After a few seconds, Wolf seemed to change his mind. He lowered the rifle. Shook his head. ‘Well, there you go. Looks like we’re both a couple of softies at heart.’

Ben replied, ‘The four men you killed tonight might not see it that way. Or was it five?’

Wolf shrugged, like it was nothing. ‘Day I got here, some bunch of arseholes in the town were trying to set fire to a stray dog. We had a minor disagreement over it. Had a feeling they might raise a few pals and come looking for me, to settle the matter.’

Ben had to smile. ‘Still standing up for our furry friends, I see.’

‘You’d have done the same.’

‘Yes, I would.’

‘Can’t say I was expecting you, though. How’d you find me?’

‘It wasn’t as hard as you’d have liked it to be,’ Ben said. ‘Even the most careful man leaves a trail, if you know where to look. And that’s your problem. Because you have some very motivated enemies. You’re in deep shit, Jaden.’

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

‘So what now?’ Wolf asked.

Ben replied, ‘Now we try and figure out how we’re going to come out of this alive.’

Chapter 15

Ben and Wolf dragged away the body of the dead man with the hook, then sat together in the rocky hollow. They seemed to have arrived at an uneasy kind of truce, but there was still tension between them. Ben lit a Gauloise, not offering one to Wolf since he knew the man had never smoked in his life and wouldn’t start now.

‘Those things’ll kill you,’ Wolf said, watching with a frown.

Ben took another puff and blew smoke. ‘Says the guy whose employers put a hit out on him. We’re all living on borrowed time, one way or another.’

‘Former employers,’ Wolf reminded him. ‘I told you, I don’t work for those scumbags any more.’

‘Doesn’t sound as though you handed in your formal resignation. Sounds more like you just walked away.’

‘What difference does it make? Once you’re in, there’s no getting out. Unless you get all the way out. You have no idea what you’re dealing with.’

Ben asked, ‘Who’s Saunders?’

Wolf gave Ben an empty stare. ‘I don’t know anyone called Saunders.’

Ben wasn’t surprised by his reply. Everything in Wolf’s former world was lies and shadows. ‘You were a government spook.’

‘I was never on the inside,’ Wolf said. ‘I was just the guy they called when they had a problem that needed to be dealt with.’

‘What kind of problem?’ As though Ben couldn’t guess.

Wolf shrugged. ‘I suppose you could say I worked in the sanitation department. Cleaning up other people’s mess.’

‘Tell it straight. You became a professional killer.’