‘Friends.’ Purkiss turned to Rebecca. ‘Delatour is Service, as you’ve probably worked out. He’s helped me before, at Vale’s request.’ To Delatour: ‘Have you involved anybody else?’
‘No.’ The pale man shrugged. ‘I’d like to help you, if you want. You’re going to Athens — I matched your face to the footage on the cameras at the check-in desk for Aegean Airlines.’
Impressive tradecraft, Purkiss thought.
‘I’ve booked myself on the same flight,’ Delatour continued. ‘Even if you don’t want me to join you, the fact that you’re heading there means you’ve found a lead or some kind. I’ll pursue it alone, if necessary. But I think it would be more productive if we pooled our resources.’
Again, Purkiss noted Rebecca shifting beside him.
Delatour stood up. ‘I’ll be back in ten minutes,’ he said. ‘Have a think about it.’
Purkiss watched him walk away.
‘Odd bugger,’ Kendrick remarked.
Rebecca said, ‘John. Are you going to trust him?’
‘Not fully,’ said Purkiss. ‘I don’t know him all that well. But his story’s plausible. He did know Vale, and Vale regarded him as above board. He’s an extra pair of hands. And he’s active SIS, which means he’s got access to them in a way that I haven’t. Databases and so on. It might come in useful.’
Rebecca was silent.
‘You have misgivings,’ said Purkiss.
‘Yes. I do.’ She looked at him. ‘But you’re in charge.’
Fourteen
They’d booked seats apart from each other on the plane, partly because of the lateness of the booking but also because it allowed them a broader view of the cabin. Purkiss was near the front, while Kendrick had a window seat in the mid-section and Rebecca found herself at the rear near the toilets.
She’d seen Delatour board after them and settle himself near Kendrick.
As soon as they were seated, ten minute or so before the plane began taxiing, Rebecca took out her phone and sent a text message.
Request intel on a man named Delatour. Late 30s, pallid, fair hair, five-nine. He’s made contact offering assistance.
While she waited for a response, Rebecca peered over the rows of heads in front of her, locating Purkiss’s, his dark hair barely visible over the back of the seat.
She felt a prickle of unease. Delatour’s appearance had been a surprise, and she ought to have dissuaded Purkiss more strongly from agreeing to let him accompany them. But she knew Purkiss would have followed his own instincts, whatever she’d said.
It was one of the things she was beginning to understand about Purkiss. His implacability. His stubbornness.
There was a vulnerability there, too, she sensed, though she hadn’t worked out quite what his weak point was. He gave little away, though he wasn’t by any means an unemotional man.
Did he trust her? Rebecca wasn’t sure. Overtly, he seemed to; and he’d appeared genuinely grateful that she’d helped him in the airport in Frankfurt. But a man of his experience, in his field of work, didn’t survive long by being naïve. Were there aspects of her story he doubted?
Had he realised she was lying to him?
And there was the other man. Kendrick. Purkiss had told her what had happened to him, about the injury. Rebecca had known and cared for people with similar afflictions in the nursing home in Sussex. She recognised the lability, the disinhibition, though Kendrick was far more highly functioning than the invalids she’d nursed. She knew Purkiss wouldn’t have included him if he thought the man was likely to be a liability.
But it was his insistence that he recognised her that bothered Rebecca. She had a good memory for faces, and even taking into account the fact that Kendrick’s appearance had been altered by his wound and the subsequent surgery — his eyelid drooped, and the right upper part of his face was subtly lopsided and distorted — she didn’t think she’d ever seen him before.
Her phone buzzed softly in her lap. Rebecca looked at the screen.
Delatour known SIS. Advise cautious cooperation. Notify me if any suspicious behaviour.
Only mildly reassured, she put the phone away.
Fifteen
It wasn’t a great deal warmer in Athens than it had been in London, especially at almost six in the morning local time, but the humidity that hit Purkiss made it seem so.
They cleared the airport quickly, the crowds thin at this time of day. None of them carried more than a single bag, allowing them to bypass the luggage carousel. Purkiss had lost sight of Delatour but the man was waiting for them in the main terminal.
‘Where now?’ said Delatour.
During the three-and-a-half-hour flight, Purkiss had deliberated how much to tell the SIS man. As yet, he’d shared nothing: not the video clip Vale had left, not the attacks at Frankfurt Airport. And he hadn’t mentioned anything about the man they were looking for, Saul Gideon.
His plan had coalesced in his mind in the hour before they landed.
‘We find a base first,’ said Purkiss. ‘After that, I’ll tell you a little.’
The cabs outside were numerous, the drivers vying for their attention with sharp blasts from their horns. The humidity was greater out here, and Purkiss felt the cloying in his throat which always took him some time to get used to when he visited this part of the world. Already the dawn was beginning to make its presence felt in a soft red glow at the horizon.
They took two cabs, and drove around until Purkiss spotted a hotel that look suitable, in the XXXX district. He wasn’t overly familiar with Athens, and had last been there over three years ago. Its dilapidation struck him, many of the shops he’d remembered from before now boarded up, the public housing looking more dejected than he recalled it.
They checked in, each taking a single room. Purkiss wasn’t surprised that the place had vacancies. Tourism in Greece was on the wane, and October was a slow month. His room and Delatour’s were on the same floor, the third, while Rebecca occupied one a storey below and Kendrick’s was on the ground. Again, it suited their purposes to be spread out, in case of attack.
They headed for their rooms, having agreed to meet in half an hour downstairs to discuss strategy. Purkiss had caught an hour’s sleep on the plane, enough to take the edge off his tiredness. He’d need more later that morning if he was to keep himself in top form. The delay it would entail would be offset by the advantages.
He watched Delatour disappear into his room. Then, instead of heading for his own, Purkiss went back downstairs to Rebecca’s. He knocked on the door and she opened it immediately, as if she’d been expecting him.
Quickly, he explained his plan.
Afterwards he located Kendrick, who was lying on his bed already, his feet up.
‘Tony. Rebecca and I are going to leave here together in a while, on a pretext. I want you to wait downstairs and watch the entrance. If Delatour leaves, or if anybody arrives that you think is worth noting, ring me.’
Kendrick gazed at him so long that Purkiss wondered at first if he’d heard. At last he nodded.
‘You want me to follow him if he leaves?’
‘No,’ said Purkiss. ‘I’ll be nearby. Just let me know.’
Purkiss had bought Kendrick a mobile phone at Heathrow and given him his own number.
As Purkiss was about to go up to his room, Kendrick said: ‘Hey. Purkiss.’