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146 pages

English

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Elaine Blake's world has changed beyond recognition. In the last seven days, she's become a widow - possibly; travelled aboard alone for the first time; learned one of her foster children has betrayed her, and that very dangerous people will kill to get their hands on the evidence they believe she has. But all she has to go on is a nonsensical cypher, a target on her back and a large dose of paranoia and fear. Cast alone into a world of espionage, can Elaine survive? To do so she has to remember who she once was. And reveal the secrets she's kept for the last 25 years.

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Thriller

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Publié par	Diamond Crime Books Ltd
Date de parution	22 novembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781915649263
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GB Williams specialises in complex, fast-paced crime novels. Born and bred in Kent, GB moved to South Wales as a supposedly first step on a year around the world. Then she met a guy. Kept the guy, kissed the travel goodbye.
Since then, she's worked, married, had two great kids – the usual. Now working as a freelance editor and writer, she lives with her family and the world's most demanding cat. And she hates every photo ever taken of her. Find out more at www.gailbwilliams.co.uk.
Published in Great Britain in 2022
By Diamond Crime

ISBN 978-1-915649-26-3

Copyright © 2022 GB Williams

The right of GB Williams to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Book design: jacksonbone.co.uk
Cover photograph: xxxxxxxxx

Diamond Crime is an imprint of Diamond Books Ltd.

For information about Diamond Crime authors and their books, visit:
www.diamondbooks.co.uk

For Bobby and Queen

PLAY THE GAME

GB WILLIAMS

CHAPTER ONE

“I need a library.”
What Elaine actually needed was a bibliothèque. It was one of the few French words that had stuck in her mind, mostly because it had sounded a lot more fun than any discotheque could.
Unfortunately, her French was extremely limited. She could ask “où est la bibliothèque?”, and she did, several times. The problem was, she didn’t understand a word of the answers and relied on hand signals instead. This would be so much easier if she could just Google it, but she had to avoid being traced, which meant having to do things the non-electronic way. The battery wasn’t even in her phone right now, just in case.
Which all added to why it took an hour to get to the library that was, had she known the route, only about ten minutes from where she’d been when she’d first thought about finding one.
The worst thing was that hour had given her far too much time to think. Thinking about her situation didn’t improve it. Exactly one week ago she had discovered that her husband, Jason, had lied to her for the entire twenty-five years that they had known one another. She’d long ago come to terms with the fact that the man she’d married for security was, in fact, a manipulative, controlling, abuser, but she hadn’t realised how consummate a liar he was. It took his death for her to find out what he did for a living. He was a spy. It wasn’t as glamourous as it sounded.
In keeping with her appalling luck, it turned out that he might even be a double agent. Jason was supposed to have had evidence that a lot of people wanted, people from all sides. The problem was, all those people now thought Elaine had that evidence. She didn’t. She didn’t even know what the evidence was.
The mistake they had made was trying to use one of her foster-children against her. Lazlo Zakis. He’d come to her as a scared little boy, ten years old and totally out of his depth. She’d taken him in and loved him, tried to help him in every way she could. He hadn’t been terribly receptive, but she hadn’t expected him to be the kind to stab her in back either. Which is what had happened. She didn’t have the evidence, but she had found what she supposed to be the key to finding it.
So, when Lazlo indicated he was in trouble, she’d been ready to do whatever it took to free him. And that included leaving her home and all the security she thought she had, travelling to Paris, figuring out that Lazlo was a turncoat, faking the evidence to have something to pass over, and then having to fight for her life not to be captured by the people Lazlo was clearly working for.
And somehow the most terrifying thing about all that, was that her get away was achieved about seventy minutes ago.
Still, she was at the library now, things to do.
She stepped inside.
The next question was where to start. A librarian took pity on her looking lost and since the hipster young man spoke flawless English, she explained what she was doing, asked him the question and thus got the answer much faster than expected.
Elaine blinked at him. “Switzerland?” How on earth did Switzerland get abbreviated to CH? She could probably find out, but it was one of those interesting but not important questions. She’d expected to find the answer by trawling through books. This was much easier. She had got lucky – again. Just as Ladderman had accused her. Ladderman, the British secret agent who had been on her tail since she left home. She’d lost him for now, which avoided him trying to send her home, as that was the last place she wanted to go. But he had turned up to help in that final confrontation, and she kind of missed him already, although she wasn’t sure she could trust even him. Too much of her life was built on lies, and what else could a spy do but lie to her more? She pushed thoughts of him aside and looked at the librarian again.
“Any idea how I can find out what a bank code is within an IBAN code?”
“Do you have a code?”
“That part is C-O-U-T.”
Again, he didn’t need to check. “Probably Coutts Bank.”
Of course! If she’d had her brain switched on, she probably could have figured that one out for herself. Though in her defence, until about an hour ago, she was pretty much fully occupied with trying to stay alive. Something to think about later. Right now, she needed to focus.
“I think,” the librarian said, “it’s either based in Geneva or just has a well-known branch there. Do you want me to double check?”
Given how much sense the answer made when added to everything else she knew, that felt unnecessary. She thanked the man in English, then German, then remembered where she was and reached French as she left the library. At least she knew where she was going now.
Geneva, Switzerland.

* * *

Special Agent Madison Turner put the phone down. Her contact in Paris had reported and it didn’t feel good.
Elaine Blake, the woman she called Mom despite the foster relationship and only a ten-year age difference, had survived an encounter in Paris with people Madison wouldn’t want to face if she could avoid it.
Hearing how Elaine had used a pencil to incapacitate one potential captor, and then used the depth of a holdall on her back to make the grip so awkward for a second man, that she had been able to near bite through the skin between his thumb and forefinger, impressed Madison beyond belief. Elaine had even paid a group of local teenagers to run interference for her. Elaine had escaped capture. She’d also lost Madison’s contact and Cormac ‘Mac’ Letterman, the MI6 man following Elaine.
Elaine and Jason Blake had fostered Madison after her own parents were murdered. She was one of twenty-one children they had fostered over the years. Madison had been in protective custody, Jason Blake being one of the men assigned to protect her. Jason had taken her home. Despite Madison’s initial resentment and grief, Elaine had always been there for her, seeing her through some of the darkest hours of her life. A wonderful, warm woman, Elaine had welcomed Madison into her home and her heart. Elaine making herself at home in Madison’s heart was something the younger woman hadn’t expected. She wondered again if Elaine knew that every child she had fostered had a link to espionage.
A text message appeared on her phone, pulling her from her memories. The boss wanted to see her.
Only not her immediate boss, but Regional Director Alan Bromstad. He had taken a personal interest in this case that officially they, the CIA, had no interest.
In his office, Bromstad waved her into the seat before his desk. She sat before that poker face, hoping her worries didn’t show.
“So, where is she heading?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. From the report, it’s clear that she now knows that Lazlo Zakis is working for those he claimed were his captors. So, being a logical woman, Elaine will consider the original mission to save Lazlo as complete. There’s nothing to save him from.” Madison sighed. “There’s no obvious driver at this point to suggest where she might go.”
“What about a less obvious driver?” Bromstad asked.
Madison took a slow, steady breath in as she considered that. “Well, given how long Mom’s been kept down, she probably needs to kick out and take some time. And she has the money to do it now.”
“Yes,” Bromstad agreed. “Have you found out why she was given that money?”
Madison nodded her head. “As far as I can make out, MI6 believed she was working with Jason. When she asked for the money, they wanted to know what she would do. They thought they’d follow the money and find Jason, or they would follow Elaine and she would lead them to the evidence.”
“Will she?”
Here, Madison was on difficult ground. “I’m not sure. You see, she told me she hadn’t found the evidence, which was technically the truth, but not the whole truth. The report says that Elaine handed over a falsified cypher and a key. Which suggests that what she meant was that she hadn’t found evidence but had found clues to it.”
“Why would she lie to you?”
“She didn’t lie. She was frugal with the truth. To protect me.” Of that, Madison had no doubt. “She doesn’t know who I work for. She probably thought that the less I knew, the safer I’d be.”
“Which doesn