David chuckled, lowering his hands. ‘Steve, what we have here is a way to get close to Delaney – without actually getting involved.’
Philippa nodded. ‘As well as having military training, this guy also has a geology background so once he realises what white gold powder is capable of, I reckon he’ll help us do whatever it takes to stop Delaney.’
David stood up and motioned to the four analysts sitting round the table. ‘We’ll continue this meeting tomorrow morning. Have your reports updated to include the latest facts, run the scenarios again and give me a one-page summary before you leave tonight.’
He turned to Philippa as he opened the door. ‘Find out what Dan Taylor has been up to since leaving the army three years ago. I want everything.’
Philippa knocked on David’s office door and walked in. David sat at his desk, his phone to his ear. He motioned to Philippa to sit in the chair opposite him. As she waited for David to finish his call, Philippa cast her eyes around the room. Framed commendations jostled for position with photographs on one wall – pictures of David during his varied military career – in the jungle, in the desert, Belize, Iraq, Cyprus and a few unidentified locations in between.
And then after. The bravery award, the recruitment out of the army and a side-step into the secret services and a reputation built quickly on fast results with minimum fuss.
Philippa wondered how many politicians’ careers would be left in shreds if David was ever cornered or compromised by his superiors. She glanced round as David slammed the phone down.
‘Problem?’
He shook his head. ‘No – he’s just further along than I gave him credit for. That reporter friend of his obviously does a good job.’
Philippa frowned, her natural competitiveness surfacing, briefly, before being locked away again. She changed the subject. ‘I’ve found out what your friend has been up to for the past three years.’ She tossed a thin manila file onto David’s desk.
He picked it up and tested its weight, before looking up at her. ‘I presume the answer is ‘not much’?’
Philippa rolled her eyes. ‘Talk about a lost cause.’ She pushed back the chair and stretched out her legs. ‘After being discharged from the army, it looks like he went back into mineral exploration. Just as a hired hand, mind – nothing permanent.’
She watched as David flicked through the file contents. She continued to recite the potted history from memory. ‘In between geology assignments, he seems to have floated around the globe. Worked in a bar in Marsaxlokk in Malta for four months, then as a cook for a Greek island tour company. Seems to have been fired from most jobs he’s had over the past couple of years. I’ve found evidence of his passport being used in Canada, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand – pretty much anywhere that has a mining industry…’
David shook his head in wonderment. ‘He seems to go off the rails after every geology job,’ he said as he flipped through the documents. ‘Some things don’t change – he’s still trying to get out from under his father’s shadow,’ he murmured.
Philippa frowned. ‘What’s all that about?’
David shrugged. ‘His father was a well-known minerals expert. Spent most of Dan’s childhood travelling the world for mining companies. He was responsible for some of the biggest mineral deposit finds in the nineteen seventies and made an absolute fortune. I remember Dan saying once he felt like he could never get out from under his father’s shadow. Shame really – reading this, they both seem to have the same sense of adventure.’
He threw the file down on his desk.
‘So, what’s the next step – follow them?’ asked Philippa.
David nodded. ‘You and I are going to Singapore – I want to monitor him more closely. Plus, I don’t want him pushing Delaney too hard. We need to find out if Delaney has in fact managed to create some sort of weapon from this stuff, before jumping in.’
Philippa watched David closely before speaking, then chose her words carefully. ‘We do need to take control of whatever he’s created too,’ she said. ‘There’s no point letting it be destroyed for the sake of it. The technology would be… useful.’
‘Our priority is to find it and prevent it being used against us,’ David corrected her. ‘If, and only if, those two factors have been taken care of to my satisfaction, will I start to worry about the technology behind it.’
Philippa shrugged as David stood up and wandered over to the wall of photographs. He pulled one of them off the wall, and stared at the four men grinning, standing next to their Warrior armoured vehicle in the middle of a barren desert landscape, the breeze ruffling their shirt sleeves. David had his arm round the shoulders of another man, the pair of them laughing at the photographer, pointing to something out of the camera’s view.
Philippa joined him and stared at the photograph. ‘Do you think he’ll do it?’
David sighed, then carefully set the frame back on its picture hook. ‘I think he will once he realises what the odds are against us. He’s incredibly loyal. He’s never let his mates down before, despite what he thinks.’
Philippa stepped away and gathered up her notebook from the desk. ‘I’d better go and make sure our flights get booked then.’
Chapter 25
Singapore
The check-in formalities complete, Dan and Sarah put their bags in the hotel room and decided the balcony was the best place to spend the humid evening, with an occasional raid to the room’s mini bar facilities.
They sat at a small table, Dan with his chair wedged in a corner between the balcony and the room, and gradually worked through Peter’s notes and the prints of the photos Sarah had taken in Delaney’s study.