Ryker exited the building and pushed his phone to his ear. The call was answered on the third ring. Ryker found himself caught out; he’d fully expected it to go to voicemail again.
‘You’re finished already?’ Winter asked, sounding a little too happy. Ryker could well imagine the smug face on the guy as well.
‘What the hell, Winter? And how did you—’
‘Know that you’re finished? Look to your right.’
‘You piece of shit.’ Ryker stopped and stared along the street to where Winter stood fifty yards away by the trunk of a looming oak tree in a small park area overlooked by towering gray office blocks. He even had the audacity to give a cheery wave. ‘You’ve got some explaining to do.’
‘Let’s get out of the cold,’ Winter said before ending the call.
Ryker managed to mostly keep his dissatisfaction under wraps while they walked a short distance to a quiet coffee shop on a back street, away from the bustle of the river. Not the same place he’d been to earlier; he didn’t want the cute server there to see him so annoyed.
They sat in a corner, coffee each, Ryker with his back to the wall so he could look out across the small and nearly empty space, a glimpse of the street outside too. Not that he saw any threats here. Not yet.
‘So you were simply ignoring me,’ Ryker said. ‘You were outside the whole time.’
‘You didn’t need me in there.’
‘I wanted you in there. And you know exactly why.’
Winter said nothing.
‘You set me up.’
‘Not really. I just knew… I needed you to do that meeting alone. I needed you to see the roadblocks for yourself, not have me use my influence to try to get a different outcome.’
Ryker said nothing as he sipped his coffee.
‘Are you going to tell me what they said?’ Winter asked.
Ryker thought about the question before he answered, took in the man sitting across from him as his mind churned. As ever, Winter was well-presented in a nice shirt, pressed suit trousers, coifed hair. A true desk jockey, the same as those three in the meeting. What Ryker hadn’t really noticed about Winter before was the amount of gray hair he now had compared to when they’d met years ago, or the lines multiplying across his face. It’d been nearly ten years since Winter had taken over the role of commander at the JIA following Mackie’s death. Ten tumultuous years for them both.
Those ten years had taken a toll. Winter had nearly lost his life in a bomb blast in London a few years ago. Having overcome that, physically and mentally, the JIA had ultimately imploded when details of corruption within the clandestine unit were brought to the fore by Ryker. Winter had remained in the intelligence community after, and as Ryker initially sought a quieter life, their lives had drifted apart, more and more.
But never fully apart.
Most recently Winter had been operating for an offshoot of MI6 in the Middle East. A role which had brought the two of them back together, unexpectedly, when Ryker became embroiled in a geopolitical conspiracy – involving the now-dead Davis Bracey – which had ultimately led him to the fringes of something much larger. A conspiracy involving some of the most powerful – but not necessarily most prominent – people on the planet. A shadowy group who he’d heard referred to as the Syndicate.
Once more he and Winter were unofficial allies. Winter was still tied to the big machine. He always would be. Ryker was still tied to his past and to his inability to walk away from trouble when he saw it. His inability to stop looking for it, really.
Analyzing his ally’s appearance now, Ryker had no doubt the years hadn’t been kind to Winter. He wondered whether Winter thought the same about him?
‘Ryker?’
Back to reality. ‘What?’
‘What did they say to you?’
‘That they couldn’t give a crap about anything I’ve found, or the fact that I think it’s only the tip of something much bigger.’
‘They actually said that?’
‘Not in those words, but it’s clear there’s no appetite for investigation from any of those three. Whether that’s because they don’t believe the Syndicate really exists, or because they’re already under their influence, either directly or from somewhere higher up, I’m not sure.’
Winter didn’t say anything to that. Did he know more?
‘I can see it’s eating away at you,’ Winter said.
‘What is?’
‘Your never-ending quest to right the world’s wrongs.’
Ryker humphed. He didn’t like the way Winter said that, as though Ryker’s work over the years was just some stupid hobby.
‘You know, you could ride off into the sunset and forget all about Bracey, Lebedev, the Syndicate, which you don’t even know for sure exists.’
Ryker said nothing.
‘Tell me why you’re here,’ Winter said.
‘In London?’
‘Yes. And with me, in this café. What do you want from this?’
‘Whether the Syndicate exists or not, what we already know is there are people out there, powerful people, billionaires and politicians who follow their own set of rules. For their own gain. They break laws, they rig our politics for their own gain, they have people silenced, ruined, hurt and killed, they do all sorts of other terrible things. Because they can. Because it’s the only way for them to keep a stranglehold on the two things they love the most. Money and power.’
‘I don’t doubt those people exist. But—’
‘What’s my endgame?’
‘That wasn’t my question. But… What is your endgame?’
‘Expose them all, and anyone who’s been helping them. I don’t care if the Syndicate, as an actual entity, even exists. It’s the people who live like that I’m after. And I don’t care if it takes me the rest of my life. I’ll go from one to the next, doing whatever I can. This is what I’m good at, and it’s already been made clear to me that the authorities, SIS, only care when it suits. We can’t trust them to do the right thing here. But to me, it always suits. Scum is always scum.’
Winter didn’t say anything to that. Ryker wished he had. Some sort of reassurance or even just a nod to say he agreed that Ryker was good at what he did.
‘Have you met Fatma Yaman before?’ Ryker asked.
‘I know of her. We’ve never met.’
‘She sat through that whole meeting without saying a word.’
‘Out of her depth?’
‘Something else. The fact is, I know these people already understand more about Bracey, Lebedev, the Syndicate than the information I’ve given them.’
‘And you know that how?’ Winter asked, sounding suspicious like he had a bad feeling as to where Ryker was going next.
‘Do you remember Yousef Selim?’ Ryker asked.
He knew the answer of course, but Winter’s look of disquiet suggested hearing the name now was completely out of the blue. Which was a good thing, really.
‘Yes, I remember Selim. And I remember what he did to you.’
Winter’s gaze ever so quickly fell to the scar on Ryker’s neck. The skin there prickled.
‘And I remember that you already got your revenge on Selim, many years ago. He’s dead. You killed him.’
‘Yeah. But Selim was just one of many high-profile terror operators back then. High profile, and often very, very rich. Rich enough to start civil wars, to take down governments.’
‘Where are you going with this?’
‘The world’s moved on since the war on terror; to many people, it’s the distant past. And many of the most prominent adversaries of the West from back then are long dead. But not all of them. Some slipped through the net.’
‘I’m sure they did. But you can’t possibly be telling me that you think Selim was part of the Syndicate too?’
‘I have no evidence of that,’ Ryker said. ‘But… Tell me what you know about Ismail Karaman.’ Time to move this story on, because Bracey and Lebedev were already dead. But the crooks who sat alongside and above them weren’t. And Ismail Karaman was one of those crooks. A real nasty one at that. The fact Ryker knew the man – the name, at least – as being a one-time close associate of Yousef Selim only made his being here now all the more personal.
He held Winter’s eye as his old ally searched for a response. No doubt Winter knew Karaman’s name, but was he simply racking his brain as to how, or was he thinking of which parts of what he knew he’d be prepared to divulge? As much as Ryker liked and trusted Winter, there was no getting away from the fact that he was still a government man.
‘Why are you asking about him?’ Winter eventually said. A cop-out.
‘You know Selim and Karaman were—’
‘Selim is dead, Ryker,’ Winter said, sounding exasperated. ‘He’s been dead a long time.’
‘I know. We’ve been through that already. But I know for a fact that Selim was an ally of Karaman. So what do you know about him?’
Winter sighed. ‘I’ve not heard his name for years. But Karaman officially is, I believe, still on the UK’s most wanted list. The most wanted list of some other countries as well.’
‘Because?’
Winter looked around him as though suddenly nervous that someone might overhear the conversation. He needn’t be. There was now no one else inside the café except the young man behind the counter who was nodding his head to whatever music was coming out of his earbuds.
‘Karaman was a very successful businessman, originally from Türkiye but he lived in London for a long time,’ Winter said. ‘Despite residing here, he had friends in high places in a lot of countries that we, historically, haven’t gotten on with very well. Syria, Libya, Iran, Russia, to name a few. Those connections eventually saw him leave here for his native Türkiye where he only became richer and more powerful. Although he started out in property and made a fortune in the property boom across the Gulf, his notoriety came from arms dealing.’
‘Notoriety? He wasn’t just an arms dealer, he directly funded terror cells and rebel groups, alongside the likes of Selim, Bin Laden.’
‘Apparently,’ Winter said.
‘Apparently? OK, so you haven’t seen the videos of the captured US journalists who his group beheaded?’
‘His group. Not him personally, as far as we know.’
‘Although the assailants were always masked, so how do you know?’
‘We don’t know. For sure.’
‘Plus he was widely believed to be directly responsible for the attack on the UK embassy in Syria. Fifty-four people were killed in one night. He applauded the attack online afterward and blamed the British government for the deaths.’
Winter’s face hardened and his cheeks pulsed as he clenched his jaw. ‘I know that, Ryker. I had good friends in that building who died. And it wasn’t pretty. A mini army stormed the place. My colleagues were rounded up, brutalized, murdered.’
Winter spoke with true bitterness, hatred. Unusual for him.
‘Hence why Karaman found himself at the top of the UK’s most wanted list,’ Ryker said.
‘He did. But I also heard rumors that he’d been set up. That he had nothing to do with organizing either of the incidents you mentioned. He was just a mouthpiece congratulating the carnage.’
‘And encouraging more of it.’
‘Maybe. But still, you should know better than anyone not to believe everything you read in the press.’
‘And what do you believe?’ Ryker asked.
‘I’ll tell you what I know.’
‘OK?’
‘What I know – and don’t ask me for any further details on this – is that Karaman, for all his wealth and connections, was at one point in time targeted for… elimination. Not long after the embassy attack.’
‘SIS?’
‘I said don’t ask for details. But it didn’t go to plan. Karaman escaped, and he’s hardly been seen since.’
‘But he’s remained a wanted man,’ Ryker said.
‘He has.’
‘Except it doesn’t seem to me like SIS or anyone else has been actively searching for him this whole time, does it? So why not?’
Winter looked pensive for a few moments. ‘You’re going to tell me Karaman is part of this Syndicate you’ve been talking about?’ Winter asked.
‘I think he’s connected to it, yes.’
‘Based on what?’
‘Based on the fact Davis Bracey gave me his name as someone who was involved in business deals with Lebedev.’
‘You never told me that before.’
Ryker shrugged. Winter looked annoyed.
‘Anyone who’s connected to those two warrants further investigation in my eyes. And we already know for sure Karaman isn’t a good guy. I want to know where these connections lead.’
‘Did you tell—’
‘No. I didn’t tell your colleagues anything about Karaman.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I don’t trust them.’
‘And me? You don’t trust me?’
‘I just told you what I know, didn’t I?’
Winter snorted. ‘Where are you going with this?’
‘Not only do I believe Karaman knows a lot more about this Syndicate, but I’m confident SIS knows where he is. They’ve probably always known. Followed his every move, most likely. The question then is why they’ve done nothing about it.’
‘Where are you getting this?’
‘Remember I told you about Fatma Yaman? How she didn’t say a word?’
‘And?’
‘And I think I know why. She was scared. Of me.’
‘You can be quite intimidating.’
‘I’m flattered,’ Ryker said with a chuckle. ‘But ask me why she was scared?’
Winter sighed as though making a point that he didn’t like that Ryker was toying with him. ‘Why was she scared?’
‘Because a few nights ago I broke into her apartment.’
‘Shit, Ryker!’ Winter hissed, again looking around him.
‘I stole data from her home computer,’ Ryker continued. ‘I’ve not finished searching it yet, but I managed to use what I found to hack into her SIS accounts. I found an email trail that proves she knows exactly where Karaman is. Not only are SIS not investigating Karaman anymore, I think at least some people there are protecting him.’
Apparently, Winter had nothing to say to that revelation.
‘Maybe this is all unofficial,’ Ryker continued. ‘Just a few bad apples within SIS, or maybe it’s official policy. I don’t know. But Yaman knows her place was broken into. I made sure to leave some clues. I think she knows her computer was targeted too. I suspect she knows it was me. Does she know what I’ve found? Possibly not. But I think she fully expected me to hang her out to dry in that meeting.’
‘But you didn’t.’
‘Because I don’t know if Goldman and Podence are with her or not. They’re not included in any of the communications I’ve seen.’
‘You know there could be multiple explanations for what you found?’
‘Maybe, but the most obvious is also the most likely. Karaman was, maybe is, working with the Syndicate, whatever it really is. But it doesn’t even matter to me that much if that’s not the answer. Karaman is bad, and for whatever reason I’m certain that people within SIS are helping to protect him.’
Winter brought his hands to his face and rubbed at his eyes for a few moments as though in despair about something.
‘Ryker, just tell me what you’re planning. What are you asking for?’
Ryker smiled. ‘Karaman is still a wanted man. In the UK. The US. Israel. Egypt…’
‘I said, what are you asking for? From me?’
‘Give me a small team. Another two people are all I need. We’ll get to Karaman. We’ll extract him to a safe country.’
‘You want to kidnap him and… interrogate him?’
‘Yes.’
Winter’s face had gone pale.
‘And if we find nothing more on the Syndicate—’ which he really hoped wouldn’t be the case ‘—we hand him over to the authorities and let them deal with him. Let him pay for his past crimes. Finally.’
Winter said nothing. He finished his coffee. Looked off into the distance. Sighed about a hundred times.
‘At least you haven’t said no already,’ Ryker said.
Winter sighed once more. ‘If I pull any of my people in, I’m already much closer to this than I want to be. You don’t have any old friends who could help you?’
‘You’re the old friend. I’m sure I could get to Karaman on my own. I could put a bullet in his head but in this instance, it doesn’t give me the answers I’m looking for.’
Winter cringed. Perhaps at Ryker’s matter-of-fact way of saying he’d happily execute someone. Someone who deserved it, but still.
‘I need help getting him somewhere safe,’ Ryker added. ‘Transport. Access to facilities. A word in the right ear of the right people to keep the authorities off our backs. If you can give me two people to help on the ground too, even better.’
Winter scoffed. ‘Not sounding so simple right now, is it? You know I can’t do any of this officially.’
‘I wouldn’t want you to. It’d defeat the purpose as we don’t know who we can trust. And anyway, most of your career hasn’t been official. But this could be the difference. A way to break into the Syndicate. Right now, what else do we have to go on?’
‘Where is he?’
Ryker leaned forward. ‘Dubai.’
Winter snorted as though that made some sense to him.
‘Give me two days,’ he said before he stood up and headed for the exit.