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‘Jackie?’

‘Contact with the target,’ she responded. ‘I have eyeball – three for cover – waiting to see which way he turns when he reaches Sloane Street.’

Collins turned left, which took them all by surprise; the only water that way was the Serpentine. Jackie kept herdistance, but never let them out of her sight. She could see Paul ahead of her, while a glance in her rear-view mirror showed that Ross was another couple of cars behind.

•••

‘We are being followed,’ said Collins as he glanced in his wing mirror.

‘Now there’s a surprise,’ said Miles, without looking back.

‘A taxi that was parked at the other end of the street isn’t far behind,’ said Collins, ‘and a man on a motorbike ahead of us has looked back once too often.’

‘Not taking any chances, are they?’ said Miles as Collins came to a halt at the lights at the top of Sloane Street.

When the lights turned green, Collins took his time before turning left onto the Brompton Road. Paul and Jackie remained in touch, but Ross got stuck behind a bus and didn’t cross the lights in time.

‘They are down to two – the taxi and the motorbike,’ said Collins as he drew up outside the front door of Harrods.

A liveried doorman stepped forward and opened the back door of the Rolls. Faulkner got out and strolled into the store, while Collins drove off.

‘Faulkner’s disappeared into Harrods,’ said Paul over the radio, ‘which has at least half a dozen exits.’

‘Don’t lose him,’ said Ross, who had just turned the corner, ‘and I’ll follow the Rolls in case he’s picking him back up. Jackie, you cover the back entrance, as I don’t think he plans on buying anything.’

Paul dumped his motorbike, ran into the store and saw Faulkner leaving luxury goods and entering the food hall. Bythe time he’d caught up with him, Faulkner was heading for a side door that led on to Hans Crescent.

‘He’ll be coming out of the east entrance of the building at any moment,’ said Paul over the radio.

Jackie immediately took off and turned left into Hans Crescent, just as Faulkner stepped out onto the pavement.

She slipped into a residents’ only spot and watched as Faulkner crossed the road and climbed onto the back of a motorbike. They sped off, the wrong way down a one-way street, leaving Jackie unable to turn around and follow him.

Paul watched as the motorbike turned left and disappeared out of sight. ‘We’ve lost him,’ he said in an exasperated voice.

‘I got the number plate,’ said Jackie, which William passed on to the Met’s main control room.

The motorbike had covered less than a mile before it came to a halt at a bus stop. Miles got off and climbed onto the first approaching bus. He jumped aboard, not interested in where it was going. He got off at the next stop, crossed the road, hailed a taxi and told the cabbie ‘County Hall’.

‘All of you head for the Thames,’ said William. ‘Ross and Paul cover the South Bank side, Jackie and Rebecca the Westminster embankment. I know it’s a long shot, but he hasn’t left us with a lot of choice.’

•••

The cab crossed Westminster Bridge and came to a halt outside County Hall. Miles got out and checked both ways before he handed the cabbie a five-pound note. He didn’t wait for any change. He began to jog through the members’ car park until he reached the South Bank, where he joined several other joggers out on their Sunday afternoon run.

When Miles saw the long queue waiting to board the ‘London Eye’, he slowed down and made his way to the front.

‘I’m sorry, sir,’ said the ticket collector, ‘but you’ll have to join the queue.’

Miles handed over his ‘priority’ ticket to the young man, who said, ‘Sorry, sir.’

Faulkner looked around and, confident he had shaken off any pursuers, placed his hands in his pockets.

‘Are you on your own, sir?’ asked the attendant as an empty capsule appeared.

‘No,’ said a voice from behind him.

Miles looked around to see a man of average height, wearing an unmarked baseball cap, dark glasses, grey T-shirt, grey sweater, faded jeans and black trainers. You would have walked straight past him without giving him a second look, which was exactly what he would have wanted. He jumped into the empty capsule ahead of Miles.