A Hostile State by Adrian Magson (reading eggs books txt) 📗

them, though. We wouldn’t have had a clue otherwise.’ Andrews was referring tactfully to the video footage at the Pines View golf club, but which had not been followed up until now. He hadn’t raised the issue before in case they felt insulted and told him to get lost.

Warner wasn’t fooled. ‘If what you’re saying in that roundabout superior spook-trained manner,’ he growled, ‘is that we missed an opportunity earlier to find out who Dalkin was, then yes, I guess we did. Our bad. I’ll make sure the agents responsible are tarred and feathered and flayed at dawn. That do you?’

Andrews swallowed and nodded. ‘No offence.’

Warner indicated a walkway between buildings and they all turned in. ‘I hear you’re some kind of Russian expert, is that right?’

‘I guess. Why?’

‘We could use some of that knowledge, you ever feel like a change of office scenery. The coffee’s shit but it’s served by a machine that knows its place.’

‘I’m not sure, but thanks for the offer.’ Andrews felt a warm glow at the idea that he’d been acknowledged as having something special to offer. That didn’t happen every day. ‘Can I quote that offer on my résumé?’

‘No, you fucking cannot,’ Warner muttered mildly. They turned back into the street running past Dalkin’s apartment building and approached the front door. ‘You ready, tovarich?’

‘I’m ready.’

‘Let’s go.’

THIRTY-ONE

I caught up with Lindsay in the town centre. She was standing outside a crêperie and looked nervous, which was no surprise. Going by the calm street scene the news of the action in the park hadn’t caught on up here yet and people were going about their business seemingly unaware that there had been gunfire in their quiet little town.

She said, ‘I wondered if you were going to come.’ She held my phone up. ‘Callahan rang off. I told him you’d call later when we got clear.’

‘Walk casually and smile a lot,’ I told her, and took the phone. I put her arm through mine, heading for the street where I’d left the car. ‘We’re just two normal people doing everyday normal things, taking in the sights and about to leave this place as quickly and as calmly as we can. If you feel like laughing any time soon, do so; it’s a great way to dispel tension.’

‘I’ll try to remember that,’ she said, and broke out a rough facsimile of a laugh which sounded anything but real.

I said, ‘On second thoughts, best not do that again. People might think I’m taking you hostage.’

A thin wail of approaching police sirens drifted up the hill, and I guessed that they were a mile or so off, maybe less. Damn, that was a fast response time. We hadn’t got long before they’d have the town closed down tight.

‘Where are we going?’ Lindsay asked, keeping her head down. Her nearness felt pleasantly warm, as did the touch of her hand on my arm, something I didn’t usually experience on an assignment. I had to force myself to focus on the here and now and remember what we were doing.

‘We have to get out of here and do it nice and easy. There’s no police station in the town but it won’t take them long to have units placed on all roads in and out. The French cops are very quick to respond to reports of shootings.’

‘What happened back there?’ she queried. Her voice held a tremor which I put down to nerves, but it might have been the way I was hustling her along the narrow street. ‘I heard shots … are you all right?’

We passed a church with a priest standing outside, chatting to two elderly ladies. They all turned and smiled with a traditional greeting, and I waited until we were past before replying. ‘I’m fine. They were amateurs, probably local bully boys sent by their far-right bosses to deal with Chesnais because they thought she’d be easy meat. Don’t worry – I didn’t kill anybody.’

‘I’m glad to hear it.’ She stared at me as we got to the car and climbed in. ‘Is this what it’s always like for you in the field?’

I shook my head and drove out through the town on the opposite side to where the action had gone down. ‘Not at all,’ I told her. ‘Most of the time life is very quiet.’

‘Seriously?’ She almost managed a smile. ‘Not from what I’ve seen it isn’t. Remember me – your eye in the sky watching your back?’

I had to give her that one. She was right. There had been moments while watching my every move from on high as comms support, either via a drone camera or a satellite feed, that events must have seemed chaotic and ridiculous and anything but quiet.

‘It’s different on the ground. Circumstances change all the time. Sometimes it gets messy.’

Like right now, I thought, and decided not to mention the spotter who was probably calling in the hit team as we spoke. Hopefully we’d get away before they arrived and slip by under cover of the cops who would be arriving any minute.

‘Tell me about it,’ she murmured eventually, sounding breathless. ‘That just now was … it was scary.’ She hesitated, then added, ‘Sorry. This place is so peaceful and … serene. I guess I wasn’t expecting it.’

I was glad to hear her say so. Being scared was good; it would ensure she didn’t take lightly anything that happened later. Next time, if there was a next time, she’d know that this stuff could get serious in the blink of an eye, wherever she happened to be. I handed her back my cellphone. ‘Can you send a report to Callahan for me? Don’t give him our location just yet.’

A flicker of blue lights showed behind us but they were moving crossways to our line of travel towards the park. I tucked in between a large truck-and-trailer combination and a coach and drove nice and steady, ready to split if we had to but hoping that wasn’t necessary. We wouldn’t