“Ha!” Carl laughed. He looked from my serious face to Aubrey’s then laughed again, only it came out as more of a wheeze. “You’re not serious, are you? You’re going to walk into the Pyramid, past the mass of security protecting heads of state, not to mention the celebs there to boost their PR, and take down this woman?” He pointed at the screen. “Who from what I can tell here is Mother Teresa and Angelina Jolie rolled into one.”
“Yes,” Aubrey and I said in tandem.
“Well, good luck to you. I’ll send you a card in prison.”
“Can you bring up the plans of the Pyramid?” I asked.
“No,” Carl said folding his arms. “I’m not going to help you. Not again. You know I very nearly lost my job after helping you last time?”
“Come on, Carl,” I said. “It’s not like we’re asking you to hack into anything.”
He shook his head.
“Carl, can you do this tiny little thing. Just for me?” Aubrey said, hitting him with her pouting lips and tilted head. I knew I was powerless against that look. And it seemed that Carl was too.
“OK, I’ll pull up the plans, but that’s it. I’m not going to help you past the security or anything.”
“Oh, of course not. I mean that would be too hard for you anyway,” Aubrey said.
“It wouldn’t be that hard, not really,” Carl said, melting gently.
“Seriously, you can do that? Wow, you’re so impressive Carl. But let’s start with the plans.”
Carl’s eyes looked a little dazed as he pulled up details of the Pyramid, including all security exits and entrances. “You know this wasn’t the original plan?” he said. “They were going to build this huge tower, the biggest in Europe, but the government vetoed it.”
I remembered what Miller had said about his involvement in the planning of the building. How the Pyramid gave out the right message. “Yeah, I remember hearing something about that.”
“And of course, our Pyramid was really about sticking up two fingers to the French. Five times higher than their
Pyramide du Louvre
and all that.”
“This is all very fascinating,” Aubrey said. “But what can you tell us about the security?”
“Pretty high-spec stuff. You’ll need someone on the ground to override it. It can’t be done remotely. What? What!” Carl said, noticing us both staring at him. “Oh, no. No way. Look around you.” He indicated his office with a wave of his hand. He’d certainly made this place his home: it was packed with toys of comic book heroes and posters. “This is my lair.”
“Your lair?” I said, with a snort.
“Yes,” he snapped. “My lair. My base. My sanctuary. I don’t leave it.”
“Not even to go home?” Aubrey asked.
“Well, yes to go home.”
“And to go to the loo?” I added.
“Yes, OK. I do sometimes leave it. But this is where I’m strongest. Where I’m in control. That’s why it’s my lair.”
“Aren’t lairs normally secret? And have sharks and stuff?”
Carl pushed away from the desk and sent his chair wheeling over to the other side of the room. He plucked a toy shark off one of the shelves. “Shark!” he said, as if that were all the explanation that was needed.
“I would be so grateful,” Aubrey purred.
“Nope. Don’t try it,” he said waving the rubber shark around. It squeaked. “You said let you look at the plans and I let you look at the plans. So, if you would please leave?”
“Could you talk someone else through it?” I asked. “Without having to leave your lair?”
“What? I, yes, I suppose I could. If they know their way around a computer. But I’m not going to. I’m not going to get into any more trouble and nothing you can do will make me.”
Aubrey bent over and whispered into Carl’s ear. I saw it go pink and his mouth dropped open.
She straightened up and winked.
“Um, so, yes. If you take this and these earpieces with you, I can talk you through it from here.” He handed me a black, plastic device, which was about the size of a matchbox, and a bunch of wires.
“Thank you, Carl. You won’t regret this. I promise,” she said, managing to turn the word “promise” into the suggestion of a kiss.
I saw Carl’s Adam’s apple bounce up and down in his throat like a yo-yo. I looked from him to Aubrey and finally persuaded my legs to work.
As I got to the door, I turned around. “Carl, does ‘coltan’ mean anything to you?”
“Sure, it’s a mineral used to make tantalum capacitors. They’re in computers, mobile phones, you name it.”
“And where would you get it from?”
He chewed on his cheek. “Most of it is mined in the Congo as far as I know. The Chinese have set up a huge mining operation out there. Why?”
The Congo? And Frankie had said she had the coltan situation under control. I suddenly had a feeling that I knew what had caused the change in Prestige.
“Nothing.” I shut the door behind me. “OK,” I said, catching up with Aubrey. “What did you say to him?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Aubrey said, spinning around and then walking away.
“Yes,” I shouted after her. “Yes, I really would.”
She waved her hand at me over her shoulder and put an extra sway in her walk.
I wondered how she and I had ever been together. With powers of manipulation like this she could have had any guy she wanted. Just like Frankie.
I shook off the disturbing comparison as I caught up with her at the lift.
“OK, Carl done. Now what?” she said.
“Now,” I said, knowing that I was about to wipe the smile off her face. “We need a Fixer.”
“But with you and Morgan out of action, there’s no one left.”
“There’s another Fixer. A really powerful one too.”
“Oh, god, you’re not thinking who I think you’re thinking.”
“That depends. Are you thinking Benjo Greene?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The strip lights buzzed and flickered as we stepped out into the basement. I heard a soft sobbing from up ahead and looked at Aubrey.
“I really hope we don’t end up down here,” I said.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, looking around. “It has a certain charm.”
“Yes, can I help you?” I looked up to see a spotty-faced Regulator sitting behind a metal desk. He was huddled over a computer and judging by the frantic movements his hands made on the keyboard he was busy playing a computer game. Quite the difference to the stern-faced NSOs who used to be on guard down here.
“We need to speak to Benjo Greene,” Aubrey said.
“No can do. He’s designated off limits.”
“Yes, I know,” I said. “I was the one who designated him that.”
The boy sighed heavily and finally looked up from the screen. “Well, bully for you. And?”
“And… now I need to talk to him. Please.” I added as an afterthought.
The boy, whose name I could now see on his badge was “Matthew”, tutted and punched a few keys on his computer. “OK. Cell 7.”
“We might need to take him off site,” I said. “We need his assistance in another case.”
“Take him off site?” Matthew said. “You mean out of his cell?”
“Yes, that’s what off site means,” Aubrey said, leaning on his desk with both of her fists.
“I don’t know about that. I’ll have to check.” He reached for the phone on the desk. Aubrey placed a finger on top of the handset before he could pick it up.
“What does this mean?” she said, pointing at the stripes on her arm with her other hand.
“It means you’re Third class.”
“And what does that mean?” Aubrey said, pointing at his arm. He followed her finger and gazed at his jacket sleeve where there was a single, silver stripe. “It means you’re a Regulator working down here. And you know what that says to me? That says to me that you’ve made some pretty bad decisions in your time, Matthew. Don’t make this be another one.”
Matthew looked up at her, his face fixed in an expression of defiance. The battle of wills only lasted about ten seconds, before he looked away. Aubrey straightened up and smiled at me.
“OK. Cell 7. Here’s the key to let him out.” He handed over a white card with a black strip down the side. “But I want it stated that I was following orders of a higher ranked officer, OK?”
“We’ll be sure to include it in our report,” I said, knowing full well there would never be a report and we were most likely going to get Matthew demoted even more with this little trick.
“Well done. You made the right choice. Keep going and you’ll be back with the rest of the Regulators,” Aubrey said.
Matthew stood up as we walked away. “Could you put a word in with Sir Richard?”
Aubrey spun on her heels and continued to walk backwards. “I’m sure Sir Richard will be hearing all about you soon enough.”
Most of the cells were empty today. But Cell 5 was still occupied. Instead of holding Zac, it was now home to a girl with long, lank hair that fell in front of her eyes.
“I didn’t have a choice,” she muttered as we walked past. “I tried everything else. Everything.”
The sobbing grew louder as we approached room seven. I stopped and took a deep breath, expecting to be confronted by a crying Benjo and my guilt. But as I stepped forward I saw it wasn’t Benjo who was crying.
It was a young kid in room eight. He was curled up in a ball in the corner of his cell, while Benjo sat in the next room along, gazing at the shaking boy through the adjoining bars, smiling.
The boy looked up first and ran towards us.
“You have to get me out of here!” he cried, reaching his hand through the bars and trying to grab hold of Aubrey’s jacket. “I only tried to get a girl to like me. But he… He’s a monster. He keeps licking the bars and looking at me.”
There was a small snickering from Benjo, followed by coughing. He spat on the floor: dark brown spittle.
“Good to see you again, Scott. And you too, Aubrey. I love what you’ve done with your hair.”
Aubrey flinched and stroked her fringe back down over her forehead to hide the thin scar Benjo had given her. “I like what you’ve done with your face,” she said.
Benjo smiled – that terrible smile which haunted my dreams. “Are you here to kill me? That’s what you said, isn’t it Scott? That if you ever saw me again you’d kill me.” Benjo examined his cracked fingernails and started to dig out some dirt from beneath one. He looked as if he was sitting on a park bench, rather than in a prison cell.
“No. I need your help.”
Benjo looked up, an amused expression on his sagging face. “
You
need
my
help. Well, well. Isn’t that interesting?”
“I don’t have time for your little games, Benjo. So, what’s it going to take?” I said.
He stood up slowly, pushing himself up out of the bed. It looked as if the movement caused him pain. The sobbing boy scuttled away from the bars and back into his corner.
“That depends on what kind of help you are after,” he said, a dark grin playing around his twisted mouth.
“I need you to come with us and stop people from Shifting,” I said.
“And why can’t you do that?”
“I need backup,” I said, quickly, not liking the way Benjo’s black eyes twinkled.
“And who do you need backup against? No, let me guess,” he said, holding up a bony finger. “You met Frankie, didn’t you? And she got into your head, just like I said she would.” He tapped his temple.
When I didn’t answer, Benjo clapped his hands together.
“Forget this, Scott. We don’t need this… this freak,” Aubrey spat.
“Oh, but you do. Especially if I’m right. Tell me Scott, done any interesting Shifts lately?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I muttered.
“Come now, we’re all friends here. You can tell Uncle Benjo. She’s stopped you from Shifting, hasn’t she?”
“You’ve seen this before?” I asked, ignoring Aubrey’s pleading look.
“She tried it on me once. But she couldn’t get her claws into my flesh.”
“Surprising, considering how much there is of it,” Aubrey said.
“How did you stop her?” I said.
“Get me out of here and I will tell you,” Benjo replied.
“And can you make it go away?”
He sighed. “Get me out of here and I will tell you.”
“Yes, yes!” shouted the boy in the cell. “Get him out of here.”
“There are some conditions,” I said, staring at him. Wanting him to know that I was the one in charge.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less of you, Scott.”
“You’ll do absolutely everything I say, or I will kill you.”
He nodded.
“And you won’t try and run away, or I will kill you.”
“Crystal,” Benjo said.
“And you so much as breathe in Aubrey’s direction, I’ll let her kill you.”
Benjo placed two fingers to his blackened lips. “I won’t so much as breathe on her,” he whispered between them.
“And…” I looked at Aubrey. I wasn’t sure about this next bit. But she’d insisted. “You have to swallow this.”
Aubrey reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small, silver ball about the size of a cherry.
Benjo looked at it. “And what is that?”
“It’s a bomb.” She tossed it in her hand and caught it again. “We pulled it out of a Ganymede member’s head. And…” With her free hand she pulled out a phone. “I have the trigger.”
The bombs that had been placed in the men’s heads by Dr Lawrence could be activated by a mobile phone. It’s how Abbott had killed Sergeant Cain. A single press of his finger and Cain had dropped down dead. Aubrey had loaded the app on her phone in case any of the men from Ganymede gave us trouble. And now she wanted Benjo to swallow the bomb so she could kill him if we needed. I had no idea if it would still work.
Benjo looked from the ball in Aubrey’s hand and then to me. “And how do I know you won’t set it off as soon as I swallow it?”
I took the phone from Aubrey’s hand. “Because you have my word.”