Hostage (Bodyguard #1)(21)

Hadn’t he seen that face before?

The square jaw. The broad nose. The deep-set eyes. Although Connor couldn’t be certain, he thought he’d noticed the man earlier while browsing in the video-game store.

Connor decided not to hang around. He headed along the central concourse towards the south exit. All the while he kept his eye on reflections in the plate-glass windows. Twice he caught glimpses of the square-jawed man. But was the man actually following him or just innocently leaving by the same route?

To test his hunch, Connor stopped outside a fashion store. After a few paces, the man paused at a newsagent’s and began studying the papers. Connor felt his pulse quicken. This could be pure coincidence still, but the man’s behaviour seemed increasingly suspicious. He was leafing through the newspapers without really looking at them. At the same time he was mumbling to himself – or perhaps into a concealed radio?

Connor now needed to prove beyond a doubt that this individual was on his tail. But he didn’t want to alert the man that he suspected anything. That would scare him off – and then Connor might never find out who this person was or why he was following him. He glimpsed a gold stud in the man’s right ear and made a mental note of this. Then he headed for the exit.

When he reached the glass doors, he held them open to let a lady with a buggy through, and took this opportunity to subtly check behind.

The concourse was busy with shoppers. But the man was nowhere in sight.

Maybe all this bodyguard training is  making me paranoid? thought Connor.

Stepping outside into the bright spring sunshine, he turned right to weave between the hordes of people milling along Queen Street. The air was filled with the shouts of street hawkers and the strumming of buskers. A local bus roared by, sending up a cloud of diesel fumes.

Connor glanced at the time on his mobile phone. He had five minutes before he was due to meet the others. Heading along the road, he couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was still being watched. Though he realized that if anyone was following him now, it would be almost impossible to spot them among the crowds. What he needed was a quieter, yet public, area to draw the individual out into the open.

Up ahead, a blue sign pointed towards a car park. Perfect.

Connor checked for traffic, then crossed the road. As he reached the opposite kerb, he heard the blast of a car horn. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the square-jawed man had narrowly missed being run over. Although Connor’s gaze was directly upon him, the man deliberately avoided eye contact by staring at a blonde-haired lady in a red jacket and sunglasses standing at a bus stop. But Connor wasn’t fooled. This man was after him.

Quickening his pace, Connor turned right through a pedestrian walkway to the car park. His tail would have to follow him through the narrow alley – and if he did Connor’s suspicions would be confirmed.

He was halfway across the car park and still the man hadn’t appeared. Just as he thought he’d lost him, Connor spied the man standing by the ticket machine at the car park’s main entrance. Clearly out of breath from running, the man was pretending to look in his pockets for change. While he was distracted, Connor whipped out his mobile phone and took a picture of him. With the evidence in his pocket, Connor ducked behind a van, his intention to escape and return to the others. But a stocky man with a head as bald as a bowling ball stepped out and confronted him.





The man was chewing slowly on a stick of gum as he blocked Connor’s way.

‘Did you get a good shot?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ replied Connor, showing his phone to his surveillance tutor. ‘It was the square-jawed man with the gold stud in his right ear.’

Bugsy raised an eyebrow, mildly impressed. ‘And what about the woman who was following you? Did you take a photo of her too?’

Connor’s brow creased in puzzlement. ‘What woman?’

‘The blonde in the green jacket.’

Connor vaguely remembered someone fitting that description, but couldn’t quite place where.

‘What about the one in the red jacket and sunglasses?’ asked Bugsy.

‘You mean the woman by the bus stop?’

Bugsy nodded.

‘No,’ admitted Connor. ‘That was the first time I’d seen her.’

‘They’re the same person,’ revealed his surveillance tutor with a grin. ‘Just a reversible coat and sunglasses. It’s amazing how a simple disguise can be enough to fool the untrained observer. And a word of warning: women are far better chameleons than men in that regard.’

Charley and the rest of Alpha team appeared from behind the van.

‘So how did Connor fare at anti-surveillance?’ Bugsy asked them.

‘Pretty good. For a first attempt,’ said Amir, punching Connor lightly on the arm.

‘He kept his techniques covert,’ observed Marc. ‘Nice use of windows and natural looking around.’

Connor smiled, pleased by his friends’ compliments.

‘Until he stared right at his tail in the main street, that is,’ Jason was keen to point out. ‘That was overt. The guy knew he was on to him then.’

Connor hadn’t expected praise from Jason – and didn’t get any. Their relationship was still pretty frosty after their unarmed combat tussle the week before.

‘But loads of people looked,’ argued Ling. ‘That idiot almost got himself killed.’