Part 4 (1/2)

'Yes, Delia I wrote all that s.h.i.+t down.' Lek spoke the words like he had a bad taste in his mouth. It was a stellar performance.

'I'm still not buying it,' said Delia, but his body language said otherwise. He leaned forward in his chair and waited for Lek to continue.

'Now, a book like that would be worth millions, wouldn't it?'

'Maybe. In the right hands, I suppose. Maybe. Where is it anyway?'

'Well, I can't tell you that.'

Delia licked his lips and blinked slowly. He was thinking hard. Eventually he said, 'Yes you can,' and he lightly ran the blade of the clasp-knife across the newspaper without once taking his eyes from Lek's. He licked his thumb and when he touched the page with it, the freshly cut strip of paper came away easily. 'Yes you will.'

'If you kill me, you'll never find it,' said Lek. The fear in his voice was genuine now, even if his words were a lie.

'That's true. But there's always her,' Delia replied nonchalantly, and he stood and walked over to where Crystal crouched in the corner, her beautiful eyes now wild with terror. She screamed Lek's name as Delia bent over and touched her face with the knife. 'It would be such a shame to spoil these looks....'

'Lek!' Crystal screamed again, trying not to move.

'Alright! Alright. Just... leave her alone, for Lennon's sake.'

'Where is the book Lekky?'

'It's in a thumbprinted Smarte Locker in Victoria International. Listen, I'll make you a deal...'

'I'm listening.'

'I'll give you the book, and you let us go.'

Delia sucked his teeth and shook his head. Lek could see that he was slipping off the hook. 'No. You know? Something just isn't right here. I think we'll just go and see Mr P, and I'll take my half a mill, thank you very much.'

'You can have the cash too.'

'The hundred grand?'

'Yes, it's in the locker. C100,000 is a drop in the ocean compared to what you could make with those formulae, but it's yours.'

'OK, so tell me this, Mr smart-a.r.s.e lab-rat Doctor Gorski, what's to stop me killing you now, slicing your thumb off and taking it all for myself - the recipe book and the creds?'

Lek hadn't considered that, but he felt he was on a roll and tried his luck.

'Well, for one, Pechev won't be too impressed if he ever finds out. And he would find out. Personally, I wouldn't want to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life. John Lennon's ashes, I've only been doing it for a few hours and I'm already wrung out. But think, Delia - you're a smart man - if you're going this make this happen, you're going to need somebody who understands extract conversion, grafting, DNA sequencing, scion-production a I could be your man on the outside. Quid pro quo. You know it makes sense.'

There followed a long drawn-out silence which Delia eventually shattered, 'Stop f.u.c.king crying b.i.t.c.h! I'm trying to think here!' He looked again into Lek's eyes and was finally convinced. He saw a vision of himself playing old-school arcade games in Pechev's office, standing on the balcony at night perhaps, smoking Castros and listening to the symphony of gang violence from the streets. He leaned across the coffee table and picked up a gla.s.s of Juniperus. He nodded warily, 'OK, you're coming with me. You've got a deal. But if you try anything...' and he pointed at the Meister on the table.... 'it's you and her. Do you understand?'

'I understand,' said Lek, picking up the second gla.s.s, 'What should we drink to?'

'Do I look like I give a f.u.c.k?' said Delia.

'To the future then!'

'Whatever, d.i.c.khead - the future,' chorused Delia half-heartedly, before raising the gla.s.s in a parody of salutation and draining it in one mouthful.

Lek watched as a ripple of confusion clouded his expression, saw his jaw slacken and his pupils dilate, and without a word, Delia slumped to the ground and smashed his head against the tile-floor. He was out cold.

There was a few seconds' silence before Lek explained, 'I spiked the drinks while you were crying in the corner. Pure sloth extract. Good for insomnia. He should be dead to the world for a few hours.' He threw an empty gel-cap vial onto the coffee table. 'And I should never have trusted you.'

'I just... wanted to keep you safe.'

'Keep me safe! By handing me over to this guy?!' Lek gave the unconscious Delia a soft kick in the ribs.

'He had a knife to my face, for Ringo's sake! A knife!' Crystal fired back, suddenly furious. 'And let me remind you, Lek Gorski, that I haven't heard from you in months. And this is what you bring back? Why the f.u.c.k should I care what happens to you? Perhaps you might explain why you just vanished off the face of the Earth?'

'Because they told me to!' Lek shouted. He walked across the room and sat down again on the beanbag. 'They had a... quiet word in my ear, a few months back. Told me that I shouldn't be touching any of the company's products, including you. Said I should keep my distance if I didn't want to spend the rest of my life creating chemical c.o.c.ktails one-handed.' He shook his head despondently. 'What a mess.'

Crystal wasn't ready to let up. 'And now you turn up, out of the blue, like some phantom in a tracksuit, saying you've stolen from them, that you're on the run and... and... look at my f.u.c.king door!'

Lek wasn't listening anymore; he was talking to himself instead, 'But how did he find me? How did he find me?' He turned to Crystal. 'This wasn't the same guy who called you, was it?'

'No. The guy on the phone had a thicker accent.'

'I'm guessing that was probably Vidmar. But then how did Delia know I was here?'

Realisation dawned. He pulled out the two bundles of creds from the pockets of his sports suit a the C10,000 he kept back from the stash waiting for him in the Smarte Storage Locker at Victoria Station a and fanned though them. Sure enough, in the second bundle, he found another strip of clear plastic.

'What is that?' asked Crystal.

'It's another bug. A tracking device. That's how he followed me here. They planted two bugs in the money, not one. Smart move. I've already dumped the first.' Lek nodded with grudging new-found respect for Pechev. 'And if this guy found me, then you can guarantee he isn't the only one looking.'

He handed the plastic strip to Crystal, who took a moment to inspect it, before taking a cigarette lighter from her pocket.

'No, don't do that....' Lek stared into middle distance, calculating something in his head. 'Help me move the body out of sight.'

Together they shouldered Delia into the bedroom and left him sleeping like a baby.

'What now?'

'Like I said, we pay Danny Calabas a visit.'

Crystal looked perplexed but Lek continued, 'We'll take your car. I can't keep wandering the streets while they're searching for me. I'm playing right into their hands.'

'My car's in the garage a the biorg died a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't got the money to get it fixed. Where's your car anyway?'

'Parked outside my flat. No way I can just walk back and pick it up. They're bound to be expecting me to turn up there sooner or later... Ok, so we go to the garage first, then Calabas' place.'

'Hang on a minute. It's you they're after, not me. I could just let you walk out the door. Give me one good reason why I should come with you?'