‘I won’t try to talk you out of it, boss. Not because I know it’ll be a waste of time, but because if I was in your shoes I’d be tempted to do something similar.’

Slack was pleased but not surprised. He and Danny were very much alike in the sense that they had no respect for authority and both harboured a simmering hatred for the police.

It went way back to those early years spent on a rough council estate in Peckham when the cops were their enemy.

As teenagers they were sucked into the gang culture and from there they embarked on a life of villainy.

They eventually went their separate ways. Slack stayed in London and built a reputation for himself as a hard, uncompromising gangster. He served his apprenticeship as a thief, a pimp, a drug dealer and an enforcer. And all that time he managed to stay out of jail by outsmarting the law.

But Danny wasn’t so lucky. At eighteen he stabbed to death a man who came onto his girlfriend in a pub. He was convicted of murder and spent twelve years in prison. When released he went to work with a bunch of mercenaries in Libya. After a couple of years in that hellhole, he returned to London and offered his services to his old pal from Peckham.

Slack had been only too pleased to give him a job, and it wasn’t long before Danny became his right-hand man.

‘So have you got any questions, mate?’ Slack asked as he got up from the sofa to pour some more drinks.

‘I’ve got lots, boss,’ Danny said. ‘But they can wait. I’d rather we got down to business and you told me how we’re going to get this party started.’

Slack poured two more whiskies and then sat back down on the sofa.

‘It’s already started, mate,’ he said. ‘Yesterday I spoke to our friend Carlos Cruz in Mexico. He owes me a big favour and I called it in.’

‘What do you want from him?’ Danny asked.

Slack took a deep breath and held it for a second before speaking.

‘I want him to supply us with an assassin,’ he said, as though that were quite a normal request to make. ‘Someone who won’t be on the radar of any law enforcement agency anywhere in Europe. As we all know the best and most prolific contract killers work for the Mexican cartels.’

‘What was his response?’

‘He told me he’d be only too happy to help and that he’d ring me this evening.’

Danny’s brow peaked. ‘So assuming he delivers, what’ll be the next step?’

A slow smile spread across Slack’s face. ‘We then make use of the information that’s been passed onto me by our mole inside the organised crime task force.’

5

Laura