There was a brief silence.
Then Jack Starbright shook her head. “All right,” she said. “We’ve listened to your proposition, Mr. Brooke.
Now you can listen to my answer. It’s NO! Forget it! You said it yourself. These people are dangerous. Two of your spies have already been killed. There’s no way I’m going to allow Alex into that.”
Alex glanced briefly at Jack. She hadn’t given him a chance to speak, and he understood why. She had been afraid of what he might say.
Brooke seemed to have picked up on that too. “I’d have thought after all Alex has been through, he could have made up his own mind,” he said.
“He can make up his own mind. And I’m telling you what he’s going to say. The answer’s no!”
“There is one thing we haven’t mentioned.” Brooke rested his hands on his desk. His face gave nothing away, but Damon knew what was about to come. His boss was the poker player, preparing to show his hand. “I didn’t tell you the name of our agent in Bangkok.”
“And who is that?” Jack asked.
“You know him, I think. His name is Ash.” Jack sat back, unable to keep the shock out of her eyes.
“Ash?” she faltered.
“That’s right.”
Alex had seen the effect the name had had on her.
“Who’s Ash?” he demanded.
“You don’t know him?” Brooke was enjoying himself now, though of all the people in the room, only Damon could see it. He turned to Jack. “Maybe you’d like to explain.”
“Ash was someone who knew your dad,” Jack muttered.
“He was rather more than that,” Brooke corrected her.
“Ash was John Rider’s closest friend. He was the best man at your parents’ wedding. He’s also your godfather, Alex.”
“My . . . ?” Alex couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.
He hadn’t even known he had a godfather.
“For what it’s worth, he was also the last person to see your parents alive,” Brooke went on. “He was actually with them the morning they died. He was at the airport when they got on the plane for the south of France.” The plane had never arrived. There had been a bomb on board, placed there as an act of revenge by the criminal organization known as Scorpia. That much Alex knew.
“Did you meet him?” Alex gazed at Jack. He was feeling completely disoriented, as if the ground had just been stolen from under his feet. She looked exactly the same.
“I met him a few times,” Jack replied. “It was just after I started working for your uncle. He used to come around and visit. You were the one he wanted to see. I knew he was your godfather.”
“How come you’ve never mentioned him to me?”
S N A K E H E A D
“He disappeared. You must have been about four years old. He told me he was emigrating, and I never saw him again.”
“Ash was an agent with MI6,” Brooke explained. “That was how he and your father met. They worked together as a team. Your dad even saved his life once—in Malta.
You can ask him about that . . . if you meet. I think the two of you would have a lot to talk about.”
“How can you do this?” Jack whispered. She was looking at Brooke with utter contempt.
“Ash left MI6 and emigrated here,” Brooke continued.
“He came with great references, so we were happy to take him on at ASIS. He’s been with us ever since. Right now he’s in Bangkok, undercover—like I said. But there’s nobody better placed to pretend to be your father, Alex. I mean, he’s almost that already. He’ll look after you. And I think you’ll find him interesting. What do you say?” Alex said nothing. He had already made up his mind, but somehow he knew that Brooke wouldn’t need to be told. He had figured that out for himself.
“I need time,” he said at length.
“Sure. Why don’t you and Jack go and talk about it?” Brooke nodded, and Damon produced a white card. He must have had it ready in his pocket from the very start.
“Here’s a number where you can reach me. We’ll need to fly you into Bangkok tomorrow. So maybe you could call me sometime tonight?”
• • •
“I know what you’re thinking, but you can’t possibly go,” Jack said. “It’s wrong.”
Alex and Jack had wandered over to The Rocks, the little cluster of shops and cafes that nestled on the very edge of the harbor, right underneath the bridge. Jack had brought them here on purpose. She wanted to mingle with the crowds somewhere bright and ordinary, a world apart from the hidden truths and half-lies of the Australian
