Chapter 29
Heathrow Airport. The world’s busiest international airport. Hundreds of thousands of passengers flying in and out every day, millions of people seeing them off, saying goodbye to loved ones, or waiting to welcome them as they come through the gates. Arrivals and departures. And right now the international departures area for flights to New Zealand was packed.
They hadn’t trusted Lauren not to run. She’d been kept under close guard the whole time since that interview in the basement of the MI6 building, a prisoner. Today was the first time that Jake and Lauren had been able to meet, to talk, without one of MI6’s spooks hovering close by. They were still there, but at a discreet distance, watching. Not that Lauren could do much in the way of absconding. The people keeping watch on her had hold of her passport. Or, at least, a passport with her photo inside it and in the name of Samantha Adams. Her luggage had already gone through and was being loaded on to the Air New Zealand aeroplane.
Jake held Lauren in his arms and hugged her close to him. They stood there, wrapped painfully in one another, like so many hundreds of other couples saying difficult goodbyes.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘No,’ she said. ‘If I hadn’t brought you into this, none of it would have happened.’
‘I phoned you, remember,’ said Jake. He sighed. ‘Anyway, that wasn’t why I was saying sorry. I was saying sorry for being so stupid at that wedding. With . . . whatshername.’
‘Alice,’ said Lauren.
‘Yes,’ said Jake. ‘With Alice.’
‘Not half as stupid as I got with Carl,’ said Lauren. She sighed. ‘And he only wanted me because he thought he could use me to get to the Malichea books.’
‘That’s all behind us now,’ said Jake. He hugged her close again, and whispered, ‘I’m not letting go, you know.’
‘You have to,’ she said. ‘They won’t let you on the plane.’
‘I mean, searching for the books,’ said Jake. ‘I’m going to carry on. And, when I find one, I’ll let you know.’
‘They’ll be watching you,’ she warned him. ‘Your boss. That law firm. That other organisation, the Watchers. The people who kidnapped me. They’ll all be watching you.’
‘Not all the time,’ said Jake confidently.
‘Yes, they will,’ said Lauren, worried. ‘And next time you may not be so lucky. Next time, you could get killed.’
‘No.’ Jake shook his head. ‘I know what to do now. How to go about it.’
There was a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see an unsmiling woman in a dark suit standing there. Lauren’s watcher, her MI6 guardian.
‘Time to go,’ said the woman to Lauren. ‘We’re going to get you on board before the rush.’
‘One minute,’ begged Lauren.
The woman hesitated, then nodded. ‘One minute,’ she agreed.
Lauren turned back to Jake.
‘They haven’t said we can’t be in touch. We can phone one another. Skype,’ she said.
‘They’ll try,’ said Jake. ‘But whatever they try, we’ll get round it. They won’t keep us apart.’
Lauren looked up into his face.
‘I love you, Jake,’ she said softly, and suddenly she began to cry silently, tears rolling down her face. ‘I never stopped. That’s why what you did that day hurt me so much. When I saw you again outside the British Library, I realised my feelings were still as strong as ever.’
‘Why didn’t you say something?’ he begged. ‘I haven’t ever stopped thinking about you and loving you. And these last few days, since I saw you again . . .’
‘I know,’ said Lauren. ‘But . . . I didn’t know if I could trust you again. And, I suppose, part of me wanted you to be jealous about Carl, to feel hurt like I’d been hurt.’
‘I did feel jealous,’ admitted Jake. ‘I hated him because he had you.’
‘He didn’t have me,’ said Lauren. ‘Not really. I was always yours.’
‘And I’ll always be yours,’ said Jake.
‘You have to go,’ interrupted the woman, her voice harder now. ‘Otherwise I’ll be forced to call security.’
‘No,’ said Lauren. She released her arms from around Jake and stepped back. ‘I love you, Jake,’ she said. ‘I always will.’
‘I love you, Lauren,’ said Jake. And now he could feel his own tears running unashamedly down his face. He stepped forward and grabbed her in his arms for one last kiss.
Then she had broken away from him and was heading towards the gate, the MI6 woman walking close beside her. At the gate Lauren turned, and waved, and blew him a kiss, and then went through and was lost in the crowds.