“I thought he might be in trouble, but I never thought it’d be this serious.”
“How so?”
Jon looked at me and I was surprised to see tears in his eyes. He wasn’t crying, but he wasn’t far off.
“I’m actually pleased and relieved that you’re here. I’ve been pretending to both myself and everyone else that everything is fine, but it isn’t.”
“Go on.”
“Dad called me about three weeks ago. That was unusual in itself, as he never calls. He asked me how it was going and whether I needed cash. They were the usual questions that dads asked student kids, but there was something else. He told me he might be out of touch for a while and I wasn’t to worry. He told me that mum knew what was happening but I wasn’t to tell my brother and sister. He said that the government were being slow to pay him what he was worth, so he was trying to persuade them to come up with some more financial backing.”
“Is that all he said?”
Jon nodded, looking me in the eye again. “What’s he done?”
“No one knows. Two men are missing, and we think they’ve been killed. Your father has disappeared with all his research and we assume that agents of other countries are all trying to find him first. It’s important that we find him first, the project he was working on is potentially dangerous if the wrong people get hold of it.”
“You mean it’s a bomb?”
“No, it is a defence system, but it would make some very dangerous people invulnerable and therefore able to do things like 9/11 with impunity!”
“He didn’t say anything more to me, but I think mum might know.”
“Why?”
Jon scratched his head, looking very young.
“This is hard, but actually, my mother is a tougher person than my dad. Don’t get me wrong, my dad is a very clever man, but he hasn’t a clue about real life outside his work. Mum was the one who brought us up, kept the house, saw to our schooling and ran everything in the local area at the same time. Dad just did what he was told.
“So, when Dad started grumbling about not getting enough money for research, it was Mum who suggested he look around for independent sponsorship. Dad said that it was a secret scheme, so one just didn’t do that sort of thing. Mum just laughed and told him that if it looked like he was going to do it, the money would be found. Dad joked that the Americans would pay him three or four times what the British were paying. Mum threw a complete wobbly and was very cross with him. She hates the Americans so much.”
“I know, she lost her inheritance because of bad investments in America.”
Jon stared at me. “Shit, you really have done your homework. I only found out about that quite recently.”
“It’s what I do, Jon. Go on.”
“That’s it really. Then there was the call at Christmas time.”
“Weren’t you at home?”
“No, a bunch of us had Christmas together up in Dundee. It was good fun. I was going out with Alison then.”
“Ah, all is revealed,” I said with a smile.
The waiter came and we ordered. Jon ordered a bottle of vin rouge de la maison, and we munched the sliced French bread as we waited for the starters.
“What happens now?”
“That’s up to you, really. I think you’ve several options. The first is to carry on as if nothing happened. You go back to Dundee and hope it all blows over. The danger is that someone tries to use you to get to your father.
“Your second option is to go to the police in England and report your father missing. That will put the shit right into the middle of the fan. The media will get wind of the fact he’s a scientist working on a secret weapon. The government will get embarrassed, ministers will lose their jobs and we will all have a hard time trying to track him down.
“Lastly, you put yourself into my hands. You go home with a new girlfriend and, with my organisation backing us up, we attempt to get to the bottom of this little mystery before anyone else dies.”
“A new girlfriend?”
“Jon, I need to be close to you if I am to help you. If your mum knows anything, she will be easier to deal with from within the family than if I was a nosey outsider. I’m not expecting her to trust me, but that’s not the problem. The problem will be coming from outside the family, like the men who have followed us here. If they’re onto you here, the chances are they also know where your family lives, and others like them will probably be watching them now.”
Jon looked at the door. “What men?”
“You won’t see them, they’re really quite good.”
“But you saw them?”
I smiled. “I’m better.”
“Do you have a gun?”
“I don’t need a gun, Jon.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t have a gun at the moment, happy now?”
He almost smiled as the waiter appeared with our starters.
Waiting for him to go, he leaned over the table.
“You said you were with a friend, is she an agent too?”
“She works for the same department, but she’s not a field agent.”
“This is so weird. How did you get into this?”
“It’s a long story and if I told you, I’d have to kill you. Just say I sort of fell into it!”
“I’d never guess you did this sort of thing. How do I know you work for the British government?”
“If I didn’t, you’d be dead now.”
He stared at me, waiting to see if I was joking. I wasn’t and he paled slightly.
We ate in silence for a couple of minutes. My smoked duck was delicious. I caught my reflection in the window every now and again, and couldn’t help smiling. I looked far too delicate and fragile to be what I felt I was underneath this strange exterior. I glanced at Jon, who was oblivious to the world around him. I casually looked round the restaurant, noticing two men seated in an alcove, both studiously avoiding looking our way. One of the men had been the face I’d seen following us.
I felt a strange sense of exhilaration. To be back in the field again was great. It was a different field, with different enemies and different weapons, but it was great to be back!
“I have to trust someone, right?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“No, you don’t have to trust anyone, particularly me. If you trust, you may find yourself being disappointed. But, if you do take the third option, I’ll make you a promise that I’ll do my best to keep you alive, find your father and secure his work for our country. I can make no guarantees, but you have to agree to do what you’re told when you’re told to do it.”
“You sound like a soldier.”
“Well, there you go. I suppose you can say I am, but not one that you’d expect or immediately recognise. Well?”
“I don’t have any option, do I?”
“Yes, but to be fair, it ain’t much of a choice.”
“You’re the best option I’ve got. So, what do I do?”
“Okay, first, we finish our meal and enjoy each other’s company. This is supposed to be a date, so look slightly happier!”
He grinned at me, shaking his head. We’d finished our starters so the waiter arrived and took away the plates.
“How was your paté?”
“Nice, yours?”
“Lovely. I had the paté for lunch, and I saw they had the smoked duck so it was a good excuse to come here again.”
“Where’s your friend?”
“She’s working.”
“Oh, so I shouldn’t know?”
“What you don’t know can’t hurt you. Just know that there’s more going on here than you.”
“This is so odd. I mean, a few hours ago, life was so simple. Now, I can’t get my head round all what’s happening.”
“Jon, look at it this way, nothing has changed. Life goes on, the world spins, people get up, they go to work and they go home. Others are born and still others die. Just look to the immediate future and let me worry about thereafter, okay?”