Deception

SIXTY-THREE

‘One of these days I’ll have a proper meeting in an office with an appointment and everything,’ Harry said, as a tall, thin man sat down beside him. ‘Who are the flat tops?’ He was referring to the men he’d spotted trying to blend in with the tourist crowd in Kensington Gardens. They were not doing too well, and were too fit and smart, in an overtly military kind of way.

‘They work for US Army Intelligence. Don’t worry about them, Mr Tate — they’re pretty harmless.’ The man smiled. ‘As a matter of interest, how many can you see?’

Harry didn’t need to look. One was stationed under the trees against the backdrop of moving traffic along the Bayswater Road; a second was standing by the Round Pond watching two swans; and two more were on the move along the Broad Walk in front of Kensington Palace, but never straying too far and trying not to look directly at Harry and his new companion. ‘Four.’

The smile dropped. ‘Four it is.’ The man held out a hand. ‘Greg Turpowicz. It’s good of you to meet with me.’ He sounded relaxed and genial, a man with time on his side. His hand was dry, the grip firm but with the underlying power of a man who kept himself in good physical shape.

‘Good’s got nothing to do with it, Master Sergeant. I need information.’

The American looked stunned. ‘You know my background?’

‘It wasn’t difficult. The accent couldn’t have been Deakin, Nicholls has had a brainstorm and turned himself in, and I’d know Paulton’s voice anywhere. You were the only one left. And,’ he continued, waving a finger in a circular motion, ‘there are a few of our own flat top equivalents in the neighbourhood, too. Just to see that you play nice.’

Turpowicz couldn’t help it; he glanced around the park. ‘I don’t see ’em.’ One of the watchers picked up on the look and started to move, but the American shook his head to warn him off.

‘They’re here, take my word for it. If this was a film, you’d be able to see at least three red dots dancing on the front of your shirt.’

Turpowicz struggled not to glance down, and gave a nervous laugh. ‘I’m impressed. You must have connections.’ He watched two heavily built men in tracksuits walking a string of large dogs, and a small Asian woman almost being pulled off her feet by another pack. ‘Is it true that this place is crowded with Russian agents? I hear this is where they come to do their drops and stuff.’

‘Only in books. What do you want?’ Harry didn’t want to exchange small talk about this place; he’d been forced to shoot dead the last person he’d been here with. Joanne Archer, a rogue Special Forces soldier, had shot Rik Ferris and turned her gun on Harry while attempting to kill a former Iraqi cleric in St James’s Park. He’d been left with no choice.

‘You off my back would be good, although,’ Turpowicz waggled a hand, ‘it’s kind of academic, now I’m back inside, so to speak.’ He added quickly, ‘Uh. . what’ll happen if I reach into my pocket?’

‘Do you need to?’

‘Just asking.’

‘Well, then, nothing. . as long as you do it slowly.’ He waited but Turpowicz had changed his mind. ‘You did a deal with the military, didn’t you?’

‘Yeah, sort of. How’d you know?’

‘I checked with Fort Knox and got blanked. And the US military wouldn’t assign a four-man protection team if you were still out there and running.’

‘Blanked?’ He frowned at the word. ‘Oh, you mean the runaround.’ He smiled. ‘All this time with Deakin and I still don’t get British slang. But “blanked” I like. Says what it means.’ He crossed his legs. ‘Yeah, it’s true, I did a deal. I also heard you’d been checking up on me. How did you pick up my name?’

‘McCreath heard the abbreviation. When Fort Knox got tricky about telling us who it might refer to, I knew there had to be something to it.’

‘But they didn’t give you my full details, right?’

‘Not directly.’ Harry wasn’t about to dump Garcia in the pan. She had done what she thought was right, for her own reasons. ‘We bugged Major Dundas’s desk. He talks as he types. Very sloppy security.’

Turpowicz made a noise with his mouth. ‘Seriously?’

‘What do you want? You want to trade with us, too?’

‘Not exactly. I want to give you Deakin. Interested?’

‘Why? His activities are nothing to do with the US military. The nearest he came to US army personnel was you.’

‘That’s correct. Let’s just say that I have my orders.’

‘Go on. .’

Turpowicz shifted in his seat. ‘You’re right, I made a deal with the military. Full disclosure for a light sentence. I tell them — and you — what you want to know, and I get my life back in maybe ten months’ time.’ His voice was flat, matter-of-fact, a recital. He might seem relaxed, but there was a tension about him like a ripple in the air.

‘How did they make contact?’

‘I got careless one night in Germany several moons back and ran into a couple of undercover military cops. I was already having doubts about Deakin, so I told them I was in contact with the Protectory and suggested I could be of use. They made some calls. The answer came back to let me run as long as I stayed in touch. I had no choice — I said yes.’

‘Interesting,’ said Harry. ‘So to get this straight, even though you stood by while Deakin and his two bulldogs murdered at least two British army personnel, made an armed raid on a British police station and killed three police officers, tried to kidnap a close friend of mine, actually abducted and beat a colleague of mine and shot a woman, you get to walk away for being a good boy?’

‘Hey — that wasn’t any of my doing,’ Turpowicz protested heatedly. Then he dropped his voice. ‘I had no control over what Deakin was using those two psychos for. Most of the time he never said what they were doing until it was done.’ He pounded his knee angrily. ‘I reported what I knew as soon as I could, every time.’

‘What was the response?’

Turpowicz said nothing, so Harry said, ‘They told you to play along, didn’t they?’

‘I couldn’t help it, man!’ For the first time, the American sounded passionate, his voice low. ‘I didn’t trust Deakin not to get suspicious and set Zubac and Ganic on me. And I wasn’t exactly in the clear with the military, either. The message was simple: I either stuck with it or they picked me up and I’d be doing serious time in the military stockade at Leavenworth. So I agreed to go along with it.’

‘Nice people you work for.’ It was easy to condemn the man, although Harry could see his dilemma. A rock and a hard place. ‘Was that the deal — a lighter sentence?’

‘Pretty much. It was all I had worth asking for. I figured they were worried about US military personnel being sucked in and used to trade military secrets. I had to look out to make sure it didn’t happen.’

‘How?’

‘Easy. The moment anyone showed up, I had to report it in. They’d have been lifted immediately. Fact is, no one did. Our runners all bug out for different places and keep their heads down. Deakin and Nicholls were strictly after their own, although I reckon Deakin would’ve got round to trading US personnel some day. He doesn’t like to let the grass grow — and he’s impatient to make a big score.’

‘Who were his clients?’

‘I only ever met one. The rest he kept close to his chest, did all his own trading. When I first met up with them, Nicholls was the one who found the people and Deakin did the selling. Then gradually it changed, and Nicholls became less involved, especially after Paulton showed up. I liked Nicholls but he was a sick man. I wasn’t surprised when he cut and run.’

‘What was Paulton’s position in the Protectory?’

‘A partner, I guess. He showed up one day, and he was in. Deakin claimed he had the inside track on contacts of foreign governments where they could sell stuff, and that made him the golden boy. Personally, I reckon he was aiming to stage a takeover.’ He shook his head. ‘He was a manipulative son of a bitch, I know that. Subtle, though, so you didn’t notice. He never came at anything head on, know what I mean?’

Harry knew all right. ‘How did you pick up on it?’

Turpowicz grunted. ‘Because I’m a simple guy from a farming background. I don’t deal in subtleties and I take people as I find them. Paulton was too smooth. I just know a mover and shaker when I see one. I didn’t like him from the moment I met him.’

‘Good. We have something in common. It didn’t seem to bother him, trading secrets and personnel for money?’

‘No. I think he got a real kick out of the whole idea, like it was getting one over on teacher, you know?’

‘You said you met one client. Who was that?’

‘Wien Lu Chi. Chinese, Deakin said, one of their middlemen. Smooth as a snake and probably as dangerous. That was a few days ago.’

‘In Bremen.’

Turpowicz looked shocked. ‘You knew?’

‘Yes. And they’re right — television puts pounds on a face. What was the trade?’

‘We deliver a Lieutenant Tan — some highly placed aide to the Deputy Commander of your forces in Kabul — in return for a lot of money.’

‘How much?’

‘A million bucks. Deakin was doing a hard sell, saying he had access to this woman, and the guy lapped it up.’

‘Was Paulton there, too?’

‘No. He was meant to be, but he cried off at the last minute; said he was tied up.’ He sighed. ‘I was against the whole deal, but when Wien handed Deakin a case full of money as a down-payment, there was no going back. He gave us five days to come up with the goods.’ He shook his head. ‘It was insane; no way were we going to find her that quick. We didn’t even know where to begin — there was no sign of her anywhere.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ said Harry. ‘She never existed.’

A brief, frozen silence during which Turpowicz looked stunned. ‘You’re kidding!’

‘She was a ghost, laid to draw in the Protectory. You shouldn’t feel too bad — even Deakin’s man in London fell for it.’ So, he almost said, did I. But he decided that would be too much information.

Turpowicz shook his head. ‘Christ, were we ever suckered. In that case, you’d better move fast if you want Deakin and Paulton. If they’re still out there, anyway. I wouldn’t lay much on their chances when the Chinese get to hear about Tan. They’ve probably gotten them in their sights already.’

‘How did you manage to get away without them being suspicious?’

‘It was their idea. . well, Paulton’s, actually.’ Turpowicz looked a little sheepish. ‘He wanted a fall-back plan in case Zubac and Ganic failed to stop you. I was nominated to step in and do it instead.’

Harry nodded. ‘And you agreed with that?’

‘Sure. I’d already had contact with Army Intelligence, using a link with the UN. Soon as I could, I told them I was coming in.’ He rubbed his hands together. ‘They agreed, but said I had to come in to London, brief your people on everything I knew about Deakin and his crew, then return to the States. But I wanted to meet you, too. I may be a failed soldier, Mr Tate, but I’m no assassin.’

Harry didn’t believe him, but there was little he could do about it. There had been other deaths attributed to the Protectory, and Turpowicz must have been around at the time. Maybe he just had a well-developed instinct for survival. If the Chinese really wanted to get antsy with Deakin over the money they had paid, it was unlikely they would bother coming after Turpowicz once he was in the States.

He wondered how long Deakin had got left.

‘Where are Deakin and Paulton?’

Turpowicz gave him the name of a conference centre near Ghent, in Belgium. ‘It’s a hideaway place he’s used before. Lots of privacy. They’ll be there two more days, then they’re gone. Deakin’s using the name Phillips, Paulton is Goddard.’ He blinked. ‘Is that us done?’

Harry reached into his top pocket and took out a small black box. He’d got as much as he needed from this man. How Ballatyne used it was up to him. ‘Pretty much. This has been transmitting ever since you sat down.’

Turpowicz looked stricken, and glanced down to his side involuntarily, his mouth working. ‘Jesus. . they’ll kill me for this.’ He swallowed and reached into his side pocket and produced a similar sized box to the one Harry was holding. ‘They told me I had to use this to block any signal. . I forgot.’

‘Technology,’ said Harry. ‘It’s a bitch, isn’t it?’