face.
“Thank you so much.” Brook said to the girl. “I knew he’d remember eventually and it was good of you to let us shelter from the rain.”
“Goodbye.” The girl watched them leave. The hotel wasn’t much of a landmark for tourists to use as a meeting point if they got lost, but it took all sorts.
Telford was parked across the road watching the entrance. He’d seen the figure go in and watched Brook emerge with him. They rushed across to the car and Brook got in the back with Stanton.
Brook was careful. He didn’t know Stanton was unarmed. Stanton wasn’t shocked to have a snub nose thirty eight revolver pointed at him from Telford turning round in the driver seat.
“Frisk him.” Brook ran his hands through Stanton’s pockets. He found no weapon. He did find the disk and held it up.
“What’s this?”
“Research, it’ll help me get the job done, possibly. I need a laptop to access the information.
“Let’s go, just drive away from the hotel and park up further up the road.”
Telford drove up the Clapham Road and parked near the junction with Ellias Place.
Brook got out and went to the boot of the car. He brought out two cases, one with a laptop and one with the ‘materials’ for the job. Brook got back into the car.
“Let’s start with the fact that this job is near enough compromised.” Brook began. “I’ve got to warn you that there are people watching.”
“DIC, I know all about them. They have no idea of what the job entails or where I’m going, mind you neither do I for that matter.”
Brook handed him the case. Stanton opened it and saw the bomb, a lime green Bic disposable cell phone and an envelope. Stanton opened the envelope read the details and whistled.
“Wow. That’s got to be worth a million when I pull that one off. I hope you guys have a good exit plan for me.”
“We have. You do the job and phone the single number in this cell phone. You get picked up by us and taken to a place to lie low. Then you get paid and you’re sneaked out of the country.”
Stanton nodded.
“Do you know about a civil service agency call the DIC.” Stanton asked.
Brook’s eyes met Telford’s in the rear view mirror.
“We’ve heard of them yeah, what about them?” Brook asked.
“Have you got that laptop?” Stanton put all the materials back in the case, except the envelope. “Oh and could you give me a pistol of some sort?”
This time he saw the look the men gave each other in the rear view mirror.
“I’ll hand you the case and you can put the weapon in and leave it on the front seat until you drop me off.”
Brook nodded. Telford unlocked and opened the glove compartment, pulled out a nine millimetre browning, a silencer and a single clip. Stanton passed him the case and sat back.
“You want me to use the bomb?”
“Yes. It’ll make it look like terrorism.”
“It isn’t terrorism?”
“No. He needs removing. He’s inconvenient and we’re behind the man who wants to replace him.”
“That’s fine with me.”
“Now about DIC, what’s on the disk?” Brook asked.
David was very late. He’d got stuck in traffic around Vauxhall Bridge and his bad driving skills hadn’t helped extricate him from that. The Satnav wasn’t helping. He got to the Priory Arms long after he could have and picked up Liam. Relieved that Liam could drive he let him, but it was just a short drive around the corner. They got to the Belgrave Hotel at two thirty.
“We’re government security officers, we’re looking for this man. He held up the photo. “Have you seen him?”
“No. I haven’t.” The girl at reception hadn’t seen enough of Stanton to match him to the photo.
“Has anyone been here and left a message or sat waiting?”
The girl paused thinking. It hadn’t been a busy morning and she was none too bright and very bored, day dreaming most of the empty time away, but she remembered the men.
“Yes, about twenty minutes ago there was a man here said he’d arranged with a friend to meet outside here if one them got lost. It was raining so he asked to wait inside. This man turned up all wet. They left. He called him Anton. The wet man had a German accent.”
McKie looked at Liam.
“Could be them.”
“Might not be.”
“We’d better wait.”
In the car on the Clapham Road Brook and Telford were hiding their wide eyed amazement well. Stanton had told them about how he got the disk. He told them his plan and how to get into the target’s heavily guarded residence. Brook and Telford were delighted. As far as Stanton was concerned they were civilian middle men for a buyer willing to pay a million for a very tricky kill. The visit to McKie’s house had supplied him with what he needed and all he’d wanted from that situation was to know who and where the DIC operatives were, but now he found that the information on the disk would also help him get the job done.
Stanton told them his plan, which again took much acting skill from both MI6 men not to reveal their pleasure. He took directions to a target address, from the internet on the laptop, attached to Brook’s cell phone. When he was done he took the disk out and closed the computer.
“You want to leave that disk with us?”
“You want it?”
“Well it’s interesting stuff, could be useful, but I was thinking it might be bad news if you were caught with it.” Brook said.
“You might be right, but I’ll hang on to it.” Stanton was cautious.
“Well your employer might be interested. Could sell it for you, take a cut. Say five percent. He’ll be very happy to do that. Shame if it got damaged due to falls or bumps.” Brook added willing Stanton to give him the disk.
Stanton nodded and handed the disk over.
“Call me a taxi will you?”
“Sure.” Brook dialled. “Yeah, Cab please. From Clapham Road at the junction with Ellias Place to Lord North Street please. Ta mate.” He rang off. “Fifteen minutes Stanton.”
They waited in silence in the car it was close to 3pm. Stanton read the target details and the regular times and likely room locations for the home address. He handed the envelope back to Brook.
London
3 p.m.
April 19th
Liam and David were surprised when David was relieved by another DIC man and David was even more surprised to be driven back to Euston Tower.
“What’s the deal?” David asked.
“Don’t know Mr McKie. Jack Fulton sent me with your replacement, said you were wanted back at the ‘Tower’.” The driver said respectfully. David McKie was the most talked about man in the building.
London flashed by as the pool driver made neat work of journey back in spite of the traffic problems around Vauxhall. David wondered if it was about that. His bad driving in Scotland had made them late, cost the time and ultimately led to Beaumont getting shot. Maybe Liam had been called and they knew he had been late to Vauxhall, making Liam and himself late to the Belgrave. They might have missed Stanton due to his lateness.
The car drew up outside Euston Tower and David went alone into reception. The slow revolving door made
