The woman with the identical telephone to Charlie’s did not appear surprised to see him when she opened the door of her suite. They greeted one another with a nod and didn’t speak until Charlie was inside. She gave the corridor the once-over before closing the door behind him and locking it.
Her room was located on the second floor and in the middle of the hotel. She was surrounded by other guests in rooms adjacent, above and below hers. Charlie had chosen his and Alix’s room based on the same criteria when they checked in. Less isolation meant less exposure.
After his initial reluctance to spend a weekend away with Alix, Charlie was glad he’d relented. Now as he and his Minder counterpart took up positions on opposite sides of the suite, he swept the room for signs of danger. There was something awkward about where she chose to stand. He remained close to the door, but she had decided against the French windows, a spot he’d have picked if it was his room. Instead, she hovered by a minibar. But once he spotted the ice bucket and pick within her easy grasp, it made sense. He gripped a little tighter against the shaft of the knife hidden in his pocket.
‘Where’s your friend?’ he began.
‘In her room, having an early night.’
‘Do you mean you’ve slipped her something to knock her out?’ He raised a knowing eyebrow and she looked at her feet. ‘I’m not clutching at straws then?’ he continued. ‘You’re like me.’
She nodded. ‘So how do you want to go about this?’ she asked. ‘Do I tell you my name?’
‘No, I don’t think so … we’ll have to wing it as the protocol of coming face to face with another Minder wasn’t part of my training.’
‘Same here. Let’s keep personal details to a minimum and that way, after tonight, we can trust one another. Who’s your handler?’
‘Karczewski. You?’
She nodded. ‘Do you know he’s dead?’
‘Yes. And I assume you saw what happened to Sinéad?’
The woman nodded again. ‘I feel awful about that. I wish I’d spotted that use of an extra space in the recall message earlier, then perhaps she might still be alive.’
‘You saved my life. Maybe she made another mistake we don’t know about. It’s easy to do. We have all this stuff in our heads but we’re still human. Look at how I dropped my phone. That was stupid.’
‘I almost let one of my secrets slip at a pub quiz night,’ she said sheepishly.
‘Which one?’
‘Princess Diana.’
‘The tunnel or the other driver?’
‘Neither – the burial spot.’
‘Ah,’ Charlie nodded. ‘I almost told my girlfriend why I was neither agnostic nor an atheist.’
‘Oh my God,’ she said with a short laugh.
‘Which one?’
It was a joke that only they understood. She moved towards a fridge and beckoned him to take a seat on the sofa. Charlie loosened the grip on his knife as she satopposite him, pouring two glasses of red fruit juice from a jug. He waited until she drank from hers before doing the same.
‘It’s days like this when I miss a real drink,’ he said.
‘I’d kill for a Marlboro Light. Have you tried alcohol since the implant?’
‘Yes, but it never ends well. Can I ask … have you changed a lot from the person you were before all this?’
She considered the question. ‘Yes, I don’t think you can go through this process without everything shifting inside you. I’ve realised that everything I know will always keep me at arm’s length from the rest of the world. But it doesn’t mean that I have to shut myself off. I can still have a life, of sorts.’
‘A life that’s based on bullshit.’
She appeared surprised by his candour.
‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘That was unfair.’
