Jack Higgins - A Devil Is Waiting

A DEVIL IS WAITING

A LSO BY J ACK H IGGINS

J ACK H IGGINS

G. P. P UTNAMS S ONS
New York

G. P. PUTNAMS SONS
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Copyright 2012 by Harry Patterson
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Published simultaneously in Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Higgins, Jack, date.
A devil is waiting / Jack Higgins.
p. cm.
EISBN: 9781101554050
1. United States. PresidentFiction. 2. AmericansEnglandFiction.
3. TerrorismFiction. 4. London (England)Fiction. 1. Title.
PR6058.I343D48 2012 2011039496
823.914dc23

Printed in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

BOOK DESIGN BY AMANDA DEWEY

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and
Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author
assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication.
Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any
responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Where there is a sin
A devil is waiting

IRISH PROVERB

For Tessa-Gaye Coleman

Night & Day,

You Are the One

I t was late afternoon on Garrison Street, Brooklyn, as Daniel Holley sat at the wheel of an old Ford delivery truck, waiting for Dillon. There were parked vehicles, but little evidence of people.

Rain drove in across the East River, clouding his view of the coastal ships tied up to the pier that stretched ahead. A policeman emerged from an alley a few yards away, his uniform coat running with water, cap pulled down over his eyes. He banged on the truck with his nightstick.

Holley wound down the window. Can I help you, Officer?

I should imagine you could, you daft bastard, Sean Dillon told him. Me being wet to the skin already.

He scrambled in and Holley said, Why the fancy dress? Are we going to a party?

Of a sort. You see that decaying warehouse down there with the sign saying Murphy & SonImport-Export?

How could I miss it? What about it? Holley took out an old silver case, extracted two cigarettes, lit them with a Zippo, and passed one over. Get your lips round that, youre shaking like a leaf. Whats the gig?

Dillon took a quick drag. God help me, but thats good. Ferguson called me from Washington and told me to check the place out, but not to do anything till I got a call from him. He glanced at his watch. Which Im expecting just about now.

How kind of him to think of us. Brooklyn in weather like this is such a joy, Holley told him, and at that moment, Dillons Codex sounded.

He switched to speaker and General Charles Fergusons voice boomed out. Youve looked the place over, Dillon?

As much as I could. Two cars outside it, thats all. No sign of life.

Well, life there undoubtedly is. I made an appointment by telephone for you, Daniel, with Patrick Murphy. Your name is Daniel Grimshaw, and youre representing a Kosovo Muslim religious group seeking arms for defense purposes.

And who exactly is Murphy and whats it all about? Holley asked.

As you two well know, several dissident groups, all IRA in one way or another, have raised their ugly heads once again. The security services have managed to foil a number of potentially nasty incidents, but luck wont always be on their side. Youll remember the incident in Belfast not long ago when a bomb badly injured three policemen, one of whom lost his left arm. Since then another policeman has been killed by a car bomb.

I heard about that, Dillon said.

Police officers are having to check under their cars again, just like in the bad old days, and some of them are finding explosive devices. We cant have that. And theres more. Attempts have started again to smuggle arms into Ulster. Last week, a trawler called the Amity tried to land a cargo on the County Down coast and was sighted by a Royal Navy gunboat. The crew did a runner and havent been caught, but Ive firm evidence that the cargo of assorted weaponry originated with Murphy & Son.

Was your source MI5?

Good Lord, no. You know how much the security services hate us. The Prime Ministers private army, getting to do whatever we want, as long as we have the Prime Ministers warrant. At least thats what they think. They just dont appreciate how necessary our services are in todays world

Holley cut in. Especially when we shoot people for them.

You know my attitude on that, Ferguson said.

Getting back to Murphy & Son, why not get the FBI to handle them? We are in New York, after all.