Read Online David Trevellyan 03 -More Harm Than Good by Andrew Grant - Free Book Online Page B

though.”
            “I’m glad you like them.
I wasn’t sure they’d be an appropriate ‘welcome to the team’ present, in the
circumstances, though.”
            “Why not? What’s
inappropriate about boots?”
            “Well, I remember you
saying you couldn’t wait to leave the hospital. Now, here you are, having to
stay.”
            “True. But it’s not a
problem. I’ve been stuck in worse places. And I’m very adaptable.”
            “Can you adapt to
working with us, do you think?”
            “Why shouldn’t I? Or are
you unusually hard to work with?”
            “I wouldn’t say so. But
from what I hear, teamwork isn’t normally your forte.”
            I shrugged. Working in
teams wasn’t usually a problem. It was leaving them intact when I’d finished
that was the issue. Specially if one of the team
members was hiding any unsavoury motives, which they
usually were, if there was a reason for me to be involved. And looking across
at the agent, I couldn’t help wondering if that would be case, here.
            “How many times have you
operated in the UK before?” she said.
            “I never have,” I said.
“Does that matter?”
            “I think it might. Look
at how you just responded to those cameras. And our CCTV’s just the tip of the
iceberg. I’ve seen a list of the places you’ve been posted to lately, and I
don’t care where your passport says you were born. There are very real ways the
UK’s going to be the most foreign place you’ve ever worked. I don’t think
you’re going to like it.”
            I didn’t say anything,
but I was beginning to think she might be right.
            “I don’t want to be
lumbered with a fish out of water,” she said. “Specially not an angry, violent
one. Because there are laws here. Laws
that are enforced. That’ll make your usual methods impossible. That
frown on people who pulverise everyone they come
across who they don’t like.”
            I played back how things
had got started with the three yobs , and realised it was no coincidence. Following the debacle with
Jones she’d set out the field deliberately to see if there’d be a repeat of the
violence. That made her supremely opportunistic. Maybe even
manipulative.
            The more I saw of this
woman, the more I liked her. How typical that she came with a health warning.
            “Those guys who were
hassling me?” she said. “You wanted to stop them, didn’t you? You wanted to
hurt them. And you would have done, if that one hadn’t taken a dive.”
            “Maybe,” I said.
“Someone had to do something about them. And it fell to one of us.”
            “Why?”
            “Think about it. They
pick on the disabled. Damage public property. Spoil this garden for others.
They’re like a cancer.”
            “That’s a little harsh.”
            “I don’t think so.”
            “Then why didn’t you
call security?”
            “A security guard was
here before you arrived. He tried, but he couldn’t do anything about it.”
            “So call the police.”
            “He did. The police
aren’t interested.”
            “That doesn’t make
dealing with it your job. Or mine.”
            “Not our jobs, no. But
it’s still an obligation. We were here. We could have done something. Turning a
blind eye was wrong. And .. . forget it.”
            “What?”
            “Well, you know who I
work for.”
            “Obviously.”
            “Then you know I’ve been
lucky. I’m still here. But a lot of my friends aren’t.”
            “The Security Service
loses agents too. What’s your point?”
            “I’m asking a question. These
people – yours, and mine. The ones who’ve given their
lives, defending this country.