The Game (Tom Wood)

THIRTEEN





Vienna, Austria

Victor’s hotel had a fitness suite located on the ground floor. It was open twenty-four hours a day, which meant Victor could use it in the middle of the night when there were no other guests around. Beneath a high ceiling the room was fitted with rows of exercise bikes, cross trainers, treadmills, step machines and rowing machines that occupied about three-quarters of the space. The rest was filled with resistance machines. No free weights.

It was quiet. His footsteps echoed. There were speakers positioned throughout the room linked to a music system that could be operated by the guests, if they so chose. Victor left it alone. The only other sound was the thrum of air conditioning that kept the temperature low.

Including the main entrance, there were four ways in and out. The other three consisted of two short corridors leading to the male and female locker rooms and a door that would open into a room containing maintenance, cleaning and first aid equipment. He tried his hotel key card on the lock for the other door but was greeted with a red light.

The female locker room was small, with no more than twenty lockers lining two of the four walls. Benches stood before them. A small toilet and a smaller shower room led off from the main area. Victor found no one. All the lockers were unlocked and he checked inside each one to make sure they were empty of anything forgotten by a guest who might come to collect it at this time of night. Nothing.

He exited it, walking fast, shaking his head and looking embarrassed for the benefit of any security guard who happened to be watching the fitness suite via one of the two cameras. The men’s locker room had a similar layout and was similarly empty of people and belongings.

The suite’s only entrance was set in one corner and even with mirrors on most of the walls, it was impossible to watch from the majority of the cardiovascular and resistance equipment thanks to several pillars and the machines blocking line of sight. But the door pushed inwards. Victor took a two-euro coin – the only money on him – from a pocket of his shorts and balanced it on the top of the inside handle.

He began his workout by doing a circuit of the resistance machines. He kept the breaks between sets short and used light weights and high repetitions to maintain his strength without adding excess bulk to his lean muscle mass. It took him an hour to do the circuit and he paused to refuel on protein and carbohydrates from a supplement shake before beginning the second part of his workout with cardiovascular exercises.

He rowed for thirty minutes, creating intense fatigue in his upper body already weakened from the circuit training. His workout gear now soaked in sweat, he moved to a cycling machine. He kept his heart rate at ninety per cent of maximum for half an hour and moved to the treadmill as the first light of dawn began to brighten the city outside.

The cardio machines all faced windows that ran along one wall beneath rows of TV screens. Normally, Victor would not have remained exposed before an unarmoured window for any length of time, but to protect the privacy of the hotel’s guests, the fitness suite’s windows were one way. In addition, he used machines adjacent to or behind pillars to provide cover and limit line of sight for any marksman across the street.

Midway through his run on the treadmill he heard the echoing clink of metal striking a hard surface. The sound was quiet compared to the whine of the treadmill’s machinery and the thump of his feet on the belt, but Victor had chosen a machine close to the door to make sure he heard it.

He glanced over his shoulder to see a woman enter. She was in her mid twenties, dressed in workout gear, with blonde hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. She was slim and toned and he didn’t have to look at her longer than a half a second to know for certain there could be no hidden weapon on her person. Victor dismissed her as a threat and continued his run.

Her fragrance would have informed him of her approach even if the mirrors had not let him keep track of her movements. He was on the end of the row of treadmills. There were another five to his right. She chose the one next to him.

He glanced again in case he had missed something the first time, but there wasn’t room to hide a pencil in her clothes, let alone a gun. She was looking his way and saw his eyes flick in her direction.

‘Hey,’ she said.

He nodded to acknowledge the greeting, but didn’t say anything in return.

In his peripheral vision he saw the young woman tap the screen of her machine to set up her workout and began at a quick walk. She looked across at his readout.

‘Wow,’ she said, ‘that’s an impressive time.’

He nodded again, and smiled briefly – polite but distracted. ‘Thanks.’

‘Where are you from?’

‘Sorry,’ he said, speaking between inhales, ‘I’m in training for a race. I need to concentrate.’

‘Sure, no problem,’ she said. ‘Oh, by the way, did you drop this coin?’



Victor found Muir waiting outside his room. She didn’t see him straightaway, because she was looking left in the direction of the elevators as Victor rounded the corner from the stairwell. She didn’t hear him approach because his footsteps were quiet even without athletic shoes and carpet to further muffle the sound, only facing him as he entered her peripheral vision. Her shoulder blades came away from the wall next to his door, her legs straightened and she arched her back. She’d been waiting there a long time. She had a key card between her fingers.

‘I took a wild guess that you wouldn’t like it if you found me inside your hotel room,’ she said, waving the card for emphasis.

‘Not as much as you wouldn’t.’

She wore grey trousers and a blue blouse underneath a smart leather jacket that was tapered at the waist and flared out around her hips. It made her look less thin than she had the day before but could do nothing for the sunken cheekbones. Her boots had a two-inch heel. Her dark hair was loose and wavy. Behind her glasses her eyes looked tired, but she had applied extra makeup to try and hide the dark circles and bags.

‘My body clock is still all over the place,’ she explained, ‘and I figured you would be an early riser.’

He ignored her and moved to insert his own key card in the slot.

Muir took a rapid step back. ‘Why don’t I wait for you downstairs while you take a shower?’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘You really hum.’

He looked at her.

She said, ‘Shall we say I’ll see you in the lobby in about twenty minutes?’

‘We have nothing further to discuss. If you had managed to get clearance to answer my question you would have said so by now.’

‘You’re right. I don’t have clearance. I spent half the night trying to get it.’

Victor pushed open his door. ‘Have a good flight back to Washington, Miss Muir. I trust you understand it’s in your best interest to forget you ever met me.’

‘Wait,’ she said, and went to grab his arm.

Her fingers didn’t find their target. Instead they were twisted back on themselves, and her wrist joint hyper-extended. She gasped and sank downwards as he applied pressure. He released her before any serious damage was caused, but only just.

‘Go back to Washington, Miss Muir.’

‘Wait,’ she said again, grimacing as she rubbed her wrist. ‘I haven’t got clearance, but I’m going to answer your question anyway. I’m going to break the rules because I need your help and I don’t have time to waste waiting for a guy in an office to grant clearance on facts you’ve already worked out for yourself.’

‘That’s a sensible attitude to take.’

‘I thought you’d agree. I’ll tell you everything you want to know downstairs, okay?’ She sucked in air between her teeth and tried to rub the pain from her wrist.

‘Not in the lobby,’ Victor said. ‘But I’m going to get some dinner when I’ve cleaned up. You can join me if you wish.’

She glanced at her watch. ‘Don’t you mean breakfast?’

‘I’m unlikely to get the two confused.’

‘Sure, okay. Let’s go get some dinner. At six a.m.’