Free The Kill Zone by Chris Ryan Page A

money so it comes out squeaky clean. What you need to give me, Kieran, is something to get at him with.’
    ‘You’ll never do it,’ Kieran said, his voice curt.
    ‘You’d better hope I do, Kieran,’ Siobhan replied.
    ‘Cormac’s too fucking switched on for that, lady. Everything’s at arm’s length. You think you’ll get a picture of him unloading crates from a boat? Jesus, I don’t think he’s ever even seen a wrap of H, let alone moved a stash. Shit doesn’t stick to Cormac. Sometimes I wonder why he bothers buying bog roll.’
    Siobhan nodded slowly. ‘So I’m right,’ she said. ‘It’s all heroin now.’
    Kieran looked down at his palms. ‘It never used to be,’ he murmured. ‘Before, it was all coke, in from Colombia. But then, about a year ago . . .’
    He looked up at her again, doubt suddenly shadowing his face.
    ‘Go on,’ Siobhan told him.
    Kieran squeezed the bridge of his nose between two fingers before continuing. ‘About a year ago, it all changed. The product changed, the importation routes changed, and the money certainly changed. Cormac’s got more cash than he can damn well spend. Not that you’d know it.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘You’d think someone with all that money would buy himself a few luxuries once in a while. The way my uncle runs the business, you’d think he was damn well broke. He sits in the back room of that pub, giving out his instructions like he was—’
    ‘So the heroin,’ Siobhan steered him back. ‘Did your uncle tell you where it’s coming from? Who his supplier is?’
    Kieran seemed to find that genuinely funny. ‘ Tell me? You must be shitting me, woman. Cormac doesn’t tell anybody anything. What’s that they say, about the left hand not knowing what the right hand’s doing? That’s what it’s like with him. Nobody who works for the family knows anything more than they need to.’
    He gave Siobhan a combative look, but she was a match for it.
    ‘Sorry, Kieran. You’ll have to do better than that.’
    ‘I’m telling you, woman. He plays his cards close to his chest.’
    ‘Then you’re going to have to sneak a look at his hand, aren’t you.’
    Silence.
    Kieran put his hand in his pocket and Siobhan’s fingers automatically started feeling for her handgun. All he brought out, though, was a pouch of baccy and some skins. Siobhan could tell that the cogs had started whirring again as her new tout worked out the pros and cons. Finally he seemed to decide on something. ‘You’re not the only one with a set of eyes on the inside,’ he said in a low voice as he rolled a ciggy.
    Siobhan stayed very calm. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Just what I say. Cormac’s got a pig on the payroll. Don’t ask me who. Drugs Squad, that’s all I know.’ Siobhan could tell what he was thinking: what if this bitch is Cormac’s bent copper? ‘How do I know it’s not you?’ he asked.
    Siobhan shrugged. ‘If you wake up dead tomorrow morning, it is me.’ She didn’t feel at all inclined to put his mind at rest. The more this little shit was made to squirm, the better as far as she was concerned. In any case, she was suddenly distracted by this new piece of intelligence. It didn’t really surprise her that one of her colleagues was playing for the other side – she knew that anyone could be bought for the right price.
    ‘Find out,’ she told him.
    ‘I can’t.’
    ‘Well then maybe I can give you a helping hand. You’ll find I’m very generous like that, you know.’
    Siobhan removed an item from her pocket. It looked like a simple black box, about the same size and shape as a matchbox, but several times heavier. She held it up between a thumb and two fingers. ‘Present for you,’ she said.
    ‘The fuck’s that?’
    ‘That, Kieran, could be your ticket out of the clink.’ She winked at him. ‘It’s a listening device. You hide this somewhere your dear uncle spends a lot of time and I’ll be able to listen in on him. I’m