Everything to Lose (26 page)

39

Research
lab
K416

Three days after he dropped his bombshell in the tutorial Gavin was working in the research laboratory and thinking it had failed. He wondered what else he could do. When he told Zoe she said he had done well and she was sure it would produce a reaction.

The
internal phone on Gavin's desk seemed to ring with special urgency. It seemed that way because it was unusual to hear the phone ring at all. Gavin hadn't received any calls in the research lab. In fact he wondered if anyone knew his extension number or whether the phone actually worked.

"Dr
Shawlens?"

"Yes."

"Dr Shawlens this is Suzie Griffan. I need to speak with you urgently."

"E
rm … Suzie, yes, okay, erm. Look I've got someone with me just now. Can we meet tomorrow?" Gavin sounded flustered.

"I
can't wait. I'm in a real mess. I don't know what I should do."

"Okay
where and when?"

"Can
we meet in the Student Union bar tonight say around eight p.m. I really need to talk to someone."

"Eight
p.m., Student Union bar. Okay I'll see you then."

"Suzie
Griffan?" Zoe asked.

"She
wants to talk. I'll meet her tonight."

"How
did she sound?"

"Edgy,
nervous, a bit rattled."

"I
told you Gavin. It would only need a little push."

"She
must be ready to spill. This'll be the break we need."

"We'll
leave early. I'll run through the basics with you. Interrogation 101," Zoe said.

Back
at the flat Zoe and Gavin ate an early dinner so Zoe could prepare Gavin for his meeting. She prepared questions he should ask. He guessed Suzie's replies and worked on follow up questions.

She
wanted Gavin to get as much out of Suzie Griffan as possible. She knew that if Gavin drove this meeting he could get a breakthrough out of Suzie. He conducted a good mock interrogation. He showed Zoe his mind was in the right frame and he was eager for the challenge. She was confident he was well prepared. She gave him one piece of final advice.

"Remember
she's a female. Expect the unexpected. Don't be taken in by sob stories, flashy boobs, quivering lips or fluttering eyelashes. Keep your focus on what we want and you'll be fine."

At
eight p.m. Gavin parked his car in the Student Union car park. He walked to the entrance and stopped. His path was blocked by a man refusing to move to one side. The man looked to be mid-forties, about five-ten so two inches taller than Gavin Shawlens. He had a bald well-tanned head with thick eyebrows. He wore a black faux leather coat and dark trousers with turn-ups. His name was Ivan Fillipovar.

"Dr
Shawlens?"

Gavin
nodded as he watched another man take position close by his side. A smaller man about thirty-six and similar in height to Gavin. This man wore a short leather jacket that made his body look obese. He also wore dark trousers with turn-ups. His brown hair was close cropped and looked as though he had put oil or cream on it to make it lay flat. Yordan Letchikova was Ivan's cousin.

"Come
please," Yordan said as he placed his open hand within an inch of Gavin arm.

"I'm
meeting someone inside."

"Dr
Suzie send apology. No meeting you here. She ask us take you to her," Ivan said.

Gavin
Shawlens sensed that Yordan was about to grab his arm. He felt he had no choice but go with them to their car. Laraine McSwann had told him Buzzwall sent two foreign thugs to ask her about Oliver Mansole.
They'll
take
me
to
Buzzwall
.
I
just
need
Zoe
to
crash
the
meeting
he thought.

Gavin
and Ivan got into the back of the car and Yordan drove the car. He fumbled in his pocket for his mobile phone but before he could press any buttons Ivan reached over and took it from him then slipped it into his coat pocket. Professionals train with their equipment so that they can use it blindfolded. Gavin Shawlens didn't spend much time getting to know his SEM phone so he couldn't operate it inside his trouser pocket.

***

Scott
Bradwood ran around the Student Union building in a panic looking in every room. When he was sure Gavin Shawlens wasn't in the building he called Zoe.

"Boss,
SLIP One is a no-show," Scott said and Zoe could hear he was out of breath.

"He's
been there almost an hour. You don't have eyeball?" Zoe said with alarm.

"He's
not in the bar. I'm at reception. I've checked the book boss, he's not signed in. She's not signed in either."

"She
must have met him in the car park," Zoe said.

"SHIT.
I should have waited outside."

"Okay
Scott. She changed the plan."

"What
do I do now boss?"

"Go
to her house. If they're not there then wait for her to reappear. Keep me posted. I might need to make her cough-up SLIP One."

Zoe
Tampin contacted the Lambeth Group office on her SEM mobile phone. She requested control and tracking of Gavin's phone patched to her phone. Within five minutes she was looking at a street map with a flashing white dot on Devonshire Avenue, Southsea. It was the location of Gavin Shawlens.

The
signal was weak one bar instead of five bars but steady and not moving. It was not more than five miles from her location. A weak signal suggested tall building or an underground basement.

She
pulled up the control panel of his phone. He had not activated the alarm and had not activated record or listen-in mode. She had told him she wanted a recording of the discussion. She could activate the listen-in function from her control panel but if the phone was in view then others would be alerted it was transmitting. She decided not to activate listen-in and instead made her way to Gavin's location.

It
took her eighteen minutes to drive five miles to the place where Gavin's phone was flashing its location. Zoe sat in her car and looked around the area. It was residential street with a mixture of houses, flats and terraced properties, with lots of cars parked on the street. She looked at her watch and by her calculation Griffan and Shawlens had been together for eighty minutes. She told Gavin that if he didn't green team hub after ninety minutes she would crash the meeting.

Among
the icons on the SEM mobile phone there are two team hub icons that looked like four little head and shoulder people in a huddle. There is one blue icon and one green icon. Pressing the green team hub icon will send a flash text to the Lambeth Group office relayed to team members to signal all is okay.

The
blue team hub icon sends a request for assistance. While she waited she received a text from Scott.
Griffan
home
,
alone
,
car
stone
cold
.

Gavin
hadn't sent any signals but then he was a bit lax, she knew that. On the other hand he could be in trouble if Suzie Griffan had set a trap.
OK
time
up
she thought as she made her way to the ground floor flat where she'd pinpointed his phone.

Zoe
rattled the door to the flat and half-expected to see Gavin apologising for not sticking to protocol and sending a green team hub signal. No answer. She went around to the back of the flat and tapped out the glass in the kitchen window.

Two
minutes later she scoured the flat. It was bare and reminded her of a typical MI5 safe house with basic furniture, no personal touches and basic facilities. She found Gavin's phone in wooden box. It lay with a stash of a dozen other stolen mobile phones, PDA's and tablet computers.

As
she looked around the flat she saw it was used regularly. There was enough food for a prolonged period and other niceties such as beer, cigarettes and potato crisps. She felt confident the occupants would return.

She
decided it was better not to rattle Griffan in case that precipitated a panic disposal of Shawlens. She called Scott and Toni and together they organised twenty-four hour surveillance of the flat. They agreed rotating eight-hour shifts with one person in the flat, one person outside in their car and one person resting up.

As
she settled down for the first shift in the flat on this damp and rainy Monday night she thought about Gavin Shawlens in unfriendly hands. He would not be a good soldier. Pain would hurt him more than most. She prayed for third time lucky and not third man dead.

40

Prague
,
Czech
Republic

Ivan and Yordan drove their white and yellow BRTKPharma signed van to Folkestone just in time to catch the late Eurotunnel shuttle to Calais. No one expects people smuggling from the UK to Europe so the van passed through customs and immigration without any delay.

They
had done this drive many times via Lille, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt and Nuremberg. They entered the Czech Republic at the Waidhaus (Bavaria)-Rozvadov (Czech Republic) border crossing. Ivan took over for a share of the driving.

The
following morning they delivered Gavin Shawlens at ten a.m. to BRTKPharma's factory in Prague centre as instructed. They entered the back door of the factory and took Shawlens to the general office and sat him down. There were two other men in the office, Dr Georgi Kremova and Dr Petko Dimitrov.

In
loud and excited Bulgarian Georgi Kremova embraced and congratulated bald headed Ivan Fillipovar and his cousin Yordan Letchikova for bringing Shawlens to Prague without incident. He promised them a great bonus for their work. Ivan and Yordan left the office and headed to the food hall for breakfast.

"Welcome
to Prague Dr Shawlens. I apologise for inconvenience. We launch new product soon. Secrecy is vital. You understand this of course?" Georgi said.

His
English was less accented than the two deliverymen and less clipped.

"I've
been gagged and locked in the back of a van. I didn't agree to come here. Your thugs threatened me and stole my phone."

"Forgive
me I am Dr Georgi Kremova and this is my colleague Dr Petko Dimitrov. Professor Buzzwall told me you are expert on energy molecule ATP. You can fix our heat problem. Yes," Georgi said.

"I
didn't say I would."

"I'm
confused now. You offered solution with inhibitors. Please explain."

"It
was Dr Griffan and she told me next to nothing about the basis for your overheating problem. I can't fix something I don't understand."

"Of
course but after long journey you will eat breakfast with us, please."

Georgi
led Gavin and Petko followed as they entered what looked like an old school dining hall from
Oliver
Twist
with long dark wooden tables and rows of benches for seats. Complete with grubby wood panelling on the walls. It smelled of damp rotting wood and grease. They sat at the end of one of the long tables. Ivan and Yordan sat with three other people on another bench.

A
large woman ambled over to take their food order. In fact she was not unlike Mrs Bumble. She filled out her long-sleeved cook's white cotton blouse and the white linen apron around her waist was more like a sheet than an apron.

Her
blouse and apron were white but her shoes had enough grease on them to cook a meal and the grease had bonded with a fair amount of floor dirt. The menu was limited so it didn't take long to order three breakfasts.

"Tell
me Dr Shawlens what do you know of ATP history?" Georgi asked.

"Not
much history. It was discovered in the 1920's by Karl Lohmann in Germany they got the structure a few years later. They worked out its role in supplying energy to muscles a few years after that I think."

"Cellular
energy was discovered by Fritz Albert Lipmann working with Otto Meyerhof at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg," Petko said.

"I
did know that," Gavin said as the cook put plates of rye bread and rohlík (yeast roll) with butter and honey on the table. She brought more plates with thin slices of cheese, salami and ham together with chicken liver and sardine spreads.

She
brought a pot of coffee for Georgi and Petko and a pot of tea for Gavin. Finally she brought a bowl of muesli for Gavin.

"Did
you know that Adolf Hitler was obsessed with ATP?" Georgi asked.

"I
didn't know that."

"But
of course you understand why."

"Energy
... for his soldiers."

Georgi
explained that Hitler discovered the potential of ATP after the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Hitler believed he had found a tool to advance the supremacy of Germany and the Aryan race. Hitler's scientists told him how breaking the first bond in ATP to release the first packet of energy was easy for muscles but breaking the second bond was more difficult and breaking the third energy bond was very difficult.

He
said Hitler demanded a formula that would release the three packets of energy and deliver three times more energy to German muscles. Georgi said Hitler's scientists conducted experiments and tests on many prisoners before and during the war. They generated extensive results but none of it was safe.

Georgi
explained that his pharmaceutical company BRTKPharma discovered the ATP research in an old Soviet archive. He said he and Petko used modern technology to finish the work and develop a new catalyst to release three packets of energy from ATP in one step. Now they had an ideal supplement for athletes and the military. After breakfast the three returned to Georgi's office.

"Professor
Buzzwall said you will fix our overheating problem with inhibitors."

"I
don't know I'd need to do some research on metabolic pathways. I'll need to go back and use the University library."

"You
work here. Access online libraries," Petko said.

"Yes
I can do that," Gavin said and turned to look at Petko.

"Good.
I have bedroom here for you."

"Except
all my user names and passwords for secure libraries are stored in my phone. I really need my phone," Gavin said.

Georgi
phoned Ivan and asked about Gavin's phone. Ivan said he left it in case it could be traced when he was reported missing. He didn't say he planned to sell it on. Georgi told him to take a car, fetch the phone, remove the battery and bring it back.

"When
Ivan has rested he will go back and fetch your phone then you can get to work," Georgi said.

"Okay,
I'm happy with that."

"Good."

Gavin felt relieved. He knew that his phone would lead Zoe and her team to his location. Petko and Yordan took Gavin along a corridor and put him in a room then locked the door. The room was three metres by three metres with a single bed, a small bedside table, an old metal white enamel bowl and a jug of water.

On
a shelf under the bedside table a carafe of drinking water and a plastic cup. Against a wall a large wooden box with a toilet seat and Gavin soon found out there was a metal bucket inside the box. There was a window but it looked as though it hadn't been opened for decades.

The
floor was wooden and a single bulb for light hung from the ceiling. Through splits in the seam he saw the mattress was filled with waste cotton and wool that explained why his body had sank into the mattress and left large indents. There was no chair so he sat on the bed. He sat further back in the bed and rested his back against the wall.

He
closed his eyes and smiled. He imagined Zoe and Toni descending silently on fluttering elliptical ram-air black parachutes through the Prague night sky. Landing softly on the factory roof and cutting the electricity supply with explosive. Then running through dark corridors, wearing night vision goggles, shooting guards like Ivan and Yordan before they could react. Then kicking down the door to his room.

He
imagined her silhouette standing in the doorframe and her strong voice in the dark saying
Let's
go
. Two weeks ago Gavin and Zoe had watched Harrison Ford in
Airforce
One
and she said the high altitude low opening (HALO) parachuting at the start of the movie was easy-peasy.

Eight
hours later he stared intensely at the locked door. Now in the dark silence he felt alone and trapped. His mind returned to Emma Patersun and her sister Donna. They had been trapped in their house when it burned to the ground. He imagined them screaming and trying to fight their way out. It would have been a horrendous way to die but at least they were together.

If
he had not been in hospital recovering from his transplant then he would have been with them. In vivid dreams he ran into their burning house and the three of them formed a protective huddle while flaming walls collapsed around them. He imagined they were still hugging each other when the house had burned down.

He
had seen Emma briefly after his operation but he was groggy and disorientated. She held his hand and he heard her say she had wonderful news to tell him. He slept almost continuously for three days and didn't see her again.

Many
times he tortured himself trying to think what news Emma wanted to tell him. He wanted to revive the wonderful times when she was the love of his life. He felt she was ready to say yes to a new life with him.

Dr
McKenzee had treated Emma's injuries and knew Emma's news. He wanted to tell Gavin Shawlens that Emma was pregnant when she died. But before he could tell Gavin, Dr McKenzee was made to sign an order under the Official Secrets Act preventing him from divulging any information about Emma Patersun to anyone. The man who made him sign the order was Alan Cairn.

Gavin
sat in the room alone with his thoughts. He reasoned that if Kremova didn't get what he wanted he would send Gavin on his way to meet Emma.
Goodbye
Zoe
thanks
for
everything
, he thought.