Deadly States (Seaforth Files by Nicholas P Clark Book 2) (49 page)
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Authors: Nicholas P Clark
ment and stress of the day his poor stomach had been badly neglected.
A contented rumbled quietly
extended thanks.
As Jack casually sipped
on the wine he hoped that no one in the room would note the condition
of his clothing. He also hoped that someone from previous
missions wouldn’t spot
him. Robert
could be handled.
Alexa was
different. What they once had was passionate and deep, but time had a way
of weakening
even the strongest
of
emotional
bonds. If
her
mission
was a
matter
of life and death, with millions
of innocent
people depending
on her for their survival, then sentiment would crumble and
she would turn Jack over without a second thought.
Alexa was talking to three men in one corner
of the room, next to
the far side exit.
As two of the men moved away Jack made his move.
Alexa was deep in conversation. She was smiling and laughing. It was
a convincing laugh but Jack knew the difference between her fake and
her real laughter; the latter was guttural and filthy. She caught sight of
Jack long before he closed in on her. The smile and the fake laughter
remained in place, but she shifted the conversation quickly, terminating it
before Jack arrived in front
of
her. Her
conversation
partner
nodded at Jack as he walked away from Alexa.
The warmth of her tone and breadth of her smile could not mask
the hurt that lay underneath. Even though Jack could see that hurt
quite clearly, he did not fear it. Had she wanted to betray him then he
never would have made it across the room.
There was a short pause as their eyes locked in an effort to divine
what was truly to be found in the depths of their hearts.
“Is there somewhere private where we can talk?” Jack asked.
“That would probably be a good idea,” Alexa returned.
Alexa, as was
her way, took the situation in
hand. She turned
quickly and headed
out through the
exit. Jack
quickly followed her.
Leaving the room did not go unnoticed.
The corridor
on the
other side
of the door was
quite short with
four
or five doors leading to various offices and a conference room. It
was to one of the larger
offices that
Alexa led Jack. During the short
journey to the office Jack was rehearsing what he was going to say to
Alexa, but nothing that he could come up with at that time, or during
the time from when he had first seen her in that place, sounded right.
As it happened,
Alexa was in no mood for listening to any explanation
Jack might have offered.
Alexa held the door to the office open for Jack
and
once he was inside she
quickly shut the door
behind him.
Alexa
caught Jack by the arm and she spun him around. Before Jack could
protest
Alexa
moved in close and she began to kiss him passionately.
All plans and speeches and excuses evaporated in an instant. They instantly picked up where they left
off. It was a moment that somehow
felt right and it was a moment that made all those years without her
seems all the more painful.
After several blissful moments they slowly
pushed off from one another.
“We never should have let them do it to us, Jack,” Alexa said. “I
know, angel, I know.”
Jack brushed her hair away from her face. It was just as he remembered—time had done nothing to diminish her beauty.
“So Jack, where are you at on this?”
Their business life soon pushed the wonder
one side.
“I was listening to the great leader’s speech.
say, it mainly sounded like the fantasies of a mad man.”
“Believe me Jack, he is many things, but a fantasist is not
one of
them. There is too much truth in what he had to say, and if anything
he was holding back some
of the more serious stuff his
organisation
has been up to.”
“I just find it so hard to believe that all of this could have gone on
under the nose of the world’s intelligence agencies.”
“That’s the genius
of his plan,”
Alexa
explained. “He has a significant number
of agents working for him all
over the world. In every
country.”
“But still, it would
only take
one
of them to talk and the whole
scheme would have been exposed. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to
me.”
“But
don’t you see Jack? That’s the beauty
of his plan. If one of his
agents did turn
on him and they went to their government with this
story, who would believe them? Some things are just too big and too
of their private life to
scary to find a footing in reality and he is depending on that disbelief.”
“OK, so what
do you suggest we do about it? I assume that you
have a plan in place?” Jack asked, wryly.
“I want to hear your plan first,” she replied.
Jack threw his head back and laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“I will tell you my plan and then you will gently point
out how it
is nonsense before telling me your plan, which is the one we will end
up using,” Jack said.
“That never happened!” she protested.
Jack smiled.
“OK then,”
he said.
“My
plan is to
blow this
place to kingdom
come and take out as many of these bastards as we can.”
“A good plan,” she said. “And as it happens, it is exactly the same
as my plan. Do you have the explosives planted yet?”
“Ah, now that’s the part
of
my
plan that
hasn’t been developed as
much as I would like.”
“Meaning?”
“I don’t actually have any explosives with me.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I told you we would end up doing things your way.”
“Only because you don’t have an actual plan, you fool.”
“Where are the explosives?”
“They are in two black holdalls in the office at the end of the corridor.”
“Bloody hell. Talk about overkill. How in the hell did you manage to
get them past the security.”
“Your old friend Robert helped me.”
Jack looked disappointed.
“Pity,” he said. “I was looking forward to killing him.”
“Don’t hold back on my account. The man is a complete arsehole. If
he gets a few extra dollars from someone else he will rat me out in the
blink of an eye.”
Jack smiled.
“Though Robert has a fair idea what is coming so the chances are
she said.
It was almost imperceptible and to the lay
person it would have
gone unnoticed, but Jack knew her too well to let the look that flashed
across her face pass by unchallenged.
“What is it?” Jack quizzed.
“You aren’t going to like this, but...” she began.
Jack tried not to look worried but as she was never given to overreaction what she was about to say could not be good. His gut tightened
as he stifled a sigh.
“I needed the help of one of your former associates from your time
in the IRA,” she said.
Before Jack
had time to spit
out
Barry’s name, the
door
opened
and the man himself, toting a gun,
entered the room. Robert
quickly
followed behind Barry.
“Looks like we are all here now,” Barry said, with a satisfied smirk.
“There have been a lot of men looking for you this evening, Jack,”
Robert said. “There is a bounty
on your head and it looks like I am
going to be the one to collect it.”
“We are going to collect it,” Barry hastened to add.
“Of course my Irish friend. We are going to collect.”
“Good lad Bob. You aren’t as bad as people say,” said Barry. “Really,”
snapped Alexa. “I’d say he was a hell of a lot worse.” “Ahh, don’t be
so hard on old Bob there,” said Barry. “He brought
you your bombs. I saw them. If he hadn’t been made a better offer
then he would have gone through with your agreement. That’s the
kind of man he is.”
“What? Honest up to a point?” snarled Alexa.
Barry threw his head back and laughed.
“Christ almighty Jack, you have got your hands full with this one,”
Barry said.
There was a pause.
“Bob,” Barry began, calmly. “The bounty
on their heads. Did it say
dead or alive?”
Robert grinned wickedly.
“That’s what the man said,” Robert confirmed.
“Then it would make a lot
of sense if they weren’t able to talk to
anyone about your agreement with Mrs Jack here,” Barry said. “You
know how touchy the man can be about those kind of things. Now, I
think that it would be best all round if Jack and Jill here never made it
back down the hill.”
“You are truly a man of vision, Barry,” Robert said.
Barry pointed the gun at Jack.
“Wait!” Robert yelled.
Barry lowered the weapon.
“For Christ’s sake Bob, don’t you know how dangerous it is to stop an
Irishman when he is in the middle of an execution? Especially when
he is executing a lowlife piece of British scum like Jack here.”
“You do not have a silencer on your gun,” Robert spluttered out.
Robert reached into a pocket
of his jacket and he produced a silencer. He tossed the piece of equipment to Barry.
“Cheers mate,” Barry said.
Barry began to screw the silencer onto the end of his gun.
“You know Jack, ever since the first moment that I laid eyes on you I
had a feeling deep down in my stomach that one day it would come to
this.
You
must
have thought that you were so very
clever to have
fooled so many good Irish heroes back in the old country?”
“Funny,” Jack said.
“I
seem to remember fooling you
back then
too. And it was easy.”
Barry smiled again.
“Full of shit right to the end Jack,” said Barry.
He raised the weapon and pointed it at Jack’s head. Robert smiled
through a grimace as he readied himself.
“Not as full of shit as you Barry. Now, I’m assuming the explosives
are in place?” Jack asked.
A look of confusion spread across Robert’s face. “You
would assume right,” Barry replied.
Barry re-aimed the gun in a flash and he quickly squeezed the trigger. The bullet
entered Robert’s forehead dead centre. The large man
hit the floor in a lifeless pile.