Roddy rolled his eyes: well,
“Roddy,” said Catherine, with a bark none of them thought her capable of. “Why are you accessing CCTV cameras in the region of Notting Hill?”
“To see if I can switch them off.”
“And can you?”
He avoided eyes. “Course.”
Shirley let out a long breath. “You should be a verb. To roddy.”
Lech couldn’t resist. “Meaning what?”
“Haven’t got that far. Something to do with being a dick.”
River said, “Meanwhile, back on track, Notting Hill ring any bells?”
“It bangs a few drums,” Shirley muttered.
“Taverner,” said Lech.
“Yeah. It’s where Taverner lives.”
“Lamb wants a coverage blackout around Taverner’s house,” Catherine spelled out. “Well, that doesn’t sound troubling, does it?”
“Stands to reason, if he’s trying to get those two under the same roof, he doesn’t want anyone knowing about it,” said Shirley. “The whole point of a secret meeting is, it’s secret.”
“Wouldn’t neutral territory be more usual?” said Catherine.
“Yeah, because that worked out nicely last night.”
River said, “This way, he only has to persuade one of them to be somewhere. The other one’s already there.”
Most of them nodded. Roddy went a little cross-eyed.
Catherine said, “You can make anything sound reasonable eventually. But the fact remains, this is Lamb we’re talking about. Taking the reasonable option is not his preferred route.”
“Whereas the rest of us,” said Lech, “are a proper bunch of regular citizens.”
River said, “What he said about Judd. That he doesn’t know what Judd’s got on Taverner. That sound likely to anyone?”
“He can’t know everything.”
“But have you ever heard him admit that?”
Shirley said, “If he knows what it is, what’s to stop him pulling the trigger himself?”
“If what Judd’s got on Taverner’s enough to see her out of her job, it’ll be enough to rock the Service as a whole,” said River. “And I don’t think Lamb would do that.”
“No?” Lech wrinkled his nose. The effect was like someone sneezing under a Halloween mask. “I think he’d set fire to the whole fucking Park if he could get a lighter to work.”
“Not while there are joes in the field,” said River.
“You say stuff like that like it means much,” said Shirley. “I mean, it does to you, we all get that. But it’s the twenty fucking twenties, not nineteen sixty-six. If there was ever honour among spies, it died with James Bond.”
Catherine looked startled. “James Bond died?”
“Well, yes and no,” said Lech. “But let’s focus. Maybe River’s right. Lamb’s old-school. By which I mean Ofsted should have shut him down by now, but he’s not gunna let that change his attitudes. So whatever he says, diplomacy isn’t his first resort. Taverner’s responsible for the loss of his joes. He won’t just ask her nicely not to do it again.”
Catherine said, “Which is why you ought to think carefully about falling in with whatever he’s got in mind. All of you.” She glanced at Roddy, who didn’t notice. “You’re hurting. We all are. But so is he. And nobody makes good plans when they’re in pain.”
“Lamb, hurting?” said Shirley. “Is there a whiskey shortage?”
“I’m only going to say it one more time. The wisest thing to do is walk away. Before anyone else gets hurt.”
“Yeah, anyone else,” said Shirley. “That’s exactly why we can’t walk away. Because we’ve already lost two.”
“Not two.”
“Not yet,” Shirley muttered.
There was a sudden commotion below, and they turned to look. The man on the walkway opposite, who might have been an escapee from a hospital ward, was leaning over the wall, dropping lumps of what was probably bread into the water. From all sides ducks had appeared, loudly laying claim to the bounty. As ever with such displays, it was impossible to determine whether their benefactor was fond of ducks or enjoyed causing them to squabble.
Catherine shook her head. “I’m going to find a wastepaper bin,” she said. “I’m sick of carrying round everyone’s rubbish.”
She set off along the walkway. Nobody spoke until she’d turned a corner; three of them because they were watching her, and Roddy because he was absorbed once more in the world as seen from his laptop.
Shirley said, “I’m not saying she’s not on our side. But she’s not really a team player, is she?”
“To be fair,” said Lech, “we’re hardly a fucking team.”
“No,” said River. “But we’re all we’ve got.”
“We’re doing this, then?”
“Whatever it is,” said River, “yeah. We’re doing it.”
