Personal

‘Says the unacknowledged asset, operating inside an ally’s territory, with two recent homicides in her slipstream.’

I said, ‘You can look at me for both of those.’

‘Implausible,’ Bennett said. ‘How do you explain Wormwood Scrubs? You took one and she took three? I don’t think so. You should have moved the bodies a bit. The pattern was too clear. I think the splinter of glass was down to Ms Nice alone. I’ll give you yesterday’s caved-in throat, though. So I’d say it’s a one-all draw at the moment. A tie, as you would call it.’

‘What do you want?’ I said, for the third time.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘There are no wires for NHI cases.’

Casey Nice said, ‘Which are what?’

‘No humans involved. We’re not very interested. But they are. That’s the problem. That’s the downside. Now you’ve got two gangs after you.’

‘How interested is not very?’

‘On our part? We’ll take notes, but we won’t actually do anything with them.’

‘Paper records?’

‘Inevitable, I’m afraid.’

‘In which case we weren’t there.’

He said, ‘Where?’

I said, ‘Anywhere.’

‘Technology says otherwise. We watch where you go, you know. And GPS is a wonderful thing. How else could I find you, just now for instance, parked miles from the scene of the crime, in a stolen car no less, and all at a moment’s notice?’

I said, ‘Our phones are encrypted.’

He just smiled and said, ‘Oh, please.’

‘Please what?’

‘Think about why you people put up with us. As in, why us and not Germany now? What do we bring to the table?’

‘GCHQ,’ I said.

He nodded. ‘Our version of the NSA. Our listening post. But so much better than the NSA, it’s embarrassing. You need us. That’s why you put up with us.’

‘You’re eavesdropping.’

‘No, we’re facilitating,’ he said. ‘We’re gathering things up and passing things along. Occasionally we might test for intelligibility. On a purely technical level.’

‘Surely CIA transmissions are unbreakable.’

‘The CIA certainly thinks so.’

‘You’ve broken their code?’

‘I think we sold them their code. Not directly, of course. I’m sure it was a complicated sting.’

‘I’m sure you’re not supposed to do that kind of thing.’

‘And I’m sure it was all a long time ago.’

‘So did we do a public service? With the Serbians?’

‘You hurt them. But you didn’t kill them. Like cutting an arm off an octopus. Not that we’re ungrateful, you understand. Seven arms are easier to fight than eight. If only marginally.’

‘You want more.’

‘They’re both coming after you. Which presents opportunities, perhaps. In my opinion a few more casualties would not be frowned upon, in certain circles.’

‘With you riding along?’

‘Purely as an observer. Some of these people are British citizens. And as Ms Nice pointed out, there are rules.’

‘Are you going to give us help?’

‘Do you need any?’

‘We asked for a list of locations.’

Bennett nodded. ‘We saw that transmission.’

‘We haven’t had an answer.’

‘Locations are difficult. More than ever now, because we have to figure in Karel Libor’s portfolio, and the Serbians’ too, as of this morning. Because if the Serbians really are cooperating with Romford, then logic says they might have put Kott in one place and Carson in another, far from each other. Safer that way. And logic also suggests they’d be using remote addresses. And the land around London is pretty flat. Rolling, at best. Not the kind of terrain for approaching distant isolated farmhouses suspected of containing either one or two of the four best freelance snipers in the world.’

I said, ‘I would still like the list.’

‘OK, we’ll release it today. You’ll get it just as soon as it bounces off O’Day.’

‘But you’re betting on remote farmhouses? Well separated?’

‘Not necessarily. There are different possibilities.’

‘Such as what?’

‘They have safe houses, and there are plenty of houses they rent out, and therefore plenty of tenants just delighted to get out of town for a week or two. And there are plenty of people who owe them money, who would love to earn a rebate by feeding a stranger three times a day, and giving him a bed for the night, and then saying nothing at all about it.’

‘But you think far from prying eyes would be better?’

‘At first sight much better. But ultimately it’s a trade-off, isn’t it? They have to assume we have a plan for shutting down access to the centre of town. Like a post nine-eleven thing. I’m sure every big city does. And they wouldn’t want to get caught on the outside of a thing like that. Not when they’ve got a big rifle to bring through the cordon. So all in all I think they’ll move in sooner rather than later. They might already be here.’

‘We saw a few hundred viable locations overlooking Wallace Court.’

‘Which we’re searching very carefully. But what if they’re in viable locations we didn’t see?’

‘Do you have a plan for shutting London down?’

‘Of course we do.’

‘Then why aren’t you using it?’

‘Because we remain optimistic.’

‘Which is a politician talking.’

‘The aim is to wrap this up quickly.’

‘Which also sounds like a politician talking.’

‘Politicians sign our paycheques.’

‘So what kind of help will you give us?’