The Nemesis Program (Ben Hope) (35 page)

Thirty-five minutes in the air, and after flying over the snaking, crowded Trans-Sumatra Highway and a number of towns, the western coastline of the island came into view on the horizon. Ben watched as Daniel looked keenly down at the ground below. Soon afterwards, the helicopter began to descend.

The mysterious installation that Daniel had brought them halfway around the world to see was a far cry from the heavily-guarded hive of sinister activity he’d described to them back in Sweden. Standing a quarter of a mile or so from the nearest coastal town on the tip of a forested peninsula not much above sea level, the squat grey building looked like a deserted factory or some kind of massive bunker. Behind it, the flat blue-green ocean stretched out with just the scattered land masses of the Mentawai Archipelago dimly visible on the horizon. The calm strait between the mainland and the small islands was dotted white here and there with faraway yachts and ships, a strangely serene sight.

As the helicopter came down to land by the huge building, the obvious signs of neglect and abandonment came into view. The security fence surrounding the perimeter had long since fallen into disrepair, sections of wire missing where they’d collapsed into the long, yellowed grass or been pillaged by locals. Weeds grew tall through the cracks in the concrete around the building. There wasn’t a vehicle or a living soul in sight, let alone hordes of armed guards patrolling the place in Jeeps.

Roberta’s anxious look asked the same question that was in Ben’s mind:
why are we being brought here?

The Puma touched down on the concrete near a dilapidated entrance that seemed to be the only way in or out of the building. At an order from their officer, the soldiers made Ben and Roberta climb down from the hatch and marched them across the weed-strewn ground. Daniel confidently led the way, striding along with a little half-smile on his face. The NCO deferentially walked a step behind him.

Roberta was glaring at Daniel with a mixture of contempt and hatred. ‘We should have known,’ she muttered. ‘We should never have trusted him.’

Ben said nothing. It was only then that he noticed that one of the soldiers was carrying his old green bag. He hadn’t reckoned on ever seeing it again. He began wondering why they’d brought it here.

Daniel reached the entrance, a tall double doorway of rusted, riveted steel closed off with a heavy padlock and chain. He produced a key, undid the lock and the chain fell loose. It took three soldiers to heave the steel doors open. Daniel passed through the entrance into the shadows of the building.

The rest followed. It looked as much like an old factory on the inside as it did on the outside, except that whatever industrial machinery it had once housed had all been stripped away, leaving only a cavernous, echoey shell containing only a row of brick columns that towered up to the roof girders forty feet overhead. The sound of the soldiers’ heavy boots rang off the bare walls. The floor was thick with dust, the droppings of birds nesting high up in the roof space and sand blown in from the beach. The only windows were on the ocean side of the building, little more than slots high up in the wall, their cracked panes opaque with the cobwebs of a hundred generations of spiders.

‘Not exactly what he led us to expect,’ Roberta said acidly. ‘This place has been abandoned for years.’

Daniel stopped and spoke a few quiet words to the NCO, who in turn gave an order to his men. The soldier carrying Ben’s bag handed it to Daniel and then trotted over to join his troop as the NCO led them back towards the entrance and the waiting chopper, leaving the three westerners together.

Chapter Fifty-Two

‘And here we are again,’ Daniel said with a wide grin. ‘Just the three of us. I told you I’d bring you here, didn’t I? We made it in the end. Problem is for you, it really
is
the end.’ He chuckled at his own joke.

‘You’re being very trusting, Daniel,’ Ben said. ‘Sending your guard dogs away like that. Don’t you feel a bit unprotected?’

‘Not that unprotected,’ Daniel replied. ‘I do have this, remember.’ He reached into his trouser pocket and brought out a familiar-looking Colt Commander. He pointed the weapon at them with relish.

‘And you told me you’d lost it in the crash-landing,’ Ben said, looking at the gun. ‘But then, we know not to believe too much of what you tell us, don’t we?’

‘Damn right we do,’ Roberta growled.

In the background, the helicopter was powering up to take off.

Daniel motioned with the pistol. ‘Maybe you wouldn’t mind standing a little closer together, so I can keep both of you in my sights at once? That’s better.’ He gripped the weapon in both hands, holding it steady.

‘Firearms expert now,’ Ben said.

‘Who needs to be an expert? Cocked and locked, isn’t that what you told me?’ Daniel replied. ‘There’s nothing to it, huh?’ His eyes were bright with pleasure. ‘Believe it or not, guys, I’m sorry I had to deceive the two of you. We’ve spent so much time together I’ve almost gotten to like you.’

‘Don’t apologize,’ Ben said. ‘After all, it’s your job to deceive people, isn’t that right?’

‘Hey, someone has to do it,’ Daniel replied with a nonchalant shrug. ‘Happens I’m pretty good at it.’

The helicopter was thudding in the air somewhere over the building now, its sound rapidly diminishing. Keeping the gun steadily trained on them, Daniel glanced at his watch as if he was waiting for something.

‘If you didn’t bring us all this way to kill us,’ Ben said, ‘I’m guessing we’re here to meet someone. You have a little rendezvous set up for us?’

‘You guessed right, Major Hope. It was the point of this whole journey. There’s someone who wants to meet you.’

‘I don’t like to be called Major,’ Ben said.

‘Such modesty,’ Daniel chuckled. ‘From a man of such formidable skills. I’m very well acquainted with your impressive history. My employers sent your classified files out to every one of our agents before you even turned up looking for me in Sweden. You caused quite a red alert when you got yourself mixed up in this, believe me. That’s the kind of interference they really don’t want. And that, I’m afraid, is why I was ordered to bring you both here, for reasons that you’ll soon find out.’

‘I take it it’s your employers we’re about to meet?’ Ben asked.

Daniel nodded. ‘Correct again.’

‘Who the hell are you, Mister Lund, if that’s your real name?’ Roberta snapped. ‘NSA? CIA?’

‘You’d never even have heard of us,’ Daniel said. ‘Nobody has, not even most people inside the US government. I’ll let the boss fill you in when he gets here. Shouldn’t be long, just a few minutes. Gives us just enough time to say goodbye.’

‘Why, we going somewhere?’ Roberta said sardonically.

‘I am,’ Daniel replied with a smirk. ‘You’re … well, let’s just say there are plans for you. A little entertainment lined up, you might say. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.’

Ben pointed at his old bag, which was lying in a rumpled heap of green canvas at Daniel’s feet. ‘If this entertainment of yours involves Roberta and me not leaving this place alive, I’m guessing the bag was brought here for plausibility’s sake? What are backpackers without a backpack?’

‘You don’t miss much, do you?’ Daniel smiled. ‘Right on the money. We wouldn’t want anyone thinking you’d been brought here against your will. Oh, and speaking of money, your stash is still there, just the way you left it. That’ll give the cops something to speculate about when they find your bodies. They’ll be thinking drugs. Typical story. The half-kilo of uncut heroin that’s in there should help them arrive at the right conclusion.’

‘Just in case anyone would connect the dots, huh?’ Roberta said. ‘You devious sonofabitch.’

‘Attention to detail is a big part of my work,’ Daniel said. ‘You can call it devious. I call it good planning. Nobody will ask questions about a couple of dead drug dealers.’ He sighed. ‘It’s a shame it had to end that way for you. But then, you did have to go meddling in things that didn’t concern you.’

‘Like the death of Claudine,’ Roberta said. ‘Something you know all about, right? You’re one of the bastards who murdered her.’

Daniel’s contented smile faltered. ‘I didn’t murder anyone. That’s not what I do.’

‘Bullshit,’ Roberta said.

‘I think he’s telling the truth for once,’ Ben told her. ‘He’s no killer.’

‘That’s right,’ Daniel said, waving the gun insistently at them. ‘I’m just a risk assessor. A brain guy, not a brawn guy. My job’s strictly information gathering.’

‘A mole,’ Ben said.

‘That’s one word for it,’ Daniel replied. ‘I go deep under cover, moving about all over the world, to infiltrate conspiracy theory groups. To pose as one of them, gain their trust. From there I can figure out who are just the harmless nuts and which ones could potentially pose a real threat.’

‘I get it,’ Roberta said. ‘And Claudine was a threat.’

‘That was what I was supposed to find out,’ Daniel said. ‘I wish it had been different. But the more time I spent with her, the more she showed me of what she knew, the more damned impossible it became to tick her name off on my list as just some other conspiracy crank. She wouldn’t be diverted, couldn’t be bought. And she was right on track to blow the lid off all the secrets that I and hundreds of others have worked for decades to protect. Yes, goddamn it, she was a threat,’ he went on, his voice rising as he became more agitated. ‘And I did everything – I mean
everything
– I could to get her to lay off this crusade she was on. I liked her. I mean, I really did, far more than I should have. I had feelings for her, and I think she did for me. I went way out on a limb, did all I could to save her from herself. But she just wouldn’t listen.’

‘Oh, I’ll bet you tried really hard.’

‘I gave it my best shot, but there was only so much I could do. If she’d been a whacko like most of the ones I deal with, that’d have been a whole different ball game. The whackos are what we call Type B. They’re an asset to us. We encourage them, even fund some of the craziest ones so they’ll spread the disinformation we want them to spread far and wide and keep the whole conspiracy theory community at the level of a joke. It’s the perfect cover for us.’

‘Right, so you and your buddies can go on murdering and maiming thousands of innocent people,’ Roberta said with a look of disgust.

Daniel gave a frown, ignored her and went on. ‘But Claudine wasn’t one of those types. She was what we call the Type A profile. Ticked all the wrong boxes, wrong for her that is. Incredibly knowledgeable. Highly intelligent. Totally dedicated and determined to keep pushing deeper with her research, no matter how risky it was, no matter how frightening it became for her. She was an idealist, and a great communicator, the kind of person that could be taken seriously and had the credentials to back it up.’

‘Naturally, someone like that couldn’t be allowed to live,’ Roberta said.

‘That part of it had nothing to do with me,’ Daniel protested. ‘I don’t make the final decision, and I never hurt a fly. I just did what I get paid to do, pass the information down the appropriate channels. Then … the appropriate action was taken, like always.’ For a moment he looked down at his feet, flushing as if a little pang of shame had touched him from inside.

‘That’s where the handyman came in,’ Roberta said. ‘Your colleague McGrath, the one I shredded.’

‘I told you,’ Daniel insisted angrily. ‘I had nothing to do with that. It was totally out of my hands.’

‘Someone else’s department,’ Ben said. ‘Everyone has their role to play, isn’t that right? Just doing their job, like the men who came after Roberta when they realised Claudine had passed information to her.’

Daniel scowled. ‘You people don’t understand. This is a war. Individuals don’t count. I don’t. You don’t. It’s a numbers game, pure and simple. You know something? When I heard Claudine was dead, I cried. I really did. I fell right down on my knees and cried like a baby. That woman meant something to me. But this is the real world we live in. I’m realistic about that. That’s the whole problem with people like you. You’re not realistic. Now you have to pay the price for that, like the rest. It’s not my responsibility.’

Roberta looked as if she wanted to throw up. ‘I thought I knew what a stinking low-life dirtbag was. Then you came along. I don’t even have words to describe what you are.’

‘Call me what you like,’ Daniel said. ‘I’m proud of what I do, and I’m the best there is.’

‘You’re a gifted agent, all right, Daniel,’ Ben said. ‘I bet you can speak what, four, five languages?’

‘Six,’ Daniel said.

‘Your employers must value you highly,’ Ben said. ‘Someone who can think on their feet and improvise the way you can. That was a great show you put on for us in Sweden, after you called in the troops while you pretended to be sick, and had to wait for them to arrive. Giving us your whole spiel. Mixing up your lies with just enough truth to make it sound real. Then the way you managed to stay out of the fight – very slick. You certainly had me fooled.’

Daniel chuckled at the flattery. ‘There was no acting there. I’ll admit it, I was damn near crapping my pants. I knew who you were, what you were capable of. And when I activated the alert I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen next. If it hadn’t been for those lousy birds getting spooked, I’d have found a way to make myself scarce before the team moved in. Then when I saw how the attack went to shit, I made my second call. That’s when they told me to bring you here to Indonesia.’ He laughed. ‘And you swallowed the whole story. Dear me, you must be slipping, Major Hope. Too many years out of the regiment, maybe? Training getting a little stale?’

Ben nodded. ‘You’re right. I was slow on the uptake. I didn’t figure it out completely until just a little later. That was when you made your big mistake.’

Chapter Fifty-Three

Daniel’s grin dropped away and he flushed. ‘You’re wrong. I don’t
do
mistakes.’

‘Sorry to disappoint you there, Daniel,’ Ben said. ‘Attention to detail, remember? You see, I saw Claudine Pommier’s passport at her apartment in Paris. There was no Indonesian visa on it. You never brought her here. I made you repeat it, just to be sure. And you walked right into the trap. That’s when I knew you were lying to us.’