Wednesday 27th January 2016
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Every morning in winter, usually before sunrise, Vladek likes to run. Typically, he will exercise for thirty minutes, often longer. Afterwards, he heads to the gym for an intensive workout, a well-honed routine that involves weights and repeated attacks with hands, feet, arms and legs on the large punchbag that Ricky has installed especially for him. The oblong bag hangs suspended from the ceiling like an overweight pendulum. If time and opportunity permit, he will repeat some or all of the same routine in the evening: if not the gym, then certainly another run.
Vladek has started following Adam Fraser whenever the former soldier takes his daily run. It has been Vladek’s little game of cat and mouse around the streets of Monaco. There is something about Fraser that isn’t right. He senses it but can’t yet put his finger on it. When Ricky had explained on the plane home yesterday that there was a British mole in his operation, in his mind Vladek instantly zeroed in on Fraser even though Ricky said it wasn’t possible. Everything about the former soldier is just a little too artificial. Unauthentic. Vladek is determined to prove it. Which is why he’s taken to following Fraser. The soldier may be fast but the former cage fighter is confident that he can outrun the Brit. Vladek is practised at being stealthy, careful to ensure that he keeps a clear distance between them both to prevent Fraser realising that he is being followed. Thus far, Vladek is fairly certain that he has got away with it.
Vladek is caught off guard as Fraser slips out of the villa at a different time to normal. Rapidly changing and putting on his own running shoes, Vladek heads after him, hoping that he has left sufficient time to pick up the other man’s tail. Most routes from the villa begin the same way. Fraser is mostly a man of routine. Tonight, Vladek thinks it is likely to be the eight-kilometre clockwise loop. Catching sight of his quarry in the distance up ahead after only three minutes of fast running, Vladek knows that he is right.
With leg muscles feeling lethargic from the recent trip to the Middle East, Vladek is grateful for the chance to stretch them out. The run also provides good thinking time. Ricky has informed him about an intended party in a couple of days’ time. Vladek will be expected to find suitable entertainment on the night. There is one question that needs his attention at short notice: which girls and from where? Vladek starts to mull several ideas.
Up ahead is the Casino. Vladek slows his pace, watching two new joggers who have started to try and keep pace with Fraser. One is a woman and the other appears to be a heavily built West African. Vladek slows as well, the woman crossing the road so as to run alongside Fraser. A burst of speed allows him to narrow the gap momentarily and Vladek now can see more clearly what is happening. Fraser and the woman are talking! They seem to know each other. Vladek has been suspicious of Adam Fraser and his motives from the very beginning, but this looks highly incriminating. A clandestine liaison on the streets of Monaco? Possibly a love interest or perhaps evidence that Fraser might after all be the mole that Ricky is so worried about after all? Either is bad news, the latter fatal for Fraser if only Vladek is able to prove it. Who is the man? Some kind of minder for the woman? Vladek is forced to reduce his speed to a jog, the African unable to keep pace with the other two. This pattern continues for a couple of kilometres: Fraser and the woman in front, the African in their wake; and Vladek at the rear trying to remain inconspicuous. Suddenly Fraser and his new companion come to a halt. Vladek ducks into a doorway. He watches. The conversation between Fraser and the woman is full of intensity. Both seem oblivious to the possibility that anyone might be observing them. The West African finally arrives. A few words are exchanged before all three move off once again, this time heading back towards the centre of Monte Carlo.
The pattern continues until they near the quayside at Port Hercule when all three come to a halt once again. Fraser and his two running companions are about to separate. It gives Vladek an immediate – but easy – decision to make: whether to follow the woman and her minder to see where they go? Or stay on Fraser’s tail. The woman and her minder win. It is here that Vladek makes his only mistake. Breaking cover, he happens to glance in Fraser’s direction, noticing the Brit waiting for a pause in the traffic in order to cross a busy road. Unfortunately for Vladek, it is exactly the moment that Fraser chooses to look behind him. For a millisecond their eyes make contact. Then, Fraser is gone.
Vladek, now concerned that in the moment’s distraction he might have lost the other two, quickly finds that he needn’t have worried. They have slowed their pace to a walk, making their way purposefully toward Rue Grimaldi, a street leading away from the port area. The pair make no attempt to cover their tracks. Sometime later they stop by the glass-fronted door of an apartment block. Using a key card taken from a rear zipped pocket of her shorts, the woman unlocks the door and the pair head inside towards a bank of elevators. Vladek can see everything from his position on the opposite side of the street. A lift arrives, the pair get in, and the doors close behind them. Crossing the street and pressing his nose against the windowpane, Vladek squints at the floor indicator that shows where the lift has gone: the fourth floor. He checks his watch and curses. He had promised Ricky that he would be back, ready to escort him and Tash to an evening function, in less than thirty minutes. No matter. Now that Vladek knows where these two associates of Fraser are based, whoever they might be, he will be able to come back and snoop around another time.