Private Sydney (Private 12)

‘Not as much as I’ve hurt you.’ He reached forward to touch her face.

A thud on the glass made it clear. Contact was forbidden.

‘This is Craig –’ she tried.

‘I know who he is. I figured you’d contact Jack Morgan again, who would refer you to Private Sydney. Months ago I put a small tracking device on your chair so I could monitor your whereabouts on computer. I’m sorry, but I had to know you were safe.’

That was why the Chinese embassy hadn’t seemed that surprised we were on our way. I couldn’t hide my frustration that he’d put his daughter at risk. ‘Did you know Eliza was attacked at home? And ADIA tried to detain her earlier today? She could have been killed.’

‘I was informed by my contact here. I’m sorry. If I could have stopped them from hurting you, Eliza, I would have.’

Somehow ‘sorry’ didn’t seem to make up for all the lies and deception. If it were my child threatened, I would have been beyond angry. He didn’t show any emotion or remorse for what she’d suffered.

I watched Eliza, studying her father’s face as if meeting him for the first time.

‘Do you know what they wanted with me? And that USB?’ she eventually asked.

‘I couldn’t just abandon you after things changed at Contigo. Unfortunately, my selfishness made you a target.’

I felt protective of Eliza and didn’t want her being deceived anymore. Selfishness? ‘You mean when your illegal account keeping and secret contracts were about to be exposed?’

He slipped into the chair I’d vacated. ‘All these years of work compromised by a few missing event tickets. The internal audit would have found more discrepancies. I’d managed to keep the fraud squad at bay. Time ran out.’

He wasn’t going to worm his way out of what he’d done. ‘You’re not just talking about a routine audit,’ I interjected. ‘I had a visit from Jim Roden who was eager to find you, dead or alive.’

He sighed. ‘I broke their rules with what I did to keep Contigo afloat. There was no going back once I became an embarrassment to the US and Australian governments. The simplest solution was the one they chose.’

‘Are you saying the Australian government tried to assassinate you twice?’

‘The assassination attempts were CIA. The Americans had a mole in with the Chinese who warned them I was meeting at a bay only reachable by boat. The exact location was secret even from me, until twenty minutes before time. Obviously, the boat was the best way to make sure I didn’t make it to that meeting. Only I got lucky.’

I couldn’t let Eliza be taken in by him again. I stepped forward and slapped the table hard.

‘You’re a liar! You’ve been playing us all right from the start.’

Chapter 124

ACCORDING TO JACK Morgan, the CIA had suspected a rogue agent, which is why they were pulling operatives out of the country. Moss was that rogue agent. I guessed the missing tickets were incidental, and didn’t set off the series of events.

‘That isn’t true,’ he pleaded with Eliza. ‘You know me. Better than anyone.’

‘The fire at the cabin,’ Eliza concluded. ‘I knew you’d been there.’

‘You just happened to have magnesium on you, and get into an escape hatch which happened to be beneath a friend’s cabin?’

He didn’t blink at the accusation.

I leant forward. ‘You set a trap for them, didn’t you?’

He sighed and looked up towards the glass. ‘I did what I had to to survive.’

‘You’re a regular MacGyver,’ I mocked.

‘Craig,’ Eliza warned. ‘Stop it.’

‘And the boat,’ I said. ‘Did they get lucky assuming you’d go there and rigged it to blow?’

He pulled the chair close to his daughter, without touching her. His sole focus became Eliza. ‘I need to know where the USB I sent you is.’