Chapter 22 #2
“Disappointingly structured. Up at six or earlier. Briefings. Coffee. Newspapers. More briefings. Coffee. Security updates, economic reports, fire-fighting—all dependant on what’s happening. Occasionally a different coffee.”
Joe snorted softly behind the camera.
“An important distinction,” Kaden said quickly and shot Joe a look. Don’t mock him.
“It is,” Blake said, entirely serious. “There’s a hierarchy. The first coffee for survival. Strong and black. The second for decision-making. Latte. After that, I don’t mind.”
“Do you avoid caffeine before bed?”
“Yes. I sleep like a baby and I don’t want to lose that.”
“You don’t go to bed with worries churning in your head?” Kaden asked. “I’m impressed.”
“I compartmentalise. Anything serious will be there the next day. Brains need rest.” Blake gave a faint smile. “My days are filled with meetings. Advisors, committees and the occasional crisis. If I carried on thinking about everything that was discussed, I’d never sleep.”
“Do you make time for breakfast?”
Blake chuckled. “Not always.”
“What do you like to eat?”
“Oatmeal, yoghurt, sometimes toast.”
“I can’t get you to admit to a secret craving for a chocolate croissant?”
Blake laughed. “Don’t tell anyone but I love Coco Pops.”
Kaden grinned. “Please let me use that.”
“Fine.”
Joe shifted again. “Mind if I keep taking a few shots?”
Blake gestured his consent without looking.
Kaden leaned forward slightly. “Do you ever get a moment that feels ordinary? Something that isn’t dictated by your role? A hobby?”
Blake sucked in his cheeks. “I have a habit of reorganising things that don’t necessarily need reorganising.”
“Such as?”
“My bookshelves. My desk drawers. The spice rack in the kitchen.”
Kaden laughed, shaking his head. “That’s…honestly, that’s not what I expected.”
“Most people assume an interest in golf or clay pigeon shooting,” Blake replied dryly.
“What they get is labelling systems. I’m extremely organised.
A neat freak, if you like. I don’t think that’s particularly unusual.
I cling to that because my life is not my own in the way it once was. A quiet lunch can feel like a luxury.”
“I understand that. Favourite food as a treat?”
“Fish and chips. Beans on toast.”
Kaden shifted slightly. “What’s the most unusual part of your routine?”
Blake hesitated, then said, “I rehearse conversations.”
Kaden raised an eyebrow. “Before meetings?”
“Before anything. Running through possibilities,” Blake admitted. “Phone calls. Interviews.” He gestured lightly between them. “This.”
Joe grinned. “Ah, so somewhere, there’s a version of this where I trip up?”
“There are several versions,” Blake said. “In one of them, you knock something over.”
Joe glanced deliberately at a nearby glass lamp.
“Please don’t,” Blake said. “That’s a Lasvit. Cost me over two thousand pounds.”
“It’s lovely.” Kaden smiled. “You have good taste. Is that a Lowry?”
“It is. I’m from Lancashire. It reminds me of my working-class roots.”
“Did you anticipate me asking about that?”
Blake’s mouth twitched. “Yes.”
“I’m not sure whether I should be annoyed to be found predictable.”
“People can be very unpredictable.”
“Occupational hazard, I imagine.”
Blake glanced at him. “Among other things.”
Kaden tilted his head. “Do you ever get it wrong? The rehearsals, I mean.”
Blake was quiet for a moment. “Yes,” he said finally. “I can’t control everything.”
“And what happens then?” Kaden asked.
Blake met his gaze. “You adapt. Or you deal with the consequences.” Blake held his gaze a second longer than necessary.
Joe swallowed hard.
“As I said,” Blake smiled now, “people are unpredictable.” Then he added, almost idly, “Though some are better at hiding it than others.”
Joe felt that land. Did he suspect them? But how could he?
Kaden didn’t flinch. “If we weren’t unpredictable, you’d have nothing to rehearse for. What do you think of penguins?”
Blake chuckled. “I like them. I sponsor one at London Zoo. Did you know that?”
“No. I spotted that ornament on the windowsill. I like penguins too.”
“What’s the most unusual thing you know about penguins?” Blake asked.
“That they have a catastrophic moult once a year and lose all their feathers in a short period of time.”
Blake smiled. “I like that they have a gland above their eye that filters out the salt from sea water after they drink it.”
While they chatted about penguins, Joe moved behind Blake, pretending to adjust his lens.
The desk. The chair. Line of sight. A way to ensure Blake wouldn’t see Kaden putting the device under the bottom of the desk.
He lowered the camera slightly. “Actually, sorry, would you mind standing for a moment? Looking towards the window? The light is so much better from this angle. It’ll only take a second. ”
Blake stood. “There?”
“Just a little to the left—perfect.” Joe lifted the camera again.
“Do you ever get recognised in…unexpected situations?” Kaden asked.
Blake huffed a quiet laugh. “Once. At the dentist. Not my usual one.”
Kaden blinked. “That feels like a place you don’t want to be recognised, especially if you don’t like drills and needles.”
“I had a mouth full of equipment. The dentist asked me about policy mid-procedure.”
Joe winced. “That’s cruel.”
“I tried to respond,” Blake continued. “It came out as…” He made an impressively garbled noise.
Kaden lost it, laughing outright. “I wish we had that recorded.”
“I’m relieved you don’t.”
When Joe turned and Blake sat back at his desk, Kaden scratched his ear. Joe hadn’t seen him do it, but the device was in place. The relief was immense. Joe started to smile and reined it back.
“Do you prefer working here,” Kaden asked, gesturing lightly to the desk, “or in the main office at Westminster?”
“It depends…”
He kept talking and all Joe could think about was that Kaden had done it and hadn’t been seen, that they’d soon leave and everything would be all right.
“How do you switch off?” Kaden asked.
Blake gave a small, almost amused exhale. “I’m not sure I do.”
“And after a really bad day, do you still sleep well?” Kaden asked.
“I tell myself I’ll read something intelligent to distract my mind.”
“And?”
“I end up reading airport fiction. One of your books, perhaps.”
“Ah?”
“I’ve read all three.”
“My claim to fame. Eli Blake unwinds with Kaden Bauer.”
Blake laughed.
“So if you weren’t doing this,” Kaden gestured around, “what would you be doing?”
Blake looked at him for a moment. “Something simpler,” he said. “But probably still alphabetising things.”
“Finally, a word of advice for the reader?”
“Seize the day. Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero. Horace telling us to take advantage while we can and trust as little as possible in tomorrow.”
“And on that note, thank you for your time.” Kaden pushed to his feet.
They were more than a hundred metres away from Blake’s house before either of them spoke.
“Oh God,” Kaden whispered. “Did we actually manage that?”
“I thought I’d feel better when we came out but I feel as if something is fluttering inside me.”
“That’s where the expression butterflies in your stomach comes from.”
“I didn’t eat any butterflies.”
Kaden gave him a wide-eyed look, then glared at Joe’s smile. “Okay, ET.”
“Who’s ET?”
“A film about an extraterrestrial. Though you probably know that. We’ll watch it later. I’ll text Alistair and tell him it’s done.”
Kaden had barely sent the text before the phone rang. Alistair, he mouthed to Joe and pulled him in close to listen.
“Hi,” Kaden said.
“Everything okay?”
“It’s under the front part of the desk.”
“And already transmitting.”
Kaden glanced at Joe. “And have lovely things been said about us?”
“Not one word.”
“Oh. And I thought we’d made such a good impression.”
Alistair chuckled. “Now it’s a waiting game. Give me your address and someone will come and collect the camera.”
“We can bring it back now. Are you in?”
“Meet me at Paddock’s. Café on Dunstan Street.”
“Fine. Give us forty minutes.”
Alistair ended the call and they carried on walking.
“I suppose the longer it is before they have enough to act against Blake, the better it is for us,” Joe said.
“Probably. Did you get a feel about him?”
Joe thought about it. “Not that he’s a bad guy.”
“Me neither. But then he was hardly going to tell us about his nefarious deeds while twirling his moustache.”
“That went right over my head.”
“I don’t have the energy to explain.”
“Try.”
By the time they arrived at the café, Joe got it. Cartoon villain. What a weird thing.
Alistair and Elsie were at a table in the corner behind a post. He was on the phone and ended the call as they sat down. Elsie was delighted to see them. She wagged her tail hard, moving from Joe to Kaden and back, as they both made a fuss of her.
“Coffee?” Alistair asked.
“Yes, please,” Joe said.
Once the waitress had taken their order, Alistair turned to them. “I think you’d better keep the camera for the time being.”
“Why?” Kaden asked.
“In case someone wonders why you walked out of here without it.”
Kaden shot Joe a look. Yes, Joe got it. They might have been followed. He’d not thought to check.
“There’s no rush to return it. I know you’re still worried about what you did but you don’t need to be.”
“And you’re not worried about being seen with us?” Kaden asked.
“I chose this seat carefully. I’m not in view from the window. You weren’t followed here. Well, actually you were but not by anyone I don’t know. Having said that, I can’t be sure someone else doesn’t have you under surveillance.”
“You had us followed?” Kaden whispered.
“We wanted to be certain Blake wasn’t suspicious of you, or that anyone who might be watching him became more interested in you than they should be.”
Kaden tugged at his jaw. “Do I actually need to write the article?”
“Yes, and send it to your editor. Tick all boxes.”
“Okay.”
Alistair pushed to his feet. “Thank you. Enjoy your coffee. It’s paid for.”
Elsie whined as he tugged her away, then they were out of the door and gone.
“He had us followed?” Kaden whispered. “Why did we even have to come and meet him if he didn’t want to take the camera?”
“Maybe it was to see if anyone else was following us.”
Kaden’s shoulders fell. “I wish…”
Joe could guess what he was thinking. “Why didn’t you say no to him? You never wanted to do it.”
Kaden’s mouth tightened. “It had to be done.”
There was something in Kaden’s tone… “What did he promise you?”
“Nothing.”
“Look at me and tell me that.”
Kaden gave a heavy sigh. “That you’d definitely be able to stay if I said yes, and if I’d said no, that you’d have had to leave.”
Fury surged and Joe beat it down. He felt guilty because of the risk Kaden had taken. He wanted to tell Kaden he was an idiot, but all he said was, “Thank you.” The rest could remain unsaid.
“We need to go and do something fun to make that the focus of today,” Kaden said.
“We don’t need to go out to do something fun.”
Kaden chuckled. “Well, no, but… How about the cinema? Bowling? Or a museum?”
“And then can we have fun at the flat?”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay then.”
“Which would you like to do?”
Joe finished his coffee, mentally running through what he knew about bowling. Launching a ball to knock down pins. It sounded a suitably violent distraction. “Bowling.”
“Right. I’ll find a place between here and Muswell Hill.”
They used the Tube and the bus to cross London. The underground system reminded Joe of his planet, though on his world the transport tubes ran straight and had no windows. And just like on his planet, no one spoke. Joe pressed his leg against Kaden’s and Kaden turned and smiled at him.
“I need to tell them I’ve moved again, don’t I?” Joe said.
“Yes, even though it’s only for three months. I have people I need to tell too.”
“And my bank?”
“Yep. We’ll sort it all out when we come back from bowling.”
Joe sighed. “Before we have fun?”
Kaden laughed. “It can wait until after.”