Hard Knocks

We who’d elected to stay sat and watched as they filed out. Mostly they didn’t look at us or, if they did, it was with a pitying disbelief. We were mad, their thoughts clearly said. We didn’t stand a hope in hell.

Maybe they were right.

The door closed behind the last of them, echoing slightly as if on an empty room.

Gilby and the two instructors stepped down from the dais, coming to sit among us. The sudden breakdown in formality showed a nice common touch on his part. It gathered us to the cause.

The Major needed all his communication skills once he started to outline the situation in more detail. He didn’t make it sound any better than it had done in broad strokes.

“So, let me get this straight,” Declan said when he’d finished. “This Gregor Venko feller, who’s as nasty a piece of work as ever walked the earth, is coming here in—” his eyes swivelled to the clock on the wall high above the Major’s head, “—a little over eleven hours from now, expecting to exchange the young lady he’s kidnapped, for his son, who you’ve kidnapped?”

“Yes,” said Gilby.

“But now you don’t have the lad to exchange because young Jan, who’s turned out to be a darker horse than any of us would have given her credit for, has – for reasons all of her own – stolen him away?”

“Yes,” Gilby said again.

Declan threw his hands up and sat back in his chair. “Holy Mary, Mother of God,” he muttered. “We’re all fecked.”

“Thank you for providing that succinct summary Mr Lloyd,” Gilby said tartly. “But what we need now is a plan of action.” He had the grace not to look Sean straight in the eye while he stole his words.

“It would help if we knew who Jan was working for, no?” Romundstad put in, tugging at his moustache.

“That we don’t know,” Gilby said. “If she is working for Venko then he probably already knows Ivan is loose and he has no reason to turn up tomorrow except for a revenge attack.”

“Or he might not show at all.” It was Ronnie who spoke, looking absurdly hopeful. I wondered if he was already regretting his show of bravado.

“That’s correct.” Sean nodded at him, encouraging. “But I would suggest we need to formulate a plan that isn’t based on the premise that Venko isn’t going to show. If he turns up tomorrow, with Heidi, we need to know how to try and retrieve the situation. Preferably without getting anyone killed.”

Todd stood up. “We need to get Venko’s men into a controlled location and go for a first-strike ambush,” he said. “Hit ‘em hard and fast, before they’ve got chance to react. We don’t stand a cat in hell’s chance in a straight fight, so we’re going to have to fight dirty.” He glanced sideways at the Major. “At least we’ve now got access to a crate load of submachine guns.”

Gilby was clearly unhappy with this suggestion, but the frown on his face showed he couldn’t think of anything better to counter it.

“And what about Heidi?” Sean said, sounding as though he was tiring under the effort of being calm and reasonable. “We’re back to the problem of whether Gregor knows about his son or not.”

He was still leaning against the window ledge. He had that caged restless air about him. The one that said the time for talking should have long been over and the time for action was here. I was watching him to the point where I didn’t immediately see Hofmann get to his feet.

“Major Gilby,” he rumbled. “I must speak to you. In private.”

“If you’ve anything to say, Herr Hofmann, then say it here,” Gilby said sharply. “This is no time for further secrecy.”

Hofmann sighed. “In that case,” he said, his voice burdened, “I can assure you that Gregor Venko does not know about this latest development. There is no reason why he will not show for your rendezvous.”

“And how, exactly, can you be so certain of that?”

Hofmann seemed to grow more depressed at the question. “Because I know for sure that Jan is not working for Venko.”

Gilby didn’t say anything to that, but his face said it for him. Hofmann glanced round at all of us and knew that he wasn’t going to get away with leaving it there.

He sighed again, frowning into the space just in front of him, as though hoping that life’s autocue would provide him with the correct next lines. The autocue had stuck. He was on his own.

He made his decision, came straighter in front of us. Something seemed to change under the surface of his face, a subtle shift of bones and skin, so the vacant muscle-bound look vanished and was replaced by a hard, keen-eyed stare. I’d caught a glimpse of it once before, but I hadn’t realised how complete an act Hofmann had been putting on. He’d relied on the assumption that men big in body are slow in mind. It had been a very effective disguise.

“Because, Major,” he said and even his speech seemed faster now, “she is my commanding officer. Her correct name is Jan Konig, and she is a Major with the German security services.”

Konig. German for King. If I’d had to point to anyone as being the German inflitrator I would most likely have suspected myself before I’d thought of Jan. She was just such a Londoner.

“So,” Gilby said now, face pinched, “what does that make you?”

“At this precise moment,” Hofmann said crisply, “probably guilty of treason, but I’ve spent the last two years as part of Major Konig’s team, tracking Gregor Venko. I understand a little of the way his mind works. Those who are loyal to him are well rewarded, but those who betray him, well—” He shrugged, letting his palms spread. “We have yet to find all of the bodies. If he turns up here tomorrow and you do not have Ivan to trade, he will not rest until you are all dead, and he will bring enough men with him to ensure this. Trying to lay a trap for him, with the resources at your disposal, is a pointless act of suicide.”

Declan gave a hollow laugh. “Michael, me boy,” he said. “You’re not helping.”

“Well, Herr Hofmann – assuming that is your real name?” Gilby said tightly. “If what you say is correct, we are in a rather difficult situation. Unless you have any idea where Major Konig might have taken the boy?”

He threw out this last as a sarcastic challenge, but Hofmann nodded with all seriousness.

“Yes,” he said. “I think I do.”

We all stared at him, but it was Sean who asked the question first, quite calm and matter of fact. “How do we know we can trust you?”

Hofmann smiled at him. A quick smile, out of character. “Because I am the only chance you have of getting out of this alive,” he said simply. “Major, ask yourself this: What reason do I have to come forwards now, if not to try and help you? In theory, my job here is done. Why would I not just keep quiet, leave with the others, say nothing? You would never have known until it was too late.”

“So why are you still here? Why didn’t Jan take you with her when she left?”

“That I can’t answer,” he said and his expression hardened. “I was not privy to Major Konig’s plans, or I would have done my best to stop her carrying them out in the way she did. Perhaps that was why. Of late, there have been many aspects of her strategy with which I have not agreed.” He paused, then added, with reluctance, “I begin to doubt her judgement in this matter.”

“Where has she taken him?” Sean demanded.

“A safe house,” Hofmann said. “She will want to debrief him herself before she officially delivers him to her superiors.”

Sean rose and glanced at Gilby. “Let me call one of my colleagues,” he said. “She can get us a list of safe houses in the area. We can narrow them down.”

Hofmann looked shocked. “You have access to that kind of information?”

Sean flashed him a grim smile. “Give her a computer and a high-speed internet link, and there isn’t much Madeleine can’t find out,” he said.

“I know where Major Konig will have taken Ivan, and it won’t be on any official safe house list,” Hofmann said then. “Venko has slipped through our fingers so many times in the past that she has become convinced that the service has been compromised by someone from his organisation. She would have taken the boy somewhere she has arranged personally. She has become so paranoid about security, that’s why I am so sure that Venko does not know about his son’s capture.”

“Where is this safe house?” Gilby asked, his interest keen.