Shepherd smiled. ‘OK, yes, that’s me, but if you try and sell me a Sky subscription I’ll track you down and shove this phone up your arse.’ He popped a chip into his mouth.
The man laughed. ‘Well, I can tell civilian life hasn’t sweetened your personality,’ he said. ‘But then as the last time I saw you there was a bullet in your shoulder, I suppose that’s to be expected.’
Shepherd’s jaw dropped. There were only four men who had been in the belly of the Chinook the day that he’d taken a bullet and one of them had died in Iraq. ‘Lex?’ said Shepherd. ‘Lex Harper?’
‘Cheers, mate,’ said Harper. ‘I just hope your phone isn’t bugged.’
‘It’s not,’ said Shepherd.
‘Yeah, well, as a spook you should know,’ said Harper.
‘Where the hell are you?’
‘Not far away,’ said Harper. ‘I need to see you.’
‘I’m in London,’ said Shepherd.
‘Yeah, I know,’ said Harper. ‘Can you get to Hyde Park?’
‘Bloody hell, Lex, let’s just meet in a pub. In fact I’m in a pub near Harley Street right now. You’re in London, right? Come by now, I’ll buy you a pint.’
‘I’ll explain when I see you, but I’d prefer it to be out in the open. Sorry to make it all cloak and dagger, but that’s the way it has to be. Make sure you’re not being followed, then enter the park at the north side and head for the Serpentine.’
‘Where will you be?’ asked Shepherd.
‘I’ll be watching you to make sure you don’t have a tail.’
‘Why would I have a tail? I’m not a bloody golden retriever.’
‘I know what you are, mate. Just better safe than sorry. It’s half past two now, can you make it by five?’
‘Sure.’
‘See you then,’ said Harper. The line went dead and Shepherd stared at his phone, wondering how the hell Harper had managed to get his unlisted number. And how a man he hadn’t seen for more than ten years knew that Shepherd was working for MI5.
Shepherd took a black cab to the north end of Hyde Park. He paid the driver and as the cab went on its way he turned up the collar of his coat. It was a cold day and the grey sky overhead threatened rain. He headed for the Serpentine, the forty-acre recreational lake that curved its way through the middle of the park. Despite the chill in the air there were plenty of joggers and rollerbladers on the path, along with dog-walkers and pram-pushing mothers.
Shepherd walked slowly. He couldn’t see Harper but the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up and he was sure that he was being watched. He was wearing a heavy overcoat but he kept his hands at his sides. Harper had sounded anxious on the phone and Shepherd didn’t want him worrying about what was in his hands.
There was a rapid footfall behind him and Shepherd half turned, his hands instinctively coming up to protect his face, but it was only a jogger, a tall blond man in his twenties wearing oversized Sony headphones. He missed Shepherd by inches and it took all Shepherd’s self-control not to kick the man’s legs from underneath him as he went by. Joggers could be as aggressive as cyclists, and the man passed so close to a woman pushing a stroller that he brushed her coat and she shouted after him to mind where he was going.
A figure ambled across the grass from the direction of a clump of trees, and even though the man’s face was obscured by the fur-lined hood of a green parka, Shepherd instinctively knew that it was Lex Harper. He had put on a few pounds since they had served together in Afghanistan, but he had the same lanky stride and the way of bending slightly at the knees with each step so that his head was constantly bopping up and down as he walked.
Shepherd stopped and waited. Harper was wearing brown cargo pants and Timberland boots and had his hands thrust deep in his pockets. He didn’t look up until he reached Shepherd. ‘Long time no see, mate,’ he said, in a voice that sounded less Scottish than Shepherd remembered. He tilted his chin up and looked at Shepherd with an amused smile on his face.
‘You’ve put on weight,’ said Shepherd.
‘You haven’t,’ said Harper. ‘Are you still running with that rucksack of bricks?’
‘Not as much as I used to.’
Harper laughed and stepped forward to hug Shepherd. There was something awkward about the way that Harper moved and for a brief moment Shepherd tensed, but then realised that Harper wasn’t a threat, he was just nervous. He patted him on the back and then stepped away. ‘What’s going on, Lex?’ he said.
Harper nodded at a bench at the edge of the path that cut through the park towards the lake. ‘Let’s have a sit-down,’ he said. They walked together to the bench. As they sat, Harper looked at Shepherd’s reddened knuckles and frowned. ‘You been fighting, Spider?’
‘Had some tattoos lasered off.’
‘Bollocks,’ said Harper. ‘You were never one for tattoos.’
‘Yeah? Well, I was never one for fist fighting, either.’
‘Aye, that’s the truth,’ said Harper. ‘A sniping rifle was always your weapon of choice.’ He chuckled. ‘Those were the days, huh? You the sniper and me the spotter, watching your back.’
Shepherd nodded. ‘You were good, Lex. Bloody good. Remember how dubious I was when we first met?’
Harper shrugged. ‘You didn’t know me from Adam. I was just a wet-behind-the-ears Para and you were an SAS superhero.’
‘Yeah, but I needn’t have worried. You did good.’ He sighed. ‘So you never went for Selection?’
Harper chuckled. ‘Come on, mate. Are you telling me you didn’t ask around about me after I called?’
‘Why would I?’
‘You’re a spook, right? That’s what spooks do.’
Shepherd shook his head. ‘Lex, you’re a mate. I’m sorry that we lost touch and that, but when a mate calls me out of the blue I don’t run a PNC check on them.’
‘Are you serious? It’s the first thing I would have done.’
‘Lex, what the hell is going on? What would I have found if I had checked up on you?’
Harper laughed softly. ‘Hopefully not much, as it happens. But there was a small matter of an armed robbery or two a few years back that is still on record.’
‘Armed robbery?’
‘Allegedly,’ said Harper. He put up his hands in mock surrender. ‘All right, Officer, I’ll come quietly. I’ve been a bad, bad boy.’
‘What the hell happened, Lex? You were one of the best lads out there in Afghanistan.’
Harper shrugged. ‘Didn’t seem like a long-term career, the way they were cutting back.’
‘And what, armed robbery offers better career prospects?’
‘Don’t start getting all judgemental on me, Spider. And I’ve given up blagging. I’m more into import–export these days.’
‘Drugs?’
Harper grinned. ‘Allegedly.’
‘What the hell happened, Lex? Soldiering pays OK and there’s plenty of opportunity to go private.’
‘Why did I choose the dark side, is that what you’re asking?’
‘You were a bloody good soldier. You were the best of the Paras out there.’
Harper flashed him a mock salute. ‘Thank you, kind sir.’
‘You know what I mean. You were a natural. You’d have made it through Selection, no bother. I’d have put a good word in for you. The major, too.’
Lex shook his head. ‘I wasn’t even given the chance,’ he said. ‘I was part of the cutbacks.’
‘What?’
‘Cost savings, they’re cutting the army to the bone. That’s what the colonel said to me. There was nothing wrong with me, I could walk out with my head held high, a question of numbers, and all that crap.’
‘They sacked you?’
‘They sacked thousands of us, mate. Haven’t you heard? The economy’s fucked. Those bastard bankers screwed the economy and I was given my marching orders. I told the colonel that I wanted to try for the SAS and he said I should give the TA a go.’ Lex smiled. ‘I told him to go fuck himself and that was pretty much the end of my military career.’