The Lost Relic

Chapter Sixty-Five

Ben looked hard at Darcey Kane, and could see nothing but sincerity in her eyes.

‘I had my suspicions,’ she said. ‘Too many things didn’t add up. Meanwhile, someone was working hard to keep key evidence out of my sight. The way Tassoni’s surveillance DVDs seemed to go walkies, for instance.’

‘They’d been taken right after the killing,’ Ben said. ‘I checked.’

‘And the whole way it was carried out – I just didn’t think you’d have been that sloppy.’

‘I’ll take that as a compliment. So who killed Tassoni?’

‘The people I used to work for.’

‘SOCA?’

She shook her head, pointed at the sky. ‘The gods. The ones tugging on the puppet strings. The people who tell SOCA what to do, and set me up to catch you just the same way they set you up to take the fall for their dirty work.’

‘Why me?’ Ben asked.

‘Because you killed Anatoly Shikov,’ Darcey said. ‘Son of Grigori Shikov, the world’s most wanted and elusive Russian mobster, and Urbano Tassoni’s buddy in crime. They were trying to work Tassoni to get to him. Thanks to Tassoni, they knew all about the gallery job in advance. When it went wrong, they decided to cut their ties with Tassoni and pin it on you, just so they could grab you and dangle you out there as bait. They knew Shikov would send someone after you for revenge. Once he’d taken you back home and had you tortured to death, they’d have something to charge him with.’

Ben suddenly remembered. ‘There was a GPS tracker in my shoe.’

‘There you go. They’ll have planted it there after they arrested you. That’s how they were planning to catch Shikov in the act. But I wanted to get to you first. I’ve been watching the hospital, waiting until they transferred you to jail. I had a feeling the Russians would make their move then.’

Ben thought long and hard. It all sounded ugly enough to be perfectly plausible. Just one vital piece was missing. ‘How does a field agent become privy to this kind of information?’

‘Three days ago, I met an informant in Paris. A young MI6 agent called Jamie Lister, who decided he still had some integrity left in him. I wasn’t sure I believed him at first, but when someone tries to kill me to stop me finding out the truth, I know I’m onto something.’

‘The informant’s dead?’

‘Along with the guy I was working with, Paolo Buitoni. And that pisses me off too. I don’t like innocent people around me dying.’

‘I can sympathise,’ Ben said. ‘But what do you want from me?’

‘As of three days ago, I’m officially a rogue agent, right there at the top of the hit list. A fugitive, like you.’

‘So?’

‘So, I thought maybe we could help each other.’

‘As in team up together? You and me?’

‘You don’t have to make it sound so terrible.’

‘Haven’t you fallen a little low, Agent Kane?’

She shrugged. ‘You’re somewhat rusty, maybe. Somewhat past your peak. But I’ve seen worse.’

‘Flattery isn’t going to change my mind, Darcey. Why should I trust you?’

‘Because I’m a wonderful and sincere person and I’m completely on the level here. You have nothing to fear from me, I swear.’

‘I’ve heard that line from you before.’

‘Please.’

‘I stayed in Italy so I could take care of certain business,’ Ben said. ‘My business, not yours.’

‘You want payback for what happened at the gallery. You want to go after Grigori Shikov. I know that now.’

Ben nodded. ‘He and Tassoni planned the robbery together. Now Tassoni’s dead. I don’t care who did it. All I know is that Shikov is next. And that’s none of your concern.’

‘Getting Shikov absolutely is my concern,’ she said firmly.

‘You want to catch the big fish? Reckon if you score enough little Brownie points your former employers will let you go back to your old life?’

Darcey’s face tightened. ‘You think I’m just a career girl?’

‘You’ve been doing a good job of it so far, by the looks of things.’

‘Well there might be more to me than you think, Ben Hope.’

‘Surprise me,’ he said. He could see a glow burning in her eyes, like a storm building.

‘You know what the Black Shark is?’ she asked him.

‘The Russian Kamov Ka-50 attack helicopter,’ Ben said. ‘Probably the most sophisticated combat chopper ever built. It can run rings around our Mk1 Apache, and it carries enough weapons payload to destroy a city. But I don’t see the connection.’

‘Imagine those being deployed against our forces in Afghanistan.’

Ben could imagine it. It wasn’t a pretty picture. ‘So?’

‘So maybe I feel I have a moral obligation to stop that from happening,’ she said. ‘And maybe there are things going on behind the scenes here that you don’t know about. Like, for instance, the fact that Grigori Shikov is just about to sign a deal that would put two stolen Black Sharks into the hands of the Taliban. We’ve got to stop that deal from going through.’

Ben stared at her.

‘Jamie Lister was willing to put everything on the line for something he believed in,’ Darcey went on. ‘To stop innocent people from dying and bad people from killing. And guess what – I feel I need to do the same. I want to do something good. You don’t know what it feels like, being used as a pawn in someone’s dirty little game. I’d never go back to that again.’

‘Believe me, I know exactly what it feels like,’ Ben said. ‘It’s why I left the army. But I don’t think you came here to listen to my life story.’

‘Will you help me, Ben?’ she asked. He could see from the look in her eyes that she meant every word.

‘And then what?’ he said. ‘When it’s over? They’ll keep coming after you. They won’t stop until you’re dead.’

In the distance, a car was approaching along the main road. They both watched as it neared the entrance to the picnic area, then passed by and carried on out of sight.

‘I know they will,’ Darcey said. ‘And you, too. It’s too late to go back.’

‘You might be right,’ he said.

‘We’re together in this, Ben, whether we choose it or not.’ Darcey’s face relaxed a little. ‘Besides, you need me more than you think you do.’

He smiled. ‘Really? I need you?’

‘Look at you, for Christ’s sake. You won’t make it three kilometres looking like that. You don’t even have any shoes.’

Ben glanced down at himself. The blue overalls were streaked with dirt and torn where he’d been struggling against the Russians. One of Darcey’s bullet hits had left a conspicuous blood spatter across his chest and shoulder. His socks had worn through from running over the rough concrete forecourt earlier, and the grass was prickling his feet through the holes.

‘Think you can find me something to wear without getting caught?’ he said.

‘Says the man who gets himself nicked for bar-room brawling. I’ll manage. So is that a yes?’

‘All right. But we do this my way. And you have to call me Sir.’

She grinned. ‘Go fuck yourself.’

‘Well, maybe that part’s negotiable.’ Ben picked up Boonzie’s G36 rifle, stuffed it back in the holdall, zipped the bag shut and slung it in the van. ‘Do you have any money?’

‘Not much,’ she admitted.

‘Where’d you get the vehicle?’

‘Stole it.’

‘I have some cash,’ he said. ‘It’s in my bag, in a locker.’

‘At the airport. I know. I watched you put it there. Then let’s go.’ Darcey climbed in the driver’s side. ‘You’d better ride in the back.’

‘We’ll have to ditch this thing afterwards,’ he said, climbing in next to the holdall and slamming the back doors shut behind him. ‘We can take a train to Monaco.’

Darcey twisted the ignition. ‘Tuxedos, roulette tables, superyachts. Wasn’t quite what I had in mind.’

‘Nor me,’ Ben said. ‘Not really my style. I was thinking about visiting an old lady there.’

‘See, now, that’s much more like it. An old lady.’

‘Her name’s Mimi Renzi,’ Ben said. ‘And I’m pretty certain she has something interesting to tell us.’