The Hawk Is Dead

64

Monday 27 November 2023

‘I’m not sure about this,’ he said.

They stood at the top of the narrow, steep staircase, below the top few stairs, which were sealed off by a strip of red and yellow tape and a large sign:

‘I’m not sure about you,’ Rose Cadoret retorted tartly. She was wearing a dark blue dress a little shorter than dictated by the unspoken rules of standard Palace decorum. She ducked under the tape, and continued to the top, then stopped and stood on bare floorboards, getting her breath back for a moment while Jon Smoke caught up with her. Unlike last Monday, today was not his day off — all leave had been cancelled.

They stood in front of the jagged, unguarded opening that had been bashed through the wall, the flat, grimy ceiling above them. A cold draught blew on their faces.

‘You are a bloody fool,’ she said suddenly, with genuine fury in her voice. ‘You fucked up last Monday, and now you’ve fucked up again.’

‘Hey!’ he said. ‘Last Monday I had no choice. That was the closest together that they stood. If I hadn’t taken that shot, the opportunity would have been missed — and all our careful planning down the khazi.’

‘They walked out of the tunnel, all the way up those steep steps to the top, and there wasn’t one moment when they were closer together?’

‘Firstly you’ve got to understand that from that distance it’s very hard to hit a moving target with precision. I’m a sniper — I know.’

‘So why weren’t you closer?’

‘I was close enough.’

‘Clearly not.’

‘We hadn’t accounted for that Royal Protection Officer getting in the way.’

‘You’re a bloody RaSP too, for God’s sake. Didn’t you think he would get in the way?’

‘I did the best job I could. Greaves was on to us and we needed him dead. I seriously believe I made the right call at the tunnel.’

‘Then you went and threatened the witness, the woman walking her dog — why did you do that? No one else saw you, and your number plates were false. Other than that she saw a man on a motorbike, what was she going to be able to tell the police? Nothing. So why did you threaten her — just for sadistic fun?’

‘My bike is recognizable, Rose,’ he said, defensively.

‘Really? How many thousands of identical ones are there? And what do you think threatening her was going to achieve?’

‘We have to cover our backs.’

‘And Geoffrey Bailey? We all agreed you were going to put the frighteners on the little twat. We didn’t tell you to toss him in the gobbler and turn the whole Palace into a crime scene.’

‘You told me to silence him. He’s not talking much now.’

‘No? He’s bloody shouting now, at the top of his voice.’

‘Just calm down. Greaves and Bailey were our two immediate threats. Both have been eliminated. We just need to keep our shit together.’

She looked at him. There was both amusement and anger in her expression. And something else, he could read. Hunger.

‘So why’ve you brought me up here, Rose?’

‘You need to see this, because I’ve had an idea. This was a light shaft, going back to Georgian times, to allow light down into the lower levels of the Palace. Tommy is now converting it into a lift running from the basement up to the top floor — the former footmen’s floor, that’s now housing the Royal Household admin team. Take a look.’

Smoke suddenly felt very wary of this woman who, until this moment, he’d considered an ally and his partner in crime. And more.

To any stranger she appeared an attractive, demure and cultured lady. But he had seen a different side. The one he’d been privy to when they’d served together in Kabul, the brutal monster that resided inside her when she was on patrol. The one that had turned her into a killing machine more savage than even he had been.

And now she was looking at him in a very strange way.

Reaching the very edge, but keeping an anchoring arm firmly on the wall, and a wary eye on her, he leaned forward and peered down into the deep, draughty shaft. In the weak light at the very bottom he could see six thin, fierce-looking steel spikes rising vertically several feet. Retreating back to safety by stepping away from the opening, he turned to her. ‘How the hell is this open like this? Health and Safety would go nuts if they saw it.’

‘I opened it,’ she said with a smile that creeped him out. ‘And they won’t go nuts, because they won’t notice it. I’m going to cover it back up with plastic sheeting — which will be fine so long as no one leans against it.’

He looked at her. ‘And who are you planning to have lean against it?’

‘You know exactly who. Two’s company, three’s a crowd, right?’

‘Are you saying what I think you are saying? About a warehouse full of a lot of loot?’

Her eyes were smiling at him. ‘A very great deal of loot.’

‘And you think we could eliminate our third party?’

‘An unnecessary appendage? And do you think he’d hesitate for one moment about throwing us both under a bus if it came to the crunch? He’s never got his hands dirty, has he? He’s Mr Clever. Eliminate him and all our worries are over.’ She looked deadly serious.

He smiled. ‘There’s something about you,’ he said. ‘About your mind. How it works.’ He smiled again. ‘It turns me on.’

She stared back at him. Their eyes locking. Then, seconds later, their lips locked. Their tongues swirling crazily. She pressed the flat of her right hand against his right thigh and moved it up, suggestively, to his groin.

He slid up her dress, found the top of her underwear with his fingers, slipped two of them inside and down into her short, smooth hair, and down.

Pulling her mouth away from his for a second, she gasped, ‘God, you drive me crazy!’ Then she kissed him wildly again, this time her hands working his belt buckle, then his trouser zip.

‘Not here, we can’t!’ he said, breathless now.

‘Oh we can!’ she said. ‘Oh yes we can.’

Her eyes were glazed with lust — mad lust.

‘No!’ he hissed.

She pulled down his baggy, heavy trousers, then his boxer shorts, and took him in her mouth.

‘Shit! Oh God! You are—’

He was unable to resist now. She pulled down her own knickers and straddled him, on the bare wooden staircase. ‘Oh yes, Jon Smoke. I love it.’ She was gasping. ‘You know what you are? You know? You are the fuck at the end of the universe!’

‘You’re not so bad yourself,’ he said.

‘Bastard!’ She slapped him hard across the face, then kissed him again, even harder.