“You know I had no choice.” She clenched the unit a little tighter. “This is your operation. I’m not trying to steal the limelight. But my friend is inside that building and you don’t know what he looks like. I’d rather you didn’t put a bullet in him when you storm it.”

There was a pause, a burst of static crackling from the radio.

“Colonel?”

“Fine,” he said. “Hand the radio back to the soldier. I’ll see that you’re escorted up the hill.”

“I’m with a friend,” she said, glancing over at Hicks.

“This is not a social occasion, Ellie.”

“He’s a soldier,” she clarified.

“I have plenty of those. You can come—but only you.”

Ellie gave the radio to the soldier and listened as Valencia briefed the man on his orders. She turned to Hicks.

“Sorry,” she said. “I tried.”

“It’s all right,” Hicks said. “I’ll wait on the edge of the cordon. I’ll be nearby if I’m needed.”

“Agent?”

The soldier beckoned for her to follow him.

“Good luck,” Hicks said.

“You too. See you on the other side.”

Ellie followed the soldier around the end of the vehicle and began to climb the hill.

101

Hicks watched Ellie as she followed the soldier up the hill.

Stay on this side of the cordon?

That wasn’t going to happen.

He got back into the car, threw it into reverse and turned it around. He found first gear and jerked away, heading back down the hill along the same road that he had taken to bring them up here. He remembered seeing an alleyway on their way up, and, seeing it almost too late now, he brought the car to a sudden stop next to the entrance. He got out, instinctively patted for the pistol that he was carrying in the back of his trousers, and made his way into the alley.

His phone buzzed in his pocket.

“Hicks?”

It was Ziggy.

“I’m here.”

“We’ve got a problem. That footage you shot earlier? The man who went past in the car outside the safe house?”

“The big guy? What about him?”

“I got a hit. I ran him through the databases that Group Two and Group Ten operate. That gets access to pretty much everywhere: DGSI, CSIS, ISI, CIA, FBI.”

“And?”

“And I’ve got access to everyone who works for the Firm, too, obviously. I’m not quite sure how to explain it, but the man you saw is Björn Thorsson. He’s ex-SAS, like you. Like Milton. And he’s a member of Group Fifteen.”

Hicks stopped in his tracks. “I thought the Group had been disbanded?”

“It was—but they’ve revived it. There’s a new Control in place, and she’s rebuilt it with twelve new agents. Hicks—Thorsson isn’t just any agent. He’s Number One.”

102