12 CHARLES STREET
LONDON
Ronan studied his silent friend across the dining table. "You're strangely quiet, William. What are you scheming?"
"Me?" Sir William palmed a morsel of lamb to the giant dog. "I am innocent of all charges."
"Don't feed him at the table! He'll never stop sitting there." Ronan glared at Kitten and was rewarded with a derisive look. "Now who did you call? Don't deny it - I heard you on the phone."
"If you must know, I was calling in some old favors." Sir William rang the bell for Edmond. "Do we have any of that trifle left? The batch that Cook made two or three days ago."
"Yes, sir. Commander, would you like some?"
"Thank you, Edmond. That would be wonderful," Ronan replied before confronting his housemate. "Who did you call, William?"
"I would like my dessert before you interrogate me."
"Have it your way, but you will tell me, William!"
"If you must know, I called an old friend, Ronan. You needn't bother yourself. I just had to ensure that Christopher didn't get himself into trouble." Sir William delicately sampled the trifle. "Aah! Did you realize that trifle gets better with age? Some sherry would be nice with this, Edmond."
"You called Pakistan, didn't you? You called the XII Corps Commander!" Ronan punctuated his accusation with a trifle-laden teaspoon. "Do you realize what you've done?"
"I did precisely what you would have done if you felt Inspector Russell was going to inform the Pakistani Army of the threat. It's our job to protect our protégés and I didn't want Christopher accused. Thank you, Edmond." He delicately sipped the sherry, and then dumped the glass's contents into his dessert.
"You know you have just guaranteed that Catherine will remove you from the Prometheus committee post haste, don't you?"
Sir William smiled. "And who is going to tell Binky that I made the call? You? You're too late. XII Corps will seize that base in thirty-six hours and screw those contractors! Screw them!"
Ronan arched his eyebrows as he listened to the unexpected explosion of profanities from the elderly barrister.
"Did you get to your second contact? Did you verify the information?" Sir William demanded.
"Stop nagging, William. Yes, I did initiate contact. When it's safe, I'll get a response. Now can you leave me to enjoy my dessert in peace, please? I need to understand the possible repercussions of your precipitous action."
"What do you mean? We've negated the attack on the eastern front. As soon as we confirm the western target from your agent, we'll wrap this up." The barrister continued his relentless attack on his dessert.
"And if we don't? Do you assume our opponents don't have a fallback plan?"
CAIRO
Eva moaned and moved her hips to meet Robert's pelvic thrusts. "Yes. Like that," she whispered as he redoubled his efforts. She grasped his buttocks as they contracted and pulled him deeper into her.
"I'm going to come," Richard Townsend groaned as he stared at the image of their entangled bodies in a nearby mirror. "Oh God! It's building."
Eva moaned in encouragement, "Yes! More! Don't stop."
An hour later, Eva slid from the bed and a snoring Robert and donned a sheer dressing gown.
**
YOU ARE READING
The Shaddad Conspiracy
Adventure“Your murder victim was not an innocent, naive woman. She was on our terrorist watch list. The fact that she escaped from Basra and lived a normal life in London buggers belief, but she was planted here by a foreign government to wreck the Taliban p...
