The Alamut Ambush

'He uses it certainly. But it's also part of the illusion he meant to build. Rumours – but when you grasp at them they vanish; incidents that don't lead you anywhere. Squadron Leader, Hassan's like a conjuror who makes a great play of concealing something that wasn't ever there in the first place!'

'Then what is there? Is there anything at all?'

'What is there?' Razzak's expression hardened. 'There's a precision killing machine that was all ready and waiting before the conjuring tricks started.'

Roskill stared at him. It was just as Audley had said: the psychological warfare was a preparation – the fear of the assassin that had turned his knees to jelly in Bunnock Street. The fear that Cox and Shapiro and Audley had each echoed. The bomb wired to the ignition and the rifleman crouching in wait on the roof-top ...

'So what have you done about it?' Butler said.

'Until this week, Major – nothing.'

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'Nothing!'

'Major, the one new thing my Watcher told me was that our security system was penetrated. And not just by him either.' The Egyptian sighed. 'Now – you tell me how you'd move against someone who'd already got you staked out – you tell me.'

He looked around contemptuously. 'The only reason I'm alive and here now is that I've done nothing – I've sat on my arse for four mouths biting my nails and pretending to be even more stupid than I am.'

'Until now,' said Audley quietly.

'Until now. And I'll tell you for why – '

'Because sooner or later Hassan had to make contact with his Watchers. Or they have to make contact with him. And that's the moment when he's vulnerable. If his security is as good as you say, it's the only moment.'

Razzak looked at Audley approvingly. 'Very good, Audley– '

'Not very good at all, merely logical. Without the Watchers, Hassan is nothing – he's the will, but they are the brains. The killers are nothing too – ten a penny in the bazaar. And your problem isn't new, Razzak.'

'My problem?'

'You can't trust your own service. We had a section in one of the Gulf states that went sour on us in – it doesn't matter when. But there was a job to do there, and we couldn't trust them to do it. So we gave it to someone else altogether – someone who wasn't dummy2

exactly friendly, but who had the same interest in this case.'

Mina al Khasab – the oil refinery affair! It had been department scuttlebutt that Audley had used the Russians to evict the Chinese...

'There's nothing new under the sun, Colonel Razzak. Somehow you know where Hassan's going to meet his Watchers. The new Alamut. But you can't get at it yourself and Jake Shapiro can.'

Roskill frowned – if that was it, then the risk Razzak was taking was enormous. But, by God, once he'd taken it – once he'd argued the Israelis into taking his chestnuts out of the fire – the picture changed altogether.

It wasn't just that he was bypassing Hassan's Watchers – and with men whose efficiency far surpassed the Arab intelligence services

– but that if anything went wrong it would be the Israelis who carried the can: to Hassan and to the world at large it would be just another instance of the Jews slapping at one of the terrorist gadflies with their usual heavy hand.

Either way, with any luck, both Razzak and Egypt would be in the clear –

Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety ...

He looked at the Egyptian with new respect. A dove – maybe; a patriotic Egyptian – beyond doubt. But above all a cunning bastard after Audley's own heart!

'But wait a moment!' Butler exclaimed. 'If you know where Hassan's meeting his people, why do you need the Israelis? You don't have to use your security men now. A squad of paratroops could do your work for you.'

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'It isn't as easy as that, Major,' Razzak shook his head. 'Alamut —

if we can call it that – isn't a place any more, not a secret hideout I can point to on a map and say 'There – that's Alamut!'' The second finger that did service for the lost trigger finger tapped the arm of the chair, and then was lost in the fist that struck down on the place it had been tapping. 'I can't say 'Bang – that was Alamut!' '

He waved Butler down. 'I don't even know what Hassan looks like

– medium build, medium height, moustache maybe, dark glasses perhaps – I only know where he will be at a point in time. Alamut is not somewhere – it is a time, not a place.. .'

'It can be on Cloud Nine for all I care,' Butler snapped. 'They meet there and you want to hit them for six. But you can't get at them. Is it in Israel?'

'Israel?' The disbelief in Razzak's voice was answer enough.

'Not Israel then. And obviously not in Egypt. So one of the others, where your writ does not run — but neither does Israel's either. So why Israel? Why not your Russian allies – they don't want trouble either – ' Butler's eyes settled for a second on Audley ' — and they've been known to do other people's dirty work?'

'Major Butler – ' Audley began. Butler cut him short. 'No, Audley.

Maybe it feels right to you, and maybe history repeats itself — but I have to have facts to swallow. I want a plain answer.'