‘You can call him on the radio,’ Jordan said. ‘No one’s listening to us now.’
Deacon nodded. Banzi took a radio from his pocket and stepped away to talk into it.
Deacon still wasn’t satisfied. ‘Why go to all this trouble?’ he asked. ‘Why didn’t you just meet up in a pub somewhere and ’and it over?’
‘Where I work it’s impossible to get anything out,’ Binning explained. ‘You couldn’t get a digital watch in or out under normal circumstances. The only way it can be transferred through secur - ity is if it’s required by an outside source. Impossible with this device since it’s not complete. And once it is, it would no longer be in our hands anyway. Since it couldn’t come out on its own, a little playing around needed to be done in order to bring it out with something else. Such as the G43.’
‘Like in a Trojan ’orse,’ said Deacon in a moment of unusual intuition.
‘Worth every penny of all our wages.’ Jordan was suddenly more cheerful than he had been in a long time.
‘Then go look for ’im,’ Deacon suggested tiredly. ‘Go on.’
Banzi held up the pistol he’d taken from Binning as if asking what he should do with it.
‘Give it back to ’im,’ Deacon said.
Banzi handed the pistol to Binning and left the control room.
‘Where’s the rest of your team?’ Jordan asked. ‘I suppose they think you fell overboard?’
‘That reminds me. We have a rather annoying SBS operative with us. He’s somewhere on these upper decks right now.’
Jordan and Deacon were both suddenly wearing similar looks of concerned curiosity.
‘Why has he come to the upper decks?’ Jordan asked, his stare boring into Binning.
‘I don’t think it’s as bad as it might sound,’ Binning said, attempting to reassure them. ‘He’s here for something specific. Give him what he wants and I’m sure he’ll go away.’
‘And what would that be?’ Deacon asked.
‘He’s looking for a man, an old friend, a worker on the platform.’
‘Who?’ Deacon asked, becoming irritated.
Binning frowned. ‘Buggered if I can remember his name. I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time. You were going to execute him along with a few others. You filmed them all . . . His first name was—’
‘Jordan?’ Deacon said, remembering very well that they’d filmed Mackay.
‘That’s it,’ the scientist said. ‘Jordan Mackay.’
Jordan clenched his jaw as he faced Deacon. ‘You stupid prick. Selecting me for the damned film shoot.’
‘I didn’t know you then, did I, you arse-wipe. Why would an SBS operative be looking for just you, anyway?’ Deacon asked angrily.
‘I can answer that,’ Binning said. ‘His name’s John Stratton and he owes this gentleman a life.’
Jordan looked up at the mention of the name. ‘Christ.’
Deacon registered his concern.
Jordan suddenly felt completely frustrated. ‘I told you about him,’ he said to Deacon.
‘Your team leader in Afghanistan? That’s brilliant,’ Deacon guffawed. ‘He’s come all the way ’ere, risking life and limb to rescue you, thinking you’re about to be executed, and all the while it’s you who’s doing the robbing.’
‘He’s dangerous,’ Jordan warned.
‘He’s one man,’ Deacon said cockily. He went over to his bag, took out a cable with a sucker on the end and stuck it to a window. ‘And ’e’s not the only dangerous one.’ He plugged his satellite phone into the other end of the cable. ‘Let’s ’ope we get a connection,’ he said, bringing up a number.
A moment later someone answered the call. ‘This is me . . . yeah, Thanatos. We’re ready to go blue . . . That’s right . . . Yes, of course we’ve got it . . . By strength, by guile,’ he said. ‘Can I confirm that the obvious is ready?’ he asked. ‘Good. See you out there.’
Deacon collapsed the phone’s antenna, unplugged the cable and put it all back in his pocket. ‘We’re good to go,’ he said, taking the explosive-charge initiator out of his bag and extending a thin aerial from it. ‘It looks like our work ’ere is done.’ He flipped open a cover and pushed a button. It began to flash red. ‘We’ve got ’alf an hour to get clear of the platform.’
Jordan could not believe his eyes and ears. ‘Tell me you haven’t done what I think you’ve just done,’ he said.
Deacon squared up to him. ‘Now it’s your turn to listen to me. My orders were to give you command until your job was done. From what I’ve seen, that just ’appened. My orders were to