me you’re going after Kooi’s family. You don’t need to. Just tell me where they’re being held.’
Victor thought for a moment, then said, ‘I can’t tell you that.’
‘What? Why not? I don’t understand.’
‘If I tell you you’ll pass it on to the Italians.’
‘You’re damn right I will,’ Muir said. ‘This has gone way too far now. We’re talking about a terrorist threat on Italian soil and kidnapped civilians. They need to know right this second what they’re dealing with if they’re going to have any chance of dealing with it.’
‘That’s why I can’t tell you. Lucille and Peter have less than half an hour left to live. That’s no way near enough time for a hostage rescue team to be mobilised and a plan to be formulated. Let alone put into action. They’ll be up against six heavily armed gunmen. Either the Italians rush in and get massacred or there’ll be a siege. In either scenario, Lucille and Peter don’t survive.’
Muir didn’t respond for a moment. Victor pictured her mouthing and gesturing to colleagues before she said, ‘Listen to me: you need to get yourself out of the line of fire. You’ve done your job. It’s time to stand down. We need to turn this over to the Italians. You’re in their country. The threat is against them. Leeson is not going to have Lucille and Peter killed once he knows this is over. They’re his only leverage.’
‘He will. He’ll remove every link between the job and him. I’m close to where they’re being held. I’ve been inside once already. I know the layout. I know the opposition. Leeson thinks I’m still at the embassy. By the time anyone realises I’m not, Lucille and Peter will be safe.’
‘That’s crazy,’ Muir said again. ‘It isn’t a plan and you know it isn’t. Tell me where they are. The cops can be there in minutes. The mission is over so we turn the intel over to our allies and step away. That’s an order.’
‘I told you at the start of this that if I accepted you’re not my boss. You supply me with the information and I decide what to do with it. And in this case, you don’t have any information for me.’
She changed tack. ‘It’s not your fault they’re in there. They’re not your responsibility.’
Victor remained silent.
‘They’re not,’ Muir repeated. ‘It’s Kooi’s fault they’re under threat. It’s Leeson’s. It’s not yours.’
‘Had I not agreed to meet with Leeson and take this job he would never have taken them. He had them kidnapped because I said yes. He wouldn’t have needed them had I declined.’
‘Then it’s my fault. I hired you. If I hadn’t then they would be okay. It’s my fault, not yours.’
‘Then what are you going to do about it?’
‘Tell the Italians. Let them—’
‘Not good enough,’ Victor said. ‘If I don’t do this, they’re dead.’
‘That’s not your fault. Listen to me. Please. Don’t do this. It’s suicide.’
‘I’ll call you when it’s done.’
‘Wait,’ Muir pleaded.
Victor hung up.
Lucille was scared. She could hear nothing. Noises didn’t frighten her. Silence did. The world was loud and chaotic and when humans were making no noise, trouble filled the void left behind. She sat in the corner of the underground room that was her prison. Peter slept in her lap. He was scared like she was but he tried not to show it. He didn’t want her to worry about him. She loved him so much. He was so brave.
She tried to make sense of what was happening but nothing made any sense. This was some terrible mistake. Some bizarre misunderstanding. She was just a sous chef. Her ex-husband was a charity worker. The man they’d said was her husband was a stranger. She hadn’t seen him before. Ever. There was a vague similarity between him and Felix. They had the same height and the same colour hair and were of similar ages and builds, but they were also unmistakably different people. It had been years since she had seen Felix but no one changed that much in such a relatively short period of time.
Had Felix done something in the intervening years that had warranted this situation? She couldn’t believe he had. He had been a cold, emotionally stunted man who loved his family but could not treat them correctly even when he made every effort to do so. Even he had realised that in the end, but he was a decent man. He spent his life travelling the world for the good of