False Friends by Stephen Leather Read Free Book Online Page A

on it and if you’re not keen you can let me know tomorrow?’
    ‘I don’t need to,’ said Shepherd. ‘It’l be fine. It’s not as if I’m rushed off my feet, is it?’
    ‘There’s a lot of waiting, that’s true,’ said Button. ‘But I’ve made it clear to Sam that if you are co-opted your Five work takes absolute precedence. If Chaudhry or Malik need you, you drop everything.’
    Shepherd nodded and sipped his wine, watching her over the top of his glass. She almost always referred to the men by their family names, almost never as Raj and Harvey. He wondered if it was deliberate and that she was distancing herself from them. And that made him wonder how she referred to him when he wasn’t around. Was he Dan? Or Spider? Or Shepherd?
    ‘What?’ she said, and he realised that he must have been staring.
    He grinned. ‘Nothing, I was just wondering if Jimmy Sharpe would be involved. I haven’t seen him for months but the last I heard was that he was doing some undercover work with the Met.’
    ‘Wel , if he is, give him my best.’ She looked at her watch. ‘I’d better be going, I’ve a stack of emails that need answering and I’ve a conference cal with Langley in a couple of hours.’
    Shepherd slapped his forehead. ‘Damn, I knew I’d forgotten something. I was supposed to Skype Liam.’ He groaned. ‘They’re not al owed to use their laptops after eight. I’l have to cal him tomorrow.’
    ‘How’s he getting on at boarding school?’
    ‘Loves it,’ said Shepherd. ‘His grades are improving and he’s real y into al the sports. He’s started rock climbing, and that’s something I used to do as a kid so hopeful y we’l get in a few climbs together at some point.’
    ‘It’s funny how quickly they adapt,’ said Button. ‘My daughter always wanted to go to boarding school. There were a few tears the first week she was away, but these days she can’t wait to get back. It’s a teenage thing, I guess; they’d rather be with their friends.’
    ‘It works out real y wel for me,’ said Shepherd. ‘I can take him out any weekend if I want and they’re very relaxed about midweek visits. I try to Skype him every evening but this whole Pakistan thing has meant that I haven’t spoken to him for a week.’
    ‘What did you tel him?’
    ‘I spoke to him just before I went away, but obviously I didn’t say where I was going, just that I was working and that I probably wouldn’t be able to use my phone or computer. The Yanks were so paranoid they took everything off me as soon as I got to their airbase. They didn’t give me my phone back until I was boarding my plane this morning and by then the battery was dead.’
    ‘He’l be okay. He’s used to your absences.’
    ‘It’s not him I’m worried about,’ said Shepherd. ‘I’m the one that misses him, not the other way round.’ He drained his glass. ‘At least I don’t have to nag him to do his homework; the school’s doing a better job of that than I ever did.’
    He stood up and showed Button to the door.
    ‘I’l get Sam to cal you, then,’ she said, heading downstairs before he had time to worry about whether to shake her hand or accept a peck on the cheek.
    Shepherd watched the battered black Golf GTI pul into the car park and drive slowly around before parking in the bay furthest away from the M1
    motorway. London Gateway services, between junctions two and four north of the capital, was perfect for clandestine meetings. It was a place ful of transients: everyone was a stranger and everyone was on the way to somewhere else. London Gateway was just a stopping-off point for a coffee, a toilet break or an expensive and badly cooked meal. Businessmen with mobile phones glued to their ears, chav housewives shepherding unruly broods towards the bathrooms, bald-headed white-van drivers chewing gum and knocking back cans of Red Bul , they al remained the centre of their own universes and showed little if any interest in the people