowing with bamboo plants. I crossed the road, pulled the key from my leather bomber, and was running up the steps when I heard a clipped Asian voice spark up behind me. ‘Hello? Hello?’

I turned. Grey had materialized from nowhere, same clothes on, smiling at me as if I was a lost child. ‘Do not be alarmed.’ He raised his hand. ‘Your daughter – go to the coffee shop, go now. Go, go.’

He was almost apologetic, making it sound as if I would be doing him a favour. All I wanted to do was grab his neck and twist it right there to find out more, but that wouldn’t help her. ‘You talking about Starbucks in Farringdon?’

‘Yes, go there now.’

I had to remain calm. ‘You know where she is?’

‘He will help you, go there now.’ With that he turned and walked away.

I ran to the car.

Why would the source know where Kelly was? Why would he even know she existed? Was the source fronting for the Yes Man? But at least something was happening. This is good, I kept trying to persuade myself. This is good.

Abandoning the Vectra a block away, I ran to Starbucks, stopped, walked in, got myself a brew, and sat facing the front windows, wanting to be seen.

Ten minutes went by and I needed a piss, but I couldn’t leave my seat. I couldn’t risk missing him.

I pulled the letter out again and started to read it. That was a mistake. It went back next to her passport, and I concentrated on sipping the brew. Under the table, my heels started to bounce. I couldn’t control my legs – it was as if they wanted to be on the move, they wanted to be doing something. I needed him to fucking well turn up, and right now.

Another couple of minutes and Grey walked past, right to left, eyes scanning the inside of the coffee shop.

Two girls, juggling their coffees and cells in one hand and recent purchases in the other, came and sat at the table opposite. Then there he was. He walked past the coffee shop, right to left, and disappeared. I knew he’d seen me, I knew I had to stay where I was. He’d just be confirming with Grey that I hadn’t turned up with a big bunch of mates. As if. I didn’t have any.

Less than a minute later I heard the door open from the courtyard. I didn’t turn round.

A hand fell gently on my left shoulder. ‘Hello.’

I turned back and saw Grey now covering the rear of the shop from the courtyard. Where was Navy? Was he with Kelly?

The source continued walking past me to the counter and placed an order. We got eye to eye again as the steam machine hissed into his cup.

My heels continued to bob as I watched him pick up his change, pass the girls sending texts, and come and sit directly opposite me at the small round table. He seemed to take for ever.

I could smell at once he was a smoker.

‘What’s happening with my—’

He held up a hand and showed me a mouthful of yellowing teeth. ‘Your daughter is safe.’

‘Why have you—’

‘Everything is OK.’ He tried a sip of coffee, but it was too hot so he put the cup down.

‘What the fuck do you mean, everything is OK? I’ve just been to the house.’

He nodded slowly. ‘Oh, I see.’ He looked down at his cup, as if considering another sip, then back at me. ‘Have you informed anyone about this?’

My feet stopped jiggling, my heart stopped beating. Even if I had done, I would have lied. ‘No, nobody.’

Two teenaged boys arrived and waved to the girls. We waited for them to settle down. I knew I had to stay calm and listen to every word he said. I normally did in these situations, but it wasn’t so easy now it was so close to home.

He pushed his cup gently to one side and leaned forward. ‘I need to keep her while you do something for me. It is a very simple task. You will go to Berlin, collect five bottles of wine and deliver them to me tomorrow night.’

Aggression wouldn’t help her, but a bit of it would help me. ‘Why can’t one of your fuckers go and get them?’

‘Because life is difficult now for dark or slant-eyed men trying to bring duty-free into this country – I’m sure you understand why.’

‘How do I know she’s OK? How do I know I’ll get her back alive?’

‘You don’t. But what choice do you have? It is a very simple task, and therefore a very simple threat. If you betray me or fail to deliver, you will learn what it’s like to see your child killed like an animal.’

He kept his eyes fixed on mine as he pulled a creased white envelope from his pocket. ‘Tell them you’ve been sent from London. They’re expecting you.’

He tapped the envelope with his right forefinger. ‘Call me once you are back. I have a new number, just for you. Just make sure I have those bottles before two a.m. Tuesday morning.’

‘To give you time to prepare the fourth bag before the morning rush-hour?’

‘Ah, you understand.’

I took the envelope. ‘Berlin been cancelled? Just the US now, unless I give you some help?’

His smile told me I was right. ‘My brothers in Berlin are experiencing a problem that means their martyrdom will prove swifter and less glorious than they had planned. They are disappointed, of course, but will experience Paradise all the same. And there are still nearly three million journeys a day taken on your tube system. A target worth the effort. As I’m sure you can appreciate.’ His bloodshot eyes narrowed. ‘Let me ask you something. How did you find out about King’s Cross? Did you meet Yasmeen?’

I said nothing and drank my brew.

He nodded slowly, his lips pursed. He was angry. ‘I warned them I’d be telling you people about the house once they had left.’

‘So that you could continue to be best mates with my boss?’

‘It was important to sustain my credibility, and keep your eyes away from what was really about to happen.’ He sighed. ‘Poor Yasmeen. So intelligent, so dedicated, but so unthinking in some areas. I told them to write their messages before leaving, though I do not approve of such gestures myself. Actions speak louder than words, do you not agree?’

I did, and wanted to give him a demonstration this very minute.

He took another sip and smiled. The fucker was actually enjoying this. ‘They feel they have to do it, because you people know nothing. The West is all about the here and now, it is all about nine/eleven. Up there, on the walls, Yasmeen and her brothers and sister talk about things that happened in the fifteenth century, but you don’t have a clue what they’re talking about, do you?’

I looked away. This wasn’t getting us anywhere. It certainly wasn’t getting me any closer to Kelly.

‘We’re all on a journey, and I am near the end of mine. We in JI are the architects of a new world. You people are still in the old, lovers of the Jews and the US. You still want to control Asia. The only way to stop you is with jihad , the Holy War. And so Bali, and now this.’

‘Why are you fucking about? Why didn’t you just warn them we were coming to King’s Cross? You knew what was going to happen, you gave them up. Why are you playing these fucking games?’

He interlocked his large brown hands and rested his forearms on the table. ‘I never play games. I have kept up this pretence for you people because you have threatened my family. I have two sons and I have been made to do things I would never have dreamed of to keep them safe.’

He waited for some kind of acknowledgement, but I didn’t have any to spare.

‘But now that you and your woman have discovered my brothers and sisters before they could carry out their operation, I must do it myself. It wasn’t a difficult choice to make. You see, I could have warned them, and of course they would have escaped. But what would have happened then? What action would have been taken? Close the system down, heighten the state of alert? You see, they had to die once you had discovered where they were. I simply took a bag from them before you arrived. They knew nothing then, but now they are in Paradise and understand the reason for their sacrifice. God understands what I have done to carry on the fight, and that my family will be killed by you people.’

His right index finger straightened and pointed at me. His eyes were fixed on mine. His voice had become very calm. ‘That is the reason we will win, and you will lose. You are all about now, wanting to live, wanting your child to live above all things, and that is what makes you weak. That is because you have no understanding of what lies beyond this world.’

He was right about life, but wrong about winning.

He got to his feet. ‘I will not detain you any longer.’

He turned and departed without another word, leaving me to gaze at his back, and then at the envelope on the table.

I pulled up the flap. It contained a Polaroid head and shoulders of Kelly in her Old Navy T-shirt, hair glued to her face with dried tears. I could only just make out her red and swollen eyes. Her head was resting against a TV showing BBC 24. There were several glass and brass religious ornaments lined up along the top of the cabinet.

The time bar in the corner of the screen said 8:47 and today’s date. I’d been watching this programme at exactly the same time her picture was taken. I turned it over. Handwritten in felt pen were his cell number and an address: Apartment 27, 22 Bergmannstrasse.