me about the job than you?’ He now wished he did know more about Gabriel and thought it was unlike Sumners not to brief him thoroughly, but since he had not, there was probably a reason behind it. Still, it had made his introduction appear amateurish. ‘Why don’t we take a moment and you can tell me everything I need to know.’
Gabriel frowned, disappointed this man was to be his ‘assistant’, but he was used to disappointment in this business. His own intelligence agency did not impress him at the best of times, and although he had never worked with the British before he did not expect they were likely to do so either. If this character was anything to go by, the Brits looked like they would prove to be dismally worse. When he heard British intelligence was sending over one of their people to assist him, he assumed he would be like the type he had met in abundance at CIA HQ, Foggy Bottom,Virginia. Normally he had nothing to do with the ‘labourers’ as his department referred to the CIA’s regular field agents. They occasionally sat in on meetings, usually in the form of familiarity briefings at the wacky spooks or psychic department, part of the tour for new agents. They came in all shapes and sizes and nearly always smartly dressed, but Gabriel had never met one like this before. He was not what Gabriel would have described as a big man, by American standards, although he did have an aura of toughness about him. Add to that his battered leather coat, dishevelled hair and a day’s growth on his face, overall, his look was unkempt to say the least. There was something else about him though, something Gabriel had never been so keenly aware of in a person before, agent or otherwise, not at first glance. If he were pushed to describe it, he would have to say there was a darkness around the man that his forced smile could not disguise.
‘Why’d you come to England then?’ Stratton breezed on. ‘If you work better in Virginia, that is?’
‘Too much interference. I couldn’t see clearly. Distance shouldn’t make a difference, but location sometimes does . . . my location . . . Sometimes where you are, the atmosphere and surroundings, are not conducive . . . The danger is here, anyway. I know that. This is the best place to be.’
‘Danger?’
‘That’s what I said.’
‘What danger?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘I mean, is it—’
‘I don’t know,’ Gabriel said, cutting him off brusquely as he went back to packing his things. ‘As soon as I got into the taxi at the airport and headed into London, I saw the air base as clearly as if I was there myself.’
‘What air base?’
‘I told them all about the air base,’ Gabriel said, looking at Stratton with unguarded suspicion. ‘What do you know about me and what I do?’
‘Look . . . I just came in from the outside. There wasn’t time for a proper brief. Let’s just accept I know nothing about you, what you do, or what this is all about. In fact, I don’t really have much of a clue what my part is supposed to be in this operation.’ If that’s what it is, he thought to himself. ‘So can we just cool it a little and accept I know nothing?’ Stratton’s sullen, unmoving eyes remained fixed on Gabriel’s.
Gabriel could sense the Englishman was no pushover and decided he liked being here as little as Gabriel did. If the Brits worked anywhere near the same way as the agency, they were stuck with each other, for the time being at least, and so to that end Stratton had a point. Gabriel was aware he was acting irritable and short tempered but he was never very good at dealing with pressure even when he was aware of all the mitigating circumstances. He was not naturally an ill-tempered man and did not like feeling that way.
Gabriel took a breath and made an effort to bring himself down. ‘I saw an American air base,’ he said, somewhat slower and calmer than he had been speaking previously. ‘I’m certain of that. There was a large wood nearby, a forest I should say. Soldiers use it. There are open spaces in the woods and I could see soldiers with guns and in combat fatigues.’
Stratton suddenly felt awkward listening to Gabriel as if he was providing serious information. It was one thing to try and accept that