‘Who’s the celeb?’ Marchant asked the attractive woman behind the check-in desk.
‘Hussein Farmi,’ she said, a faint blush colouring her face.
Marchant nodded knowingly, but the woman wasn’t convinced.
‘Star of more than a hundred films,’ she explained. ‘
‘Of course.’
‘He’s one of the Middle East’s most popular actors. And he has been married five times.’ She stifled a giggle.
‘I’d better get a few shots of him then,’ Marchant said, nodding at the canvas bag slung over his shoulder. Without thinking, he pulled out a camera, snapped the check-in woman and gave her a wink as he walked off in pursuit of Farmi. Photographers could get away with murder, he thought.
20
Fielding couldn’t remember such a tense meeting of the Joint Intelligence Committee. Even the ones that had been hastily called in the hours after 9/11 and 7/7 had been characterised by unity rather than discord. Everyone had been pulling together then. There were no divisions, no conflicting agendas. The Americans had needed Britain’s help after 9/11, and the British had needed their help after 7/7.
This time the Cabinet Room in Downing Street was crackling with resentment and rivalry as Spiro addressed the London heads of the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand intelligence services, Harriet Armstrong, Director General of MI5, the head of GCHQ, accompanied by an awkward Paul Myers, a raft of faceless Whitehall mandarins, and the clammy-cheeked Sir David Chadwick, still chairman of the JIC despite the Americans’ best efforts to unseat him in a cooked-up child-porn sting.
‘I had hoped to bring better news to you all today,’ Spiro said, studiously avoiding any eye contact with Fielding. ‘As you know, we believe we have eliminated Salim Dhar in a Reaper strike in Afghanistan. We still maintain the target was destroyed, but there are rumours this morning that Dhar might have been with the six US Marines who were taken at the weekend by Taleban forces. In terms of potential collateral, that particular scenario couldn’t be worse.’
Six US Marines struck Fielding as a result, compared to the normal quota of innocent women and children who were destroyed by drone strikes, but he kept his peace, preferring to make his point with a short dry cough. Spiro looked across at him for the first time.
‘They are all fine soldiers. One of them, Lieutenant Randall Oaks, served alongside me in Iraq. As things stand right now, the picture is a little confused. A
He pressed at a remote in his hand and a grab from a website appeared on a flat screen behind Spiro. It showed a group of local Afghanis waving at the camera. One was holding a damaged Marine’s helmet, its US markings just visible.
‘NSA managed to crash the site by overloading the server, but it’s fair to assume the images will soon appear elsewhere. We happen to believe they’re fake, but clearly it’s an unhelpful story. Right now, the President, whom I personally briefed yesterday, is holding back on an announcement about Dhar. He wants DNA, but that could be tricky, given the hostile location of the strike zone.’
Chadwick cleared his throat loudly enough for Spiro to pause. ‘Just supposing Dhar is still alive, is he likely to address his followers, make a video to prove he’s not dead?’
‘First up, we don’t believe Dhar’s alive. Our position remains that he was killed in the Reaper strike. Personally, I also think the Marines story is a red herring, put out to distract attention from Dhar’s death. No way would Salim Dhar, the world’s most wanted terrorist, risk being with the Marines, knowing our ongoing military efforts to find and retrieve them. But if Dhar is still alive — and that’s a mighty big if — it’s not his style to show himself.’
‘So should we be putting out rumours that he’s dead?’
‘Absolutely. Fort Meade’s already posting to that effect in
Fielding caught Armstrong’s eye. He wondered what she was feeling as she sat there, watching the humiliation of Spiro, a man she had once so foolishly admired. She glanced away and looked at Myers. The three of them had talked earlier about the audio evidence. The head of GCHQ was not happy — Cheltenham had better relations with the Americans than MI5 and MI6 — but Fielding had reassured him that he would take the heat.
Just as Spiro was about to speak again, Fielding began, his languid body language — long legs out to one side, head bent forward like a concert pianist’s — at odds with the devastating intelligence he was about to pool.
‘Some product crossed my desk this morning that I think should be shared.’
‘That’s very good of you,’ Spiro said, managing a thin smile. Fielding savoured his rival’s fluster, the nervousness that everyone in the room would have detected in the American’s voice. ‘Go ahead. After all, sharing product is what this meeting’s all about, isn’t it?’
‘Your position, as I understand it, is that Dhar was not with the Marines at the time of the strike.’
‘No, that’s not my position. The Marines were not with Dhar when we eliminated him.’
Spiro’s voice was wavering more now, a top-end tremolo that was music to Fielding’s ears.
‘Let’s just suppose for a moment that we could prove that the Marines and Dhar were together when the Reaper struck.’
‘I hope that this evidence, whatever it is, came in to your possession after and not before we launched our attack. Because that would frickin’ upset me if you weren’t sharing intel.’
‘I can understand that. For the record’ — a nod at Chadwick, the chairman — ‘we learned about it late last night.’
‘And what exactly is this intel?’
‘Paul?’ Fielding turned to Myers, who was sitting next to him, looking more uncomfortable than usual. ‘Paul Myers has been on attachment with us from Cheltenham’ — a glance at the Chief of GCHQ, who turned away as if Fielding had just thrown up over him — ‘and last night he ran some further tests on the Dhar audio intercept.’
Fielding looked again at Myers, who appeared too nervous to take up the story, biting at what was left of his nails.
‘Some tests,’ Spiro said, not trying to disguise his disdain. ‘In addition to Fort Meade’s thorough spectrographic analysis?’
‘That’s right. And he found a fragment of sound at the end of the second intercept that I think we should all hear.’
Myers stood up and walked over to an audio console beneath the main screen. He had suddenly grown in confidence, evidently more at ease with technology than people. After checking the levels, he half turned towards the room, instinctively crouching down at the height of the console when he saw all the faces.
‘I was looking for something else when I found it,’ he said, to no one in particular. ‘Often the way.’ A nervous laugh, immediately regretted. ‘It’s only a few milliseconds, but I’ve slowed it down so you can hear.’ He pressed a button, and there was silence. Then a deep, distorted, drawn-out call, like a wounded animal’s, filled the room.
‘And what in God’s name was that?’ Spiro said, suddenly more confident. He had seen his enemy’s best shot, and he could live with it. He stood up, as if to defend himself better, knuckles pressed into the oak table.
Myers stood up, too, and looked across at Fielding for guidance. Fielding nodded.
‘It’s a scream,’ Myers began. ‘An American scream.’
Fielding watched as the ensuing silence sapped Spiro of all his bravura, his large frame collapsing like a punctured tyre.
