BLOOD DRAGON by Freddie Peters (books to get back into reading .TXT) 📕

large sheet of plastic. The dust rose to her nose and she started to cough uncontrollably. She hadn’t brought water with her … a mistake. She calmed herself, controlling her breathing. She wiped away the perspiration that had gathered on her forehead with her arm, and carried on shifting the metal pieces which appeared more promising.

Each of the tubes was hollow so that they could be joined together in different configuations. Cora started to inspect each meticulously. After fifteen minutes, the pile of props was mounting on one side, so far nothing. She stopped for a moment.

Perhaps she was simply grasping at straws.

She almost kicked the pile of metal that resembled a small pyramid. Tears had gathered in the corners of her eyes and she wiped them ferociously against the shoulder of her T-shirt.

Her eyes moved slowly around the space. All the things that had made the flat home had gone. She gritted her teeth. “For Ollie …”

She resumed the task, going through each piece, starting now on the smaller tubes. One of the props did not match the others. By the look of it, it had never been part of the set she had calibrated herself, but seemed to have been more of a reject, a piece of metal she had discarded when cutting the props to size.

Cora’s heart pounded in her chest. An odd piece out, inconspicuous to the untrained eye, but glaringly obvious to her, since she had invented the structure. Cora bent forward in a sudden movement, and pulled out the piece of metal from where it had been placed at the bottom of the pile.

The rest of the props that had been stored on top of it came crashing down.

* * *

“I have spoken to the hospital.” Pole dragged an old chair on casters over to Andy’s desk. “The registrar has agreed to what we suggested. His head nurse will be in the loop and that’s it”

“We have three plain clothes officers already briefed. The other PC on duty will take over as agreed.”

“Sounds good.”

“Where will you be, Gov?”

“I’ll be outside the hospital …” Pole nodded. “I can’t be anywhere near Ollie’s room, otherwise I fear it will deter our woman suspect.”

“She doesn’t know me, so I plan to be in the reception area with my laptop … I can control the camera we have installed in Ollie’s room from there.”

“And I’ll be there too.” Mandy popped up from behind the partition screen that separated her desk from Andy’s.

“Jolly good.” Pole gave them both an approving smile. “I couldn’t hope for a better team.”

“Mandy’s got really good self-defence training, too.” Andy’s cheeks turned a little pink.

“Even better. How many times have you been on a live operation, Mandy?”

“Only once, Sir, but it was rather tough.”

Pole eyed Andy sideways. “It’ll be fine. If we stick to the plan, it will work out.”

“I’ve been chased by Commander Ferguson again.” Andy had changed the subject.

Pole’s attention switched abruptly. “He asked whether you could call him about Ms Wu?”

Pole clenched his fist and released it. “I did tell him I would call as soon as I had the time.” He controlled his anger. No need to take it out on Andy. He was on his side.

Pole disappeared into his office, closed the door and sat down heavily in his chair.

“Shit.” He ran his hand through his hair and paused.

Ferguson was worse than a dog with a bone. He would not let it rest until he had found what he was looking for.

Pole hesitated. Harris had given him the okay. The link between the terrorist who had attempted to eliminate a key witness, and the SFO prosecutor in the Mark Phelps case, had been planted. The rest would follow.

Still, it would mean lying to his DS, so as to lead him towards the planted evidence.

A knock at the door interrupted his train of thought. He considered ignoring it but Andy was gesturing he needed to come in.

Pole moved over to the door and opened it.

“Superintendent Marsh is trying to get hold of you.”

Pole rolled his eyes. He was about to dial reluctantly, then stopped. Perhaps The Super could be of assistance for once.

“Hello, Denise.” Pole had appeared unannounced at Marsh’s office.

“Well, … hello, Inspector Pole …” Denise pulled her glasses away from her face and raised an eyebrow. It was not like him to show up out of the blue.

“I’m sure he is, as ever, fiendishly busy, but …”

“As it happens, he wants to see you , so I’ll let him know. He has a call in 15 minutes, but I can delay for a bit if need be.”

Denise disappeared into Marsh’s office and, as predicted, she opened the door and ushered him in.

“Pole, you, unannounced.” Marsh expected something juicy and rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

“I just wanted to run an idea past you, Sir. It’s about Ferguson and the inquiry.”

Marsh grimaced and waved Pole towards his desk.

He sat down, made as though he was gathering his thoughts about a difficult situation.

“I think Commander Ferguson’s team might have missed something important.”

Marsh straightened up. He was all ears.

“There is one location that his people do not seem to have checked and that is the area surrounding the place his team stormed 10 months ago.”

Marsh frowned. “I don’t follow.”

“Commander Ferguson is intent on finding someone to blame for MI6 having advance knowledge of the terrorist cell’s location. But that doesn’t mean gathering any form of evidence to substantiate that.”

“I’m sure Ferguson is aware of that. He’s one of the best in the squad.”

“I’ve worked with Ferguson enough to know how determined he can be, but, in the case of this enquiry, he’s perhaps a little too keen.”

“What do you have in mind?” Marsh couldn’t see where he was going.

“Is it not possible that the person who made the calls from the vicinity of the Scotland Yard building, or near Ms Wu’s flat, was a member of the terrorist cell? After all, they were targeting people on the Mark Phelps case.”

A