State Of Emergency: (Tom Buckingham Thriller 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

down. He had been hoping to get out, but Randall’s actions had changed that. Which made him wonder if the Security Service would continue to spy on the man who was about to become its political master.
    ‘At least I’m in a position now to see it’ll never get into the news. Imagine the headline! Veteran’s Bid to Kill Home Secretary. ’ He let out a short laugh. Then his brow furrowed. ‘No one must know, Tom. Ever.’
    Yes, that would be unfortunate, wouldn’t it? Tom thought, remembering Helen from Newsday . He glanced at his watch. ‘You’re due at Number Ten in twenty minutes, Home Secretary .’
    Tom watched as Rolt gazed round the room that had been his HQ for the last five years, then up at his treasured Turner above the fireplace. It was an awesome rendering of a volcanic eruption in dusty reds and oranges, the night sky lit up by lava. This morning it merely reminded Tom of the fires he had seen burning all over Britain.
    ‘I guess this is it.’ Rolt sounded wistful.
    Surely he wasn’t having a sliver of doubt about crossing the political Rubicon? For a moment Tom was propelled back to their schooldays and his very first encounter with the teenage Rolt, an awkward loner who always looked as if he’d strayed into enemy territory. Now the former outsider was inside. Perhaps it would civilize him, curb his more … irrational tendencies. After all, one of Britain’s defining features had always been an ability to neutralize extremists. They got into government from time to time, but never made it to where they could do permanent harm. But this era was different: cracks in the fabric of society had yawned open. Rolt had been talked up as some kind of saviour, yet all he had done was widen those cracks even further with his inflammatory rhetoric.
    Tom glanced at the clock above the fireplace. ‘The car will be on its way.’
    Rolt strode over to his desk, pulled his tablet case towards him and zipped it shut. He was clearly nervous. ‘Sorry I can’t take you with me to Number Ten.’
    ‘This is your moment. It wouldn’t be appropriate.’
    He nodded. ‘You’re right.’
    ‘In a matter of hours you’ll have a whole new team.’ Tom offered his hand.
    Rolt took it and gripped it hard, perhaps to conjure up some of the steel he had shown on the campaign trail. ‘Thanks for everything.’
    And thank you for fuck all . Tom let go of Rolt’s hand and gave him a farewell wave.
    And with that Rolt swept out of the room.
    Tom turned and stared out of the window at the grey-white expanse of the park. He had served his country in the most unlikely way as a spy on the man who, in a few minutes, would be anointed Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department. Yesterday he had been starting to think about where Fate would take him next. Back to his ex, Delphine, in France? Or somewhere much further away from all this shit? A stint at home with his folks, whom he’d barely spoken to in three months? Or, and he had suppressed this idea from the moment it had surfaced, back to the SAS? But that possibility was so fraught with emotional turmoil that pride wouldn’t even let him say the words silently in his head.
    Rolt’s elevation should have been the end of his assignment. The Security Service had recruited him to get as close as he could to the man. Now that he was effectively their political master, Tom would be spying on his own ultimate boss. Surely in such circumstances he couldn’t go on.
    But the assassination attempt had changed everything. Just as he should have been getting out, he was suddenly in much deeper. And who was Rolt’s mystery visitor? His gaze had settled on the small burn mark by the rug. It wasn’t the smell of any old tobacco he had noticed when he came in, it was intensely foreign. Who drops his cigarette butt on Rolt’s expensive flooring on the morning of his installation as home secretary yet hugs him in farewell? After all those months of shadowing,