The Sacred Sword

Chapter Sixty-One

Brown clasped his hands behind his back and walked to the French window, gazing out across the snowy garden as he went on. ‘Earlier this year, the Trimble Group recruited a new agent. A university professor who has made a career out of attacking and undermining Christian belief, something he’s proved rather good at. He’s extremely educated, intelligent, and above all, committed. His name is Penrose Lucas.’

Ben’s mind flashed back to the videotaped TV programme he’d watched briefly at the vicarage the night after the crash. Professor Penrose Lucas had been Simeon’s opponent in the debate on religion.

‘Publicly, Professor Lucas is known as an author and militant atheist activist with a growing following,’ Brown continued. ‘Privately, he’s been actively pursuing an agenda to discredit the Christian clergy. Every new allegation of corruption, whether financial or sexual — sexual misdemeanours strike the most scandalous note with the public, as you can imagine — serves to alienate society at large further from the church. War by attrition. Professor Lucas understood the concept very well, and even on a very limited budget he was getting impressive results.’

‘And so you decided to give him a helping hand,’ Ben said.

‘My colleagues and I considered that Lucas could become a very valuable asset to us indeed. We offered him a generous deal, to which he readily agreed. He’d be working for us, assisted by a Trimble Group liaison officer but with more or less complete independence to go on doing what he’d been doing before, except on a more ambitious scale. He was given free rein to pick his own targets, draw on our resources to set up phone taps and surveillance, hire whatever investigators or administrative staff he might require. Virtually anything he wanted, even his own personal jet. Lucas settled into his new headquarters on Capri and got down to work. Almost immediately, he announced his intention to target one Reverend Simeon Arundel.’

Ben was beginning to understand where this was leading, and his muscles were tensing with cold rage.

‘Naturally, we trusted Lucas’s instinct,’ Brown continued. ‘We weren’t unaware that he might have had some personal motive for choosing Arundel so specifically out of all the thousands of potential targets he might have picked, but we gave him a free hand nonetheless. It was clear that Arundel was the kind of go-ahead, popularist clergyman who might be capable of generating new interest in the church. He was a threat.’

Personal motive, Ben was thinking. He hadn’t forgotten the way that Simeon had trounced Penrose Lucas in the TV debate. He was pretty sure Lucas hadn’t forgotten the humiliation, either. It was all beginning to come together now.

‘A phone tapping and surveillance operation was therefore mounted on Reverend Arundel,’ Brown said, as though these things were done every day — which, Ben realised, they probably were. ‘Shortly afterwards, conversations were monitored between Arundel and one Father Fabrice Lalique, proving Professor Lucas’ instincts spectacularly correct.’

The sword, Ben thought.

Brown seemed to read his mind. He nodded. ‘Up to that point, they had managed to keep their little project secret. The question now was what should be done about it. There was concern among the group that the alleged sword of Christ could cause something of a stir among the religious community, especially among the hardline fundamentalist movements in America where it could potentially become regarded as a powerful emblem. Whether genuine or not, this damned sword could be a major setback for us.’

Brown paused and turned away from the window, fixing his pale watery gaze on Ben. ‘Now, you have to understand that the Trimble Group had given Professor Lucas a great deal of leeway to run his own operation. As I mentioned, we liaised with him via our operative — let’s call him Mr Green — who fielded whatever intelligence data was gleaned from our side and passed it directly to Lucas to do with as he saw fit. When Lucas uncovered the sacred sword project, we assumed that his response would be simply to discredit it, using the same kind of smear tactics against Simeon Arundel and Fabrice Lalique that he’d been directing against other clergymen before them.’

‘You mean destroying their personal and professional reputations with a pack of lies,’ Ben said.

‘Something like that,’ Brown replied. ‘As a result of which, the credibility of the project would have fallen apart. They’d have been spurned in the media, no publisher would have touched Arundel’s book, nobody would have had anything to do with them. Another victory, after which Lucas would have moved on to another target.’ Brown paused. ‘As I say, that’s what we assumed. We had no idea what Lucas was really doing, using our funds to employ professional thugs, mercenaries, to help him carry out his own personal vendetta. And to commit murder. Lalique’s faked suicide, the car crash that killed the Arundels, the attacks on Wesley Holland in which several people were killed — it was Lucas, and Lucas alone, who engineered them all.’

‘I see now,’ Ben said. ‘You’re the good guys.’

‘I don’t appreciate the sarcasm, Mr Hope,’ Brown replied. ‘Though I do fully acknowledge our part in this mess. Basically, we backed the wrong horse. We should have screened our candidate more carefully, but instead we rushed in too fast. It was a mistake. But how could we have known that our star asset would turn out to be mentally deranged, possibly even psychopathic?’

‘That’s a neat way to disclaim responsibility for the deaths of my friends,’ Ben said. ‘You really expect me to believe you had no idea what was going on?’

‘The Trimble Group can’t be concerning itself with the minutiae of every operation,’ Brown said with a note of irritation. ‘Only with the larger picture. Why else would we delegate the job to someone else?’

‘Sounds to me as if your “Mr Green” knew exactly what Lucas was doing.’

‘Our man was tasked with assisting Lucas in whatever way necessary. As we now know, he was unhappy almost from the start with the direction Lucas was taking. In retrospect, I think he was afraid that to report his growing concerns back to us would have been seen as insubordination, or a lack of confidence in the Group’s decisions. By the time he finally informed us that Lucas had gone rogue, it was too late. I regret now that we put him in such a difficult position.’ Brown shook his head sadly. ‘In fact I regret it very much indeed. When Lucas discovered the betrayal, he had our man murdered. Him and his wife, at their home in London. It was… it was more than brutal. I can’t tell you how shocked I was.’

‘And after all, you’re a man of such moral scruple,’ Ben said.

Brown shot him a reptilian look, then went on. ‘We decided at that point to put a stop to the whole operation. Lucas’s assets have been frozen and he’s been stripped of his power, even as we speak. He is now quite isolated in the little stronghold he’s built for himself on the island of Capri. In the meantime, our surveillance teams intercepted a phone call to Wesley Holland’s lawyer and traced its origin to Martha’s Vineyard. Our response was to dispatch a team to put an end to this whole business. I didn’t expect that we would find you there. At first I wasn’t sure what we should do with you. But it then it struck me how neatly we could serve each other’s purposes.’

‘Meaning what?’

‘You must surely have realised by now that the purpose of this meeting was to make you a proposal. I’ve revealed to you the truth about who murdered your friends and tried to kill you. In return, I’d like you to eliminate him for me.’

Ben laughed, despite his anger. ‘I find it a little hard to believe that you people haven’t got your own ways and means of making your enemies vanish.’

‘That we do. But I’ve no interest in letting the Trimble Group become any more deeply embroiled in this situation than we already are. We’re walking away.’

‘I’m not a gun for hire,’ Ben said. ‘Some trigger-man you can just enlist.’

‘Not at all. You’re a man of peace, a regular saint. As is patently clear from the trail of dead bodies you leave in your wake wherever you go.’

‘You created this mess. You clean it up. Now I’ve had enough of listening to you, and I want to leave.’

‘Oh, you can leave,’ Brown said. ‘Nobody will stop you. Just remember this conversation never happened. And I’d advise you not to entertain any foolish heroic notions about trying to come after the Trimble Group. You wouldn’t be able to find us, but we’ll always be able to find you.’

‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ Ben said. He headed towards the door.

‘Not even a goodbye?’

Ben flipped his middle finger up over his shoulder. ‘Here’s my goodbye.’

‘I didn’t mean to me,’ Brown said. ‘I thought you might like a last word with young Jude before you go.’

Ben turned slowly round to stare at Brown. ‘What did you say?’

‘He’s here. I’m sure he’s anxious to see you, if only for a few final moments.’

Ben felt his face go numb with shock. ‘You’re bluffing. Jude wasn’t with me on the island.’

‘Then we must have picked up another Jude Arundel on the beach,’ Brown said. ‘A spirited young chap, isn’t he? And I must say the family resemblance is obvious, once you’ve read the letter.’

Ben said nothing.

‘He was clutching it in his hand when they found him. Don’t worry, he’s been very well looked after until now. Though I can’t say what will happen if you persist in being difficult.’

Ben stared. ‘Let me see him.’

‘That’s not possible, I’m afraid. But why don’t you say hello?’ Brown took a phone from his pocket, speed-dialled a number and said, ‘Pass the boy on.’ He handed Ben the phone.

‘Jude? It’s me. Are you all right?’

‘Ben? I’m-’ It was Jude’s voice, but before he could say any more, the line went dead.

‘Satisfied?’ Brown asked.

Ben tossed away the phone. He wanted to rip the glow of triumph off the man’s face. In two long strides he was on him, shooting out a hand and grabbing his tie. Brown’s eyes bulged as Ben wheeled him violently away from the window, out of sight of the snipers in the trees.

Radios would be bursting into full alert. He had about two seconds before the door burst open. He slammed Brown hard against the wall, tightening his tie like a noose around his throat. ‘You harm him and I’ll kill you. Understand?’

The door crashed open and the guards from earlier came storming into the room, pistols drawn.

‘Tell them to back off,’ Ben said. ‘Or else you die first.’

‘Stand down! Lower your weapons!’ Brown shouted. The guards hesitantly obeyed.

‘That was the wise thing to do,’ Ben said. ‘I’d have taken your head off.’ He let go of Brown’s tie and stepped away in disgust. The guards hovered uncertainly in the background.

Brown slackened the knot of his tie and straightened his jacket collar. He was breathing heavily but the glow of victory hadn’t left his face. ‘I know you would, Major Hope,’ he said. ‘That’s what makes you the perfect choice for us.’

Ben paced in a tight circle. His head was suddenly throbbing and his heart was beating in his throat. ‘All right, Brown. What’s the deal?’

‘The terms are simple. You’ll be provided with everything you require to take care of the Trimble Group’s unfinished business. Jude will then be released and returned to you, unharmed. There will be no repercussions of any kind. That will be the end of it. The two of you walk away free men. However, if you refuse to cooperate, you’ll never see Jude again.’ Brown smiled. ‘We know how much he loves the water. The grieving son, driven to distraction after the tragic car crash that claimed his parents. Boats, drugs and alcohol don’t mix. You understand me, I’m sure.’

Ben was silent.

‘As for you, Mr Hope, you’ll spend the rest of your life as a hunted criminal, pursued by every law-enforcement agency on the planet for the murder of a dozen or more government agents. Walk out of that door now, and I guarantee you’ll be entering a very different world from the one you left.’