They’d stayed on the road less than an hour. Enough to get clear of the burning barn, enough to conclude they weren’t being followed by a chasing pack from Podence’s team. Not long enough for Ryker to figure out what the hell was happening. Which was why they’d opted to stop the car at a motorway service station – somewhere public but also private enough – where they remained in the car to go over everything again and again.
‘So, you were in this for money,’ Ryker said, sounding as bitter as he felt.
Angel shot him a glare. She’d asked to be called Angel, not Angela or Everett, though it was certainly not a moniker that he immediately felt suited her much.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I already explained why. Karaman—’
‘Ruined your life. Except he didn’t, did he? You messed up on that rooftop. You paid a price.’
‘No! That’s not how it was. Even Karaman agreed I’d been screwed over.’
‘You talked to him about it?’
‘I mean… Yeah. We talked.’
She looked away as though ashamed about that now. Like she’d had some sort of reverse Stockholm syndrome. Was that even a thing?
‘Exactly what did you two share with each other?’
‘You want it verbatim?’
Ryker didn’t answer, knowing that she was being sarcastic, but actually verbatim would have been ideal for him.
‘You have no idea what the last few years have been like for me. Did I mess up in Beirut? Maybe. I honestly did everything I could that day, and if it hadn’t been for that man attacking me… I would never have missed. Karaman would be dead. My life would be… normal. Instead, I spent years in prison, my husband left me, took my daughter from me.’
The way she choked up on those last words revealed that the destruction of the relationship with her daughter was the most painful part of the story.
‘OK. I get it,’ Ryker said, trying but failing to sound sympathetic in that moment. ‘But back to the kidnapping. How did you—’
‘I told you already. I was at rehab.’ She closed her eyes and growled, admonishing herself. ‘Not rehab, exactly. A wellness retreat. I—’
‘Alcohol?’
She sent him that glare again. ‘Alcohol, pills, whatever I could get my hands on to escape mentally. I’m a fucking mess, haven’t you figured that out yet?’
‘The fact you were drawn into a kidnapping plot kind of reveals that, yeah.’
She obviously didn’t detect the intended lightheartedness of his comment as her facial expression only further soured.
‘I’ve been trying to get myself straight.’ She shot him a look. ‘You know, so far I’ve heard absolutely nothing about you. About how you came to be at that barn. About how you were at Belmarsh. Why we’re here now. You’re not police. You’re obviously not part of any official investigation or operation, right?’
Ryker hesitated before answering. ‘Correct.’
‘So my guess is we’re not that dissimilar, really. Our backgrounds, at least. The things we’ve had to do in the past for our jobs. You don’t have to tell me who you work for, or worked for, but are you telling me you’re A-OK up here?’ She tapped her temple. ‘That your whole life has been all singing and dancing and martinis shaken not stirred and—’
‘No. I’m not. Not at all. But let’s get back to why we’re here.’
‘Because Mason Black came to me. He offered me the job. Told me I’d get paid a third share of a ten million haul if we broke Karaman out of prison and got him to Black’s contact.’
‘And this was when?’
‘Like… ten days ago.’
‘You didn’t know Black previously?’
‘Not at all.’
Ryker hadn’t come across the name before. He was the ‘other’ guy. The one who’d gotten away from Belmarsh with Angel and Karaman. But the timing also didn’t make sense to him. Black had gone to her before Karaman had even been back in England. Before Ryker had even taken him from that yacht in Dubai. So the initial intention hadn’t been to free Karaman from Belmarsh. But what? Maybe Ryker would never know now with Black dead. Most likely the plans were simply fluid and once Karaman came to Belmarsh his extraction from there quickly became the new aim for the hastily put together crew.
‘And you shot Black?’
‘Yeah. Because he lied to me. He would have killed me if he could have.’
‘OK. Let’s back up a bit. The other two men—’
‘Harvey Harman and Sean Doyle. As you said. I didn’t know that. I knew Harman only as H. I didn’t know Doyle at all. Never met him. When I saw him driving that van… That’s when I first suspected I’d been lied to because it wasn’t part of the plan.’
‘You killed Doyle too?’
She held his eye for a moment as though having a momentary doubt that answering would incriminate her. That this was all just a sting to get evidence for a murder charge.
‘Yes.’
‘So, you killed Doyle. Harman was dead in the van—’
‘And I took Mason and Karaman back to our planned safe house. The agreement was that we went there to wait for contact and then we would make the exchange.’
‘You never questioned who you were handing Karaman over to?’
‘Of course, I did. I was only told we weren’t letting Karaman go free. That wasn’t ideal as I want Karaman to suffer, but ultimately it was enough for me. As I told Karaman, killing him wouldn’t give me a life back. The money… might have.’
Ryker huffed. It didn’t sound like she believed that last part much now.
‘Mason played us all,’ she said. ‘You know what I think?’
‘No. That’s why we’re talking.’
‘I don’t think we were ever supposed to go back to that safe house. It was a decoy Mason had set up to throw me and H. The plan was always for us to be killed and for Mason and Doyle to escape with Karaman. Take him somewhere else. Probably straight to those people who attacked us earlier.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Just… how it played out with Mason. And I spoke to his guy about the exchange.’
‘Yeah?’
‘On the phone. Even as Mason lay there dying, he was actually trying to communicate with his guy behind my back. Probably explaining how the plan had gone to shit and deciding what they’d do about me. But I took the phone from Mason and I spoke to the guy. You know what I figured out in just a few seconds?’
‘Go on.’
‘Whoever it was, getting Karaman was all he cared about. Mason wasn’t one of them. He was only another pawn. But the guy on the phone played me a second time. Told me to sit tight and he’d let me know about another exchange site. Offered me two mill.’
‘A bit of a decrease.’
‘Because of the fallout from the snatch. Because of you, basically.’
Ryker shrugged. ‘Yeah. Really sorry. But you still took the bait. Killed Mason while you waited for their next move.’
‘I didn’t have much choice but to wait.’
‘Except all you did was give them time to get that crew together. Most likely they’d been in the area a while already. Even when you spoke on the phone they were probably only a few miles away, getting themselves set up.’
Which also explained why the police investigation was so narrow from the start. Podence didn’t need the police to help trace Karaman; he’d already known where Karaman was.
‘And that’s everything I know,’ Angel said. ‘So… What do we do from here?’
She sounded hesitant, as though unsure if Ryker would now dispense of her, or at least go back on his word and have her arrested.
‘I said to you before. I only have one aim here. Getting to Karaman.’
‘But… why?’
‘You said you were part of a team sent to assassinate him. You never asked the question why?’
‘I know about Karaman’s past,’ she said. ‘His terrorism links—’
‘Links? They’re not links. Karaman personally orchestrated attacks which led to hundreds of deaths.’
He didn’t like the way she stared at him.
‘What?’
‘That’s what I used to think too.’
‘Used to?’
‘Everyone’s heard that narrative. Number one most wanted, et cetera, et cetera. But… He told me it’s not true. That he was set up. He’s been an asset, an unwilling asset, for years, a noose around his neck because of the lies about him from his past.’
‘He told you that,’ Ryker said, trying not to sound so insincere. ‘A world-renowned terrorist told you that he wasn’t really a bad guy and you believed him?’
‘No,’ she snapped, clearly not liking his tone. ‘He didn’t say he wasn’t really a bad guy. He didn’t tell me he did those things for a good cause or something, as a rebel. What he said was that he hadn’t done those things at all. He’d been set up, years ago. It was all about leverage. A way to get him – a rich and influential man from the Middle East – to play along.’
Ryker really struggled to believe it. He’d seen the videos. The calls to arms from Karaman, instructing others to spill blood. But… Was it possible he’d been forced into that position?
Possible. Highly unlikely, but possible.
‘The Syndicate,’ Ryker said.
Angel raised an eyebrow in response. A thought struck Ryker.
‘Show me your wrists,’ he said.
‘Excuse me?’
‘Just roll up your sleeves and show me.’
She looked confused, reluctant, but did so.
‘Checking if I ever tried to slit my wrists?’ she asked.
Her wrists were clear.
‘Actually, no.’
She looked even more confused now. ‘Then what?’
‘Did you notice any tattoos on the other guys? Mason Black in particular?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I didn’t. And I would have seen.’
He thought he knew what she meant by that but didn’t bother to ask.
‘You mentioned the Syndicate?’ she said. ‘What is that?’
‘It’s what they call themselves. A network of powerful criminals. A collection of some of the richest people in the world, acting in cahoots, circumventing laws to maintain power, sometimes over entire countries, all for monetary gain. They’ve started wars, they’ve rigged elections through blackmail and extortion. I know they exist because I’ve already scratched the surface—’
‘You’re telling me you thought Karaman was one of them?’
‘Yes. But…’
‘But maybe he’s not as powerful as you thought he was. Maybe, if what he told me is true, he’s just involved through coercion?’
He really wasn’t sure if he’d go that far… yet.
‘Perhaps I’ve been looking in the wrong place,’ he said. ‘Or at least, putting too much on getting to Karaman, getting him to break. Perhaps the answers were closer to home the whole time.’
‘This Podence guy, you mean? You think he’s… What? In charge?’
‘In charge? Maybe not. But he’s at least one hundred percent on the inside. Controlling assets like Karaman from a privileged position within MI6. A secret society being controlled by someone within an officially sanctioned secret society.’
‘So we don’t need to find Karaman. We need to find Podence.’
He didn’t say anything to that suggestion, mainly because he was working over the use of the word we, but also because his phone had started to ring.
‘Give me a minute.’
He climbed out of the car, his skin prickling from the cold as he did so.
‘Congratulations,’ Winter said. ‘You’ve made the news for the two millionth time in your life.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You’re a wanted man, Ryker. For being part of a plot to help Ismail Karaman escape from prison.’
‘What the fuck? You told me—’
‘I know what I told you. But the position has changed and I’m—’
‘Frank Podence,’ Ryker said. ‘He’s got Karaman. He’s the one behind everything.’
Winter paused a moment, suggesting that was news to him.
‘Tell me what’s going on,’ Ryker said.
‘You’ll see for yourself on the news shortly. MI5 carried out a raid at a farm in Suffolk, trying to capture Karaman and the people who’d snatched him. Except the criminals had rigged boobytraps. Karaman is believed dead. Two people from the crew got away. Angela Everett. James Ryker.’
‘You know that’s not true.’
‘I didn’t say I thought it was true. I’m telling you what the press and the world will soon be told.’
‘Karaman isn’t dead!’
‘Are you sure about that? Because I have it that a body was found in the barn. Yet to be identified, but—’
‘A barn that’s still ablaze?’
‘Is it? Are you still there?’
‘Of course, I’m not still there. But the body is Mason Black. One of the kidnappers.’
‘And Angela Everett?’
Ryker didn’t answer.
‘Is she with you, Ryker?’
Was there any point in lying?
‘Yes.’
Winter tried to get his angry words out but initially struggled. ‘What… the hell are you doing!’
‘What I’ve always done. I’m trying to do the right thing. Podence is the one. He’s with—’
‘Don’t even think about mentioning the goddamn Syndicate right now! This has gone beyond a joke.’
‘I never said any of it was a joke.’
Silence. Except for the sound of Winter breathing as he likely thought of what further rebuke he could throw Ryker’s way.
‘You know I had nothing to do with breaking Karaman out of Belmarsh,’ Ryker said. ‘Podence is playing everyone for fools. Karaman, dead? Most likely he’s halfway back to the Middle East already where Podence can continue to use him as a puppet.’
Winter said nothing to that.
‘I’m not asking for anything from you,’ Ryker added. ‘If your hands are tied or you’ve just had enough of looking out for me, then fine. But I’m not done. Especially not now that my name is out there, being dragged through the mud. Again. I’m going after them both and I will make this right.’
The silence on the other end continued, and Ryker checked to make sure the call was still connected. Then he heard Winter sigh.
‘Good luck, Ryker,’ he said before the line went dead.