Chapters (124)
- Cover
- About the Author
- Acclaim for Frank Gardner’s Luke Carlton thrillers
- Also by Frank Gardner
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- 108
- 109
- 110
- 111
- 112
- 113
- 114
- 115
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
‘So you leave tonight,’ she said. ‘My PA will give you all the details on your way out, but I believe we’ve booked you on the twenty-one thirty-five BA flight into Domodedovo. It’s a direct flight, now that the PM has rescinded that scale-back. But I’m afraid you still get into Moscow at some ungodly hour of the morning. Sorry about that, but I expect you’re used to it.’ She stood up, pulling at the hem of her jacket to straighten the creases. The meeting was over. ‘Oh, and one last thing. I know I don’t need to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway. Don’t go getting yourselves into any compromising situations, will you?’ She’s trying not to look at me, Luke thought. Why do I feel this is being said for my benefit? ‘Because the FSB will be watching every single thing you do from the second you step off that plane. They’re still the KGB by another name.’
Luke and Jenny travelled down in the lift together, absorbed in their thoughts on the mission ahead. She had remained remarkably quiet all through that extended send-off and he wondered what was on her mind. He turned to her in the lift. ‘First time in Russia?’ he asked.
‘Yep.’
‘Same.’ And for a fleeting moment he thought he saw her face soften. ‘Are you nervous? That’s natural if you are because—’
‘Luke!’ She cut him off. ‘Please, spare me this … Thank you.’
When they reached the ground-floor lobby they encountered a familiar figure. It was John Friend, the Service lawyer from Vauxhall, and he seemed agitated. ‘Ah, Carlton, thank God I’ve found you. I’ve been trying to track you down all morning.’ A bit of an exaggeration, Luke thought, given that it was not yet 9.30 a.m. ‘Look, um, I gather you’re off to Moscow.’
‘Word travels fast. Yes.’
‘I’m terribly sorry, Luke, but I don’t think you can go.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Well, you still haven’t done your unconscious-bias course, have you? It’s mandatory, you know, for all our staff. No exceptions.’
‘Can’t it wait until I’m back?’
‘I don’t think it can!’ Friend looked genuinely distressed at the prospect. ‘That would be breaking protocol.’
Luke put his hand on the lawyer’s shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze. ‘Goodbye, John,’ he told him, then walked on towards the exit. Out of the corner of his eye he could just see Jenny struggling not to smirk.
‘Wait!’ Friend protested, following after him. ‘I’ll have to report this, you know.’
‘You do that, John,’ Luke called back over his shoulder. ‘I’ve got a plane to catch.’