time at Stratton as if trying to figure him out. ‘You mind if I have some wine?’ he asked, looking inside a jug on the table that was empty.
Stratton ignored him.
‘Come on, Stratton, lighten up,’ Steel said, going to the wine casks and filling up the jug. ‘We got off on the wrong foot, that’s all.’ He brought the jug to the table and filled two mugs, holding one out to Stratton. ‘We could be of help to each other. I’ve got a lot of connections in our business, on your side of the pond as well as mine.’
Stratton decided to humour the man and see how far he would go. He took the mug.
Steel smiled and tapped Stratton’s mug with his own. ‘To the revolution,’ he said, taking a good swig.
Stratton took a sip.
‘Sumners, your boss back in London - he’s no big fan of yours, is he? He’s never said as much but I can read between the lines. It’s kind of why I was the way I was with you in the beginning. I got the impression he didn’t rate you too highly. Let’s face it, this job is way below your skills grade. What is it with you guys?’
‘As you say, he doesn’t like me.’
‘Yeah, well, that’s between you both, I guess. If you’re wondering how he feels about you getting involved, I spoke to him last night, told him we were considering an op that might require your expertise. I asked if there were any issues. He had none.’
Stratton was not surprised. Sumners would love to hear that Stratton had been caught, or worse.
‘You know,’ Steel continued, ‘if you plan this right it’s a stand-off attack. You could trigger it and be miles away from there before anyone turned up to see what had happened. What do you say? Any comment at all?’
‘No.’
‘Are you at least thinking about it?’
Stratton said nothing.
‘I need to know one way or the other. If you don’t do it I walk out of here and, well, hell, this rebellion’s over. They can’t do this op, not without you. I know it’s a heavy load I’m puttin’ on you, I mean, you having to be the one who calls in the rebellion. But, well, that’s the way it is sometimes. More often than not the biggest decisions in war come down to just one man. Kind of funny really. Neravista and those people in there think they control this war, when, right now, it’s all down to just you and me.’
‘What are you going to do when you leave this business, Steel? Sell second-hand cars?’
The Marine colonel found the comment amusing, but there was a darkness to his chortle. ‘I like you, Stratton, you know that? You’re a funny guy. Tell you what,’ he said, finishing his drink and collecting up his stuff. ‘I’ll let you sleep on it. But come morning I want an answer, and no answer means no.’
As Steel stepped back out into the rain, Stratton put down his mug. It was possible that Sumners had given the man permission to make use of Stratton but he would bet everything he owned that the conversation had not been recorded. If Stratton was caught both men would deny having anything to do with him and his mission, he was sure of that. They would say that he had done it off his own bat. He had become involved.
Stratton began to clean the various parts of his pistol and put it back together.
Chapter 5
Stratton got up as the sun’s rays broke over the treetops and started packing his gear. His gut instinct was to get out of there as soon as he could but he had woken feeling all over the place. Steel’s statement that the rebellion would falter without the attack had got to him, despite his efforts to dismiss it. He felt guilty, in spite of the clumsiness of the American’s manipulation. Then there was Louisa. She was the least of the reasons he had to stay and should not have been one at all. But he could not deny that she had a greater influence on him than anything else. It was crazy. The sooner he got away from the camp the better.
Stratton picked up his pack and parachute, left his charred clothes and unusable M4 on the floor and walked down the stairs.
He dumped his kit on the table and decided to make himself a cup of coffee. While waiting for the water in the old