Dark Forces by Stephen Leather Read Free Book Online Page A

these days. He’s almost always in Dubai. There’s no way he’ll be going anywhere near the money.’
    ‘What about the wife? Can we get to her?’
    Shepherd shook his head. ‘They’re solid. They lead separate lives pretty much but she’s still Mrs O’Neill.’
    ‘What about getting Marty to talk on tape? We can be creative. I’d like some record of the money being handed over. I don’t suppose there’s any way we could get them to go with you when you do it?’
    ‘They’ll probably insist on using a third party. But let me play it by ear.’
    ‘How long have we been after the O’Neills? It’s going on six months, right?’
    Shepherd nodded. ‘Since I first got introduced to Marty.’
    ‘Softy softly, catchee monkey.’
    ‘Has to be that way, obviously. Can’t be seen to be too keen. It has to look like their idea.’
    ‘And what about Marty? How do you feel about him?’
    Shepherd’s eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘It must be strange, cosying up to him when he’s the enemy.’
    ‘He’s not really an enemy,’ said Shepherd. ‘He’s a target. “Enemy” suggests there’s bad feeling between us. There’s nothing like that. He’s a criminal. I work for an organisation that tries to put criminals out of business.’
    ‘But to do that, you have to befriend him, don’t you?’
    Shepherd shrugged but didn’t answer.
    ‘And then you have to betray him. All of them, in fact. How does that make you feel?’
    Shepherd held the man’s eyes for several seconds before he spoke. ‘What was your degree in?’
    ‘PPE. Philosophy, politics and economics. Why?’
    ‘Not psychology, then?’
    ‘Very droll, Daniel. No, not psychology.’
    ‘So maybe we should leave any psychological evaluation in the hands of the experts.’
    ‘I was just asking, out of interest.’
    ‘To be blunt, how I feel about what I do is absolutely no concern of yours. All you need to worry about is how well I do my job and how I deal with the tasks I’m given. The O’Neill investigation is going as planned and that’s all you have to know.’
    ‘You sound defensive,’ said Willoughby-Brown, leaning back in his seat and steepling his fingers under his chin.
    ‘It’s a natural reaction when somebody suggests I’m not capable of carrying out my job effectively,’ said Shepherd. ‘I hang out with Marty and his mates, I drink with them and chat with them, but I never lose sight of the fact that they’re my targets, and at the end of the day, if I do my job properly, they’ll be behind bars. But that’s down to the choices they’ve made. No one forced them to become criminals.’
    ‘And how do you think they’ll feel when they eventually find out who you are?’
    ‘They won’t,’ said Shepherd. ‘Not if you do your job properly.’
    ‘They’ll suspect, surely.’
    ‘Again, it’s a question of making sure that doesn’t happen.’ He frowned. ‘I hope you’re not serious, Jeremy. They must never even suspect my role in this.’
    ‘It wouldn’t be the end of the world – they’ll be behind bars for a long time.’
    ‘You think that’ll stop them running things? They’ll still have money and they’ll have the contacts. They can put out a hit on me from a cell in Belmarsh as easily as they can from the Mayfair bar.’
    ‘Do you have an exit strategy?’
    ‘I might have to die, like McGovern. We’ll see.’
    ‘Whatever you’re comfortable with, Daniel.’
    ‘I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, there’s something I wanted to run by you,’ said Shepherd. He took the RAF thumb drive from his pocket and held it out. ‘I’ve got pictures of three guys on the roof, just before the missile hit. You’ll be able to confirm that our two targets are there, but the sniper might have got away.’
    Willoughby-Brown took it. ‘Can’t win ’em all.’
    ‘Be handy if you could ID the sniper. Get the technical boys on it.’
    ‘Syria’s full of snipers,’ said Willoughby-Brown. ‘It’s not