Black Coke Read Online Free PDF Page B

King’s Cross station.
     
    ‘You sure they’ll listen?’ she said.
     
    ‘Who?’
     
    ‘The board.’
     
    ‘Oh.’ So she
had
heard him. ‘They’d be mad to ignore it.’
     
    ‘You’re always so optimistic.’ Caitlin flipped through the newspaper. ‘Here, read this. Soca under fire for failing to catch key crime bosses.’
     
    Nathan skim read the article. It told how Tony Blair had launched the Serious Organised Crime Agency in a fanfare of publicity in April 2006 as Britain’s answer to the FBI. Soca created a list of 130 crime barons believed to be controlling the drugs trade, human trafficking and racketeering in Britain. But Soca became mired in controversy. Too much money wasted. Too little intelligence collected. Too few crime barons behind bars.
     
    Nathan pushed the paper away. ‘Nothing new there.’
     
    ‘The coalition wants to close it down. They say it’s excessively secretive and lacks transparency.’
     
    ‘Yeah, well.’
     
    ‘Look, Nate.’ Caitlin fixed him with her big sister stare. ‘You need to look for another job.’
     
    ‘We’ve had this conversation before.’
     
    ‘You’re their best agent, for heaven’s sake. Look at what you did last year with the Mexicans. Yet they still won’t give you that promotion.’
     
    ‘Maybe they will if I impress them today.’
     
    ‘I don’t understand why you do this.’
     
    Nathan took a bite from his toast. ‘You would if you’d seen what I saw in Colombia.’
     
    ‘That’s Colombia’s problem.’
     
    ‘It
is
our problem, Caitlin. It’s, it’s…’ Nathan sighed. Last thing he needed was another argument with Caitlin. ‘Can we talk about something else? Like, what are you doing today?’
     
    ‘Got a meeting with the marketing department for the new bath lotion.’
     
    ‘That red stuff that stinks?’
     
    She laughed. ‘You don’t have a clue, do you?’
     
    ‘Enough to know what smells nice and what doesn’t.’
     
    ‘Well, I won’t be giving you that for Christmas.’ She turned back to her crosswords, then looked up. ‘Before I forget, there’s a message from Sandra on the answer phone.’
     
    Nathan took a sip of coffee. Sandra had also left him half a dozen messages on his mobile. But he had no intention of ringing her back. Now wasn’t the right time for a relationship.
     
    ‘You will call her back, won’t you?’ Caitlin said.
     
    ‘Not my type.’
     
    ‘Who is your type?’
     
    ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
     
    ‘Okay, forget Sandra. What about Anna? She’s fit. She’s funny. And she’ll be at the dinner on Friday. I think she likes you.’
     
    ‘I need to work on my methods chapter on Friday.’
     
    ‘Oh, hell. Why do I bother? Laura’s not gonna come back, you know. She sure made that clear.’
     
    ‘For God’s sake.’ Nathan pushed his plate away and stomped into his bedroom. Caitlin could be so annoying. He sat on the bed and sighed. Yet she was right. He was mid-thirties and still no stable life on the horizon. Laura had wanted to settle down. He hadn’t. Anything that restricted his freedom made him nervous.
     
    He looked through his wardrobe, trying to identify his suit among the crumpled mess of jeans and t-shirts. He found it tucked away in the corner, but it was all wrinkled. He chucked it back in. He didn’t have time to iron it out. The board would just have to accept him as he was.
     
    He picked up his laptop from his desk and dumped it into his rucksack. It hit something with a clonk. He dug his hand deep and pulled out the black cube he’d found in Colombia. It was so smooth, the angles so sharp, the colour so vivid. It reflected no light. Was it made of dyed wood? Or some kind of light volcanic stone? Maybe he should have given it to the lab techies along with the powder and leaves? Then again, how would they know what it was? They were chemists, not geologists.
     
    He put the cube on his desk and looked around his tiny bedroom.