‘I fancy her, sure, but because of what we’re doing I’m going to have to keep lying to her. I want to tell her the truth but I can’t. I don’t want our relationship to be based on lies but it is.’
‘So put her on the back burner until this is over,’ said Malik. ‘Like you said, she’s a Muslim; she’s not going to rush into anything.’ He looked at his watch. ‘What’s taking Khalid so long?’
‘You know he likes to pray twice as long as anyone else,’ said Chaudhry. ‘It’s his thing.’
‘And treating everyone like mushrooms,’ said Malik. ‘That’s really his thing. He likes controlling people. That’s what this is about. He wants us to be at his beck and call.’
They had waited in all evening expecting Khalid to phone, but he hadn’t. At just before eight o’clock a man they didn’t recognise had turned up and asked for the backpacks and phone and taken them away. Both backpacks had been locked with small padlocks but they had been able to peep inside and it looked as if they contained only old telephone directories. Chaudhry had asked the man when Khalid would call but he had just shaken his head and said nothing.
They had almost finished their coffee when Khalid appeared in the doorway. He looked around, then waved at them to join him on the pavement.
‘Too many ears,’ he explained. ‘These days the mosque leaks like a sieve. We can trust nobody.’ He gestured with his chin. ‘Walk with me.’
He headed off along the pavement and Chaudhry and Malik joined him, Chaudhry on Khalid’s left, Malik on his right. ‘You seem tense, brothers,’ said Khalid.
‘Tense?’ repeated Malik. ‘Of course we’re tense. What were you playing at? Was it a test, is that it?’
Khalid’s eyes narrowed. ‘Are you questioning me, brother?’
‘If I was questioning you I would have done it when you told us to get into the van,’ said Malik. ‘We did everything you asked of us. And then you told us to go home. So I ask you again, brother, was it a test?’
Khalid nodded slowly. ‘Yes. You were being tested.’
‘So we’re not trusted? After everything we have been through you still don’t trust us?’
‘It’s not a matter of trust,’ said Khalid.
‘Are you sure? Because trust shouldn’t be an issue, brother. We have met The Sheik, remember? Have you, brother?’
‘No,’ said Khalid. ‘I was never granted that honour.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ said Malik. ‘We had tea with The Sheik. He told us how valuable we were to him, how we were a resource that would be used with care, that our mission would be as important as that of the martyrs of Nine-Eleven.’
‘You are angry,’ said Khalid. ‘I understand.’ They looked right and left and crossed a side street.
‘Harvey, chill, brother,’ said Chaudhry. ‘We’re just a bit concerned that nobody told us what was happening,’ he said to Khalid.
‘I understand,’ said Khalid.
‘You understand?’ Malik glared at Khalid. ‘Do not patronise me, brother. Was it your idea to test us?’
‘Harvey, mate, give him a break, will you?’ said Chaudhry.
‘We were told to run a rehearsal,’ said Khalid quietly. ‘It was a question of testing the logistics.’
‘The logistics?’ repeated Malik.
‘We needed to make sure that we could get everyone in the right place at the right time. We had to arrange vehicles and drivers. We had to check that phones worked and that we could get everyone to work to a schedule.’ Two Pakistanis walked towards them and Khalid stopped speaking until they had gone by. ‘You are very important to our organisation, brothers,’ he said. ‘We have a lot riding on you so we have to be sure that everything works. We must leave nothing to chance.’
‘And the test, was it successful?’ asked Malik.
Khalid shrugged. ‘Mostly.’
‘Mostly?’ said Chaudhry. ‘What do you mean, mostly?’
‘One brother didn’t turn up,’ said Khalid.
‘What happened?’
‘We don’t know,’ said Khalid. ‘But we will find out.’
‘Do you think he’s a spy?’ asked Malik, and Chaudhry tensed.
Khalid turned to look at Malik. ‘Why would you ask that, brother?’ he said quietly. He stopped suddenly, catching the two men unawares.
Malik looked over at Chaudhry, a look of panic in his eyes.
‘We were talking about it earlier,’ said Chaudhry. ‘We thought that you didn’t trust us, that you suspected there might be a spy in the organisation.’ Khalid continued to stare balefully at Malik. ‘That’s what the police are doing, isn’t it?’ said Chaudhry. ‘They put spies in the mosques and they pay informers to betray our brothers.’
‘It is not the police,’ said Khalid, still looking at Malik. ‘It is MI5, the security service.’ He started walking again and the wind tugged at his dishdash. Chaudhry and Malik matched his pace. ‘The brother who let us down is not a spy, I am sure of that. But he has shown that he cannot be relied upon so we will have to deal with him.’ He laughed softly. ‘But a spy? No.’
‘So when do we do it for real?’ asked Chaudhry.
‘You are eager,’ said Khalid. ‘That’s good. But we have to wait until the moment is right.’
‘And the backpacks?’ said Malik. ‘Why did we have to have backpacks?’
‘That was to test the logistics,’ said Khalid. ‘Why do the backpacks concern you?’
‘You know why the backpacks worry us,’ said Chaudhry.
‘Brothers, the backpacks were a test of our logistics. To see if we could get a dozen pieces of equipment to a dozen brothers and get them to a specific location at a specific time.’ He smiled. ‘You thought you were carrying explosives, didn’t you?’ he said.
‘We didn’t know what to think,’ said Chaudhry.
Khalid nodded slowly. ‘You thought that there might be explosives in the packs, but still you went. That showed commitment, brothers. And don’t think that commitment wasn’t noticed and appreciated.’
‘You wanted to see if we were prepared to become shahid?’ said Chaudhry.
‘Was there any doubt about that, brother?’
Chaudhry sighed. ‘I had hoped that I had already proved my loyalty,’ he said. He nodded at Malik. ‘Harvey too.’
‘The two of you are too valuable to become shahid,’ Khalid said. ‘A lot of time, trouble and money has gone into training you and it would be a waste to make you martyrs. The operation we are planning will involve guns, not explosives. And provided you follow your instructions you will kill more kaffirs than died in the Twin Towers and you will live to fight another day.’
‘That’s what he said? You’re sure?’ asked Shepherd. ‘He said explosives weren’t going to be used?’
Chaudhry nodded. ‘Word for word, pretty much.’
‘Guns,’ said Malik. ‘He said we’d be using guns.’
They were sitting in a coffee shop in Camden, close to the market. Chaudhry and Malik had spent twenty minutes walking among the market stalls before Shepherd had called Chaudhry and assured him that they weren’t being followed. They sat in a corner away from the windows.
‘No explosives but lots of casualties?’ said Shepherd.
‘More than died in Nine-Eleven,’ said Chaudhry. ‘That’s what he said.’
Shepherd raised his eyebrows. ‘With guns? Did he say what type?’
Malik shook his head. ‘He said there would be lots of casualties and that we would get away.’
Shepherd sipped his coffee. It was important intelligence that he’d have to pass to Button as soon as possible. There had been about a dozen men at St Pancras, but how could a dozen men kill three thousand civilians with guns?
‘How far do we take this, John?’ asked Chaudhry.
‘What do you mean?’
‘We went to the station with backpacks. What if there had been bombs in those packs and they’d been detonated remotely?’
‘That was never going to happen, Raj. Like Khalid said, you’re too valuable to waste on a suicide attack.’
