Dance With the Enemy (23 page)

Logan and Grainger jumped into the Fiat and sped out of the hotel car park. They hadn’t spoken to each other since leaving their room, even though they’d moved in unison like two long-time partners, scanning and scoping out the area as they’d made their way to the car. There had been nothing out of the ordinary. No signs of anyone else after them.

Logan was again driving the car. There was only one place he knew to go to now. The JIA safe house. Although he was somewhat reticent to do that, knowing that if Mackie were there he would surely only be walking into a confrontation that he didn’t want to have, it had to be the safest option.

‘Who do you think they were?’ Granger asked after they’d been driving for more than ten minutes.

‘I don’t know. I was trying to find out.’

Grainger tutted. ‘There’s no need to be like that with me.’

She was right, but he didn’t feel like apologising. He could still feel the rage boiling up inside him. Yet another emotion that he was so inept at keeping under control.

‘Where are we going anyway?’

‘I’m going back to Paris.’

Grainger didn’t respond initially. ‘Why?’ she said eventually.

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Where else would we go? It’s the only place that I’m sure is safe.’

‘Do you think it would be better if I stayed around here? I’d be out of harm’s way with the police team. I could help with the work going on at Blakemore’s. There’s nothing in Paris for me.’

They reached a T-junction and Logan stopped the car and looked over at her. She seemed upset. Let down, even.

He was still seething inside. Not with Grainger, but with the situation. He wanted to know who those men were. He wanted to make whoever had sent them after him pay. But he also knew the special moment he’d been having with Grainger had been ruined. Which only made him all the more angry. It was pointless to take it out on her, though.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

‘For what?’

‘For our time together having been spoilt like that.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ she said, putting a hand on his thigh and giving it a squeeze.

Her touch made just a sliver of anger dissipate. He turned to the right when the road was clear, then glanced over at Grainger again. He didn’t like the prospect of leaving her behind, but at the moment they were stuck. Until there was another lead to follow, he simply had no idea what to do next. He guessed her being at Blakemore’s house had to be the best way to keep on top of the case. She’d surely be safe with the police and FBI team there. And he was content that he could handle himself if anyone were to follow him and confront him.

‘Are you sure you’d be okay if I left you?’

‘You really don’t think yet that I can take care of myself?’ she said, smiling at him.

It was true, she certainly had a few good moves.

‘Okay, where shall I drop you off?’ he said.

‘Just take me near to where we stopped in the night. I’ll walk from there.’

Logan didn’t say anything more. He pulled the car over to the side of the road and then waited for the right moment to turn around. It would only take thirty minutes to retrace their way back to Blakemore’s house.

After heading a few miles back the way they’d just come, Logan’s phone began to ring. He knew it would be Mackie. He and Winter had been calling on and off for hours. Logan had not been deliberately ignoring them. There’d just been no opportune time to answer.

‘Go on, take it,’ Grainger said.

He only hesitated for another second.

‘At least I now know you’re still alive, I suppose,’ Mackie said without any pleasantries.

‘Why, were you not expecting me to be?’

‘Well, funny you should ask that, but this time I wasn’t sure. You’re making a lot of enemies on your little mission.’

Logan gritted his teeth. Did Mackie know about the two men at the hotel? How could he?

‘Who were they?’ Logan snapped.

‘I can’t explain now,’ Mackie said, all but confirming Logan’s suspicion. ‘What happened?’

‘Two grunts paid a visit to our hotel room. They shouldn’t have bothered.’

‘Are they still alive?’

‘Does it matter?’

‘I’m trying to help you here, Logan.’

‘I’m struggling to see how. But to answer your question, yes, they’re alive.’

‘Good. I’ll get the local police down there straight away. See if we can get hold of the two attackers.’

‘Who were they?’ Logan asked again.

‘You need to come in,’ Mackie said, his disregard for the question only riling Logan further. ‘I can help you, Logan, but you have to come in first.’

‘I’m on my way.’

‘So is she still with you?’ Mackie said. Not shouting exactly, but the irritation and anger in his voice was evident.

‘Is who with me?’

‘You know who: the FBI agent you’ve been running around with. Is she still with you?’

There was no point in lying anymore. Logan wondered for a brief moment how Mackie had found out. But it wasn’t hard. Logan had told Mackie he was going to Blakemore’s and then a few hours later Grainger made the call to her colleagues about what went down there. Even though she hadn’t mentioned Logan at all, it wasn’t hard for Mackie to link the two. By now, he would know everything there was to know about Grainger.

‘Yeah, she is.’

‘Did you think I wasn’t going to find out about her? Do you
know what covert means? For fuck’s sake, Logan. Co. Vert. I got a call at five a.m. saying they’re sending a team of crime scene investigators to Blakemore’s place.
Three
more dead bodies. What, you’ve got shares in an undertaker’s now?’

This was just the ear-bashing Logan had been expecting. The only way to get through this was to ride over the top of it. Which, given Logan’s bad mood, was easier than it sounded.

‘You always assume the worst about me, don’t you?’ Logan said, barely trying to hide his own irritation. ‘Have you ever considered getting my side to the story before jumping to your baseless conclusions?’

‘It’s no assumption,’ Mackie said. ‘You’re always kind enough to leave a trail of destruction, so it’s pretty fucking obvious really. Why exactly
are
you with her anyway?’

‘Because it was the only way I was going to get away from the police. Who think I’m a murderer. It’s a far better option than getting myself nabbed. Besides, if you ask me, it’s not worked out too bad so far.’

‘Well no, not if your aim is to achieve a good body count. But it’s not. The aim is, and always has been, to rescue Modena.’

‘And find those responsible.’

‘You should just be glad that your little friend decided not to tell
her
superiors that she’s with you. That would
not
have gone down well. For either of you. Let me ask you this, Logan. If
she
was a
he
, would you still be running around as a twosome?’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Logan said, offended. Though he knew that the answer was a clear ‘no’. Not a chance. But that didn’t mean that it wasn’t beneficial to have teamed up with Grainger.

‘I’ll take that as a no,’ Mackie concluded. ‘And what it means is that I don’t want this investigation and our involvement in it compromised because you felt like having a little bit of action along the way. You’re not James Bond.’

‘Nothing’s compromised. We almost had them, Mackie. I’m not kidding, we really almost had them. Modena was right there. And Selim …’

Mackie must have heard the dismay in Logan’s voice.

‘Okay, okay,’ he said. ‘Look, the police have turned that place over and they might have some stuff that will help you. I want
you to come back to the safe house straight away so we can figure out where to go from here. Got it?’

‘Yeah. I’m on my way anyway.’

‘Good. And Agent Grainger?’

‘I’m dropping her off at Blakemore’s house,’ Logan said, glancing over at her.

‘I’m glad to hear it. And I’m glad you’re both safe. You’ve got two hours.’

Mackie ended the call with Logan and looked up at Winter, who was standing on the other side of the desk.

‘So he’s okay then,’ Winter said; a statement rather than a question. He’d been listening in to the call.

‘Seems to be. We can at least be sure he’s alive,’ Mackie said. And he was genuinely relieved about that. ‘I think it’s about time we had a little chat with our friend, don’t you?’

Winter smiled. ‘I’ll go and get him.’

Winter headed over to the door of Mackie’s office, then unlatched the bolt before opening it. After their last intrusion from Lindegaard, Mackie was taking measures to ensure they wouldn’t be disturbed again. Requesting a meeting with Lindegaard had been the first thing he’d done that morning. He’d arrived at the office before seven a.m., unable to get back to sleep after the earlier call he’d taken from Winter. Since then, he and Winter had been planning exactly how to handle Lindegaard.

During that time it’d become apparent to Mackie that Winter had in fact been working through the night. He’d now been on shift for over twenty-four hours. Although he still claimed to be alert and raring to go, Mackie could tell that his concentration was quickly fading. They just needed to get through this next meeting, for which they were now ten minutes late, before Mackie was going to pack him off home for some much needed rest.

Since last speaking to Lindegaard, Mackie had also brought Evans into the fold. He was the agent Lindegaard had brought in to replace Logan. But the playing field had changed quite considerably
in Mackie’s favour now. As it was, Evans was on his way to the safe house in Paris where he would await further instructions from Mackie.

It had also been a nervous few hours, though. Mackie had experienced conflicting emotions when he’d heard about Dragovic. On the one hand, he had felt satisfaction that his hunch about pushing Lindegaard had been right. But then, even though he knew Logan was more than adept at taking care of himself, he’d felt anxious about what was going to happen to him. Both Mackie and Winter had been trying desperately to get hold of Logan to warn him. They couldn’t tell him exactly what the problem was; he did not need to know what was happening with Lindegaard, not yet. But they had at least wanted him to be prepared for whatever attack was coming. They’d been too late, though. The strike had already come. Thankfully Logan was skilled enough, or perhaps just lucky enough, to have dealt with it.

Now it was time to turn Lindegaard’s underhanded approach on its head.

‘Good morning,’ Macke said with a beaming smile as Lindegaard was ushered into the office by Winter. He had deliberately tried to sound over-the-top upbeat. The sour look that Lindegaard gave him suggested it had done the job of irritating him.

‘What’s this about, Charles?’ Lindegaard said, walking over to the desk but not sitting down. He stood with his arms folded, a constant glare on his face.

‘What do you think it’s about?’ Mackie said, waving his arms about theatrically. ‘It’s about our favourite agent.’

‘So where the hell is he?’ Lindegaard said. ‘I expected him to be back home by now.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ Winter asked, coming over and sitting down at the desk.

Lindegaard looked down at him and huffed but didn’t respond.

‘That was quite some mess he caused last night,’ Lindegaard barked. ‘Three more dead bodies? Logan is no longer on this case. I thought that had been made perfectly clear. So why the hell is he still running around out there causing me problems? You know, I should sanction all three of you for this. Disobeying a very direct and very clear order.’

‘Oh, Jay, I really don’t think you want to do that,’ Mackie stated, unfazed.

‘Tell us about Marko Dragovic,’ Winter said. ‘He lives in Paris, right? So how do you know him?’

Again Lindegaard didn’t respond to Winter’s question, but for the first time the confidence and arrogance behind his eyes seemed to fade.

‘Let’s not play any more games here,’ Mackie said, the false pleasantness now removed from his tone. ‘We know what you did. We know about Dragovic.’

‘And the two men who were sent to Logan’s hotel are now in police custody,’ Winter added. ‘I wonder what we’ll find out from them. Did you really think this would turn out in your favour?’

‘You little piece of –’

‘Ah, ah, don’t take it out on Winter. You’ve brought this on yourself.’

Lindegaard unfolded his arms and sat down, as though for the first time willing to take the conversation seriously.

‘What do you want?’ he said. ‘I could report both of you for this. There’s only one way you could know about Dragovic. Are you aware you’ve both committed a crime?’

Mackie laughed and shook his head. ‘Really? You’re going down that route?’

He knew that Lindegaard was at least partially right. They’d had no approval to hack Lindegaard’s phone and messages. It wasn’t a crime exactly – the relationship between the actions of the JIA and the law were somewhat murky. The way they had gone about it, though, was certainly against the JIA’s own procedures. But then, so was what Lindegaard had done. And the way Mackie saw it, his adversary had a lot more to lose.

‘So what do you want?’ Lindegaard repeated, the colour in his face dwindling as the reality of the situation dawned on him.

Mackie pondered the question for a good while, though he knew what the answer was. ‘You call off the dogs. Logan stays on the case. Me and Winter too.’

‘That’s it?’ Lindegaard said, laughing nervously, as if surprised that he was getting let off so lightly.

Mackie was aware that was the case. If he wanted to, he could take what he knew to the other committee members. With
what Lindegaard had done, they might even be able to get him removed from his position at the JIA altogether. But this wasn’t a boardroom scuffle where Mackie was going for some power play. This was the world of the secret intelligence services. In the long run, having this card in his deck, this dirt on Lindegaard, would be much more valuable. Plus it meant that he could keep his and Winter’s tactics, and Winter’s technical nous, under wraps should they find themselves in a corner again in the future.

‘That’s it,’ Mackie said.

Lindegaard shifted in his seat as though unsure what to think about Mackie’s proposition. Eventually, without saying another word, he got to his feet and began to make his way toward the door.

‘Oh, actually, Jay,’ Mackie said, getting to his feet, ‘there is one more thing.’

Lindegaard turned around to face Mackie.

‘Logan doesn’t yet know about what you did. And it’ll stay that way as long as you keep off our backs. That man really has a penchant for revenge, if you know what I mean.’

Mackie smiled as his words sank in and Lindegaard’s complexion turned a ghostly white. Without another word, Lindegaard spun around and walked out of the room.