The Shadow Project. Scott Mariani

else or just had the courage to ask the silly old bastard to shut up.

      Today, Lenny Salt looked especially spooked. Maybe he was just getting crazier with age, Adam thought.

      ‘What did you want to talk about, Lenny? I don’t have a lot of time.’ He slipped a hand in his pocket and restlessly fingered the key to his Saab. ‘My sister’s coming to stay for a few days, I have a new housekeeper arriving after lunch, and Rory’s on his own. Need to get back.’ He reached for his cup.

      But Lenny Salt didn’t seem interested in Adam’s home life. He leaned forward.

      ‘Julia’s dead.’

      Adam’s cup abruptly stopped halfway to his mouth. ‘What?’

      ‘You heard me.’

      ‘Our Julia? Julia Goodman?’

      Salt nodded.

      ‘What the hell happened?’

      ‘She fell off a mountain in Spain. They found the body last week. She’d been down there a while. Very nasty.’

      Adam put the cup down on its saucer with a rattle. Sank his head in his hands, his mind suddenly filled with images and memories. ‘This is awful. Poor Julia.’

      ‘It wasn’t an accident, man.’

      Adam looked up sharply.

      ‘Nah. It was just made to look like one. Nobody had heard from her in three months. She apparently just went off on her own. Doesn’t that sound a bit strange to you?’

      ‘She was into hiking in a big way.’

      Salt raised an eyebrow.

      ‘Come on, Lenny. This is nuts. Isn’t it awful enough that she’s dead, without making up crazy—’

      ‘I know what you think about me. But this isn’t crazy.’

      Adam felt a flush of anger in his cheeks. ‘Then tell me how you know there’s something strange about it. What makes you so sure?’

      ‘Because there’s more to it that I haven’t told you,’ Salt said. ‘If you’d let me finish.’

      ‘Then what?’

      ‘Michio’s gone too.’

      ‘Michio often goes off places without warning,’ O’Connor said testily. ‘His research takes him to every desolate corner of the planet. He’s probably wandering about on a glacier somewhere as we speak, collecting ice samples.’

      Salt shook his head. ‘You don’t understand. He’s dead as well.’

      Adam stared at him.

      ‘Died of a scorpion sting out in Arizona. Forgot to pack his anti-venom, apparently. Oh, and his heart pills too. Very convenient.’

      Adam took a few seconds to digest all this, staring into his coffee. He couldn’t drink any more.

      ‘How come you know so much, Lenny? How come I haven’t heard anything?’

      ‘I’m not the one who cut himself away,’ Salt replied. ‘I didn’t turn my back on my friends, man. I stayed in touch with the rest of the Krew.’

      ‘Never mind the damn Kammler Krew. That was never a serious thing, and you know it.’

      ‘It was for Julia, Michio and me.’

      Adam didn’t want to get into old arguments. ‘How did you find out about Michio?’

      ‘His brother emailed me a couple of weeks ago.’

      ‘And you didn’t call me about this? Two old friends die, and you don’t think to tell me about it?’

      ‘I didn’t have your number.’

      ‘I gave it to you.’

      Salt shrugged. ‘I didn’t write it down. I don’t like to use the phone. You never know who might be listening in.’ He leaned across the table with a conspiratorial look. ‘Listen to me, man. Something’s up. Something bad.’

      ‘You’re not suggesting that Julia’s and Michio’s deaths are connected?’

      ‘Of course that’s what I’m suggesting. It’s obvious. Someone murdered them, and now they’re coming after us. We’re all that’s left of the old Kammler Krew. Now it’s just you and me.’

       Chapter Four

      At that moment, deep within the acres of dense forest that surrounded the training facility at Le Val, Brooke was sitting reading a paperback in the specially adapted cottage that Ben Hope referred to as his killing house.

      It was the place where the bulk of the tactical raid and assault exercises were carried out, the many bullet holes and ragged splinters in the plywood walls silent witnesses to the amount of live-fire practice that went on there. The two-seater sofa Brooke was reclining on, deep in her novel, had looked better in the days before it had become riddled with 9mm rounds; one end was resting on bricks, and the stuffing was hanging out all over the place.

      Today, though, there was to be no live shooting. Brooke was playing the role of a VIP, albeit the kind of VIP that would be hanging out in a semi-derelict cottage wearing faded jeans and an old rugby top. Shannon’s guys – Neville, Woodcock, Morgan, Burton, Powell and Jackson – were stationed at strategic points inside and outside the building, assigned to protect their charge from Ben’s squad of ‘kidnappers’. The imminent raid was a test designed to expose any weaknesses in Shannon’s team and form the basis of the training sessions to come. They’d been waiting for what seemed like an eternity, and so far no sign.

      As team leader, Shannon had insisted on remaining closest to his principal. He was padding up and down the room in his black tactical clothes, glancing at her occasionally, trying not to look edgy, the empty 9mm Glock slapping on his thigh in its holster. The only sounds outside were the singing of the birds and the whisper of the breeze in the trees.

      ‘I don’t like this place,’ he muttered. ‘Too quiet.’

      Brooke flipped a page and went on reading.

      ‘You’ve always got your face in a book,’ he said irritably. ‘You read too much. I don’t know how anyone can read all the time.’

      ‘Shut up,’ she said. ‘You’re the bodyguard, remember? You’re supposed to be protecting me, not chatting to me.’

      He snorted and walked over to the window, stared out at the rustling greenery. ‘What’s keeping the bastard?’

      Brooke glanced up at him. ‘You mean the guy you came here to learn from?’

      He ignored her. ‘Come on, Hope,’ he murmured to himself.

      ‘He’ll come.’

      ‘He’ll never get to you, you know. No way he and his guys are going to get past my boys. There’s a reason why Steiner picked us, out of all the thousands of close protection outfits out there. It’s simple. We’re the best there is. Yeah.’ Shannon made a fist.

      ‘Nothing to do with your uncle the brigadier’s connections, then,’ Brooke said quietly, without looking up from her novel.

      But Shannon didn’t hear. He gazed out of the window for a while longer, breathing noisily.

      ‘Maybe we didn’t even need to come here. Maybe I’m wasting time and money here. I mean, we’re ready. We’re fucking ready. You can’t improve on perfection.’ He turned away from the window, grinning to himself.

      Then his grin froze.

      And so did he.

      ‘Morning, Rupert,’ Ben said.