Tested by Fire by David Costa (brene brown rising strong .txt) 📕

towards him, then he kissed her. She felt the warmth of his lips on hers and she responded, kissing him back, and putting her arms around his shoulders. She’d never felt this way. She wanted him here and now. They kissed for what seemed like hours, then he just held her. Standing there with their bodies close enough to feel every curve and muscle without using their hands.

‘I want you, Joseph, I want you.’

He felt a surge of strange energy go through him. This woman had broken through his barriers. There would always be secrets, things he couldn’t tell her, things she didn’t need to know.

‘I want you too, Mary, so much,’ he said through a dry mouth.

‘But, for now we’ll have to wait. Our feelings for each other will have to remain between us. I’m worried about the danger this mission can bring. That’s why I don’t want you exposed any more than you should be.’

‘I’m a big girl, Joseph. I can look after myself.’

‘I know you can, that’s one of the things I love about you.’

‘There’s something else, Joseph. I love you.’

There they were, the three words that change everything. He knew they would come. The feelings he felt were more than just feelings, they were life itself.

‘I love you too, Mary, and that’s why I don’t want you in danger.’

‘Bollocks. You want me all to yourself.’

He started laughing as he felt all the tension and anxiety inside him evaporate as he held her tighter in his arms.

‘This is how I want it to be, Mary, always close together and it will be. First let’s get this job out of the way, nothing to interfere in our lives.’

‘OK, agreed. But I’m waiting no longer than that. I want to be with you, to lie with you, to make love together.’

‘This will all be over Wednesday one way or the other, then we can be together. It might mean you giving up Ireland.’

‘For you, Joseph I’ll give up the world.’

‘That’s always been my nightmares. Either someone is coming to kill me and I can’t get my gun to work or I’m too late getting there to stop someone dying. Sometimes I wonder is the world worth it.’

‘It has to be, Joseph, or we all go down the pit with it.’

 

 

Chapter Thirty-eight

When they got back to the hanger Jim Broad had arrived in another Puma and he came bearing gifts. Some good, some not so good.

‘Good to see you, Joseph. How are things?’

‘Well, first we need to dispense with cover names, it will save any confusion as we go on.’

Turning to the woman standing beside him he said,

‘Boss, this is Mary McAuley. It’s thanks to her information we’re all here. I think as names go; I’ll stick to boss for you.’

Broad shook Mary’s hand.

‘Mary, I’m so glad to meet you at last, David has told me so much about you.’

‘It’s good to meet you and nice to know that Joseph is David.’ She smiled. ‘Although I think I prefer Joseph…it suits him better.’

‘I’m sorry about that, Mary, another part of the job I’m afraid,’ said Reece.

‘Well, David, can you take Mary to the canteen and fix her up with a coffee then come back and see me as we need a chat?’

‘No problem, see you in five.’

Reece left Mary in the canteen. She said nothing, other than, with a wicked smile on her face, ‘I’ll see you soon, Joseph.’

When Reece returned to the hanger, Broad and the rest of the SG9 team were watching the large TV screen on the wall. The hotel’s black and white CCTV showed a man with a baseball cap leaving the Hilton with a woman wearing a headscarf and sunglasses. A man wearing a dark hoodie with the hood up was waiting for them in a dark BMW and after putting their bags into the boot, he drove them away towards Deansgate Station. It could have been a private taxi or someone there to pick them up, the fact the driver appeared to be protecting his identity and was identified as a young Asian man, made the deliberate pick up a distinct possibility.

‘We’ve looked at these pictures a number of times. The hotel staff confirmed that this was the man with the New York baseball cap who never seemed to take it off, and this,’ April said as she pointed to the woman on the screen, ‘they confirmed as the woman who paid both their bills. She used a credit card in the name Karen Webb. He was registered as Kevin Jones. The car is a black BMW registered to Hertz Car Hire here in Manchester, paid for by a man who fits the description of the driver but who used a credit card in the name of Kevin Jones. The address and driving licence he gave are fakes. He’s hired the car until next Thursday, the day after the Conference ends.’

‘Do we have any more on the car after it left the Hilton?’ asked Reece.

‘They were picked up heading out of the city near Salford before we lost them. They didn’t use the motorways but disappeared in the side roads.’

‘This is good,’ Broad said. ‘We have them running scared and being scared they’ll make more mistakes. They might even call the whole thing off, but I doubt it. These are dedicated terrorists who will do everything in their power to get the job done, so we can assume they’re still on schedule.

‘We need to make sure Lockwood understands where we are. I’ll bring the Gold Commander up to date and they can continue to keep an eye out with their CCTV coverage and patrols. I’ll be telling him if they are spotted, they’re not to be approached but that intel will be immediately passed to us