Out of the Shadows (Akira and Deane Thriller Series Book 1) (2 page)

Deane looked up
from the papers spread out in front of him and frowned slightly as
his piercing blue eyes studied his young charge. His partner had
given no indication of the nature of the call but he knew Olsen
very well and recognised it was personal. Frustration boiled away
inside of him; this was not the time for anything other than
dedication.

Olsen ran a hand over his
shortly cropped brown hair and recognised something he had seen
before, a look of disdain etched across his mentor’s features. Not
that he would worry about that now, not when his fiancée was on the
other end of the phone. ‘Sorry hun, we’re just in the thick of
things here. Are you ok?’

Rachel Fadden smiled faintly at
another one of her fiancée’s sayings. Exactly what did ‘in the
thick of things’ mean? With the nature of his job and the damned
Official Secrets Act, Rachel was always more in the dark than the
light and she didn’t mind admitting that her worry had increased
since his injuries from the previous job. ‘I’m fine, I’m sorry to
call but I just had to know how you are? I know I’m probably
interrupting but I’m really worried about you. How’s your hearing
now?’

Olsen walked to
a nearby meeting point. He could hear the love in her voice and how
much she cared. How she put up with his job and the lifestyle that
came with it, he would never know. ‘I’ll live. I’m glad you called,
I was worried about you too.’

‘Really?’

‘Well of course, whenever I’m
working on an Operation I don’t know what it is but I just need to
know you’re ok that’s all. I’m sure someone here could explain it
but either way I’m glad you called. Are you at home?’

Rachel was still in her nurse’s
uniform and had not been long home. ‘I’ve not been back from the
hospital long, it was a manic shift so I’m just about to make
myself a tea and get to bed. You’re sure your hearing is ok? I’m
not convinced.’

Olsen leant his
head to the right a little, as if it would dislodge whatever was
causing the pain in that ear. ‘It’s still the same but I’ll
survive.’

Ever since his
last work with Deane during Operation Decryption, working in
Germany infiltrating a massive computer organisation, he had picked
up numerous problems with his hearing. Olsen had saved the life of
an insider who had been callously dumped into the sea to plunge to
his death but it had taken its toll and he had barely escaped with
his own life. Since that trauma he had experienced bouts of
pressure in his right ear as if he were still underwater. The fact
that it wasn’t going away made him feel on edge and not quite as
indestructible as he used to. Not that the doctors had found
anything to diagnose, it was all in the mind apparently, which made
Olsen feel even less in control. Dressed in black trousers and a
light blue shirt, he tried to clear his right ear again which
helped a little. It was now a regular habit of his.

Out of the
corner of his eye, Deane saw and felt concern. In every way he
wished it had been him that had saved the insider during the last
operation but circumstances had prevented it. Deane knew he was a
difficult man and not the easiest to work with but there was no
doubt in his mind and his heart that Olsen was the son he would
never have had and he loved him dearly. Just for a moment, he
continued to watch from the centre of Operations Command but then
went back to his work with the team of S.U.C.O. agents around
him.

‘Are you sure you’re up to
this?’ Asked Rachel.

‘It’s too late
for me to back out now and the Doctor said it’s within my control,
so it’s just something I’ll have to overcome. I’ll be ok. I’m sure
Tom will look out for me, anyway.’ With that he glanced back to the
centre table and saw Deane putting on a headset, most probably to
talk with the MI5 agents that were working with them.

‘Well I hope he
does.’ Rachel was saying ‘and if it doesn’t go away, I want you to
see another specialist. This can’t just be buried, nor can they
expect you to just carry on as normal.’

‘I agree. If
this doesn’t change that’s what I’ll do.’ Olsen felt anxious to
return to the Operation but still wanted to make sure Rachel was
alright on her own. Not for the first time, the dilemma about his
work and his personal life came to the fore.

‘I’m going to
let you go, Sam. I just had to hear your voice, that’s all. What
you do makes things…difficult. Promise me you’ll be careful and
come back to me in one piece.’

Olsen smiled a
light smile and closed his eyes for a second, appreciating the love
he felt from her. ‘I will Rach, I will. Just make sure you get to
bed and sleep ok?’

‘Don’t worry,
I’m going straight to bed. I just wish you were coming with me so
we could hold each other.’

‘I’ll be there
soon, I promise. I love you, sweetheart.’

‘I love you too. Bye…’

Olsen hung up
the phone and returned to the centre table in Operations Command,
dodging technicians and other agents loading their chosen weapons
along the way. ‘Any developments?’

Deane covered the mouthpiece of
his headset and chose to stick with the business at hand rather
than lecture his charge again about creating space between personal
matters and work. ‘Our two MI5 colleagues have our target in their
sights. They’re on a train to London Bridge, so hopefully we’ll
find ourselves a lead. Operation Concealment is a go.’

Olsen
remembered all about the target. Robert Baynes was a low profile
data encryption expert and appeared to have been recruited and
radicalised over time, for his skills. There had been several
reports that the Internet was their chosen tool of communication
but the encryption level had proven so high, no one had yet been
able to make a breakthrough. In recent weeks, Baynes’ movements had
been sporadic and his activities had been picked up on one of
several MI5 watch lists. Now he appeared to have taken on more than
he could handle.

Deane watched
everyone start their preparations and caught sight of another agent
who stood with his two men, several feet away at another
workstation. Deane exchanged a look with French Special Agent
Patrice Marraud and read the look on his friend’s face as one of
caution; a sentiment he agreed with.

The French
visitors had been made part of the Operation at Deane’s request,
after Marraud had been the one to identify the terrorist cell in
Paris, close to a year before. The two had known each other for
close to twenty years.

Marraud came
over to Deane and watched Olsen organise some of the other agents.
His thick blonde hair was neatly cut and although he was well under
six feet tall, the French agent looked well built. ‘He never seems
to lose his enthusiasm, does he?’

‘Unfortunately
not, it’s something he needs to control.’ Deane took off the
headset and eyed up his old friend. ‘Ready to close this one down,
Patrice?’ A faint smile came to him as he remembered the last
twenty years, all of which included Marraud.

‘I’ve been waiting a long time
for this, I’m not going to miss it.’ He gestured to the two other
French Agents nearby. ‘We’ll watch your back.’

Akira lurked
amongst the shadows of London Bridge Train Station, in Central
London. Even at 4:30 a.m. there was still a constant flow of trains
passing overhead and the occasional night worker heading home.
Wearing a long black trench coat and the same coloured trousers and
shoes, he took out a dark balaclava from his pocket and pulled it
down over his face. As he watched maintenance staff leave the
station, he thought of Russia and his plan to conquer her in the
not too distant future. It had not been easy to come to the UK,
especially with the balance of power so unstable in Russia but he
was still keen to take what he could from his base in the UK and
attempt to keep the Security Services guessing, at the very least.
With some hard work, he had managed to ensure he had recruited just
fewer than ten loyal Russian FSB agents to his cause. They were in
the process of planning and executing several bomb attacks to
de-stabilise the Russian capital and highlight the weakness of the
current Government. With that already in place, it wasn’t essential
he was there and his time could be better spent elsewhere. In his
mind, it just would have been a luxury to carry out and witness the
attacks personally but it couldn’t be helped.

His thoughts
came back to the present and the no show of his contact Robert
Baynes. Though he couldn’t be entirely trusted, Baynes was never
late. Much to Akira’s annoyance, he had begun to carve out a niche
for himself within the cell and had insisted on coming to London to
carry out his work personally. Such attitudes were not effective or
welcome and Akira was in no mood to tolerate them. There was always
a need for technically skilled followers but from the moment Baynes
had got involved, he had been convinced it had been a mistake. The
dedication was missing and his insistency on coming to London had
only proven to him that he had become a liability rather than an
asset.

A red London bus passed his
position and Akira watched closely as to who departed, making sure
he tracked the movements of any possible threats. After a few
minutes, he was satisfied he was safe and went back to his
thoughts. The large clock near the train station entrance read 4:38
a.m. and still there was no sign of Baynes. Akira found his phone
in his pocket and read a text message from the replacement he had
found to ensure the data encryption work continued. Its positive
tone and confirmation made him smile. The meeting he was waiting
for had now become nothing more than a formality.

Robert Baynes
felt the cold sweat dampen the back of his shirt but that didn’t
stop him from changing his mind. He took one last look down the
train and saw the determined looks on the faces of the two men who
had been following him for hours and who were now checking every
seat for his presence in the preceding carriage. As he stood at the
nearest exit he made his decision, despite the apparent speed of
the train as it pulled into London Bridge Station. His estimate of
the train’s speed was around 20 M.P.H. but it couldn’t be helped
and he didn’t want to start thinking about Akira’s reaction if he
was caught.

The start of
the platform raced by and Baynes flicked open the protective
plastic on the door override controls. He pressed the red button to
open them and heard the hiss as the doors moved but then stopped.
Baynes grabbed them, pulled them apart and then threw himself out,
crashing onto the concrete as he tried to roll with the impact.
Despite only being in his late thirties, his heavy frame struggled
with the impact but he did his best and started to run to the
barriers ahead.

On the train,
MI5 Agent Ron Cunningham and his partner looked out of the window
to see their target running as best he could for the barrier. They
pulled the door open, loaded their weapons and jumped out, one by
one, in pursuit. Cunningham didn’t land well and suffered a deep
cut to his head, which started to bleed through his receding light
brown hair. As he staggered to his feet, he watched his young
partner sprint past.

Baynes scaled
the barrier and started to run through the abandoned concourse. A
younger man was in swift pursuit and shouting at him to stand
still. Panic spread through him as he realised there was virtually
no chance of escape. Straight away, he saw no future when Akira
discovered what had happened. His only hope was to strike a deal as
best he could and use his knowledge to keep himself alive. As he
passed a large WH Smith store, his body couldn’t take any more
pounding. His lungs were starting to heave now and he came to a
halt, breathing so hard he could barely raise his arms in
surrender. Within seconds, he felt the strong grip of the younger
man on his shoulders and slumped in defeat. He had no energy to
fight his arrest.

Danger was
never that far away and in the darkness, just over a hundred metres
away, Akira was stalking his way through the shadows, getting
closer to the entrance of the station. His eyes were alight with
concentration, taking in everything he could see ahead. Akira
trusted his instincts, which were telling him that the Government
had caught up with his one time follower; that was all he needed to
take action without a moment’s hesitation. In one swift motion, he
took out a black pistol and fired several bullets through the
silencer. He watched Baynes fall to the ground first, followed by
the Government Agent. Dropping the gun and balaclava to the ground,
he started to calmly walk away, barely hearing the screams coming
from the station area.

Cunningham’s
eyes were wide with shock as he approached the scene, his eyes
immediately focussing on the one man leaving the scene. Keeping him
in his sights, he pushed away the pain of losing his young partner
and spoke into his headset. ‘Baynes and my partner are down, I
repeat, they are down!’ Cunningham was now sprinting through the
concourse and straight away started firing at the dark shape ahead
that was only now starting to run away.

In Operations
Command, Deane felt the others around him jump with shock but he
was used to surprises and forced himself not to think about another
agent lost. ‘Stay with him Ron. I’m sending Unit Two to intercept.
We’re tracking you from here.’

Cunningham was
sprinting hard and was out of breath as he replied. ‘What’s their
ETA?’

Deane eyed up
one of the nearby screens. ‘Five minutes, maybe more. Don’t lose
him!’