Logan explained the ploy to Winter and Grainger. Needless to say, Grainger was fraught with worry. Tom Grainger was nothing more than a pawn in a grand scheme of deception and betrayal. As far as Grainger was concerned, saving his life was now the goal. But Logan knew that whatever action they took from here was a gamble. They had to at least try, though. And one way or another, he would get Lindegaard. Of that Logan was certain.
He took out Evans’s phone and made the call. Lindegaard picked up on the third ring.
‘Evans, where are you? I was wondering what the hell had happened to you.’
‘Think again,’ Logan said.
There was a brief pause. Logan could almost hear the cogs turning in Lindegaard’s mind.
‘Logan. So Evans is dead.’
‘What do you think?’
‘I think you don’t know when to quit.’
‘I could say the same of you. But no, Evans isn’t dead. What use would he be to me dead?’
‘We had a deal with Angela. It looks like poor Tom isn’t going to come out of this too well.’
‘You certainly know how to make a deal,’ Logan said, glad that Grainger couldn’t hear Lindegaard’s words about Tom. ‘How about a new one?’
‘What could you possibly offer me?’
‘Your life. And Evans’s life. In exchange for Tom Grainger.’
‘How do I even know Evans is still alive?’
‘You don’t.’
‘Put him on.’
‘No.’
‘Then I may as well just kill Tom Grainger now.’
‘No, you won’t.’
‘Logan, you’re annoying me now. Goodbye.’
Logan’s heart skipped a beat as he wondered for a split second whether he’d just signed Tom Grainger’s death warrant. ‘You put that phone down and I’ll never stop, Lindegaard,’ he blurted out, thinking on his feet, hoping his forthright tone would keep Lindegaard’s interest. ‘You should have figured that out by now.’
No one spoke for a few moments, but Logan could hear Lindegaard’s heavy breaths so he knew his adversary hadn’t hung up. Tom Grainger was still alive – Lindegaard’s words had all but confirmed that. But unless Logan could keep Lindegaard on the phone and get him to agree to the plan, Tom was a dead man.
‘What’s the deal?’ Lindegaard said.
‘You give us Tom Grainger. You get Evans back. Everyone walks away.’
‘That’s it?’
‘What have you got to lose?’
‘Quite a lot, actually. But seeing as you’re still alive, it does seem like my options are running thin.’
‘I’m glad you’re finally seeing sense.’
‘Where and when?’
Logan gave Lindegaard the address for the bogus exchange. Logan had no intention of going to the place. It was simply a ruse to get Lindegaard into the open.
‘You and Tom come alone,’ Logan said. ‘You’ve already mixed enough people up in this. No point in adding any more bodies to the list.’
‘I’ll be there in an hour,’ Lindegaard said before ending the call.
Logan put the phone down on his lap, relief washing over him. He looked up at Grainger, whose expression told Logan that she wasn’t feeling quite as confident as him.
‘So what do you think?’ Winter said.
‘He’ll show,’ Logan said. ‘He thinks he’s smarter than you and me.’
‘But do you think he’ll be alone?’
‘Not a chance. But he won’t have time to call in additional people. So it’ll be him and whoever else he’s got up there in his hotel room.’
‘And what if he’s not actually here?’ Grainger said. ‘We’ve taken a leap there.’
‘It’s all we’ve got,’ Logan said.
Grainger huffed. ‘If Lindegaard’s not here, you may have just got Tom killed.’
‘We’re playing the odds,’ Logan said, sounding calmer than he really felt. ‘That’s all we can do now.’
It probably wasn’t the response she wanted, but it was the plain and simple truth. If they did nothing, Lindegaard would surely kill Tom anyway. This way, at least he had a fighting chance of survival.
Logan opened his door and got out. Grainger followed. Logan leaned down and stuck his head back into the car.
‘Wait here until I call,’ Logan said to Winter. ‘If you haven’t heard from us in thirty minutes just go, get out of here. You’ve got the evidence. Tell everyone what Lindegaard is. You’ll find some friends, I’m sure.’
‘I will. And good luck.’
‘Luck doesn’t come into it,’ Logan said as he shut the door.
He looked over the car to Grainger on the other side. Logan couldn’t read her expression at all. He had no idea what was going through her mind. In Kazakhstan and on the train to Beijing, he’d finally thought that their stuttering relationship may be making progress. Then she’d pulled a gun on him. Again. He knew he could trust her for this final assault; if nothing else, she wanted to save Tom’s life. That meant they shared a common enemy. After that – who knew?
He moved to the boot of the car and opened it. Logan looked around, waiting for the solitary pedestrian in sight to move away, then took out the M4 and, as discreetly as he could, stuffed it inside his coat. It was bulky and heavy but they didn’t have far to move in the open, and with Grainger taking the handgun, it was the only option if he wanted to be armed.
‘Come on then,’ Logan said as he shut the boot.
Grainger nodded and they looked left and right, then dashed across the road toward the hotel. They cut left and walked around the side of the hotel, away from the main entrance. Winter, in the car, would keep guard at the front of the hotel, the other M4 on his lap in case he needed to take Lindegaard out. But Logan didn’t think Winter would need it. Because Lindegaard wouldn’t be leaving the hotel on foot.
As they made their way around the side of the hotel, they came to the exit ramp that led down into the basement car park. There was a barrier on either side. CCTV cameras were placed above both the entrance and exit sides to record movements, but there was no manned booth. Logan stooped under the barrier on the exit side and Grainger followed just two steps behind.
They headed down the ramp and into the car park below.
‘Looks like a single level,’ Grainger said when they reached the bottom. ‘Makes it easier.’
‘Yeah. But two stairwells into here. He could come from either.’
‘So what do we do?’
‘We sit either side. But stay at this end, nearer to the ramp. Wait and see which stairwell he comes from.’
‘Okay. I’ll go left, you right. When we know where he’s coming from, the other can move across.’
‘Exactly.’
They headed in their respective directions. Logan crept from car to car, edging closer to the stairwell door. He came to a stop up against a minivan, the vehicle’s height providing him with good cover from the door, which was only ten yards away.
He looked around him, trying to see whether he was in view of any CCTV cameras. He spotted three more cameras dotted about, but it seemed that from where he was hiding, he was invisible to them all. In any case, he assumed there wasn’t a guard viewing live footage of all feeds. Most likely the cameras were in place to record incidents. A hotel that size would have hundreds of cameras, far too many to make it feasible for security staff to be watching each feed twenty-four hours a day.
Logan looked over to the other side of the car park, trying to spot Grainger. There was no sign of her. He scooted down and looked underneath the cars and saw one of her feet behind a tyre.
He felt a wave of relief. For just a fleeting moment, Logan had wondered whether Grainger had duped him. But she was there, on the far side of the car park, almost in line with him.
Logan was just about to stand back up when he heard a clunk and then a bang as the stairwell door on his side of the car park opened and then slammed shut on itself. Logan waited, his body relaxed and calm, as he heard footsteps coming toward him.
He risked a peek and saw a woman, smartly dressed. Her arm was interlinked with the casually dressed man walking by her side. It wasn’t Lindegaard. Logan pulled his head back in quickly, hoping they hadn’t spotted him. The lack of change in the rhythmic pattern of their footsteps suggested they hadn’t.
Logan held his breath and waited. He hoped the twosome would simply get into a car before they reached him and drive off none the wiser. But the nearer they got, the less likely that prospect seemed. Logan was about to start to move around the minivan, to keep himself out of sight, when he heard a double beep and the indicator lights of the van flashed.
He cursed his bad luck. He had to move before the two strangers got to the van. The last thing he wanted was for these two to become spooked and run off to tell the police before Lindegaard had even made an appearance.
But just as Logan was about to move, he heard the door on the opposite side of the car park open and then close.
And then he heard Grainger’s voice.
‘Stop, now!’ she screamed. ‘Hands in the air. Both of you.’
Logan tensed, bracing himself for action.
A second later, a gunshot rang out.