Thursday 28th January 2016
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Aldo is nothing if not resourceful. Within ten minutes, two paramedics have arrived at the apartment and are kneeling beside Beef’s inert form. They seem highly professional and thorough. Beef, they conclude, has several fractured ribs and, more critically, a punctured lung. He remains unconscious throughout, no doubt assisted by a large injection of pain-relieving morphine that one of the paramedics administers whilst the other races to fetch a stretcher.
While Beef’s body is being carefully lifted onto the stretcher – no mean feat given the weight of the man – Aldo arrives. He greets Adam with a bear hug like a long-lost friend. They both watch in silence as Beef is wheeled away.
“Are you taking him to the Princesse Grace?” Aldo calls after them.
“Yes. This one needs to be in theatre as soon as possible,” one of the paramedics replies, manoeuvring the stretcher into the waiting elevator.
“Thanks,” Aldo says, stepping back inside the apartment and pushing the door closed as far as it will go.
“I’d better get that fixed,” he says, looking at the damaged frame and lock. He takes out his mobile phone and dials a number.
“Bonjour, Céline, ça va? Are you busy? How are you getting on with the man from Oz?” he asks cryptically. He listens, explains that he needs some help with a small crisis in the apartment that Adam is renting. They talk for a short while and then he rings off. “Have you met Céline?” he asks Adam.
Adam shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Lovely girl. Another time maybe. Now,” he says, turning to Adam, “why don’t we just sit down over here for a moment – ” he points to a small circular table with two chairs “ – and you can tell me precisely what’s been going on?”
“Back up a minute, Adz. Are you saying that you are working for the British? Bloody hell, my friend, you are a wily fox! When did all this come about?”
So Adam tells him. He tells him about his trip to Courchevel and he tells him about Emms and Beef, not forgetting Miss Bateson. He explains about his trip to Saudi and the proposed oil for cash operation. He also explains about Ricky’s mole-in-the-Al-Shawabi-camp theory and about both Vladek and Tash.
“I never knew Ricky was such a devious bastard,” Aldo says at one point. He looks genuinely shocked by what Adam is telling him. Then later, once Adam has finished, he starts firing more questions.
“Where do you think this Emma woman is?”
“I think Vladek was following both her and the African. I went to the airport to meet her earlier. She and I spent a bit of time together here in the flat before I had to leave.”
Aldo raises his eyebrows, giving his friend a knowing look. Adam shrugs but otherwise doesn’t react.
“Perhaps he got hold of Beef or Emma’s phone number? From the letting agent maybe? Traced it to here, saw me leave the apartment, saw Beef hovering outside, put two and two together and then decided to make his move. Emma is likely being questioned by Ricky’s former cage-fighting head of security. He was following them both yesterday, for sure. Doubtless interested to discover whether she might have been working with me somehow in spying on Ricky. Vladek certainly hates my guts and has more than enough motive to try and pin something on me. I’ve got to find her, Aldo: before she gets hurt.”
“When are you meant to be leaving for Iraq?”
“Sometime in the next couple of hours.”
Aldo’s face registers shock and surprise.
“There’s a plane inbound to Nice this afternoon stuffed with used US dollar bills. We are meant to be flying it to the Middle East tonight.”
“Into Baghdad? Ricky must be bonkers. He’ll never get away with it.”
“He has a plan. The money’s going to be loaded onto trucks and Vladek and I are going to play delivery drivers for him.”
“Adam, are you nuts? You can’t be doing this.”
“He’s paying me shed loads of money.”
Adam explains about his profit share arrangement. Aldo whistles.
“So, Adz, look at this logically. You think Vladek is holding this Emma or Fiona woman captive?”
Adam nods.
“Up until now, Ricky believed that there was no way you could be working for the British. He trusted you. He still trusts you. He has asked you to be his partner in this Iraqi deal. You’ve even just signed all the papers, for goodness’ sake. So, let’s now assume that Emma, under duress, will suggest that you have been working for the British after all. Ricky will be in a quandary. Does he believe her or does he trust his initial instincts about you? If he believes her, he will go berserk. Question is, how essential are you to him in Iraq?”
“Fairly key. Without me, he’s got no one to drive one of the trucks full of cash.”
“Wrong. Drivers are two a penny. No, you are essential to him for two reasons. Firstly, you know too much. You have the inside knowledge of this cash for oil trade in Iraq. You’ve even met with the two Saudis. They, the Saudis, will have the rightful expectation that you are going to be an integral part of the next phase in Iraq. For that reason alone, Ricky needs you, regardless of whether he believes what this woman, Emma, may or may not have said. Secondly, and perhaps just as critically, you have one piece of leverage that Ricky is desperate to get his hands on: a certain USB stick that he feels could ruin him if it ever got into the wrong hands. It sounds to me as if you are holding a lot of bargaining chips in your hand, my friend. All except one. One rather crucial one.”
“Emma,” Adam says, and it is Aldo’s turn to nod in silence.
“Do you have the device on you?”
Adam delves into his jacket pocket and brings out the USB stick.
“Let’s take a look.” Aldo reaches for his leather briefcase and removes a small notebook computer. A few moments later, he takes the device from Adam and slots it into the side of the machine.
“Here it is,” Aldo says and double-clicks on an icon on the desktop.
“Bugger! There’s nothing here. The USB drive is blank.”
“Blank? It can’t be.” Adam looks shocked.
“See for yourself,” he says, swivelling the computer around and showing him the empty file structure.
“Shit. That means that Tash must still have the original hidden somewhere after all.”
“This device is not going to be much use to man or beast.”
“But Ricky doesn’t yet know that, does he?” Adam says.
At that moment Adam’s mobile phone starts to ring. He looks at the caller ID and then looks at Aldo.
“Guess who? It’s Ricky.”
“Then you’d better take it.”
Adam slides his finger across the keypad to accept the call.
“Ricky. How are we doing? What’s up?”
Adam thumbs the button that allows the call to be heard on the phone’s loudspeaker.
“Adam. The time has finally come,” says a rather flat and tired-sounding Ricky on the other end of the line, “for us to be on our way to the Middle East. Our plane is leaving as soon as you get here. I am not sure where you are currently hiding. Mindful of the well-being of a very attractive-looking young lady who Vladek has just brought to my attention, could you kindly make yourself present at the aircraft door, alone and unarmed and in possession of the USB stick that Shetty has given you to pass to me, sometime within the next forty-five minutes? Otherwise, Adam, there might be unfortunate consequences. Do we understand each other?”
Before Adam has any chance to reply, Ricky brings the call to an end.