There was a pause but no facial reaction, and then she said, “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”
“Okay, how about this—last week, two employees of BGS put a noose around the neck of a fifteen-year-old boy and hanged him in the basement of his building in Lausanne. The police still think it’s a suicide. One of those same employees last night tried to shoot an overdose of heroin into a schoolgirl, but failed. The boy and the girl were best friends, and what they did wrong was accidentally hack into a BGS network and download information.”
Her expression became grave, and though no one else in the bar would have spotted it, he knew he’d shocked her.
“They were the sources you mentioned?”
“Yeah, and if it hadn’t been for something else, I might never have found out and the boy might still be alive.” She nodded, deep in thought, and he said, “That wasn’t what you were thinking of, was it, when you asked if I had anything else to tell you?”
As if telling him something that no longer mattered, she sounded distracted as she said, “I was going to ask if you knew anything about the deaths of the two men you’ve just mentioned, the second of whom was found floating in Lake Geneva late this morning. I presume they are the two men you’ve just mentioned?”
“Tell me about BGS, Louisa.”
“It’s about to be wound up.”
He felt a numb horror as the meaning of those words sunk in.
“You mean it’s yours? Gibson told me it was private.”
“Gibson.” She sighed wearily. “It is a private company—almost everyone who works for it believes that to be the case and it can’t be traced back to us. It’s Perry’s baby, and for a while it looked like a good way of keeping him occupied.”
Perry. The horror turned to anger. The one thing he’d been assured of six years ago was that, although they’d failed to take down Karasek, they’d harvested enough intelligence to end Perry’s career. Only now did he fully appreciate how untrue that had been. Maybe Perry’s desire for revenge had been personal, but it seemed he’d been directing it from within the safety of the government’s tent.
“Perry’s still in? Do you not remember the last conversation we ever had?”
“I do, and I believed it to be the case at the time, but Ed had powerful friends and favors to call in. It’s not what many of us would have wanted.”
“Most especially Harry Simons,” said Finn. “Harry is dead, isn’t he?”
“Of course he is! And look, Ed Perry’s position was seriously weakened after Sparrowhawk—even if we weren’t able to end his career, we were able to fence it in.”
“By giving him free rein over his own little fiefdom?”
“Not entirely. Gibson was ostensibly ex-GCHQ and had quit to join BGS. In fact, he’d transferred to us and was working for us from within.” Finn remembered something Gibson had said, how most of the notes on the memory stick had related to his attempts to make sense of things. Was that why he’d had a network in the first place? “Of course, that makes it all the more regrettable that you and he had a little run-in.”
“He killed a schoolboy.” Louisa nodded, accepting the point. “What about Taylor, was he one of yours?”
She shook her head. “Former SBS.”
“No he wasn’t!” She looked askance. “Louisa, I can handle myself, but if I’d run up against special forces last night, it’d be me floating in Lake Geneva.”
“Former SBS is what he claimed, and as far as BGS is concerned, that’s what he was. Ed might be having his doubts now, of course.” She smiled. “I believe in reality he spent two rather unremarkable years in an infantry regiment, nine months in prison, and four years as a freelance bodyguard in Iraq.”
As she was in an expansive mood, he said, “What’s BGS about, Louisa—what was its purpose, what are they doing coming after me?”
“Finn, do you believe for one moment that I’m about to discuss operational matters with you? As to the latter question, I’m not sure, frankly—we’ll look into it, we’ll get to the bottom of it, and you’ll never be any the wiser.” She looked at her watch. “I should go back in. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
That was typical Louisa, to ask a question like that when she hadn’t actually helped at all yet. But he also knew that the help could be forthcoming, down the line, if she thought it appropriate.
“You could tell me where Ed Perry is.”
“Indeed, I could, but I won’t. And what are your plans? Back to work on another book? I bought one, by the way—haven’t got around to reading it yet, but I will, perhaps this summer.”