I, Spy? (5 page)

“You thought on your feet. You didn’t consider the consequences for yourself, you just went after him. Sophie, do you want to come and work for SO17?”

It was weird, but after he’d gone I didn’t feel as surreal as I’d thought. I fed Tammy and ran a bath and read my book and went to bed, but I couldn’t sleep. I ended up switching on the video and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer throw herself into that abyss for the millionth time.

You see, it was like when she found out about the Initiative and became one of their sort of agents. Only Buffy could do all this cool Slayer stuff, all her athletics and stamina and accelerated healing and super senses and stuff, whereas I…I could touch my toes. If I warmed up, I could kick Chalker in the head. But only if I wasn’t wearing jeans. Which I usually am.

Oh, bollocks. It was nothing like
Buffy
at all.

Hey, I wonder if Luke has all those cool gadgets like Riley had? Or like Bond? If I was a secret agent would I get to run around in sexy leather outfits and outrageous wigs like Sydney Bristow?

Note to self, try and watch an entire episode of
Alias
without going off into fantasies about Michael Vartan.

Luke gave me a mobile number to call him on with my decision. But how the hell did I make a decision like that?

When it came down to it, was there really a single reason why I should become a spy?

It was sexy, yeah, but it was dangerous, really dangerous. There was a scar on Luke’s upper arm that I saw once when I thought he was Luca. He said he got it in a motorbike accident in Rome, but even at the time I thought that was made up. The scar was nasty, too. Looked like it was made with a blade.

I didn’t like blades.

He carried a gun. The guy I caught today—I still didn’t know his name, call him Brown 2—he had a gun too. Would I have to carry one? I didn’t know anything about guns. I could tell I don’t like them, and that was about it.

God, this was hard. He even told me the pay wouldn’t be that great. But still a boost to my Ace pay, which in turn would go down because I’d be working there part time for appearance’s sake…

He told me that if I take this up then it would have to be a total secret. I couldn’t even tell anyone about the existence of SO17, let alone that I was working for them.

Because I was going to end up working for them. If I didn’t, I’d spend the rest of my life checking baggage for a low-cost airline. And that was a thought so wretched it made me feel physically ill.

The name’s Green. Sophie Green.

You know what? I need a new name.

I made the call not long after the sun came up. On a normal day, I might be on my way to work right now. But I had a feeling there weren’t going to be many more normal days for me.

“Okay,” I said when Luke answered. “I’m in.”

I could hear the pause as he grinned. “Knew you would be,” he said. “Okay. I need you to come into the office and sign a few things.”

“I signed millions of things yesterday!”

“Yes, but these are important things. Do you remember where you did your Ace training?”

I was confused. My training was so long ago that it was a distant memory (and a laughable one—did I really think people would pay their excess baggage charges without a fight?), but I remembered where it was, because that was where a lot of the airlines had their back-up and support. Ace had an office in supersmart Enterprise House, by the car park, but they still had a few rooms they used for training round where the old terminal was.

I pulled up outside the building. Luke was waiting, a look of disbelief on his face.

“What?” I said, opening the door for him.

“
This
is your car?”

“What are you implying?”

“Why the hell are you driving a Land Rover Defender?”

I made a face as he got in. “I like it. It’s reliable. Lara Croft has one.”

Luke stared. I think I was doing okay until I mentioned Lara. “You know she’s fictional, right?”

“I’m not stupid.” Probably this wouldn’t be the best time to tell him the car had a name. It was called Ted, after the character in
The Fast Show
… Okay, never mind.

He shook his head. “Go up here and turn right.”

I did as I was told. I’m not sure what I was expecting: a bunker, maybe, something highly secret. But he told me to stop outside a totally ordinary, rather shabby looking prefab hut. The peeling sign outside said it belonged to Flight Services Inc.

“Has anyone ever come in asking about flight services?” I asked as I locked Ted up. He didn’t have central locking, and Luke shook his head in amazement when I asked him to lock his door, as if he was wondering why anyone would ever try to steal the car.

I liked my car, all right? It was solid and dependable and a design classic, and the army had them. And if someone was parked in a stupid place then I could just trample all over them and not worry about the damage to my car. Ted looked happier with a dent or two in him.

Luke, after a moment’s pause, glanced at the sign by the door and said no, no one had ever asked about flight services. Most airport people were very focused. It was sometimes hard to remember there was anything outside your own flight report.

Christ, I was glad I was getting out of that.

Inside was an ordinary, dated office where a pretty blonde woman sat behind a desk, glancing at something on a computer.

She looked up and smiled. “You must be Sophie! Luke’s told me all about you.”

I glanced at Luke. He flicked his eyebrows at me but said nothing, and wandered over to check a chart on the wall.

“I’m Alexa.” The blonde offered her hand over the desk, and I took it. “Call me Lex. Everyone does.”

Lex. As in Luthor?

I gave her a smile. She seemed very normal. She wasn’t Moneypenny glamorous or GI Jane hard. She looked like a normal receptionist. She even had an aspidistra next to her desk.

It was all sort of disappointing.

“So,” she leaned over the desk earnestly, “are you excited?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. I was so nervous I could barely stand up. It had actually taken me most of the night to decide on what to wear. Now the sun was up and Alexa was smiling at me in her New Look shirt, I felt a bit stupid for having agonised about whether to wear a skirt or trousers (in the end having plumped for trousers and top with high Lycra contents, just in case they wanted me to start doing any training, and a smart leather jacket).

Alexa turned to Luke. “I know we said you’d go straight in, but Maria just called. She’s bringing up her catch from London. Should be here any minute.”

I glanced at Luke for an explanation, but he didn’t look at me.

“Did she say anything about him? Or is it a her?”

Alexa shrugged. “No idea. Just that she’s very pleased with herself.”

“Christ.”

It was warm in the little office, thanks to the noisy air heater by Alexa’s desk, and I took off my jacket.

“God,” Alexa cried, “what happened to you?”

She was staring at my arm. So there were a few scratches on it, and the bruises were just beginning to come up. I shrugged. “I had a run-in with a baggage belt.”

“I didn’t know they fought back.”

“Viciously,” I said, and we shared a smile.

A car pulled up outside, and I glanced through the blinds to see a woman in a shiny PVC coat getting out of an aged Peugeot 205. From the passenger seat emerged a giant of a man, the sort of super-scary black man they post outside clubs to frighten off teenagers.

And they were coming inside.

“Hey,” the woman greeted Luke and Alexa, then switched her attention to me. “Oh, Luke,” she said.

That’s all she said.

I looked her over nervously. She was beautiful in a way I’d never be—perfectly straight, glossy dark hair, no little frizzy bits like I get because I brush it too meanly and blow-dry it when I shouldn’t. She had huge, mesmerising dark eyes, perfectly but sparsely made up, and gorgeous clear skin. Her figure was svelte, tightly wrapped in neat jeans and a little black T-shirt.

Ugh.

“I’m Maria,” she said.

Of course she was.

“And what the hell have you brought us, Maria?” Alexa laughed, coming out from behind the desk. To my surprise, she was wheeling herself. Luke’s highly secret government agency had a disabled agent?

Very equal-opportunity of them, but also kinda limiting. I was beginning to see how desperate they were.

Everyone was looking over the huge black man. He didn’t look amused.

“What am I, cattle?” he said, and his voice rumbled.

“Sorry, sweetie.” Maria placed a casual hand on his arm, and I saw Luke’s eyebrows rise. “Everyone, this is Macbeth.”

I stared. Alexa, safe in her wheelchair, started to laugh. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Great name.”

“He can quote it, too,” Maria said, unfazed. “I found him nicking car stereos in Brixton.”

“I figure, anyone who leaves a car unattended in Brixton deserves to have their car stereo nicked,” Macbeth said.

Good point.

“He also single-handedly broke up a six-man brawl outside a nightclub before I’d even got my gun out,” Maria said. She gave Luke a so-there look, then glanced back at me. “So, what did you bring?”

Luke nodded at me. “This is Sophie.”

I gave little smile.

Macbeth was looking at me like I was meat. Maria was looking at me like I was a Barbie doll. “What can she do?”

I blinked at her. “Well, if you wind my arm back my hair grows,” I said, and she burst out laughing.

“Okay, I see. She’s the airport girl?”

Luke nodded.

“Very nice. So, Lex, where’s One?”

“Gone up the road for breakfast. He said to go through, he won’t be long.”

Luke opened the door behind Alexa’s desk and Maria, Macbeth and I followed him through. This was another ordinary-looking room, with a desk and a table and several chairs. There were filing cabinets and potted plants and a decrepit projector in the corner.

“Don’t look very secret to me,” Macbeth said.

“It’s not supposed to,” Maria said. “If anyone asks, we’re the administrative force for an in-flight service company. Take a seat.”

“So, this One,” I tried to make conversation, “he’s in charge here?”

Luke nodded. “Time was, we all had numbers according to our seniority. Now, I guess Maria’s Two, I’m Three and Lexy’s Four. We just call him One out of habit. His real name is Albert.”

I considered it. One sounded much more Bond than Albert.

“So we’d be Five and Six?” Macbeth gestured to me.

“No, you’d be Sophie and Macbeth.” Luke drummed his fingers on the table. “I need to sort out those contracts with Lexy.” He stood up, and then so did Maria.

“I’ll come with you. Let the newbies get to know each other.”

I managed a very faint smile. Being shut in a room with a human riot shield was not my idea of fun.

“So,” Macbeth said. “What’d you do?”

“Do? Well, I sort of work at the airport, I do checkin…” I trailed off, because he was shaking his head.

“No, I mean, what did you do to get snagged for this?”

“I followed a guy down the baggage belt and damaged company property.”

He grinned, a flash of white. “Nice one.” He paused. “So, you reckon this thing’s for real?”

I shrugged. I’d been wondering the same thing. “God knows. Luke has a warrant card, but then it could be a fake. I don’t know.”

“She,” he jerked his head at the closed door, “has the sort of hardware you can’t buy in shops, you know what I mean? That’s black market stuff.”

“You mean guns and stuff?” I thought about bluffing it out but ended up confessing, “I don’t really know anything about guns.”

Macbeth shook his head. “So why’d they hire you?”

I shrugged again. “I have no idea.”

“You sleeping with him?”

“No!”

“Just checking.”

We waited in silence for a few more minutes. I tried to think of something to say to Macbeth but my mind drew a whole load of blanks. Truth was, I was terrified of him.

Eventually, voices sounded in the outer office, and then the door opened and a middle-aged man in a suit came in. He had that sort of distinguished look about him, handkerchief in his breast pocket, old school tie, air of supreme self-confidence. The kind of guy you’d hate to have as a neighbour—until someone tried to build over your street and he called in his old chums at the Home Office. Luke and Maria followed him, looking like rebel children.

“This is the biggest team briefing I’ve had in a while,” the distinguished chap said, taking a seat behind the desk and switching his computer on. “I’m One. You are… Sophie and… Macbeth?”

Macbeth nodded.

“Interesting. What’s your real name?”

Macbeth looked impassive, but he took something out of his pocket and handed it over to One. A passport. An old black one. They were pretty damn rare now. It was hard to get them extended.

One read it, raised his eyebrows, then handed it back. “Miss Green?”

I stared at him for a bit.

“ID?” Luke prompted and I, blushing, fumbled for my wallet. I’d brought my passport too, but I hated the picture. I handed over my driving licence, figuring that if I could fly to Ireland with it, I could use it for government ID.

One looked me over, smiling. “Luke,” he said.

“Sir?”

“The British spy is elegant, suave and sophisticated. The British spy is not blonde, built and…and confused.”

I didn’t know where to look. I know I went red. Maria and Macbeth looked like they were having a hard time not smiling.

Luke had no such reservations. Grinning broadly, he said, “She’s smarter than she looks, sir.”

“Well, she’d have to be. All right,” One gave my driving licence back. “They’ll need new pictures for their cards,” he said to Luke and Maria, who nodded. To me and Macbeth he said, “They’ve told you the rules? Don’t discuss any business with anyone outside this room—apart from Lex. Not even a policeman. Hardly anyone knows we exist.”

I wanted to ask about the police cooperation yesterday, but kept silent.

“Don’t tell anyone you work for us. Don’t tell anyone we exist. If we find out you’ve been telling secrets, we will have you killed. Is that clear?”

I nodded. Macbeth nodded too.

“Lex has the contracts for you to sign.” He looked up at Maria and Luke again. “They’re in your hands now. Good luck.”