Assassins Vengeance Read online

  Assassins Vengeance

  The English Spy Mystery series

  Rachel Amphlett

  Copyright © 2017 by Rachel Amphlett

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Conclude the trilogy…

  Untitled

  One

  Italian/French border

  * * *

  Eva shifted gear and powered the four-wheel drive through a tight bend before flooring the accelerator once the narrow lane straightened.

  They’d been travelling for the past five hours, Decker driving first before he swapped places with her at a small roadside café on the Italian side of the Alps.

  He remained alert though, constantly checking the mirrors, his fingers tapping on his knee as they travelled in silence through the night, then slid his hand around the armrest set into the door and hung on tight as Eva shot round the next bend in the road.

  ‘If we’d been a couple of weeks later, all of this would’ve been covered with snow,’ Decker had explained.

  Now they’d been travelling for nearly two hours over relatively flat terrain, open fields bare since harvesting, with only an occasional dwelling to indicate any signs of life in the area.

  Coupled with the grey skies that glowered above as the sun had set, Eva found the landscaping depressing, and the threat of rain ominous.

  As soon as Nathan had found out Alex’s true origins the day before, he’d shoved his chair back and begun to pace the terrace of Decker’s villa.

  ‘We have to do something,’ he’d urged. ‘This is no place to be dragging a kid around – what if he gets hurt?’

  ‘I’ll think of something,’ Eva insisted.

  ‘Like what? Put him into the local kindergarten?’

  ‘Stop it.’

  ‘No.’ Nathan had checked over his shoulder and lowered his voice. ‘Eva, he’s six years old, for crying out loud.’

  ‘We’re here,’ said Decker, interrupting Eva’s thoughts.

  She slowed the vehicle as a pair of old concrete gate posts came into view.

  ‘Keep going,’ said Decker. ‘We’re not stopping yet.’ He pointed through the windscreen. ‘There’s a turning half a mile ahead.’

  Eva sped up and found the junction with ease, an un-signposted track that led from the lane and disappeared into the woodland.

  Overgrown tree branches slapped at the windows and doors of the four-wheel drive as she steered it through deep ruts and pot-holes. She reached for the lights and dimmed them as she brought the vehicle to a halt.

  ‘Now what?’

  ‘Wait here.’

  Decker slipped from his seat, closed the door quietly behind him, and disappeared into the night.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ Nathan leaned between the front seats. ‘Where’s he going?’

  ‘I presume he knows this place,’ said Eva. ‘But given the state of the front gates, I doubt he’s been here for a while, so he’ll be checking it out.’

  They peered through the window after Decker, but his silhouette was soon swallowed up by darkness as the moon disappeared behind a cloud.

  ‘Why are we here? Why couldn’t we stay at the villa?’

  Eva ignored the questions, and instead shuffled in her seat until she could see past Nathan. ‘How’s Alex holding up?’

  ‘Great – he’s fast asleep.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Are you going to tell me how the hell you ended up with him?’

  She nodded, and reached out to squeeze his hand. ‘I will. Let’s make sure we’re somewhere safe first though.’

  They both jumped at a tap on her driver’s window.

  She opened the door. ‘Well?’

  ‘All clear,’ Decker said. ‘A bit run down, but we’re only going to be here for a few hours, so it’ll do. Bring the supplies. Leave the car where it is.’

  Eva climbed out, inhaling the crisp countryside air. A breeze whipped her hair around her face, and she tied it back, stretching as she waited for Decker to lift Alex from his seat, the boy still fast asleep, exhausted.

  Nathan handed her one of the boxes of provisions they’d stopped to buy on the way, and lifted the other from the vehicle.

  ‘How far is the border?’ asked Nathan.

  Decker jerked his chin towards the lane. ‘Another couple of miles.’

  He locked the vehicle and began to lead the way.

  They followed him through the undergrowth towards the hulk of a house that bobbed in and out of view through the trees, the wind rustling leaves above their heads.

  Eva let the two men go ahead of her. The surroundings filled her with trepidation after the events of the past few days, and she strained her ears for the sound of other vehicles on the lane.

  After a while, she began to relax, trusting that Decker’s uncanny knowledge of the area would mean another safe sanctuary.

  As if echoing her thoughts, Nathan cleared his throat.

  ‘Is this another home of yours?’

  Decker didn’t answer until they were out in the open once more and standing at the edge of an abandoned farmyard.

  ‘Not exactly,’ he said. ‘But I’ve been here before. A long time ago. We should be fine.’

  Eva’s eyes had begun to adjust to the murky light, and as the moon scuttled between clouds, she realised they were approaching the property from the rear, away from the prying eyes of anyone travelling along the lane.

  To her left, the ruins of a barn stood stark and bare, the timber framework and part of the corrugated iron roof the only indication that there had ever been a building there in the first place. A jagged pile of rocks lay discarded next to it, evidently the remnants of what once had been the walls.

  Rusted and broken machinery lay scattered across the yard, and Eva wondered how long it had been since the farm had actually produced anything. She hurried to catch up with Decker and Nathan, careful not to trip over any discarded wire or metalwork.

  The farmhouse itself had been made of the same sturdy stonework as the barn, and even in the poor light afforded by the moon, looked as if it had stood in the same place for centuries. Small windows looked out onto the yard they’d crossed, deep sills cut into the stonework a clue to the thickness of the walls.

  As she approached, Decker handed Alex to her, taking the box from her instead, and pushed open the door.

  ‘I’ll get a fire lit,’ he said. ‘There should be some dry timber around here somewhere.’

  ‘Won’t people see the smoke from the chimney?’ asked Nathan.

  Decker shook his head and put the box on the floor. ‘Ski season doesn’t start for a few weeks yet, and the only houses around here are owned by tourists,’ he said. He nodded towards Alex. ‘I want to make sure he keeps warm. At least then he’ll sleep better.’

  Eva shifted Alex’s weight onto her hip. ‘Kitchen?’

  ‘Through there.’ Decker handed over a flashlight to Na
than. ‘You’ll need this.’

  She followed Nathan as Decker disappeared out into the yard, the torch beam bouncing off the walls of a flagstone-paved passageway until it opened out into a large kitchen.

  A long table filled the centre of the space, with an old wood-burner stove and range off to the right, and windows that faced the rear of the property.

  Pushing the box he carried onto a granite counter, Nathan handed her the torch and began to rummage through the contents until he pulled out a thick blanket. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘Let’s find somewhere he can sleep for a bit.’

  By the time they’d settled Alex, Decker had returned with enough timber to keep a small fire going through the night. Eva pulled three chairs closer to the hearth and soon they were drinking hot soup from some chipped mugs Decker found in one of the cupboards.

  ‘So,’ said Nathan, setting his empty mug on the floor. ‘Tell me why we’re here. I thought we were safe in Italy?’

  Eva wrapped her hands round the empty mug, its surface still holding some warmth from the soup it had contained, and stared into the fire, while she sought the right words. Eventually, she spoke.

  ‘You can imagine how shocked we were at finding a small kid in tow with the engineer,’ she said. ‘It threw us completely – you’d have thought he would have mentioned Alex when he first spoke with Doug about defecting, but he hadn’t.’

  ‘Is Alex his real name?’

  ‘Yes.’ Her eyes found the sleeping bundle near Decker’s chair, the firelight casting shadows over the boy’s face as he slept. She exhaled and leaned back. ‘The Section had to act fast – here was an engineer that had evidence of a significant threat to the power balance in Europe, wanting to defect, and under instructions from his government to call in every three hours while he was in Prague. We had one hour of that timeframe left to make a decision.’

  ‘So Doug offered to help him defect?’

  Eva nodded. ‘Immediately. We took him and his boy back to the embassy with us.’ A wave of sickness threatened to consume her. ‘In all the confusion, no-one had the sense to ask the engineer if there was anyone else with him.’

  Nathan’s face paled. ‘What happened?’

  Eva put her empty mug on the floor and balanced her elbows on her knees, watching Decker who had moved across to the fireplace to stoke the logs.

  Embers shot up the chimney, before the fire settled once more into a steady burn.

  ‘We’d put them into one of the guest suites at the embassy while the Section spoke with London. Doug had just ordered food for them, and then the engineer asked what he was going to do about his wife.’ She sighed. ‘For a supposed genius, he sure as hell had a way of keeping important information close to his chest. Of course, everyone panicked. It turned out that his wife was still at the hotel he’d been staying at while the conference was on. The Section sent two agents there – the deadline for the engineer to call his superiors had passed fifteen minutes earlier. I couldn’t go – I was still under orders to protect Doug, and there was no way they were going to let him go to the hotel.’

  Nathan glanced at the sleeping boy and lowered his voice. ‘She was dead, wasn’t she?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Eva, her voice dull. ‘We think they posed as hotel security, so she opened the door to them, not suspecting anything. Knowing the engineer, he probably hadn’t even told her about his plans to defect – or that he’d passed on state secrets to the British. We think he took Alex to the meeting point as a cover, in case his handlers stopped and asked where he was going.’

  ‘Jesus.’ Nathan ran a hand over his face. ‘How did they manage to get to the engineer if he was staying at the embassy?’

  ‘Simple. He disobeyed orders.’ Eva sighed. ‘He left the embassy to go and buy cigarettes; told the agent that was tasked with minding him that he was off to the toilet, and instead left the building. They shot him as he was leaving the tobacconist.’

  ‘They knew he was at the embassy already?’

  ‘It was an obvious place to look,’ said Decker. ‘All they had to do was wait, and see if anyone made a mistake.’

  ‘It makes you wonder what he was like to work with, if he disobeyed instructions not to leave the building,’ said Nathan. ‘I mean, surely after finding out his wife had been killed, he’d be a bit more careful.’

  ‘Unless he was having second thoughts about helping the British,’ said Eva. ‘It’s something that I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about recently.’

  ‘Suicide by assassin?’ Nathan said. ‘Really?’

  ‘It worked,’ said Eva.

  She saw Nathan’s eyes fall to the small boy that lay curled up, oblivious to the conversation about him. ‘So, how did you end up with him?’

  Eva glanced at Decker.

  He’d positioned himself with his back to the fire, eyeing her warily, his hands clasped behind his back. There were some things even he didn’t know about her mission for the Section, and she wasn’t sure how he was going to react when he found out.

  She took a deep breath.

  ‘When Doug finally managed to tell him about his mother and father, the first thing Alex did was ask where his twin sister was.’

  Two

  Berlin

  * * *

  When his mobile phone buzzed on the counter-top, Miles reached for it without taking his eyes from the laptop screen in front of him.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘If you can meet me at Mauerpark in fifteen minutes, I’ve got something you might be interested in.’

  Miles snapped the laptop shut, his full attention on the caller.

  Since leaving the office, he’d put a subtle request out to each of his contacts in other agencies, telling them Knox had given him strict instructions to get results, or suffer the consequences.

  Most had sympathised with him – Knox had a reputation for being difficult to work with and burning through people that reported to him, so no-one was surprised another member of his staff was disgruntled at being put in the firing line.

  Alan Greene was one such contact; he worked for Interpol and so had access to most of the alerts circulating the continent in relation to counter-terrorism measures. Requests from the Section would naturally cross his desk. After twenty years working in the organisation, he was well-versed in subversive trade craft, especially when it was being applied within the very organisations created to counteract threats to national security.

  ‘Care to elaborate?’ Miles asked, testing the water.

  ‘An old friend of ours appears to be on the warpath,’ said Greene. ‘In fact, given the location of where he’s been seen, and who he’s been seen with, I’d wager he had something to do with the shootout in Prague nine days ago.’

  ‘I’ll be there,’ said Miles, and hung up.

  He shrugged on his jacket, locked the apartment door and, seeing the displays for both elevators stuck on lower levels, pushed his way through a fire exit door and ran down the service stairs two at a time.

  After discarding the idea of taking his car and trying to find a space in the tight time frame Greene had given him, he opted to take the tram instead.

  As the tram jostled along Bernauer Street, conveying its passengers towards the Christmas markets, he mulled over Greene’s call and tried to tune out the incessant chatter from the tourists around him.

  There were only a few people that would fit the loose description he’d provided. Agents came and went, moved on, got promoted, but to come out of retirement – and so publicly – would be risky. Working as a field agent for the Section wasn’t exactly the sort of job people retired from.

  Not unless they left permanently.

  In a wooden box.

  Miles jerked his head up as the tram slid to a halt, realising he’d already reached his stop. He jumped onto the kerb and hurried towards the park entrance, checked his watch and realised he was already two minutes late.

  He could only hope Greene would wait.

  Miles entered t
he park and circled the walking paths until he saw a figure huddled on one of the benches. As he drew closer, the figure stood and extended his hand, vapour escaping his lips into the cold air.

  ‘Glad you could make it. Thought you were going to bail out on me.’

  ‘Not a chance,’ said Miles. ‘I appreciated the call. What have you got?’

  ‘I’ve got evidence to suggest that the Caretaker is active again.’

  Miles’s heart lurched. Of all the agents whose names had run through his head, he’d missed that one. ‘I thought he quit after his brother was killed? What’s he doing?’

  Greene passed him a photograph.

  In it, a car had driven under the camera location, the man they were discussing at the wheel.

  Miles felt his jaw slacken as he recognised the passenger.

  Eva.

  ‘Where was this taken?’

  ‘On the border with Austria and Italy.’

  ‘How on earth did you get this?’

  ‘The Schengen Agreement isn’t what it once was,’ said Greene. ‘Even if the border crossings aren’t manned, we have to photograph every vehicle that passes through.’

  ‘When was this taken?’

  ‘Eight days ago.’

  ‘Any idea where they are now?’

  Greene shook his head. ‘We believe Decker has a house in Italy somewhere. So far, he’s managed to evade us whenever we’ve tried to track him. Keeps off the grid most of the time.’ He took the photograph back. ‘You were lucky. I only spotted this because of the alert out on her.’ He tucked the photo into his jacket pocket. ‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on?’

  Miles tried to ignore the prickling sensation at the nape of his neck. ‘Alan, I’m not sure I even know what’s going on.’