Solo

will kill and what shots won’t. I knew it wouldn’t kill you. And Breed was very impressed. He knew I was serious.’
    ‘Does he know you’re with the CIA?’
    ‘No. I just represent interested parties with money and influence. He’s convinced – even though I wasn’t specific.’
    But Bond wasn’t convinced. Breed may be a psychopath but he wasn’t stupid, he thought. He and Denga would be aware that there was a government agency working here, or something similar – too much money, too much power – and recognise it and exploit it. One thing nagged at him: in all their contacts during the final days at Port Dunbar Breed had never told him Blessing had survived the firefight in the forest. He was impressed with Breed’s ability to keep that information to himself. It seemed untypical . . .
    He lit another cigarette. ‘So – the big surveillance at Milford Plaza is to try and nail Linck.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Why? What’s so important about Linck for the CIA?’
    ‘I told you – I don’t know. Linck must have something we want. Information – some secret. In the end I don’t know. Honestly.’
    Bond frowned. He had always had his doubts about Linck. ‘I never really thought he was just some crazy romantic millionaire who likes lost causes.’
    ‘I think that’s what he wants people to think. But there’s something more,’ Blessing added. ‘There’s a lot of pressure on me. Too much. It’s not normal and it’s not fair, to be honest. I’m right in the heart of AfricaKIN. I’m secure. But Brig and the others can’t understand why I can’t tell them where Hulbert Linck is – or if he’s even alive. Sometimes I think that maybe Breed killed him.’
    ‘It’s entirely possible,’ Bond said.
    Blessing stood up. ‘Look, I’m going to have a shower. Maybe we can order up some room service, or something.’
    ‘Let’s go out and have a proper meal,’ Bond said.
    Blessing smiled cynically. ‘I don’t think I should risk being seen dining out with you, James. What if Kobus Breed got to hear about it?’
    ‘Yes – you’re right. It’s just that I don’t fancy the room-service food in this motel.’
    She went into the bedroom and soon Bond heard the shower running. He drank another bourbon while he waited, trying to see how the disparate pieces of this puzzle might fit together. And failed. AfricaKIN, Gabriel Adeka, Hulbert Linck, the CIA . . . Kobus Breed had flown out of Janjaville with Linck. More and more Bond felt that Breed was the key to all this.
    Blessing came back into the room. She was wearing a boldly printed orange and black cotton dressing gown – short, cut to mid-thigh and belted at the waist. Bond assumed she was naked underneath. Concentrate, he told himself, retrieve as much information as you can.
    ‘Where’s Gabriel Adeka?’ he asked.
    ‘He runs everything from a big house in Orange County, Virginia, called Rowanoak Hall. It’s a kind of clinic – a medical sorting office. A clearing house for the children.’
    ‘What children?’
    ‘The children that the AfricaKIN flights bring in.’ She poured herself a tiny bourbon and sipped at it. ‘Interestingly, Adeka pays for the big house, not us.’ She said. ‘We only pay for the office space at the plaza.’
    ‘Have you been there? To this house in Orange County?’
    ‘A couple of times for meetings with Denga. It’s almost like a small hospital – state of the art.’ She put her glass down. ‘I’m hungry.’
    ‘Is Breed there?’
    ‘He stays there. He and Denga seem to work closely together.’
    ‘Old military buddies. Where do these flights arrive?’
    ‘Not in DC. There’s a small airport not too far away – Seminole Field, forty minutes from the house. The kids arrive on the flights and they’re taken to the house in ambulances and medically assessed and then they’re sent to specialist hospitals in DC, Maryland, Virginia, depending on their problems. It’s quite an operation.’
    She sat down on the sofa, being careful not to let the hem of her dressing gown ride up. Bond tried to stop himself looking at her slim brown thighs.
    ‘There’s a flight tomorrow, in fact,’ she said. ‘Quite a big deal. We’ve got someone from the State Department meeting it. It’s good cover for us – government participating, approving.’
    ‘Maybe I should check it out.’
    ‘I thought you were going back to London,’ she said.
    ‘I am. But there’s no tearing hurry. I’m on leave.