Awakening of Spies by Brian Landers

Author:Brian Landers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RedDoor Press
Published: 2020-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

XV

My hand felt for the Luger as I awoke to the sound of somebody entering the apartment. The cold metal was comforting. I clicked off the safety catch while it was still muffled by the pillow. The clock read 11.35.

Footsteps approached the bedroom door.

‘Thomas?’ It was Pedro’s voice.

‘Come in.’

He entered, clearly disconcerted by the gun pointed at him. There was nobody behind him and I lowered the Luger.

‘Sorry to wake you up at this unearthly hour,’ Pedro said sarcastically. ‘I would have got here earlier but I had to shake off a tail.’

‘I’ve had a hectic night.’

‘I know. I’ll make some coffee while you get dressed. There’s a lot to talk about.’

The coffee was black and invigorating.

‘How did you know I was here?’

‘Nowhere else you could have gone. I heard about the bomb at the hotel and that you’d disappeared. You had to be here.’

‘You mean it’s in the morning papers?’

‘No, I heard it on the grapevine. The regime will have to let the press publish the story because Stover was American and the US press will be buzzing around soon. They’re probably at the hotel now. It will be put down to terrorists of course. The CIA will be wetting themselves in case it comes out that Stover was one of them. Hopefully you won’t be involved at all. What exactly happened?’

I recounted the whole story. Finding the leaflets, which Pedro confirmed were out of date. The conversation with Gary. The explosion. My own narrowest of escapes. Gomes. Conniston contacting Nebulo.

Finally we played the tape I had retrieved from the villa. I offered no explanations: that’s what I wanted from Pedro but he said nothing.

‘I’m starting to suspect everything,’ I concluded. ‘This morning a Corcel, like mine but red, followed me towards Duque de Caxias. I thought I was being tailed but he turned off.’

‘You seem a bit edgy,’ Pedro agreed. ‘People don’t often point guns at me.’

‘Well I have every right to be edgy. Somebody’s just tried to kill me. But why?’

In my mind the only possible reason to kill me was that I had identified the auctioneers and they were worried about what I would do next. But how did they know I was on to them? Unless anyone from inside the Villa Nhambiquaras had seen me prowling around, which I was convinced could not have happened, somebody must have told them. And that meant Pedro or someone he had spoken to in London. That was not a chain of thought I wanted to explore with Pedro.

‘Violence is the last resort of the incompetent,’ I continued. ‘The DG keeps saying that. It’s from one of Isaac Asimov’s books. I could see why Martines didn’t want me around but the bomb was crude. London could have a replacement here in hours. The last resort of the incompetent. The Martines you described wasn’t incompetent. I thought we were dealing with a veteran international arms dealer not someone who starts flailing out at the first sign of trouble. We saw

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