The Need for Fear (6 page)

Chapter 11: Farm Animals

“Now you listen to me,
you little shit
,” Robert growled at Chi, drops of spit shooting from between his teeth. “I
told
you to stay away from Harriet. I
warned
you! This isn't some bloody role-playing game where it all fits into a neat story, where you can solve everything by finding the answer to a mystery! Figuring it out won't help; it'll just make things worse for you. The things you're messing with here would burst your gormless little brain if you ever got a look through the keyhole.”

A well-dressed, middle-aged woman walked toward them, trailing an overweight, waddling Jack Russell on a lead. As she approached the bench, she saw the older man clutching the younger man's groin. Robert flashed her a benign grin and she quickly looked away, an expression of shocked distaste on her face. Chi fervently wished he could have explained what was happening, but the opportunity didn't present itself. And he could barely muster more than a squeak anyway.

“You think you're in pain right now?” Robert asked in a low, harsh voice. “I'm dealing with people who can do what they like to whomever they like as long as they get the right results. What you're feeling now? This is a
tickle
compared to what could happen to you if you ever became a real threat. You're not a human being to them—you and almost everyone else in this country, you're nothing but farm animals to be used or butchered. And I'm not much better.”

Chi was almost levitating to try and relieve the pressure on his testicles. Robert glanced down at his own hand and then, with something akin to guilt, released his grip. Chi let out a rather embarrassing, babyish gasp of relief and settled back on the bench, cupping his hands over his crotch, partly for comfort, but mostly in fear that the old man might change his mind and take hold again.

“Let's walk,” Robert said.

“I'm not sure I can,” Chi groaned.

“Stop being such a big girl's blouse and stand up, you pillock.”

“That's quite sexist.”

“Yeah, like I could give a damn. Come on, we need to get moving.”

They headed out onto the street, with Chi walking rather stiffly, struggling to keep up with the old man's long strides. There was a sullen silence for the first few minutes, each of them lost in their thoughts, unwilling to be the first to speak.

“How are the balls?” Robert asked eventually.

“They're bloody sore! Where are we going?”

“Back to Harriet's. You're not done there.”

“She won't let me anywhere near Sharon—”

“We're going to get this finished and we're going to do it now,” Robert snarled, his tone allowing no argument, his face creased with anxiety. “Everything you said is true. Back in Northern Ireland, I was exposed. The operation was a liability; it could have brought down the whole peace process. I was going to prison anyway, so I took the blame for all of it and they looked after me when I went inside. But I still did five years and prison is no joke for someone with my background. Afterward, I'd proved my loyalty, so they quietly took me back, restored my security clearance, and farmed me out to GCHQ.

“Listen to me now and listen good, because there are lives at stake and I'm not having you cocking this up. Sharon's story about the Scalps, these black ops guys, is real—or at least enough of it to matter is. For the last few months, she's been hitting a lot of dead ends, but she's smart and she's persistent. Eventually, she's going to make the right connection somewhere and, with what she's got, she's going to uncover an operation that needs to stay secret. A lot of very powerful people are involved in this and they won't take chances.

“If she comes too close to the operation, she's going to die. I'm telling you this as someone who's been in this business a long time. She'll have a sudden heart attack, or hit her head and drown in her bath, or crash her car, or commit suicide. Whatever form of death is considered the most appropriate at the time.”

Robert stopped and seized Chi's shoulder, staring into his face. The old man's eyes were wide, his lips pulled tight against his teeth.

“And if the Scalps think Sharon has been talking to Harriet, then Harriet will have to die, too. That's a simple fact. They'll make that decision the way you decide whether you're going to keep an old pair of shoes or throw them away.
They'll kill her
.”

Now Robert's agitated manner made sense, Chi realized. He was terrified for his daughter. They were about a ten-minute walk from her flat on Shoreditch High Street and could have caught a cab, but Robert seemed to need to walk off the shuddery energy that was coursing through him. He was shaking his head and as he continued talking.

“Sharon won't back down—she wouldn't even if I warned her,” he sighed, walking at a pace that nearly had Chi jogging, trying to ignore the bouncing ache in his testicles. The old spy's voice was just loud enough for Chi to hear him over the passing traffic. “She's too stubborn. It would just convince her she was on the right track. Harriet's almost as bad. Sharon's going to get herself killed and she's going to take my daughter with her. I can't let that happen.”

“What's all this got to do with me?” Chi asked.

“If the Scalps see me with her, or even with Harriet, it'll be taken as a sign. They'll think I've gotten involved. If there's even the slightest possibility that Sharon could quote me as a source they'll … I'm too close to it all for them to take the chance. They'll decide on her disposal there and then. And maybe they'll do me and Harriet in, too.

“But if
you
show up, as one of Sharon's sources, it's an entirely different thing.”

“Yeah?” Chi asked. “Why is that?”

“Because you're a conspiracy theorist,” Robert told him, glancing at his watch and quickening his pace even further. “Anything you produce can be ridiculed by pointing to other things you've written. You know: weaponized parasites, human mutants, aliens, all that malarkey. We don't worry about the likes of you.”

“Excuse me?” Chi responded with indignation.

“That's what you conspiracy nuts have never realized,” Robert grunted. “We
need
oddballs like you. You poke around, finding some real facts from time to time, but even if it's true, it won't matter, because with the kind of nonsense you turn out, no one takes you seriously. Christ, the bigger the conspiracy you guys come up with, the better, as far as we're concerned. You're our best defense when it comes to discrediting a dangerous story. So if
you're
one of Sharon's sources, then we can ridicule her too, by association. We can undermine her with her editors long before she can get a single word printed.

“That's why I contacted you, Chi. I'm going to save my daughter's life by using you to make a complete fool out of her girlfriend.”

Chapter 12: Damage Limitation

Chi had rarely experienced such rage. He wanted to throw himself at the old man, to smash his fists into that grimacing, wrinkled old face, to throw him to the ground and stomp on this horrible human being until he'd beaten the life out of him.

He didn't, of course. He wasn't the violent type, after all, and he suspected Robert would be more than able to fend off any attack and turn the hurt back on Chi. And then there was that photo they'd sent him, a close-up of the back of his head—a message, to let Chi know he was being watched, to keep him in line. Still, it was sickening to learn that his only role in the biggest story he'd ever come across was to be the stooge in discrediting it.

“I won't do it!” he exclaimed. “You can shove it, Robert! She's onto something and I'm not going to help you bring her down.”

They were standing on the corner of a junction and Robert spun around and slammed Chi against the post of a traffic light.

“Understand this,” he snapped at the younger man. “Knowing the truth about the Scalps' operation
will not make any difference
to what's going on—it will just ensure that you're removed from the picture. You, me, Sharon, Harriet … and whoever else might get in the way.”

“Hang on, you're saying the Scalps might kill
me
now too?”

“That photo was bloody warning, you fool! Ever since you got involved—”

“You mean ever since
you got me involved
!” Chi interrupted.

“As I was saying, ever since you got involved, they've had to factor you into their calculations. Whether they rub you out or not depends on how much of a threat they think you are. The dumber you come across, the more likely you'll be considered harmless—or even useful. And we can use that now.”

Robert started walking again and Chi scuttled along after him.

“Make no mistake; that's the only part of this you have any control over, Chi. Play your part and you can save lives today. That's the only decision you have to make.” Robert looked at his watch, swore, and ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus, look at the time. Twenty past three. Listen, I'm on a bloody deadline here. We both are.”

“What do you mean?” Chi demanded.

“I told you; Sharon's leaving at three-thirty for a meeting with that editor, Goldbloom, at
The Chronicle
at four o'clock. She's got a cab booked.”

“Can't we just catch a cab, too—to her flat?”

“Don't think it would be good idea to get into a car with any strangers at the moment,” Robert snorted, throwing the young man a bitter smirk. “Just in case my ‘puppet masters' decide to wrap things up early. They carry out a lot more abductions with taxis than they do with UFOs.”

“So this editor, Goldbloom,” Chi asked, breathing hard now as he kept up the brisk pace. “Sharon's going to show him what she's got on the Scalps?”

“Yeah. Goldbloom could put it on the front page if he thinks it has legs—he could put a team of reporters on it to dig deeper. You have to be photographed talking to her before that happens.”

“So they're still watching us now?”

“They've been watching the whole time, lad,” Robert explained, shrugging him off. He tilted his head at a young man with a hipster's beard and seventies-style sunglasses on the other side of the street, who appeared to be polishing with his pair of Google glasses. “They've watched every step you've taken. I've cut a deal with them. I was loyal to the service for years and in return, they're giving me one chance. This is nothing personal, just damage control. They'll photograph you and Sharon together and I'll send the photos to you. You'll post them on your blog, talking about the story and how you and Sharon are working on it together, making it sound like you're partners. When Goldbloom goes online to follow up on her story, he'll find your blog with all the other mad crap you write about.

“If we can discredit Sharon thoroughly enough, these bastards will leave her and Harriet alone. I've got one chance at this and
you're it
, Chi. You can save my daughter's life.”

“But I have to sink the story to do it?”

“That's what it'll take.”

Chi was about to retort, still outraged at how he was being manipulated, when they emerged onto Shoreditch High Street. Even as they did, Robert swore and shoved Chi into a shop doorway.

“Will you stop pushing me around!” Chi protested.

“Shut up, you fool! Look!”

The street was busy, but Chi was able to see Harriet and Sharon's building. He didn't understand what Robert was getting at until he noticed the blue roof lights on the car parked across the street from the building, directly opposite the front door.

“That's Harriet's doing—it's got to be,” Robert exclaimed in frustration. “How the hell did she swing a protective detail so fast? Christ on a bike! This is because of you, Sandwith. You've screwed this up good and proper!”

“Oh, bite my arse, you old fart!” Chi scowled, feeling cornered and utterly impotent. He looked around, trying to see where the watchers were, but knew he'd be unlikely to spot them. They were experts at this, after all. Unlike him. After years of reading Machiavellian plots, after all his role-playing, he had been completely unprepared for the real thing and the realization was profoundly depressing. Robert glanced at him, saw the cloud coming over the young man's face and placed his hands on Chi's shoulders.

“Listen, I need you now, Chi,” he said earnestly. “I know this isn't how you thought things would go. The kind of power we're messing with here, it's … believe me, it's beyond the ability of any one person to influence.” He looked back out at the street to see a black cab pull up in front of Sharon's building. “There's the taxi. We're out of time. She'll be on her way down.”

Chi barely grunted in reply. Robert shook him, staring intently into his eyes.

“We're both out of our depth, okay?
Me
as well as you. I'm an old man pissing against the wind here. But there's one thing you can do to make a difference and that's to help me keep those two young women alive. That's
something
, isn't it? We can do that right now, but I need you to go out there and be
convincing
. Sharon's got to talk to you, to look like she's comfortable with you. Can you make that happen?”

“Dunno,” Chi said in a morose voice. “I suppose.”

“Hey!
Hey!
” Robert barked at him. “These bastards are all around us! ‘
Suppose
' isn't going to cut it! You've got to commit to this, to make it work. You want the truth about what's going on here? I'll tell you all of it, you hear me, Chi? Anything you want. I'll … I'll … I'll tell you everything I know about the goddamn
aliens
if that's what it takes, but I need your help! Come on, man!”

“You'll tell me … everything?” Chi said, blinking.

“Sure, anything you want.” Robert was gazing back down the street.

“What are we going to do about the police?”

Robert shrugged off his coat, folded it over his arm, and handed it to Chi. Then he took a steel-handled locking knife from his pocket and unfolded the blade.

“I'll handle the police,” he said.