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Radu smiled and nodded. “Yes, Brother.”
“Be sure you follow with a distraction to draw attention well away from us. When they’re gone, I want there to be no question who was behind their deaths.”
“Who shall we blame?”
“I’m feeling very uncharitable toward the North Koreans, as is the rest of the world. But the Irish are a better choice. Drummond took out an entire cell of the IRA a few months back. It stands to reason they’d hold a grudge. After Donovan’s death, I’m sure they’re on alert.”
“Yes, that is good. I will take care of it.”
“Be careful, Radu. We can’t have this coming back to us.”
“I understand, Brother.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Old Farrow Hall
Farrow-on-Gray, England
Mike showered, dressed, put her hair in a clip, and got lost only once finding her way from the east side of Old Farrow Hall to Nicholas’s study on the west side. She walked in to hear Nicholas speaking on his cell. Who was he talking to?
“Yes, I’ve released Grandfather’s servers from the ransomware attack, and, in so doing, we believe we’ve discovered a bigger problem. Father, I hate to tell you this, but I believe the servers at both the Home and Foreign Office have been compromised. I need Adam here to do a full sweep of the Security Services’ servers. Yes, both MI5 and MI6.”
Harry Drummond had been called back to London the day before, some sort of important Brexit meeting with the home secretary. Nicholas saw Mike and put his cell on speaker. She heard his father say clearly, “Nicholas, you know those servers are carefully monitored. In fact, after the malware attack this morning, we immediately set the servers to change passwords every hour. We’re taking every precaution.”
Nicholas said, “If MATRIX is compromised on one machine, it could be compromised on all of them. As I said, Adam is flying over, and we’d like to take a look personally at the servers. I’m glad to hear you took such measures so quickly. It’s smart, but it’s still not enough. There’s more, Father. We’re looking for possible ties between Hemmler and Donovan. Is there anything you call tell me, off the record?”
Mike heard silence, then, “This isn’t an appropriate conversation for us to be having.”
“So you’re already pursuing this angle.”
“Those were not my words.”
Nicholas looked at Mike, said slowly, “Do you know if they were involved in some sort of plot, or were they targeted separately? Is there something in your files that ties the two together?”
Harry’s voice became more clipped. “We have no reason to believe the vice chancellor of Germany was doing anything illegal, or immoral. Nor Donovan. Again, this isn’t an appropriate conversation.”
“Except they’re both dead. Murdered, Hemmler, moments before a meeting with the prime minister, Donovan taken out in front of his home. What were these men doing? If you’d let me look at their files, examine the servers—”
His father said with finality, “You do not have the clearance to see any of this information, nor are you part of our investigative services any longer.”
“Mike and I are heading to London shortly, surely we can talk—”
“No, we most certainly cannot. I will pass along your concerns. Now, I will see you at the weeken
d.”
And then Mike understood. She held up a hand, called out, “Hello, Mr. Drummond. Mike here. It would be lovely to have dinner with you this evening at Drummond House.”
Mike heard silence from his father, then, “Very well. Half six and don’t be late.” And he rang off.
Nicholas smiled at her. “Well done.”
“I realized he simply couldn’t talk to you. The phones aren’t secure, and there were probably people around.”
“Yes. And you know as well as I do he’ll let us know what’s up at dinner. I wonder if there is a link between the two.” He stood. “I’m sorry about cutting our holiday short, but we’ll come back as soon as this is resolved.”
Mike wrapped her arms around his waist, looked up at him, eyes alight with excitement. “Sorry? Nicholas, the game’s afoot. I’ll race you to the car.”
