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The Mallorcan Bookseller (The 3R International Series Book 1) Page 14
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She was looking forward to a restful few days holiday, as well as seeing Sonny again. He was definitely a bit of a rough diamond, but he could also be remarkably gentle and caring, especially when they made love. She liked that about him and yes, it was a surprise, given the way she heard him sometimes talk to his people. He ruled by pure power with the threat of punishment always sitting very close to the surface. This was so far removed from her style of managing people, but then she was overseeing a team of IT scammers and not, well, how best to describe them? A bunch of hardened thugs was the best description she could come up with. They all looked like ex-soldiers of some sort and even Ekam, who was sitting back in Economy, was wary of them.
*****
Greg felt refreshed after his shower. Terri had got through to Chris MacDonald and he’d said his father was pleased they could move out of the hotel and get back to the villa.
“I said we’d see them there around mid-afternoon. I kept it loose and he’s cool with that,” said Terri. “I spoke to Asim and he’s got Egypt well in hand. I’m thinking of making him Regional Manager as he’s doing so well out there.”
“It’s your call, but it sounds like a good choice to me,” said Greg. She knew what she was doing, but he also knew that sometimes she wanted to keep him in the loop, mostly he thought, so that he didn’t feel left out. “What about Tommy?”
“Yep, all good. He’s booked on the 12.55 out of LHR and he’s bringing Simon. Tommy’s happy their job is almost done, so they’re okay leaving it to James. He’s new to us as you know, but already I can see he’s going to be a very useful addition to the team. Now I’ve booked a four bed finca a little way out of the city, so Tommy and Simon can stay there. There’s a chance we may need to decamp there if things get a bit messy with this and it’ll be ideal anyway for us to use as an out of town base.”
“Great. Next question, these guys are going to be carrying, so can we access anything out here?” He was talking about weapons. Transporting firearms on commercial planes was almost impossible now and a good job too he thought, because if it was hard for him, then it was just as hard for criminals and terrorists.
“I haven’t shown you my addition to the flat have I?” said Terri.
He looked quizzically at her and she led him through into her bedroom. She had built in cupboards which he had seen before, but after she opened both the doors, she reached through to the back and motioned for him to see what she was doing.
“So I got Tommy to come across and do some of his handy work. You’d better know how to access this, just in case I’m not here, so it’s a concealed button just down here and hey presto!”
She touched the button and he heard a gentle swish of some hydraulics kicking into action and the back of the cupboard opened up to reveal a space where he could see racks filled with rows of different firearms.
“I thought four of each would probably be enough and it took me long enough to get each one of these out here,” said Terri.
“Terri, this is fantastic and a great bit of handy work by Tommy. I’m impressed. So that was why you kept coming out for weekends last year? What did you do? Bring them in one by one?”
“Pretty much. I had to take a whole different bunch of routes and I used that ex-RAF guy, Daniel, the one who has helped us before. He’s the private charter bloke who owns his own plane? Well the bank actually owns most of it, but anyway, he’s put in some very discreet hideaway compartments, especially for us, to help with transporting certain items we might not want to be found by any Customs guys,” said Terri.
“Small army comes to my mind,” said Greg smiling as he looked at the array of weapons before him, “you are as resourceful as ever.”
“Glad you like it,” said Terri.
He cast his eyes over the firearms power she had gathered together. It was pretty impressive. There were Glock 17s, Tasers and SIG MCX 5.56 carbines with 30 round box magazines. This was the sort of stuff the Counter Terrorism guys were using in London. Top rate kit. Four of each and she also had one rifle, which he pointed at.
“Australian Sniper’s special. I did some work with it in Afghan,” said Terri.
“Bloody hell Terri. Dare I ask if you’ve had cause to use it yet with 3R?” said Greg.
“Nope, but I’ve kept my eye in with a ton of practice. The tele-sight I’ve got for it is great for long distance vision though, so I’ve used that on some of our jobs. I’m talking up to a mile Dad, it’s bloody brilliant,” said Terri.
“Impressive.”
He had to remember sometimes that his beautiful and very caring and loving daughter was also a very highly trained ex-combat soldier, who had seen active service and action during her time in the Army.
He knew she had killed people in combat situations, as she had spoken to him about it and also how he’d dealt with coming down after enemy engagement. He had been pleased that she had come to him, as he felt he had done a pretty good job over the years in building a loving and trusting relationship with her. He didn’t necessarily have all the answers about dealing with the pressure that came with active combat, but he certainly knew that talking about it had helped him, so if she was willing to talk to him, then that was good.
“So what’s your thinking for today?” said Terri.
“I got the full story of Lori and Sam having their little chat with the local Armenian OCG guy. So if I was him, I think I’d be either deciding to lay low for a while or to show some muscle. I don’t get the impression that these guys are in any way scared of the police, even the GEO, so I want to chew this over with Sam and get his viewpoint,” said Greg.
“You like him don’t you?”
“Yes, he’s a good lad. Maybe you could take him out for dinner and get some more of his story, especially what he is doing out here in Mallorca and not back in London, as it’s pretty clear he’s not out here on holiday,” said Greg.
“Good for me, he’s a pretty good looking guy and I don’t want to be the only one not having some fun.”
Greg went to say something, but she was teasing him again, so he stopped himself and just looked at her.
“What?” she said. She then picked up the car keys, “Are we ready? Can’t wait to meet the mysterious Sam.”
TWELVE
She had decided this was another day for the Merc rather than his preferred little white van.
Ten minutes later Terri had parked in the multi-storey carpark by the Teatre Principal and they were walking towards the Sa Petita Llibreria.
Anna and Sam were sat at the front counter as they walked in.
“Anna, Sam, this is my daughter Terri,” said Greg.
“I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you Terri,” said Anna. “Let’s get some chairs and sort some coffee out.”
Introductions over, Sam got the coffee on and brought some extra chairs from the back and they sat down around the desk. He’d been taken aback meeting Terri. Tall, blonde and Australian. He hadn’t been expecting her to be Australian, but neither was he prepared for how good looking she was. Anna noticed his reaction, as did Greg and the two looked at each other and smiled.
“So it sounds like you and Lori had some fun last night Sam?”
“Well yes, she certainly put on a performance. I don’t like that guy Sonny, the one she had a set to with. He looks a nasty piece of work. So here’s a question. What are you guys thinking of doing and what, if anything, can I do to help?” said Sam.
“And me, I want to help too,” said Anna.
Greg paused, “Sam, you’re a serving Met DCI. I’m not sure this is necessarily something you should be getting involved in is it?”
“Fair point, but there may be stuff I, sorry Mum, I mean we, could do? Background stuff, that sort of thing? I suppose it depends on what you have in mind? What’s your client want from this?” said Sam.
“Maybe best I don’t share specifics Sam. I don’t want to put you in any sort of difficult position, so let’s just say we’re here to hel
p the police in any way we can to bring those responsible for murdering Sheila to justice,” said Greg.
“Okay, so that’s nice and wide,” said Sam. “There’s two points of interest here aren’t there? Someone at the OCG who actually murdered Sheila and two, the scammers who gave them Sheila’s data.”
The Senior Investigator Officer role was coming out in Sam, putting the facts down and setting out strategies. Greg liked that about him. He didn’t want Sam compromised professionally by being too involved, but he was a really useful extra head to think through the strategic and tactical planning to make this work.
“It looks like we’ve got headway with the Armenians here,” said Terri, “but where we are struggling is with the scammers. They’re probably in India, but that’s as far as we can guess at the moment.”
They tossed around some ideas but they kept hitting the brick walls of shadow and dummy corporations around Intertech that prevented them establishing who may be behind the organisation running Intertech.
“Sam, you said you’d asked one of your guys to check them out? Is it worth going back to him to see if he can dig deeper?” said Terri.
Sam was starting to like her and like her a lot. She had an energy about her that lifted everyone, even though they were facing one hell of a problem in moving things forward with Intertech.
“To be honest, I don’t think it would help. Jimmy is one of the best and if he’s done something on them, then he’s done it,” said Sam.
“Greg, what about Jonny Woodward?” said Anna.
“Anna, he was never Jonny to me,” said Greg.
“Oh well, I knew him at uni. He might be able to help.”
Almost in unison, Sam and Terri said, “Who the hell is Jonny Woodward?”
“You tell them Greg, I’ll go and give him a call,” said Anna.
Greg looked at Sam and Terri.
“Sir John Woodward is a former Deputy Head of MI6. Your mother certainly has friends in high places Sam.”
“How does she know him Greg? I mean, I know she was a field agent, but hey, I’m a Met DCI and I don’t know the Met Commissioner from Adam!” said Sam.
Greg ignored the question. He was pretty open about his past, because it helped with the credibility of 3R. Therefore quite a number of people knew he was ex-MI6, so it had been different for him when he told Terri. But he definitely wasn’t going to get involved in how Anna explained her past to her son.
Sam carried on.
“And you were MI6 as well, weren’t you?”
“Look Sam, I was, but you need to be asking your mother these questions, not me.”
Sam sat back. He went to ask another question but thought better of it. What exactly had his mother been? Just at that moment Anna came back into the room.
“He sends his regards,” she said looking at Greg. “I’ll get a call shortly apparently, so Terri could you maybe help when I speak to whoever John is getting to ring?”
“Yes, of course,” said Terri.
“Sam, you’ve probably got some more questions for me. Some I should perhaps have told you about before now. It’s maybe not the time to explain why I didn’t, but I will do later.” She didn’t wait for him to say anything. “And yes, you may have guessed already, but I wasn’t just a low level U/C officer, I worked deep under cover and trained only those who would work in similar roles.”
Sam couldn’t contain himself, “You were a deep U/C officer?”
“Yes my dear and I trained Greg.”
“And she was a bloody good trainer too,” said Greg.
Sam just looked at his mum. She had always just been his mum. Well, never “just” his mum, but she had been so caring, loving and yes, most of all gentle. That was it, he thought. It was her genteel nature that he couldn’t relate to the profile of the woman she had once been during her days in the intelligence service. He shook his head as she went on.
“It was all a long time ago. But when I fell pregnant with you I was effectively side-lined from the Service, that’s what happened then, although I gather it’s better these days.”
“These days? Are you still involved?” said Sam.
“No, no, of course not. I just chat every now and then with a couple of old friends.”
“What, including Greg?” said Sam.
“No strings, no ties, no commitments,” said Greg quietly.
“What’s that?” said Sam.
“He said, ‘no strings, no ties, no commitments’,” said Anna.
“It was a U/C mantra Anna, your mother, drilled in to me,” said Greg, who was now looking directly at Anna.
She caught Greg looking at her and gave him an imperceptible shake of the head. ‘Please don’t say anything now,’ she thought.
“And Dad knew nothing?”
“No, he didn’t. I met him after I had left the Service and with the Official Secrets Act, it wasn’t something I could tell him and anyway, it was all in the past,” said Anna.
Terri could see Sam was trying to get his head around his mother’s past, so decided to move the conversation on.
“Sam, can you take me out for dinner tonight. My dad’s got a hot date with his lady cop friend, so I’m at a loose end,” said Terri.
Sam nodded, “Of course, of course, that would be great,” still trying to take in what his mum had been telling him.
Anna’s mobile then rang. Whilst Sir John, having been retired a number of years, had no continuing operational authority, he still maintained a significant network of contacts and he had called Martin Carruthers, the Intelligence Head for Asia Pacific within the Service.
“Hello Anna, Sir John has asked me to speak to you,” said Martin.
“Thank you for calling so quickly Martin.”
“You will probably appreciate that this is usually outside of the work remit of the Service. That said, these OCGs are working across borders and impacting on the safety and economical security of UK citizens. Therefore, destabilising the activities of these criminal gangs, who are threatening the national interest, is now worthy of consideration.”
“Martin, is that a long way of telling me that you can help me?”
“Yes Anna, I thought that was clear.”
Anna smiled. “Crystal clear,” she said.
“Now it may take a little while for me to get hold of the person best placed for you to talk to. He will ring you direct,” said Martin who didn’t wait for her to respond before ending the call.
“He’s going to get someone to call me, but he can’t say when,” said Anna.
“Excellent. Now why don’t we go for that lunch I promised you Anna and we can talk over old times,” said Greg.
“Yes that would be lovely,” said Anna, thinking he may have just as many awkward questions as Sam.
*****
Sonny was having lunch at one of his regular side street cafes when Alex joined him.
“How did you know I’d be here?”
“Boss, it’s Thursday. You nearly always have lunch here on Thursdays,” smiled Alex.
Sonny looked down at his Pa Amb Oli, his favourite dish at the cafe. Alex was right. Probably not the best tactic when you’re running an OCG when other people sometimes wanted to muscle in on your territory. That said, the risk was pretty low on the islands. Everyone had their set areas and it was rare that boundaries were breached. ‘Maybe we are all just a bit too comfortable here?’ he thought.
“So what can you tell me about this London cop?”
“His family own a bookshop, Sa Petita Llibreria, it’s close to the big theatre.”
“So is he a cop or a bookseller?” said Sonny.
“Both Boss, but I can’t find out why he’s been out in Mallorca for so long. It’s over three weeks, so longer than the vacations I think they usually take in the police,” said Alex.
“Are we sure it’s a vacation and not an investigation?”
“Well according to the guy we’ve got at police HQ, there’s nothing to suggest he’s got
anything to do with an investigation out here.”
Sonny thought on this. It was better if it was just a vacation. One zealous cop, with that woman Garcia, was enough to be dealing with without having him involved in some way as well.
“Okay, good work my friend, but can you get someone in London to work through his name as well? I know they’ve got a lot of cops there, but there won’t be too many with the surname Martínez. In the meantime, where does he live?”
“His mother has got a place just south of the city,” said Alex.