A Devil is Waiting

‘And Sara Gideon?’

‘I’ve just checked at the Plaza desk. She left in a military vehicle.’

‘Seems a bit excessive, since we’re only a few blocks away.’

‘It seems her boss, this Colonel Hector Grant, was in the car.’

‘Well, there you are,’ Dillon told him. ‘Privileges of rank. Probably fancies her. Let’s drink up, go upstairs, and see if we can ruin his evening.’

The UN reception was all that you might expect: politicians from many countries, plus their military, the great and the good, and many familiar television faces. Waiters passed to and fro, the champagne flowed, and a four-piece band played music, helped out by an attractive vocalist.

A few couples were already taking a turn on the floor, among them Sara Gideon with a grey-haired colonel in British uniform who, at a couple or three inches over six feet, towered above her – at a guess, Colonel Hector Grant.

Holley said, ‘That red hair is fantastic.’

‘A lovely creature she is, to be sure.’ Dillon nodded. ‘I’d seize the day if I were you, while I go and embarrass Ferguson and Harry. I can see them over there queuing up with Josef Lermov, waiting their turn to shake hands with the ambassador.’

He walked away, and Holley stayed there, watching. Colonel Grant was smiling fondly, and she was smiling up at him with such charm that it touched the heart. They were dancing slowly, and the limp in her right leg was apparent, but only a little, and she laughed at something the colonel said.

At that moment, they turned and she was facing Holley. She stopped smiling, frowning a little as if she knew him and was surprised to see him there. The music finished. She reached up to speak to the colonel, then turned, glanced briefly at Holley, and moved towards the exit leading to the ladies’.

A voice said, ‘Heh, I bet that colonel’s more than just her boss. I love a girl in uniform, and that limp is kind of sexy. Maybe I could do myself some good here.’

There were two of them, middle-aged, well-dressed and arrogant, and already drunk. They made for the exit, drinking from their glasses as the music started up again, and Holley went after them.

At that moment, the corridor happened to be empty, just Sara Gideon approaching the restroom door, and the one who was doing all the talking put his glass down on a stand in front of a mirror, moved up fast behind her, and put a hand on her shoulder.

‘Hang on there, young lady. I know you soldier girls like a little action. We know just the place to take you.’

‘I don’t think so,’ she said as Holley approached behind them. ‘I think my friend wouldn’t like that.’

‘And which friend would that be?’ the second man asked.

Holley punched him very hard in the kidneys and, as he cried in pain and doubled over, kicked his feet from under him and stamped in the small of his back. The other man reached into his inside breast pocket and tried to withdraw what turned out to be a small pistol. Sara put her elbow in the man’s mouth, then twisted his wrist in entirely the wrong direction until he moaned with pain and dropped the weapon. Holley picked it up. ‘Two-shot derringer with hollow points. I didn’t know there were still any of these around. Very lethal.’ He smacked the man’s face. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Leo,’ the man gasped. ‘Don’t hurt me.’

‘The NYPD would just love to catch you with one of these. You’d be in a cell in Rikers tonight and, what’s worse, the showers in the morning. So I suggest you pick your friend up by the scruff of the neck and get out of here while I’m in a good mood.’

‘Anything you say, anything.’ Leo was terrified and reached down to his friend, hauling him up.

Holley said to Sara, ‘I get the impression you know who I am.’

‘Let’s say I’ve seen you on screen.’

‘Do you still need the loo?’

‘No, I think that can wait. I could do with a drink, but I’d prefer to go to the hotel bar for it and catch my breath.’

‘The bar it is, then.’ He offered her his arm, and, behind them, Leo managed to get his friend on his feet, and they lurched away.

They sat at a corner table and waited until a waiter brought a martini cocktail for her and a large vodka for him. She picked up her glass.

‘You don’t take prisoners, do you?’ she asked.

‘I could never see the point. The way you handled that guy with the derringer, though, suggests you could have managed quite well on your own.’

‘I have a black belt in aikido. Giles Roper warned me about you, you know.’

‘So you’re familiar with my wicked past?’

‘And Holland Park,’ she said. ‘And what goes on there. I’ve been given full access. I must say he’s very thorough.’

‘He’s that, all right.’

‘That horrible man.’ She sipped her martini. ‘He was afraid for his life. You frightened the hell out of him.’

‘I meant to, he deserved it.’ He took his vodka down in a quick swallow, Russian-style, and she watched him gravely, waiting for more. ‘Look, I was involved in a terrible incident years ago that makes it impossible for me to stand by and do nothing when I see a woman in trouble.’

‘Being familiar with your file, I understand why.’

‘Well, there you are, then,’ Holley said. ‘Anything else you’d like to know?’

‘I saw you watching me dancing with Colonel Grant, but you looked startled for some reason.’

He shrugged. ‘Just astonished at finding the best-looking woman I’d seen in a uniform for years.’

She smiled. ‘Why, Daniel, you certainly know how to please a lady.’

‘No, I don’t. I’ve never had much time for relationships, not in my line of work. Here today and possibly gone forever tomorrow, if you follow me. What about you?’

‘If you’ve immersed yourself in my career, you’ll know that the past ten years have been one bloody war after another. There was a chap I got close to in Bosnia who was killed by a Serb sniper. Then there was a major in Iraq who went the same way, courtesy of the Taliban.’

‘What about Afghanistan?’

‘With my Pashtu and Iranian, I travelled the country a lot.’ She smiled bleakly. ‘Death seemed to follow me around.’

‘Well, he must have thought he’d got you in his clutches at last on the road to Abusan.’ He smiled. ‘If somebody did decide to make a movie, they couldn’t do better than let you play yourself.’

‘You should be my agent, Daniel.’

‘That’s the second time you’ve called me by my first name. That’s got to mean something.’ He looked beyond her and saw Ferguson, Miller, and Dillon entering the bar, Colonel Josef Lermov with them. ‘Look who’s here.’

The Russian, instead of his uniform, was wearing an old tweed country suit, blue shirt, and brown woollen tie. He advanced on Holley and hugged him.

‘I must say you’re looking wonderful, Daniel.’ He looked down at Sara. ‘And this can only be the remarkable Captain Sara Gideon.’ He reached for her hand and kissed it. ‘A great honour and privilege, one soldier to another.’

‘Coming from the author of Total War, Colonel Lermov, I must say the privilege is all mine,’ she replied in perfect Russian.