Hellfire (24 page)

‘Just hold it one minute,’ the Brigadier interrupted. ‘If anyone thinks they’re going to lay this shitstorm at our door . . .’

‘Please, Jeremy,’ Seldon said quietly. ‘Let Bixby finish.’

‘The High Commissioner’s aide is also dead and we’ve lost a member of 22 Regiment to a biohazard which we believe to be a modified strain of
Y. Pestis
.’

‘Plague,’ Seldon clarified.

‘The situation on the ground is extremely fluid. The remaining Regiment representatives have good reason to believe that a man of Chinese extraction – we have a name of Mr Chiu, but that’s almost certainly a pseudonym – is heading to a ship off the Nigerian coast to arm several vectors with the disease.’

The Foreign Secretary spoke, her voice unnaturally loud through the computer loudspeaker. ‘
Explain to me what a vector is, please.
’

Bixby blinked heavily, as though he expected this to be something that she should understand. ‘The fear has long been, Foreign Secretary, that a terrorist cell might deliberately infect themselves with a contagious disease. We call it HumanBioWeps – human-deployed biological weapon systems.’

‘Suicide bombs without the bombs,’ the Brigadier muttered.

‘Exactly, sir. A vector is the first link in the chain. If he or she infects, say, five people, and each of those five people infect anther five, and so on . . . I think you can see you’d have a very serious problem. And if there’s more than one vector—’

‘
Yes, yes, I understand. But what I don’t understand is what the Chinese are doing in Nigeria?
’ the Foreign Secretary interrupted.

‘Investors, oil technicians, migrant workers. There’s a reasonably large Chinese population in Lagos itself. Forgive me, Home Secretary, the bigger question is what the Chinese are doing in bed with Boko Haram. We only have a working theory. We know that certain elements within the Chinese government have weaponised various diseases – plague, anthrax, possibly even smallpox. The unit on the ground also seems to have established a link between the Chinese national and our friend the Caliph.’

‘Who the bloody hell’s the Caliph?’ the Brigadier asked.

‘We don’t know,’ said Bixby. ‘We believe he’s a high-profile Islamist militant with links to the Islamic State. We think he plans to make a strike on the UK. It’s now looking possible that it’s intended to be a biohazard strike.’

There was a moment of silence as the assembled company took that in.

‘
That still doesn’t explain Mr Chiu
,’ Gorman said.

‘If the Caliph is in a position to influence both a triumphant Boko Haram in Nigeria and Islamic State in the Middle East, Foreign Secretary, then he will be in control of vast reserves of oil. This would be very attractive to the Chinese.’

‘
Attractive enough for them to facilitate a bioterrorism strike against the West?
’ Gorman sounded as aghast as she looked.

‘We can only analyse the information we have, Foreign Secretary.’

The Foreign Secretary had bowed her head. ‘
How the hell are we supposed to keep this country safe when what happens here depends on the actions of a few individuals thousands of miles beyond our borders?
’

‘Welcome to my world,’ Seldon said. ‘Mr Buckingham, did you make contact with our Qatari asset in Saudi?’

Buckingham coughed nervously. His picture degraded slightly before he spoke. ‘
I did, Sir Colin.
’

‘Well?’

‘
I filed a report immediately, Sir Colin: haven’t you read it?
’

Seldon clicked his fingers impatiently. ‘Edited highlights.’

‘
I . . . I’m afraid it wasn’t terribly productive. Our man knew of the Caliph by name, but was too scared to say anything more. The same went for his driver.
’

‘And you didn’t push him?’

‘
It was rather difficult to persuade him that—
’

‘We need to get our Regiment assets back out to the Nigerian coast,’ the Brigadier cut-in. ‘Our only hope of stopping this situation from escalating is to stop the vectors at source.’

Seldon exchanged a look with the Foreign Secretary over the computer screen. ‘Our intention was to have your people flown back to the UK tonight, Jeremy.’

‘I bet it was,’ said the Director Special Forces.

‘I really don’t know what you mean.’

‘Spare me, Sir Colin. We have two excellent Regiment men in Danny Black and Tony Wiseman on the ground, and they need to be left to do their job, not dumped on from a great height. And be under no illusion that if this situation does escalate, I shall make it known that it was you who opposed the deployment of the only people in a position to make a positive identification of Mr Chiu, or whatever his name really is. Do we understand each other?’

A frosty stare between the two men. ‘Perfectly,’ said the Chief.

‘Good.’ The Brigadier stood up. ‘My understanding is that there’s an Australian SAS team on piracy patrol in international waters off the Nigerian coastline. They’ll have the necessary equipment for a waterborne assault, if need be. I’ll make arrangements for our unit to transfer there. We need all agencies to focus their attention on locating Mr Chiu’s position, and direct any findings through to the ops room at Hereford.’

A nervous cough from the screen that displayed Buckingham’s face. ‘
Brigadier, I’m sorry, the line is a little crackly. Did you say, Danny Black?
’

‘Problem with that?’ the Brigadier asked.

‘
Not at all. Just . . . just curious.
’

The Brigadier gave him a dismissive nod. ‘Let’s get moving,’ he said. ‘This could blow up in our faces any second.’

He turned his back on the spooks, and left the room. As he did so, Tessa Gorman said: ‘
I need to update the PM.
’ Her screen flickered and went black.

Seldon glanced towards Buckingham’s face. ‘I’ll need the room, Bixby,’ he said. The analyst looked slightly offended, but he reversed his electric wheelchair and wheeled himself out without complaint. The Chief shut the door behind him, and only then did he address Buckingham again. ‘This Regiment man, Black,’ he said. ‘Do you know him?’

A shadow passed Buckingham’s face. ‘
Oh yes, Sir Colin
,’ he said, ‘
I know him alright.
’

‘What’s he like?’

‘
A liability, sir. Hot-headed, impetuous, thinks he’s above the law – I really can’t understand why the Brigadier thinks so highly of him.
’

Seldon waved one hand to shut him up while he thought for a moment.

‘You’re ambitious, Buckingham,’ he said finally. ‘I can see that.’

‘
We all like to get on, Sir Colin.
’

‘A bioterrorism attack is our worst nightmare. We haven’t got a hope in hell of stopping it. Heads are going to roll when it happens. Ours, to be precise.’ Buckingham’s face stared impassively out from the screen. ‘I want you to join the Regiment unit on this Australian ship. MI6 liaison. I’ll make the necessary arrangements with my Saudi counterpart immediately to get you out there. We can spin it that you’re now following the same lead, the Caliph. If Black puts a foot wrong, I want to know about it. You understand why?’

There was no need to spell it out loud: that when the time came for dishing out blame, they certainly would need the scapegoat to which the Brigadier had referred.

‘
I understand perfectly, Sir Colin
,’ Buckingham said. ‘
Don’t worry about Danny Black. I know how to deal with him.
’

‘I bloody well hope so,’ the Chief said. ‘All our necks depend on it.’

He nodded at the screen, then left the room.

Sixteen

‘
Call sign Bravo Nine Delta, this is Zero Alpha. Do you copy?
’

‘This is Bravo Nine Delta. Go ahead.’

‘
Your instructions are to remain in position until nightfall. A bird will be along to pick you up and transport you to an Australian Navy frigate in international waters.’

‘Do you know where Chiu went?’

‘
We’re working on it. Be prepared for a waterborne assault tonight. You’re the only ones who can make a visual ID of this guy, so you’ll need to lead the assault. Get some rest.
’

The radio fell silent. Tony snorted. ‘Get some rest?’ he said. ‘Where do they think we are, the fucking Ritz?’

Danny checked the time. 08.37 hrs. ‘We haven’t slept for forty-eight hours,’ Danny said. He looked around. Smoke was still rising from the isolation zone. The sun was already hot. ‘We’ll round up the others,’ he said. ‘Dig in till nightfall. Get some shut-eye.’

‘What about him?’ Tony looked at the dead body of Jihadi Jim lying in the passenger seat of the Range Rover.

Danny sneered, then opened the door, yanked the limp corpse out of the vehicle and threw it to the ground. ‘There’ll be some wild animals when we’ve gone,’ he said. ‘They could do with a decent meal.’

Tony gave an appreciative nod. It looked like for once they’d found something they could agree about.

‘You sort out Caitlin and the Paras,’ Danny said. ‘I’ll get the Porton Down guys together. We’ll head a couple of hundred metres back into the vegetation. That should keep us clear of any of those Boko Haram cunts who come sniffing about.’

‘Agreed,’ said Tony. The two men started running away from the vehicle, back towards the centre of Chikunda.

11.30 hrs, GMT.

Spud had joined up because he wanted to see the world. He hadn’t really had the arse end of Dudley, just outside Birmingham, in mind. The sun was out, and it was unseasonably warm, but even under a blue sky it was a shit hole here.

He was sitting behind the wheel of Eleanor’s nondescript Renault Laguna, courtesy of the Firm’s car pool, in the car park of a pub called the Hand and Flower. It was situated opposite a busy roundabout and had a big placard outside advertising two meals for a fiver. Spud could have eaten those two meals himself, but food wasn’t on the agenda. They were parked up here because this position gave them a direct view of the Park Lane Minicabs office opposite the car park.

‘I thought you said he’d been operating without a licence,’ Spud had said as they were flooring it up the M1.

‘Well remembered,’ Eleanor had replied as she adjusted her hijab in the mirror of her sun visor. Spud had decided she was one of those women who couldn’t help patronising you. ‘After the police picked him up, he got himself one. Nice and legal, pays his taxes – which is why we know where he works.’

And that place was Park Lane Minicabs, whose office comprised a tiny glass frontage plastered with two telephone numbers in huge white lettering. There was a launderette on one side and a cafe on the other, with prices of its specials – lasagne and chips, apple crumble – painted on the front window. At this time of day, between breakfast and lunch, only the launderette seemed busy. Three saloon cars were parked up on the kerb outside, and through the window of the cab office Spud could see three or four guys hanging around, smoking cigarettes.

‘So what now?’ Spud asked.

Eleanor frowned. ‘I guess we wait for him to arrive, and when he does we go in and ask specifically for him to take us somewhere,’ she said.

Spud gave her an amused look. ‘Great idea. Because that won’t seem weird to him at all, two strangers picking him out by name.’

‘There’s no need to be sarcastic. If you’ve got a better idea . . .’

‘Watch,’ Spud interrupted her. He pointed towards the cab office. A woman was walking in with a couple of bags of heavy shopping. Thirty seconds later, she walked out again accompanied by one of the men from inside. He opened the boot of one of the saloon cars, packed away the shopping, then opened the rear passenger door to let the woman in, before pulling out into the traffic and driving off.

‘Am I supposed to have just seen something?’ Eleanor asked.

‘They’ll be on a rota,’ Spud said. ‘The next fare will go to the cab driver that’s been waiting the longest. We need to keep surveillance on the cars parked outside. When – if – our man turns up, we wait until we know he’s next in line, then we go in and ask for a cab. We don’t have to mention him by name at all.’

Eleanor’s eyes narrowed. She looked as if she was trying to find fault with Spud’s strategy. ‘Alright,’ she said reluctantly. ‘We’ll do it your way.’ She handed him a photograph. Just an ordinary-looking Middle Eastern guy with neat hair in a side parting and a brown leather jacket. ‘Think you’ll recognise him?’

Spud, who had spent more of his life than he cared to think about conducting detailed surveillance, nodded. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I’ll recognise him. How about I put a bit of pressure on the fucker to talk once we’re in the back of his vehicle?’

‘You’ll do nothing of the sort,’ Eleanor said. ‘I’ve already told you,
I’ll
do the talking.’