It Takes a Spy by Dave Sinclair

Author:Dave Sinclair [Sinclair, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780648572084
Publisher: Dave Sinclair
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Nine

If there was a way to do so without making the situation worse, Atticus would have called for an ambulance.

The way Rathdowne reeled about his office, red faced, arms flailing, it was enough to think the man really was in the midst of a cardiac arrest. He wasn’t, though. At least not yet.

The three sat on the opposite side of his desk: Mrs Abernathy, Maggie and Atticus. Doyle and Cohen had mercifully been reassigned. Atticus felt like a naughty high schooler being reprimanded by the principal. Given the nature of his youth, it wasn’t an unfamiliar sensation.

The office was virtually empty, save for the desk and chairs. The filing cabinets, piles of papers and boxes were all gone. The entire office building was the same. The official move would happen on the weekend. As of Monday, MI6 would have a new home. None of this was front of mind for Atticus, however. The only thing that held his attention was Rathdowne’s increasingly red face.

“I sent you to discreetly,” he pointed at the three of them in case it was unclear who he was referring to, “let me say that word again, but slower this time—discreetly—find out what happened to our man. If it was prudent to do so, you were to put mild surveillance on Oliver Preston, if doing so would not arouse suspicion. In your defence, I didn’t explicitly state that you were not to blow up a state funeral, although I would have thought that was implied.”

“We didn’t blow it up, as such.” Mrs Abernathy was as cool and businesslike as always. “A bit of fake smoke, that’s all.”

“The CIA claimed it was an out-of-control blaze.”

“The CIA also claimed the Bay of Pigs was a splendid idea.” On seeing the anger unchanged on Rathdowne’s face, Maggie added, “And I am not helping.”

“It wasn’t a blaze, Oscar.” Only Mrs Abernathy used Rathdowne’s first name. “It was a controlled smoke bomb.” She shifted in her seat. “Look, the report doesn’t give you context. Our missing agent was confirmed dead. We deduced that the most likely location to, if you’ll excuse the term, smoke Preston out, was the funeral and we were right. I approved the plan to extract him to home soil without the other side finding out.”

“While,” Rathdowne checked the report in front of him, “kidnapping the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Latvia.”

“It was more borrowing than kidnapping.”

Rathdowne shot Atticus a withering look. Like Maggie, Atticus concluded he wasn’t helping matters.

“Whose plan was it?” Rathdowne’s question was for Mrs Abernathy, but he glanced directly at Atticus.

“I approved the plan.” Mrs Abernathy’s back was rigid. “It isn’t a democracy. I was in command. It was completely my call.”

Rathdowne sighed, realising that was all he’d get on the question. “You failed to capture him anyway, started a firefight in the middle of town and nearly got yourselves killed in the process.”

The small group was quiet. They weren’t about to argue the facts.

“It was a cock-up.” Mrs Abernathy sighed heavily. “I take full responsibility.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.