‘You!’ Lily hissed when the firing had stopped.
‘Hello, Lily. Hello, Kester.’ Jim Sells’s voice sounded calm and kind. Just like it used to. And nothing like it should do on this most dangerous of occasions. ‘It looks like your friends think you’re dead and drowned,’ he added.
The two men with him moved into position at the end of the overhang, checking to see what the Americans at the top of the hill were doing. ‘They’re long gone, sir,’ one said in Russian.
Lily watched them and – understanding what they said – she launched herself at Jim, cracking the side of his head hard with her fist. Then his shoulder and chest. She finished with a punch to his mouth. Jim did nothing to stop her. He took the blows. He didn’t even turn away.
Kester stood and watched. He’d never seen Lily so violent. But he understood that she needed to do what she was doing, even though she’d also know that it would have little impact on a man like Jim. He remembered how, at first, Jim had been a hero to them. An ex-footballer. An experienced spy. He’d run their mission in Poland – and, then, at the last minute, had betrayed them, siding with a group of Russians who were trying to murder the entire England team.
When Lily had stopped hitting him, Jim spoke again. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘You’re a traitor,’ Lily spat.
‘I am,’ Jim nodded. ‘I am a traitor. To the UK. And I’m sorry you had to be dragged into all that. I never expected a group of children to get in our way. That’s why I sent you away from Krakow. To the lake. That’s why I tried to get the helicopter to leave you there, so you’d not be in danger in the city. But you survived. And you stopped us. Through your own skill.’
‘Survived? But we didn’t, did we?’ Lily said. ‘Lesh didn’t survive. Do you know about Lesh?’
‘I know he can’t walk,’ Jim said. ‘And I’m deeply sorry about that.’
Lily wanted to use every swear word she’d ever heard and hurl them at Jim. She racked her brains to find something she could say to hurt him. He was the one of the few adults she had trusted – even cared about – since the death of her parents. And he had utterly betrayed her. But now, as her anger dissipated, she was thinking, aware that they were at the foot of this snowy mountain, next to what she assumed was a Russian submarine.
What is Jim doing here? Now? On this randomly distant shoreline in the snow. How is he involved?
Kester and Lily’s silence drew a question from Jim. ‘You want to know why I’m here?’ he asked.
But, before Kester could answer, one of Jim’s men returned from their reconnaissance.
‘The Americans headed back to the town,’ he said in Russian. Lily repeated it in English for Kester.
‘Good,’ Jim said, looking at Lily. ‘They think you’re dead. They think that you fell in the water after coming down the hill and that they put ten rounds into each of you. They’ve underestimated the two of you.’
‘And are we dead?’ Kester said, speaking at last, ignoring the compliment.
Jim put his hand on Kester’s shoulder. But Kester shrugged it off. Jim frowned. ‘You think we’re here to kill you?’
‘I don’t know what to expect,’ Kester replied. ‘You’ve only ever lied to us.’
‘Fair point,’ Jim said.
‘So what are you doing here?’ Lily asked.
‘I’ve come to help you.’
‘Help us. That’s a joke.’
‘Lily, I just saved your lives.’
‘You could save my life a thousand times before I say thank you, after what you did to Lesh. After all the lies.’
‘Lily? Can I ask you something?’
‘If you have to,’ Lily said, staring out across the fjord, a dark snow cloud scudding in, the water choppier now.
‘Are you comfortable lying to Johnny, Rio and the others? Because, if I remember correctly, you lie to them all the time …’
‘We lie!’ Lily sputtered. ‘Yes, we lie. But we lie because we’re trying to do good.’ She stood up and was shouting now. ‘Don’t try and say we’re like you. We’re not. You’re bad. We’re good.’
‘Why are you good?’
‘Because we try to stop people doing bad things to British people and you try to do bad things to British people.’
‘Maybe I do,’ Jim said. ‘But I try to do good things for Russian people. Why is it that the British are always right and the Russians wrong?’
‘It’s not like that,’ Lily growled back. ‘We simply try to stop things like twenty-two young men, some of them fathers, getting murdered. Remember? That’s what you tried to do.’
‘It’s more complex than that,’ Jim said, deflecting Lily’s reference to their last mission. ‘I’ll explain it to you one day.’
‘Explain it now. I challenge you.’
‘Russia is like my home now,’ Jim said. ‘The people. Their way of life. In the past there was something good about it, although everyone else thought it was a bad place …’
‘Forget it,’ Lily said, putting her hands up. ‘We have better things to do than sit around listening to more of your lies. We’re trying to stop …’ She silenced herself, remembering the mission they were on now.
‘… trying to stop what?’ Jim laughed. ‘A third world war? A warhead going off. The Russians getting blamed for it all when it’s the Americans who are behind it?’
‘Forget it,’ Lily said, realizing that Jim knew exactly what their mission was and that he had just confirmed that everything they’d worked out was true, meaning that he was at least one step ahead of the Squad. ‘We’re leaving. If, that is, it’s true you’re not going to kill us.’
‘Do you want a lift?’ Jim asked.
‘In that?’ Lily gestured towards the submarine.
‘Yes.’ Jim grinned.
Kester stepped forward. ‘No, thank you,’ he said.
‘So how are you going to get back to Tromsø by the morning?’ Jim asked. ‘You have only one option. Come with us. In this.’
Lily looked at the submarine tower shifting slowly in the waters, then at Kester.
‘Maybe we should,’ Kester said, changing his mind. ‘It’s not like we have a choice.’
‘What?’ Lily said. ‘Accept a lift with him. He almost got us killed the last time he lied to us. What’s to say he’s not going to take us out there and kill us?’
‘Lily. If I wanted to kill you, you’d be at the bottom of that fjord already.’