When I began my training, there was one exercise that nobody was looking forward to. Withstanding interrogation. There were too many rumors about exactly how realistic the experience was going to be. But when the course schedule was finally handed out I could see no mention of it. I remember sitting with the paper in my hand, studying each of the titles, wondering where in the jargon it was hidden. And obviously no one was stupid enough to ask.
The exercise after the fake fridge company was also based in the field. Each of us was dropped in a different town in Devon and given four hours to get hold of the full names, addresses, passport numbers, and bank account details from a pair of civilians. It didn’t matter who they were, as long as the information was genuine. It sounded pretty straightforward. We all set off happy, confident of another tick in the box. Plus an afternoon in a nice seaside pub if we worked fast enough.
Ten minutes after jumping down from the bus we’d all been snatched back off the street. We were each thrown in the back of a van. Sacking was tied roughly over our heads and we were driven to an abandoned abattoir. What happened next wasn’t nice. But it did teach us two things. How to keep our mouths shut, at least for a while. And that circumstances are rarely as they first may seem.
I never forgot the first part.
I should have paid more attention to the second.
The consulate Jaguar had dropped Lucinda and me outside the Broadway branch of Rhythm amp; Booze at dead-on 7:30 P.M. We mingled with the little group of early-evening drinkers that was gathering outside until the car was well out of sight. Then we made our way toward the rendezvous point, circling the area and looking for anyone who could be watching the place from a vehicle, a building, or on foot. Lucinda thought I was paranoid, the length of time we took, but I made her stick with it. She wasn’t the one who’d be facing Lavine the next morning.
The Bulldog itself turned out to be a typical theme pub-a square, characterless multipurpose unit clumsily dressed up to look like something it wasn’t. There were fake Yorkshire flagstones on the floor, a rectangular mahogany and brass bar tacked on to the back wall, a pool table and one-armed bandits to the left, and four dingy booths in a row on the right. We checked that no one was lurking there or in the restrooms, and by 8:00 P.M. were settled on hard wooden chairs at the side of the drafty doorway. I had a bottle of Newcastle Brown on the round table in front of us. Lucinda had a gin and tonic.
Twenty-three people entered the pub over the next hour. Seventeen were men. Nine were on their own. Five were in the right age range. And none of them looked anything like the photo of Mansell that Lucinda had brought in her purse.
Tanya arrived at a minute to nine. She stood on her own near the door for a few moments, gazing around the room as if she were taken by the oversized photos of wartime London that were plastered all over the walls. Then she stepped up to the bar, took the middle one of the three remaining stools, and ordered a drink.
“Looks different, doesn’t she?” Lucinda said.
“A little, maybe,” I said.
The truth was she looked very different. It wasn’t just the jeans and casual blouse, or the way she’d left her hair untied. It was her whole manner. She seemed tense and twitchy, like someone on speed. That wasn’t like her at all. It brought home to me how much the need to exorcise the ghosts of Morocco must be eating away at her. I just hoped Mansell would show his face. And if he did, that her spikiness wouldn’t scare him away again.
“Who is this guy we’re supposed to meet?” Lucinda said.
“No one special,” I said.
“Then why are we bothering?”
Good question, I thought. Ask Tanya, and her overactive sense of guilt.
“He’s a U.K. citizen,” I said. “He’s in danger. Needs our help.”
“We help lots of citizens,” Lucinda said. “But they usually come to us. What’s different about this guy?”
“Hold on,” I said. “Watch this. We have a possible contact.”
A man was sidling along next to the bar, looking mainly at the floor but occasionally glancing up at Tanya. He was short and fat, in his forties with thinning hair, saggy jeans, and a Chelsea soccer shirt at least two seasons out of date.
Lucinda sighed.
“You have no idea what it’s like for a woman in a pub on her own, have you?” she said. “It’s just a creep hitting on her. Happens all the time.”
The guy put his hand on Tanya’s shoulder and leaned in close to whisper something in her ear. I couldn’t hear her reply, but it must have hit the spot. He didn’t hang around. And none of his pals tried their luck, either, after that. Which was just as well.
At nine thirty Tanya took out her cell phone and labored through the process of sending a text. She tapped out another at ten. And at ten thirty, and eleven. Then thirty minutes later she stood up, put the phone away, and headed for the exit. The door hinged inward, and as she pulled it open Tanya curled her first two fingers around the leading edge.
“Phase two,” I said to Lucinda. “Time to go.”
Lucinda and I stood close together at the edge of the sidewalk and stared in opposite directions, arms poised as if waiting to flag down a cab. Tanya was on our left, strolling casually back toward Broadway. Nothing developed for thirty seconds. Then another guy came out of the pub. He paused next to Lucinda and also looked down the street. But he was only interested in one direction. Tanya’s. He watched her intently for ten seconds then started after her, sticking to the shadows. He was moving just fast enough to draw level before the end of the block.
“Creepy guy,” Lucinda said. “But too short for Mansell.”
“So who is he?” I said.
“What do you think? Pervert?”
“Don’t know. Could be. Let’s find out.”
We moved off together, keeping pace with the guy from the pub. I felt for my phone and held down the 3 key with my thumb. It was set to speed-dial Mansell’s number. Five seconds passed. Six. Then the guy reacted. His left arm twitched, reaching for his pocket, and I heard a brief snatch of muffled ring tone.
Tanya was closer and she heard the phone, too. She stopped and turned. Both the guy’s hands disappeared into his coat pockets. He silenced the ringing with his left, and pulled something out with his right. It was small. Brown. Wooden, with brass ends, like a flattened tube. There was a button halfway down its long edge. The guy pressed it and a four-inch blade scythed out from the side and locked into place. He lifted the knife up. The steel was gleaming orange under the streetlights. The point was level with Tanya’s throat.
I was too far away to reach him. If he moved now Tanya would be dead before I could make up half the distance.
“Stop,” I said. “Armed police. Drop your weapon or I will fire.”
The guy froze, but the knife stayed in his hand.
I kept going. I was nearly there.
“Armed police,” I said. “Drop your weapon. You’ve been warned.”
He slowly turned to face me, raising the knife and angling it toward my chin.
“Now, it seems you have two problems,” he said, in a flawless BBC accent. “You don’t look like a policeman. And you don’t look like you’re armed. So tell me again, why I should drop anything?”
“We’re looking for a missing person,” I said. “Another Englishman. We’re worried about him. All we need to know is who you are, and where you got that phone. Tell us, and there’s no need for anyone to get hurt.”
“Firstly, I’m not English, you presumptuous ass. I don’t care what happens to your countrymen. And secondly, who is going to hurt me? You? Or these women?”
“No one wants to hurt you. We just want your help.”
The guy snorted disdainfully.
“OK,” I said. “If that’s not a good enough reason, how about money? Put the knife down and we’ll talk. Dollars, pounds, euros-whichever you prefer.”
The guy pursed his lips, nodded thoughtfully, and began to lower the knife. He traced an imaginary line down the center of my body from my throat, past my chest and stomach and as far as my waist. Then he lunged at me, thrusting forward and trying to drive the blade back up under my rib cage. I jumped back and shot out both arms, crossed at the wrists, trapping his hand and stopping him an inch short of skewering me. The guy tried to pull away so I grabbed his wrist with my left hand, forced it over, and jabbed one knuckle from my right fist into the fleshy part of his forearm. He yelled. The knife clattered onto the sidewalk. I kicked it aside and flicked my right fist up square against his cheekbone, disorienting him. Then I punched him hard in the solar plexus, doubling him over, and slammed my fist upward into his face to stand him upright again. He was sagging now, bleeding heavily from the mouth and nose, barely able to breathe. The job was nearly done.
I drew my arm back, ready to unload the final blow, but before I could launch it his whole body was suddenly bathed in light. It was coming from the street. I realized a car engine was running, close by. It was stationary. Then a door opened, followed by another a second later. I heard footsteps. Two sets. One moving straight toward me, the other peeling away to the right.
“NYPD,” a woman’s voice said. “Stand still. Nobody move.”
“The phone,” I said to the guy. “Where did you get it? Tell me and we’ll help you. We can make this go away.”
“Shut up,” the officer said. “Hands where I can see them. All of you. Do it now.”
Tanya and Lucinda complied straightaway. I gave the guy another couple of seconds to answer, then let go of his wrist and raised my own hands. He staggered sideways, slumped against the wall, and struggled to get his arms up to chest level.
“You, in the leather coat,” the officer said. “Turn and face me.”
“Can’t do that,” I said. “Can’t turn my back on this guy. He’s a psychopath. Wanted by the FBI. Multiple homicide.”
“Shut up. Turn around. Do it now.”
“Listen to me. My name is David Trevellyan. I’m working with the FBI. Special Agent Lavine is in charge. His number is in my phone. I’m going to reach inside my jacket and-”
“No. Don’t move. Hands where I can see them.”
“David, quick,” Tanya said. “Stop him.”
The guy from the pub was smiling. But not an ordinary smile. A fervent, ecstatic smile. And his right hand was moving again. It was snaking back toward his inside pocket. This time the officers didn’t bother with a warning. They just fired. Two rounds each. Tight pattern, to the center of his chest. After that-epiphany or not-there’s really no way back.
“Too slow,” Tanya said. “Damn it. We needed him alive.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “Look at his hand.”
The officers had shredded a number of the guy’s vital organs, but they’d missed the thing he’d been reaching for.
Mansell’s phone.