All Tom got was a mouthful of blood spat out at him. There was no time for this. Don got another round, this time into his gut, before Tom turned and went back to Colburn.

Colburn had got the message. ‘It’s been seen.’

‘By who? By Jefferson?’

He got a shaky nod.

‘Zuabi? You know who I’m talking about, don’t you? What about Zuabi?’

He didn’t give any indication whatsoever. Tom leaned down again. ‘What the fuck has it got to do with Jefferson? What was his problem with Zuabi?’

Colburn hesitated.

‘Yes, Jefferson’s dead. Want to join him?’

Tom could see it clearly in his face, even if it was screwed up in pain as he breathed in short, sharp pants: message received.

‘Mogadishu – Black Hawk down, man. He lost his brother. Those fuckers cut him into little pieces. Motherfuckers cut him up. And now they’re over here, taking over the country. That’s the fucking problem.’

Tom went over to the CCTV and ripped out the hard drive. Some wires were screwed in, some clipped. Leads dangled out of the back, like long, slim dread-locks.

Then he grabbed hold of the cordless phone as the monitor started to pixellate and threw it through the door to join the weapons in the shop.

Colburn gave a sob and his breath came shorter and weaker.

Tom stuck his head back through the door. ‘If you fuckers tell anyone about what’s happened here, you know I’ll be back looking for you.’

He closed the door, then wiped the handle with his sleeve and headed for the van.

Chapter 59

59

Back in his hotel room, Tom showered off the dust and blood, then had a much-needed shave. He put on his lightweight Hugo Boss suit with a fresh shirt and studied himself in the mirror, checking for the moment he turned back into the polite, reasonable envoy from Invicta. There were two missed calls from Rolt, neither of which he had acknowledged. Instead he texted a non-committal All good so far. Stutz meeting next. He knew what he needed to do and didn’t want to have to talk to him right now. He went downstairs.

Beth was waiting for him. ‘Howdy! How was your night?’

‘Good. Yours?’

She giggled. ‘Aw, just fine. You have a good time with Kyle? You two go way back, right?’

‘Yeah, that’s right.’

A slight dilating of the pupils suggested she wanted to know more, but that was all she was getting.

Stutz was in the boardroom, alone, hunched over some documents. ‘Just waiting on Skip. He needs to be here for the formalities. How was your evening with Kyle?’

Tom closed the doors behind him. ‘I’ve got some good news and some bad news.’

Stutz looked up.

‘We paid a visit to Jefferson. Kyle didn’t make it.’ Stutz’s eyes narrowed. ‘But neither did Jefferson.’