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

get far if they latched onto us and the countryside here was too open to drop out of sight for long. A sign told me we were heading towards the towns of Gazeran and Rambouillet.

Rambouillet was the forest of the same name. Lots of trees and quiet country roads and a chance to get lost. All we needed was time.

Lindsay said, ‘I thought Callahan wanted you to keep him informed of your location.’

‘Yes, he did. I’ll explain why later. Before that can you check my maps app and the roads out of here. I’d like a quiet route to Paris if you can find one.’

‘Not the quickest?’

‘Too risky. They can close down freeways too easily and we’d be trapped. We need to drop off their radar until I can figure out what to do and where the next threat might come from.’

That threat wasn’t helped by the fact that if Callahan had been told to drop me, he was limited in what resources he could provide for us in an emergency. Forget armed support or an evac flight out of here; that would only work short-term until the other side caught up with my next location. Sending Lindsay would have been taking a heck of a risk; if the people above him calling the shots ever found out that she wasn’t merely on vacation but here with me and actively involved in an operation, he’d be out of a job.

The other point was, if she knew for certain the leak of locators was being used to track me across half the known universe, she would know that she was now in the same small frame and therefore as much of a target as me.

She tapped away and sent the text, then called up a maps screen on her own cellphone. ‘Take the next left. It’s a narrow road but connects up to others after a few miles. What did you mean, the next threat? Will those two men have colleagues?’

I took the left turn and found we were on a virtual single-track paved road through a spread of open fields, with a high centre-line and few passing places. Small farms and a few remote houses were strung out across the area in front of us, and directly ahead and over to the right was the dark stretch of the Rambouillet Forest. Until we reached the relative safety of the trees the lack of hedgerows and flat ground made us easy to spot from a long way off.

‘Forget those two,’ I said. ‘They’re not part of it.’ Unlike, I thought, the team tracking me across the globe and pinning me to the board like a specimen in a butterfly collection. ‘If Callahan hasn’t been able to isolate who’s been intercepting the references, I’m still vulnerable … and so are you as long as you’re with me.’

She thought that over for a while, then said, ‘It’s that easy to do?’

‘It’s the same as using map references – only more specific, right down to a few feet. Even getting lost in a crowd isn’t as simple any more. The only advantage of being in a city is you can use other people as cover. I don’t want to do that.’

‘Who would be doing that to you?’

‘Somebody with know-how and resources. And a contact on the inside.’

She didn’t speak for a couple of miles, and I guessed she was trying to equate the CIA she knew and worked in with this shocking new reality. I’d never been inside the Langley complex, but I’d been in similar buildings. They provided an aura of solidity, of security and indestructability. Throw in a network of electronic counter-attack measures and a small force of armed guards and you’d feel genuinely safe, regardless of what was going on elsewhere.

But we were on the outside with none of the above. It would have been scary to anyone.

‘It’s likely to be one person giving out the leads,’ I told her. I didn’t want to frighten her off completely or torpedo her trust in the organization she’d come to believe in. ‘That’s all it takes. But it won’t last long.’ I added that in the fervent hope that Callahan would get to plug the leak sooner rather than later.

She said, ‘I hope that doesn’t mean you’re thinking of dumping me at the airport.’ Her voice had lost the tremor and a quick glance across at her showed she was giving me the don’t even think about it evil eye.

‘I wouldn’t dream of it. Anyway, as you said, you’re the perfect cover.’

I don’t think she knew what to make of that, which was good, because she didn’t ask any more questions. And that gave me time to think about what to do next.

Unfortunately, that’s when I took my eye off the ball. I was so busy looking ahead and strategizing that I didn’t see the threat emerging behind us. The first thing I knew was when a volley of gunfire blew out the rear window and punched holes in the rear of the car.

THIRTY-TWO

Lindsay screamed in shock and I glanced across to make sure she hadn’t been hit. But she turned in her seat and looked backwards and muttered a very unladylike cuss which, in different circumstances, would have had me smiling.

‘I’m fine,’ she said, brushing a couple of bits of broken glass out of her hair. ‘I’m fine.’

The car behind us was a chunky black SUV with a cut-down roof. It looked like a Range Rover Evoque. It had emerged from out of nowhere and must have been lying in wait for us. It was a fancy set of wheels for this kind of work but carried enough weight and punch to make life difficult for us if they chose to ram us off the road and finish the job at their leisure. And they certainly had opportunity on their side; this road wasn’t the busiest I’d seen and the risk of them being interrupted if they did choose to launch