The Alamut Ambush

They all turned towards her. She had sat there so quietly in the background, with the conversation flowing past her, that they had dummy2

taken her for granted. Except that Roskill had marked the watchfulness in her eyes as they had settled on each speaker in turn. And now she seemed very sad.

'Of course, we didn't know at the time how his aeroplane had been lost,' she continued irrelevantly. She looked thoughtfully at Audley, and then at Razzak. 'If my niece and her friends were here, Colonel Razzak, they would say you were being very wicked –

they would say that the policeman must never fire first, even to prevent a crime. Young people today aren't like the papers say.

They are really very puritan – very sure they can distinguish good from bad.'

Roskill felt a stirring of embarrassment. He couldn't see what she was driving at, and he wasn't sure that she could either. Yet vagueness had never been one of Mary's failings.

'But you don't hate them, do you – these people on the aeroplane?'

said Mary.

'Madame – ?' Razzak seemed disconcerted too.

'And I know how David feels,' Mary went on. 'Is your Colonel –

Shapiro was it? – is he like you, David?'

There was a moment's silence, which lengthened into awkwardness before Audley broke it.

'Shapiro's a decent man, Miss Hunter. He doesn't always like what he has to do.'

'I thought he might be,' Mary said. 'And if this . .. Alamut is allowed to take place, there might be war again in the Middle East?'

'Full-scale war – no, Miss Hunter,' Razzak shook his head at her.

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'Hassan's great objective is nonsense. He will not achieve it even if we fail to destroy Alamut – I agree with Dr. Audley absolutely there. He might wreck the cease-fire that is coming, perhaps, but that isn't what we are worried about.'

The Egyptian sounded as though he set no great store by the cease-fire.

'What worries us, Miss Hunter, is how he plans to achieve this thing. We don't want to lose ... anyone we can't afford to lose before he fails.'

Mary considered him thoughtfully. 'And if you and the Israelis worked together in secret this time, one day you may work together openly?'

Roskill looked at her sharply. That was more like the old Mary. It had never occurred to him that Razzak and Shapiro might also be playing another, much deeper game, and for even higher stakes.

Razzak said nothing. But then there was nothing he could say; the very idea was enough to make the Pyramids tremble.

Mary seemed to sense that quickly enough. She turned towards Audley.

'There are a lot of things that I still don't understand, Dr. Audley –

David. But you asked me for my opinion before.'

'I did,' Audley didn't sound quite so confident now. It was almost as though she was speaking out of turn. 'Go on, Miss Hunter.'

'You said I had a stake in what was happening.'

Audley blinked – that sure sign he was no longer quite in control of the situation.

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'So you have, Mary,' said Roskill tightly. To hell with Audley.

'You and I have both got a stake of our own.'

'That's just it, Hugh dear. We have to forget about Alan now, both of us. This is more important.'

'But, Mary – '

'Shooting down that aeroplane is a terrible thing, even if they are all wicked men, which I'm sure they're not. I suppose I ought to agree with my niece – with what I know she'd say. She'd talk about means and ends.'

She gazed at Audley. 'But I would say that Colonel Razzak is right, and you must do what you can to help him. I don't know whether ends can ever justify means – but sometimes I think they absolve them. I suppose it's because Father made us all read de Vigny when we were young...'

' Servitude et Grandeur Militaires?' said Audley in surprise.

Mary smiled at him. 'I know it doesn't sound like a girl's book. We had a Victorian translation of it called 'The Problem of Military Obligation' which made it sound even less like one. But when I read it I thought it was very sad and beautiful, I remember – we were what used to be called a 'service family', Colonel Razzak, you see. We did know something about obligations.'

' 'We are the firemen, free from passion, who must put out the fire.

Later there will come the explanations, but that is not our concern.''

Trust Audley to dish up a bloody quotation.

And yet – damn it – there was something here that Roskill knew he dummy2