‘Welcome to England,’ he said with distaste. ‘But you’re here. What about the laptop?’
She opened a large, colourful bag. Inside was a slim computer — with a bullet hole through its casing. Unlike the one on its way to MI6, the damaged circuitry was tinged with red. The laptop Eddie and Nina had brought was Lydia’s, the original machine’s wound replicated with a shot from the mercenary’s Bushmaster — once as many as possible of its files, and those from the backup hard drives, had been transferred to a fistful of SD cards and flash drives bought from a mobile phone shop in Butembo. Nina was unwilling to force the surviving documentary crew to leave empty-handed after everything they had endured. ‘Here. The bullet hole didn’t help when I was being questioned. I told them I was bringing it to London to get it repaired.’
‘Which is kind of true,’ Nina said. ‘If we can get the video off its hard drive, we’ve got a chance of exposing the truth about what happened in the Congo.’
‘That’s if we can get it to the right person,’ said Eddie, taking another wary look around. ‘And if we can actually trust ’em!’
‘I bought some prepaid phones, like you asked,’ said TD. She handed him a plastic bag, which contained three identical mobile phones. ‘Why do you need so many? Two I can understand, one for each of you, but three?’
‘Soon as we finish using one, it goes straight in the bin,’ Eddie told her. ‘The person we’re going to call’s almost certainly being monitored — and once they get our number, they can track the phone.’
She nodded. ‘Is there anything else I can do to help?’
‘I want to say “get Macy to somewhere safe”,’ said Nina, ‘but I don’t know if we can risk it. We know they’re watching her, and if someone they don’t know turns up, it would make them suspicious — and they might even target you.’
TD sighed. ‘These people, they are bastards. Going after your child? They are as bad as Mukobo.’
‘That’s fucking spies for you,’ said Eddie. ‘But you know what’s ironic? The only person who can help us right now actually is a spy. I just hope he’s only the partial bell-end I think he is, not a complete one like Brice.’ He took out one of the phones. ‘You should get moving, TD. Soon as I make this call, there’ll be a load of police and God knows who else on their way here, and you don’t want to be seen anywhere near us.’
She reluctantly stood. ‘I wish there was more I could do.’
‘You’ve done everything you possibly could,’ Nina assured her, hugging her. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘I really owe you,’ Eddie added. ‘Thanks.’
‘Good luck. I hope I see you again.’ TD kissed his cheek, then walked away.
He watched her go, then slipped the laptop into the bag with the other phones and started in the opposite direction. ‘All right,’ he said to Nina. ‘You got that number?’
She had transcribed the contact details from their own phones during the flight. ‘Yeah, here.’
He began to thumb in the number. ‘God, it’s been ages since I used a phone with actual buttons.’ He had told TD to pick up the cheapest prepaid phones she could find; there was no point buying expensive smartphones just to throw away after one call. ‘Okay, it’s ringing. Let’s hope he answers…’
Waterford sat up in response to an alert on his computer’s screen. ‘Sir, I just got a flash from GCHQ. One of the people on Chase’s watch list has just been phoned from an unknown mobile number…’ He tapped at his keyboard, then listened to the intercepted call through a headset. ‘I think it’s him, sir! Chase, I mean.’
‘Put it on speaker,’ Brice ordered. ‘Wind it back, I want to hear the whole thing from the beginning.’
The call was being recorded digitally; it only took a moment for Waterford to shuttle to its start. A click of connection, then: ‘Alderley.’
‘He’s calling Peter Alderley?’ said Brice, surprised. From what he remembered, his SIS colleague and Chase were acquaintances at best, but hardly friends.
‘Ay up, Peter,’ the Yorkshireman said over the loudspeakers. ‘It’s Eddie Chase.’
‘Chase?’ replied Alderley, surprised. ‘Didn’t expect to get a call from you. What’s up?’ A pause, then with a certain dread: ‘Oh, God. You’ve caused another bloody international incident and you need my help, don’t you?’
‘No, no, nothing like that,’ was the not entirely convincing reply. ‘Me and Nina are just in town, that’s all. We can’t talk for too long right now—’
‘Obviously telling him that the call’s being monitored,’ muttered Staite.
‘—so it’d be great if we could meet up. What time do you finish work?’
‘Five o’clock,’ Alderley told him, still sounding highly suspicious. ‘Although I generally run late.’
‘You’re in charge of the department, aren’t you? Tell someone else to finish up for you, then hop in that crappy old car of yours and meet us in that square between King’s Cross and St Pancras at half six.’
‘Battle Bridge Place? I know it, but I did rather have plans for tonight. You know, going home, seeing my wife, having dinner, things like that?’
‘Hi, Peter,’ said a new voice. ‘It’s Nina. I know it’s short notice, but we really would love to see you. Both of us.’
‘That’s right,’ Chase added. ‘Nothing I want more right now than to talk to my old mate Peter.’
‘O-kaaay…’ said Alderley dubiously. ‘Well, if it’s that important to you… I suppose I can find the time.’
‘All right, great,’ said Chase. ‘We’ll be waiting for you.’
‘Anything I should bring?’ Alderley asked. ‘You know, in case you need it?’
‘Just your car so I can have a good laugh. See you there, Peter.’ The call ended.
‘Did we get their location?’ asked Brice.
Waterford checked his screen. ‘Sorry, sir. Somewhere around Hyde Park, but there wasn’t enough time to get a precise triangulation.’
‘Contact the Met anyway,’ Brice ordered. ‘Tell them to start a search; they might get lucky. And poll all the CCTV resources to see if we can get a hit.’
Staite nodded and dialled a phone number. Waterford, meanwhile, reacted with a start at another piece of data on his monitor. ‘Wait, the number he called — it’s here at SIS!’
‘Peter Alderley is the head of the Africa desk,’ Brice told him. ‘And he and Chase have worked together before.’ The wording of the call was troubling him. Chase and Wilde had clearly given Alderley a coded request for help, but only in the most general way, not providing him with any specific information. Somehow, though, he felt there was more to it, that he was missing something…
‘Should we pick him up?’
‘Who, Alderley?’ said Brice mockingly. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I just told you, he’s a section head. A fishing trip like that would end your career if he really does know nothing about what’s going on.’ He thought for a moment. ‘But put watchers on him, follow him when he leaves the building. They might try to make contact while he’s in transit. And get a unit to stake out Battle Bridge Place.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Waterford.
Brice regarded the map again, using a tablet to zoom in on Hyde Park. Given such a broad search area it was unlikely that the regular police would catch the fugitives. If he gave an order to designate Wilde and Chase as dangerous, high-priority targets, however, armed response and Special Branch units would cordon off the area and scour every cranny until they were found — but doing so would draw a huge amount of attention, which he didn’t want to risk unless he had no choice.