Zero History

come back, if I can’t get out of this fucking truck.”
“Somewhere to go now,” Hollis said.
“Not yet,” Garreth said to someone, “but she’s airborne.” Then he said something in a
language Hollis didn’t recognize at all, and fell silent.
“What language was that?” she asked, as the van made another turn.
“Catalan,” he said.
“Didn’t know you spoke it.”
“I can only say very rude things about his mother.” He sat up straighter. “Pardon.” He
fell silent again. “Fully operative,” he said, finally. “Optimal so far.” He was quiet again.
“I appreciate that, but no. You’ll have to keep them back. Well out of the area. I have a
lot on the ground. Too many moving parts to have anyone of yours in the mix. Not
negotiable, no.” She saw his hand come down on the switchbox. “Bugger.”
“What?”
“Bastard’s got a private ambulance on the prowl, so he says. Specialists sitting up late in
Harley Street, in case Chombo should be damaged.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I had. We’ve medical backup ourselves. Big End’s ambulance won’t just have medics
in it. Snatch squad for Milgrim, that would be.”
“Does he know where it is?”
“They call him first.”
“How bad is that?”
“No telling,” he said. He took his hand off the box, and immediately smiled. “Darling,”
he said. “Brilliant. Above it? Give me the fix. Four? Moving away from it? Pull back,
drop. Approach about two feet off the ground, car between you. Need the number, make,
model. Then make sure no one’s inside it. But no IR, in case it flares off the glass and
they see it.”
“Infrared,” said Heidi.
The uppermost of the two screens mounted on black pipe came on, a washed-out
oscilloscope green. He dialed the lighting down.
Hollis and Heidi edged forward on the foam, peering up at the screen. Image from a
moving camera, abstract, unreadable. Then Hollis saw a big British license plate, as if
recorded by some robot on the bottom of the sea.
“Good girl,” Garreth said. “Now raise it a bit and give us a look inside. Then follow
them. The one with the parcel: that’s Gracie. Get on him and stay on him.” He touched the
box again, turned. “We don’t like a parcel,” he said to Fiona, then back to the green
screen.