The Secret

TWENTY FOUR

Nervous exhaustion made Steven fall asleep in the chair at six a.m. but escape from angst was short-lived as daylight probed his eyelids and he woke after little more than an hour. For one glorious moment he thought he’d been having a bad dream but reality was quick to assert itself and insist he had to accept all that had happened. He padded through to the bathroom and turned on the shower, waiting for a few moments to let it reach temperature before stepping in to let the warm water ease away the annoying crick that had appeared in his neck.

Khan knew he had the key but he and Khan had never met face to face and Khan wouldn’t know where he lived. Thankfully, the only information he’d given Liam was his mobile phone number. It wouldn’t take Khan long to check out where Sci-Med was located if he didn’t already know but, for the moment, that was as far as went… unless of course, Khan still had credibility in Intelligence circles and could seek assistance. It was conceivable that only he and Macmillan knew that he was some kind of renegade and, at the moment, there was no point of contact between Sci-Med and the usual agencies so there was no way of checking.

Showered, shaved and shampooed, Steven put on a light blue shirt, Parachute Regiment tie and a dark blue suit. The idea was to look better than he felt. ‘Image over substance, Dunbar,’ he murmured, ‘way of the world these days…’ He made a slight adjustment to the holster under his left arm to ensure that the bulge was as snug a fit as possible and set off for the Home Office.

John Macmillan arrived just after he did and they took coffee through to Macmillan’s office where Steven told him what he now believed Khan was after.

‘I see,’ said Macmillan slowly. ‘Not a happy thought. He has the disk but you have the key. Well, one thing’s for sure, the contents must be more important than we imagined.’

Steven nodded. ‘You’re right but you can understand how it happened. Simon would have taken the envelope at face value when she came across it. After all, it said “vaccination schedules”. She would have taken it with her when she left, believing it to be evidence of poor practice by what turned out to be a fake aid agency team. She wanted to bring this to light at the Prague conference but, after the way she was treated, she became suspicious and posted the envelope to the North lab in London but first removing the memory card which she sent to me — she probably thought that the card was just a copy of what was on the disk and was making sure that the information wasn’t destroyed.’

Macmillan nodded and Steven continued. ‘The North lab saw “vaccination schedules” on the envelope and wouldn’t have attached much significance to it either. They’d assume it was just Simone getting her point across about fake aid teams, not very interesting because, by that time, everyone knew about it.’

‘And they wouldn’t know about the existence of the memory card just as you didn’t know about the disk,’ added Macmillan.

‘Exactly and when they did look at it and couldn’t make head nor tail of it, they’d assume it had been damaged in transit just as I thought about the card.’

‘But together they contain information that Khan is willing to kill for. Details of the new bio-weapon?’ suggested Macmillan.

Steven made a face. ‘Why would that be lying around in a remote mountain village in Afghanistan?’

It was Macmillan’s turn to make a face. ‘Fair point.’

‘Unless it had been left there for someone to pick up?’ said Steven. ‘Simone and her team just happened to come along at the wrong time — or the right time depending on how you look at it.’

‘I can’t see the British or Americans leaving sensitive information in a place like that, can you?’

‘In which case I think it’s odds on the information must have been stolen and the village was being used as an intermediate staging post but by whom?’

‘Well, it wouldn’t be much use to a mountain goatherd,’ said Macmillan. ‘I think we’re looking at the third element in this dirty affair, Pakistani Intelligence.’

‘And that’s where Khan comes in. Maybe he was the one who was supposed to pick up the envelope in the village?’ suggested Steven.

‘Hence his killing spree across Europe. He’s been trying to get it back.’

‘He must have worked out that Simone had taken the envelope and questioned her about it at the Prague conference. He must have spooked her so much that she put it in the post before he killed her to keep her quiet about what he was after. Then he went in pursuit of Aline in case Simone had given it to her but she genuinely didn’t know what had happened to the envelope, then he moved to London to confront Tom North who gave him the disk but maintained he didn’t know about the card, ditto Dan Hausman and then finally Liam who told him… that I have it.’

‘It all fits as they say,’ said Macmillan.

‘Not quite,’ said Steven. ‘I’m not sure where Bill Andrews and the CIA fit into all of this unless Andrews has gone rogue too and the pair of them are planning on selling to the highest bidder.’

‘There would probably be a considerable demand,’ conceded Macmillan. ‘And I take it you still believe Andrews was working with Khan over the murder of your friend?’

‘Everything points to it. He lied when he pretended not to know Khan when they knew each other very well from way back. Then he told me Khan had gone back to Afghanistan when, in fact, he was on his way to Paris.’

‘A couple of bad apples,’ said Macmillan.

‘And they’re both in London,’ said Steven.

‘Where is the memory card?’

‘In my desk drawer.’

‘Here or at home?’

‘Here,’ said Steven with a slight smile at Macmillan’s obvious priority.

‘We’d better ensure its security if you’re agreeable?’

‘Agreed,’ said Steven.

‘Good,’ said Macmillan, exchanging a glance that acknowledged both of them were ensuring that the location of the card would remain secret even if either or both of them were to be taken and subjected to coercion. If they didn’t know, they couldn’t tell. It was a bonding moment that few would experience. ‘I’ll ask Jean to put it in the system.’

As if on cue, Jean Roberts knocked and entered. ‘Sir John, the computer people you requested are here.’ She turned to Steven. ‘Steven, the new mobile phone you asked for is on my desk.’

Steven thanked her. He was destroying that particular link between himself and Khan, especially any chance of GPS tracking it might be possible to instigate on the old phone. He got up to go through to his own office.

Macmillan said, ‘I’ll brief our consultants in broad terms, remind them they’ve signed the Official Secrets act etc. and then pass them over to you. Let’s hope Charlie phones soon with details of where the stuff is and we can get started.’

‘I’ll go get that card.’

Macmillan had barely finished briefing the two computer experts retained on Sci-Med’s consultancy list and handed them over to Jean to take through to the guest room for coffee when the phone call from Charlie Malloy came.

‘John, I’ve really gone out on a limb over this,’ said Malloy.

‘I know Charlie and I really appreciate it.’

‘I’m doing the usual police thing of resenting any outside interference in what we see as a straightforward case of murder… even when the “outside interference” is coming from HMG’s spooks, if you get my meaning.’

‘I can imagine, Charlie.’

‘There’s a limit to how long I can play the bloody-minded copper before they flush me and my pension down the toilet. I don’t really have a good reason for removing all that computer stuff.’

‘We’ll be as quick as we can, Charlie. Our computer people are waiting here and Steven is briefing them as we speak.’

‘Good, the gear is in a police warehouse at thirty-four Crompton Street Lane: the entry key is eight-seven-four-one.’

‘Got that. We’ll be as quick as we can and Charlie?’ Macmillan had a sudden thought.

‘Yes?’

Did you get Steven’s request about ballistics on the bullets?’

‘Yes, it’s being dealt with.’

‘It occurs to me that if you were the one to forward the info and request to Inspector Le Grice in Paris and get confirmation, you would have your valid reason for removing computer equipment… you suspected an international element to the crime?’

‘Christ, John, you’re not as dumb as I thought.’

‘Good to know, Charlie,’ said Macmillan urbanely. ‘I’ll let Steven know what’s happening.’

Steven had almost finished his briefing when Macmillan came in with the news that everything was ready. He waited until Steven had finished.

‘To conclude, we have very limited time on site. Anything that can be copied should be copied and brought back here for analysis. We are looking for any kind of correspondence — incoming or outgoing — from Professor Thomas North and Dr Daniel Hausman with special emphasis on anything emanating from Fort Detrick in the USA and Porton Down in England. We suspect the primary versions of these messages will have been wiped but back-ups on the servers might still be there. Any questions?

The two consultants, one a woman in her thirties and the other a male around the same age, both academics, one with expertise in distance learning techniques and the other in communications security, shook their heads.

‘Good,’ said Macmillan. He turned to Steven and said, ‘I’ve arranged with Lukas Neubauer to meet you there. He’ll remain with these good people and deal with any requests they might make for services and equipment.

‘Good,’ said Steven. ‘Let’s go.’