To Kill Or Be Killed (38 page)

“Thanks Jack.
I’ll be there in a couple of hours.

At his end of
the phone Jack had a rueful look on his face. McKie did have a
point, but all the same Fulton felt he was giving the man too much
power. McKie still hadn’t seen Else Patrick. Jack booked an
appointment with Else for McKie that afternoon.

Back in Dover
Mary got home to find the black holdall in the hall. Conor jumped
all over David, who hugged his son tightly until the boy struggled
free and ran up to his room to get a toy he’d been thinking about.
Mary pointed to the bag.

“You off
again?”

“Yes.”

“I heard on the
news there’s just one left you don’t have to go.”

“I do. The one
left is Stanton and he was here, in our house and he tried to kill
me.”

Mary’s hand
went to her mouth.

“Dear God
Davey, what the hell is going on.”

David took her
into the lounge and told her what had happened. He was worried
she’d say no and they’d row. Her face was pale and she hugged
herself, chilled by the thoughts.

“I’ve got to go
and make sure of him. The man’s evil.”

Mary
nodded.

“That you have,
but what about us here?”

“My father’s on
the way. Call Mina and ask her to come over for company before I
go. You’ll be alright.”

He hugged her
and she held him tight then held him at arms length. He wasn’t
wearing his suit. He had black jeans, a dark blue hooded fleece and
his comfortable black leather trainer style shoes on. She knew he
was dressed for comfort and that meant he had more in mind than
making an impression.

“You find this
man David and if you have to kill him, do it and don’t think for
one minute I’m not behind you, because I am. No-one is safe with a
man like that at large and free. If anyone can stop him it’s you,
but you had better be careful.” Mary wasn’t going to stop him, she
knew him too well and though she worried he might be in danger, she
had learned not to stifle the adventurer in him.

Whilst waiting
for Mina David checked his computer and messages. He read about
Mason’s death and he watched the footage of the aftermath on the
BBC website. He too wondered about the taxi driver. Would he reveal
a street name or place that could be tied to a target?

So it was just
one left, Trevor Stanton. David checked his pistol and packed the
rucksack with his equipment.

Before he
logged off and packed the laptop he acted on his curiosity about
what Stanton had been doing in the loft. DIC technical control ran
a remote check on his computer. They didn’t find the search for
National Express, but to everyone’s concern the fact that the DIC
staff name and location list had been downloaded came to light.

It was an
emotional goodbye on both sides for man and wife. David nearly
didn’t go, but the drive in him to find the man who had invaded his
home and his peace of mind was stronger. Mary’s ‘come home safe’
was greeted with a firm nod and a hug. He was on his way and he
didn’t look back to the door in case his determination failed him
at that point.

By the time
David got on the train at Dover Priory, bound for London, there was
an emergency high level meeting of DIC ‘top brass’ going on at
Euston Tower. DIC had been compromised. The information on the disk
made it possible for anyone with it to expose DIC and its work. For
the first time the department’s history a ‘stop at all costs’ and
‘shoot to kill’ order was given. Jack didn’t like it, but if DIC
was exposed they’d be less effective. There were a lot of dodgy
businessmen, corrupt politicians and immoral civil servants that
would be delighted to know who had thwarted their schemes and
underhanded dealings in the past and it would be the end of
DIC.

By the end of
the meeting Jack Fulton was extremely glad David McKie was back on
the duty list. If there was one man determined to get Stanton it
was him and at that moment Fulton felt no tinge of guilt at wanting
that particular assassin dead. As he closed the door on his office
Fulton’s thoughts turned to Sternway. Had the dirty tricks man
planned this? Was the ultimate goal of the whole affair to expose
and destroy DIC? Who was the assassin’s target?

On that thought
Fulton called the hospital. The taxi driver wasn’t conscious yet.
Where had he been taking Mason? Where was Stanton now?

Chapter
91

Canterbury

12 NOON

April 19th

The coach was
moist and humid on the inside. The stop in Canterbury had been a
short blast of fresh air on Stanton who was sat near the front. All
the way to Canterbury Stanton had mused on Mason’s death. They’d
penned him in alright. It was the thought of the bridge at Vauxhall
that made Stanton realise that the police must have known where he
was coming from. He knew for certain that the Priory Arms was being
watched. Someone had talked he was sure. He knew that he had a
problem. He couldn’t go to the meeting point because it was too
‘hot’. He couldn’t contact the ‘employer’ because he didn’t know
who it was. He assumed that they knew he was alive as no news of
his death had put out and he knew for certain that news of his boat
being found in Dover would tell them that he was close.

His question to
himself was ‘if he were them what would they think he would
do?’

It wasn’t easy.
He thought of places in London that would link to his background or
past, but there was no glaringly obvious place they could link to
him or assume he’d think of. They must know that he wouldn’t go to
the Priory Arms.

It then struck
him that the most natural thing for him to do was to find a hotel
and wait for contact a message of some kind. His best bet was to
find a hotel closest to the Priory Arms in distance and wait there.
Assuming that they’d think he would do that they would most
probably be there waiting for him. The question was would the
security services work that out too? It was a chance he’d have to
take if he was to get under the protective wing of his employer,
not to mention get the one million pound hit.

The Kent
countryside flashed by blurred into an impressionist canvas by rain
drops being dragged across the glass work. The coach sped into
London and Stanton knew that he was going to have to use the rail
network. He needed no disguises, his hooded coat and woolly hat
would serve, even if it matched McKie’s description, which was no
doubt circulating. A million people in London would be wearing wet
weather clothes with hoods up. It would be a bad day for CCTV
watchers. Stanton willed the rain to get heavier.

He decided to
get an hour’s sleep before he got into London. He was hungry and
thirsty, but his Legion training helped him ignore the needs. He
folded his arms and twisted in the seat to be able to sleep. He
thought about McKie. The man had killed Wheeler, there was no doubt
he could kill if pushed to it, but DIC, Stanton felt sure, weren’t
made up of disciplined, hardened and fear exempt agents, he was
sure. They were gifted amateurs, in a way, and yet the thoughts led
him to feel the side of his head and the bruise there. McKie was a
tough, strong, fast and quick thinking individual. Stanton resolved
not to be too scornful of DIC and its people. If McKie was anything
to go by they had both brains and brawn. He fell asleep thinking of
the four men he’d spent two weeks on a submarine with and all of
whom were dead, all accounted for by the work of DIC. There was no
doubt, he yawned, that it was some machine and it was looking for
him.

CHAPTER
92

LONDON

1 p.m.

April 19th

Jack Fulton
closed the door on his office and settled himself in his chair
across the desk from David McKie.

“What
happened?”

“I took Conor
to the harbour ate some MacDonald’s breakfast and walked him home.
He must have seen me there and followed me. He climbed in through
the Velux window on the roof and when I went up to work he was
there. I managed to disarm him. My neighbour had called the police,
Stanton knocked them out and I gave chase.”

“You left the
roof windows open?”

“Yes it gets
warm up there and you don’t expect anyone to do that.”

“We do now.
I’ll have to put out a window lock kit for every DIC operative.
Your computer wasn’t pass word locked then?”

“Well in the
roof space, in my house. It’s not what I expected, I can’t be the
only one.”

“No I agree and
we’ll put out a procedure now. He copied a file, the names and
addresses of all our UK operatives and the names of our leadership
team and our location.”

“I know, but he
went for that first by the looks of it, which means he knew about
us and knew where to find us. It was pure chance that he wound up
in Dover and saw me.”

“It does seem
like chance, but it seriously compromises the DIC and I’ve ordered
a shoot to kill and stop at all costs on Stanton. We must also
retrieve that disk.”

“Any tags on
where he is now?”

“He
disappeared. He may be holed up in Dover or he could have hitched a
lift and killed the driver. He didn’t steal a car, but he might
steal one tonight. The theft would get lost in the usual night time
thefts by joy riders. The main thing is that we know where he’s
headed, though if he’s smart he’ll know his contact point is
compromised, especially as Mason was so close to Vauxhall when he
died.”

“That just
leaves it to us to watch and wait.”

“If we can get
the address from the taxi driver we can be there waiting for him
anyway.”

“Did Mason have
a phone on him or anything? Anything we could use to find out his
contacts?”

“He had a
disposable phone, one number in it, but there’s no reply at the
other end. The dialled number turns out to be a cell phone
registered in a false name, as was the one Mason had. There’s no
way to put a trace on it. Records for Mason’s phone have him using
the directory service to get a taxi number and the satellite
location put him near the Priory Arms when he did that. So far
we’re drawing a blank.”

“I’ll go to my
office and check in with the duty teams. How’s Shadz?” David asked
realising that if Jack was stumped then he couldn’t add
anything.

“He’s going to
be fine, but a fair bit of reconstruction on his face. He took
quite a beating. He could have shot Mason there and then, but he
didn’t; didn’t have the killer instinct.”

“Stanton said
that about me.”

“He’s wrong. If
anyone has it’s you and that’s why you’re back here so soon.
However I’ve booked you in to see Else our counsellor.”

“Good. I’ll go
down and create a brain pool with other duty team members.”

When David had
left Jack pulled CCTV files out of the computer that he’d been
scanning. He carried on looking and captured faces digitally and
sent them. He had thirty faces in separate files and he called the
decryption team.

“Are you in
yet?”

“Ten minutes
Jack. Do keep it short, the spooks are getting jumpy.”

“Okay.”

Jack called
another extension in the building. He’d put together a scanning
team and he told them to get ready to match the files he was
sending them to faces in MI6 and other security services files.
Then he waited for decryption to call back.

David found the
duty room offices empty. He went to the canteen to find Terry,
Tony, Jaz and Ellie eating lunch.

“Hey McKie come
on over and join the club.” Tony was eating a French bread sandwich
and waved David over, dropping salad and mayonnaise on the carpet
as he did so.

David drew up a
chair and sat with the group.

“Hi Jaz. You
back from the hospital.”

“Yeah, Shadz is
okay. He looked terrible though. His nose was smashed, black eyes,
broken jaw, was wired. He wasn’t conscious as they’d drugged him to
stop the pain. Mason made a right mess of him. Still it could have
been worse, he could have killed him.”

“And you Jaz,
you alright?” David asked tenderly. The team had been through a lot
in the last few days.

“I’m fine. I
hear Beaumont’s okay.” She added thinking not just of her own
horror, but of David’s too.

David nodded
there was a small silence and then Tony spoke.

“Well that
small group of people who’ve killed in the line of duty is getting
bigger. That’s David, Ellie and me have had to kill.”

“You too
Ellie?” David asked.

“Yeah. We both
shot Cobb.” She said and put her hand on Tony’s shoulder and none
of them missed the warm contact between the two.

“Have you got
to see the counsellor Else?” David said ignoring the urge to make a
teenage comment about Ellie and Tony.

“I saw her
today, Tony did too. She’s nice, but don’t be fooled she really can
read people. It was nice to talk and I did get upset, but she said
it was healthy. At least I’ll sleep better.” Ellie said with a
small smile following.

David recalled
his dream.

Terry suddenly
spoke

“It was sad at
Wally’s funeral. I got a bit choked there and Jack, well Jack, his
eyes were streaming.” He shook his head. “I’ve spoken to Else too.
She says I’ll need a little grief therapy. Sadness touches people
in al sorts of ways she says.”

“I didn’t
expect this when I took the job on. Stanton was in my house, nearly
murdered me.” David said gauging their faces for shock.

“My God that’s
terrible. You poor man. Were your family there?” Ellie said
thinking of her own children at home being baby sat by her
mother.

The two weeks
of duty team rota was the only draw back to a job that was perfect
for a single mother. Ellie had got pregnant young and done her
degree through the Open University. She was only a year on the
police force as a forensic scientist before DIC head hunted
her.