Colonel Keays was shaped like a box and his chest was a tapestry of medals, with ribbons in every different colour against the dark blue material of his uniform. He stood tall and proud, with his chin slightly raised and his cap under his arm. The stark light of the room reflected off the parts of his head where the hair was at its thinnest.
He looked over the three people standing in front of him and for a long time there was silence. Georgie and Felix stood on either side of Georgie’s mum, shifting from foot to foot. Helen Coates herself seemed completely relaxed, staring straight back at Keays.
A small team of CIA agents had brought them deep into the basement of Sak’s Fifth Avenue Department Store. But the ornate interior of the shop floor was a world away. They had found themselves surrounded by the stormy grey of completely bare concrete walls, facing the US Director of Intelligence, while three other agents waited outside.
For no apparent reason, Keays snorted a short laugh, though he wasn’t smiling. “I’m glad we found you first,” he announced. “The streets were still crawling with NJ7 agents when my men picked you up. But don’t worry; this is America. Miss Bennett knows she can’t do anything here unless I give her the OK.”
“You know Miss Bennett?” Felix blurted.
“Of course. Intelligence agencies all over the world have to talk to each other, don’t we? Especially countries like Britain and America. Countries that used to be close.” He paused and looked at them hard. “It’s a shame we’re not so close any more.”
“A shame for who?” Helen muttered.
“Ha!” Keays laughed properly this time. “You tell me—do British people like not being allowed to buyAmerican products?”
“Do American companies like not being allowed to sell them?” Helen’s voice was soft yet full of confidence.
“We used to protect you,” Keays insisted.
“We used to fight your wars,” said Helen. “Times change.”
“And so do people,” Keays replied quickly. “I understand you used to work for NJ7 yourself, Mrs Coates?”
Helen nodded slowly. “I…retired.”
“And yet your husband appears to have been promoted.”
Helen dropped her chin to her chest and Felix noticed her fingers automatically twisting her wedding ring. “Please,” she began, her voice cracking slightly for the first time, “just tell me what happened to Jimmy.”
“You should be very proud, Mrs Coates.” Keays spoke quietly and quickly. “Your son is a remarkably intelligent young man, quite apart from his unique skills. Yes, he’s alive. He wanted me to make sure you knew that, even though it could jeopardise the safety of all of you. As long as Miss Bennett is sure that Jimmy is dead, you’ll be safe.”
Huge smiles burst out on the faces of his visitors. Helen breathed a massive sigh of relief and gripped Georgie’s hand.
“Not so tight,” Georgie whispered, but she didn’t really mind. She looked across and beamed at Felix, who was almost bouncing on the spot with delight.
“Thank you, Colonel,” said Helen.
Suddenly, Felix’s mood changed. “What about the safehouse?” he asked. “Not very safe, was it? It was rubbish.” He narrowed his eyes and folded his arms. “You don’t even care, do you? They took my…” He didn’t finish his sentence. “You were meant to be protecting us.”
“He’s right,” Helen jumped in. “Felix could have expressed it a little more politely,” she gave him a quick glare, “but we do have to know what’s going on. If the CIA spends so much time talking to NJ7, is it possible one of your agents was talking about something they shouldn’t have been?”
Keays exploded with another short, sharp laugh. It echoed round the room. “Ha! A leak!” He shook his head quickly. “Impossible. I’ve got to tell you, Felix,” he stared into the boy’s eyes, “I don’t blame you for being mad. It makes me mad too, and I’m not the one whose parents are being held by NJ7 right now. To be honest, I don’t even know what they plan to do with them. They can’t use them against Jimmy, because as far as they know Jimmy is dead. Maybe it’s a kind of insurance. I don’t know. But it’s something I’d like to find out.”
Felix was about to jump in with another question, but Keays cut him off. “And no, I have no idea how the security of the safehouse was breached. I have people looking into it right now. But one thing is for sure—double agents don’t exist any more. There is nobody in the CIA leaking classified information to NJ7. It’s a tactic that’s just too messy. The Russians demonstrated that for everybody back in the Cold War. It’s more likely to be from electronic espionage, or from one of their operatives working on American soil. We’ll have to tighten up our systems, that’s all.”
The colonel winked and it sent a shudder down Felix’s spine. He had the urge to spit, but managed to stop himself. Instead, he gave a deliberately over-the-top smile and a huge wink of his own.
“There’s good news as well, though,” Keays went on.
“Are you sending us back to the UK?” Helen asked, her voice sombre.
Keays nodded.
“What?” said Georgie and Felix together.
“I thought you would,” said Helen. “It’s for the best. We can look for Felix’s parents.” She ruffled his hair into an even more chaotic state than it was normally. “And find Chris too.” Her smile dissolved.
“Jimmy did what he did so that the rest of you wouldn’t have to be on the run for the rest of your lives,” Keays explained. “Realistically, we’d never be able to hide you as a family. It’s much harder than hiding just one person and NJ7 have the best resources in the world. They’d find you.”
“But now they think Jimmy’s dead,” said Georgie, “we have to go back to Britain?”
“Right.” Keays clapped his hands together. He sounded far too cheerful. “It’s time to go home!”
“Won’t Miss Bennett try to kill us again?”
“Ha! Don’t worry. She’s got no reason to hurt you now. And anyway, I can talk to her. I’ll sort everything out and you can be on a plane home by this afternoon.”
“What will you tell her?” Georgie asked.
“Don’t worry about it. You guys will be fully briefed and have a complete cover story. It’ll probably be something like this: you were all arrested for being in the US illegally. The authorities here obviously want to send you back to Britain, but I have to check with Miss Bennett whether you’re going to be in danger if that goes ahead. We’re not allowed to send people back home to be killed. If I know Miss Bennett at all, she’ll jump at this. She’d much rather have you under her nose where she can watch you, than see you thrown in prison over here.”
“Thrown in prison?” Georgie gasped.
“You wouldn’t really be, understand,” Keays quickly reassured her. “That’s just what Miss Bennett will think.”
Georgie nodded slowly. She was still far from certain that she should trust this man and she hated that he was so light-hearted. “Mum,” she said, trying to hold back tears.
“What’s the matter?” asked Helen, crouching down to take her daughter’s face in her hands. Georgie shivered at her touch.
“Don’t you know?” Georgie’s voice was unsteady and full of anger.