––––––––
‘How did it go?’
‘Fine.’
‘Did you tell him anything?’
‘Only that we would get Costello off his back.’
‘He didn’t ask any questions?’
‘Why would he? He knew I wouldn’t answer any.’
‘What was your take on the car bomb thing?’
‘It didn’t make sense. Why rig the car then let him get clear?’
‘What about his idea of a message, someone trying to frighten him?’
‘It’s possible I suppose, just about. A bit left-field though.’
‘Danish Intelligence are playing the whole thing very cagey. They got the police to put out that it was a leaking gas cylinder. That keeps the media out of things while they look into it. Why does he think it’s Costello who’s out to get him? Where did he get that crazy notion?’
‘I told you, he thinks it was all done to scare him, that someone from his past wants it to be payback time. Someone who wants it up close and personal.’ He gave her a look. ‘Don’t look at me. I’m only telling you what he said. He thinks someone from inside the system is out to get him.’
‘For what?’
‘God knows, it’s all a bit crazy ...’
‘A bit! It’s bloody Alice in Wonderland stuff.’
‘Agreed, but the bomb did actually happen and it’s being taken seriously by the Danes. The way they’re handling it rules out anything terrorist. However mad it seems, it had to be a professional to wire the bomb and fix the sound system.’
‘But that brings us back to why he thinks it’s Costello? Costello’s not connected with any service and never has been. How did Bronski make any connection?’
‘I suppose he assumed it had to be a new face and Costello was a new face. When Costello and the priest came to the hospital he got a close look at him and was convinced that Costello wasn’t what he was pretending to be, that he didn’t fit the apprentice priest thing. He reckoned Costello was some sort of plant.’
‘And he was right in a way, but I still don’t see the connection.’
‘He went to the priest’s house, played the bewildered innocent and, bingo, Costello says, “I was in the business.”’
‘But as a copper, not Intelligence.’
‘Costello didn’t make himself clear, just said Civil Service. Bronski took the wrong angle, the angle he was looking for.’
‘So there’s a bomb in his car and a newcomer Bronski thinks is not what he’s pretending to be. That’s enough to make a crash call?’
‘I suppose the way he looked at it, even if it wasn’t Costello there was someone out there. So he went to Copenhagen and made the call. I got sent. The rest you know. You’re damn lucky it was me; no one else would have dropped Costello straight in your lap. So make sure I get something when the medals start getting handed out. An extra two weeks’ holiday, maybe.’
But he wasn’t listening, he was thinking it through.
‘So when he saw Costello’s name rang a bell with you, he thought it gave him the Intelligence connection, and that made him certain it was Costello? It sort of brought all the nonsense together?’
She nodded. He’d got there at last. Sometimes it was like trying to hammer a nail into concrete.
‘Now I’ve found him for you, what are you going to do?’
‘What do we know about Bronski?’
‘I pulled his record and read the summary before I went. He wasn’t a real high-up but he knew the ones who were, the ones who moved over from KGB into Russian Intelligence and which desks they were at. And he knew which German and Baltic operations the Russians had kept going. He knew a lot of background. He was worth bringing over and he wasn’t exactly expensive. He started life as a Moscow-trained thug but when the Soviet Union folded he could see the career prospects of the goon squad had pretty much folded with it. Muscle wasn’t going to be in so much demand any more. He was ambitious and clever so he worked himself a desk job in the new outfit and began to collect enough info to make him worth buying. When he was ready, we bought him.’ She waited so it had time to sink in. ‘If you’re thinking of using him, he’s had plenty of field experience.’
‘Yes, he might be useful.’
She watched him. His eyes had a faraway look. He was plotting, thinking about how he might use this to his own advantage. She had guessed he would, that was why she had given it to him. The devious bugger couldn’t very well give her nothing if it helped him up the ladder.
‘I thought you might want to use him so I told him to make himself a free agent for a while just in case, to lose his wife for a couple of weeks, somewhere well out of Denmark.’
His eyes changed, he was back, he’d got his plan. He could be damned good. Clever, quick and ingenious where his own career was concerned. It was a pity his judgement wasn’t so sharp when it came to actual Intelligence matters. The only quick thing he did then was delegate blame, but he was clever and ingenious at that as well.
‘That was good thinking. We’ll need someone sitting on Costello until I get things sorted. What about this bomb? Do you think it’s a real threat?’
‘How should I know? All I know is his car was blown up and he wasn’t in it. Like you said, Alice in Wonderland stuff. How could anyone know for sure what it’s all about?’
‘Do you know who’s on it in Denmark?’
‘No, like I said, they’re playing it very close to their chests. It’s not terrorist, so they don’t have to share it. We know there’s an Intelligence involvement but we can’t be sure who’s running it. Whoever it is knows what he’s doing. The smokescreen went up very quickly. The bomb story got spiked at birth and the leaking gas cylinder story was out before anyone could get a sniff of anything else – silly man stores faulty bottled gas in his garage and nearly blows himself up. No real story.’
‘Hmm. All very neat and efficient.’ At least he can recognise efficiency when he sees it, she thought. ‘But it’s still a mess, a total mess. It’s the blind leading the partially sighted for God’s sake.’ He sat back, he was ready. ‘OK, if we’re going to do it let’s get on with it. Bronski’s going to take your call tomorrow at five like I said?’ She nodded. ‘Then get to Copenhagen on the next available flight and get to – where is it?’
‘Nyborg.’
‘Get there and locate him. When he’s on his own, waiting for the call, you tell him we’re going to use him.’
‘Beater or gun?’
‘Beater. I want you as the gun.’
‘That’s how it’s going to be is it?’
‘How else could it be?’
It was too sudden, she didn’t like it. An operational decision that quickly?
‘This isn’t you on your own, is it? It’s fully cleared?’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘Pardon my caution but I’m not killing anybody just on your say-so.’
The eyebrows came down again.
‘It comes from all the way up. I went upstairs as soon as I knew.’
She relaxed. It was official.
‘This Costello must be quite something. As soon as Bronski used his name I knew you’d want to hear about it, but I’m surprised you got clearance for a termination so quickly. He’s flagged, I know, that’s why I called you, but all I’ve seen is “locate and inform”, nothing close to “terminate on sight”.’
‘Yes, it rather threw me as well. I took his name upstairs and the next thing I know I’m told to arrange things and do it now. To happen that quickly means it must have had confirmation from the very top. I wish our illustrious leader could be as bold and incisive when it comes to domestic politics. Then maybe the country wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in and we’d get the cash we need to do the job properly. Anyway, there it was, “do it and do it now”.’
‘Where do you want it done?’
‘Anywhere that would be good for us. Anywhere that could make it look like it’s something left over from the old days. That way it muddies the waters. The Balkans would be ideal but I don’t see a way of getting him there so do it as soon as he’s on suitable turf. I want something that won’t interest anyone. I want to read in the papers that a shady ex-copper called Costello was killed by a dodgy ex-KGB agent who had become hooked up to any number of illegal goings-on. I want it all very hard to pin on anybody. An ex-Intelligence freelancer hired by nobody knows who. I want it so no one will take it to heart, do anything, or ask any really awkward questions.’
‘And when it’s done?’
‘No loose ends; when Costello is sorted, Bronski will have to go. We can’t leave him lying about, can we, actually or metaphorically?’
‘And what do we get out of this? We must get something good.’
‘The Americans and the Israelis were the ones interested in Costello, they got him flagged. What he was up to was never anything to do with us, but that unholy alliance wanted him and wanted him badly. On the surface it was supposed to be connected to a foiled terrorist bomb attack in Rome. That was the story that got put about, that and Costello being connected to the Vatican in some way.’
‘The Vatican!’
‘Yes, I know, but it was Rome and the world was hooked on Dan Brown at the time so everybody threw in the Vatican when they could. As far as we could ever find out, there never had been a James Costello in Rome, at least not one who had anything to do with the Vatican. Whoever he was working for, it wasn’t them.’
‘We looked into it?’
‘We had a semi-official glance to satisfy ourselves. We used an old Vietnamese priest connection, a China-watcher we sometimes use. He put us on to a Professor, an American woman. She worked for some sort of college and had access to the records and according to the records he was never there. We ran the terrorist story by the police and it turned out to be exactly what we were told, a busted terrorist-bomb thing. We weren’t really interested. It was nothing to do with us, we just checked out the story. But whatever Costello did in Rome and whoever he did it for, he really pissed off the Yanks and the Israelis. They’ve been looking for him ever since but, up till now, no one’s had a sniff. Now, out of nowhere, he’s fallen into our lap, so we do the job for them.’
‘Why not hand him over, if they want him that badly wouldn’t they pay for him? There must be some juicy Intelligence tit-bit we could get for him.’
‘No, my orders were black and white. He’s got to go.’
‘Why?’
‘Because we don’t know what Costello did and the Americans and Israelis do. It’s important to them but they won’t share it with us. When those two get together and shut everyone else out it’s bad news all round, almost certainly something HMG wouldn’t like. So, if they won’t share and they want to talk to Costello, we shut down Costello. We don’t help them when they’re keeping us out of it. We eliminate him.’
‘Well I hope it’s all worth it. I had a night of unbridled passion with Sam planned before that bloody crash call came.’
He opened a drawer, took out a folder, put it on the desk and looked pleased with himself.
‘By the way, I’m using a yellow folder for this and it’s getting a three-star rating. One copy kept in my office safe. To be read only in my office by the people on a very short list. And I report straight to the Director who reports directly to the PM.’
Look at him, she thought, like a kid in a candy store. Now he has his very own little yellow three-star folder. Costello would be killed, but for him this wasn’t going to be about shutting anything down or screwing the Americans or Israelis. This was going to be about a bit of empire-building, about treading on the faces of rival department chiefs. Not that she cared. Past a certain level of superiority it was always about office politics, whether it was Intelligence, banking or selling bananas.
‘Do I get to have a shower before I go?’
‘Get one at your hotel in Copenhagen and get some sleep on the plane, the next available flight. I want you in Nyborg in plenty of time to set things up properly. This is a yellow file job now. Everyone gives it one hundred and ten per cent.’ He looked up from the folder. ‘But make sure you keep the expenses down. Being top priority doesn’t have to make it cost more than it needs to. And make sure that all the chits come directly to me. I don’t want accounts handling anything, anything at all.’
She couldn’t say anything but that didn’t stop her thinking. “Everyone gives it one hundred and ten bloody per cent”? Who’s “everyone”? There’s only two of us in this and I’m the only bugger going to be in the field doing anything that isn’t shuffling papers or signing chits.
‘And I want a full verbal report every twenty-four hours. Use my direct line. You only speak to me.’
His head went down and his eyes went back to the sheets in his beloved folder. She was dismissed. The meeting was obviously over so she left the office.
There was no one else in the lift so she spoke out loud. It made her feel better saying what she had to say so it could be heard, even if she was the only one listening.
‘It’s straight off to bloody Copenhagen, is it? Well, fuck the next available flight nonsense. I’m damn well not going budget this time and I’m certainly not flying out of Luton. It’s going to be business class on a scheduled flight and the VIP lounge at Heathrow, and in Copenhagen a suite at the Hotel D’Angleterre.’ She felt better. He could have all the fits he wanted when he got her expenses chits. When the job was done and he was using her success to brown-nose with the Director he would have to OK them, even if she gave them to him by stuffing them up his arse.
On the ground floor she called in to the duty officer and collected the suitcase she’d left there when she arrived. She had come straight back to report when she got in from Hamburg so the same case would have to do for the Copenhagen trip. She told the duty officer to order a taxi and book her business class on the next flight to Copenhagen out of Heathrow or City, then book her a suite at the Hotel D’Angleterre.
In the taxi she turned her mind to the job in hand. It wasn’t killing Costello she needed to think about, it was killing Bronski. Getting a Soviet-trained thug to walk on to a bullet wasn’t going to be so easy. The trick would be making sure he didn’t see it coming, which was going to take a bit of working out. The taxi moved quickly through the pale dawn of the early-morning streets. Her mind slipped back to the present.
And the most expensive meal I can find in Departures. With champagne. She’d make the sod wish he’d given her time for a quick bang with Sam and a shower before he shoved her off to Denmark. That shag and shower were going to cost him so much it would give him apoplexy and she hoped to God it bloody well killed him.