Soft Target by Stephen Leather Read Free Book Online Page A

out there.' He pointed at the case. 'That's our best hope.'
    4i Shepherd clicked the twin combination locks and examined the interior. It was lined with a light brown fake suede material and had pockets for pens, business cards and a small calculator. He took out the calculator and examined it. There was nothing unusual about it. He put it back into its pocket,
    then inspected the exterior. It looked like an ordinary attache case. 'Okay, I give in,' he said. 'How does it work?'
    Singh grinned. 'The batteries and transmitter are built into the body of the case, and there's a recording chip in there as back-up in case we lose transmission. There's no way anyone will find it, short of cutting the leather. There are two microphones, one in each lock. You set the combinations to nine-nine-eight to open, nine-nine-nine to start transmitting.'
    'The three nines would be your idea, I guess,' said Shepherd.
    'The whole gizmo's my baby,' said Singh.
    Shepherd closed the case and clicked the locks shut. 'Nice piece of kit,' he said.
    Singh beamed.
    'Anything on her?' Shepherd asked Hargrove.
    'Not enough,' said Hargrove. 'We contacted the health club first thing this morning but the admin staff are away until Monday. I decided against calling the centre manager at home because there's an outside chance that he might be a friend and I didn't want to start raising red flags. We did a check on the electoral register for Angie and Angela, but without a surname or address it threw up hundreds of possibilities within twenty miles of the fitness centre.'
    'So I go in blind? I hate that.' Usually when Shepherd went undercover he was fully briefed on his target. He had time to memorise photographs and background details and knew exactly who he was dealing with. But this time all he had was a name. Angie. And a brief description that Hendrickson had given him. Blonde, pretty, late twenties. A bit tarty, a bit 42 flash. 'No bra when she exercises, you know the sort,'
    Hendrickson had said. Shepherd didn't. He looked at his watch. 'I said I'd be there at five and wait ten minutes.'
    'Did she sound serious?' asked Hargrove. 'I'd hate to think we're on a wild goose chase.'
    'She sounded worried,' said Shepherd. 'Easily spooked.'
    'All we need is the offer,' said Hargrove. 'We can't give it the full monty, like we did with Hendrickson. Sewell's been on ice long enough. Just get the offer and tell her you need the money by Monday. The offer and the down-payment are all we'll need. I'll get her to roll over.'
    Shepherd let himself out of the rear door. Singh reached over and pulled it shut.
    Shepherd ran down the stairs to the ground floor and pushed open the double doors that led out of the building and on to a side-street. It was a warm afternoon but he'd told her he'd be wearing his leather jacket so he couldn't take it off. The attache case was in his right hand, the Financial Times in the left.
    The narrow street opened into Piccadilly Gardens. The flowerbeds were full of yellow and purple blooms. There was a hi-tech fountain to the left, small jets of water that leaped and curved through the air, then splashed into metal-lined holes in the ground. Half a dozen small children rushed around, trying to avoid the water but shrieking with pleasure each time they got drenched.
    Shepherd walked round the edge of the square towards the fountain. He looked at his watch. Five o'clock exactly.
    There was an empty wooden bench a dozen paces from the fountain and he sat down, swung the case on to his knees,
    and placed the newspaper on top. There was no point in scanning the crowds so he read through the paper's headlines.
    Not that he cared a jot for the fate of the nation's businesses.
    He had no shares, and only a few thousand pounds 43 in his one and only bank account. When he had been in the SAS his salary had been the same as a regular paratrooper drew, and a police officer's wasn't much better. No one joined the military or the police to get