Heavy drizzle swept against the apartment window as John Shroder peered out between the blinds and surveyed the roadway outside. Except for a few parked cars, the only other thing he could see was a couple of tomcats snarling at each other in a high-pitched whine, which was the reason he had looked outside in the first place. Satisfied there was nothing more than a territorial spat between the local felines, he dropped the blind back in place and returned his attention to Harker and Carter, who sat eyeing him with a certain unease.
‘Just a couple of squabbling cats,’ Shroder explained, resuming the only other seat at the cheap plastic-topped kitchen table. ‘Don’t worry, this safe house is secure. So do you want to start or should I?’
The question was asked in a carefree and casual tone and Harker, despite Shroder’s initially menacing appearance back at the restaurant, was glad to have the MI6 agent here with him. Carter on the other hand was still clearly unsure. Being naturally cautious, Shroder had so far refused to impart any information about who he was to the ex-don, though Harker had done all he could to allay Carter’s fears. Being held at gunpoint and witnessing the murder of two people right in front of him had, naturally, left the man extremely mistrustful of any new faces, and he retained a tight-lipped silence. ‘How did you find me?’ Harker enquired.
‘OK, I’ll go first,’ Shroder replied, placing Harker’s iPhone in the middle of the table. ‘I did receive all your messages, Alex, and I’ve been trying to reach you ever since, but every time I called, I got a message saying the phone wasn’t in service.’
‘That’s impossible,’ Harker replied. ‘I never turned it off, even when charging it.’
Shroder smiled. ‘I didn’t think you would have, so after your second message I did a line check back at HQ and, much to my surprise, I found it was being blocked deliberately.’
The disclosure came as a shock to Harker. ‘By who?’
‘Who, indeed. But it isn’t coming from any outside source, which means it’s something on the phone itself.’ Shroder reached over and tapped the mobile’s display screen. ‘Someone turned your phone into nothing less than a walkie-talkie.’
‘What? How can that be? I’ve had it with me all the time…’ The smiling face of Lucas now loomed in Harker’s mind and he thought back to the moment when the man had taken the phone from him and entered his home address, shortly before killing himself. ‘Shit,’ he groaned. ‘Lucas.’
‘Ah, the fellow who committed suicide,’ Shroder said. ‘I attended the crime scene after you, and then had a rummage around his apartment.’
‘How?’ Harker asked, stunned now because he was the only one who had the address. And then it suddenly dawned on him: ‘Doggie?’
Shroder was already nodding. ‘I’ll admit that Dean Lercher was a bit stubborn at first, but the threat of charging him with obstruction of justice soon had him singing like a choirboy. He’s been trying to get hold of you as well, by the way.’
For the first time ever, Harker was actually glad that his old friend was apt to fold easily under pressure, but the real question in his mind concerned the mobile phone. ‘But how did Lucas contrive to manipulate my phone, since he only had it in his hands for a few seconds?’
‘Can’t be sure without a closer look, but best guess is through a Bluetooth connection to a device he carried on him, which downloaded the necessary software without you even knowing it.’ Shroder smiled drily. ‘Not particularly difficult if you have the right tech.’
Everything was falling into place and Harker now understood how ‘God’ had managed to know everything he did and when he did it. ‘Bastard was listening in on everything I said,’ he muttered.
Shroder was now nodding, along with Carter, who – though enthralled by the conversation – was still eyeing the MI6 agent suspiciously.
‘Whoever you’ve been talking to appears to have been listening in, whether you were using the phone or not, which is precisely why I pulled the batteries out.’
‘How did you guess?’ Harker asked, somewhat astonished by how much Shroder already appeared to know.
‘I’ve seen this kind of software in action before, as it’s quite common in the security services, but I can’t be sure unless—’
Harker already knew where Shroder was going. ‘Unless we switch it back on and give him a reason to call me.’
‘Exactly,’ Shroder replied. ‘But, before we do that, perhaps you could fill me in on what exactly is going on, because at the moment things are not looking good for you, Alex.’
Harker couldn’t be sure how much Shroder already knew, but with ‘God’ out of the loop for the moment, it was the perfect time to start filling in all the blanks.
‘Hold on,’ Carter interrupted, speaking for practically the first time since they left the restaurant. ‘How do I know we can trust you?’
It was Harker who spoke up as he patted Carter on the arm. ‘We can believe him, David. He’s a friend of ours, and one of the few people I trust without reservation.’
Harker’s statement of approval was met with a stern look from Shroder. ‘That’s true, Alex, but the real question is whether I can trust you.’
This rebuttal had Harker frowning and he felt a twinge of nerves ripple through his stomach. ‘What’s that meant to mean?’
Shroder leant forward and tapped his finger on the table top. ‘You’ve been consorting with some pretty unsavoury characters, Alex. And you’ve also not been entirely forthcoming about what you’re involved in, have you?’
‘I know how this must look, John, but you have to believe me when I tell you that everything I’ve done has been done with the best intentions.’
‘I’m not sure exactly what it is that you have done, but I did speak with Tristan Brulet less than thirty minutes ago, and whatever it is…it’s not looking good for you.’
Harker was now getting increasingly nervous. ‘What did he say?’
Shroder remained deadpan and an atmosphere of mistrust now descended upon the conversation. ‘He told me that you came to him with some wild story about the dead rising again, and that you needed access to our vault at Mont-Saint-Michel.’
‘That’s true,’ Carter interjected, then fell silent as Shroder shot him a look of disdain before the MI6 agent continued.
‘A visit which ended in the deaths of some good men and with certain property missing.’
The unspoken allegations being made sent a shiver down Harker’s spine and he shifted in his seat nervously. ‘John, you don’t believe I was responsible for that, do you?’
‘If I thought you were responsible, Alex, then we would not be having this conversation,’ Shroder replied with an air of menace. ‘But as of this moment there are many others who believe you are.’
It was becoming clear now that the Templars blamed him for those disastrous events back at Mont-Saint-Michel and the very thought of it began to sap Harker’s energy. ‘And what does Tristan think?’
‘He’s not sure what to believe, but it is clear that you know far more than you’ve been telling us. So I am giving you this opportunity’ – Shroder settled back in his chair and, whether deliberately or not, his jacket fell back to reveal the Browning automatic handgun nestling in its shoulder holster – ‘to rectify that.’
‘They have Chloe Stanton,’ Harker blurted out, ‘and the man I’ve been in contact with warned me that if I didn’t do exactly what he asked, then they would kill her.’
Shroder looked unswayed by this admission. ‘And what exactly did they want from you?’
‘They wanted me to find three missing pages.’
‘Ah yes,’ Shroder said, ‘from the Gigas Codex, Tristan told me about that. Including the one located in our vault.’
‘Yes, but I had no idea they would follow me there, and that they were really after the Illuminismo.’
The very mention of the prized artefact had Shroder glancing over at Carter, and without a pause, Harker immediately set about allaying the agent’s concerns over his disclosing such a thing.
‘David here already knows about the Templars, and he was dragged into all this by the same person as I was.’ The more he attempted to explain himself, the guiltier and more responsible he felt. As Shroder’s lips tightened at what he was hearing, Harker decided to come clean about everything. ‘What I’m about to tell you is going to sound crazy, absurd even, but it is the truth.’
Shroder settled back in to his seat and folded his arms. ‘Try me.’