The Trinity Six - Charles Cumming [133]
‘A present,’ he said.
If anything, he seemed more surprised than Gaddis. The two men looked at one another. Gaddis could only assume that the package had been in the leather bag all along and that Miklós and Viki had failed to notice it. Why else would they plant a watch in his luggage?
‘It must be Dan’s,’ he said, conjuring another lie.
‘Dan?’
‘A friend who was staying in Budapest last week. He must have left it there.’
‘Where?’
‘In the apartment where I was staying.’
‘Ah.’
Gaddis had no sense of where the lies were coming from, only that they appeared to be having the desired effect. The officer was beginning to look bored. He had plainly been expecting a greater haul.
‘I see. Well, sorry to take up your time.’
‘Not a problem.’
If there had been a sofa in the customs hall, Gaddis would gladly have collapsed into it and lit a triumphant cigarette. Instead, he picked up his bags and walked towards a set of automatic doors. Tanya was waiting for him on the other side. She was standing beside a pillar in the same beige raincoat she had been wearing when he last saw her outside UCL. She looked tired and he realized that she had most probably been awake since his first, panicked phone call from Vienna. All those plans, all those contingencies, orchestrated from Vauxhall Cross within the last few hours.
‘I don’t know how to thank you,’ he said, though he was still mystified by the watch. They did not embrace, nor did they shake hands. It was like meeting a lover many months after an affair has ended: the atmosphere between them was charged, the mood civilized.
‘Don’t mention it,’ she said.
‘I had some trouble at Customs.’
She looked at him quickly, concern in her eyes. ‘Trouble?’
‘There was something in my bag. A package. Your friends may have put it there without telling me.’ Gaddis looked back in the direction of the customs hall. ‘A guard pulled me over and went through my case. Do you know what that’s about?’
Tanya swore under her breath, steering Gaddis away from the arrivals area. ‘Fucking Miklós.’
‘What about him?’
‘I told him not to complicate things. I told him to find another way of sending the watch.’
‘So you know about it?’
Tanya nodded. ‘Sure.’ She looked as irritated as he had ever seen her. ‘I’m sorry he got you involved.’
Gaddis looked around, half-expecting to see Des coming out of a branch of WH Smith with some Murray Mints and a copy of the News of the World. ‘We seem to be making a habit of spending quality time together at Gatwick Airport,’ he said, trying to ease the tension. ‘I have no idea how you did what you did, but I feel as though I’ve been carried here, watched all the way.’
‘Sounds like you were,’ Tanya replied. Her irritation with Miklós was still palpable. He had plainly crossed a professional boundary. Gaddis wondered what was so precious about the watch and why Miklós hadn’t simply told him to wear it on his wrist.
‘There’s information inside it,’ Tanya said, as if she had heard the question.
‘In the back of the watch? In the mechanism?’
‘There is no mechanism. It’s a false casing. The less you know, the better.’
‘Very James Bond.’
‘Very.’
They walked the short distance to the car park. Tanya’s muddy VW Golf was parked on the upper level of a clogged multi-storey. Gaddis recognised it from Kew.
‘Talking of presents,’ she said, ‘I’ve got something for you.’
Gaddis was standing behind her as she popped the catch on the boot. He could hardly believe his eyes. Somehow, Tanya had managed to retrieve his overnight bag from the Goldene Spinne.
‘How the hell did you get that back?’ he asked. He opened it to find his suit, his clothes, his house keys and wallet all packed inside.
‘Eva got them,’ she replied. ‘DHL to Gatwick did the rest.’
He surprised himself by reaching out and kissing her on the cheek. Tanya did not seem to object. ‘You’re a miracle worker.’
‘We do our best, Doctor. I used up a few favours. I’m just glad you’re back in one piece.’
It was