First Response (40 page)

‘No. He was an undercover cop penetrating the gang.’

‘As I said, I know that now. But by all means give him my apologies. It was a long time in the planning, but mistakes happen. And it was for the greater good, you have to admit that. El-Sayed deserves what’s coming to him. So let’s just say that all’s well that ends well, shall we? And look for me all you want, Mo. Where I’m hiding, you’ll never find me. And don’t even bother tracing this call. I’m using Skype through half a dozen proxy servers.’

The line went dead.

‘Did he get it?’ asked Daniel, as his brother closed the laptop and stood up. Daniel was sprawled on a sofa, watching a football match on a big-screen TV above the fireplace.

‘He got it,’ said Adam, dropping onto the sofa next to him.

‘And you don’t think we should leave the country?’

‘This is our home, did you forget? Where do you want to go? Pakistan? Fuck me, bruv, the food’s crap and it’s too bloody hot most of the year.’

Daniel laughed. ‘But Tower Hamlets? You really want to stay here?’

‘Bruv, there are more than one and a quarter million Pakistanis in the UK, twenty per cent of them live in London and Khan is one of the most common surnames. We can hide in plain sight. No one knows what I look like anyway, and you’re completely different now.’

‘I won’t miss that bloody beard, that’s for sure,’ said Daniel, rubbing his chin. ‘What now?’

‘We restart our lives. You start working in the movies again. I go back to being a doctor.’

‘And how do we explain what we’ve been doing for the last two years?’

‘Travelling the world, bruv. Finding ourselves.’ He grinned. ‘Probably best not to say that we took a sabbatical to get revenge on the bastard who killed our sister.’ The smile vanished as quickly as it had flashed across his face. ‘It took longer than I thought it would, but it was worth it. That bastard was responsible for the death of Sarah and everyone else who died on that day. I don’t know why the cops didn’t work it out for themselves. But they know now.’ He sighed. ‘We’ve got time, bruv. There’s no rush. Five million quid minus expenses will last us years.’

‘I hope Mo doesn’t drop the ball. El-Sayed needs to go down for what he did.’

‘It’ll happen, don’t worry,’ said Adam. ‘And once they start looking, the Yanks will want their pound of flesh. El-Sayed will spend the rest of his life locked inside a metal box. Don’t worry.’

‘We should have just killed him.’

‘No, this way is better. Plus we got his money. We can do a lot of good with that.’

‘Do you think Sarah knows what we did for her?’

Adam smiled. ‘If there’s a heaven, she knows.’

Sarah Khan looked at her watch. ‘You’ve plenty of time,’ said Adam. ‘Your interview isn’t until ten.’ They were standing on the main concourse at King’s Cross station, close to the entrance to the Underground.

‘Do you want us to come with you?’ asked Daniel.

She smiled. ‘I’m fine.’

‘It’s no big deal.’

She laughed. ‘My big brothers, always looking after me.’

‘Someone has to,’ said Adam.

‘Mum and Dad would have been so proud of you both,’ she said.

‘And they’d have been proud of you, too,’ said Adam. ‘Smart, pretty, a first in law from Oxford, going to work for the CPS.’

‘If you’re planning an arranged marriage for me, I’ll kill you, you know that.’

‘No guy is getting near you, not without getting past us,’ said Daniel.

Sarah giggled. ‘You guys are terrible,’ she said. ‘Anyway, it’s only a first interview.’

‘They’d be crazy not to hire you,’ said Daniel.

She looked at her watch again. ‘I should go.’

Both men hugged her tightly.

‘Be careful,’ said Daniel.

Sarah frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

Daniel forced a smile. ‘I don’t know. I just …’ He shrugged. ‘Go on, off you go. And don’t come back without a job offer.’

The two brothers stood and watched as Sarah walked to the escalators. She raised her right hand and waved without looking back as she disappeared from sight.

‘Don’t go,’ whispered Daniel.

Adam turned to him. ‘Why did you say that?’

‘I don’t know. I just had a bad feeling.’

‘She’s a big girl now. She can take care of herself.’

‘She’s our little sister. And since Mum and Dad died, she’s our responsibility.’

‘She got a first at Oxford,’ said Adam. ‘You got a two:two in special effects from Bolton.’

‘Fuck you, bruv.’

‘Fuck you too,’ said Adam, ruffling his hair.

‘We can’t all be doctors,’ said Daniel. ‘I’ve got to run. We’re on location.’

‘Yeah? What’s the movie?’

‘A low-budget sci-fi thing they’re filming up at Pinewood. I’ve got to make three heads explode on a budget of two grand.’

‘I bet Spielberg never had these problems.’

‘Everyone has to start somewhere.’

Adam put an arm around his younger brother’s shoulders. ‘I was joking, bruv. You’ll make it big one day. This family’s destined for greatness, I can feel it.’ He took a last look at the entrance to the Underground, then headed outside with his brother.

Sarah sat down in the last free seat in the carriage and took a deep breath. As the train pulled away from the platform she looked over at the young Asian man standing by the door with a backpack slung over one shoulder. He was staring at her with deep-set eyes. The train picked up speed. Now the man was staring at a woman with a young daughter. The child was three or four years old, holding a small Paddington Bear. She smiled at Sarah and Sarah smiled back.

The man straightened his back and raised his right hand. He was holding something in his hand, something metallic. He took a deep breath, threw back his head and screamed at the top of his voice, ‘
Allahu Akbar!
’

There was a blinding flash and then everything went dark.

In what could be his highest-profile mission ever, Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd is called in to prevent the assassination of a head of state on British soil.

As an MI5 agent, Spider is used to going undercover, but when he’s asked to assume the identity of the contract killer hired to take out President Vladimir Putin, he knows he’ll become a wanted man.

And things are about to get more complicated: Spider is told that his MI5 controller and close friend Charlotte Button has been running an off-the-books assassination operation, taking vengeance on the men who killed her husband. Spider owes his life to Button – but this discovery will stretch his loyalty to the limit …

‘Let Spider draw you into his web, you won’t regret it’

Sun

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www.hodder.co.uk

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