'Why were we briefed that the bomb would be initiated by remote control? How come the intelligence was so good about the ASU, but so wrong about there being no bomb?'
Still he gave no reply.
Things weren't adding up here.
Ohfrick.
I felt as if I'd been hit on the back of the head by a fire extinguisher again. Why hadn't I thought of it? The freight train's rumbling was now in the distance. The early-morning silence had returned.
'But you know all this, don't you?'
No reply. He didn't even break his stride.
Who had briefed us that the Gibraltar bomb was going to be initiated by remote control? Simmonds, who was there at Alpha to oversee it. Why the fuck hadn't I thought of it before?
I stopped. Simmonds kept walking.
'This isn't just an American-PIRA thing, is it? It's much bigger. You are part of it, aren't you?'
The rear arches were more light industrial than retail auto repair shops, sheetmetal works, and storage units, most with company vans that had been parked outside for the night.
He turned to face me and took the six steps back to where I stood. For the first time, we had eye-to- eye.
'Nick, I think you need to be aware of something. You will give me all the information and I mean all of it. We cannot take the risk of other copies being in circulation.'
The look on his face was of a chess grand master about to make the decisive move. The shock in mine must have been plain to see.
'We didn't necessarily go along with the Americans' determination to kill you, but you should be in no doubt that we will do so now if we have to.'
'We?'
'It's much bigger than you think. Nick. You're intelligent.
You must realize the commercial and political implications of a cease fire Exposing what is on the disks would mess up much more than just what you know. It's unfortunate about Kevin and his family, I grant you. When he told me what he'd discovered, I did try to talk my American colleagues into a subtler course of action.'
So that was why I'd been ordered back to the UK so abruptly. Once Simmonds had talked with Kev, he wanted me out of the US and quick. He didn't want me speaking to Kev or interrupting his murder.
I thought of Kelly At least she was safe.
It was almost as if he were reading my mind.
'If you decide not to give me all the information, we will kill the child. And then we will kill you after extracting what we need. Don't be naive. Nick. You and I, we're the same. This isn't about emotion; this is business. Nick, business. You really have no choice.'
I tried to fight it. He had to be bluffing. 'Euan sends his regards, by the way, and says that he managed to get a television set for her bedroom. Believe me, Nick, Euan will kill her. He rather likes the financial benefits.'
I shook my head slowly from side to side.
'Think back. Who initiated the contact?'
He was right, it was Euan. Simmonds was there to direct it, Euan was there to pull the trigger. But I still fought against the idea.
He opened his jacket and pulled a mobile phone from his inside pocket.
'Let Euan explain; he was expecting a call later anyway.'
He turned on the power and waited to put in his PIN number. He smiled as he looked down at the phone's display.
'This is how the Americans found you, you know. People think that detection can take place only when the phone is in use. Not so. As long as they're switched on, these things are miniature tracking devices, even if no calls are made or received. It's actually a form of electronic tagging. We find it terribly useful.'
He tapped in his PIN number, the tones blaring out of his hand.
'However, once you'd given them the slip at Lorton, our only option was to let you make entry back into the UK. I needed to know what you'd found out. I have to say, I'm so glad your cancer treatment was successful.'
Fuck! He hadn't even mentioned my lack of hair. That was because he already knew. But Euan. He'd been aware enough to mention it. I felt sick knowing he was using his skills against me.
Simmonds smiled. He knew he had me by the balls.
'Nick, I'll say this again. I really do need all the disks. You know the child would suffer greatly; it's not something that we would enjoy, but there are important matters at stake.'
I wanted so much for him to get through to Euan. I wanted to speak to him, wanted him to confirm that it was a bluff. But in my heart of hearts I knew that it wasn't.
Simmonds had nearly finished tapping in the number.
I had no choice. I couldn't risk Kelly. He wasn't going to make this call.
With my right arm in a hooked position, I swung around hard and connected with his nose. There was a dull crunch of fracturing bone as he went down with a muffled moan. While he writhed on the ground I kicked his case under one of the vans and, in the same motion, picked up the phone in my left hand, got behind him, and positioned it at the front of his throat. Grabbing the other side with my right hand, I jammed it firmly under his Adam's apple.
I looked to the right and left. We were too exposed where we were; what I had in mind would take several minutes to complete. I shuffled backward, dragging him in between two of the trucks. I got down onto my knees, all the time pulling back on the phone. He was kicking out, his arms flailing, trying to rip my face apart.
His whimpers and chokes filled the air. I responded by leaning forward, using the weight of my upper body to bend his head down so that his chin was more or less on his chest.
At the same time I pulled even harder. Just another two minutes and I'd be done.
After thirty seconds he started to struggle furiously, with all the frenzied strength that a man draws on when he knows he is dying. But no matter what he did now, he wouldn't be getting up.
His hands still scratched at my face. I bobbed and weaved to avoid them but maintained the pressure on his throat.
Already the scabs from the fight with McGear had been pulled off, but I couldn't feel much blood. Then Simmonds managed to get his fingernails into the cut just below my eye. I stifled a scream as his three nails started into the already damaged soft skin. I made the injury worse by pulling my face away; as I did, Simmonds's nails took my skin with them.
I didn't bother now to see if anyone was watching. I was beyond caring. I was fighting for breath myself with the effort, as sweat stung the injuries on my face.
Gradually at first, his movements subsided to no more than a spasmodic twitching in his legs. His hands stopped grasping. Seconds later he was unconscious. It crossed my mind just to get up and walk away, to leave him to suffer the effects of hypoxia and be brain-damaged for life. I decided against that. I wanted this fucker dead.
I gave it another thirty seconds. His chest stopped moving.
I put my fingers on the carotid pulse and felt nothing.
I dragged him to the wall and sat him up against the doors of a unit. Then I got to my feet and started dusting myself off.
Keeping to the shadows, I tucked my shirt in and wiped away the sweat and blood with my sleeve. I checked the phone. It had been turned off in the fight. I wiped my prints off it, then just left everything where it was and casually walked away. If anybody had seen me, so what? It didn't really matter. I had more important things to worry about.
I drove west, holding my coat cuff against my eye to stop the bleeding.
The whole situation was still spinning around inside my head, slowly beginning to make sense.
I now knew how Luther and his lot had found me--they must have beaten the number out of Pat and traced the signal while I had it switched on waiting for his call.
If I'd let on to Euan or Simmonds that there was just one more set of backups in my laptop and had handed it over, I'd have been dead. They were covering their asses by retrieving the information.
