Chameleon - A City of London Thriller Read Free Page B

before swiping a card at the entrance of an impressive
modern office block just a quarter of a mile away.
    Sitting at a
desk in a glass walled office, the Chameleon affixed an electronic
voice changer to the telephone handset before dialling the client’s
number.
    “ Jalou
Makabate speaking.”
    “ This is the
Chameleon. Send encrypted details of the assignment to the usual
email address and I will action your request.”
    “ It must be
done within seventy two hours. Will that be enough time?” Makabate
asked.
    “ It will have
to be,” replied the electronic voice that sounded much like the
artificial voice of Stephen Hawking. “Ensure that the down payment
is paid to my account within twenty four hours.”
    “ Good. This
woman is a danger to all of the good citizens of Marat. She is
determined to destroy the peace in our country and incite a civil
war that will claim many innocent lives. Her followers have already
formed a militia that has maimed and abused many in an attempt to
scare them into following her communist ambitions for our free
country.” Makabate paused. “Oh, and by the way, Peter Wright at the
Foreign Office says hello.”
    “ Yes,
whatever you say,” the electronic voice responded.
    Makabate was
familiar with these brusque conversations, and so was not surprised
when the call ended abruptly without any further warning or good
wishes.
    ***
    Relaxing back
into the sumptuous leather chair befitting the founder and Managing
Director of both Celebrato Greeting Cards Ltd. and its online
presence at www.Celebrato.tv, the Chameleon pondered.
    ‘ So, the boys
at MI5 are still playing their childish games, code words indeed.
Still, it seems that someone at Thames House wants this woman taken
down, and for a million US dollars it’s a done deal, code words or
no code words.’
    Smiling as the
world passed by on Spitalfields Square, fifty feet below, the
Celebrato MD thought, ‘It’s all very well spending your days
designing and printing bespoke greeting cards and making money the
hard way, but one does need a hobby.

Chapter
3
    Vastrick
Security, No 1 Poultry, London, Monday 10am.
    Dee and
Geordie had listened carefully to Victoria Hokobu and her husband,
and had taken meticulous notes.
    Victoria
Hokobu began by explaining that she used her maiden name, even
though she was happily married to the distinguished looking Samuel
Etundi, who was sitting by her side. Both in their mid thirties,
the pair made a handsome couple.
    Victoria and
her husband were both from the M’baka ethnic group who
traditionally spoke the NgBaka Ma’bo language. Hailing from what is
now called the Central African Republic, their tribe settled in the
mountainous landscape in the region that now forms Marat, in the
late eighteenth century. In 1972 they were eventually recognised as
a separate state by the United Nations, albeit they were still
administered by their former parent state. Now, however, the nation
state of Marat has a president and a burgeoning bureaucracy and
lies sandwiched between the Central African Republic and Cameroon.
Victoria explained, somewhat mournfully, that a tribal council had
peacefully ruled Marat for two hundred years until Blue Violet
Tanzanite was discovered in the mountains.
    Wary of the
sudden interest in Marat in 1996, Jaafar Hokobu, Victoria’s father,
opposed the creation of a republic but was overruled by the other
tribal elders, who foresaw great riches coming into the new
republic. But, by 2001, the majority of the people had come to
realise that the new president and his followers were robbing them.
These were evil men who claimed M’baka heritage but who could not
speak the NgBaka Ma’bo dialect.
    Looking to
Jaafar Hokobu to lead a popular uprising, the people began to
withdraw their labour from the mines. Jaafar Hokobu was arrested,
along with most of the other leaders of the uprising, who
‘confessed’ to their treason whilst in prison. Most were executed
and white South African