Execution (A Harry Tate Thriller) Page 3

  Randolph, the seasoned bureaucrat, interjected quickly. ‘Mr Tate, there are hundreds of patients passing through this hospital at any one time. Perhaps you should address your concerns to the appropriate authorities.’

  ‘Authorities? What the hell does that mean? You’re in charge – so I’m asking you.’

  ‘That unit – the one upstairs – is, strictly speaking, under the control of the Ministry of Defence. Because the patients are nearly all military, the consultants and staff have specialist responsibilities. We merely supply a service.’ He looked rather pleased with that summary and glanced again at his watch. ‘Look, I must go – I have a staff meeting waiting.’

  Harry recognised the dead hand of officialdom guiding the man’s attitude. He wasn’t going to get anywhere here. Better to go higher up, to someone who might know something. The one person who knew Clare Jardine’s background.

  Richard Ballatyne.

  FIVE

  ‘You haven’t been in touch.’ Richard Ballatyne’s tone was as neutral as his grey two-piece suit, befitting his position as a head of operations in the Secret Intelligence Service, known otherwise as MI6. He eased himself down on the bench alongside Harry with a sigh and took off his glasses, rubbing his face.

  ‘No need, was there?’ Harry shifted over to give him room and watched as the intelligence officer’s suited minder strolled past a few feet away. The man was new to Harry, albeit a clone of the previous hard-case, with a suitably square chin and watchful eyes. Ballatyne must have worn out the old one. Another man, slightly younger, in jeans and a soft jacket, with the sloppy appearance of a street rat, lounged on a bench twenty yards away. Who’d have thought, Harry pondered; MI6, equal opportunity employers. He knew their presence wasn’t Ballatyne’s choice, but since his predecessor had died at the hand of a rogue former special forces soldier, extra measures had been introduced by his superiors.

  ‘True enough. That was good work in Kosovo. Messy but . . . useful.’ He was referring to an assignment Harry and Rik had undertaken for the UN, weeding out an assassin tracking down personnel suspected of being guilty of rape several years ago in the beleaguered region. They had also succeeded in unmasking the guilty rapist, the shock waves of which were no doubt still rattling the innermost ranks of the UN in New York, but unknown by the world at large.

  ‘We try to please.’

  They were seated in Victoria Embankment Gardens, a stone’s throw from the Thames and the steady roar of morning traffic along the Embankment. It was one of two preferred meeting places for Ballatyne, the other being an Italian restaurant in Wigmore Street that Harry had never seen open for business.

  ‘They’ve chopped the trees back since our last chat,’ Ballatyne commented, nodding towards the clear view of the London Eye turning lazily across the river. ‘Pity. I liked them in full leaf. It’s like sitting in a goldfish bowl now.’

  ‘Your choice, coming here,’ Harry pointed out. ‘You could always invite me to your office and show me your certificates.’

  Ballatyne grunted. They both knew that wasn’t going to happen. Ever since being placed on a hit list by his former boss, rogue MI5 Operations Director George Paulton, and narrowly escaping with his life, Harry had been let go by the security agency. It had been more out of embarrassment than any doubts about his character or loyalty. Ballatyne, however, had shown few qualms about using his skills, although it would probably never include being allowed inside the hallowed portals of SIS headquarters.

  ‘So what’s the big flap?’ Ballatyne asked, brushing a stray hair from his immaculate suit. ‘I was out of the country until yesterday evening, and dropped at least three active files and a second permanent under-secretary from the MOD because of your call.’

  ‘I hope he was worth it.’

  ‘She, actually. And yes, it was. The woman’s a professional tick, like most of her kind, but we can’t always choose the people we get to work with, can we? Now, spill.’

  Harry took a deep breath and said, ‘Clare Jardine.’

  Ballatyne muttered an obscenity. ‘What about her?’

  Harry stared at him. He’d rarely heard Ballatyne swear, but this had been uttered with unreserved sincerity. ‘Did I say something wrong?’

  ‘We’ll see. What’s she done now?’

  ‘That’s what I’m asking you.’

  Ballatyne looked pained. ‘Please, Harry – I don’t have time for riddles.’

  ‘She’s gone. Disappeared.’

  ‘She can’t have.’

  ‘She has. I went to see her yesterday afternoon. She was there ten days ago, but now she isn’t. There were security guards and suits in the place, and lots of safety tape. Something was going on. Is it anything your lot would know about?’

  ‘Come off it, Harry. We might not be your favourite people, but we’re not responsible for every bad deed in the world. Anyway, Jardine’s off our hands, you know that.’ Harry must have looked doubtful, because he added heavily, ‘In official Six jargon, she is no longer a person of interest.’

  ‘So you didn’t discover a secondary beef with her?’

  ‘You mean other than her having knocked off an MI6 deputy director just down the river? No. In view of what you described, we did as you asked and dropped all charges. I gave you my word, although God help you, I hope that’s not about to come back and bite me on the arse.’

  Harry sat back, confused. Ballatyne sounded sincere. Clare Jardine, like Harry and several other security service personnel, had been on a hit list when their presence in a shared outstation code-named Red Station in Georgia had been threatened with being overrun by Russian forces. Without official sanction or knowledge, Harry’s boss, Paulton, and Sir Anthony Bellingham, Deputy Director (Operations) of MI6, had issued a termination order on them. Only Harry, Clare and an MI5 IT wizard named Rik Ferris had returned unscathed. Since then, Harry and Rik had worked together in the private sector as security consultants and tracers, tracking down missing persons of significance, often for Ballatyne.

  Clare Jardine, in disgrace after being caught on the wrong end of an MI6 honey-trap, had dropped out of sight, resentful and full of anger, but only after disposing of Bellingham with a knife blade concealed inside a powder compact. Since then, Harry hadn’t seen her until shortly before she was shot.

  ‘You know why I asked you to arrange the treatment.’

  ‘I know – she saved your life and Ferris’s.’

  ‘And Jean’s.’

  ‘Of course. How is Jean?’

  ‘She’s fine.’ Jean Fleming, a tall, willowy redhead, widow of an army officer and owner of an upmarket flower shop in Fulham. Very nearly a victim of a Bosnian kidnap attempt, she had been saved by Clare’s intervention.

  ‘And the Boy Wonder – Ferris? Not hacking into our networks, I hope.’

  ‘He’s not. Is there anyone else you’d like to ask after?’

  Ballatyne grinned. ‘No, that’s my lot. Just showing corporate concern, that’s all. We’ve had training in staff relations. It brings out our feminine side, apparently.’

  ‘Poor sod. So you really know nothing about Clare?’

  ‘No. But I’ll ask around. Why are you still bothered? I didn’t think you two were buddies.’

  ‘We’re not. But I owe her.’

  Ballatyne grunted. ‘You thought we’d wait for the dust to settle, then lift her and bang her up in a maximum security cell, is that it?’

  ‘It had crossed my mind. It’s what you wanted to do originally.’

  ‘True enough, at first. But believe it or not, I do like to keep my word, once I’ve given it.’ He smiled without humour. ‘Although I can’t speak for others in this business.’ He got to his feet, shaking out his cuffs. ‘Leave it with me, Harry. I’ll call you.’

  Harry watched him walk away, shadowed by his two minders. He turned as Rik Ferris ambled up and stood beside him drinking a smoothie through a straw. Dressed in jeans and a loose shirt, his noticeably spiky hair covered with a beanie
hat, he looked like an escapee from an all-night rave.

  ‘What did he have to say for himself?’ Rik asked around a hollow sucking noise.

  ‘He had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.’

  ‘Serious?’

  ‘Serious. Either that or he’s taken acting lessons since we last met.’ Harry shook his head and stood up.

  ‘You think something spooked her?’

  ‘Or somebody. Maybe she thought they were still coming for her, in spite of Ballatyne’s promise. She’s pretty messed up. She took the compact, by the way.’

  ‘Really? Christ, she must be in a bad way.’ He sounded dismissive, but had a wry grin on his face.

  They walked in silence for a while, Harry chewing over what Ballatyne had said. Or not said. Something serious had been going on at the hospital yesterday. He’d been involved in enough security operations himself to recognise the atmosphere of tension. But if Ballatyne knew anything, he was playing his cards close to his chest. He sighed. It was probably nothing to do with Clare, but he felt concerned. The least he could do was find out where she’d gone.

  ‘I never thought I’d say this, but I want you to do something totally illegal,’ he told Rik, and started walking towards the underground station.

  ‘Would this have anything to do with getting into official prison records and seeing if one Jardine C. has been transferred to a secure medical unit somewhere? Only I’m not sure in all conscience that I could do that.’

  ‘You’d better. If you don’t, I’ll ring your mother and tell her what a bad boy you’ve been.’

  ‘Gotcha.’ Rik slam-dunked the empty bottle into a rubbish bin. His mother, with whom he was close, believed he was an ordinary office worker, the most dangerous aspect of his work being the occasional paper cut. He didn’t like to give her cause for concern by telling her what he really did for a living.

  SIX

  British Airways flight 779 from Stockholm touched down at Heathrow’s terminal five under a cloudy sky with a puff of tyre smoke and a gentle lurch to starboard. After two hours and ten minutes in the air, some through an uncomfortable stretch of turbulence, the landing received a scattered round of applause from some thirty relieved business delegates returning from a three-day IT conference in Sweden. Most of them had been drinking liberally since leaving Arlanda, taking advantage of the drinks on offer after the eye-watering prices they had encountered in the Swedish capital.

  As the seat belt sign went off, the occupant of seat 33A undid his buckle and allowed himself to be hustled off the aircraft, shoulder to shoulder with two corporate managers somewhat the worse for wear and loudly genial as they leaned on him for support. He had introduced himself as Peter Collins, owner of a small computer consultancy in Birmingham, and they had pressed their business cards on him before engaging eagerly in a solid bout of drinking and exchanging anecdotes about the parlous state of the industry.

  Collins wasn’t interested in their backgrounds or opinions, and they were soon in no state to remember what little he had revealed to them of himself. And although he appeared to be matching them drink for drink, and his manner becoming just as unfocussed, in reality he spent most of the flight slipping the contents of his miniatures into their glasses, which accounted for their rapid state of intoxication.

  Inside the terminal building, faced with this noisy but good-natured group of travellers, all holding British passports, the over-stretched immigration desk personnel gave scant attention to all but the most obvious queries. Peter Collins looked very much like his companions: a middle-aged businessman on the tail end of a business trip and a 30,000-feet bender. What wasn’t apparent was that the recent addition of a slim-line beard had altered his face just sufficiently to make it appear rounder than it really was, and a pair of heavy framed glasses reduced the amount of detail on offer, something he had worked hard to achieve with minimum effort.

  With a nod from the immigration officer, he was through and away, slipping through the baggage hall and neatly shedding his two companions as they went hurriedly in search of the toilets.

  Had they been watching him rather than focussing on their bladders, they might have noticed that he had also shed the unsteady gait he’d adopted while leaving the aircraft.

  Collins timed his entry into the arrivals area among another group of travellers, this time in close conversation with a middle-aged florist from Oslo. She understood very little of what he was saying, but he seemed pleasant enough, adding an early frisson of excitement to her holiday.

  The usual meeters and greeters were there in twin lines, studying faces and holding aloft the customary pieces of paper or name cards as he walked out onto the concourse. Collins didn’t bother checking for security watchers; he knew they’d be there somewhere. Probably junior staffers gaining valuable on-the-spot ‘training’, with no real idea of what they were supposed to be looking for. When he saw his name on a small hand-held whiteboard, he veered off from the florist with a brief smile and followed the greeter across the concourse to a waiting car outside.

  Once in the back seat, he took off the glasses, which were pinching the bridge of his nose, and scratched vigorously at his beard. It wasn’t the first time he’d grown one in the course of his lengthy career, or worn the heavy frames. In a career which had often taken him into dangerous situations, subtle changes of appearance were all that had stood between success and failure, freedom or captivity. Facial hair was something to which he’d never become accustomed, but right now, back in the UK, where being spotted would mean his chances of surviving longer than a few days would be unlikely, it was a discomfort worth enduring.

  ‘Take me to the Rivoli at the Ritz,’ he told the driver expansively.

  It had been too long since his last visit, and he was about ready to kill for a decent cocktail. Besides, this evening was likely to be the only quiet time he was going to get for a while, if experience told him anything. Following a call out of the blue from a person he thought he’d heard the last of, he now had a job to do. It was a reminder from his past that he could have done without, but there were some people you simply could not turn down. He didn’t yet know precisely what the man wanted – he had been very cagey on the phone – but the fact that the man had called him was reason enough to risk everything by coming back to London, somewhere he hadn’t expected to be for a long time.

  Whatever the job, he sensed that it would mean calling in a big favour or two of old acquaintances. He still had one or two here, people he could rely on . . . or put pressure on. Either way, first he’d need to brush the dust off his old trade craft and make contact with a man who owed him.

  He put it to the back of his mind. First, a drink or two, followed by a decent dinner. He couldn’t accomplish anything until tomorrow, anyway. By early morning he would know more about the job. Then he could get to work.

  SEVEN

  In a room on the second-floor of the SIS Headquarters building, a hastily-convened meeting was underway. Darkness had blanketed the river outside, producing a glittering row of lights from the embankment on the far side and the occasional running lights of a craft on the water. But nobody in the room had eyes for the scenery; they had seen the view from this floor too often in the past to be intrigued anymore. Most wanted the business over and done with so that they could go home. It had already been a long day.

  ‘It has been confirmed,’ Richard Ballatyne announced, at a nod from a man chairing the meeting, ‘that Roman Tobinskiy was found dead in his room at King’s College Hospital the night before last.’

  The five men and one woman around the conference table with him were silent. Most looked surprised by the news. There had been no need to explain who Tobinskiy was, since they were all well-acquainted with his history.

  Roman Vladimirovich Tobinskiy was a former FSB officer who, like his friend and former colleague Alexander Litvinenko, had grown disenchanted with the Russian security agency and the government’s alleged involvement in violence again
st its own people for political gain. After following Litvinenko’s move out of the FSB and into exile abroad, Tobinskiy had dropped out of sight, fearing reprisals against him by his former masters. His concerns had not been ill-founded; in November 2006, Litvinenko, who had become an open critic of the Russian government and President Putin in books and the media, had fallen ill in London and later died. The cause was diagnosed as severe radiation poisoning by an isotope, Polonium 210, administered, it was reported, in a cup of tea. It had caused a worldwide scandal and once more highlighted the deadly reputation the Russian specialist security agencies had of following their enemies and dissidents abroad and silencing them.

  Nothing had been heard of Tobinskiy other than a brief report that he had allegedly voiced his suspicions through a media mouthpiece that the FSB had acted on orders from the Kremlin to silence critics such as Litvinenko and himself. His precise whereabouts had been unknown for some years, although many suspected he had been in hiding in the United States.

  The first to venture a question was the man at the head of the table. Deputy Director of MI6, Sir Callum Fitzgerald, waved a slim mobile phone in the air. ‘What was the cause of death?’

  ‘We’re awaiting the results of tests. Early indications suggest it was a heart attack brought on by complications from gunshot injuries received several days ago.’

  ‘You called this meeting, Richard,’ Fitzgerald said, ‘as you have every right to do. For that reason and by your tone, are we to assume that you don’t believe it was a heart attack?’

  ‘In view of the dead man’s history, sir, no. I don’t.’

  It wasn’t the main reason Ballatyne had called for the meeting; Tobinskiy dying anywhere in the world would have been suspicious enough for anyone. But the fact that he was in London and clearly under official protection of some kind at the time of his death was something that needed airing. And Fitzgerald had just done what he’d been hoping, which was to ask the right question.