The Invisible Assassin(62)

Tough-looking men stood around the room, keeping watch. They each had the tell-tale bulge near their armpit where they carried a gun beneath their jacket. None of them smiled. All of them looked as if they could break Jake in half without working up a sweat.

Gareth sat across the table from Jake and Lauren. He looked very relaxed, calm, and in control. He was also still smiling.

‘I’m glad we were able to help,’ he said. ‘Your deaths would have been a great tragedy. And so unnecessary.’

‘You followed us?’ asked Jake.

Gareth shook his head.

‘Not physically,’ he said. ‘We followed the signal from your mobile phones; but we’d been listening into your phone conversations, so we already knew where you were headed.’

‘How’s Robert?’ asked Lauren.

‘He’s fine,’ said Gareth. ‘A flesh wound, nothing serious. He’s being attended to and then we’ll send him home, once he’s signed the Official Secrets Act.’ He looked at Jake. ‘You’ve signed it already, Jake, so I don’t think we need to worry about you. But we need your signature, Ms Graham.’

‘No,’ said Lauren firmly. ‘I refuse to keep what’s happened hidden.’

Gareth gave a small sigh.

‘I thought that might be your attitude,’ he said, his tone still smooth and full of charm. ‘But I’m sure we can come to some arrangement.’

‘I doubt it,’ said Lauren curtly.

Gareth smiled.

‘We’ll come back to that. The main thing is, the book is back in safe keeping.’

‘Hidden,’ said Lauren. ‘The knowledge that it contains denied to people it can help. The greening of the desert! Food from thin air!’ She leant forward towards Gareth, visibly angry. ‘Can you even imagine the millions of starving people that technology could feed?’

‘And can you imagine that technology in the hands of terrorists?’ countered Gareth. Now he was no longer smiling. ‘That kind of biological weapon could lay waste to a city centre. London. New York. Paris.’

‘It could feed the world!’

‘It could destroy us,’ said Gareth simply.

‘Who were they?’ asked Jake. It was the question he’d been dying to ask ever since they’d arrived in this room. ‘The people who were holding Lauren?’

‘We’re not yet sure,’ said Gareth.

And even if you were, you wouldn’t tell me, thought Jake bitterly.

‘Pierce Randall?’ asked Jake.

Gareth smiled and shook his head. ‘Oh no,’ he said. ‘This was far too crude for a firm like Pierce Randall. They are much more dangerous than that.’

‘More dangerous than nearly being shot dead?’ demanded Jake.

‘There are far worse things than being shot dead,’ said Gareth. ‘I hope you never have to experience them.’ For the first time, Gareth’s smile wavered.

He’s suffered those worse things, Jake realised with a start. Gareth was a spy of sorts. A very senior spy, but still a spy. And at some time, in his past, Gareth had been there, suffering those terrors that were worse than a quick death by shooting.

‘What about the others?’ Jake persisted. ‘The dead man in my flat.’

‘His name was Terry Gibbons,’ said Gareth. ‘Former SAS. A mercenary. A hit man for hire.’

‘Who killed him?’

Gareth smiled. ‘Who knows?’ he said, his tone enquiringly bland.

You did, thought Jake. You or one of your crowd. ‘You did, and then you framed me for it,’ he said accusingly.

Gareth looked hurt. ‘Jake, how could you accuse me of such a thing?’

‘You framed me because you thought it might bring Pierce Randall in.’

‘Who is this Pierce Randall?’ asked Lauren, puzzled.

It was then that Jake realised he hadn’t had the chance to tell her anything about what had happened to him: about the dead man in his flat, or Sue Clark coming to his rescue.

‘They’re a firm of lawyers,’ he replied.

‘Oh, they’re so much more than that,’ said Gareth. ‘As I’m sure you must have found out. They have some very powerful friends and acquaintances.’

‘And you used me as bait to get them in,’ challenged Jake.

‘They were already in,’ replied Gareth smoothly. ‘Pierce Randall are a major player in the Malichea business. Possibly the major player.’

‘I thought the title of the Major Player was held by you,’ said Jake. ‘The government.’

Gareth shook his head. ‘We are just one government,’ he said. ‘Pierce Randall represents many governments.’ Then he added, the tone of his voice changing to a warning, ‘And many other organisations as well.’