Oblivion

49

Marion had no idea what was happening. Roberts went outside again and the man who appeared to be in charge moved closer to them.

‘Don’t you feel you’re betraying your country?’ he asked Caroline.

‘We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we, Gates?’ she said. ‘If that’s your real name.’

‘My name is Oliver Gates, I’m a colonel in the 57th Fighter Squadron,’ the man said, smiling. ‘It’s my real name. I take care of security on the base.’

The door opened again and Roberts reappeared, this time pushing a soldier ahead of him, so roughly that the man fell on the floor. He got up slowly, a lanky young man with long arms and the regulation crew cut, nervously taking in his surroundings.

‘Come here, Private. No need to be afraid,’ said Colonel Gates. He turned to Caroline. ‘This is Private Matthew Pratt, a security guard on Hangar 885. I hear you’ve been asking questions about him. Private Pratt has confessed to his part in the affair. Two of his buddies, also guards on the hangar, were involved as well. We’ve already arrested one of them here on the base and have him in custody: Private Thomas Le Roy, twenty-five years old. We’re expecting the third man to enter the country shortly. He was responsible for killing the Icelander, according to his accomplices. It was his idea to abduct and murder the victim. We see no reason to doubt their testimony. They confirm what you already seem to know.’

The soldier stood awkwardly in the middle of the hangar floor.

‘Tell us who it was,’ ordered Colonel Gates, rounding on the soldier, who flinched. ‘Tell them what you told us, Private.’

The young man’s gaze flickered from Colonel Gates to Marion. Then he looked behind him to where Roberts was blocking the exit. Finally he fixed his eyes on Caroline and mumbled something, so indistinctly they couldn’t hear. Then he coughed and said loudly and clearly:

‘It was Jones, sir. Earl Jones.’

‘Go on,’ said Gates.

Coughing again, the soldier began to tell them about his friend, Earl Jones, who had been supplying the Icelander with drugs. The Icelander owed him big time and it didn’t help that Joan, Earl’s wife, turned out to be screwing him. Earl had heard rumours that she was receiving visits while he was away and that the man in question was an Icelander. He confronted his wife and forced her to confess to cheating on him, then ordered her to call the guy and get him to come round to see her the evening Earl was due to fly out to Greenland. The Icelander had turned up at her place but only stayed a short time, like he suspected something was up. Earl and Pratt were lying in wait. They had slashed the tyres of his car and caught up with him in a quiet spot as he was running for the gate. Then they drove him to the hangar. The third man, Le Roy, let them in. They thought Earl was just going to knock the guy around a bit to give him a fright. The Icelander broke free but they cornered him by the scaffolding. Then he fled up the ladder to the top with them hot on his heels, and realised he was trapped. They grabbed him and a scuffle ensued which ended when Earl struck the Icelander on the head with a metal pipe he had found. The man was knocked out cold and there was an odd hush for a moment, then Earl dropped the piping and before Pratt and Le Roy knew what was happening he had heaved the man over the rail and thrown him off the platform.

Pratt paused. He showed no sign of having been subjected to violence. He was wearing his uniform and black, lace-up army boots, but rubbed his wrists as he spoke, as if he had been tightly handcuffed.

‘We didn’t know what to do and after panicking a bit we decided to cover our tracks, clean the floor where the guy fell and smuggle his body off base in Earl’s pickup. We didn’t want him found in the area. Earl made me and Tommy dispose of the body. He had to catch a flight to Greenland. We saw all this steam coming from the lava field and that’s when we hit on the idea of sinking the body in the hot pool nearby. We didn’t expect it to be found. We thought... we thought it was a good place for...’

‘Do you have anything to add?’ asked Colonel Gates, after a moment’s silence.

Pratt shook his head.

‘I can’t hear you, Private.’

‘No, sir, I have nothing to add,’ replied Pratt, his eyes on the floor.

‘What put you on their trail, sir?’ Caroline asked Gates.

‘We launched our own inquiry,’ he said. ‘The base is a very small community. Kind of like Iceland, I guess,’ he said to Marion. ‘We heard you were interested in the hangar and checked the duty roster for that week. One of the guards was Jones. We learned that his wife had been friendly with an Icelander. We called one of Jones’s comrades in for questioning and he quickly broke down. That was our friend Pratt here. Jones was in Greenland at the time, but we arrested the other guard. Their statements are quite convincing and consistent as regards the main details. I’m inclined to accept them. The three men all work in Hangar 885 and I have a hard time believing they’d be stupid enough to deliberately murder this Icelander in their workplace. They’re dumb, but not that dumb. They must have intended to shake him up a bit but Jones lost control of the situation and went berserk, according to his comrades. Apparently he’s a mean customer.’

Caroline walked up to Pratt who was still staring at the ground, put her hand under his chin and raised his head so he met her eye.

‘Is this correct, Private?’

‘Earl threw him off the platform, ma’am,’ said Pratt. ‘I... I thought we were just going to scare him a little but Earl... he went crazy. He wanted... he wanted him to suffer for... because of Joan. He didn’t give a damn about the money the guy owed him. Earl just couldn’t stand that she’d been with... with that guy.’

‘With an Icelandic, you mean?’ prompted Caroline.

Pratt didn’t answer. He shot a nervous glance at Gates.

‘Answer her!’ barked the colonel.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Pratt. ‘With an Icelandic. Earl couldn’t stand that. He hated it.’

‘Who told Earl about Joan and Kris?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Was it Wilbur Cain?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Are you familiar with the name?’

‘No, ma’am.’

‘Sure?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

Colonel Gates made a sign and Private Pratt was escorted out of the hangar.

‘Where is Jones?’ asked Marion. ‘Where is he now? Have you got him in custody?’

Gates nodded.

‘We’d like him handed over,’ said Marion. ‘We’d like all three of them handed over.’

Gates consulted his watch. ‘The plane’s due to land in an hour,’ he said. ‘Earl Jones was arrested in Greenland this morning. There’s no question of handing him over. We don’t extradite our military personnel. You are now in possession of all the relevant information and can be sure the inquiry is safe in our hands. Your part in this is over.’

‘But they murdered an Icelandic citizen,’ said Marion. ‘Earl Jones assaulted his wife.’

‘We’ll deal with that.’

Gates turned on his heel to march out of the hangar.

‘You asked what we were looking for in Hangar 885,’ Marion called at his retreating back. ‘Don’t you want to know what it was?’

Gates didn’t react.

‘Isn’t that where you keep the nuclear warheads?’ Marion asked.

Gates opened the door.

‘We know about Northern Cargo Transport,’ Marion added.

Gates turned back and rested his gaze on Marion. Then he pushed the door to again.

‘What do you mean by Northern Cargo Transport? What are you talking about?’

‘We know you use fake airlines to ferry weapons between countries,’ Marion said, improvising frantically.

‘And?’

‘We know about the flights to Thule.’

Gates studied Marion and Caroline in turn, as if weighing up what to believe. Marion tried to keep a poker face, praying the bluff would work.

‘I don’t believe you know anything,’ Gates said.

‘Where’s Wilbur Cain? Why was he in contact with Kristvin?’

‘I told you we are not aware of the existence of anyone by the name of Wilbur Cain.’

‘He’s—’

‘Why do you keep asking about this man? We’re not aware of his existence.’

‘You’re disowning him, you mean?’

‘I mean we don’t know who he is.’

‘What was Cain doing with Kristvin at the Animal Locker?’

Slowly Gates retraced his steps towards them.

‘All I know is that we heard there was an Icelandic employee snooping around our aircraft, asking questions about matters that didn’t concern him. When the case was looked into it turned out that he had a head full of half-baked conspiracy theories that were laughable at best.’

‘That’s not what we heard.’

‘You’re getting mixed up in things that are no concern of yours,’ said Gates.

‘We want the men. We want to take over the investigation. We want to question them and try them in an Icelandic court,’ said Marion.

‘Out of the question.’

‘All right,’ said Marion. ‘Then you can expect a visit from a delegation to inspect your activities here on the base. To open up the hangars. Look inside the planes. Examine the contents of your storage facilities. I reckon we have enough information about Northern Cargo Transport, Thule and the planes carrying nuclear weapons landing here to have the whole nation up in arms against you.’

There was a pregnant pause.

‘You won’t find anything,’ said Gates.

‘I’m not sure we need to,’ retorted Marion.

Gates shook his head. ‘I don’t advise you to try.’

‘We just need to make enough noise,’ said Marion. ‘You must realise it’s not in your interests for this situation to last much longer. To have us nosing around up here and persuading people like Caroline to assist us. Talking to military personnel without permission. Entering controlled areas you’d prefer to keep closed. It can’t be convenient for you to have us disrupting your activities here with all kinds of inquiries and other aggravation. I assume you’d prefer it to stop sooner rather than later.’

Gates still wavered.

‘We want those men,’ repeated Marion.

Gates looked at Caroline standing quietly beside the Icelandic police officer, contributing nothing to the conversation.

‘OK,’ he said at last. ‘I’m prepared to help you with the investigation into the death of this Icelander. Would that be sufficient to create trust?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Marion. ‘Help us how?’

‘If we come to an agreement, I must stress that it would not in any way constitute recognition of the validity of your insinuations regarding nuclear weapons.’

‘Meaning...?’

‘You can arrest the men. Conduct the interrogations and complete the inquiry. But they’ll be tried by us.’

Marion turned to Caroline.

‘Would you like the honour of locking Jones up?’

Three-quarters of an hour later an inbound military transport from Greenland taxied up to one of the hangars. Marion and Caroline watched the huge beast approach with a thunderous roar that gradually died away once the engines had been turned off. Colonel Gates and his men were nowhere to be seen. Caroline had called for backup from military police and several other officers were standing behind her as the ramp was driven up to the plane. The door in the fuselage opened and after a brief interval a man appeared accompanied by two military policemen, a short figure, in handcuffs, dressed in green combat trousers and jacket. He had seen what was happening from the window of the plane as it taxied to a halt by the hangar, and stood looking down apprehensively at the reception committee on the tarmac. Reluctantly, he descended the steps until he came face to face with Caroline.

‘Private Earl Jones?’ she said.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ said the man. He had a narrow face with dark stubble and black eyebrows that almost met in the middle. Despite his muscular build his shoulders were a little rounded and he had an obtuse look in his eyes.

Caroline slapped his face so hard that her palm stung afterwards.

‘Joan says hello.’