said coldly.
‘Sure,’ said Gannon. He gestured at the exit. ‘We’ve a car waiting outside. We can talk back at the hotel.’
‘We can talk here,’ she said. ‘I’m on the next flight back to London.’
Muller held out his hand. ‘Howdy,’ he said. ‘I’m John Muller.’
Button looked at him disdainfully. ‘I know who you are, Mr Muller, and I know what you’re doing here. The less you talk to me, the better. Now, would you be so good as to take Mr Shepherd back to your hotel while I talk to the Major? Thank you.’ She turned away from the American and looked at Gannon again. ‘There’s a coffee shop over there,’ she said, nodding at the far side of the arrivals area.
Muller and Shepherd headed for the exit, while Gannon walked with her to the coffee shop. She sat down at a corner table and crossed her legs. ‘I’ll have tea,’ she said. ‘Anything but Earl Grey.’
Gannon went to the counter and ordered. He carried the cups to the table and sat down opposite her, his back ramrod straight. ‘Would you like something to eat?’ he asked.
‘I ate on the plane,’ she said. She picked up her spoon and stirred her tea slowly, even though she hadn’t put in any sugar. He waited for her to speak, knowing that anything he said would probably antagonise her.
‘It’s not often that words fail me,’ she said eventually. ‘I’ve had eight hours on the plane to think about what I was going to say to you and, frankly, I’m still at a loss. What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
‘Whatever it takes,’ said Gannon. ‘One of my men is about to be executed and I’m not prepared to let that happen without a fight.’
‘But he’s not one of your men, is he?’ said Button. ‘Mitchell is a civil contractor. He hasn’t served with the Regiment for more than five years.’
‘Once Sass, always Sass,’ said Gannon.
‘Well, that’s very noble, Major, but the fact remains that Mitchell was in Iraq earning a thousand dollars a day for guarding an oil pipeline. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time for no other reason than that he was greedy. And now you’re putting your career on the line in some misguided attempt to drag his nuts out of the fire.’ She put the spoon back in the saucer. ‘Worse, you’ve co-opted one of my people into your venture. You’ve encouraged Spider to lie to me, throw away his career and risk his life. God damn you, Gannon, he’s a single parent. If anything happens to him, who’s going to look after his boy?’
‘It was his choice,’ said Gannon. ‘And the way I understand it, it was more omission than lying. He just didn’t tell you what he was doing.’
‘He spun me some line about needing time off to move house. That was a direct lie.’
‘And if he had asked your permission to come to Dubai to help rescue Mitchell, what would your reaction have been?’
‘This isn’t about who said what to whom,’ said Button. ‘You’ve no right to be out here, and neither has Spider. What happened to Geordie Mitchell is a nightmare, but that doesn’t give you the right to go charging in like International Rescue.’
‘If we don’t do something, he’ll die,’ said Gannon, flatly.
‘What about the Regiment?’ said Button.
‘If they knew where he was, they’d go in,’ said Gannon, ‘but we’ve no intel. And no prospect of getting it by conventional means.’
‘What you’re planning is madness, you know that?’
‘We’ve tried everything else.’
‘What have you tried?’
‘How much has Spider told you?’
Button flashed him a tight smile. ‘There you go again, playing games. What does it matter how much he did or didn’t tell me? I’m not some pretty little secretary you can treat on a need-to-know basis.’
‘I don’t want to bore you with details you already have.’
‘No, you were planning damage limitation. Find out what I know already and do your level best not to tell me anything else. That’s not how this is going to work, Major Gannon.’ She held up her right index finger and thumb less than an inch apart. ‘I’m this close to making a phone call that will bring your world crashing down around you.’
Gannon nodded slowly but didn’t say anything. He knew she held all the cards and it was up to her how she played them. He had the feeling that anything he said then would annoy her.
‘I’ve another axe to grind with you,’ said Button.
‘I’ve no doubt,’ said Gannon, drily.
‘I gather you were responsible for introducing Spider to Richard Yokely.’
Gannon nodded.
‘What the hell were you thinking?’ said Button. ‘You know what Yokely does.’
‘He’s sort of CIA,’ said the Major.
Button sneered at him with contempt. ‘You really do think I’ve got my head up my backside, don’t you? “Sort of CIA” is like saying that Stalin had a temper. You know he was with the Intelligence and Security Command?’
Gannon nodded. ‘Yes. AKA the Tactical Concept Activity.’
‘That’s right, they do love to play with words, don’t they?’
‘The guys on the Activity tried to get it renamed the Strategic Operations Brigade so that they could call themselves SOBs.’
‘I heard that,’ said Button. ‘I also heard that Yokely left the Activity to join Grey Fox. You do know what Grey Fox is, don’t you?’
The Major sighed. ‘A presidential assassination squad,’ he said quietly.
‘Finally I’m getting something approaching candour from you,’ said Button. She sat back and folded her arms. ‘Yes. Yokely worked for a black unit tasked with assassination. Now he’s moved on from Grey Fox to a place that’s so off the radar I don’t think it even has a name. Please don’t insult my intelligence by telling me that he’s “sort of CIA”. Richard Yokely is a very dangerous man.’
‘He wanted to meet Spider after what happened down the Tube when he shot the suicide-bomber.’
‘Yokely wants Spider to work for him – you know that?’
‘I guessed as much,’ said Gannon. ‘But Yokely told me he wanted an introduction, that’s all.’
‘And you were happy enough to give one, were you?’
‘I’ve known Yokely for almost ten years. And Spider’s big enough to take care of himself. I’m not in the business of nannying anyone, Charlotte.’
Button’s eyes narrowed. ‘I hope you’re not suggesting I’m nannying him because that is most definitely not what is happening here,’ she said. ‘Richard Yokely is a devious bastard. You know he took Spider to Baghdad on a rendition flight?’
‘We needed to question someone there.’
‘Yokely was perfectly capable of handling the interrogation himself. Why do you think he wanted Spider with him?’
The Major said nothing.
‘You know what I think? I think Yokely wanted Spider with him because he knew I’d find out and that when I did I’d sack Spider, so he’d be looking for a job. He set Spider up.’
‘I don’t see it that way,’ said the Major. ‘We asked Yokely for help and he came through.’
‘Yokely only helps people if there’s a payback,’ said Button. ‘I’m just looking after the best interests of one of my people. One of my team.’
‘Same here,’ said Gannon.
‘Do you have any idea how many laws you’ve broken so far?’ said Button. ‘Have you given any thought to what will happen if you’re caught?’
‘We won’t be caught,’ said Gannon. ‘But if we were, we’d take whatever they throw at us.’
‘Your career counts for nothing? Because if this ever gets out, you’re history. No more Increment, no more Regiment. You wouldn’t be able to get a job watching over a building site.’
‘My career counts for nothing if my men can’t depend on me,’ said Gannon, ‘and that’s a two-way street. If it was me in that basement wearing an orange jumpsuit, I’d expect my men to come and get me. There’s a loyalty in the Regiment that goes beyond Queen and country, Charlotte, and you wouldn’t understand it.’
