The Phoenix

‘Oh, now, now, heavens, there’s no need for all that,’ the old man spluttered, embarrassed. Like most Englishmen, excessive emotion clearly wasn’t Professor Dixon’s thing. ‘I have a question for you, if I may,’ he said, deftly bringing the conversation back to practical matters. ‘Are you in possession of a mobile telephone?’

‘A mobile telephone?’ Ella laughed. That was the kind of expression Mimi would have used. ‘Sure, but it doesn’t work here. I lost reception about a hundred miles east of the camp. Plus I think the battery’s dead.’

Dix made a dismissive tsk-tsk sound and flapped his arms about again. ‘Never mind that. Bring it to the lab, would you? I’m going to download a wonderful little application for you. It’s called Babbel.’

‘The language thing?’ asked Ella. She’d heard it advertised on the radio. ‘Isn’t that like Rosetta Stone?’

‘Exactly.’

‘What do I need that for?’

‘For your mission training, my dear,’ said Dix absently. ‘Helping you to understand your special abilities is one piece of my job – the most interesting piece – but it’s not much good intercepting and interpreting vitally important signals if they’re all in another language, is it?’

Another language? Ella rubbed her eyes. She couldn’t keep up.

‘I thought Mrs MacAvoy would have explained already,’ said Dix. ‘But, no matter. We have plenty of time.’

‘Plenty of time for what?’ Ella asked wearily.

Dix patted her on the shoulder benignly. ‘For learning to speak Greek, of course.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

Gabriel leaned back against the soft leather seat of his Maserati and pressed his foot down hard on the accelerator. He smiled to himself as the car leaped forward, surging up the empty but familiar road like a panther. God, it was good to be back in California. And even better to be here to see the intoxicating, and yet distinctly obstinate, Ella Praeger. Gabriel had thought about Ella a lot since their last encounter. Most of those thoughts had been distinctly X-rated, something he’d wisely chosen not to share with the boss.

‘This is probably the most important mission The Group has undertaken in a decade,’ Mark Redmayne had reminded him, unnecessarily, on last night’s conference call. ‘We need that girl on board. But she’s still stalling.’

‘Yes, sir. So I understand.’

‘She wants more information,’ Katherine MacAvoy chimed in. ‘Not just about her capabilities, about her parents too. She wants to know the truth about what happened to them.’

‘I don’t care what she wants, Katherine,’ Redmayne snarled. ‘Just get her ready. That’s your job.’

The Camp Hope supervisor swallowed hard. Mark Redmayne had led The Group to some of its most brilliant successes. But he was also a bully. Like most of his senior team, Katherine MacAvoy was afraid of him.

‘I know that, sir, and I’m trying to do it. I just don’t believe she’ll commit to us unless she perceives we’re committing to her.’

‘Then make her perceive it.’

‘How?’

‘I don’t know! Not by telling her about her parents, that’s for sure. Do it by force if you have to, but we need Ella Praeger on that plane.’

‘Forcing her is a stupid idea,’ said Gabriel, who seemed to be missing the self-preservation/fear gene that drove Katherine and everybody else when it came to Redmayne. ‘If she’s not committed to the mission, it will fail.’

‘Hmmm,’ Redmayne grunted. As usual, though he hated to admit it, Gabriel was right. ‘So what do you suggest?’

‘Let me talk to her. Ella knows me. We have some degree of … rapport.’

Mark Redmayne hesitated. He could imagine the form Gabriel’s ‘rapport’ with Ella might take. The man had bedded more women than anyone could count. Bizarrely, from Mark Redmayne’s perspective, as he was clearly somewhere on the autism spectrum and about as tactful as a bag of spanners in the face, the last thing they could afford around the woman who might yet become The Group’s most valuable asset.

‘Ella has asked to see Gabriel in person, sir,’ Katherine MacAvoy added nervously. ‘Several times.’

She decided not to mention that, according to Professor Dixon, Gabriel had already been in contact with Ella at Camp Hope, transmitting directly to her neuro-receivers, something he could only have done by hacking into the lab’s computer systems. The fact he’d spotted her trying to leave meant he must also have wangled access to the camp’s CCTV feed, none of which said much about the state of their security. Redmayne was in a foul enough mood already. The last thing any of them needed right now was for him to go off the deep end. Katherine would tackle Gabriel about the breaches of protocol herself when he got here.

And so it was that Gabriel found himself speeding through the California redwoods, charged with changing Ella Praeger’s mind. He was actually relishing the prospect – he’d always enjoyed a challenge.

Reveling in the engine’s roar, he pushed the Maserati even faster. The boss didn’t like the fact that Gabriel drove an expensive car. Mark Redmayne himself might be filthy rich, but he preferred his operatives to lead more modest lives. To ‘blend in’, as he put it. ‘Be the “gray men in the crowd”.’ That had never suited Gabriel.