The Alex King Series by A BATEMAN (free ebook reader for ipad TXT) 📕

up for MI6, rather than tossing me to the hounds.” He looked at Ramsay. “In other words, we’re all in this together.”

“Look, let’s all get on the same page here.” Ramsay could see the team were tight. He hadn’t thought of them as a team until now, but this was what he saw before him. “This wouldn’t normally be our bag, but MI6 have us over a barrel. We need to get this job done and move on.” He looked at everybody in turn, then focused his attention on King. “I’m not happy with this MI6 spook, though.”

“We need him,” said King.

“We needed Fitzpatrick,” Ramsay corrected him. “What we have now is an ex-spook who’s back in the game, and lord knows what he’s agreed in order to be taken back, and a defector whose original handler is dead.”

“And a bloody great storm on the way,” added Rashid. “So, kicking about in the woods isn’t an option. Not for everybody, at least.”

Ramsay frowned. “Meaning?”

Rashid stood up and opened the laptop beside him. He switched it on and said, “Marnie has run a topography program and we’re left with a map that shows the three most suitable places for a person to come in by foot across the border,” he paused. “Given the location of the power station and the hotel, and natural obstacles like ravines and cliffs that Fitzpatrick would have been aware of, it really narrows it down to one place. I can get out there, get a snow hole dug out and hunker down. I have the best clothing available and some modern aids, I can see out this storm.”

Ramsay nodded. He couldn’t help noticing the look of concern on Marnie’s face. He looked back at King and said, “What do you think?”

King shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt. If he gets out there soon it will not only act as a welcoming, but a good contingency if she is followed.” He looked at Rashid and said, “I’ve got some kit you might be interested in. Come to my room after this.”

“Am I going to want to know what?” Ramsay asked.

“No.”

“But the storm?” Marnie interjected. “The polar vortex they have predicted will take temperatures as low as minus sixty!”

Ramsay held up his hand. “If Rashid thinks he’ll be okay, I’ll go with it,” he said tersely. “Rashid are you okay with it?”

“Sure, no bother.”

“Are we bringing in this guy, Peter Stewart?” Marnie asked. “I mean, if he’s MI6, then surely we need to cooperate with him?”

“The jury’s out for the moment,” Ramsay said. “We’ll have to bring him in at some stage, but for now, let’s keep both you and Rashid out of it. He’s working with King, so he’ll know about Caroline and her…” he hesitated and said, “…troubles last summer. That’s why MI6 are pulling one over on MI5, after all. I’ve moved up a notch with Simon Mereweather’s promotion to deputy director, and with that, I imagine he will have an inkling who I am. We’ll not assume, just take it as given that he knows me. But he will have no reason or even the means to know our newest field recruit, nor just a secretary and analyst.”

“None taken…” Marnie said quietly.

Caroline smiled and gave her a wink.

King shrugged. “It won’t hurt.”

“You don’t trust him?” Ramsay asked.

“No.”

“Because?”

“Because he tried to pull the rug out from underneath me once.”

“Any other reason?”

King took something out of his pocket. A small, orange lozenge. He turned it over in his hand and held it out for Ramsay. “Because he found this and didn’t tell me.”

“You took it off him?” Ramsay asked, taking it an undoing the cap to reveal a stubby USB flash drive.

King nodded. “Fitzpatrick buried it in the ice, moments before he died. It was important enough for him to spend his last moments trying to hide it. His fingers were ruined in doing so. The ice split his skin and he tore out a couple of fingernails. I found it but didn’t get time to retrieve it before the Sami hunter shot at me. Stewart found it when he searched the body of the Sami after he tried to ambush us. I thought I saw him palm it then. He was so worried about finding it, he didn’t check the body further. When I found a couple of bullets in the man’s pockets, I knew I’d seen Stewart pocket something. It makes sense now, but at the time I was shocked that he had shot him. I was wrestling the guy down, tricky on the ice, but I was getting there. Stewart just shot the man in the back of the head. I was freezing and needed to get my jacket back on, so I wasn’t watching him when he searched the Sami. When I turned around, I thought I saw him put something in his pocket. I picked his pocket as we got to the hotel. When we pushed the snowmobile into some brush to hide it.”

“And Stewart hasn’t twigged it was you?”

“He will have by now.”

“So, he won’t trust you.”

“He doesn’t anyway.”

“No?”

King shook his head. “Not a chance.”

“An uneasy accord, then,” Ramsay mused.

“In which to bide my time,” said King.

“For what?”

King looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. “Before he tries to kill me,” he paused. “Or I kill him.”

35

 

The Inari Falls Paatsjoki River Hydroelectric Plant

Russia

She checked the site clock. She was half-way through her window of opportunity and she still had to deal with the air-lock and remove the protective clothing. She wasn’t sure she would make it, but she needed to speak to the two people – her two former colleagues. She needed to see if she could get them free or, with time so critical, just assure them that