Read Online Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz - Free Book Online Page A

and operating on his own, is too obvious. We need to get inside the snakehead in a way that is completely original and also above suspicion.”
    â€œA man and a boy,” Damon said.
    â€œWe have an agent in Bangkok now. We’ve set him up as a refugee from Afghanistan planning to be smuggled into Australia. He’ll meet with the snakehead and gather names, faces, phone numbers, addresses…anything he can. But he won’t be on his own. He’ll be traveling with his son.”
    â€œWe’ll fly you to Bangkok,” Damon continued, speaking directly to Alex. “You’ll join our agent there, and the two of you will be passed down the pipeline back here. And here’s the deal. As soon as you’re back on Australian soil, we’ll send you first class direct to England. You won’t have to do anything, Alex. But you’ll provide perfect cover for our man. He’ll get the information we need, and maybe we’ll be able to break up Yu’s network once and for all.”
    â€œWhy Bangkok?” There were a hundred questions Alex could have asked. This was the first one that came to his mind.
    â€œBangkok is a major center for the sale of false documents,” Damon replied. “In fact, we’d very much like to know who supplies Yu’s people with fake passports, export certificates, and the rest of it. And now we have a chance. Our agent was told to wait there until he was contacted. He’ll be given the papers he needs, and then he’ll continue the journey south.”
    There was a brief silence.
    Then Jack Starbright shook her head. “All right,” she said. “We’ve listened to your proposition, Mr. Brooke. Now you can listen to my answer. It’s NO! Forget it! You said it yourself. These people are dangerous. Two of your spies have already been killed. There’s no way I’m going to allow Alex into that.”
    Alex glanced briefly at Jack. She hadn’t given him a chance to speak, and he understood why. She had been afraid of what he might say.
    Brooke seemed to have picked up on that too. “I’d have thought after all Alex has been through, he could have made up his own mind,” he said.
    â€œHe can make up his own mind. And I’m telling you what he’s going to say. The answer’s no!”
    â€œThere is one thing we haven’t mentioned.” Brooke rested his hands on his desk. His face gave nothing away, but Damon knew what was about to come. His boss was the poker player, preparing to show his hand. “I didn’t tell you the name of our agent in Bangkok.”
    â€œAnd who is that?” Jack asked.
    â€œYou know him, I think. His name is Ash.”
    Jack sat back, unable to keep the shock out of her eyes. “Ash?” she faltered.
    â€œThat’s right.”
    Alex had seen the effect the name had had on her. “Who’s Ash?” he demanded.
    â€œYou don’t know him?” Brooke was enjoying himself now, though of all the people in the room, only Damon could see it. He turned to Jack. “Maybe you’d like to explain.”
    â€œAsh was someone who knew your dad,” Jack muttered.
    â€œHe was rather more than that,” Brooke corrected her. “Ash was John Rider’s closest friend. He was the best man at your parents’ wedding. He’s also your godfather, Alex.”
    â€œMy…?” Alex couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. He hadn’t even known he had a godfather.
    â€œFor what it’s worth, he was also the last person to see your parents alive,” Brooke went on. “He was actually with them the morning they died. He was at the airport when they got on the plane for the south of France.”
    The plane had never arrived. There had been a bomb on board, placed there as an act of revenge by the criminal organization known as Scorpia. That much Alex knew.
    â€œDid you meet him?” Alex