‘Right, sorry about everything, Li.’
‘Not your fault, honey,’ Lila muttered, giving him a distracted kiss on the cheek. ‘If youwillgo and try to save the world you’ve got to expect a few bumps in the road. I think us mere mortals will attempt to stay out of the firing line though.’ She glanced around the room and caught Goodie’s eye. ‘Thank you.’
Goodie gave her another short nod and Lila turned to leave.
‘Should my friends have protection?’ Nick asked as he watched the door close after her.
‘As far as we can ascertain, Mr Chambers, the threat is to you and Mr Southern alone. There is no advantage in the murder or kidnap of your family and friends; it’s you two that are in danger.’
‘How much “danger” are we talking about exactly?’ Nick asked Sam; but it was Goodie who answered.
‘You know how much,’ she said, her voice hard. ‘You were approached six months ago about this by government agents. There are multiple highly motivated, extremely well-funded organizations to whom the development of unlimited alternative power is not a popular turn of events. Those monitoring these organizations have known for a long time about the significant threat to your life and that of Mr Southern. Yet you still refused to comply with their request for a protection team to be put in place.’
Nick shrugged. ‘I thought it was over the top. Made me look like a bit of a twat to be honest, having security guards trailing round after me.’
‘I hope,’ Goodie said, her voice now even harder, ‘that today has demonstrated the need to put up with being made to look like “a bit of a twat” in order to stay alive.’
Nick leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair. It seemed that Goodie might be right, and that irritated the hell out of him. He eyed the slight build and average height of the blonde standing by the window, and he felt his shoulders starting to shake. He tried to hold it in but, with the adrenaline coursing through his veins, it seemed that was impossible. Eventually the smile broke out across his face and a chuckle escaped.
‘You know what I just realized,’ he managed to get out through his now full-on laughter as he stared at Goodie. ‘I’m Whitney Houston to your Kevin Costner. Brilliant.’
Nick wouldn’t have thought Sam’s face capable of it, but at this remark it broke out into a wide smile. Goodie just stared at him like he was a creature from another planet.
‘I had a background check done on you,’ he told her once he had managed to get a handle on his laughter. ‘How –?’
‘Your security staff work for you and your –’
‘My fucking father.’ He cut her off, frowning with annoyance.
Goodie shrugged. ‘Even if you had hired an outside company they wouldn’t have found anything out that I didn’t want them to know. I have many backgrounds and cover stories to choose from. My past is buried deep, no amount of digging will ever uncover it, no matter how much money or how many people were on the job.’
Nick cocked his head to the side. As Lucinda this woman had been annoying, a little creepy (given that heknewshe was fake smiling, fake giggling, fake everything in fact), and definitely a whole lot less interesting. ‘What’s Goodie short for?’ he asked.
Goodie pressed her lips together but this time Sam answered for her: ‘Goodnight.’
‘Is that your last name?’
‘No.’ This from Goodie.
‘Well, what is your name?’
‘Lucinda Wilson,’ she replied without skipping a beat.
Nick narrowed his eyes at her. ‘That is not your real name.’
Goodie raised an eyebrow and he noticed her dog push up from the floor to sit on its haunches next to her, focusing on him. ‘My passport says otherwise, Mr Chambers.’
‘Listen up, mate,’ Sam said, and for the first time his voice was edged with annoyance. ‘Her real name is not your concern.Sheis not your concern, right? All you need to know is that she’s good at her job and for the moment that involves keeping you in one piece.
‘If you want to know her credentials or have someone vouch for her ability, I have a list of numbers here. One of those numbers is the Assistant Director General of MI6. Happy?’
Nick noticed Goodie scowl across at Sam before she blanked her expression; having someone fight her battles for her was clearly not something she appreciated. Sam was too busy staring at Nick to notice, a muscle jumping in his scarred cheek.
‘Sam,’ Goodie called, and he reluctantly tore his eyes from Nick’s. ‘Shouldn’t you be meeting the others outside?’
‘Right, fine,’ Sam said, slamming his cup of tea onto the coffee table with a little too much force and getting to his feet. He jerked his chin at Nick before stalking to the door. Goodie followed him and they exchanged a few terse words; unfortunately the words were in rapid Russian and Nick couldn’t understand a bloody thing. The fact that Sam’s voice did not carry even a slight hint of a Russian accent confirmed to Nick that it was a deliberate attempt to shut him out of the conversation. After Sam left, Goodie walked back across the room and to her bag, from which she extracted a whole host of black electrical equipment and some earphones.
‘What’s that?’ Nick asked, leaning forward to watch her set up whatever it was with quick efficiency, then extend a wand-like structure.
