Gatecrasher (24 page)

‘That’s nonsense!’

‘You could argue the technicalities of that with the gentlemen of the press if you’d prefer.’

‘Don’t threaten me.’

‘Well strictly speaking I’m not threatening you. The interests that I represent might not like that choice of word either. They seek only your co-operation in exchange for their own. Let’s look at it as more of a statement of facts. Allow me to list these facts for you.

‘Number one. You were, Mr Asquith, involved, knowingly or otherwise, in the shipping of illegal armaments to rebel organisations of
Sierra Leone
who were engaged at the time in a brutal civil war with that country’s government. This was clearly in direct contravention to international law not to mention morally reprehensible. As a result you are directly tied to breaking several UN Resolutions, profiteering from an illegally waged war and, last but by no means least, the trafficking of conflict diamonds. Fact two. You are responsible for the award of numerous highly lucrative construction and engineering contracts to be carried out in
Malaysia
. Fact number three. You will award these cont
racts to the following tenders:
’

Asquith listened as the voice set out the terms of the blackmail to which he was to be subjected. It was immediately clear what was happening. Of the various tenders that had been submitted for the
Malaysia
contracts the names of the companies he was hearing had submitted the weakest or most expensive. They were the least likely to succeed. Or had been.

‘Number four, Mr Asquith. When the interests I represent are satisfied of fact Number three you will be sent a memory stick which contains evidence pertaining to fact Number one. This is the only copy of the data in existence. You will do with this whatever you choose. Is this clear Mr Asquith? Are you comfortable with these facts or would you like me to reaffirm them for you?’

‘There will be no need for that.’

‘Excellent. We will contact you in due course.’

Monday
.
3.30 pm
.

To
Campbell
this felt like a siege. They had been in Sarah’s flat since early Saturday morning, having packed up and fled the cottage almost immediately.

Campbell
reasoned that Sarah’s anonymity was safe. Whoever the man at the cottage had been, Daniel had told her, he could know nothing about Sarah. How could he? He must have followed
Campbell
down to the cottage and waited for his moment but the chances that he knew anything about Sarah were minimal.

Since their return they had slept fitfully, read, and found various things to pass the time. Sarah had taken much convincing to go into work and looked nervous and scared when she left and would probably be on edge all day and watching over her shoulder. She had conceded that he was right however and that they must do something rather than sit and wait. That meant that she had to go to work. There she could help him, there she could be of more use than waiting at home.

He had made one brief trip out on the Sunday to leave the note for George and had returned inside two hours. Now as the day slipped by in silence
Campbell
’s mind raced. Would they send someone else for him? Had they been followed back from
Cornwall
as they had evidently been followed down there? Would Sarah return? Maybe she would lose her nerve and run to the police or would somebody get to her before she got back.

There was a buzzing sound like an angry wasp and the mobile phone handset flashed and moved slightly across the wooden surface of the table in front of him.

Snatching it up he pressed answer and lifted it to his ear.

‘Hello?’

‘Daniel. Its George.’

‘George. He
llo there,
’ his attempt to sound relaxed was almost convincing.

‘You wanted me to call.’

‘I did. I think we need to talk.’

‘Well spotted. What do you think you’re up to sunshine?’

Campbell
noted an odd tone to the man’s voice. There was still the gruff threatening manner that he had encountered before but gone was the menacingly playful tone. There was something slightly hesitant now, something apprehensive lurking there.
Campbell
remembered the way he had spoken to him after
Gresham
had tried to threaten an ex-girlfriend and was surprised that the man wasn’t baying for his blood down the telephone.

‘Just trying to work out w
hat the hell is going on George,
’ said
Campbell
.

‘It’s got nothing to do with you lad.’

‘Well that isn’t true is it?’

‘I just want that stick back.’

‘See, I don’t quite get this George. From what I can see from the data on it, there just doesn’t seem to be anything that might be in your line of work. I mean no offence of course but you know what I’m getting at.’

‘Don’t start getting clever son.’

‘Look, George. I don’t want this fucking thing alright?’ he snapped. ‘I don’t want any of this to be happening but you aren’t the only person after this are you? And it seems to me that if I just hand it over to you then I might end up upsetting somebody else
instead
. So humour me.’

There was a pause on the line and
Campbell
started to sweat. This was a dangerous man he was annoying. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

‘OK. Listen up. Since I can’t fucking find you I can hardly threaten you. It looks like you have the advantage, so I’ll ask nice.’ His tone had actually softened much to
Campbell
’s surprise. ‘That memory stick is worth a fair bit of money. I owe a fair bit of money to a very unpleasant man called Frank Walker who has decided that to make sure I pay him back, he has kidnapped my daughter.’

Campbell
wasn’t sure what to make of this. There was no reason to trust the man and every reason to assume that this was some new ruse to get his hands on what he wanted. But there was something in his voice that made
Campbell
wonder.

‘You’ve met her actually,
’
Gresham
continued. ‘Just before we met, she lent Slater a bit of a hand convincing you to come along and see me.’

The pretty girl on his doorstep when Slater had first appeared. Angie he’d called her.

‘Famil
y business George. Heart warming,
’ he said.

‘Mmmn,’ the response sounded distant, distracted. Perhaps he wasn’t making this up. Certainly if
Gresham
was just the courier, just moving the stick from one place to another it made a little more sense.

‘Look George, that may be true or you may be spinning me a line. I don’t really care so long as I can back out of this mess without anybody getting hurt and just forget about the whole thing. Tell me what you know. I mean, even if you get off my back I still have whoever it was tried to off me the other night to contend with and at the moment that’s more scary than you are.’

A pause. ‘I didn’t have anything to do with that. Frankly, I’m not about to go chucking my weight around like that on someone like you.’

‘My ribs would disagree.’

‘Shut up
. You’ve had worse than that in the playground. Now this is what I know. We did some job a week or so ago, which is what that memory stick is all about. Not usually our thing but the money was good
–
and like I said, I have a debt to pay off. The job was easy and we had pretty clear directions about what to collect. Problem was, one of the boys got his boat clocked by the cameras and it all started looking a lot nastier than we expected. So we took steps.’

‘I think you may have mentioned my gatecrasher before.’

‘Right. Not particularly proud of it but self defence really. Anyway, seems that the stick has something on it that should be kept quiet and we weren’t the only ones worried about getting caught with our pants down. Which explains this other guy trying to off you.’

‘I’m not seeing any great reason to trust you yet George.’

‘I guess not. But believe me, I didn’t want that to happen. I need the stick and to be honest, it’s a fucking shame you’ve got caught up in this. You seem like a decent enough lad but this whole thing has got way, way out of control.’

‘Thanks a lot,
’
Campbell
replied, unable to check his sarcasm.

‘Bottom line is, I just need the stick to get Angie back. That’s all I give a shit about now.’

‘This chap you were working for, he sent someone after me, right?

‘Yes.’

‘He still after me? I mean is he planning to send someone else?’

A pause before he spoke. ‘I think you can assume he won’t be happy to hear that you’re still around.’

‘If I let you have this memory stick George, can you call him off?’

Silence.

‘George?’

‘Yes. Yes sure.’

It was a lie and
Campbell
knew it immediately.

‘I’ll call you back.’

Monday
.
4pm
.

Sitting at the table with the two ministers from the DfID Geoffrey Asquith was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate on the task at hand.

As they examined the dossiers and tender documents from the various companies vying for the construction contracts, it was becoming ever more clear just how much weaker the ones he had been instructed to choose were than the others.

Having had so little time to really chew over the proposition that had been put to him he was trying to continue his work as if nothing were wrong. But every time one of the other men highlighted a particular feature or benefit of one of the stronger tenders it felt as if they were just rubbing it in. He wanted to shout; Yes, I get it! I understand!

‘Are you OK Minister?’ one of them asked. He must look distracted.

‘Sorry? Oh, yes. Fine. Lots on, you know.’

‘I hope you don’t mind me saying but you don’t look at all well.’

Asquith was a little taken aback hearing this from the younger man. He looked at the other whose expression told him he agreed.

‘Can I get you a glass of water?’ said the first man helpfully.

‘No, no. That’s…’ He was about to say it was quite alright but stopped and then excused himself. In the bathroom he stood at the sink and gazed in the mirror. They had been quite correct; he looked dreadful. His skin was pallid and his eyes dark and a thin sheen of sweat glistened along his hairline and lip.

That telephone call had hit him harder than he thought.

Shortly he was back in his office alone again. His effusive apologies had been waved away by the junior men as they left, insistent that it was no problem and they just hoped he felt better soon. He was a busy man and shouldn’t overdo it. His secretary had dutifully, if a little reluctantly, cleared his diary for the afternoon and he had told her that he would be leaving shortly because he was feeling unwell and should she wish to leave early she was welcome to do so.

When he was sitting in traffic on his way out of town he made a brief call and then told the cab driver to make a detour and pick someone up. They both got out at Asquith’s home in Hampstead and began to walk the quiet streets near the Heath.

‘Has something happened?’ said Horner. The effort of remaining silent throughout the entire journey seemed to have taken its toll on him.

‘You might say that. You have put me in an extremely awkward position Michael. Extremely awkward.’

‘I’m sorry Geoffrey, I never wanted to involve you.’

‘Well you have! I had a call this afternoon. It’s an insider-trading scam, Michael. Whoever they are, they are trying to set up an insider-trading scam.’

‘What? That’s insane.’

‘Not really. I am currently in charge of a Hydroelectric Dam project that our overseas aid department is part-funding. As is usual, these contracts will probably go to British contractors to build the thing. I’m sure you’re familiar with this type of deal.’

‘Well construction is not my area and nor is
Asia
but I have an idea.’

‘Yes, well they have kindly informed me exactly which firms they want the contracts to be awarded to.’

‘Incredible!’ Horner looked surprised. ‘How can they ever imagine they’ll get away with it?’

‘Michael please. That seems plain enough.’

‘Well perhaps it’s the firms themselves. I mean, maybe they all have ties to one another? Organised crime, front-companies, that sort of thing?’