“That’s where you are wrong. I gave you every chance. Instead, you ventured out on your own.” He hesitated. “I am aware of your questions at Oxford to the security personnel and your visit to the master at the Inns of Court. You should have listened to me at Queen’s College and did as told.”
“You should have been honest with me.”
He chuckled. “Unfortunately, that luxury is not available here.”
She did not agree. “What now?”
“Rogues, such as yourself, eventually reach the end of the road.”
“So I’m unemployed?”
“I wish it were that easy. Those national interests I mentioned, the ones we are protecting, require extraordinary measures to safeguard. Not ones I normally resort to within our borders, but here, I have no choice.”
She did not like the sound of that.
“The last thing we can allow is for an uncontrollable soul, like you, to speak of this.”
He reached for the door latch.
“You’re going to have me killed?” she asked.
He opened the door and slipped out, quickly slamming it behind him.
A panic gripped her.
Two men immediately climbed into the front.
She wiggled her body across the backseat and kicked one of the doors. Then she realized the better play was the window and slammed her foot into it. One of the men curled over the front seat and a gun barrel was pressed into her stomach.
Her eyes found his.
“Stay still,” he said, “or I’ll shoot you right here.”
MALONE WATCHED AS THOMAS MATHEWS EXITED THE CAR and two men immediately entered. He saw Richards’ head disappear then the soles of her shoes pound the rear window.
“She’s in trouble,” Ian said.
The street had again congealed with traffic.
The car wasn’t going anywhere fast.
“Let’s help her,” Ian said.
“You have an idea?”
“I think so. At least it’s always worked for me before.”
KATHLEEN HAD NEVER EXPERIENCED THIS LEVEL OF FEAR. She’d found herself in tight situations, her life endangered, but she’d always managed to dodge the worst consequences. Sure, there’d been repercussions with her bosses for the risks she took, but those came later, after the fact, when the danger had long passed.
This was different.
These men intended to kill her.
Inside a police car? She doubted it. But if she continued to resist, they just might shoot her here. So she gave the gun jammed into her gut the respect it deserved and stopped kicking.
“Sit up,” the man ordered.
He dropped back into the front passenger seat but kept a watchful eye and the gun aimed at her. The car eased from the curb and merged with the two-laned traffic, vehicles in both directions stopping and starting on the narrow lane.
Be patient, she told herself.
Stay calm.
Wait for an opportunity.
But when? Where? How?
The prospects did not seem promising.
Thirty-three
ANTRIM STEPPED FROM THE WAREHOUSE INTO THE LATE NIGHT and walked another fifty yards, where he could talk in private and watch the door, making sure Gary Malone stayed inside. He called the phone number from the book in the Temple Church. Three rings and the same gravelly voice from the Round answered.
“I’m ready to deal,” he told the man on the other end.
“And at so late an hour. Something must be even further wrong.”
He resented the condescending tone. “Actually, no. Things are going good for me. Not so good for you.”
“Care to enlighten me? Before I agree to pay five million pounds.”
“I have an ex-agent, Cotton Malone, who’s freelancing for me. He was one of the best we had, and he found what I’ve been searching for.”
“Ian Dunne?”
It shocked him that the voice knew. This was the first time the name had been mentioned.
“That’s right. Along with the flash drive. Since you know about Dunne, I assume you know about that, too.”
“A correct conclusion. We thought we might acquire both the boy and the drive before you, but that was not the case. Our men failed in that bookstore.”
“Now you know how I feel.”
The older man chuckled. “I suppose I deserve that. After all, we have made a point to remind you of your lack of success. But since the drive is now secure, it seems fortune has smiled on us both.”
Yes, it had.
“Now that you have decided to make a deal,” the older man said, “there are two other matters that must be addressed.”
He waited.
“The materials stored in the warehouse. We want them.”
“You know about those?”
“As I told you in the church, we have been watching closely. We even allowed you to violate Windsor Castle and Henry’s tomb.”
“Probably because you were curious what might be there, too.”
“We were only curious as to how far you might actually take all this.”
“All the way.” He wanted this man to believe that he was not afraid.
A chuckle came from the other end of the line. “All right, Mr. Antrim. We’ll work under the assumption that you would have taken this all the way.” The voice paused. “We have a precise inventory of what you have accumulated in the warehouse. So please make sure nothing disappears.”
“And the other matter?”
“The hard drives.”
Damn. These people knew all of his business.
“We know that you replaced the hard drives from the three computers Farrow Curry utilized, hoping to retrieve his encrypted data from them. We want those, too.”
“This is that important?”
“You seek a truth that has remained hidden a long time. We want to ensure that it stays buried. In fact, we plan to destroy everything you uncovered so that this worry will never arise again.”
He could not care less. He just wanted out. “I have one other matter, too,” he said.
“Five million pounds is not enough?”
“That buys you the end of the operation, with no residual effects, no loose ends from Washington. It goes away, never to be restarted. That’s what you wanted. I’ll make sure it happens, taking the blame and the heat for the failure.”
“Five million pounds buys a comfortable retirement.”
“That’s the way I look at it. Now, you want the physical evidence we accumulated and the hard drives. Okay. I get that. But there’s a matter regarding the flash drive. Cotton Malone needs to be eliminated.”