The Secret

Steven replaced the Glock in its holster and took out Andrews’ gun from his pocket. He removed the magazine and threw the clip in the river before handing the weapon back to Andrews. ‘You’re not out of the woods yet.’

‘What happens now? Where are we going?’ asked Andrews at the top of the steps.

‘My place.’

With Andrews sitting at his kitchen table, his socks and shoes drying on a radiator, Steven put a mug of coffee down in front of him and said, ‘Now, tell me everything.’

‘Only a few at the very top know everything,’ said Andrews ruefully.

Steven didn’t feel inclined to argue. ‘Then tell me what you do know. Tell me why my friend and four other people have been murdered and tell me exactly what your lot and mine have been up to in Afghanistan.’

‘As I understand it, we’ve been trying out an agent developed at Fort Detrick on remote populations of people in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. I know it sounds awful but I’m told it was absolutely essential to carry out this work in the national interest of our countries.’

‘Why?’

Andrews grew uncomfortable. ‘I don’t rightly know.’

This elicited a cold, blank stare from Steven.

‘I really don’t. To be honest, the agent didn’t appear to make people that sick but I was told that there was to be more than one stage to the operation. Fort Detrick and your Porton Down were preparing the next stages.’

‘Go on.’

‘Your friend, Simone and her team came across one of the villages by accident. I don’t think she realised what was going on but she was pretty upset about the children’s vaccination schedules and wanted to complain about that. It was no big deal for us. By that time all the right people had been told about the CIA teams looking for Bin Laden’

‘So why kill her?’

Andrews swallowed nervously. ‘I swear to God, man, I don’t know. I had nothing to do with it.’

‘But?’

‘Presumably, Simone knew more than she let on or maybe she got hold of something that really pissed somebody off.’

‘Like Khan?’

‘I guess. We thought Khan was with us but it turns out that he is part of a Pakistani faction that has plans for taking on India in a big way. The old enemy.’

‘How did you reach that conclusion?’

‘My boss told me something had gone badly wrong. The guys at Fort Detrick were ready with the final stage of the experiment — or whatever you want to call it. One of their top scientists was sent out to a top-level meeting in Pakistan with a CIA led team. The guy was supposed to bring our allies up to speed but they never made it. They set off from Islamabad one morning with a guide from Pakistani Intelligence and disappeared off the face of the planet. We think the guide set them up.’

‘So the information fell into the wrong hands?’

‘We thought not. The agency didn’t trust Pakistani Intelligence. They had a plan B in place if there was any kind of double cross. It was deployed when our guy didn’t call in by a certain time and we thought the info had been destroyed along with the punks who ambushed our guys but new intelligence says not. Khan’s behaviour suggests it’s still out there somewhere.’

Steven didn’t tell Andrews what it was or where. ‘But presumably Fort Detrick still has all the details?’

‘Oh sure, it’s just a question of them not wanting the info to fall into the wrong hands.’

‘Or any hands other than theirs,’ said Steven.

Andrews shrugged. ‘Hey, maybe that’s what Simone discovered?’

‘Maybe.’

‘So where do we go from here?’

‘I take it you’re taking steps to deal with Khan, now he’s no longer one of your pals?’

Andrews looked uncomfortable again. ‘Khan’s crimes are seen as a European affair. We don’t like to... interfere in the internal affairs of our allies.’

‘Isn’t that just the sweetest thing...’ said Steven.

Andrews looked down at the table top. ‘What do you intend to do now?’ he asked.

Steven shook his head. ‘Just go,’ he said. ‘Just go.’

Nothing more was said as Steven waited for Andrews to put his socks and shoes on before showing him the door. Steven opened the kitchen window to let out the lingering odour of Thames-soaked footwear before closing the door behind him and going through to the lounge where he poured himself a drink.

‘Jesus,’ he muttered as he started to assess what he’d learned from the encounter with Andrews. Not a lot was his conclusion although it was nice to have what he’d already worked out confirmed. The British, US and Pakistani governments had colluded over the testing of a new bio-agent on people in the North West Frontier — or whatever they called it now. If that was good enough for Kipling, it would do for him he thought, feeling bolshie about the whole business.

Andrews had said that carrying out the experiment was of the utmost importance to the security of all their countries although he didn’t know why. That, Steven concluded, was still a secret — the secret known by the few. He’d had enough for one day; he called Tally. He didn’t want to tell her anything about his day; he just wanted to hear her voice.