Sharks - Matt Rogers (classic books for 11 year olds txt) 📗

my organisation? Is this a coup d’etat?’

Slater hesitated.

Puzzle pieces fitting together.

Vince paid Alexis’ attackers to kill Eric.

Did someone pay Vince?

Walcott said, ‘No, you’re not. You don’t need to answer.’

No one said a word.

Walcott said, ‘You’re fresh fish. So that begs the question — if not you, then who?’

‘What are you talking about?’ Slater said.

‘Someone’s paying off my employees to assassinate each other.’

‘How is that our business?’

‘How does a little detective work sound? I guarantee you I pay better than whoever’s paying you.’

King said, ‘No, thanks.’

He whipped the Glock up and fired.

47

Walcott didn’t flinch.

The bullet went past his ear, like a bomb going off in the complex.

Slater flinched.

Didn’t move.

King lowered the gun and waited.

No shot came.

King looked over his shoulder, out the window, and shook his head at the sniper he couldn’t see.

All clear here, he was silently saying. You missed your chance. Don’t try anything now the danger is gone. You’ll only look stupid.

He turned back.

Walcott’s smile was gone.

King said, ‘Whoever you think we are, we’re better. We’re faster. Your precious SAS guy is a rote amateur in comparison. He should have blown my brains out when I did that, but he didn’t. He hesitates a whole lot more than we do. You want to test it?’

Slater said, ‘Go on.’

Walcott was a statue.

Slater said, ‘Give the command. Drop your chin again. Get your man to put a bullet in my friend’s head. I’m just as fast. You’ll be snapped out of existence.’

Walcott thought about it.

Slater said, ‘Do it.’

Nothing.

Slater said, ‘No one’s prepared to die here, and if we all shoot each other only one of us is getting out alive, and it won’t be you. That’s a damn guarantee. So let’s talk without the dick-swinging contest. Understand?’

Walcott nodded.

He hadn’t taken a back step, hadn’t surrendered anything verbally, but he might as well have. This was a silent, subtle game that both King and Slater knew exactly how to play to perfection.

Walcott said, ‘What do you want?’

‘To sniff around,’ Slater said. ‘Find out more about you.’

‘I’m right here.’

King said, ‘Forgive us if we don’t take your word as gospel.’

‘Why don’t we exchange information right here?’ Walcott said. ‘You tell me more about you, I do the same.’

‘No deal.’

‘So you’ll keep sniffing.’

‘Sure will.’

‘And what if you don’t like what you find?’

‘Then we’ll do something about it.’

‘That’s a threat.’

‘Is it a threat if you’re only telling the truth?’

‘Yes,’ Walcott said. ‘It is.’

‘Then we have ourselves a stalemate.’

‘Not exactly,’ Walcott said. ‘I know you went to the Barrow house. You put on a nice performance out front with my man there. You sure shook him up. He told me everything you wanted him to. But the reason he works for me and not the other way round is that I can see through the bullshit. I’m very good at it.’

‘Are you?’

‘I am. It helps me see things objectively.’

‘And what do you see objectively?’

‘I see an old couple down on their luck, who think they’re getting exploited by a mobster like me. I see a pair of highly-trained ex-military thugs trying to clear a guilty conscience by helping the desperate. I’m telling you, it’s not going to get you far.’

‘We have no idea what the Barrows’ fortunes are like,’ King said. ‘We would have stripped them of their material fortune if they had one. They were the first on a long list of—’

‘Please stop,’ Walcott said. ‘You’re not fooling anyone.’

King stopped.

Walcott said, ‘You’re an impressive actor, I’ll give you that. But it’s still an act. You think I got anywhere in life by being oblivious?’

Slater said, ‘You don’t know a thing about us.’

‘Which brings me to the reason I’m here,’ Walcott said. ‘You two are in the exact same boat. You don’t have a fucking clue what you’re sniffing around. There’s so much you don’t know. I’m not going to spoil it — frankly you don’t deserve the enlightenment — but I’ll say this: stop. Listen to what I say next very carefully.’

They listened.

‘If you keep pursuing this you’re going to find out some things you don’t know,’ Walcott said. ‘It’s going to make you question why you started in the first place. Save yourself the turmoil and quit while you’re ahead.’

King didn’t retort.

Slater didn’t retort.

Walcott said, ‘You two are like me, as much as you don’t want to admit it. You’re fully alive. You’re smart, you’re strong, you’ve got cute girlfriends. Take those girlfriends and leave your bungalow and get the next flight out of here. You’re not safe there. Or, if you want, see this through to its conclusion and see where it gets you.’

Silence.

Walcott said, ‘There are stones on this island that should stay unturned. It’s in your best interests. Trust me. Now I’m going to leave, and you two aren’t going to move for five full minutes or one of you will die.’

Slater made to respond.

Walcott held up a hand. ‘Yes, yes, I know. If one of you dies, the survivor will come after me, et cetera. I’m sure they will. I probably won’t make it out of this building alive. But I get the sense you two have been doing this a long time, so you’ll have my body to add to your list, but you’ll be missing your better half. Something tells me you two are quite close. You wouldn’t want that.’

He turned and walked out.

They didn’t stop him.

They waited five full minutes, then stepped away from the window simultaneously, preventing the sniper from putting one through their heads out of spite. They’d shown him up earlier, and even though Walcott hadn’t instructed him to fire, he might anyway.

In separate corners of the empty office they looked at each other.

Slater saw unease on King’s face.

Like looking in a mirror.

He felt every bit of it.

They waited a long minute, then left the building, keeping to the walls, away from the windows.

Unable to shake the deeply unsettling feeling that they didn’t belong.

48

‘He’s your typical confidence man,’ King said on the drive back.

Slater gripped the wheel, grit his teeth. ‘I