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

“What? You fire her before giving her the chance to rehabilitate fully?” He snapped the medal box shut, shaking his head.

“It’s not like that.” Mereweather paused. “While you have been away Caroline has been assisting with a mission. Giuseppe Fortez put out a contract on you. Interpol intercepted it and brought it to us, Ramsay put together a team and when he informed Caroline of the threat, for her own security, she insisted on accompanying them.”

“So why did you let her go?”

“Because she was insistent.”

“I mean, why did you fire her?”

“She killed him.”

“What?”

“She used the team as a stalking horse to get near Fortez and then she killed him. Ended the threat to your life right there and then. She escaped in a helicopter that she hired privately in Switzerland.” Mereweather paused. “We think Dave Lomu was in on it, but he’s disappeared. A shame really, because we really would like to talk to him about brokering the deal which saw Fortez put a million euros in Caroline’s bank account before the meeting. One of those half-now, and half when the job is done arrangements. That’s the bloody gem right there. The rest of the team were not present when that happened. We’re not even sure if the broker, a man called Milo Noventa was forced to put the money into her account by Big Dave, before he allegedly came at him with a knife and was killed in the ensuing struggle. It’s a mess.”

King shrugged. “This is all news to me.”

“Quite.”

“Sounds like you need a talk with Big Dave.”

“I will. Soon enough.”

“Who else knows about the money?”

“Dave Lomu and Caroline for sure. Ramsay, because he’s accountable.”

“And does Fortez want it back?”

“In case you weren’t listening, the man’s dead.”

“Then, I fail to see the problem.”

“The problem is Caroline went rogue.”

“You said that about me, not so long ago…”

“There seems to be a pattern emerging,” Mereweather sneered. “And Leroy Wilkinson, AKA Flymo seems the most likely contender as her private pilot, as the company which hired the helicopter didn’t supply a pilot and will not divulge any further information without just about every official channel being taken and without every requisition document known to man being double-stamped.”

“That’s the Swiss for you…”

“That’s it? You hear that your fiancée killed a man, hasn’t declared a million euros that was used to entrap a man searching for a contract killer and that’s all you’ve got?”

“She loves me. I’d do the same for her and already have done.” King shrugged. “Fortez was a bad man in a dangerous game. If you want to dance, you’ve got to pay the band…”

“We’ll need the million back.”

King shrugged. “I don’t see how you think it was yours in the first place.”

“King…”

“I’m quite sure it’s illegal to run an entrapment operation in the way it seems to have been done. Neil Ramsay should have known better than that. And what about the top detective, Sally-Anne Thorpe? She knows the laws regarding entrapment.” King paused. “And it sounds as if Caroline was fired from a job she loves, right in the middle of her rehabilitation on sick leave. Surely you wouldn’t have allowed her on an operation in her condition?”

Mereweather stared at him, waiting for the punchline but it never came. He shook his head indignantly and said, “I didn’t want to fire Caroline, but she gave me no choice.”

“And how did she take it?”

Mereweather laughed. “Well, that’s Caroline for you. She said, Well, a bullet only does the job it was intended for after it’s been fired, maybe it will be the same for me…”

King smiled and stood up. “You know, Simon, I think she’s probably right on that count…” He left Mereweather sitting in the shade, the early morning sun warming his face with golden light as he started across Westminster Bridge. In his right pocket the small automatic pistol weighed down his jacket and when he was clear of the couple who were walking towards him, he tossed it over the side and into the muddy depths of the Thames. He took the case out from his other pocket and opened it, the medal glinting up at him. For Gallantry… King thought of the things he had done, the terrible things he had been asked to do and the lives he had taken for his country. The image of the floating lifejackets paused in front of him a moment too long, and he tossed the open box into the water. He watched for a moment as the box floated and the medal glistened in the sunlight, before the box slowly filled with water and started to swirl in the current, and then it was gone. On its way into the murky depths. Another secret lost forever.

*Authors Note

Hi – thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

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A P Bateman

Acknowledgments

This novel required some technical data outside my ‘wheelhouse’, to use a common naval expression. Weapons, tactics, food, drink, vehicles and gruesome fights have never been a problem for my imagination, but the inner workings of submarines, communications and general naval procedures was something quite new for this author.

For their help with US Navy terminology and submarine protocols I would like to thank Richard Ashmore, Rick Nigh and John Bickford.

For her wealth of Royal Navy knowledge from submarines, navigation and communications, ops room