He gestured at Jake.
‘Right, Jake. Let’s you and I do what we have to.’ He looked at his watch. ‘We lost a bit of time with that interruption, Des, so let’s say we’ll make it half past five before I call you. OK?’
Des nodded. Guy hesitated, and then he walked back to Des and whispered something in his ear. Des nodded. Guy smiled. Then he rejoined Jake.
‘OK, Jake. Let’s you and I head for Laker Heath.’
Chapter 24
They were in the SUV with the blacked-out windows, on their way to the base at Laker Heath. Jake was driving. Guy sat directly behind him, the gun on his lap. ‘Just to remind you, Jake,’ Guy had warned him. ‘Try anything odd, pulling over, using the flashers to attract attention, crashing the car, anything, and I pull the trigger and you’re dead.’
Now, as Jake drove, he heard a metallic sound from behind him.
‘What’s going on?’ he demanded suspiciously. ‘What are you doing?’
‘My, you do have sharp ears,’ murmured Guy. ‘I’m fitting a suppressor to the barrel of the gun.’
‘Why?’ asked Jake.
‘Why?’ repeated Guy. ‘Honestly, Jake, for someone who’s supposed to be intelligent, you do ask the most stupid questions. We’re going to be in a hangar on a top-secret base. It’s possible that we may run into trouble, and I may have to use this. In which case, the noise of the gun going off would draw attention to us, which is not something I want.’ His tone changed to chattiness as he added, ‘Just to clarify, a suppressor — or silencer as most people call them — doesn’t actually completely eliminate the sound of the gun going off. It just reduces it. Did you know there are five different categories of gun noise? Action, blast, sonic signature, impact and operation. The two loudest noises are muzzle blast and sonic signature, and that’s what this little baby deals with.’ Jake heard the note that was almost one of affection in Guy’s voice.
As he drove, Jake’s mind was rapidly wondering how he could get out of this, what he could do to overpower Guy, get hold of the gun, and use it to threaten Guy. Order him to make that call to Des and call him off, or Jake would kill him. But that would be difficult, if not impossible, to do while they were driving. Especially because he had to keep their speed up. He couldn’t afford to slow down, not if they were going to get to Laker Heath in an hour.
‘I do hope you’re right about The Index being there,’ murmured Guy. ‘It would be a great pity to have to kill your girlfriend. She seems like a very nice person.’
‘How do I know you won’t kill her anyway?’ asked Jake. ‘And me. And Dan and Gareth.’
He was remembering the callously indifferent way that Guy had killed the Mexicans. Killing people was nothing to him.
‘Jake, I’m disappointed in you,’ said Guy. ‘I like you, Jake. You’ve been enormously helpful to me. Without you, I wouldn’t have got this far.’
‘That still doesn’t mean you won’t kill me,’ said Jake.
In the rear-view mirror, Jake saw Guy shake his head, and heard him give a sigh of disappointment.
‘You’ve got me all wrong, Jake,’ he said. ‘I only kill people who get in my way, or interfere with my plans. You’re helping me, Jake. I have no reason to kill you.’
You have every reason, thought Jake bitterly. For one thing, I’m a witness to you killing those three Mexicans, and chopping off Gareth’s finger, and everything else that’s been going on. But it would be foolish to say those thoughts out loud, he thought. Better to let Guy think that he believed that Guy was going to let them all go, even though it was obviously a lie. Maybe because Guy was insane, he really believed he meant something at the time he said it. That was why he was so persuasive and believable with his charm. Perhaps the best thing was to lull Guy into a sense of relaxation, of confidence; and then grab him when the opportunity arose, when he had become too relaxed. Get him to talk. Get him to boast. People like Guy love talking about themselves and how clever they think they are.
‘One thing I don’t understand, Guy,’ he said. ‘Why all these games?’
‘Games?’
‘You know, pretending to be trapped. Needing to be rescued. Why that business at de Courcey Hall with Spider holding that gun on you?’
Guy laughed.
‘Yes, I thought that was clever,’ he said. ‘Though I must admit you began to worry me, taking so long to get there. Do you know how long we had to hang around in that car park waiting for you to arrive? You were so slow, so stupid, Jake! I’d worked out that the books might be in the old library ages before you did.’