Hunter Killer - Alex King Series 12 (2021), A BATEMAN [urban books to read TXT] 📗

lion. King had only recently discovered that London had ten thousand of them. Some on bridges, some on pavements, but many secreted around the city in the most unlikely of places. Many were in long-forgotten walled gardens. Sometimes King felt like one of those lions – caged and under constraint. Soon to be forgotten.

A woman in activewear stopped and placed her foot on the other side of the bench and fastened her trainer. She jogged on the spot while she checked her messages on her phone or changed her playlist. She turned and jogged away, and Mereweather never looked up from his paper.

King walked a lazy circle around the area, then zoned in on the bench and sat down.

“You’re late,” Mereweather said without looking up. “Happy I’m alone?”

“I don’t mess about, Simon. There’s a crosshair on you,” he lied. “So, this had better be a friendly meeting…”

Mereweather folded his paper and placed it between them. His expression made it clear that he wasn’t sure if King was bluffing, and to confirm this, he glanced around wondering where the best place for a sniper to view him from would be. “I sent you up there to destroy a British submarine,” he said uneasily. “You failed. The submarine will now almost certainly be raised and handed over to the Royal Navy at the Faroe Islands. What terrible secrets are on that vessel will soon be discovered. We are in talks with the Admiralty to cobble together a story about a leak in the nuclear reactor. Under those circumstances, Aurora will likely back off and the Royal Navy can assume control, even within a UNESCO World Heritage area.”

“Good,” replied King curtly. “The families may never be reunited with their loved ones remains, but at least they’ll have a story with an ending and a memorial.”

“We are struggling for the general public’s support of nuclear-powered submarines and the huge cost implications maintaining and developing them. Now we have been placed in a position where we will be forced to fake their unreliability. The public’s support for an expensive nuclear weapons program has waned, too. Which brings me on to my next point…”

“I’ll save you the trouble,” King interrupted. “If you want me gone, then I’m gone. But that sub shouldn’t have been carrying nuclear warheads. And we shouldn’t have done half the things that we have over the years. So that’s the pieces on the board, and it’s a stalemate. Make your move Simon, but be prepared to be taken…”

Mereweather smiled. “I admire you, King. You have no limits, no boundaries you won’t cross.”

“For the right reasons,” King said sharply. “I’ve done everything within my power to win the fight for this country.”

“It’s more than that,” Mereweather replied. “You can’t lose. Or at least, you don’t know how to. You must walk into a situation with great confidence, which I suppose has come from winning at what you do.” He paused and reached into his inside pocket but froze when he saw the muzzle of the suppressor poking out from King’s worn leather jacket. “Jesus…”

“Nice and slowly now, Simon.”

Mereweather breathed out a deep sigh and chuckled. “You make me nervous.” He pulled out his hand, which was holding a dark blue velvet coated box. “You saved the day by destroying that Iranian submarine. I can’t emphasise enough how those warheads in the wrong hands would have been a catastrophe beyond the worst recesses of our imagination. If Iran and the DPRK got their hands on those, then all bets would be off.”

“They will get them eventually.”

“No doubt.”

“But not today.”

“No.” Mereweather paused. “In the report that you emailed from Spitsbergen, you mentioned an American agent. What became of him?” He absentmindedly thumbed the soft velvet covering the box, grateful for the tactile distraction.

King shrugged. “When we returned to his boat, he wasn’t there.”

“You said he was, in your opinion, the man who killed Cole last year. And by that token, he killed the Secret Service agent Rachel Beam as well.”

“I reckon.”

“So, the CIA sent a man, but he simply disappeared?”

“Into thin air.”

“Right…” Mereweather said dubiously. “I suppose he could have met with another US submarine in the area?”

“That would be my bet.”

“Did you kill him, King?”

“No.”

“But he simply disappeared…”

“Trust me, we’ll cross paths with that man again,” King replied.

Mereweather nodded, finally accepting King’s version of events. “The world’s media has gone crazy over the story of two duelling submarines under the ice. Washington will be bolstered for years from the way that worked out for them.” He opened the velvet case and showed King the medal inside. It was a cross with a medallion in the centre and bore the inscription For Gallantry around it. It shone brightly and had been crafted from highly polished silver and attached with a dark blue ribbon. “It’s registered as an operative of the Security Service, awarded in a secret ceremony.”

King frowned. “I thought I was getting fired…”

“No. Far from it. When the PM heard what had happened, or at least the salient facts, he insisted on awarding you the George Cross. It’s the highest order for bravery in the British Isles and awarded to both civilian and military personnel alike. That said, I do want you to lie low for a while. There’s an external review imminently on behalf of the Joint Intelligence Services and Whitehall and it would be better all-round if…”

“If all the loose cannons were off deck?” King interjected.

“Indeed.”

“I could do with a rest,” said King. “And I want to spend time helping Caroline to rehabilitate. She will have been lost without me recently.”

Mereweather cleared his throat nervously and looked away momentarily. “You haven’t spoken to her?”

“We don’t when the other is operational. I’m driving back down to Dorset when we’re done here.”

Mereweather sighed. “We’ve let her go,