A nondescript car approached with two men inside and came to a stop just beyond the wingtip.The men remained inside the car watching the aircraft. If they were customs or immigrations, they would most likely have been in uniform and walking over to the aircraft by now. The way they sat silently watching with the patience of those who do it for a living left Stratton with little doubt they were Israeli intelligence.
The aircraft’s engines finally died, plunging the cabin into a relative calm and a welcome relief after the hours of constant drone.
‘Stratton?’ It was Sumners calling him over.
Stratton stepped to the table where Chalmers was still tapping away at his keyboard, Sumners’ boss beside him on a phone.
‘Well,’ Sumners began with one of his thin smiles which characteristically masked something new and unexpected. Stratton was not to be disappointed. ‘You’ll be happy to know you’ll be home before the end of the day and you can take that holiday you’d planned. You might need a new pair of skis though - we seem to have lost yours. You were insured I take it?’ ‘I’m off the op?’ Stratton asked, taken by surprise.
‘I think you’ve done more than enough, don’t you?’ Sumners said.‘You’re probably relieved, I’m sure. Damned fine job, by the way.’
‘The op’s cancelled?’ Stratton asked, confused, and at a loss as to what the new developments might be.
‘Gosh, no. Op’s still very much on. We’ll be taking it over from here.’
‘We?’ Stratton asked, looking around as if he had missed someone on the plane capable of running the operation in the field.
‘Well, me, actually,’ Sumners said, his smile starting to wane as Stratton’s expression clearly telegraphed his disdain.
It was immediately clear to Stratton what was going on. Sumners had been a desk operative since he joined the firm God knows how long ago; he had not been promoted in years and had been passed over for several younger, better-connected players, a trend that had no reason not to continue. If he wanted to move any further up the ladder the only way he was going to do it was to broaden his experience base. Sumners had obviously decided this was a perfect opportunity to get his field wings. Stratton was appalled at the timing and lack of thought this supposedly intelligent and experienced man had put into the move. He wanted to say as much, and on any other occasion he would have voiced his disapproval, but something was holding him back and he knew what it was. Survival. Sumners’ move was the simple and convenient God-given solution to his problem. It was proof Sumners knew nothing about Gabriel’s fear. Stratton would sit back, let him take over the op, and, if Gabriel were correct, Sumners would die in Stratton’s place. Even if it was discovered that Stratton knew about Gabriel’s viewing, he had been ordered off the op and that was that. There would be no comebacks.
‘That’s fine,’ Stratton heard himself say almost immediately.
Sumners’ smile regained some of its vigour as if he had misread Stratton’s initial look and that this response was one of approval. ‘I was going to have you come along as an assistant,’ Sumners said buoyantly. ‘But let’s be honest, you are rather headstrong, and since you’re used to working alone it might not be such a good idea . . . Make sense?’
‘Perfect.’
‘Good. Well, you stay aboard and make yourself comfortable and go home knowing you’re on a recommend for a job well done.’
Sumners’ boss was wearing one of his cold smiles as he put down the phone and stared at Stratton as if examining him. Stratton gave nothing away.
Chalmers got to his feet holding a small canvas bag and Stratton watched him walk down the cabin to chat to Gabriel, then after a minute he came back to the table while Gabriel waited by the door holding his bag.
Stratton felt he should at least say goodbye to him but could not bring himself to be so duplicitous. A part of him believed Gabriel was heading to his death and he would not be able to look him in the eye, shake his hand, congratulate him on a job well done, tell him how much he had enjoyed working with him and wish him well for the future. Gabriel would see through him as if he were a sheet of glass. Stratton wished that just for one moment he could be the cold-hearted bastard everyone thought he was, but he could not turn his back on Gabriel, not like this.
Strangely, in the end, it was not just his conscience that changed his mind about letting Sumners take over the op, but an ingrained belief in himself and his destiny. Ultimately, he could not accept that if he continued the assignment his end would come at the hands of a mad Russian with an atom bomb. It felt ludicrous and impossible. Fate had many more things in store for him, and perhaps a more horrible finale, but not this. It was more than simple optimism. Stratton believed his life was written and that he had some kind of an insight into his future. He did not know when his time would come but it was not now, not on this operation. Of all the beliefs Stratton possessed, this was his most valuable. He believed he had a life worth living beyond this moment.
He came to a decision, turned his attention to the problem and focused on the tactics required to achieve his goal.The answer was immediate, simple and based entirely on intuition. He believed Sumners to have a high degree of self-preservation, enough for him to drop the ball once he learned of Gabriel’s fear, but Sumners also had pride and the trick was going to be how to manipulate it. The success would hang on the execution.
‘Sumners,’ Stratton said.
Sumners was talking to his boss and did not appear to hear him. Stratton stepped over to the table and leaned closer. ‘Sumners,’ he repeated.
Sumners was annoyed at the interruption. ‘What is it?’ he said.
‘Something you need to know.’
‘You’ll be fully debriefed by Chalmers on the flight back and I’ll receive your entire report,’ he said.
‘That may be too late.’
Sumners exaggerated a sigh. ‘What is it?’ he asked like a tired parent.
‘You’re pretty sold on Gabriel, aren’t you?’
‘Sold?’
‘You suggested earlier you had become one of the converted, a believer.’
‘Hard to be sceptical under the circumstances. He got us this far, didn’t he? What’s your point?’
‘You’re going to be with Gabriel all the way?’
‘Of course,’ Sumners said. ‘He’s our golden goose.’ Sumners suddenly felt he had detected Stratton’s true worry. ‘Don’t worry,’ he added. ‘I’ll look after him. I must say I’m touched if not a little surprised at your concern.’
Sumners turned away to continue talking to his boss.
‘It’s not him I’m concerned about,’ Stratton said. ‘It’s you. Gabriel has seen his own death by the device. He believes he’s going to be blown up by the nuclear bomb. I thought you should know.’
The words dropped like a ten-ton weight through the thin roof of the aircraft, and although Sumners did not face Stratton immediately, he had stopped in mid-sentence, and his boss’s eyes had moved from Sumners to look directly at Stratton - he could smell a game afoot if Sumners could not. Chalmers stopped tapping the keys of the computer and looked between the men. They all instantly understood the implication of the statement that anyone within five miles of Gabriel would also be vaporised. It seemed to rock Sumners to his very foundations though probably only Stratton and his boss could see it.
The blow was a multiple one for Sumners. Every plan and dream of glory he had fermented in the hours since his boss had given him his blessing to take over the assignment were shattered like a stack of crystal ten-pins.
There was a long silence which served only to emphasise Sumners’ astonishment as his mind worked like a computer calculating the various angles he might employ to get out of this predicament, unable to find a single one.
‘When did he tell you this?’ Sumners’ boss asked Stratton, breaking the silence.
‘Yesterday. Obviously the implications weren’t apparent to me until I heard about the nuclear device when I came on board.’
‘Why didn’t you say anything right away, as soon as I told you?’ Sumners asked.
‘I didn’t know you were taking over the operation. ’
‘Why are you telling us this now?’ Sumners’ boss asked, curious.
‘You just heard Sumners say he believes in Gabriel’s viewings,’ Stratton said. ‘If he didn’t find out now he’d
