“I couldn’t possibly-” Quentin began to offer the standard deflection of secrecy, protection and the good of the State when Sir Charles cut him off.
“Of course you could. You can pretend to be retired all you like. The truth is you can take the boy out of Vauxhall, but you can’t take Vauxhall out of the boy. You can’t be Control for twenty-five years and just give it up, old boy,” Sir Charles said, mimicking his companion’s affected tones. “Now I am willing to bet a pound to a penny you know what’s going on with your people better than anyone, even the poor sap who’s trying to fill your glorious patent leather shoes. Now, I might be getting on, but you can’t fool me, old friend; you’re still connected.” His tone changed. “This is serious, Quentin. I need your help.” What he wasn’t saying was it was serious enough to drag the man who had given him the mandate to go off the books with Ogmios in the first place out of retirement.
“I assumed as much when you woke me so rudely at midnight, with that nonsense about Ogmios. There has to be a certain amount of decorum in life, dear heart. When you start making midnight calls and you aren’t either Bela Lugosi or a particularly striking cabana boy bearing fruit there, is something terribly wrong with the world. Now, how on earth is this old queen supposed to help you, bearing in mind I’ve already got one foot in the grave? I’m not really sure I am up for the excitement of illicit rendezvous anymore, more’s the pity.”
“Grace Weller,” the old man said again.
“You’re getting tiresome. I can neither confirm nor deny whether the lovely Grace is fighting for the side of righteousness.”
“Which means she is,” Sir Charles said. It was always wordplay and games with Quentin Carruthers. But then, Control had never been the sort of man you’d expect a straight answer from.
“Well if she is, you can understand I can hardly go blathering willy-nilly about what she is doing for Her Majesty, now can I?”
“Was,” Sir Charles said. He took a facsimile copy of Grace Weller’s last letter from his inside pocket and handed it to Quentin Carruthers.
“Well that’s just a damned tragedy,” the ex-spymaster said, seemingly genuinely shocked by the news.
“What was she involved in, Quentin?”
“By which you mean, what was she doing in Germany that would get her killed?”
“A rose by any other name,” Sir Charles said softly, dipping his head in acknowledgement.
“I really don’t know the ins and outs of-”
“Don’t be coy, Quentin. Her mission notes date back to 2004,” the old man lied, playing a hunch. “That puts you back in the chair as Control when she was sent out into the world. Don’t try to tell me you don’t know exactly what you wanted her to do. I won’t believe you for a minute.”
“Your suspicion cuts deep, old friend. If you prick me, do I not grin and say more?” Quentin Carruthers laughed at his own inglorious jest. “Yes, yes, very well, Grace was my pride and joy. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“What she was doing in Berlin?”
Quentin Carruthers half-snorted, his entire body trembling. It took a moment for the old man to realize he was stifling a sob. He twisted his face. “Is that where she was? It’s been a long time since I last heard from her.”
“So what was she doing out there?” Sir Charles pressed. He wasn’t about to let this go.
“It was a bad business, Charles. Dreadful. Are you aware of a corporation, Humanity Capital?”
“I’ve come across the name,” he said, giving nothing away.
“They insure soldiers in combat zones. It’s all above board. They profit by our boys managing not to get themselves killed; they pay out when things go wrong. They’re parasites essentially, but then what insurers aren’t? Anyway, we believed Humanity Capital a front for other less savory businesses. The usual exploitation stuff. You go into a new area, ingratiate yourself with the general populace, take a little bakshish for doing a few favors. That sort of thing. Then it escalates, and soon you are moving medical supplies and food to places they shouldn’t be. Then it’s guns and ammunition. Then it’s a sidewinder missile. Then, like the name says on the tin, it’s human capital. It’s all about escalation-grease the right palm and you get things done. You know how it goes. Supply and Demand.”
“They were providing mercenaries to fight our own boys?” Sir Charles said, following the old spymaster’s wandering chain of cause and effect to its natural conclusion. “But surely that makes no sense? If their mercenaries were successful, they’d have to pay out on the combat insurance policies.”
“You would think, wouldn’t you? But you would be surprised at just how wriggly these chaps can be when it comes to holding on to their pennies.”
“Right, so you sent her to work for Humanity Capital?”
Quentin Carruthers nodded. “I did indeed. She was a star, dear boy, a star. Within a month she was Fraiser Devere’s girl in more ways than one. Humanity Capital was Fraiser Devere’s baby. You know Devere right? The Devere dynasty. Old money. Inbreds. It’s all uncle marries third cousin twice removed with the blue bloods. You know me, Charles, I never explicitly tell my people how far they have to go when they’re under, but the good ones get it, they make it real. Grace made it real. It was a hot steamy affair. And then, for no reason, he broke it off.”
“He got suspicious?”
“I doubt it, but something spooked him. Maybe he was afraid of love. Plenty of people are, when it comes right down to it. Maybe he just got tired and wanted a new plaything. You know how the rich are. Whatever the reason, he cut her off completely. We’ve got the transcripts of her debriefing, but there was nothing in there as far as I could tell. Then she met the son, Miles. He was off on some building project in Israel, trying to prove to daddy just how independent he was. Grace found a way to get herself on the project. Like father like son, I suppose. They became lovers, but unlike Devere senior, junior was completely infatuated. He kept trying to impress our girl with how much he knew about the old man’s dirty secrets. Needless to say, as far as these things go, it was really rather useful.”
“Quite,” Sir Charles said.
“She went with him when he started Devere Holdings, and for a number of years she was party to the ins and outs of every deal they struck. She began to notice anomalies in the corporate accounts, not just hiding pennies from the tax man, you understand, but some rather large offshore deposits. There were meetings. At first she assumed it was the usual corporate espionage kind of thing, but Grace was nothing if not thorough. Turns out Miles Devere wasn’t just mixed up with some bad people, he was the bad person others were mixed up with, if you catch my meaning. His money brought a lot of pain to the world. Everywhere daddy’s corporations spread war, junior came in their wake, snapping up contracts to rebuild the infrastructure, the buildings and the schools. He liked to open the school himself, great photo opportunities for the benevolent capitalist and all that. No mention of all that blood on his hands, of course. That didn’t make for good copy.”
Sir Charles nodded. He was getting a picture of Devere now, and an understanding of how it all hinged together. Some aspects still didn’t make sense, not completely, but as ever it seemed that money, money, money-and the things in life that money could buy-were at the root of it all. Wasn’t that always the way?
“The last time Grace checked in, and it was quite some time ago, more than a year in fact, she left a rather enigmatic message for her handler. She had found patient zero. You’re aware of patient zero-that first disease carrier who walks around, blissfully infecting others, without ever exhibiting symptoms of the sickness himself? Grace had found him, in Berlin it seems, if that is where this sad story of hers finally played itself out. Poor girl. I don’t mind saying I was really rather fond of her. She played the game as well as any of us old boys ever used to. She was prettier too, if that was your sort of thing.”