The Pulsar Files, page 22
part #1 of Matt Flynn Series
‘Thank God we got here in one piece,’ Sikander said when the tyres of the car began crunching over the gravel driveway, the manor house in the distance. ‘I never thought I’d make it. Do you always drive so fast?’
‘How would you know, you were too busy playing games the whole journey?’
They got out of the car and approached the house. Matt knocked on the door and when it opened, was surprised to see Lisa standing there.
‘Matt how wonderful to see you,’ she said enveloping him in a big hug.
Matt was so stunned at seeing Lisa downstairs he didn’t notice the puzzled look on Sikandar’s face or spot Louise standing behind her.
When they parted he approached Louise and gave her a hug. ‘Hi, Louise, how are you?’
‘I think it would have been so much worse without Lisa here. We’ve had so much fun, haven’t we girl?’
‘Yes, we have.’ She took Matt’s arm. ‘C’mon Matt, and I’ll tell you all about it.’
Matt extracted his arm. ‘Sorry Lisa, not now, maybe later.’ He nodded at his car companion. ‘This is Sikandar Khosa, a researcher from our office. We’ve need to do some work with Chris. Is he around?’
‘He’s in his room,’ Louise said. ‘I’ll take you up there if you like.’
‘Fine,’ Lisa said. ‘I know Matt likes his coffee, I’ll go and make some.’
Matt walked upstairs, Louise beside him. ‘Where are you hiding the old Lisa? The difference is amazing.’
‘We’ve talked for hours on end and I found out we’ve got the same taste in music and the same luck with boyfriends. It’s all gone on from there.’
‘Whatever you did, you’ve worked wonders. Raymond must be thrilled as she rarely ventured downstairs these past few months, never mind open the front door on her own.’
‘He’s not an easy man to read, but he did take me aside to thank me.’
Matt smiled. ‘Careful, Louise. If he likes you, he might offer you an estate in Scotland or persuade one of his pals in the cabinet to make you a dame.’
‘He can keep the title, I’ll take a slice of Scotland any day of the week.’
They reached a closed oak door, so solid he doubted their combined efforts could force it open if locked.
‘Chris is in there,’ Louise said, pointing with her thumb. ‘I would knock if I were you, as he hates being interrupted, but maybe it’s just us. If you don’t need me, I’ll go and help Lisa.’
‘Thanks Louise.’
Matt knocked, opened the door and walked in. It was around midday so it wasn’t a surprise to see Chris up and about, but a shock to see him dressed and with his hair brushed. Perhaps living in a manor house had rubbed off on him.
‘Don’t you people believe in privacy?’ He turned to see the intruders. ‘Oh, sorry Matt, I didn’t realise it was you.’
He was sitting at the desk, his laptop open in front of him.
‘Hi, Chris,’ Matt said. ‘Are you well?’
‘Me? I’m bored rigid to tell you the truth. Since Louise and Lisa became best buddies, they bugger off together for most of the day and the only people I get to talk to are my mates on social media.’
‘I trust you keep your location secret?’ Sikandar asked.
‘Credit me with a bit of sense.’
‘Chris,’ Matt said, ‘this is Sikandar Khosa, a researcher from our office.’
‘Hi,’ Chris said.
‘Hi Chris. Good to meet you.’
‘We’re here to ask you for a little favour,’ Matt said.
‘If it helps me get out of here and back to my old life, name it.’
‘We’d like you to hack into Dragon’s UK computers.’
‘What? No way. Think of the grief this has caused me already. I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this.’
‘Chris, calm down. Their UK business is more or less a sales office, all the serious stuff is back in Houston. We just need you to look up some emails and documents.’
‘What if they find out?’
Matt gave him a quizzical look. ‘You’re winding me up.’
‘What?’
‘You’re an experienced hacker, Chris, this is what you do. If you can’t cover your tracks, no one can.’
‘What I mean to say is, after all the trouble I’ve caused, I’m going to stop hacking and live life like a normal person.’
‘I think that’s a great idea but could you do it just one last time?’
‘They found out last time and if I was them, I would’ve installed more sophisticated software to prevent it happening again.’
‘Fair enough, but I suspect the UK operation isn’t as IT savvy as the one in the US. In any case, what do you care? If they do find out you’re behind it, they can only come after you once.’ He almost said, ‘kill you once’ but realised just in time. He didn’t want to freak the guy out.
‘I dunno.’
‘C’mon Chris, we’re depending on you here, we need this.’ Matt held back the ‘Rosie card’ as the less people who knew about her kidnap the better. They needed Chris’s cooperation and he would play it if he needed to.
Chris looked first at Matt then at Sikandar.
‘It’s important, yeah?’
‘In this one instance it is. I wouldn’t be asking you otherwise.’
‘Ok, I’ll do it, but only this once, right? After this, I’m finished with this game. I’m going to delete my software tools and unsubscribe from all the hacking forums I use.’
‘I wouldn’t delete the software, Chris,’ Sikandar said. ‘Take it off your pc by all means as it will reduce the temptation to use it, but archive it to a hard drive would be my advice.’
‘Yeah, you’re right, I’ll do that instead.’
Chris turned to his laptop and did what hackers did best. Within five minutes, they were in. Matt and Siki watched as Chris explained what the program was doing as it probed the open ports on Dragon’s UK servers, but Matt still couldn’t describe the process to anyone else.
‘Right, we’re in. Where do you want to look first?’
‘We need the names of the main people.’
‘You’ll find that sort of stuff on their website, there’s no need to hack into their systems.’
‘Yeah, but I’m not interested in job titles, I want to know what they do, where they’re located, how they’re paid, all sorts of stuff.’
A few minutes later after looking at soulless organisation charts and company appointment announcements, they switched their attention to personnel records. There, they found, among others, the name and personal details of the Chief Executive, Walter Ingham; Head of Sales, Gary Dennis, and Head of International Security, temporarily seconded from Houston, Daniel Leppo.
‘Leppo is the guy I told you about before,’ Chris said. ‘He’s the guy who sent the threatening emails about Latif Artha and me.’
‘I remember. He’s at the top of my calling card list. See what else we can find about him.’
The door opened and in came Lisa bearing a tray. ‘What are you boys up to?’
‘Top secret, for our eyes only.’
‘Boys and their toys. The coffee’s there on the dresser. Don’t let it go cold.’
‘Cheers Lisa,’ Matt called to the closing door.
‘Take a look at the financials,’ Matt said. ‘Leppo’s over here to do a job, he needs big funding to employ all the muscle he’s been using.’
‘For sure,’ Chris said. ‘I imagine the guys in Oxford and Derek Spencer’s killers don’t come cheap.’
Chris tapped away at the pc while Matt and Sikandar helped themselves to coffee.
‘He’s good,’ Sikandar said. ‘I did a bit of hacking when I was a bit younger but I couldn’t do what he does.’
‘I can’t imagine you younger. You probably looked the same when you were ten.’
‘Maybe, but with a bit less of this,’ he said patting his considerable stomach.
‘A question no one’s asked,’ Matt said in hushed tones, ‘is why did Dragon kidnap Rosie in the first place? What are they getting out of it?’
‘Maybe they want to do a trade with the documents, reveal the whereabouts of this place or use her as leverage to force us to pull back?’
‘Yeah, but which is it? Which one would you put your money on?’
‘The middle one.’
‘At least neither of us believes they’ve nabbed her for revenge and killed her straight away. Which suggests Rosie is still alive. If we play our cards right, we can bring her back.’
‘Hey guys, come and take a look at this and pass me the Coke if Lisa brought one up.’
It took Matt a few moments to understand what was being displayed on the laptop screen but when he did he realised Leppo had been dipping into a five-million-pound slush fund, billed as ‘Consultancy Services’ in the accounts. By drilling down, they discovered numerous large withdrawals to companies and people they didn’t recognise, but the dates were roughly consistent with every violent incident, and each one was authorised by Leppo.
By digging some more, Chris not only found irrefutable proof of a concerted, well-funded attempt by Dragon to get their documents back, he also found a list of the properties the company owned or rented. Now they had something substantial to get their teeth into.
Ten minutes later, they left Chris’s room armed with print-outs of the key information and a plan of action forming in Matt’s mind. At the top of the stairs, with the sounds of hysterical laughter emanating from the kitchen, his phone rang.
‘Hello, Matt, where are you?’ Gill asked.
‘Clifton Manor. Chris Anderson’s been digging into Dragon’s UK computers and uncovered some good stuff. We’ll use it to start the hunt for Rosie.’
‘Excellent; you’re going to need it.’
‘Why?’
‘We’ve had a message from the kidnappers. ‘Stop your investigation into our activities now or she dies,’ is all it says.’
Chapter 41
Matt and Joseph got out of the car. They were in rural Surrey, close to the village of Sutton Abinger. Perhaps this place was too under-populated and spread out to call it a village, more a hamlet. Whatever the term, it looked a fine place to live, with a quintessentially English pub and many magnificent houses, their gardens trim with big 4x4s in the driveways.
‘Man, this is so out in the sticks,’ Joseph said.
‘You don’t like it?’
‘No way. Where would I get my latte and newspaper in the morning? I’d need to go all the way to somewhere like Guildford to meet any women. Give me Islington any day of the week.’
‘You can take the boy out London…but I guess you need to be at a certain stage of life to live here.’
‘Yeah, retired and rich, I think they call it.’
They’d decided not to use surveillance to stake out six properties owned by Dragon, identified from Chris’s hack of Dragon’s UK computers. It would take too long, time they didn’t believe they had. Instead, they would use a direct approach, visit each property and spin a lost motorist story or something similar if they encountered anyone. If the property looked likely or lay empty, they would attempt to gain entry and confirm what it contained. If they spotted people and cars, suggesting some other activity, they would mark it out for further action.
Matt and Joseph walked down a tree-lined lane, past silent houses, many of which didn’t seem to be occupied, the inhabitants perhaps lying low believing the two men walking past to be evangelists or council officials conducting a survey. Maybe the occupants weren’t retired at all, but working in Guildford or London to pay the mortgage on such large and expensive properties.
Soon the scattered houses disappeared and the countryside closed in.
‘Are we walking to Guildford?’ Joseph said.
‘It feels like it but their place should be just ahead.’
Fifty metres further on a sign, ‘Dragon Technologies UK Training Centre,’ came into view.
‘At last,’ Joseph said. ‘A man can only take so much fresh air in one day.’
‘Missing the smog of London already?’
Not far from the property, they found a track leading into the woods. Matt didn’t need to say anything to Joseph about not talking; the city boy kept any comments about the boggy ground, the smell of decaying leaves and the lack of sunshine to himself.
The building soon appeared through the trees. The bottom half was painted white with what looked like modern double-glazed sash windows, the upper part hung with red tiles. In common with the other Dragon-owned buildings they’d seen so far, it appeared well-cared for and the grounds well-tended, suggesting Dragon were a rich company and didn’t mind spending money on the upkeep of their properties. The place looked large enough to hide a kidnap victim without too much problem.
They walked on, and after first making sure no dog walkers or ramblers were around, they left the bridleway and moved in for a closer look. The grounds of the training centre were surrounded by a five-foot fence, not an obstacle to deter the persistent, more a statement to the casual passer-by to keep away. Out of sight from any watchers inside the house, Matt crouched down and pulled out an eyepiece. Joseph did the same.
‘Only one car,’ Matt said. ‘Suggests a caretaker.’
‘Yeah, if they were running a training course you would expect more. Mind you, one car might mean a couple of guards for Rosie.’
A few minutes later, Matt dropped the eyepiece back into his pocket. ‘Let’s move over there,’ he said, pointing to the opposite side of the clearing. ‘We’ll get a better view of the front windows and keep watching until we see some movement.’
‘Fine by me.’
Matt stood and stretched. His phone vibrated. In normal operations, phones were only to be used in an emergency or if needing to impart crucial information. When it came to more dangerous situations such as breaking into one of the properties, they would be set to ‘Do Not Disturb’ as the vibration even from a silenced phone could alert a guard to their presence.
‘Jess.’
‘Matt, I think we’ve found the place.’
‘Describe it to me.’
‘A house on a quiet country road, looks like a bolthole for one of the bosses or a place for visiting executives. Two big 4x4s outside and now and again a guard comes out for smoke. He’s packing.’
‘It sounds like you’ve struck gold. Are the weapons heavy duty?’
‘No, a handgun in the waistband.’
‘Sounds a better bet than here. Give me the address and we’ll come over.’
Matt and Joseph headed back to the car, a greater sense of urgency in their steps than before. Matt was aware, and he hoped Joseph was too, any eagerness to rescue Rosie needed to be tempered with cold professionalism. Only a fool would rush in and try to release the kidnapped agent unprepared. Fools didn’t last long in this business.
It didn’t take long to drive to Ockham, and Jess’s directions were good as they soon found the house being watched, lying as it was on the southern fringes of the village. They drove past and parked in a lay-by a quarter of a mile further on. They walked towards the house, but this time with no bridleway to ease their passage they had to make do with tramping through bracken and skirting the more serious outcrops of brambles.
Bushy pine trees obscured their view of the house, not the fortuitous effects of nature, but a deliberate attempt by the present owner or the last to shield the house from neighbours or prying eyes. The planter had to be paranoid as few people lived nearby and Matt doubted many walked past on what looked like a quiet B-road that led deeper into the surrounding countryside.
A few minutes later they found Jess and Kamal, hiding behind a large bush with good visibility of the property.
‘Don’t shoot,’ Matt said in a low voice, ‘we’re the good guys.’
‘Hi Matt, Joseph,’ Jess said. ‘Come and take a look.’
She moved to the side to give them some space. Jess was the newest member of the team and at twenty-five, among the youngest. She was pretty with short black hair, even white teeth and an easy smile, but not a woman to cross. In her previous role as a fraud detective, she’d decked one of her colleagues when he refused to carry out her order, and could shoot more accurately than anyone else in the team.
Following Jess’s outstretched hand, they could see the house between two tall pine trees. The trees didn’t provide the effective screening the original gardener intended as due to high winds or tree disease, the branches at eye level looked spindly and dry and several had fallen on the ground.
Through the gap and using his eyepiece it looked to be a much-extended cottage with a long, pitched roof. The shape of the roof suggested not many rooms upstairs, but with the large floor space the house occupied, he would expect the downstairs area to be spacious. Obtaining more detailed information about the layout inside would be vital before entering the property and he would task Sikander with finding a Land Registry entry or estate agent details.
‘The two 4x4s you see have been there since we arrived,’ Jess said. ‘We were here about half an hour when a guy came out for a smoke. When he turned to go back inside, I saw the gun in his waistband.’
‘I can’t think of an innocent explanation for having armed men in a rural house, can you?’ Matt said.
‘Not even for an armaments company like Dragon.’
‘What do you think, Joseph?’
‘I’m with you guys, this looks like the place.’
‘Kamal?’
‘Same. The cars, the heavies, the gun, it all fits.’
‘Have you seen any other movement?’ Matt asked.
‘If you look long enough at the windows, you can see people moving around inside. We think there’s three of them.’
‘We need to confirm the exact numbers before any attempt to storm the place.’
‘I agree.’
‘What are you thinking?’ Joseph asked.
‘If we all agree–’
‘Hang on there,’ Kamal said. ‘The guns and the men do look bad but what if it’s only their base for launching the attacks they’ve made on Chris Anderson?’
