‘How?’ asked Jake.
Guy gave a pretend weary sigh.
‘If we had time I’d tell you every little bit of how I played everyone off against one another,’ he said smugly.
‘We’ve got time,’ said Jake.
‘True, but I don’t feel like it,’ said Guy. ‘And you would surely feel very embarrassed about how I’d made a fool of you. Like that message on your window when you and your girlfriend got back to your flat.’
‘That was you?’
‘Midge. Very good with locks.’
‘So you’d set all this up long before we met at that police cell?’
‘Of course,’ said Guy. ‘Almost from the first time I heard from poor Alex Munro.’
‘Was it you and your crew who killed Jasper Brigstocke?’ asked Jake. ‘You tortured him and killed him.’
‘I didn’t kill him,’ protested Guy. ‘I wanted to keep him alive so he could give me the answer I wanted.’
‘Like, who he’d sold the books to?’
‘Exactly. But he kept insisting he didn’t even have them.’
‘So who did kill him?’
‘No one. His heart gave out.’
‘And you cutting his fingers off and torturing him had nothing to do with that?’
‘It was a chance I took,’ said Guy. ‘The prize is worth it.’
‘The Index.’
‘Exactly,’ said Guy. ‘What was it you said when we were in that police cell? It’s worth billions.’ He smiled. ‘Don’t you just love that word: billions! Oh, I do hope it’s there at Laker Heath, Jake. For all our sakes.’
Chapter 25
It was 16:45 when they reached the gates of Laker Heath base. Just forty-five minutes before Des kills Lauren and the others, thought Jake, a sick feeling going from deep in the pit of his stomach right up to his throat.
‘Not bad,’ said Guy. ‘Though I thought you’d have made it here a bit quicker, in view of the clock ticking on your girlfriend’s life.’
Laker Heath was the same as Jake remembered it from when he’d come here on a training course. The base was spread over a huge area, like a military camp. And, as with many military camps, it was protected by a high wire fence, topped with razor wire.
There was one main gate in, and as Jake headed for it, he hoped the security was still the same as it had been the last time he was here. Then all it had needed was a check of the ID card. The tighter security, requiring the additional fingerprint ID, was only a requirement for anyone intending to access the large hangar-like building at the other side of the base.
Jake pulled the SUV to a halt by the yellow metal barrier across the main entrance and wound down his window. Behind him, Guy did the same. There were two soldiers inside the security cabin, one at the window, one inside. Jake took out his ID card and held it out to the soldier in the cabin.
Please don’t let them ask for fingerprint ID, he prayed silently. He was sure Guy would find a way to fool them, using Gareth’s finger, but he didn’t want there to be a chance for things to go wrong even before they’d got into the base. One step at a time, he told himself, trying to keep calm. First, get through this gate. Then, get past security into the hangar. Then . . . play it by ear. If there’s no sign of The Index, overpower Guy, take his gun off him, and force him to make that phone call.
The soldier took Jake’s ID card, compared the photo on it with Jake himself, then handed the card back to him. The soldier did the same with the ID card that Guy handed to him. A button was pressed inside the security cabin, and the barrier rose up.
Jake drove the SUV through the main gate, and towards where he knew the hangar to be.
‘So far so good,’ murmured Guy behind him.
Jake continued along the main road through the base, passing single-storey buildings, all identified with letters: AA, AB, AC . . . CD, CE, CF . . .
‘You’ve been here before,’ commented Guy.
‘A long time ago,’ said Jake. ‘And only on the outer part of the base.’
‘But you know where this hangar is?’
‘Yes,’ said Jake. He gestured ahead. ‘In fact, you can see it, past the next load of buildings.’
‘Ah yes,’ said Guy.
The hangar was huge. It towered above the rest of the base like a pyramid rising from the sands of ancient Egypt.
‘Where’s the security around it?’ asked Guy, and Jake could hear the impatience in his voice.
‘We’re about to get to it,’ said Jake.
He took a left, then a right, and they saw in front of them the double-wire fence topped with razor wire protecting the hangar. There was a security checkpoint at a gate in the fence, leading into the inner security area, and the hangar. This security checkpoint was more fortified than the cabin at the main gate into the base. Instead of a metal barrier, there were two large and very heavy metal gates. Razor wire not only topped the fence and the gates, but was woven in between the wires of the fence. Concrete blocks had been placed in a zigzag pattern at strategic points leading up to the checkpoint so that the gate couldn’t be rammed. As well as the soldiers they could see on duty inside the checkpoint cabin, two heavily armed soldiers stood on either side of the gate.