Death in the Kingdom by Andrew Grant

Author:Andrew Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789814358217
Publisher: Monsoon Books Pte. Ltd.

21

Get down here fast!’ The voice was Don Don’s. He didn’t say anything else and hung up in my ear. I rolled over and glared at the digital clock on the beside table. The time was 04:40. Not a good time for me or for many other people. I nudged Babs awake.

‘Whash?’ she wanted to know. Oh yeah. Babs. Well, it went like this. After I’d had my shower the previous evening I did go down to the Coro Club and, as luck would have it, I ran straight into her. Her man was out of town again. We didn’t stay in the club. It was down to a restaurant she knew along the street and then back to number eleven for an exhausting romp. As I’d discovered the time before, she was damned near tireless. No wonder her guy spent so much time out of the country recuperating.

‘Gotta go,’ I told her. ‘Let yourself out. Make sure the door is locked, okay?’

‘Okay,’ she mumbled as she buried her face back in the pillow.

I quickly showered, dressed and hit the street. I didn’t bother flagging down a tuk tuk. I was at the embassy in ten minutes and I barely needed to flash my ID. A white-faced Don Don was waiting for me in the foyer.

‘What’s up?’

‘There was a chemical release.’

‘Shit!’

‘Apparently the box was compromised. Someone bumped the table and it hit the floor. The lead seal broke. Doctor Dixon came to the door, ordered a total lock down and shut herself and the other two inside. The room is completely sealed,’ he reported. ‘Haven’t even got communications, but the technicians are working at getting a phone in to them.’

‘Oh boy!’ That was all I could think of to say. I should have warned them about the table leg but hadn’t thought about it. That part was done but now, what use was I going to be down here? We arrived at the basement corridor to find hawk-eyed armed guards standing around.

In Don Don’s office, however, there was a hive of activity. Desks had been pushed against the wall and an inflatable plastic hazard shield had been erected over and around the door to the bomb shelter. Two figures in chemical suits were working a large drill in the makeshift airlock, attempting to breech the wall to the right of the door. Technicians hovered around. There were oxygen and gas bottles, a web of hoses and all sorts of other paraphernalia.

‘Carter, Major, 22 SAS.’ The grim-faced man who stepped forward was middle-aged and of average build, dressed in denims and a leather jacket. I recalled him from earlier. We exchanged firm grips. ‘Out of our depth here,’ the major said, nodding at the plastic airlock over the inner door. ‘We were told to protect the box, its contents and Doctor Dixon’s team, and take everything back to the UK. Apparently we now have a biological substance on the loose.’

‘I don’t know what I can add, Major,’ I replied.

‘Dave,’ he replied.

‘Dave,’ I amended.

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