The Alex King Series, A BATEMAN [good books for high schoolers .TXT] 📗

pushed the door, kicked at it. You were calling me.”

“No, I…”

“Were trying to help me? Some help.” She reached over the bed and picked up the bag. She looked at it, then tossed it at him and it bounced off his chest and onto the floor. “Take that back,” she said. She picked up the coffee cup and looked at the murky liquid. Michael looked concerned. He stepped back, his eyes on the cup. “I thought you liked me, Michael. I thought we were getting along.”

He shrugged. “I suppose,” he said.

“It is not acceptable behaviour, Michael.” She looked at him severely. “You have a mother, don’t you?”

He nodded. “I…”

She shushed him, “I imagine you have a sister, or female cousins? Imagine if someone tried to do that to them?” She shook her head. “I thought I was going to try and get my brother to get you some tickets to see Manchester United. Had you forgotten that?” She stared at him. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? To see Old Trafford, see behind the scenes, meet some of the players?”

“Of course!”

“Good. Get me something to eat and drink. Sealed in packets. After that, you can get me some warmer clothes.”

“You are cold?” he asked.

“No. I am not,” she replied haughtily. “I am not comfortable in this flimsy dress. I want something more substantial.”

“I…”

“Do it, Michael. Go and get me what I have asked for. You want to be my friend again, don’t you?”

“Yes,” he replied solemnly.

She turned her back on him. “Good. And Michael…”

“Yes?”

“I have a sweet tooth…”

37

Mr King,

You have cost me everything. You took away my security, my claim to a fortune rightfully mine. You cost me my freedom. And you ruined my future. You know what happened to my lover, while I lay awake, not knowing of his fate, and that I will likely never see him again. Never feel his touch on my skin, hear his voice. 

But I have changed your life, too. What a month you must have had! You must ache for your lover. The uncertainty of what happened to her hurts you inside like an infected wound. You are viewed with suspicion by your employers. You have nowhere to go, no friends to turn to. I did this to you. I changed your future also.

I want you to know who did this to you. I want you to picture me in your sleep. In those darkest of hours, where demons goad you, rule over you, control you.

And now to Caroline. Your beautiful, feisty Caroline. I am enjoying her company. You will, by now, know of my past. Forced into becoming a whore. Passed around to filthy men, a prize, a sweetener for business deal after business deal. I escaped that life, but ended up in the same trap, before meeting my husband. Oh, and what a brute he was, too. Like the men on the Black Sea coast, those casino goers who would win at the roulette and buy me, my body – though my heart was never for sale. You see, he would beat me and bully me, and no amount of his money was worth that life. Viktor gave me the love and affection that my husband never would. And now, as I look at your beautiful Caroline, I see a woman who has seen none of this. A woman who gives herself to a man only when she is loved. A pristine example of a privileged life. She has loved few, and she has done so with all her heart. Shall I take this woman and make her a prize? Shall I see that she spends the rest of her days chained to a bed, screwing men for her own survival, or drugs, or perhaps just for food? Or shall I use her to gain more. Maybe if there were a man who would do absolutely anything to save her? Maybe if there was a man with skills I could use, manipulate for my own gains?

But there is such a man. And now I own him also. Because I know that you will do what is asked, because for you, Alex King, your payment is here, and I can control you in a way you have never known. I have your life in my hand. I can give it to you, I can take it from you, or I can destroy it in front of you.

There is a post office in the town of Sodertalje, near Stockholm, Sweden. It is on a crossroads with a coffee shop to its right and a sweet shop to its left. There is a safety deposit box number 427. The code to open it is 4478. You will go there on May 22nd and open the box at 0930.

 

Do not fail her.

 

Helena

 

Rashid dropped the letter back down on top of the pile of papers. He rubbed his face, with his palm, then fingered at the start of a goatee he had decided to leave in place when he had shaved earlier. “And King saw this letter?” he asked Ramsay but kept his gaze on the woman behind the computer terminal.

“Yes,” he said. “Simon Mereweather took it to him. King left on a plane to Sweden that night.”

“And how long did MI5 sit on it?”

Ramsay shrugged. “We had it a few days.”

“And you didn’t think to put an observation post on this post office?”

“In hindsight…”

“In hindsight, you fucked up,” Rashid said coldly. “You could have had a lead on your missing agent. Instead, King went in cold and has been on the backfoot ever since.” The woman behind the computer terminal looked Rashid up and down, then back to the screen. Rashid couldn’t decide if she was attracted to him or hated his guts. He