All eyes turned to Mac, his eyes on Diane.
She smiled up at him, embarrassed, then looked away. It was obvious she hadn’t had much sleep last night. He wondered if the lads had been taking turns winding her up, getting her to slip in her story.
Paul stood, hooked Mac by the arm. ‘Time for a cuppa, yeah?’
‘What’s the story?’ asked Mac after Paul closed the kitchen door.
Paul’s nose strap was new, the black eye was subsiding and he was moving freely despite the rib wound.
‘Her name’s Diane,’ said Paul. ‘Been working for us on the Garrison thing. Allegedly.’
‘What’s she doing here?’
Paul gave him the look. The don’t shit me look. ‘This is the bird you were asking me about, right?’
Mac shrugged.
‘You asked me if our side had someone infi ltrated to Garrison, remember? I said I didn’t know,’ said Paul.
‘Yeah, got ya,’ said Mac.
‘That’s her, mate,’ said Paul, jigging his thumb over his shoulder.
Paul and Mac looked at one another. At every meeting of even friendly intel types, there was a point where you had to decide if you were going to divulge, or bullshit.
Mac’s brain spun. He decided to half-divulge, see what it would fl ush out. ‘You know, I thought she was a double,’ he said.
‘For who?’ asked Paul.
Mac smiled at him. The Poms knew Mac had been sleeping with her. Must have. They had him logged going into the British compound, they had Carl to debrief, they had tapes logged of Mac’s night in the cottage. They had prints and DNA, if that’s what they wanted.
‘Well, put it this way, mate,’ said Mac. ‘She was enlisting me but actually working with Garrison.’
‘Coincidence. I mean, you’re gorgeous. Not that you’re my type.’
Mac sniggered. ‘She was enlisting me while I was being stalked by Garrison and Sabaya.’
Paul nodded. ‘She was driving that BMW, too, right?’
‘Didn’t see her struggling to escape her captors,’ said Mac.
‘And according to Wylie, she was driving the tender craft that took Garrison and Sabaya and the Canadian hostage to Brani.’
Mac had said enough, now he wanted answers. ‘So she’s working for you lot? What capacity?’
‘Then I’d have to kill ya.’
‘Where’d you pick her up?’
‘POLRI found her wandering around on the road to Bogor. She was disoriented.’
‘Beaten up you mean? You guys do that?’
‘Nah, mate. Sri – the big one with the white shirt – he reckons it’s scopolamine. Something like that.’
‘That’s what they did to Judith Hannah,’ said Mac.
Paul poured the tea. ‘Thought you might like a chat with her?’
‘Why?’
‘She might open up to you.’
‘Why? She was just playing me.’
‘Never know, mate.’
The fact Paul had even got him down to another outfi t’s cabin was a big fi rst step. The way it worked was Mac was supposed to reciprocate. Show good faith.
Mac jiggled his tea bag. ‘What are we trying to fi nd out?’
Paul shrugged. ‘Usual. Is she one of ours? Is she doubled? What does she know about Garrison and Sabaya’s plans that we should know? Just a reminder that that’s what she was sent out to do.’
‘What do we know so far?’ asked Mac.
‘You’re right about Brani Island and that ship. Something is going on there. She said they called it ‘the stuff’. She doesn’t know what they’ve taken off with. But they did take off with something from Golden Serpent, according to her. They called it the insurance policy.’
‘She’s telling the truth in one regard. The US Army has lost a VX bomb during the hostage drama.’
‘Okay. That’s one tick for her. She says she was a hostage after that.’
‘She didn’t look too scared in that BMW,’ said Mac.
‘Well this is it, mate. She reckons they injected her with the scopolamine and interrogated her on the road to Bogor. The goons wanted her dead. Garrison saved her. Had some theory about how he doesn’t kill his lovers.’
‘Man of integrity.’
‘Real gentleman.’
‘Sounds like you got it all, mate,’ said Mac.
‘It’s not adding up for us. Have a crack?’
‘Can I do it without an audience?’ asked Mac.
‘Sure. We’ll be on the patio.’
Diane curled her legs under herself and turned to Mac on the sofa beside her. ‘So, don’t tell me – you’re the good cop, right?’
Mac looked at her, stony-faced.
‘This is shit. I should be in a hospital, Richard. Not putting up with this sexist crap!’
She yelled it so the blokes on the patio could hear. The one called Sri turned, looked in through the glass and went back to his tea.
Mac realised he still liked her. ‘Sexist?’
‘They train us up, just like the blokes. They assign us, just like the blokes. They even pay us the same. But when it comes down to it, as soon as they ask you to infi ltrate a man’ – she curled her fi ngers over, making inverted commas – ‘then you’re a slut.’
Mac raised his eyebrows.
‘But wait, there’s a catch,’ said Diane. ‘You’re this special breed of slut who’s actually virginal and innocent. So you sleep with a man once and you’re so overcome by the amazingness of the experience that you become a double agent just to be with him forever.’
‘Didn’t know I was that good,’ said Mac.
Diane laughed, shook her head. ‘Not you. Bloody hell! You were a mistake.’
‘A mistake?’
‘I didn’t know you were who you were, okay?’ she said.
‘Until when?’
Diane gave him the look. ‘Don’t get cheeky.’
Mac looked into his tea. ‘You telling these blokes everything?’
‘I’m doing what I can. You ever been doped up?’ she asked.
Mac thought about it. ‘No. Don’t think so.’
‘Well it blots things out, leaves some things clear. That’s why I’ve been telling them I need some medical care, get detoxed from this stuff. But I’ve been up all night going over it. I need rest, not interrogation.’
‘What can’t you remember?’
She rolled her eyes, like duh!
Mac thought about it. ‘Let’s see if I can jog your memory. That souvenir Garrison and Sabaya took off the ship?’
‘Yeah. The comms gear?’ she said.
Mac shook his head. ‘They’ve got a VX bomb. Took it from the container.’
Her hand went to her mouth. ‘Why? Why would they do that?’
‘I need you to tell me.’
‘Shit!’
‘Well, yes. It’s a hundred-pound bomb, so it can be lifted by one strong man. You can drive around with it in the boot of a car, walk it onto a train, hide it in a sports stadium, leave it in a mosque…’
Diane was silent, a blank.
