Читать книгу The Fund - Jeff Edwards - Страница 10

Initially, Mick Sloane and his investigations had I gone unnoticed. He had been just one of many reporters looking for a news story.

However, his persistence had resulted in his name cropping up repeatedly on lists of persons seeking information. Information was well and good, but the people he was seeking that information on were people that were also of interest to the intelligence community.

Therefore, his name had been flagged and any inquiries made by him were now the subject of a separate list, and as his list of inquiries grew, Sloane’s name was mentioned as a person who might bear further investigation.

With his name now linked to that of Jade Green, Sloane’s file was passed to none other than the head of Inland Security, John Thorpe.

‘Frustrated’ was a poor description of how John Thorpe actually felt when it came to the subject of Jade Green and now that she was dead this frustration had passed to her circle of friends who made up the board of the charity named ‘The Fund’.

Time and again his efforts to locate Jade Green’s secret cache of videotapes had been thwarted. Whether by bad luck or bad management, the videos remained beyond his reach.

The Minister for Inland Security and Prime Minister Foster continued to support him in his efforts, but his continued lack of success meant the time was rapidly approaching when another failure would mean the end of his career, notwithstanding his years of service to the Crown.

Despite the sex scandal involving his brother, Prime Minister Foster’s party had narrowly survived the last election and he was still focused on obtaining the missing videos. No matter that they were now forced to hold out the proverbial ‘olive branch’ to The Fund, secretly they continued to monitor all aspects of the charity’s activities, searching for any clue that might lead to their discovery.

As John Thorpe read through the new file on the reporter Mick Sloane he became increasingly alarmed by the man’s latest activities and decided to send a team to search his home. He did not want Sloane to be the one to make him look like a fool in front of the PM by beating Thorpe’s entire government department to Green’s videos.

A team of specialists went through Sloane’s flat. They copied all his files including the ones on his home computer supposedly protected by passwords.

After all the information had been correlated they reported to Thorpe. ‘We have copies of everything. What do you want us to do now?’

Thorpe considered torching the flat to slow Thorpe down, but this course of action had not worked in the past. In fact, it had forced his investigations into useless diversions that had resulted in the situation in which he now found himself.

Reluctantly, he replied, ‘Just bring it all up to me. I’ll get someone to go through it all.’

Thorpe now had to consider his options. Who would he get to carry on the investigation? Those in power wanted results but were not prepared to allow him the unlimited coverage he had previously requested, and at all times they appear to be on continued friendly terms with members of The Fund.

Realising he had little choice, Thorpe buzzed his secretary.

‘Get Sam Tait and Bree Lake in here,’ he ordered.

The two agents had been responsible for the original investigation into Jade Green’s affairs but had been sidelined since their unsuccessful attempt to rescue her from terrorists.

The pair had been revealed to Green’s friends as agents for Inland Security and as a result Thorpe had considered their usefulness at an end. He had elected instead to conduct the rest of the subsequent investigation personally.

Now, however, it would take too long for a new team be selected and brought up to speed and so Tait and Lake were his only option.

* * *

The following day the agents were seated before him.

A former army captain who had served with the SAS, Sam Tait looked as fit as the day he had completed his basic training. Long hours of rigorous hiking with full backpack and torturous workouts in the gym kept him at peak fitness.

On the other hand Bree Lake’s slim body was toned by exhaustive workouts in a local karate dojo as well as gym time and sessions of yoga.

Both were dressed in the height of fashion. Sam Tait effected a casual look while Bree Lake posed in a suit that would have done an international banker proud. Their exposed skin was deeply tanned from their latest assignment in South Africa.

‘You’ve got a new assignment for us?’ asked Sam.

Thorpe nodded. ‘An assignment but not a new one. I’m putting you both back on the Jade Green matter.’

‘What?’ asked Sam. ‘You’ve got to be kidding! You took us off the case months ago.’

‘And now I’m telling you you’re both back on it.’

‘Why?’ asked Bree. ‘You weren’t too happy with our efforts if I remember rightly.’

Thorpe ignored the implied criticism. ‘The pair of you know more about the case and the people involved than anyone else besides me. You’re best suited for the job.’

‘What’s our assignment?’ asked Sam.

‘The same as it was before. Locate Jade Green’s videos and when you do, we’ll work out how to go about retrieving them.’

‘How long are we going to be doing this for?’ asked Sam.

‘As long as it takes. We know that your friends down in Walton Village have them. They should be somewhere in that bank building of theirs. Find out where.’

‘But they know us,’ Bree protested. ‘They know we’re working for Inland Security. They’re not going to tell us anything.’

Thorpe nodded in agreement. ‘No, they’re not. That means that you’re going to have to be especially devious. I might suggest that you try to get some sort of help from within The Fund itself.’

‘How many agents will we have working on this?’ asked Bree.

‘Just the pair of you. This has to be kept small in scale and extremely quiet. The Fund is not to know that we are still expressing any sort of interest in them. They very nearly brought down the current government and did manage to ruin the reputation of the Prime Minister’s brother Roger in retaliation for our last efforts.’

‘That was their doing?’ said a shocked Bree. She could not imagine the Reynolds and the Ryans being capable of such a thing.

‘I can show you the actual DVD they sent to the Prime Minister’s brother if you wish. It makes very edifying viewing.’

Bree looked at Sam. She could see that he also had trouble coming to terms with Thorpe’s accusations. ‘I suppose we’ll have to see it anyway, as part of our investigation,’ she said.

‘I’ll have a copy of it included in your files.’

‘I don’t think that the two of us will be enough.’

Thorpe opened up a file on the desk in front of him. ‘There is one other thing. A reporter by the name of Mick Sloane is also sniffing around. No doubt, in the course of your investigations, your paths will cross. I’ll leave it up to you as to whether you make use of him or not. If you choose not to then you may need to torpedo his inquiries.’

‘Why?’ asked Sam.

‘I don’t want this Sloane to uncover the fact that the videos really do exist. If he were to release that sort of information to the public it could lead to total chaos. There could be a complete lack of confidence in the whole political scheme and scores of individuals will be snooping around out there looking for those tapes. Imagine if they were to fall into the hands of some really radical organisation. At least The Fund has been restrained in their demands. So far.’

Sam gave it some thought and replied, ‘It would probably be for the best if we had him on our side, but we’ll check him out first before committing ourselves.’

‘Will we be operating under any sort of cover?’ asked Bree, remembering it had been the government’s cover story that had created The Fund in the first place.

Thorpe almost blushed as he remembered too. ‘No. At this stage you’ll just be operatives out in the field.’

‘If this Sloane person does work with us, will we be able to bring him into headquarters?’ asked Bree.

‘No. He’ll have no official recognition. You’ll have to conduct the operation from outside. Use one of your homes.’

Bree was incensed. ‘I’m not having a couple of feral males tromping all through my private things!’

‘Well, I suppose that just leaves my place. You’ll just have to supply a maid with a high security clearance to keep it clean for me,’ smiled Sam.

‘The government’s budget does not run to providing maids for slovenly agents. Clean it yourself,’ replied Thorpe gruffly.

‘Well, it was worth a try.’

Thorpe handed over a copy of Sloane’s file. ‘If you two are finished being cheeky, I suggest you gather all the information together and get started. Keep me updated.’

On their way out, Bree said, ‘I’ll collect a few things from home and meet you at your place.’

Knowing they would be spending a lot of late nights reviewing the material, Sam asked, ‘Will I make some space for you in my wardrobe?’

‘Certainly not! I’ll use your spare bedroom.’

‘I thought we’d use that as our office.’

‘We’ll use your dining table for that. You never use it anyway.’

‘Maybe I would if I had someone stopping over.’

‘Your stopovers are only ever there for breakfast anyway,’ she said, referring to Sam’s occasional girlfriends.

Thorpe’s secretary listened in to the pair’s banter. It was the worst kept secret in Inland Security that these two occasionally slept together when they were at home and had done so on a more regular basis when on assignment, especially when they posed as a married couple. She watched them split up the pile of documents and leave the office.

I wonder when they’ll finally wake up to the fact that they love one another, she wondered.