“All I really need from you is twenty-four hours of silence.”
He shot him in the chest, the guy managing an unconvincing, “No, please,” before it hit him and his legs crumpled and he fell backwards into a chair. He moved convulsively for a few seconds, and then grew still, his eyes fixed on the TV as if he’d been paused in the moment of seeing something baffling.
Dan picked up the lanyard, looking at the card, which was blank except for its magnetic strip—deniability. He reached inside the guy’s jacket, then the pockets of his jeans where he found his phone and his wallet. His name was Adam and he was twenty-seven. He looked north of thirty, but that might just have been the cold.
Dan looked through his messages, then through his sent messages, finding one to someone called Josh which said, “Feeling really unwell, not sure if I’ll make it in today.”
It had been sent early that morning. And it really was too bad, thought Dan, because making it in had cost him his life.
Chapter Thirty-seven
Dan went back and had dinner at the hotel, then slept for a while and went out again later when the street was quiet. He could see the lights were out in the office building so he punched in the code and stepped inside.
There were no cameras in the lobby. There was an elevator, but he wouldn’t want to use that the next day. Around the corner behind it he found the stairs and walked up to the top floor.
Stairs and elevator opened into another small lobby with only one solid-looking door. It was a combined swipe and keypad. He doubted they used the same code for both doors, and didn’t want to risk trying it in case the system recorded failed entry attempts.
Instead he went back across the road and returned with his bag. He installed a small camera cut into the side of one of the polystyrene ceiling panels and checked it on the monitor, recording himself as if he were keying in.
Happy, he took the bag back across the road and then went to his hotel. He set his alarm for seven, though he didn’t sleep much and was up beforehand. He grabbed some breakfast and made his way along the street.
At eight, he sent a message to Josh on Adam’s phone, saying, “Worse this morning. Staying in bed for the day.”
Minutes later he got a message from Josh, saying, “Take it easy, buddy.”
Dan watched the rest of them arrive, just as he had the day before. The only difference this time was that the two guys in the car arrived before nine. It suggested he’d been right, that they’d been sent to beef up security.
As each one went in he looked again through the binoculars, making sure the code didn’t change from day to day. He checked, too, that the camera was working, and just from a cursory glance he already had a rough idea of the key code for the inner door. Once he was satisfied all of them were in, he went back over the tapes, firstly confirming the code, then looking at the other one to see what he could see of the office.
There seemed to be a small reception area just inside the door, easy chairs, so most of the desks had to be to the right and around the corner from it. That would help him with cover if he needed it. The key, though, would be getting the two guys from the Vergoncey first. He had no doubt the others would all be able to defend themselves, but not at the same pitch.
At twelve he started to get himself ready, and at half past the hour he sat in front of the monitor looking at the view through the camera that looked directly at the door of the office.
It was fifteen minutes before the door opened and the same two people, the woman and the guy, came out to go and get the lunch order—maybe they were the most junior, or more likely, they just enjoyed the opportunity of getting out for half an hour. Either way, it would earn them a stay of execution.
As they came out, but before the door had closed, something was said behind them, and the woman laughed as if at some corny joke and turned to say something back. There was the two-man security detail, lounging on the easy chairs right inside the door.
Dan moved to the window and watched as the man and woman came out of the building and walked along the street. He wondered if they were a couple. He doubted it, somehow. When the other guys had been showing her attention the previous evening, her companion hadn’t seemed unhappy or possessive.
He waited fifteen minutes, not wanting to wait longer in case they were served quicker today or went somewhere closer. Then he crossed the street, keyed in and climbed the stairs, seeing no one, almost certainly being seen by no one.
He keyed in the other number for the top door, swiped Adam’s card and pushed the door open. He hit the older guy first, a shot straight to the head even as he was smiling and no doubt ready to make some comment to the woman about lunch.