I wake up that morning to find a missed call on the old burner phone that I’ve been keeping in the hope that Neva will contact me. There’s no message on the answering service and so I send a text to the number asking who they are. Then I put the phone back down at the side of the bed. A few minutes later it vibrates as another call comes in from the same number. I answer it.
‘Michael?’
It’s Neva. The sound of her voice, after all of these weeks, takes my breath away. I can’t fall for her tricks again. She can’t be trusted. She played me, I remind myself. But I’m not really prepared for how hearing from her makes me feel.
‘What do you want?’ I ask, making my voice sound hard.
I resist the urge to ask her how she is. It’s as if the last few weeks haven’t happened, and I hadn’t seen Granger accuse her of murdering Angela Carter. I wish I could unhear, unsee, unfeel all of those terrible moments of doubt and betrayal.
Neva sighs down the phone. I can almost visualize her, hesitant to speak, ready perhaps to tell me something that can change my mind about her. I ache for any excuse, any explanation.
‘Mia isn’t safe,’ she says. ‘They are coming for her.’
‘She’s in witness protection. Even the Network can’t find her,’ I say.
‘They’ve known all along where she is. I told you. There’s a mole in Archive.’
‘Neva, don’t lie to me. I have no intention of falling for your rubbish again,’ I say even though I know she’s right. Didn’t the bugging prove she hadn’t lied about this?
I feel tired and old then, as if I’ve given her every drop of my energy and she’s thrown it away, along with my feelings for her. Despite my attempt at sounding hardened to her, I yearn for her to redeem herself. I take a breath after realizing I’d been holding it too long. Tell me what I need to hear, I think. Tell me something that makes me believe in you again.
‘Michael. Please. I’m not lying. Meet me face to face and I’ll prove it. I have information from a very trusted source. The woman who tried to kidnap you for the Network was called Kritta. I bet you’d remember her voice. She was German, wasn’t she?’
I don’t answer, but I remember the woman well. She did have a German accent. An accent that Neva hadn’t heard when she’d surprised her, and me, in the stairwell and rescued me from her clutches. This at least I know is a truth.
‘I know you don’t trust me, but please just let me explain. Kritta was Mia’s mother, as Subra was yours.’
‘Go on,’ I say. Give me something to hold onto!
‘She was taken by my mother, Annalise. Annalise is now running the Network after she took out half of the committee using an assassin called Vasquez. I don’t have to be a genius to work out what Annalise wanted with Kritta. Like Subra, Kritta has the trigger words that will activate Mia. Which means that Annalise now has them. It won’t be long before they’ll make a move on Mia. And through her, they’ll make an attempt again on you.’
I think for a moment. My rational mind wants to believe this is a lie: everything Neva has said plays into my fears for Mia and my niece, Freya. I know the Network don’t give up their assets and both Mia and I belonged to them once. If I’m unwilling to belong to them, then they will kill me if they get the chance. It’s the only thing they can do. Thanks to Ray that chance has been denied them so far.
My regular phone rings then, and I see Ray’s number come up.
‘Just stay on the line,’ I say to Neva. ‘I have to take this.’
‘No. I’ll call you back in ten minutes,’ she hangs up, no doubt suspecting me of trying to trace her call.
I answer Ray’s call.
‘Michael. I’ve some bad news. The Network have taken Mia,’ Ray says.
‘Fuck! How did this happen? You said she was safe…’
‘I don’t know, but all I can say is we are interrogating everyone who had any access to that knowledge. We’ll find that mole if it’s the last thing we do,’ Ray says.
He explains the attack and Jack’s report of Mia going with them without putting up a fight. I see Mia in my mind’s eye and I know that she was trapped inside her own body and mind, unable to fight the commands they’d conditioned her to obey – as I had once been in the same position. I find it hard to imagine her leaving Freya alone in the house, regardless. This makes me once more aware of how strong the Network’s hold can be, especially if you don’t know how to fight them. I curse under my breath again. I should have warned her.
‘Did the vehicle plates show up anything?’ I ask.
Ray hesitates for a moment as though he’s afraid to tell me this part.
‘The van is registered to MI6,’ he confides.
‘What?’
‘I’m looking into who was using it, but honestly I’m expecting it to be a deliberate clone of one they have and not their actual van. It’ll be some kind of sick Network joke on us. The interesting thing is, they could have killed Jack, or pulled a gun on him but they didn’t. They tried to get out and away as clean as possible without casualties.’
‘I wonder why? That’s not their usual M.O. and Jack has seen them now. So, you’d think they’d have killed him rather than incapacitate him.’
‘I know,’ says Ray. ‘My first thought was he was in on it. But the security footage shows him genuinely putting up a fight and being overpowered. The kid is mortified. And so am I. I thought Mia was hidden, but it seems as though they knew where she was all along.’
‘It’s an inside job. Neva warned us about the mole and we didn’t believe her,’ I say.
‘I know. I should have listened to her, Mike. But this whole thing with Granger…’
‘What if Neva didn’t do it? What if Granger set her up, and then someone else silenced him? This mole perhaps,’ I suggest.
‘I know you want to believe in Neva. I get that. But Granger wasn’t lying. We polygraphed him. You know this,’ Ray says. ‘But I do accept that she probably didn’t kill him. I’m starting to realize it had to be one of our own. How else did the perp get through our security unseen?’
I don’t reply as Ray works out everything I’ve been suspecting for a while for himself. But I’d been too afraid to believe it because of my feelings for Neva.
‘Ben tells me Erik Steward at MI6 said they had eyes on Mia and Ben too. He’d argued it was for their own safety, but if there is a leak, maybe it’s in MI6 and not Archive,’ Ray tells me. ‘But I just don’t know. All I know is anyone could be involved. And we’re screwed if we can’t trust our own people.’
Everything he’s saying reinforces the decision I’m about to make regarding Neva. No, we can’t trust anyone at MI5 or MI6. This much is becoming clear. Even so, can I trust Neva?
‘Any sightings of the van since?’ I ask.
‘None. But we’re still working on it.’
‘I’m coming into the office,’ I say.
‘Best to stay where you are for now,’ Ray says. ‘I’ve sent extra detail to make sure you’re safe.’
I try to argue but Ray won’t listen. He hangs up and I find myself staring at the phone.
True to her word and on the dot, Neva calls me back on the other phone. As I see her anonymous number flashing up on the screen I make up my mind: I’m going to give her one final chance.
‘Ray just called me,’ I say. ‘They’ve taken Mia.’
‘I wasn’t expecting them to act so soon,’ Neva says, ‘I’m sorry, Michael.’
‘What does Annalise want with her?’
Neva sighs again. ‘I don’t know. I’ve been wracking my brains wondering what this is all about. But I knew she would take her. She’ll want the child too.’
‘Ray’s sending extra detail to protect me. I need to get out of here before they arrive or I’ll be in lockdown. Will you meet me?’ I ask and I feel a rush of relief: I’ve made the right choice in putting the past behind us. At least for now. How I’ll deal with it later I’m not sure.
‘You know I will,’ she says. ‘But what are you planning to do?’
‘We go after Mia. And we take down Annalise at the same time. Are you with me Neva? Because now’s the time that you really need to take sides.’
‘I’ve always been on your side,’ she says and I feel that jolt again inside me, that firm belief in her. She’s not lying.
‘Do you know how to find Annalise?’
‘Yes,’ she says.
‘Then we go after her directly,’ I say.
‘Michael, I have to tell you something. When Granger said I was Angie…’ Neva says.
‘I don’t care. All that matters is saving Mia,’ I say.
I want to trust Neva, even though I shouldn’t. I know better than to put myself in her hands, but Ray’s revelations have made her my only conceivable ally. After all, who can I trust at MI5 and MI6? Anyone could be behind Mia’s kidnap. Even Ray.
‘I care. Because I don’t think I was Angie. But the truth is, I don’t know. The Network messed with my head for years. I have no idea if they also have trigger words that can turn me back into their puppet again,’ she says, her voice breaking.
I hear her anguish and fear. It must have been hard for her to admit this to me. That in the end she doesn’t know if she can even trust herself. I know how she feels. Our whole world is nothing but doubt and paranoia. Even so, I hear absolute truth in her voice. I understand more than anyone where she is right now. How awful it is to think you have control and yet someone can come along and take it from you with just a few words.
‘Have you remembered something that might make you think this is the case?’ I ask her now, my voice soft.
‘No. But I’ve been trying to. If there’s something there, it’s buried very deep inside me.’
‘Okay,’ I say. ‘Look, I have to figure out a way to sneak out of here… then I’ll call you to meet. But if you’re going to betray me, know this Neva. I’ll kill you.’
‘That’s fair. But Michael, if I turn, and I’m not the person you knew, I’d be grateful if you would put me out of my misery. I don’t want to belong to anyone but myself. I can’t be their pawn anymore. And if I did that to Angela Carter. If I put that poor woman in that car, trussed up and left to die like that, then I don’t deserve to live. I don’t know how I could forgive myself for turning her child over to them.’
Then she tells me exactly how to escape the safe house, right under the noses of my bodyguards and I learn just how easy it was for her to find me and surely too, for the Network to do the same. I have a momentary wobble, a second of questioning her motives. But I push it aside. If she’s working for them I’ll soon find out, and since I’m confident that we’ve broken all of my conditioning, maybe I too will play a double game. Anything to get me closer to saving Mia. As much as I hate what the Network did to me, I can’t help feeling grateful for my knowledge now of them. They may be one step ahead of us, but soon I’ll take that lead from them. I feel the assassin in me rearing again, eager for the deliverance of a cold, but revenge-filled, death.
When I hang up the phone from Neva, I pull some clothes on. Then I load my Glock and stow several cartridges in the pockets of my jeans. After that I place the Glock in my belt holster, covering it with a casual zip-up black jacket.
As Neva suggested, I go out into the back garden, and without pause, climb over the fence into the garden backing up onto the safe house. As the security detail aren’t worried about my movements, no one comes to stop me. It’s almost too easy and does give me momentary pause that someone other than Neva will be waiting for me.
I walk around to the front of the neighbouring house and head down the road. I have the burner phone with me so that Neva can contact me, but not my regular phone as I don’t want Ray to be able to trace me. Any minute he’ll open the email I sent him, telling him that I’m going after Mia and he isn’t to try to find me.
I wait at the agreed meeting point but I’m nervous that the security detail will realize I’m gone and come looking for me. So it’s a relief when Neva pulls up at the kerb in an innocuous Ford Focus.
I get in the passenger seat, trembling at the nearness of her. Neva drives off as soon as I close the door, and before I can fasten my seat belt.
I stare ahead at the road, trying not to look at her, because just a glimpse has been enough to remind me that I still want her.
‘Check out that bag by your feet,’ she says. I look down into the footwell and see a plastic bag. I pick it up and open it. Inside are passports, and clothing.
‘We’ll ditch your clothes,’ she says. ‘Change everything. I know how tricky Ray Martin can be with trackers.’
We approach Euston station and Neva parks the car in a nearby street on double yellow lines. Then she takes my hand and we walk across the road and into the station. She glances at me as her skin touches mine, as though she feels the same desperate rush of electricity coursing through her hand as I do through mine.
Taking the carrier bag with me, I go into the men’s toilets and change. I leave the bag full of my old clothing in the toilets. I even ditch my wallet, after removing cash and cards from it, just in case.
Neva is waiting for me outside when I come out of the gents. Even without make-up she’s breath-taking. I have a flash of Cassandra/Sinead/Lizzie/Nicole/Hilary… faces distorted and crying as they died. Their resemblance to Neva makes me feel sick. Should I tell her about the deaths? Will she know who the killer is?
‘You got rid of everything?’ she says.
I nod.
Pushing the faces of the dead women away from my mind, I need to focus on now, and Neva is here, safe. Even if a killer is on the lookout for her. Telling her perhaps will just distract us from what we have to do.
‘I’ve booked us a flight to Toulouse early tomorrow,’ she says.
‘What’s in Toulouse?’ I ask.
‘Hopefully some answers for us both,’ she says.
‘I have to find Mia,’ I say. ‘That was the deal.’
‘I know. And I promise we will. Come on,’ she says.
‘Where to now?’ I ask.
‘My hotel. We have to lay low. I guarantee MI5 will be looking for you,’ she says.
I follow her down towards the tube station. My mind is full of doubts and worries. Now I’m free of my security detail I’m raring to get to the bottom of what’s going on. I’m anxious to learn what has become of Mia. And more important – to learn if I can I trust Neva. This whole protection thing has been holding me back from getting to the truth.
Neva’s nearness is making me feel unstable and the illusion of control is rapidly slipping away as I put myself more into her hands. Foolish or not, I have no choice but to follow the path I’ve chosen. Wherever it leads. I have to find my sister and, if I can, destroy the heart of the Network once and for all. And to do that, I have to risk everything, and that includes Neva as well as myself.