7 : One Last job
From his vantage point of a gazebo on a small hill, Frost watched Byford running around the lake for the third time. He knew he’d be finishing his daily exercise soon and heading past him — at least, that’s what he’d done these last few days that Frost had been spying on him.
Frost was content to wait. He hadn’t been to this part of Spain before and was surprised that the weather was warm at this time of year.
Málaga is a lot different than Bilbao in October, he thought to himself, taking another deep breath of cool, clean air. Like being in the mountains, a lot better than London. Off to his left, a mother suddenly bellowed something at a boy of about five, who she was just picking up off the floor. As she wiped off whatever dirt was on his clothes she continued to berate him in Spanish.
“Man, Spanish chicks, gotta love ‘em,” he said out loud in her general direction, giving her a smile and a nod as she looked over to him.
She gave a slightly embarrassed smile in return and dragged the child off in the direction they had been both originally going.
Frost checked her backside out for a second and turned back to watching Byford, who was nowhere to be seen.
“Balls…” he said, then stood up to get a better view of the path around the lake. Byford was definitely not there. Frost turned and stepped onto the path the mother and child headed down just a minute before.
Unfortunately, the path he was now on was crossed by another which Byford was running up, directly towards Frost. Realising his hiding was over, Frost stood and waited for Byford to reach him, with a big grin on his face in anticipation of his old colleague’s surprise.
Byford was no more than five metres away when he looked up, saw Frost and stopped dead in his tracks.
“Byford!” Frost bellowed at him in a long, drawn-out greeting, arms wide open and a grin still on his face.
“What the hell?” blurted a fatigued Byford, now in obvious shock and disbelief at seeing Frost.
“Eh, nice to see you too, mate! Been a while, eh?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Byford demanded.
“Easy, obviously it’s not a social call but no need to get all upset. Just here to have a little chat,” Frost said in order to relax Byford, not wanting the moment of reunion to go the wrong way.
Byford had over ten years of experience on Frost and a reputation for being a capable operative. Just because he was older didn’t mean he’d gone to seed, and looking at him now, Frost could see he kept himself fairly mission ready.
“I thought I’d made it clear I was out three years ago,” Byford said, now walking up the hill past Frost.
Frost turned and followed him.
“Yeh, my mistake, I can see you’re a proper retired person, aren’t you? Strolling around, enjoying the sun, going fat and soft.”
“Force of habit, too many years keeping ready for idiots like you to get in touch. Doesn’t mean I’m keeping ready now, though, I told you I’m done with all that shit.”
Frost walked with Byford in silence for a few minutes as he headed towards his home.
“I guess you’re not just going to go away, are you?” Byford asked.
“No, mate, you know the drill. Anyway, surely you’ve got a bit of time for an old pal? Maybe a beer or two eh? The occasional email between us is all well and good, but it’s good to see you face to face,” Frost replied.
Byford turned and looked Frost squarely in the eyes. He was right; it was good to see his friend in person.
“Aye, you too, pal, you too,” he said, slapping his old friend on the shoulder and smiling broadly.
“Just a shame I’m here on official business,” Frost said.
After a short walk, punctuated by general talk and admiration of the place they were in, they arrived at a block of flats and Byford pulled his keys from his shorts.
Frost aired his confusion. “Thought you were living in a house a bit further from here?”
Byford turned and in a smug tone said, “Oh, been following me have you? Always were a bit sloppy, Frost, that’s a house I’m house-sitting for someone. When you think your target’s gone to ground, don’t piss off back to the titty bars straight away in the future, eh?”
“Yeah, you got me!” Frost retorted with a snort that told Byford he’d guessed correctly.
Inside the flat, Byford headed straight for the fridge, grabbed two cans of beer and threw one to Frost. They cracked them open and raised them towards each other.
“Well, a bit of a shock, but good to see you, Frost,” Byford offered as a crude toast.
“You too, buddy.”
They knocked their cans together and took a long drink.
“I’m going to shower. Relax and don’t make yourself too at home,” Byford said and walked off down the hallway.
Frost went straight to the fridge, grabbed another can and some roast chicken, which he guessed was from last night’s dinner.
“Nice one,” he muttered to himself and headed back to the living room with his supplies.
He heard the shower running and looked around the living room for anything of interest — on a shelf above the TV was a picture of Mary.
“Bingo,” Frost said aloud, “but you can wait till later.”
He wandered out to the patio, sat down at the table and tucked in to Byford’s leftover chicken as he looked out over the sea. In the distance, the blue-green ocean sparkled in the morning sun. Frost discarded his plate onto the patio table and drained his beer. He closed his eyes and felt the sun warm his skin and a gentle breeze play over his face. The sounds and feelings began to blend together and the world faded away.
“Hey! I thought I said don’t make yourself too at home?” Byford announced from the patio door, catching Frost by surprise.
“Bloody hell, think I was falling asleep then,” Frost replied, pulling himself up in the seat.
Byford placed another beer on the table for Frost, pulled up a chair and sat down to his side, facing the same direction.
“Ha! I do the same. Good views, eh? You can see the transporter ships and sail boats some days or just watch the clouds, it’s a great place to watch the sea,” Byford said, a relaxed tone echoing in his voice.
“Can’t disagree there, boss, certainly relaxing, but is this really it for you now? I mean just hiding here when you’ve got a bunch of loose threads to tie up?” Frost asked, knowing full well Byford would know what he meant.
The last project Byford had led had turned into a complete disaster. It was only his long reputation of delivering results over the years that had saved him from being ousted from Hannover completely.
Instead, he had taken a self-enforced break, saving the Sponsor or Handler the embarrassment of making him take one.
Best to get out of the way of Hannover and allow them time to move on without him being a constant point of conversation.
“Well, I expected someone to come visiting eventually, not like you can really hide from Hannover, is it?” Byford replied at last.
“Nope. And like I said, this isn’t a social visit.”
Byford took a deep breath and sighed. “Go on then, what’s happening?”
Frost leaned over to Byford as if trying to ensure no one nearby could hear.
“Well, official word is they want you to lead a team on a little distraction project. Bunch of new joiners that need putting through their paces. Couple are graduate intakes too,” Frost said, casting a glance over to Byford.
He knew Byford had done distraction projects before; projects that were just covers for the real projects were pretty common. But leading a team of new joiners was another thing, everyone in Hannover disliked that. Hannover’s recent decision to take on people with no military training had also not gone down well with the older members.
“Jesus, great. So what’s this, a return trial by fire? See if I can carry out a project successfully and with a bunch of amateurs? Fantastic. Did you need to leave soon? Don’t let me stop you!”
“Don’t be so down on this one, mate,” Frost said.
Byford looked over to Frost with a look that said this better be good.
“That’s the official word, but rumour is it’s a bit more complicated. I’ve heard this is not only a distraction project, but a get-back at some prick who refused the approach from a Sir Anthear project.”
“What? Anthear approached someone direct? What was that about?” Byford said in a tone that left no doubt about the seriousness of the breach of protocol.
“This is where it gets interesting and where you need to listen up. You know Sir Anthear always thought of you as his man, even though strictly it’s the Handler, Steven, who pimps you out. Well, Anthear found out about some guy called David, who’s running some kind of eco-warrior outfit.”
Byford looked visibly confused by the tale so far.
“Fascinating. And?”
Frost continued to the punch-line he was struggling to get to for fear of Byford’s reaction.
“Yeh. They seem like a lot of noise and not much action to me, but guess who David’s girlfriend is?”
“Amaze me,” Byford said, maintaining his nonchalant tone.
Frost hesitated for a second.
“Mary.”
Byford was midway raising the beer to his mouth but stopped suddenly and his heart skipped a beat.
“My Mary?” Byford said, spitting a little beer out at the same time, though as it came from Frost, he already knew the answer.
“No, the virgin bloody Mary. Of course it’s your Mary, you dopey git.”
Byford stood up and took a few paces back and forth.
“Holy crap, they found her?” he eventually managed.
Frost seized the moment.
“You know Hannover take care of their own. Yes, they found Mary, my team’s been on these eco’s for about three months now.”
“Two years I’ve been looking with no leads and now you tell me you’ve known where she was for three months! Why didn’t you say something, why didn’t you grab her?” Byford demanded, standing over Frost and glaring down at him.
“I can’t take an unauthorized action, can I? And, mate, she knew where you were all the time, didn’t she, but she never reached out to you.”
Byford stepped back from over Frost. He was right. She could have contacted him whenever she’d wanted to.
“Also, I’m afraid she’s got herself into a bit of a situation with her personal life and health.”
Byford stood staring into the distance for a few more seconds and then took a gulp of beer.
“What situation?”
“David, as well as being a fucking do-gooder leader of these eco warriors by day, just happens to be a drug dealer by night. He’s dominating her emotionally, now he’s got her hooked on shit and, well, she’s stuck if you get my drift. Thinks she loves the guy and maybe she does in some twisted way, but she also needs him for the drugs. So, we can’t just rip her out of there for several reasons.”
Byford stood in silence, looking out to sea, thinking of Mary and imagining the state she could be in, images of the healthy woman he used to know, then images of a physically ruined woman went through his mind.
After what seemed an eternity he finally responded.
“I get it, we can’t just go in there and grab her if Anthear’s got this David marked.”
Frost replied in agreement. “No chance, and Hannover won’t just go in there and get her out of the goodness of their hearts, either, you know that.”
“Jesus, ever feel you’re being gamed?”
“Yeh, of course you are, mate, but that’s the game we signed up for,” Frost said, as a way of saying it was something they both knew and had accepted.
“She’s been lost to me for nearly two years, what makes you think she’ll welcome me with open arms?”
Byford sat down, placed his head into his hands and let out a deep sigh.
“Come on, Byford, that’s not like you. It’s never too late. With a little cleverness and help, you might earn yourself a second chance with her.”
Byford raised his head and fell back into his seat again, head facing the darkening sky. Frost looked over at Byford and made a last appeal.
“One last job, it’ll be easy for you with a good crew.”
“A new, clueless crew.”
“Perhaps, but you get your mandate to sort the bastard out, get Mary back and sort her out too. Loose ends tied up. They might let you leave for good, honourable discharge for exemplary conduct and retire off.”
Byford straightened himself in his chair and reached over for his beer.
“Looks like I’ve just been gifted an opportunity here, eh?” Byford said.
“The perfect gift for the man who has everything, except what he wants most.”
“Indeed,” Byford replied, with an air of finality.
The two men sat in silence and watched the sun finish setting behind the sea, a final blaze of orange light vanishing beneath the distant horizon, giving way to the dusk.
“Fine, tell the Handler we’re on. I’ll go over to London next week and have a little chat with him to get the details straight. One detail’s for sure, I need you backing me up.”
“Officially or not, I wouldn’t have it any other way!” Frost replied.
“All right then, here’s to one last job.”
Frost raised his beer and tapped it against Byford’s.
“One last job.”
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