Chapter 21
Kaden woke with a start. He’d had a scary dream and his heart was pounding.
He’d not woken Joe, who was fast asleep at his side.
Kaden exhaled. In the dream, Alistair was not one of the good guys.
Kaden realised he’d made a lot of assumptions.
For all he knew, Alistair had been telling lies from the moment they met.
Maybe he was working for another country trying to get British secrets.
Joe rolled over but didn’t wake. Kaden needed a moment to think.
His gut instinct told him Alistair was who he claimed to be but he had to be sure of that, not just think it.
Particularly when getting caught could wreck his life and Joe’s too.
He carefully eased out of bed, padded over to the desk and did an incognito search on both Eli Blake and Alistair Bridger.
He hadn’t really expected to find anything that would satisfy his suspicions, and he didn’t.
Legitimate intelligence agencies didn’t recruit random civilians for things like this, although Kaden understood why Alistair had picked him.
He had the legitimacy of being a relatively well-known freelance journalist, but he didn’t feel comfortable doing this.
Danny was a lawyer. Maybe Kaden needed to ask his advice.
He checked the time. Just after midnight.
Oh well. He fired off a text. Are you awake?
A moment later, the reply came.
Am now. What’s up?
Need to talk. Important. Call you in ten.
Kaden quickly dressed and slipped out of the house.
He walked with a sense of purpose, as if he had a destination in mind, and kept an eye out in case anyone was following.
Even feeling the need to do that made him anxious.
But the streets were deserted and once he was around the corner, he took out his phone.
“Hi,” Danny said. “What’s up?”
“Lawyer-client privilege, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I need your advice.” Kaden kept his voice low.
“I’ve been asked to do a day-in-the-life article about a government minister.
I’ll tell you his name but you need to keep it quiet.
I’m probably breaking the OSA by doing this but I need help.
” He checked his surroundings again before he spoke again. “Eli Blake.”
“Finance minister. And?”
“The person who’s asked me to interview him works for maybe MI5 or MI6. Possibly neither. He wants me to leave a listening device in the guy’s office or home depending on where I do the interview.”
“Shhhhit. That’s not just unethical. It’s serious criminal territory. You could be charged, lose your career, even end up in prison.”
Kaden pressed his free hand against his forehead. “I figured as much.” He sighed. “Thing is, I don’t think the guy who’s asked me to do it is a foreign agent. I’ve written a book with him. He’s as English as they come.”
“Er… Kim Philby? Guy Burgess? Anthony Blunt? Ring any bells?”
Yes, those names rang bells. Members of the Cambridge Five, a ring of Soviet spies recruited at Cambridge University in the 1930s who passed thousands of classified documents to the Soviet Union.
“He’s made a good case for why he needs me to do this.”
“I’m sure he has. You want my advice. Don’t.”
“He’s offered to help Joe get the right to stay in the UK if I do and threatened that might not happen if I say no.”
“Christ, Kaden!” Danny let out a long breath on the other end of the line. “That’s coercion. If this guy is who he says he is, he’s abusing his position. If he isn’t, then you’re being manipulated by someone even more dangerous. What’s his name?”
Kaden glanced over his shoulder, instinctively checking the empty road again. “Alistair Bridger. So your advice is don’t do it?”
“My advice is absolutely don’t do it,” Danny said firmly. “You walk away. You document everything. And if you’re smart, you never speak to this man again without legal protection.”
Kaden was quiet for a moment. The cold night air bit through his jacket, and he shivered. “Can you look into both guys? Carefully. See if there’s a hint of anything bad? I’ve googled but that didn’t tell me anything.”
“I don’t know if I can find out more than you can, but I’ll try. Did he tell you what Blake is suspected of?”
“No. He just said it was something bad.”
“Hmm.”
“What if walking away isn’t an option?”
Danny didn’t answer immediately this time.
When he did, his voice was lower. “Then you need to understand something very clearly. If you go through with it, you’re on your own.
No court is going to look kindly on ‘I was pressured’ as a defence when you knowingly plant a bug in a government minister’s office. ”
“I know.”
“And if this ties back to national security, this could get ugly, very fast.”
Another silence lengthened between them.
Kaden exhaled slowly. “But if he’s telling the truth… If Blake is dirty—”
“It’s not your job to prove it like this,” Danny cut in. “There are legal channels. Warrants. Oversight. That they’re not using those channels should tell you everything.”
Kaden swallowed. His gut twisted, but beneath the fear there was something else, a sense of inevitability.
“Joe,” he said quietly. “He means a lot to me.”
Danny didn’t respond.
“If I say no, Joe will be made to leave the country.” His voice faltered slightly. “And it will be done fast.”
“You don’t know that for sure. There are legal channels.”
Kaden huffed. “You think that will matter? He’ll be snatched up and I’ll never see him again.”
“Kaden—”
“I’m not asking what’s right,” Kaden interrupted, his voice steadier now. “I’m asking what happens if I do it. Practically.”
Danny sighed again. “Then you minimise risk. You don’t keep anything on you longer than necessary. You don’t tell anyone. Assume you’re being watched at all times. And you understand that if this goes wrong, I might not be able to get you out of it.”
Kaden nodded, even though Danny couldn’t see him. “Okay.”
“And Kaden?”
“Yeah.”
“Whatever you think this man is offering you? It won’t be clean. People who operate like this don’t do clean deals. Joe could still be made to disappear. You could be asked to do the same again.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t pretend this is anything other than what it is.”
Kaden looked up at the sky full of stars, never a black sky in London but it felt black now.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I won’t.”
He ended the call and stood there for a moment, the silence rushing back in around him. Everything Danny had said made sense. Every warning, every consequence—it all lined up. And still…the decision had already settled in his chest.
Joe.
That was all it came down to. But he wanted more information from Alistair. Kaden slipped his phone into his pocket and turned back.
The following morning, Kaden had a call from Danny as he was getting dressed. Joe was in the bathroom.
“Hi,” Kaden said.
“I’ve had to be careful. I didn’t want to raise anyone’s suspicions but I looked where I shouldn’t and there are rumours about E’s habits. A looks clean. Foreign office all his life. I still think you should say no.”
“Thanks, Danny.”
Kaden wasn’t sure whether to be happier about that or not. It still meant taking a risk.
He and Joe went downstairs to the kitchen to find a camera and carrying case sitting on the table. The breath caught in Kaden’s throat. It all seemed suddenly real.
“Morning,” Alistair said brightly and Kaden’s gorge rose.
“This is a Canon EOS R5 Mark II. Easy to use and looks right for the job. Don’t drop it.
It’s an expensive piece of kit and the guy who owns it wants it back.
The memory cards—two of them—have been loaded with relevant photos you might have taken.
Learn how to use it. Look online to see the way photographers operate. ”
“Coffee?” Joe asked.
“Please,” Kaden and Alistair said at the same time.
“The newspaper has asked Blake and he said yes. He wants to do it quickly because he’s off to Japan at the end of next week.
So the day after tomorrow at nine in the morning.
At his home in Holland Park. The paper will send you his address.
Keeps lines clean. By the way, I’ve found you a place to rent.
You should move there today to avoid any link to here. ”
“Back a step,” Kaden said.
Alistair narrowed his eyes. “How far back?”
“I want some assurances before we do this.”
Alistair waited.
“It occurred to me last night that I’ve assumed too much,” Kaden said. “How do I know Blake isn’t the good guy and you’re the bad?”
He heard Joe’s quiet gasp. Alistair chuckled. Now Kaden did the waiting.
“It’s a fair point,” Alistair said. “What would convince you?”
Kaden wasn’t sure anything could but… “Who’s your boss?”
“Ultimately, the head of MI5. The DG, Director General.”
Kaden knew that was the only person in the organisation whose identity was public.
“Can I speak to him?”
“How are you going to be sure it’s him you speak to?” Alistair looked genuinely curious, though there was a hint of amusement in his eyes, which annoyed Kaden.
“I can look up the number. Ask to speak to him.”
“Ah, well you won’t get put through. You’ll be asked to leave a voicemail. Say the issue is urgent, concerns national security and they’ll call you back. Use the word Snowdrop and you’ll get a swift response.”
Kaden looked up the number for MI5 and made the call as Alistair listened. He left a voicemail and used the word Snowdrop.
Joe slid coffee in front of Kaden and Alistair.
“Thank you, Joe,” Alistair said.
“We’ve already found a place to live,” Kaden said. “One of my friends has a colleague who needs someone to flat-sit for three months. But thank you.”
Alistair smiled. “That’s great.