Scorpia

mine. And when Scorpia took his son, I didn’t think there would be anything I could do.”
    “It was your father’s idea,” Mrs Jones went on. “He also knew Sir Graham. He wanted to help. You have to understand, Alex, that’s the sort of man he was. One day I want to tell you all about him – not just this. He believed passionately in what he was doing. Serving his country. I know that sounds naive and old-fashioned. But he was a soldier through and through. And he believed in good and evil. I don’t know how else to put it. He wanted to make the world a better place.”
    She took a deep breath.
    “Your father suggested that we send him back to Scorpia as an exchange. He knew how Mrs Rothman felt about him; he knew she would agree to anything to get him back. But at the same time, he planned to double-cross her. There was a gunman in place, but the gun was loaded with blanks. John had a squib in the back of his jacket – a little firework – and a phial of blood. When the shot was fired, he activated it himself. It blew a little hole in the back of his jacket. He went sprawling and pretended to be dead. It looked as if MI6 had killed him in cold blood. But we never hurt him, Alex. That’s why I wanted you to meet James Adair. The idea was that now he would be safe again and he could simply disappear.”
    Alex buried his head in his hands. There were a hundred questions he wanted to ask. His mother, his father, Julia Rothman, the bridge… He was shaking and he had to force himself back undercontrol. At last he was ready.
    “I have just two questions,” he said.
    “Go on, Alex. We’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
    “What was my mother’s part in all this? Did she know what he was?”
    “Of course she knew he was a spy. He would never have lied to her. They were very close, Alex. I never met her, I’m afraid. We don’t tend to socialize much in this business. She was a nurse before she married him. Did you know that?”
    Ian Rider had told Alex that his mother had been a nurse, but he didn’t want to talk about that now. He was simply building himself up, finding the strength to ask the worst question of all.
    “So how did my father die?” he asked. “And my mother? Is she still alive? What happened to her?”
    Mrs Jones glanced at Alan Blunt and it was he who answered.
    “After the affair on Albert Bridge, it was decided that it would be best if your father took a long holiday,” he said. “Your mother went with him. We arranged for a private plane to take them to the South of France. You were meant to go with them, Alex, but at the last minute you developed an ear infection and they had to leave you behind with a nanny. The two of you were going to follow them out when you were better.”
    He paused. His eyes, as ever, showed nothing. But there was a little pain in his voice.
    “Somehow Julia Rothman discovered that she had been tricked. We don’t know how; we’ll never know. But Scorpia’s a powerful organization: that much should be obvious to you by now. She found out that your father was still alive and that he was flying to France, and arranged for a bomb to be placed in the luggage hold. Your parents died together, Alex. I suppose that’s something of a mercy. And it was all so quick. They wouldn’t have had any idea.”
    A plane accident.
    That was what Alex had been told all his life. Another lie.
    Alex stood up. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling. On the one hand he was grateful. His father hadn’t been an evil man. He had been the exact opposite. Everything Julia Rothman had told him and everything he had thought about himself had been wrong. But at the same time, there was an overwhelming sadness, as if he was mourning his parents for the very first time.
    “Alex, we’ll get a driver to take you home,” Mrs Jones said. “And we can talk more whenever you’re ready.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Alex cried, and his voice cracked. “That’s what I don’t understand. I nearly killed you, but you didn’t tell me the truth! You sent me back to Scorpia – just like my dad – but you never told me that it was Julia Rothman who killed him. Why not?”
    Mrs Jones had also got to her feet. “We needed your help to find the dishes. There was no question about it. Everything depended on you. But I didn’t want to manipulate you. I know you think that’s what we always do, but if I’d told you the truth about Julia Rothman and then given you a homing