FireWall

'Mum? Dad? and I've got a sister with kids, know what I mean? I wanted to tell you, Nick, honest I did, but? well, you know.

Listen, it ain't Valentin doing this shit, mate. It's her; she's freelancing. He don't know a thing about it; she's just using his name, letting you think you're working for him.'

He didn't need to say any more. Things were suddenly making more sense to me than they had in a long time. That was why she'd been able to say yes straight away to the three million. That was why she'd insisted there was to be no contact with anyone apart from her. It even explained why she didn't want me to have a weapon: She probably thought that if I found out what was happening I'd use it against her.

'How did you get sucked back into all this?'

I waited for him to try to compose himself.

'Liv. Well, not her to begin with, but this guy Ignaty he came and saw me in London. The day before you did.'

Where had I heard that name before? Then I realized. He was the underwriter; it had been his name on the piece of paper in Narva. So maybe Liv wasn't the only one of Val's people to be going freelance.

Now Tom had started babbling it was important not to ask the sort of questions that might suddenly make him realize he was saying too much.

I just said gently, 'What happened then, mate?'

'He said Liv had a job for me and that I'd be going to Finland. That someone would come and persuade me and all that stuff. I shat myself when I found out it was Echelon again, but I had no choice, mate. My sister and what have you? Nick, you gotta help me. Please, she'll kill everyone if I don't sort this shit out. Please help me.

Please.'

He wept into his hood.

'Tom?'

He didn't register. Maybe his sobs were too loud for him to hear me.

'Tom. She wanted you dead. She will think you're dead if I tell her.'

His hood came up. 'You were going to kill me? Oh fuck, Nick.

Don't? please don't?'

'I'm not going to kill you.'

He wasn't listening. 'I'm so sorry, Nick. She made me ask those questions. You know, in the train station. She wanted to know if you were gonna stitch her up or what. I had to do it. She knows everybody's addresses and everything. The guy showed me pictures of my sister's kids. Honest, Nick, I wanted to tell you what was happening but?' His hood dropped back down as a new spasm took hold of him.

I felt like a priest in a confession box. 'Tom, listen. Really, I'm not going to kill you. It was me who got you out of there, remember?'

There was a small nod from within the hood.

'I'll make sure that you and your family are looked after, Tom, but we have to get back to the U.K. first. You'll have to talk with some people and tell them exactly what's been happening, at Menwith and here, okay?'

I sensed an opportunity for everything to work out whichever way this went. I wasn't exactly sure how, but there had to be a way that Tom could get a new life and I could get my money. And if the money didn't materialize, at least I could still work for the Firm. I could come up with enough bullshit to make it sound as if I'd known all along what was happening, but couldn't tell anyone because of the security risk of someone printing off the information I'd told them in Russia.

Liv need never know that Tom was alive, and I could still pick up my money and then go to Lynn. I knew it was flimsy as plans go, but it was a start-assuming she didn't shaft me.

What was more important was getting out of Estonia. After that, I'd sit down with Tom, get the full story and sort my shit out.

'Why didn't she just tell me that it was you coming with me, rather than getting me to try and talk you into it? You were already coming, right?' His babbling before hadn't exactly explained it clearly.

'Fuck knows. You'll have to ask her. That's why I shat myself when I saw you. I thought your lot had heard about it. She's weird, mate.

Did she talk as if it was all coming from Valentin?'

'Of course.'

'Well it isn't, she's talking about herself. It's all her own plans, mate, I'm telling you. If Valentin knew he'd cut her in half, know what I mean?'

Well, not quite in half, but I bet he'd have her watching a few squirming eels before he'd finished with her.

For all that, there was a part of me that admired what she was doing.

Maybe the man from St. Petersburg was her feed in Val's set up, leaking her information to set this whole thing up? What was in it for her? What was her goal in all this? Maybe Tom was right, it was everything that she had talked about? Question after question leaped into my head, but the snowflakes hitting my face made me remember that there were more pressing matters to attend to.

We had no shelter, no heat and now no navigation. The cold was getting to me as the sweat on my back began to cool rapidly now that we had been stationary for a while. Tom shivered badly where he sat curled up on the snow beside me. Both of us had inherited a layer of snow. We had to move, but in which direction? The marker would only be good for a hundred meters or so; after that, and with out Polaris, we'd get disoriented and spend the rest of the night walking round in circles.

I looked at Tom and felt him shivering in almost uncontrollable bursts.

His brain was probably telling him he must start moving, but his body was begging him to stay where he was and rest.

I lifted the cuff of various layers of clothing and had a quick look at the Lion King. Just under twelve hours to go until we should RV with the train. Even if I knew which direction to take, trying to cover that distance in these conditions without navigation aids would be madness. Visibility had worsened; it was down to about fifteen feet.

In any other circumstances we should have been digging in for the night and riding out the storm, but we didn't have the luxury of time. Quite apart from making it to a train, I didn't know what sort of follow-up the Maliskia would go for, and I didn't want to find out. Trying to think of a positive, I finally dredged one up; at least the snow would cover our trail.

Tom mumbled under his hood. 'I'm really cold, Nick.'

'We'll get going in a minute, mate.'

I was still racking my brain for some sort of navigation aid. It had been years since I'd had to use or even remember any survival skills.

Scrolling through the pages of crap in my head, I tried hard to call up what I'd learned all those years ago. I'd never been one for all that hundred-and-one-uses-for-a-shoelace stuff; I'd just got on with it and only did the snow-hole and trapped-rabbit routine when I had to.

I put my arms around him. He wasn't too sure what was going on and I felt his body stiffen.

'It's a snow thing,' I said. 'We've got to keep warm.'

He leaned in toward me, shivering big-time.

'Nick, I'm really really sorry, mate. If I'd told you the truth we wouldn't be in this shit, know what I mean?'

I nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable. It wasn't all his fault.

I'd have tried to drag his granny over that fence if it would have given me half a chance of pocketing 1.7 million.

'I'll tell you the best thing I've found to get over all this cold stuff,' I said, trying to sound as relaxed about it as possible.

From under the hood came a muffled, 'What's that, then?'

'Dream, mate. Just think to yourself that this will all be over soon.

This time tomorrow you're going to be in a hot bath with a huge mug of coffee and a Big Mac with extra fries. This time tomorrow you'll be laughing about all this shit.'

He kicked his heels into the snow. 'That's if these poxy trainers stay on.'