Page 64 of Goodnight
‘I see,’ the man said, rubbing his beard and eyeing Martin and Bill with curiousity. ‘I’ll leave you to it then.’ He stood and walked past them, pausing at Goodnight to kiss her cheek and squeeze her hand. ‘Let me know when it’s safe to come back and finish the game, sweetheart,’ he muttered, giving her a brief smile and narrowing his eyes at the two imposters before he slipped out of the room.
The message that both Nick Chambers and his father were both trying to send was obvious: she is ours, she is protected, she is family. Martin rubbed his hands down his face. It looked as though Bill’s research for once had fallen short. If the last ten minutes was anything to go by, Goodnight had formed attachments left, right and centre: strong ones, and with powerful people.
Chapter32
Finished
As the doorclosed behind the older Mr Chambers, Nick indicated for Martin and Bill to sit in two armchairs across the room. Goodnight and Nick sat on a small sofa opposite, with Nick’s arm flung across the back of it behind Goodie’s shoulders. Martin noticed Goodie’s hands move to her stomach. He was a fairly hardened agent. Not much surprised him, but the shock of seeing Goodnight cradling a small but very distinct bump in her abdomen caused him to suck in a sharp breath. All eyes flashed to him and he cleared his throat to cover his reaction.
‘Mr Chambers, would it be possible to have a brief word with your wife alone?’ Nick stiffened and moved closer to Goodnight, scowling across at Martin.
‘We have no secrets between us,’ he said, his anger making his words sharp. ‘Anything you have to say to Anya can be said to me.’
‘There may not be secrets between the two of you, Mr Chambers,’ Martin said carefully, ‘but I can assure you there are things that I am not permitted to share with anyone other than those directly involved or those with appropriate security clearance.’
‘If you muppets think you can come into my house in the middle of the night and demand to speak to my pregnant wife without me here, you’re insane. I’ll not have –’
‘Nick-Nack,lyubov moya,’ Goodnight said softly, laying her hand over his leg and smiling up at him. Neither Martin nor Bill had seen Goodnight smile in any of the few research photographs they had of her. They’d known she was beautiful, but until she’d smiled they hadn’t realized quite how dazzling she could truly be. ‘They will not hurt me and they must speak to me.’ Nick gave a quick shake of his head and opened his mouth to speak but Goodnight reached up to put a finger over it to stop him. ‘It will not take long; then they can leave and it will be over. All of it. Finished.’ Nick stared at her for a long moment, then clenched his jaw.
‘Okay,’ he said, giving her hand at his mouth a squeeze and then standing between the sofa and the chairs. ‘I won’t be far though,’ he told the men pointedly. ‘Shout if you need me,’ he said more softly to Goodnight, and then turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. Both men watched him leave. When they turned back to Goodnight she still seemed perfectly relaxed, but somehow her face had lost all the softness from before, her eyes were cold, expressionless.
‘So, gentlemen,’ she started, her Russian accent filtering a little more thickly through her words. ‘You want to talk … talk.’
Martin cleared his throat again. ‘Right … well …’ He lost concentration for a moment as she stared at him, her head cocked to the side. For some reason he felt a shiver of fear creep down his spine. ‘The last contract you had with the agency was terminated eighteen months ago.’
Goodnight nodded. ‘The protection of Mr Chambers. Although this wasnotgovernment funded.’
‘No … I …’
‘In fact I have not performed paid work for the British government in many years. Quite frankly your rates are not high enough.’
Martin ran his hands through his hair. ‘No, you haven’t. But, as I understand it, you do have information which could be of a sensitive nature should it be allowed to –’
‘I have never broken confidentiality and I am not about to start now. How would that benefit me?’
‘Well, no. I’m sure it wouldn’t benefit younow, but if in the future there came a time …’
‘Are you asking if I would use the information I have if I needed to? If so then I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for you. All I can say is I am not so easy to silence, no? I am no longer in the shadows. I have an identity now – a high-profile one; it is this and not my anonymity that gives me power this time.’ She leaned forward and dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘You think if I disappeared he would not find me? You think nobody would ask questions?’
‘Mrs Chambers, I’m not suggesting –’
‘My point is,’ she cut him off, her voice back to normal volume, ‘that as far as Legoland is concerned they need to pray thattheycan keepmehappy and reassured, not the other way around.’
The familiar use of the nickname for MI6 headquarters, combined with the implied threat, was enough to make Martin’s face flush red with angry heat. ‘Look,’ he said, further annoyed when she didn’t so much as flinch at his sharp tone, ‘we need to know you’re not active any more. Someone with your skills and contacts could still be a threat to –’
He was cut off by Goodnight’s laughter. The angry colour drained out of his face and he sat back into the sofa as he watched her.
‘A threat?’ she eventually managed to get out when she’d calmed down. ‘Youdorealize that without this stick I am virtually immobile? That even with it I cannot get up stairs on my own? I have to be carried up them like a baby. Do you know what it is like to have to ask the man you love to carry you up the stairs so you can get to bed? To have to limp down the aisle to marry him? To know that you won’t be able to run with the children he gives you? To know that once you are heavy with his child you may be rendered nearly totally immobile? I am no threat.’ There were tears in her eyes, partly from her laughter but, Martin guessed, not entirely.
‘You’ve recovered from injuries before,’ Bill put in. ‘Eight years ago you had a gunshot wound to your abdomen and shoulder, six years ago you dislocated both shoulders; you broke your right leg ten years ago. I mean, even as a teenager you –’
‘I have no desire to go through my sordid medical history with you.’ Goodnight transferred her icy expression to Bill, who also shrank back into the sofa. ‘Yes, I have recovered before, but the likelihood I will this time is very small. Have you read my hospital reports? My weekly physiotherapy reports?’
‘Yes, yes, we met with Bruce. He said you told him we’d come and to answer all our questions. Chap’s not averse to a bit of lycra is he?’
For the first time since they had been left alone, Goodnight’s lips tipped up slightly. ‘I’m glad you too experienced that particular delight.’ Martin shuddered. Interviewing a bloke in full lycra, with his cock and balls basically on display, in a smelly gym whilst this guy, for reasons known only to himself, was doing lunges was not Martin’s idea of fun. ‘He told you, then,’ Goodnight continued, her smile now dropping and sadness sweeping her features. ‘He won’t say it to my face. He believes in the “power of positive thinking”, so he won’t be honest. But I know he doesn’t think my leg will improve much more.’
Martin looked down at his hands and sighed. The Australian had actually been more pessimistic than even that. He’d said that Goodnight’s improvement had plateaued for now, but that he wouldn’t be surprised if she deteriorated further. ‘So you see, I am not active. I willneverbe active again.’
