Private Games Read online

  Contents

  About the Book

  About the Author

  Also by James Patterson

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Part One

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Part Two

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Part Three

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Part Four

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Chapter 104

  Chapter 105

  Chapter 106

  Part Five

  Chapter 107

  Chapter 108

  Chapter 109

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 111

  Chapter 112

  Chapter 113

  Chapter 114

  Chapter 115

  Chapter 116

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 118

  Chapter 119

  Chapter 120

  Epilogue

  Copyright

  About the Book

  The Olympic Games are under attack. Only Private, the world’s most exclusive detective agency, can save them.

  The world is watching.

  July 2012: The Games have arrived in London. Preparations have gone flawlessly and the stage is set for one of the greatest ever showcases of sporting excellence. But one man has a devastating plan. Having waited years for this chance, he is now ready for vengeance.

  A killer is plotting.

  When Sir Denton Marshall, a key member of the London Olympic organising committee, is found decapitated in his garden, Peter Knight, head of Private London, is called to the scene. Private are working with the organising committee on the security for the Games, so Denton Marshall was a valuable client. But there is a more personal link: Marshall was also the fiancé of Knight’s mother.

  The time for vengeance has come.

  Having only recently lost close friends and colleagues at Private London in a fatal plane crash, this is another torturous blow for Knight and threatens to push him over the edge. But it soon becomes clear that Denton Marshall’s murder is no isolated incident, and that the killer’s number one target is the Games itself.

  As the most talented athletes in the world gather in London, Knight knows he must find Sir Denton’s killer. Thousands of lives are at stake…

  About the Author

  JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past decade – the Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club and Detective Michael Bennett novels – and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers. He lives in Florida with his wife and son.

  James is passionate about encouraging children to read. Inspired by his own son who was a reluctant reader, he also writes a range of books specifically for young readers. James has formed a partnership with the National Literacy Trust, an independent, UK-based charity that changes lives through literacy. In 2010, he was voted Author of the Year at the Children’s Choice Book Awards in New York.

  Find out more at www.jamespatterson.co.uk

  Also by James Patterson

  ALEX CROSS NOVELS

  Along Came a Spider

  Kiss the Girls

  Jack and Jill

  Cat and Mouse

  Pop Goes the Weasel

  Roses are Red

  Violets are Blue

  Four Blind Mice

  The Big Bad Wolf

  London Bridges

  Mary, Mary

  Cross

  Double Cross

  Cross Country

  Alex Cross’s Trial (with Richard DiLallo)

  I, Alex Cross

  Cross Fire

  Kill Alex Cross

  DETECTIVE MICHAEL BENNETT SERIES

  Step on a Crack (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Run for Your Life (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Worst Case (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Tick Tock (with Michael Ledwidge)

  PRIVATE NOVELS

  Private (with Maxine Paetro)

  Private London (with Mark Pearson)

  Private: No. 1 Suspect (with Maxine Paetro, to be published April 2012)

  STAND-ALONE THRILLERS

  Sail (with Howard Roughan)

  Swimsuit (with Maxine Paetro)

  Don’t Blink (with Howard Roughan)

  Postcard Killers (with Liza Marklund)

  Toys (with Neil McMahon)

  Now You See Her (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Kill Me if You Can (with Marshall Karp)

  Guilty Wives (with David Ellis, to be published July 2012)

  NON-FICTION

  Torn Apart (with Hal and Cory Friedman)

  The Murder of King Tut (with Martin Dugard)

  ROMANCE

  Sundays at Tiffany’s (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)

  The Christmas Wedding (with Richard DiLallo)

  THE WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB SERIES

  1st to Die

  2nd Chance (with Andrew Gross)

  3rd Degree (with Andrew Gross)


  4th of July (with Maxine Paetro)

  The 5th Horseman (with Maxine Paetro)

  The 6th Target (with Maxine Paetro)

  7th Heaven (with Maxine Paetro)

  8th Confession (with Maxine Paetro)

  9th Judgement (with Maxine Paetro)

  10th Anniversary (with Maxine Paetro)

  11th Hour (with Maxine Paetro, to be published March 2012)

  FAMILY OF PAGE-TURNERS

  MAXIMUM RIDE SERIES

  The Angel Experiment

  School’s Out Forever

  Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

  The Final Warning

  Max

  Fang

  Angel

  DANIEL X SERIES

  The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Daniel X: Watch the Skies (with Ned Rust)

  Daniel X: Demons and Druids (with Adam Sadler)

  Daniel X: Game Over (with Ned Rust)

  WITCH & WIZARD SERIES

  Witch & Wizard (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)

  Witch & Wizard: The Gift (with Ned Rust)

  Witch & Wizard: The Fire (with Jill Dembowski)

  ILLUSTRATED NOVELS

  Daniel X: Alien Hunter Graphic Novel (with Leopoldo Gout)

  Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 1 (with NaRae Lee)

  Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 2 (with NaRae Lee)

  Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 3 (with NaRae Lee)

  Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 4 (with NaRae Lee)

  Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 5 (with NaRae Lee)

  Middle School (with Chris Tebbetts and Laura Park)

  For more information about James Patterson’s novels, visit www.jamespatterson.co.uk

  Or become a fan on Facebook

  For Connor and Bridger,

  chasers of the Olympic dream – M.S.

  Acknowledgements

  WE WOULD LIKE to thank Jackie Brock-Doyle, Neal Walker and Jason Keen at the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games for their willingness to be helpful, candid and yet understandably circumspect regarding a project like this one. The tour of the park construction site was incredibly instructive. We would not have got anywhere without Alan Abrahamson, Olympic expert and operator of 3Wire.com, the world’s best source of information about the Games and the culture that surrounds it. Special thanks go out as well to Vikki Orvice, Olympic reporter at the Sun and a wealth of knowledge, humour and gossip. We are also grateful to the staff at the British Museum, One Aldwych and 41 for their invaluable aid in suggesting settings for scenes outside the Olympic venues. Ultimately, this is a fictional story of hope and an affirmation of the Olympic ideals, so please forgive us a degree of licence regarding the various events, venues and characters likely to dominate the stage during the London 2012 Summer Games.

  It is not possible with mortal mind to search out the purposes of the gods

  – Pindar

  For then, in wrath, the Olympian thundered and lightninged, and confounded Greece

  – Aristophanes

  Prologue

  Wednesday, 25 July 2012: 11:25 p.m.

  THERE ARE SUPERMEN and superwomen who walk this Earth.

  I’m quite serious about that and you can take me literally. Jesus Christ, for example, was a spiritual superman, as was Martin Luther, and Gandhi. Julius Caesar was superhuman as well. So were Genghis Khan, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Adolf Hitler.

  Think scientists like Aristotle, Galileo, Albert Einstein, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. Consider artists like da Vinci, Michelangelo – and Vincent Van Gogh, my favourite, who was so superior that it drove him insane. And above all, don’t forget athletically superior beings like Jim Thorpe, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Jesse Owens.

  Humbly, I include myself on this superhuman spectrum as well – and deservedly so, as you shall soon see.

  In short, people like me are born for great things. We seek adversity. We seek to conquer. We seek to break through all limits, spiritually, politically, artistically, scientifically and physically. We seek to right wrongs in the face of monumental odds. And we’re willing to suffer for greatness, willing to embrace dogged effort and endless preparation with the fervour of a martyr, which to my mind are exceptional traits in any human being from any age.

  At the moment I have to admit that I’m certainly feeling exceptional, standing here in the garden of Sir Denton Marshall, a snivelling, corrupt old bastard if there ever was one.

  Look at him on his knees, his back to me and my knife at his throat.

  Why, he trembles and shakes as if a stone has just clipped his head. Can you smell it? Fear? It surrounds him, as rank as the air after a bomb explodes.

  ‘Why?’ he gasps.

  ‘You’ve angered me, monster,’ I snarl at him, feeling a rage deeper than primal split my mind and seethe through every cell. ‘You’ve helped ruin the Games, made them an abomination and a mockery of their intent.’

  ‘What?’ Marshall cries, acting bewildered. ‘What are you talking about?’

  I deliver the evidence against him in three damning sentences whose impact turns the skin of his neck livid and his carotid artery a sickening, pulsing purple.

  ‘No!’ he sputters. ‘That’s … that’s not true. You can’t do this. Have you gone utterly mad?’

  ‘Mad? Me?’ I say. ‘Hardly. I’m the sanest person I know.’

  ‘Please,’ he says, tears rolling down his face. ‘Have mercy. I’m to be married on Christmas Eve.’

  My laugh is as caustic as battery acid: ‘In another life, Denton, I ate my own children. You’ll get no mercy from me or my sisters.’

  As Marshall’s confusion and horror become complete, I look up into the night sky, feeling storms rising in my head, and understanding once again that I am superior, a superhuman imbued with forces that go back thousands of years.

  ‘For all true Olympians,’ I vow, ‘this act of sacrifice marks the beginning of the end of the modern Games.’

  Then I wrench the old man’s head back so that his back arches.

  And before he can scream, I rip the blade furiously back with such force that his head comes free of his neck all the way to his spine.

  Part One

  THE FURIES

  Chapter 1

  Thursday, 26 July 2012: 9:24 a.m.

  IT WAS MAD-DOG hot for London. Peter Knight’s shirt and jacket were drenched with sweat as he sprinted north on Chesham Street past the Diplomat Hotel and skidded around the corner towards Lyall Mews in the heart of Belgravia, one of the most expensive areas of real estate in the world.

  Don’t let it be true, Knight screamed internally as he entered the Mews. Dear God, don’t let it be true.

  Then he saw a pack of newspaper jackals gathering at the yellow tape of a Metropolitan Police barricade that blocked the road in front of a cream-coloured Georgian town house. Knight lurched to a stop, feeling as though he was going to retch up the eggs and bacon he’d had for breakfast.

  What would he ever tell Amanda?

  Before Knight could compose his thoughts or quieten his stomach, his mobile rang and he snatched it from his pocket without looking at the caller ID.

  ‘Knight,’ he managed to choke. ‘That you, Jack?’

  ‘No, Peter, it’s Nancy,’ a woman with an Irish brogue replied. ‘Isabel has come down sick.’

  ‘What?’ Knight groaned. ‘No – I just left the house an hour ago.’

  ‘She’s running a temperature,’ his full-time nanny insisted. ‘I just took it.’

  ‘How high?’

  ‘One hundred. She’s complaining about her stomach, too.’

  ‘Lukey?’

  ‘He seems fine,’ Nancy said. ‘But—’

  ‘Give them both a cool bath, and call me back if Isabel’s temp hits one oh one,’ Knight said. He snapped shut the phone, swallowed back the bile burning at the base of his throat.

  A wiry man about six foot tall, with an appealing face and light brown hair, Knight had once been a special investi
gator assigned to the Old Bailey, England’s Central Criminal Court. Two years ago, however, he had joined the London office of Private International at twice the pay and prestige. Private has been called the Pinkerton Agency of the twenty-first century, with premises in every major city in the world, its offices staffed by top-notch forensics scientists, security specialists, and investigators such as Knight.

  Compartmentalise, he told himself. Be professional. But this felt like the last straw breaking his back. Knight had already endured too much grief and loss, both personally and professionally. Just the week before, his boss, Dan Carter, and three of his other colleagues had perished in a plane crash over the North Sea that was still under investigation. Could he live with another death?

  Pushing that question and his daughter’s sudden illness to one side, Knight forced himself to hurry on through the sweltering heat towards the police barrier, giving the newspaper crowd a wide berth, and in so doing spotted Billy Casper, a Scotland Yard inspector he’d known for fifteen years.

  He went straight to Casper, a blockish, pock-faced man who scowled the second he saw Knight. ‘Private’s got no business in this, Peter.’

  ‘If that’s Sir Denton Marshall dead in there, then Private does have business in this, and I do too,’ Knight shot back forcefully. ‘Personal business, Billy. Is it Marshall?’

  Casper said nothing.

  ‘Is it?’ Knight demanded.

  Finally the inspector nodded, but he wasn’t happy about it, and asked suspiciously, ‘How are you and Private involved?’

  Knight stood there a moment, feeling stunned by the news, and wondering again how the hell he was going to tell Amanda. Then he shook off the despair, and said, ‘London Olympic Organising Committee is Private London’s client. Which makes Marshall Private’s client.’

  ‘And you?’ Casper demanded. ‘What’s your personal stake in this? You a friend of his or something?’

  ‘Much more than a friend. He was engaged to my mother.’

  Casper’s hard expression softened a bit and he chewed at his lip before saying, ‘I’ll see if I can get you in. Elaine will want to talk to you.’

  Knight felt suddenly as if invisible forces were conspiring against him.