Local time – 7:15pm, Saturday 16th June, 2011.
Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Daniel despised Alex North more every second. Not only did she manage to slip away from him at the airport, she hadn’t gone back to London as he expected. His team made sure every flight out of Prague that morning was checked for her name, but she wasn’t on any of them. Pretending to go to Berlin was a cleverer move than he had expected. He waited at the airport to see if someone could work out where she went, and when it became clear she hadn’t gone anywhere, he returned to his hotel and tried to work out where the little cow was hiding. He tried calling her editor a few times, but the useless shit wasn’t willing to give anything away and appeared not to know exactly where she was anyway. Her phone was now permanently switched off, a sure sign that she knew someone was looking for her.
To make Daniel’s day even worse, he had just received an irate call from his boss. Losing the girl at the airport was amateur stuff, he was told. Considering how tense his boss had already been when he met with him that morning, Daniel could sense that this mission’s stakes had now risen considerably. He was right; his boss brusquely explained that this girl posed a much greater risk than they had originally thought. It now seemed almost certain that she was not only dangerous because of what her fuckwit fuddy duddy colleague might have told her, but because she was carrying the old man’s iPad. What a ludicrous fool to hand something so important over to a naïve, second rate journalist who looked more like a brainless barmaid than a professional correspondent. What was Bernie thinking? His boss reported that other members of their team discovered the iPad missing after checking the old man’s hospital room and his house. However, they did find one thing of importance at the house– the booking for his hotel in Prague. Daniel would put money on the likelihood that Alex was using the same hotel her colleague booked before his unfortunate death. So now he was on his way to see if she was there. His boss wouldn’t be given another reason to yell at him tonight.
When he reached the address, he was amazed at the run down building that stood before him. Bernie obviously chose the stingiest option available. Couldn’t The Contingent afford five star? The hotel was so narrow Daniel thought the rooms must be the size of a shoebox. He went through the shabby front door, and was greeted by an overweight Czech woman who was having major difficulty with the English language. He put on his perfect London accent.
‘Hello, I’m Bernie Cook. My colleague checked into our room this morning and I can’t get onto her to get our key.’
‘Oh, that’s no good. Please, let me check your booking. I have more key, no problem.’ She fussed around the pages of bookings, taking an annoying amount of time to work out what room Bernie had booked. She then said:
‘Oh yes, lovely girl Alex your colleague? Right, same room. OK.’ She then fussed over a board of keys for another inordinate amount of time and, completely oblivious to Daniel’s impatience, handed him the key.
‘Room two zero two. Second level, room two. Just up the stairs.’ She pointed to the stairs and Daniel headed straight up, nodding in thanks. It always amazed him how trusting people were. But he could look open and candid, and that was one of the reasons he was so good at what he did.
The wonky narrow staircase was noisy. He didn’t believe the woman would have sent him up without mentioning if Alex was there, so when he got to room 202, he took little care in opening the door quietly. He was right, the girl wasn’t there. The room looked barely lived in. The bed, which took up most of the small living space, was still made, the neat pillows untouched. The only evidence of a guest was a luggage bag on the floor next to the bed, with clothes spilling out of it. There was also a tiny bathroom with a shower and basin, which had a few cosmetic products dumped in it. It looked like Alex had been there, but not for long. There was no handbag, and as he went through the suitcase, there was obviously no iPad. He was careful to leave everything as it was. Didn’t the fat woman downstairs wonder how two colleagues were going to share a room so small? Unless she assumed they were sleeping together, in which case her discretion was commendable. There was nothing much Daniel could do but wait in this dingy place, as wherever Alex was, her luggage was here, so she was sure to come back. He was about to sit on the edge of the bed when his phone rang. It was the office.
‘Your target just landed at Prague airport. The security cameras caught her leaving via taxi four minutes ago.’
‘Good. I’m at her hotel. She’s no doubt on her way here.’
‘She has one unidentified male with her. Might she be going to wherever he is staying?’
‘Are you saying I would be better off intercepting them on the road from the airport?’
‘Your call, Daniel. She’ll be back at her hotel eventually.’ Daniel hung up and sat down. He had a good feeling this time that Alex North wasn’t going to elude his grasp.