Unless they could silence her for good.
He turned back to Clare, trying to find a way of convincing her to help. He had run several ideas through his mind, but nothing seemed to fit. Because ever since last night, he’d been thinking of only one way to find the two Russians and stop them coming after them. ‘There must be a way to stop them. If we don’t, they’ll keep coming. And if they’ve got inside access to security and intelligence personnel files, they’ll know your details. . and they’ll soon know ours.’
Her eyes were unfathomable, and he wondered if she wasn’t suffering some kind of sensory overload. He would have been in similar circumstances. But somehow he had to reach her.
‘You’re in danger,’ he said. ‘The only way to stop this is to catch the hit team or to blow it wide open. Or threaten to, anyway. Then you have to disappear. For good.’
‘How?’ Her voice sounded distant, tired. Lost.
‘We get in touch with the one person who might be able to help you.’
‘Who?’
‘Katya Balenkova.’
There was no reaction. In fact Clare showed no signs of having heard him. The silence in the flat was total.
‘Clare?’ Rik spoke up, one eye on Harry.
Harry’s phone rang. He ignored it. Now wasn’t the time to break the spell. They had to get her to respond.
‘Are you saying Katya wouldn’t help? Or couldn’t?’ he said carefully. ‘Think about it. She’s in the Federal Protective Service. She might be able to get word to someone who could stop these bozos.’ He didn’t want to mention that there had once been a relationship of sorts between the two women; that in times of dire need you used what you could, real or tentative. Neither did he want to find out that they had parted in hate and he was wasting his time.
The phone was still ringing. Then it stopped, leaving a note hanging in the air.
Almost immediately, Rik’s landline began ringing. And his mobile.
Harry’s radar twitched. Something was wrong.
He reached across and hit the audio button on the landline base. It was Ballatyne. He sounded terse, his voice bursting hollowly in the room.
‘Harry, you have to get out of there. Two men paid an early morning visit to Jardine’s old address. The owners were away, but the place was trashed as if they were searching for something. A neighbour called it in and the address showed a red light. If they’ve got her old address, we’d best count on them having yours and Ferris’s, too. There’s a squad on the way to your place and another on the way to Paddington to intercept, but you’d better not wait. Call me when you can. Now go.’
The phone went dead.
THIRTY-EIGHT
‘Out,’ said Harry. ‘Grab and go.’ He snatched up his gun and checked the load. Rik was already doing the same and reaching for his car keys and a panic bag. Clare was slower in moving, but it was obvious her training was kicking in. Neither of them bothered asking why; they knew.
‘Down the fire stairs,’ said Rik softly, closing the flat door behind them. He set off along the corridor to a plain maroon door in the corner. He eased it open, allowing the air to move without any movement or sound. He peered through the gap into the stairwell.
Empty.
With Harry helping Clare and watching their backs, they descended the stairs, listening to sounds coming from the other flats and from the outside. More than anything they were listening for the sound of footsteps.
They reached the ground floor and Rik pointed to a door at the side of the building. It had a fire bar and a glass panel, and a view across a path to a gate in a brick wall. Through the gap they could see pedestrians and cars and an adjacent street.
Rik nodded towards the gap. ‘Go. I’ll get my car and meet you in the street.’ Then he stepped towards the fire door and pushed it open, checking that all was clear before signalling the others to follow. The moment they were out in the open, he moved away and was gone, striding across a small car park with his mobile pressed to his face and his gun held inside his jacket.
His Audi was parked in the far corner. He reached it and opened the door, climbed in and started the engine. Placed the gun on the passenger seat, covered with an old newspaper.
As he went to drive forward, two men appeared at the entrance to the car park. One was tall and slim, the other was heavyset, like a wrestler. The tall man continued walking towards the front entrance; his colleague turned and entered the car park. He had one hand inside his jacket.
Rik watched, hardly daring to move. He was parked in shadow here, and unless the other man looked directly at him, he should avoid detection. Even so, he reached for his gun and slipped the safety in readiness.
The wrestler approached the main rear door, through which most residents came and went, and which was too often left open. Like now. He reached out with his free hand and pulled the door open, hesitated, then stepped inside and disappeared from view.
Rik let out his breath and put his gun back on the seat, safety on. Go or stay?
This could all end now, if he played it right. Up behind the wrestler, take him out and wait for his colleague to come down the stairs. No more need for Clare to run, no need to wait for the knock on the door. Except that things didn’t always go the way you planned. The tall man might go for broke and take a hostage, or shoot his way out. Others could get hurt. And what if the squad Ballatyne had sent turned up right in the middle of it? They were unlikely to ask for ID before opening fire on a man with a weapon in his hand.
He left the gun where it was and started the engine, drove out of the car park and into the street, turning right to complete the square and bring him back down the street where Harry and Clare were waiting.
Harry, meanwhile, had moved through the gap in the wall and found himself on a quiet one-way street. Cars were parked on one side only, with a line of wheelie bins huddled across the other side, awaiting collection. He beckoned Clare to come out, and she emerged, holding her stomach but moving freely.
Everything was quiet.
A car started up behind the wall. Harry recognised the throaty hum of Rik’s Audi. It idled for a few moments, then moved away and was gone.
Harry looked back at the block of flats. There was a chance if they stayed right here that anyone looking out of a rear window at the top might see them. He grabbed Clare’s arm.
‘Come on,’ he said, and led her up the street towards the top where Rik would have to enter. By the time they got there, Rik was waiting.
Two minutes later they were out of the street.
Harry texted Ballatyne. Away amp; clear. We need to meet now. Richx
‘What the hell are we doing here?’ Clare stared around her with a look of disbelief at the decor of Richoux in Piccadilly. She was huddled in a corner seat, arms crossed tightly over her middle. ‘I thought we were going to see Ballatyne.’
After a fast drive from Paddington, with Rik taking a series of diversions in case they had been followed, they had ended up in the restaurant and grabbed a rear table well away from other customers.
‘We are,’ said Harry. ‘But he’s shy about introducing us to his colleagues. He thinks we might put our feet on the table. Anyway, the coffee here is better.’
‘And we don’t have to give up our weapons,’ Rik murmured.
At that moment, Ballatyne walked in and approached their table, leaving his minder by the door, watching the street.
‘If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you fancied me,’ the MI6 man said to Harry. He sat down, signalling for the waiter to bring coffee, and placed a bulky brown envelope on the table by his side. ‘Signing off a text with “Richx” is a bit risky, isn’t it? You never know who might be hacking into your phone these days.’ He nodded at Rik and received a vague hand wave in return, and gave a wan smile to Clare. She didn’t respond.