Beneath the Bleeding

‘What do you think?’ She didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Let them do their thing, their rounding up of the usual suspects, their harassment of anybody who happens to be young, male and Muslim. And we’ll do what we’re best at.’

Tony knew what she wanted, what she needed was for him to sympathize, to take her side against those she perceived as the bad guys. To take her part, right or wrong. The trouble was he thought she was wrong. And if there was any value in their relationship, he believed it was rooted in honesty. Some might call it emotional unavailability, and there was likely some truth in that too. But he couldn’t lie to Carol, not with any degree of conviction. Nor she to him, he thought. There were times when it was hard to hear the truth; harder still to deliver it. But in the long run, he was convinced they’d both looked back on those moments with an acceptance that they were more closely bound by having survived them. Tony took a deep breath and jumped off the high diving board. ‘And what you’re best at is not investigating and cracking terrorist cells.’

There was a moment of complete silence in the room. ‘Are you saying you agree with what’s happening here?’ He didn’t have to see Carol to picture her indignation.

‘I think policing potential and actual terrorists is a very specific kind of policing,’ he said, trying to tell the truth as he saw it without fuelling her anger. ‘And I think it should be done by specialists. People who are trained to understand the mindset, people who can walk away from their lives and go deep undercover to infiltrate, people who are prepared to climb inside the terrorists’ heads and try to work out where they’re going to take their campaigns next.’ He scratched his head. ‘I don’t think it’s the same skill set as you and your team possess.’

‘Are you saying it’s right to take this outrage away from us? That we shouldn’t police our own city?’ Carol demanded. He could hear the certainty of betrayal in her voice. She finished her wine and poured another cupful.

‘I’m saying there should be something like the CTC to work with you. Just because they’ve executed it so badly doesn’t mean the idea’s a bad one,’ Tony said gently. ‘This is not about you, Carol. It’s not a criticism of you or your people. It’s not saying you’re crap or incompetent or any of those things. It’s an acknowledgement of the fact that terrorism is different. And it needs a different approach.’

‘A judgement that doesn’t apply to you, I suppose. I bet you think you’re just as well equipped to profile terrorists as you are serial killers?’ Carol said sarcastically.

Tony felt himself in a lose-lose situation. There was no reply that would persuade Carol to back off at this point. He might as well carry on with the truth. It was often the most efficient response. ‘I do think I have some useful insights, yes.’

‘Of course you do. The great doctor.’

Stung at last, Tony said, ‘OK. Try this for size. This bombing doesn’t profile like terrorism.’

That stunned her into silence, he thought. But not for long. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Carol said with a note of deliberation rather than the hostility he’d half-expected.

‘Think about it. What is terrorism for?’

Almost without pause, Carol said, ‘It’s an attempt to force social or political change by violent means.’

‘And how does it aim to do that?’

‘I don’t know…By making the population so afraid that they put pressure on the politicians? I think that’s what IRA terrorism was about.’ Carol leaned forward in her chair, eager and engaged now.

‘Exactly. It aims to create a climate of fear and mistrust. It aims to attack the areas of life where people need to feel safe. So, public transport. Retail. People need to travel, they need to shop. Right away, we can see that a football stadium, crowded though it may be, isn’t in the same category. Nobody is compelled to go to the football in order to survive.’ He grinned. ‘Some fans might think they feel that way, but they know deep down their lives won’t fall to bits in the way they would if they stopped going to work or to the shops.’

‘I take your point. But what if they decided a lower-level target was a better option because the primary targets are just too hard for them now?’

That would be a valid argument if it was true, but it’s not, and you know it. You can’t police every train, every tube, every bus, every shopping mall or supermarket. There’s plenty of soft targets there. So the first support for my argument against this profiling as terrorism is the macro target.’

Carol reached for the wine again, ‘You’ve got more than one support?’

‘You know me, Carol. I like to be well armed against the likes of you. Line of support number two-the micro target. The thing about terrorism is that, for it to work, it has to strike at the lives of ordinary people. The sort of terrorists we’re seeing now do not go for the spectacular assassination. They learned that from the IRA. High- profile murders like Lord Mountbatten and Airey Neave make a big splash, sure. But people are angered and outraged by them, they’re not terrorized. Ask your average person in the street to name the top Irish terrorist events of the troubles, and they’ll say Omagh, Warrington, Manchester, Birmingham, Guildford, the Baltic Exchange. What they remember are the events that made them feel personally threatened.’ He paused to take a drink.

‘So what you’re saying is that the corporate hospitality boxes were the wrong target?’ Carol said.

She’d always been quick. It was one of the things he liked most about her. ‘Exactly,’ Tony said. ‘Going for the fat cats, that’s the sort of thing an anti-globalization terrorist would do. But not the Islamic fundamentalist. He wants maximum bucks for his bangs. An Al-Quaeda type of attack would have placed the bomb lower down, in among the punters. Or in one of the other stands.’

‘Maybe this was the only place they could be sure of getting into? Aziz posed as an electrician, maybe this was the only electrical junction room right under the stands?’

Tony shook his head. ‘Now you’re really reaching. I’m betting the utility layouts are pretty much the same on all four stands. The stadium’s only a few years old, it’s not like it’s a thing of shreds and patches like the old ground was. There’s bound to be other similar spots that would have taken out more of the hoi polloi. No, this was a deliberate choice, and that’s the second reason I’m dubious about this being terrorism.’

‘It’s a bit thin, Tony. Or do you have something else?’ He could hear the edge of scepticism in Carol’s voice.

‘Given how far out of the loop I am, I think you should be impressed with this much. If you’re determined to follow your own lines of inquiry rather than just do what CTC asks you to, there’s maybe something there for you to chew on.’ And at least it might keep her out of direct conflict with CTC, he thought. ‘And when you know more about Aziz and his accomplices, it might even make sense.’ Tony leaned back, his energy spent.