I could tell it was him right off, leaning slightly forward as he bounced along on the balls of his feet. I watched him branch right from the exit and stand at the pedestrian crossing, intending to head for the metal footbridge over the five-way road intersection to the railway station. I waited.
There was no rush; I'd let him come to me.
As he crossed the road I came out of the shadows at the bottom of the footbridge steps.
He smiled.
"Nick, how are you?" He kept walking, nodding left toward Lambeth bridge.
"Shall we walk?" It wasn't a question.
I nodded the opposite way, toward my car.
"I've arranged a pickup."
Simmonds stopped and looked at me with the expression of a disappointed schoolteacher.
"No, I think we'll walk."
I was sponsoring the RV; he should have known that I'd organize for our safety. He stared at me a few more moments and then, as if he knew I was going to follow, continued on walking. I fell into step beside him.
Simmonds looked the same as ever, his tie about half an inch loose, the shirt and suit looking as if his wardrobe were a carrier bag.
"So, Nick, what have you got?" He smiled but didn't look at me, and as I told him the story he didn't interrupt, just kept his eyes on the ground, nodding. I felt like a son unloading his problems onto his dad, and it felt good.
We'd been walking for about fifteen minutes when I'd come to the end of my presentation. It was his turn to talk. I somehow expected him to stop, or at least find a bench where we could sit, but he kept on walking.
He turned his head toward me and smiled again.
"Nick, I had no idea you'd be so thorough. Who else have you spoken to about this?"
"No one else, only de Sabatino and Euan."
"And has Euan or this de Sabatino also got copies of the disks?"
I lied.
"No, no one apart from me." Even when you come to someone for help, you never play your full hand. You never know when you might need an edge.
He remained incredibly calm.
"What we have to ensure is that no one else finds out not for the moment, anyway.
This is more than low-level corruption. The links with PIRA, Gibraltar, and, it seems, the DEA mean this is very grave indeed. You seem to have a pretty good grasp of this so far, so let me ask you something." He paused as if he were a judge about to hand down his decision.
"Do you think it goes further?"
"Who the fuck knows," I said.
"But you can't be too careful. It's why I wanted to talk to you on your own."
"And where is the Brown child now?"
"In a hotel, fast asleep. I'll be needing some help to pass her on to her grandparents."
"Of course. Nick. All in good time."
We walked on a while in silence. We got to a bar on the corner of a car tunnel under the railway line. Simmonds turned to the right, taking us under the arches. Then he spoke again, and it was as if there was no question of me not com plying with his demand.
"Before I can do anything to help you, what I need from you, of course, is the evidence." He was still not looking at me, making sure he avoided the puddles of water stained with engine oil.
"I haven't brought the disks with me, if that's what you mean."
"Nick, I shall do my best to see that you both have protection. But I do need the proof and all copies of it. Can you get them for me now?"
"Not possible. Not for a few hours."
"Nick, I cannot do anything without them. I need all copies. Even ones you'd normally leave in that security blanket of yours."
I shrugged. "You must understand that it's for my own protection" We turned right again and were now heading back toward the train station, paralleling the railway. For a couple of minutes we moved along narrow, warehoused streets in silence.
Simmonds was deep in thought. He wasn't happy about the disks. A freight train rumbled above us on its way to waking up the residents of southwest London. Why the fuck was it so important for him to know how many copies there were and get his hands on all of them?
"Believe me," I shouted above the noise, "I've got that side all under control. I've been fucked over enough. You know as well as I do that I've got to protect everyone, including you."
"Yes, of course, but I need to control all the information. Not even you should have it. There is too much risk involved."
This was getting stupid.
"I understand that. But what if you get zapped? There would be nothing to back up what I'm saying. It's not only the DEA corruption, don't you see?
Gibraltar was a setup. It includes us."
Simmonds slowly nodded at a puddle in the gutter.
"A few things puzzle me," I said.
"Why were we briefed that the bomb would be initiated by remote control? How come the intelligence was so good about the ASU, but so wrong about there being no bomb?"
Still he gave no reply.
Things weren't adding up here.
Ohfrick.
I felt as if I'd been hit on the back of the head by a fire extinguisher again. Why hadn't I thought of it? The freight train's rumbling was now in the distance. The early-morning silence had returned.
"But you know all this, don't you?"
No reply. He didn't even break his stride.
Who had briefed us that the Gibraltar bomb was going to be initiated by remote control? Simmonds, who was there at Alpha to oversee it. Why the fuck hadn't I thought of it before?
I stopped. Simmonds kept walking.
"This isn't just an American-PIRA thing, is it? It's much bigger. You are part of it, aren't you?"
The rear arches were more light industrial than retail auto repair shops, sheetmetal works, and storage units, most with company vans that had been parked outside for the night.
He turned to face me and took the six steps back to where I stood. For the first time, we had eye-to-eye.
"Nick, I think you need to be aware of something. You will give me all the information and I mean all of it. We cannot take the risk of other copies being in circulation."
The look on his face was of a chess grand master about to make the decisive move. The shock in mine must have been plain to see.
"We didn't necessarily go along with the Americans' determination to kill you, but you should be in no doubt that we will do so now if we have to."
"We?"
"It's much bigger than you think. Nick. You're intelligent.
You must realize the commercial and political implications of a cease fire Exposing what is on the disks would mess up much more than just what you know. It's unfortunate about Kevin and his family, I grant you. When he told me what he'd discovered, I did try to talk my American colleagues into a subtler course of action."
So that was why I'd been ordered back to the UK so abruptly. Once Simmonds had talked with Kev, he wanted me out of the US and quick. He didn't want me speaking to Kev or interrupting his murder.
I thought of Kelly At least she was safe.
It was almost as if he were reading my mind.
"If you decide not to give me all the information, we will kill the child. And then we will kill you after extracting what we need. Don't be naive. Nick. You and I, we're the same. This isn't about emotion; this is business. Nick, business. You really have no choice."
I tried to fight it. He had to be bluffing. "Euan sends his regards, by the way, and says that he managed to get a television set for her bedroom. Believe me, Nick, Euan will kill her. He rather likes the financial benefits."
I shook my head slowly from side to side.
"Think back. Who initiated the contact?"
He was right, it was Euan. Simmonds was there to direct it, Euan was there to pull the trigger. But I still fought against the idea.