The Last 10 Seconds

I thought about that one for a moment. ‘I wouldn’t say I’m trouble,’ I concluded, ‘but I have to admit I quite enjoy looking for it.’

‘What do you do now?’

‘I’m with CO10. Undercover work.’

‘Must be pretty stressful.’

‘It has its moments,’ I said, recalling my brush with death earlier that day. ‘But no more stressful than some of the things that have happened to you.’

She shrugged, and I got the feeling that she didn’t want to talk about it, which was fair enough. Usually, I’d have left things at that. Had my smoke and gone back inside. But there was something about her that made me want to persist with the conversation. I had the impression she was an outsider like me; someone I could relate to if only I could get past the hard shell.

I took a long pull on the cigarette, looking out towards the steady stream of passing traffic. ‘It’s a thankless life we lead sometimes, don’t you think? Chasing all these arseholes, just for more of them to pop up. You know, occasionally I feel like chucking it all in and doing something completely different. Running an organic farm, or a surf school.’ As I spoke the words, I realized with something of a shock that I genuinely believed what I was saying.

‘You’d be bored out of your mind within a week.’

‘You reckon?’

She smiled, wider this time. ‘I’m sure of it. Perhaps you just need a holiday.’

I thought about that one. I hadn’t had a holiday for years. The last time was a two-week trip to Antigua with a girl called Britt, who wasn’t even Scandinavian. It had rained a lot and we’d fallen out by about day three.

I was about to tell Tina about this last trip, throwing in a couple of amusing anecdotes before asking her if she fancied a drink, because I had a feeling I was getting through to her, when the mobile I’d been using for the past few weeks to talk to Tommy jolted me from my thoughts. The ringtone was a bone-rattling, old-fashioned car horn I’d put on there so that I would never forget which phone it was. I thought about not answering, just forgetting about Wolfe, Haddock, Tommy, all of them for one night, but the world doesn’t work like that. When you’re undercover, there’s no such thing as time off.

‘That’s a horrible ringtone,’ said Tina.

‘It’s designed to make me answer,’ I told her ruefully as I pulled it from my pocket. Once again it was a number I didn’t recognize. ‘Excuse me for a moment. I need to take this.’

I walked rapidly up the street, putting a good twenty yards between us before answering.

‘Where are you?’ demanded Tyrone Wolfe, and I knew immediately it was serious.

‘Out for a drink with an old mate.’

‘Where?’

‘Holborn. Just down the road from where I live. Why?’

‘Because the job’s on, Seany boy.’

I froze. ‘What do you mean it’s on? When?’

‘Now,’ he growled. ‘Right now.’

Sixteen

I kept walking, the phone pressed to my ear and my mind racing. ‘But I told you I wanted thirty K up front.’

‘And I’ve got it for you here. Things have moved on quicker than we thought they would. How much have you had to drink?’

‘Only a pint. I’m fine.’

‘And what’s your exact location?’

‘I’ll be at the junction of High Holborn and Grays Inn Road in two minutes. Where are you?’

‘Not far away,’ said Wolfe ominously, and I suddenly had this horrible idea that he’d been following me. In which case he’d know I’d been drinking in a coppers’ pub full of coppers.

I told myself to stop being paranoid and to get details of the job so I could feed the information to Captain Bob, who’d blow a gasket when he found out what I was up to, but was also professional enough to act on the information. ‘You’re going to have to tell me more first.’

‘All in good time, Seany boy. You just get yourself to that junction and wait for us. Then you get your advance and we can talk.’

‘And you’ve got the guns?’

‘Watch what you’re saying over the phone,’ he hissed, and cut the connection without another word.

I wondered then if I’d overstepped the mark, but I had to find out if we’d be armed so that I could feed this to Captain Bob as well. He could then use the signal from my mobile phone to track my movements, while at the same time organizing an arrest team of armed officers who could intercept us before we carried out the kidnap. If Wolfe had the guns with him, he could be nicked on a host of charges, and it would be job done. I’d be in all kinds of shit, of course, but that was something to worry about later.

The problem was, until I knew for certain they had guns, there was no point trying to get them nicked, because I didn’t have a shred of concrete evidence against them.

I was still trying to figure out my best move as I walked along the quiet, tree-lined thoroughfare of Doughty Street, once home to Charles Dickens, when a dark vehicle with tinted windows, and bearing more than a passing resemblance to the old A Team van, pulled up beside me, the power-sliding side door opening automatically. There was no one in the back but I could see the figures of Wolfe and Haddock in the front.