mi5 headquarters, thames house, london,
3:00 p.m. gmt
By the afternoon of the following day, Shae had seen every mugshot in MI5’s hands and had come up empty. K had arranged for her to meet with a psychologist who specialized in the questioning of witnesses to see if there was anything more to glean from her time being held captive. She was with the psychologist when K asked Terry to stop by his office. The two men sat for a few minutes enjoying a cup of K’s secret stash of coffee, replenished the day before and brewed by his outrageously expensive coffee maker.
“Terry, when this current operation is over and after you take some R and R, I have a special job I want you to focus on.”
“What’s that, sir,” asked Nolan, already figuring he knew the answer.
“I want you to put a team together and bring me the mole’s head on a pike. Think you’re up to that?”
“Given that we’ve been after the bastard for years, and I owe them for what happened back in the day, I can try, but no guarantees, sir.”
“I understand that, son. This will be completely off the books, but you’ll have access to everything I’ve amassed over the years. Hell, we may be wrong about there even being a mole, but I don’t think so. It’s just that there have been too many blown operations. Not all, mind you, but enough.”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
“That’s all I can ask. Now, have you thought any more about what I suggested?”
“Unfortunately, sir, it’s about all I’ve been able to think about.”
“And?”
“It’s got to be Kristen. The only question is, will she do it?”
“I think you already know the answer to that.”
Terry let out a long sigh. “Yes, sir, she’ll do it.”
“Just out of curiosity, why her and not Shae?”
“To be honest, sir, it’s the way she took out Lander. She lost it a little afterward, but when he was shooting at her she kept it together. Shae, she’s tough but I just don’t know. It’s as if there’s a little voice in my head saying no for some reason. Maybe it’s her lack of emotion after being captured and beaten that’s bothering me. If I’m honest, I can’t put my finger on it, but something is bothering me. Either she is going to continue the way she is, or she is going to crash and burn, and we can’t risk asking her to do something that might push her over the edge.”
“Well, we better get her in here while Shae is otherwise occupied. I wonder how her acting skills are.”
Five minutes later, Kristen was shown into K’s inner sanctum. K offered her coffee, but she settled for bottled water.
Before K or Nolan could speak, Kristen cut them off. “What do you need, sir?” she asked.
“Why would you think we need anything?” asked K.
“Because I’m sitting here, that’s why.”
K tilted his head. “I think you made the right decision, Nolan.” He looked at Kristen. “You’re absolutely right, young lady, we do need something.”
“Figures,” she replied. “And I’m sure it’s going to be dangerous, right?”
“Right,” replied Terry. “But if you don’t want to do what we are about to ask, it would be completely understandable. We only managed to get Shae back by the skin of our teeth and if this goes wrong, we may not be able to do that again.”
“I understand that,” replied Kristen. “But there are still two bombs out there that could hurt a lot of people, and it’s time to step up and do what’s right.”
“This isn’t technically your fight, you know,” replied K.
“After what they did to Shae, it is. What the hell, I’m in.”
“But you don’t know what we need yet,” replied K.
“Okay, run it by me, but the answer is still going to be yes.”
K sighed. “Right, then. What we need is someone to act as bait. We are fairly sure that these terrorists have eyes on this building and most probably your hotel by now.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because they aren’t stupid and it’s exactly what we would do,” replied Nolan. “The thing is, we still have two dirty bombs out there, and as of now, we’ve had no luck in finding them. We were hoping that Shae may have been able to give us a lead with the description of the lady who held her captive. Even better would have been for Shae to pick out her mugshot, but that hasn’t happened. She’s not in our system and has managed to fly below our radar. Somehow, we have to find another way of getting her location.”
“How will using me as bait get you that?”
K was about to answer when his number two burst into his office.
“What the hell is it? I’m in the middle of an important meeting. Haven’t you ever heard of knocking before entering?”
“We think we’ve found one of the bombs, sir.”
“You what?” said Terry, jumping to his feet.
“We think we’ve found one of the bombs. The one targeting Manchester.”
“What? How?” said K. “Show me. Where is it?”
“The River Irwell, sir.”
“And where, might I ask, is the River Irwell?”
“Of course,” said Terry. “The River Irwell separates Manchester and Salford. It nearly runs right into the center of Manchester.”
“And just how do you know that?”
“You forget, sir, that’s where I was born. It used to be polluted as hell, but now they actually run sightseeing tours on the bloody thing.”
K turned to his number two. “Tell Huntington and his team to get their gear together. No offense to our boys in blue, but I want him on this.”
“Yes sir.”
“Wait a minute, sir. The last thing we need is for these guys to go in guns blazing. Remember what we’re dealing with. What we need is someone who can assess the situation. Someone who can maybe get on the inside.”
K smiled. “Well, I guess you just volunteered for the job.”
Terry put his hands on his knees. “I guess I did.”
“Good, tell me what you need.”
“First of all, I think I need my head checked, sir.”
K squinted fiercely at Nolan. “Why do you think we get along so well? I’ve known that since we first met.”