plasma screens flickered into life. The picture was jerky, but clear. It looked like a hotel room – ornate furniture, gilded mirrors, chandeliers.
Two men in dark suits, black ski masks and black leather gloves came into view holding a young man who was wearing a pale blue polo shirt and khaki chinos. He was clearly scared and his mouth was moving, but there was no sound so Button couldn’t hear what he was saying.
The men thrust him into an armchair. One produced a roll of duct tape and wound it around the man and the chair.
Broken Nose grabbed the Saudi’s hair and yanked back his head. Scarred Lip pulled up the Saudi’s eyelids with his thumbs, examined his pupils, and nodded. He was conscious.
‘Please watch the screen, Mr Ahmed,’ said Button.
On the screen the man finished binding the captive to the chair. The Saudi blinked as he tried to focus. ‘Husayn,’ he whispered.
‘That’s right, Mr Ahmed. Your cousin, Husayn bin Musa al-Ghamdi. Currently in Nice. I’m sorry for the lack of sound, but you’ll get the drift of what’s happening.’
On screen, one of the men produced a large automatic and pressed the gun against Husayn’s head.
‘You can’t do this,’ said the Saudi.
‘We can,’ said Button.
‘He is just a boy,’ said the Saudi.
Yokely’s voice crackled in Button’s ear. ‘He’s twenty-two.’
‘He’s twenty-two, Mr Ahmed,’ said Button. ‘He’s a man.’
‘He’s not part of this,’ said the Saudi.
‘Part of what?’ said Yokely, in Button’s ear.
Button glared at the mirror and pulled out her earpiece. She didn’t need Yokely to tell her how to conduct an interrogation. ‘We need to know what you’re doing in London,’ she said. ‘Tell us, and Husayn will be released. You will get your money and your new identity, and we will all move on.’
The Saudi’s eyes were filled with tears. ‘He is just a boy,’ he repeated.
‘Mr Ahmed, I take no pleasure in putting you through this. Tell us what we need to know and it will all be over.’
‘I demand you stop this now,’ said the Saudi, his voice trembling. ‘This is against all international law. Against all human-rights laws. You cannot do this.’
‘We have moved beyond laws, Mr Ahmed,’ Button told him. ‘This is about the survival of our way of life. It’s about the safety of the seven million people living in this city. We put their rights above yours, Mr Ahmed. Now, stop being so silly. Co-operate with us, and we can put an end to it.’
‘You will go to hell for this,’ said the Saudi.
‘I dare say,’ said Button.
She looked at the plasma screen. The boy was shaking but the tape held him tightly to the chair. The gun was just inches from his head. It was a 9mm Beretta 92FS, used by the US Army, the Italian police and armed forces, and the French Gendarmerie Nationale. It was a good weapon: she had fired one herself many times in MI5’s underground range. The safety was off. Husayn’s mouth was moving and tears streamed down his face. As Button watched, the gun kicked in the gloved hand. The side of the young man’s head exploded in a shower of brain matter, blood and bone.
Button screamed. ‘No!’ she yelled. Husayn’s mouth locked wide open and blood trickled through his teeth as his head slumped forward. Button whirled round and stared at the mirror. ‘What have you done?’ she screamed. ‘What the fuck have you done?’
Shepherd cursed as once again his call went through to Button’s voicemail. ‘This is unreal,’ he said to Sharpe. ‘What the hell is she playing at?’
‘Phone still off?’
Shepherd scrolled through his call list and phoned Bingham, who answered almost immediately. ‘Dan, everything okay?’ he asked.
‘No, everything is not okay,’ said Shepherd, acidly. ‘Everything is as far from okay as it could get without falling off the edge of the world. Button is still incommunicado.’
‘What do you need?’ asked Bingham.
Shepherd took a deep breath. There was no point in antagonising her number two. ‘We’re pulling out of Ashford station,’ he said. ‘I’ve just recognised another face on the platform from Button’s hit list.’
‘He got on the train?’
‘Yes. And he was carrying a suitcase similar to the one Hagerman had.’
‘I don’t think there’s any need to panic,’ said Bingham. ‘All the luggage-’
‘I’m not panicking,’ interrupted Shepherd. ‘I’m calling in with a sitrep. And the reason I’m doing that is because in ten minutes we’re going to be in the tunnel and I’ll be out of contact so I want to know now what I’m supposed to be doing.’
‘My apologies, Dan. I didn’t mean it to come out that way. I meant to say that we don’t have to worry overmuch, do we? All luggage is scanned before it’s allowed on to the Eurostar, and all the passengers go through metal detectors. There’s no way guns or bombs or even knives can get on the train, is there?’
‘True.’
‘So the most likely scenario is that they’re just travelling together. Which guy is it?’
‘The second one you sent me. I don’t know his name.’
‘Okay. I’ll inform the French. We’ll have them both tailed when they reach Paris. In the meantime carry out a quick recce. Find out if they’re sitting next to each other.’
‘Negative on that. There’s already a woman sitting next to Hagerman.’
‘Okay. But sweep through anyway. See if there’s anyone else you recognise. Whatever happens, call me back before you enter the tunnel. I’ll try to track down Button.’
‘Do you know where she is?’
‘The American embassy.’
‘A bloody cocktail party?’
‘Not exactly,’ said Bingham.
Button’s hands were shaking and she could barely breathe. Her discomfort was intensified by the smug smile on Yokely’s face. ‘You killed him,’ she said.
Yokely shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t. The man who pulled the trigger did.’
‘You ordered it.’
‘Someone had to.’
‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me what you were going to do?’
‘Because I needed your reaction,’ said Yokely.
Button sat down and put her head into her hands. ‘What do you mean?’
Yokely sat opposite her. In the interrogation room, Broken Nose and Scarred Lip had the Saudi on the floor again. Broken nose was squatting on his back, pushing his face to the floor, while Scarred Lip bound his neck to his calves. They were putting him back in the stress position.
‘You were horrified, right? Disgusted?’
Button’s face was screwed up in disbelief. ‘Of course I was horrified!’ she shouted. ‘You had an innocent man killed.’
Yokely put up a hand. ‘Steady, Charlie. We’ve an assignment here, and that assignment is to make the bastard in there tell us everything he knows. Let’s not forget who the enemy is here.’
‘That boy wasn’t the enemy,’ said Button.
‘It was his call, not mine. All he had to do was to talk and that boy would have been released, unharmed. We gave him the choice.’
‘Richard, we can’t go about executing people!’
Yokely smiled amiably. ‘Actually, we do it quite a lot in America.’
‘The boy you had shot wasn’t guilty of anything. You had him killed…’ She was lost for words.
‘Listen to me, Charlie, and listen to me carefully. We are running out of time.’ He took a deep breath. ‘You didn’t see it, did you?’
