He Who Dares: Book Three (17 page)

“You’re not a clone either as the DNA would be a perfect match so who are you?”

“I guess it’s time to come clean.” Mike took a deep breath. “I’m not Max Tregallion; I’m Michael Gray, Max Tregallion’s great grandson.” If he thought to shock Albright, he was disappointed.

“We were wondering why your DNA wasn’t quite a match for Max Tregallion.” At that moment, she snapped her fingers in what seemed like an odd gesture until something shot down the wall and leapt onto Mike shoulder. “If you move, my little friend will bite you and you’ll be dead in three seconds. That goes for you as well, Mr. Silverman, if you reach for your weapon.” Much to his surprise, Mike just smiled and reached up to scratch the foot-long, six-legged green lizard along its flattened crest as it licked his earlobe.

“Oh, I don’t think this nice little fellow will bite me.” Victoria and Albright paled slightly as Mike continued stroking the lizard and it didn’t bite him.

“How’s that possible…”

“Well, you might say he’s my passport. If I were a spy trying to infiltrate this place, I’d be dead, right?”

Albright nodded, “Yes, that’s very true.”

“Besides that, his brothers and sisters are very good friends of mine. Is she yours?” He asked, looking at Victoria. Very few people left Avalon with their friend.

“Yes… but how do you know it’s a she… I’ve never.” She stopped. Whoever this man was, he was from Avalon that was sure.

“As I said, I’m not Max Tregallion, but Michael Tregallion, or Michael Gray, captain of the Royal Naval ship H.M.S.
Nemesis
. The reason for the subterfuge is simple. I was ordered to return to Earth as soon as possible and report to Fleet Admiral Rawlings. However, for reasons I can’t go into right now, it was impossible for me to simply bring my ship in and report as I normally would. I thought I’d slip into London and come here, change, and no one would be the wiser about my presence in London.”

“I see, go on.” She replied as Mike held his hand out, palm up. The lizard nuzzled him under the chin for a moment before scuttling down onto his hand and rolled over on her back. Mike gently caressed her tummy seeing her change color as he did. Avalon lizards loved humans stroking their bellies. Victoria eye her little friend in wonder. Whoever this person was, if he was any sort of a spy, the lizard would have bitten and killed him. The fact she was the only person her friend would allow to do that was all the confirmation she needed that he was who he said he was.

“If you are wondering how I know it’s a she,” he said as an aside, “it’s her color and smell. She has a slight jasmine-like smell, whereas boys have a slightly darker color and have a cinnamon odor.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard anyone mentioned that, and I guess you are right about her scent. I’m so used to it I hardly notice, but let's get back to you Captain Gray.” Mike had to smile. Once the in house spook team had heard his name and got into action, it hadn’t taken them long to figure out who he was, and relay it to Albright by implanted comm.

“What I hadn’t expected was the assassination attempt.”

“Yes, killing a member of the Tregallion family would have been a feather in someone’s cap.”

“True and you can bet that little shit, Prince Phillip, would reward the people in question.”

“Oh, you know of the young man?”

“Yes, met the little twerp twice a while ago, and he didn’t make a first or second good impression.”

“Should have killed the little bugger when you had the chance, Skipper.” Jenks murmured.

“Wish I had now, but at the time I didn’t know who he was, mores’ the pity.” Albright blinked and wondered what he’d missed. There was nothing in any report he had that Mike had ever met the Prince let alone had a chance to kill him.

“But I digress. The arrival of the
Orion Dawn
offered a means of getting to Earth in the minimum amount of time. The skin mask to make me look like Max was a spur of the moment thing.”

“Better you than me trying to explain that to Mr. Tregallion Senior, or my boss, Mr. Anderson.”

Mike waved it away as he handed the now sleeping lizard over to Victoria, “You are just doing your best in a difficult situation. My arrival in any form would be a headache. I’ll explain things to Uncle Andy, but I’m sure you will forward a copy of this conversation and video to him, so he can vent his spleen on me, instead of you.” Victoria and Albright smiled for the first time, and visibly relaxed. “As for great-granddad Max. I’ll find him a nice bottle of hundred-year-old brandy, and he’ll forgive all our sins.”

“So… what are you going to do now that the Sirriens and the British Government know you are here?” It was a good question, yet Mike held back the answer. It wasn’t out of not trusting them; they wouldn’t be in their current position as spooks if Uncle Andrew thought them untrustworthy. However, he was here on official business and trying to keep a low profile per the admiral’s unspoken orders and contact him. Now that his identity as Max was established, the question now was how? His secondary objective was to get to see the “Lady Anne” and the thought struck him that Victoria and Allen Albright might be able to help in accomplishing both objectives.

“I was just thinking, now that everyone knows that Mr. Max Tregallion, the founding father and ex-president of Avalon is visiting, might not the Free Traders Guild, as Avalon’s unofficial embassy, put on a formal reception?”

“Huh?” Victoria sat back in his chair and blinked. “Why on earth would we do something like that?”

“Well, the Guild likes to do
meet and greets
occasionally to drum up customers, don’t they?” Victoria looked at him a moment and Mike could see the wheels turning in her head.

“I’m not sure the ambassador would agree to something like that, especially with the situation as it is now.” She answered firmly. Mike clenched his jaw for a moment. It looked like it was going to come down to a pissing contest, and he hated doing that to her.

“I suppose we can go and talk to Ambassador MacTavish, if we have to.”

Victoria gave him a hard look, and Albright shifted from foot to foot. Mike kept his cool. “You do know about protocol
Case Amber
I take it. Not that I want to use it.” He added. For a moment, a look of fury crossed her beautiful face. It was a low blow.
Case Amber
was an order overriding all authority in the embassy when a senior member of the Tregallion clan visited. The only authority higher than that was
Case Red
and only used in a time of war.

“Yes, I’m familiar with that protocol, Mr. Gray.” The last thing she wanted was a lot of strange people walking about inside the Guild Hall. Their security was good, but you could never tell if someone hadn’t come up with something new and sneak it in. But, as Mike Gray had mentioned
Case Amber,
she knew he could invoke it if he wanted to. It was better for all concerned if she went along with his request.

“And who might we invite to this little soiree you want us to put on?” She asked suspiciously.

Mike crossed his legs, acting casual. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe some members of the trade Guilds, members of parliament, a few royals. You know the usual cross section of the London’s movers and shakers.” He could still see the wheels turning in Victoria’s head.

“Are there any particular individuals you’d like to invite?”

“Senior members of the Royal Navy of course, such as Admiral Rawlings. We do want to keep on their good side, don’t we?” There it was, he wanted to meet with Fleet Admiral Rawlings without anyone knowing about it, very smart.

“Mr. Anderson warned me about dealing with you Tregallion’s,” Victoria murmured, “now I see why.” She smiled to offset the sting of her remark.

“Now why would Uncle Andy say something like that?” Mike smiled.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because he’s naturally suspicious of everyone.”

“Well, not everyone. I’m as pure as the driven snow.” Jenks snorted, and Mike shot him a nasty look.

“On that question, we’ll have to wait and see,” she eyed the little man sitting next to Mike, wondering what his function, or position was, “how soon do you want this little party to happen?”

“As quickly as possible, but I’m betting it will take a few days to get the invites out and get a response.”

“It’s Sunday now, how about next Sunday. That will give us plenty of time to get the electronic invites out to all the people and get the RSVP’s back. You can then see who answered. If someone doesn’t respond, or responds negatively, we will have time to follow up. I doubt we will get the King to come what with what’s going on right now.”

“Hiding out in the palace?” That didn’t sound like the King he’d met.

“Oh no, far from it. He’s out and about all the time, even more so now. He visited the construction site of the new Thames barrier, several charity events, the horse races, of course, his official birthday parade, or he just goes on a drive around London and the countryside to reassure the people that he is alive and well.”

“Oh, why so?”

“For a while, there were rumors that he was dead or ill. All put out by the government disinformation service, of course.”

“How closely is this place monitored?” Mike asked, seeing the smile spread across Albright’s face.

“About as much as the palace I suspect. We do have all the usual protocols in place to prevent hackers from getting in not that any of our sensitive information is accessible from outside.”

“How closely is the palace monitored do you suspect?”

“I would have to say that anything going in and out of any of the royal palaces is vetted three ways from Sunday. I doubt you could get anything past the government or the Sirrien spy system at the moment.”

“You mean MI5 or MI6?”

“No, they’re gone as far as we can tell. Someone shut down their whole operation, as well as Naval Intelligence, Special Branch, Q Branch and a few other spook agencies, we know of.”

“Good god. So who’s in charge of intelligence now?”

“That is a question we have been asking ourselves. The word on the street is that they are all under new management now, but who exactly is in charge is a mystery.”

“As the so called protocol officer of this place have you ever met or communicated with a Dusty Miller at the Palace?”

Victoria shot him a sharp look, “How is it that you are on first name basis with him? I doubt that ten people know him by that name, or dare use it.”

“Let’s just say that I met him a couple of times and leave it at that.”

“Something tells me that there’s a lot more going on here, beside the little party you are putting on.”

“I have to get to Admiral Rawlings without anyone being the wiser.”

“And Mr. Miller?”

“If you can get to him, ask him to be sure that the ‘Lady Anne’ gets an invite to the party.” Victoria looked at Mike, and then Jenks, seeing the little man smile.

“As the chief cloak and dagger spook around this place, I should ask who the Lady Anne is, but I suspect I won’t get an answer, will I?”

“Let’s just say she’s a friend of mine and leave it at that.”

“Humm… not the answer I was expecting, but I suppose it will have to do. And I thought I was secretive.” He gave Mike a lopsided grin.

“Now, I need to get out of this costume and get this synthskin off my face for a while as Jenks and I have somewhere to go.”

“Let’s go upstairs and see what we can do about hiding you in plain sight. In the mean time, my staff will start getting the invitations out.”

“Be careful out there, Captain Gray.” Allen added. “There’s a war going on in London with more sides than a dodecahedron.”

“That bad, huh? We’ll take care and keep a low profile.”

“Too right we will. It’s about bloody time we got out of this Aladdin’s Cave.” Jenks muttered, looking around.

“I take it you will report all this to the ambassador.”

“Yes. He’s going to need a heads up about the party. He might have a few strong words to say on that subject, but seeing as you are who you are, I don’t think he’ll get too upset.”

Mike carefully removed the synthskin mask as he knew he’d need it again before changing into the clothes Allen had provided. Once dressed they headed downstairs, with Allen acting as escort.

“The hood on the cloak has a built-in rain and sunscreen. With it activated the ubiquitous CCTV security cams won’t be able to see your face properly.”

Mike nodded, “Good to know. After what happened on the robo-cab, the police will be taking a special interest in Mr. Max Tregallion.”

Allen smiled, “Other than the secret war, I don’t think the police have had this much excitement in ages.”

Now changed into ordinary-looking business clothes complete with a thermal overcoat with a hood and electronic sun/rain screen, Mike followed Jenks out the front door of the Guild Hall, and strolled casually down the street chatting, quickly merging with the pedestrian traffic dressed in a similar fashion. Thankfully, the weather was cold and blustery with a light rain so the sun/rain screen wasn’t out of place. That made it virtually impossible for anyone to recognize him. As for Jenks, it didn’t matter if the ever-present CCTV surveillance cameras saw him. Any check of his face against the official database would show him as nothing more than a local resident of London. Strolling along like two businessmen at the end of the workday, they threaded their way across the heart of London to the Crown and Anchor pub on the corner of Neal and Earlham Street. From what Jenks told him, the place matched his description to a tee. Even at this early hour the place was busy mostly with young business types with a sprinkling of office workers and local tradesmen. The inside was bright and spacious with lots of dark wood paneling and the ever-present TV smart screen on the walls showing football matches or some other sporting event. The first floor was the main bar with a restaurant upstairs that served lunch and dinners.