Alex Munro was Head of Operations in Pierce Randall’s London office, which was why Jake was stunned to see him out here, making this visit in person. When Jake had first met Munro, Munro had persuaded Jake that Pierce Randall wanted to find the hidden books of the Order of Malichea for altruistic purposes; to get the scientific information they contained out into the general arena, to help people, to use the new discoveries to save lives. Munro had been very plausible. It was only later that Jake had discovered the real reason that Pierce Randall wanted the hidden books: in two words, power and money. As Jake had told Michelle, if one of the books contained a cure for a previously untreatable terminal illness, whoever found that information and patented it would have a licence to print money. And the weapons potential of some of the sciences that were rumoured to be hidden would give dictators and terrorists power that was too hideous to consider.
Munro settled back into the luxurious leather seats and looked at Jake.
‘You’re suspicious of us, Jake, but you have no reason to be. We’re after the same thing: the secret library.’
‘But for different reasons,’ said Jake. ‘I want it to help the world. You want it to keep it hidden and make money from it.’
Munro sighed and smiled.
‘You sound just like your friend, Ms Graham,’ he said. ‘How is she, by the way? I understand the government shipped her off somewhere, with a new identity. That must be very upsetting for you, to be parted from her in this way.’
He knows, thought Jake. He knows where Lauren is. Pierce Randall know everything. Except where the hidden books are.
Jake kept silent, just looked out through the darkened windows at the streets outside. Munro couldn’t be trusted. Whatever he was here to offer was suspect. But why was he here?
As if reading Jake’s thoughts, Munro said: ‘We can help you get Ms Graham back.’
Jake swung round towards him, suspicious, but alert.
‘She’s in exile,’ he said. ‘The government say she can’t return for ten years. Maybe more.’
Munro smiled.
‘Ah, governments,’ he said, with a sarcastic tone. ‘Governments come and go. Government ministers change at an almost daily rate. We have . . . friends in high places. And, we are used to doing deals at the very top level, as I’m sure you are aware.’
‘Why me?’ asked Jake. ‘You’ve got a big organisation. You can find them yourself. You’ve already got some of them.’
‘Some,’ admitted Munro. ‘But you have something that our own operatives don’t have, Jake. Passion. Desperation. We want to find these books. You need to find them, or at least one, to get your Ms Graham released from exile. Publicise it. Tell the world about it. Get the story about the Order of Malichea out into the open.’
He’s been talking to Michelle, Jake realised, as he heard his own words to Michelle echoed back at him. And then he remembered that he hadn’t told Michelle why he wanted to get the story about the books into the public domain, just that the story needed to be out there. So maybe Munro hadn’t talked to Michelle after all. It was just Munro, keeping his finger firmly on the pulse of anything to do with Malichea.
‘I’m sure that you will find a book. Maybe more than one. The deal I’m offering you is that you can keep one to do all the publicity you want, but we share it. You keep the actual book, we keep the rights to the information inside it.’
‘To sell it,’ said Jake.
‘We already have clients ready to buy the appropriate technology.’ Munro smiled. Again. ‘And what is wrong with that? A book has a cure for illness, and a drug company puts that into practice and gets it out into the wide world. Millions of lives saved. Another book might have information about anti-gravity. An aerospace company uses that information to make safer planes. Again, millions of lives saved, the world becomes a better place.’
‘Or one book contains previously undiscovered weapons technology and you sell it to a bunch of terrorists or criminals, who then use it to kill millions.’
Munro shrugged.
‘We’re talking morality,’ he said. ‘One person’s life-saver is another person’s destruction. What I’m offering you is an opportunity to get back with your friend.’
Jake fell silent, weighing up Munro’s offer. There was no doubt in his mind that Munro could fix it and get him reunited with Lauren. Maybe not necessarily in England, but that didn’t matter to Jake. He didn’t have any family to miss, no one he was close to, except Lauren. Anywhere in the world would do, as long as he and Lauren were together again. But it was a big price to pay, and he wasn’t sure if Lauren would ever forgive him if she found out that he’d passed one of the books to Pierce Randall, and the science in it had been used for evil purposes.