Chapter 41

Ben was all ears, but at the same time he was noticing how furtively Georgie Seaward was acting, glancing up at the building’s top-floor windows as though she was anxious about being seen talking to them. She said, ‘But before I agree to help you, I have to know what your involvement is in this.’

Ben could see the sincerity in her eyes. He replied, ‘How we’re involved with this is simple, Mrs Seaward. There’s a whole group of these people and we mean to find them. You’ve read the manuscript, haven’t you?’

Something dark clouded her expression. She reached a hand to her throat and fingered her little gold crucifix, as though craving its spiritual comfort. ‘I have,’ she replied with a shudder, ‘and there are no words to describe how horrific it is. Most people have no idea these things go on, you know, in real life. But they do. Andrew and Roland, my husband … I’m afraid they don’t really understand what this is really about. To them it’s just another book.’

‘Is it true that they deleted it from their files?’

She nodded. ‘It’s gone. That is to say, at least, the agency doesn’t have it any longer.’ She seemed to be hinting at something.

‘What is the Pandemonium Club?’ Ben asked.

‘A secret society. A cult. An order.’

‘And you believe it exists, don’t you?’

‘Oh, yes. God help us, there’s no doubt about that.’ She paused, thinking. ‘Your names aren’t really Harris and Cullen, are they?’

‘I’m Ben Hope. This is Jaden Wolf.’

‘Are you detectives?’

‘We’re ex-military,’ Ben said.

She gave a grim smile of satisfaction. ‘I knew. Saw it the moment you walked in.’

‘How did you know?’

‘My late father, Company Sergeant-Major Neville Shelton, served with the Parachute Regiment, Third Battalion,’ Georgie Seaward explained with great pride. ‘When I was a girl he always said that nobody in the world comports themselves with the bearing of a British soldier. I have an eye for these things.’

If old Georgie got any more stirred up with patriotic fervour she’d soon be whipping out a Union Jack to wave around. But if that was what it took to gain her trust, so much the better.

‘We were SAS,’ Wolf said.

‘I heard you tell my husband that you have video evidence of the awful things these people do. Is that really true?’

‘I saw it happening myself,’ Wolf told her. ‘Caught the whole thing on camera.’

Again, she fingered the gold crucifix around her neck, and seemed to utter a silent prayer. ‘What do you plan to do, if you find them?’

‘What evil people deserve,’ Ben said.