Dead Man Walking

  ‘You really think you can just disappear these days?’ said the Colonel. ‘Constant surveillance has made it a much smaller world. You have no idea how much effort goes into hiding you and your fellow agents.’

  ‘Parker managed,’ I said.

  I looked expectantly at the Colonel. Normally, this would be when he handed over the briefing file for the mission. He looked steadily back at me.

  ‘There is no file on this case,’ the Colonel said carefully. ‘And there isn’t going to be one. No official record, nothing in writing, no paper trail. Because if there are traitors operating inside the Organization, they can’t be allowed to know that Frank Parker is threatening to reveal their identities. There is no mission. I am not here talking to you. The only people who know about Frank Parker are those who’ve had direct contact with him, who are currently enjoying a nice holiday somewhere very secure in complete isolation; and those at the very top who give me my orders. And that’s the way it’s going to stay.’

  ‘So the left hand doesn’t know who the right hand’s interrogating?’ I said.

  ‘Officially,’ said the Colonel, ‘no one knows Parker is being held at Ringstone Lodge. There are no records of his arrival in this country, and everyone at the Lodge has been brought in specially from outside the Organization just for this particular operation. All the security, interrogation and support staff have been sequestered from the Ministry of Defence. They don’t know what we want their people for, and they know better than to ask.

  ‘All of these individuals have worked with us before and have proper Organization clearance. They’ll tell you everything you need to know, once you get to the Lodge. But let me be very clear: you are not to contact me until you have made a decision as to whether or not this potential gold mine really is Frank Parker. And whether the information he is offering is worth anything. I will take it from there. Parker will then be sent on somewhere else, the Lodge people will be dismissed, and you will be free to return to wherever you consider home.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ I said. I looked at him thoughtfully. ‘You’ve made it clear you don’t approve of me, or my methods. So why haven’t you argued for one of your other agents to work this mission?’

  ‘You were selected at the very highest level,’ said the Colonel. ‘Because you are our most secretive agent, who has always maintained the greatest distance between yourself and the rest of the Organization. You are therefore the least likely to be involved with any of our possible traitors.’

  ‘And, of course, if anything should go wrong I will be the easiest to blame and throw to the wolves. Because absolutely no one is in my corner.’

  ‘I knew you’d understand,’ said the Colonel.

  ‘Is that it?’ I said.

  ‘One last matter,’ said the Colonel. ‘We understand you prefer to work with a partner these days. Penny Belcourt.’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘The one person I can trust to watch my back and not stick a knife in it.’

  ‘You are expected to ensure her silence on all relevant matters,’ said the Colonel. ‘Or we will.’

  He rose to his feet. He took his time doing so, to make it clear leaving was entirely his idea. ‘You have your assignment. I don’t expect to hear from you again until you’ve decided about Parker. Now I really must be on my way. Civilized food and a decent wine list await.’ He paused, to give me one last significant look. ‘I will find out the truth about you, Ishmael Jones.’

  ‘If you do, let me know,’ I said. ‘I’ve been wondering for years.’

  He turned his back on me and strode out, waitresses scattering before him like startled birds. I felt under pressure to prove myself to this new Colonel; even though, with my experience and proven success rate, I shouldn’t have needed to. But like everyone else in this world, the Organization runs on ‘What have you done for us recently?’.

  And I still couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling that this might all be some kind of trap, designed to lure me inside Ringstone Lodge and then lock the door behind me.

  Penny came bustling over from the next table and dropped into the chair the Colonel had just vacated. She grinned cheerfully at me and I smiled back at her. A striking presence in her mid-twenties, Penny Belcourt had a pretty face with a strong bone structure and a mass of dark hair piled up on top of her head. Along with flashing eyes, dramatic make-up, a pleasantly trim figure, and enough nervous energy to run a funfair for a month. She nodded dismissively after the departing Colonel.

  ‘Told you he’d never know I was here. He was so busy being important I could have danced the Time Warp on top of the table and he wouldn’t have noticed. Are you going to eat all of that?’

  She tore a slice off my pizza with one hand and crammed as much as she could into her mouth, rolling her eyes and making exaggerated noises of contentment.

  ‘I wish you wouldn’t do that,’ I said. ‘If you want something, just order from the menu. I’m good for it.’

  ‘I only wanted a taste,’ said Penny, indistinctly. ‘It’s a big pizza. You can spare some.’

  ‘That’s not the point,’ I said.

  ‘It’s good to share,’ Penny said firmly. ‘Also, very human. You should have learned that by now.’

  ‘I have been living among you since 1963,’ I said.

  ‘Among isn’t the same as being,’ she said crushingly. ‘You’re still an outsider in many ways. That’s why you need me.’

  ‘That’s not the only reason I need you,’ I said.

  She smiled. ‘You are a sweetie.’

  Penny had been my unofficial partner since I saved her life from the unnatural thing that killed the rest of her family at Belcourt Manor. She’d inherited a small fortune, which meant she was free to help me out as and when. We loved each other, as much as two people can when one of them isn’t entirely human. Penny helped to keep me grounded, and provide the human touch I still sometimes lack. I’ve been a part of human society for over fifty years, but I often think I’m no nearer understanding people. Penny assures me there are a lot of people who also feel the same way.

  ‘Is this going to be a real case, at last?’ said Penny.

  ‘They’re all real cases,’ I said. ‘Information gathering may not be sexy, but it’s not always about monsters.’

  ‘But the monsters are real, in your world.’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘They are.’

  ‘Where are you staying now?’ she asked artlessly.

  ‘Just another small hotel,’ I said. ‘You wouldn’t recognize the name if I told you.’

  ‘I want to be with you.’

  ‘I am with you as much as I dare. I have to keep moving; because I can’t afford to be noticed, to make ripples on the surface of the world. There’s a reason why I’ve survived all these years, in this very suspicious world.’

  ‘I thought the Organization protected you!’

  ‘They clean up after me, on the few occasions when I do get noticed. But I haven’t stayed hidden this long by relying on the kindness of strange organizations.’

  ‘I want to spend more time with you,’ said Penny. ‘Just the two of us. All this dodging around makes me feel I’m just visiting your world.’

  ‘I spend as much time with you as I can,’ I said. ‘Any more could endanger you, as well as me.’

  We held hands across the table, reaching out to each other across a divide greater than she could understand. Then Penny shrugged and changed the subject. She’s always been good at that when she realizes she’s losing an argument.

  ‘This hidden world of yours is absolutely fascinating! I’ve been doing all kinds of research, and have dug up some amazing stories.’

  ‘You can’t trust everything you read on the Internet,’ I said. ‘A lot of it is put there by groups like the Organization, as disinformation. To steer people away from the really nasty stuff. For their own protection.’

  ‘So how much of it is true?’ said Penny.

  ‘Everything you wish wasn’t.’

/>   ‘When are we going to get a proper case?’ said Penny. ‘I want to fight monsters and save the world. I can do it, I’m spy girl!’

  ‘You could say this case has a monster in it,’ I said. ‘Frank Parker has more blood on his hands than any one man should have to account for.’

  Penny frowned. ‘I thought you said you never met him?’

  ‘I know about him. Secret agents gossip like schoolgirls. Just because they know they shouldn’t. Parker made his reputation by being able to break into anywhere, steal anything, and be gone before anyone even knew he was there. He also killed a lot of people who needed killing, to make the world a better place. But after he left the Organization he killed a great many more, just because someone put a price on their head. Of course, how much of this is reputation and how much is true is hard to tell. In our game, everybody lies.’

  ‘How good was Parker when it came to the monsters?’ said Penny.

  ‘He killed his fair share,’ I said.

  ‘Why did Parker quit?’ Penny asked. ‘What could make him walk away from a job he was so good at? Did something happen? Something must have happened.’

  ‘Presumably,’ I said. ‘But no one knows what. The only weird thing about Parker, that made him stand out from all the other agents, was that he was supposed to be unkillable. There are all kinds of stories about him surviving being shot at close range or thrown from a great height. He’s walked away from plane crashes, explosions and impossible odds.’

  ‘Could he be … different, like you?’ said Penny.

  ‘Not as far as I know,’ I said. ‘But if he was as good at hiding his true nature as I am and something happened to threaten that … No wonder he just abandoned his old life and ran. And only worked for money after that, to make sure no one would ever get close again.’

  ‘There must be someone in the Organization he worked with who could identify him!’

  ‘Field agents mostly work alone,’ I said. ‘It’s safer that way. Our only contact with the Organization is through the Colonel. And the Colonel who gave Parker his orders has been dead for some time now.’

  ‘Is it really going to be that difficult to decide whether or not it’s actually him?’

  ‘Parker’s changed his face so many times, he could be anyone.’

  ‘You never changed your face,’ said Penny.

  ‘I really should,’ I said. ‘But my face is one of the few things I have left from the old days.’

  ‘Have you ever met anyone higher up than the Colonel?’ asked Penny, wriggling excitedly on her seat as a thought struck her.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘And I don’t want to. The last thing I need is the people in charge taking a special interest in me.’

  ‘Then how can you be sure there actually is an Organization?’ Penny said triumphantly. ‘I mean, what if it’s all just one big bluff?’

  ‘I really don’t care,’ I said. ‘They’re powerful enough to hide me from the world’s curious gaze. Nothing else matters.’

  Penny sat back in her chair and studied me for a long moment. ‘You really don’t want to go to this Ringstone Lodge, do you? Is it really that bad a place?’

  ‘It could be very bad for me.’

  ‘But you’re still going.’

  ‘Of course. It’s the job. And because if this is the real Frank Parker, I want to know why he quit. What he found out about the Organization … Perhaps when he tells me why he had to leave in such a hurry, I’ll want to run too.’

  ‘You are a very suspicious person, Ishmael.’

  I looked at the remains of my pizza and pushed it away. I had no appetite left.

  ‘I don’t think you should go with me, Penny. This could turn out to be a very unpleasant case.’

  She gave me a hard look. ‘All the more reason to have someone there you know you can trust.’

  ‘I did manage to survive without you for a great many years.’

  ‘There’s more to life than surviving,’ said Penny. And she smiled dazzlingly at me, until I smiled back. ‘How long before we have to set off for the Lodge? Is there time for dessert?’

  ‘There’s always time for dessert,’ I said.

  Penny clapped her hands together delightedly. ‘You do know what to say to a girl!’ She picked up the menu and studied it carefully. Before asking, quite casually, ‘Is there anything unusual about Ringstone Lodge?’

  ‘It has a reputation for being haunted.’

  She stared at me over the top of the menu, her eyes big. ‘Really?’

  ‘So they say. The Lodge encourages such stories to help keep people away.’

  ‘Do you think we’ll get to see any spooks and spectres?’

  ‘I doubt it. I don’t believe in ghosts.’

  Penny slammed the menu down on the table and stared at me accusingly.

  ‘You? Of all people?’

  ‘I may walk through the hidden world on a regular basis, but what I find there is still real,’ I said. ‘And solid enough for me to lay my hands on, when necessary. Just because some weird things are real, that doesn’t mean all of them are.’

  TWO

  Questions, Questions

  When some agents know they’re heading into dangerous territory, they like to go loaded for bear. Heavily armed bears, wearing Kevlar. I prefer to avoid guns. Specific weapons can limit your responses and I like to leave myself room to improvise. And to be fair, I am nearly always going to be the most dangerous person in the room.

  But none of the usual rules apply to Ringstone Lodge.

  The Lodge can be found in the North Riding of Yorkshire. About as far north as you can go before you bang your head on Hadrian’s Wall. Beautiful countryside, wild and free; easy on the eye, but hard on the heart. You have to work to make a living out of that cold ground. The North Country is old and heavy with history. And what secrets it has, it holds close to its chest.

  Ringstone Lodge stands alone, miles from anywhere. So no one can hear you scream.

  In the end, I decided to take the train. It would have been a really long drive, and I didn’t want to arrive at the Lodge exhausted and running on fumes. I was pretty sure I’d need all my wits about me when I came face to face with the seekers after truth. I sent Penny home to pack while I stopped off at one of my safe houses to pick up a few essentials, and we met up an hour later at King’s Cross Station. I like King’s Cross, you can always be sure of any amount of noise and bustle to hide yourself in. I arrived with just a backpack, because I have always believed in travel light, travel fast. It’s a battered old thing that’s seen a lot of use, with colours so faded it’s become as anonymous as me. Never carry anything you’re not prepared to leave behind in an emergency. I once had to bolt down the backstairs of a well-known hotel wearing nothing but my socks, plus my backpack with a stolen laptop in it.

  Penny had taken the time to dress in a whole new outfit: a dark blue jacket over a gleaming white blouse, a dark skirt over dark stockings, high heels and a really big hat. I looked her over thoughtfully, as she stood poised and smiling before me.

  ‘Why?’ I said finally.

  ‘Because we’re going to be meeting people, darling. Important people. Dress to impress, that’s what I always say.’

  ‘Well, if nothing else you should make a fine distraction,’ I said.

  She sniffed loudly. ‘Your look never changes, basic and scruffy. I’ve seen better-dressed people selling the Big Issue.’

  ‘I like to feel comfortable,’ I said calmly. ‘No one’s going to look twice at someone who looks like me.’

  ‘Once would be bad enough,’ said Penny.

  She’d brought a really large suitcase. It was also quite remarkably heavy, as I found out when I tried to carry it for her. I made some dramatic noises, indicating imminent back problems and popping knee joints, and looked at her reproachfully.

  ‘We’re only going to be at the Lodge two days, maximum. What have you got in here?’

  ‘A girl likes to be prepared,’ Penny said lo
ftily.

  ‘What for?’ I said. ‘Moving house?’

  She smiled sweetly at me. ‘You know I’m going to make you pay for that remark, darling. And anyway, what are you carrying in that dinky little backpack? Guns and explosives and secret spy devices?’

  ‘Just a change of clothes,’ I said. ‘We won’t need guns and explosives where we’re going.’

  Penny shot me a look. ‘Are you sure about that?’

  ‘If I wasn’t, we wouldn’t be going,’ I said. ‘And I’ve never had much faith in clever spy toys. In my experience they always let you down just when you need them most. I prefer to improvise, with whatever’s around at the time. I have learned to depend on myself and my own abilities, because I’ve never let myself down.’

  Penny sighed, and shook her head. ‘James Bond would have had a fold-up helicopter in there.’

  ‘In case you hadn’t noticed,’ I said, ‘Bond gets beaten up on a regular basis. This way to the train, Penny Galore.’

  I’ve always believed in travelling by train. You can pay in cash, leave no paper or electronic trail, and step on and off at as many platforms as you like if you want to check whether someone is following you.

  Paranoid? Why do you want to know?

  We travelled first class, in the designated quiet carriage, because Penny has been known to attack people who insist on talking loudly into their phones when she wants a bit of peace and quiet. You really don’t want to know where she was going to stuff the phone belonging to one particularly obnoxious city trader. Fortunately it turned out he could run really fast, for a fat man. But such moments, enjoyable as they are, do tend to attract attention; so the quiet carriage it was. Penny stretched her long legs out into the aisle and happily worked her way through the latest issue of the Fortean Times, while I looked out the window at the passing scenery and thought of many things.